“She looks like me!” exclaimed 6 year old Anisha excitedly, on first seeing Rocket in Look Up. “This is my favourite book now!”
That is the power of representation in books.
Esther Brown at Reading for Pleasure UK explains why it’s so important for everyone to see themselves positively represented in books – and how you can create a school library that inspires all children.
“She looks like me!” exclaimed 6 year old Anisha excitedly, on first seeing Rocket in Look Up. “This is my favourite book now!”
That is the power of representation in books.
Every child should have the right and the opportunity to see themselves and their lives represented in the pages of a book. Those living in a single parent family, with black or brown skin, who identify as LGBTQ+, that have a disability, or are experiencing food poverty – all should feel represented by both characters, storylines and information in the books they read.
Well-written and illustrated books break down stereotypes and provide powerful representation for children. They can also help the reader see the world from a different perspective and begin to understand lives that are different from their own, becoming empathetic citizens.
The 2021 CLPE reflecting Realities report showed that…
How do your school library shelves stack up against these statistics?
Illustration: Anjan Sarkar
In her 1990 paper “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors,” Rudine Sims-Bishop outlines the importance of books representing and reflecting the world:
“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange… However, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of a larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.”
How can our school libraries offer these windows and mirrors opportunities for all children and though all genres?
Seeing yourself represented in a book can turn a child on to reading. However, misrepresentation through stereotyping or feeling omitted from texts can have the opposite effect and turn them away, as they seek validation in other ways.
We have a responsibility to follow the research and use reading for pleasure to develop wellbeing, confidence, pride and achievement so all children can ‘Look Up’ onto their school’s shelves and see themselves in their stories, just like Anisha.
All children deserve to see themselves positively represented in books – and here’s our pick of some of the top titles to add to your shelf.
BookTrust Represents is our programme created to promote children’s authors and illustrators of colour. As part of the project we have put together a booklist highlighting some of our favourite picture books by authors and illustrators of colour.
Author Sarah Hagger-Holt recommends some brilliant reads with LGBTQ+ characters.