There is a new girl in town and she is not only in town, she is going global, taking the world by storm with her intelligence, wit, curiosity and open-minded sense of adventure. Who is this mighty female? Her name is Lori Leak.
Lori Leak is the protagonist of a new children’s books series that I have launched. “Lori Leak Travels to Paris” is the first book in the series about this African-American girl who travels the world, exploring the language, customs and traditions, food and events of different cultures in places around the globe.
Based in large part on me, Lori Leak is not only a dream birthed into life, she is a conscious decision by me to address the deplorable dearth of diversity in children’s books. An open world begins with an open mind. An open mind begins with reading a wide range of literature. But this is where we are failing our children and the world.
We live in a time when we have only recently installed the non-male, non-Anglo person as Librarian of Congress. Carla Hayden is the first woman and African-American to hold this prestigious position. A recent Mother Jones article points out that roughly 80 percent of the children's book world—authors and illustrators, editors, execs, marketers, and reviewers—is Anglo. This uncomfortable truth lays bare for all of us the fact that we are not doing all we can and should to prepare our children for a diverse world nor are we building on work already done to move us in that direction. We negate our progress. We must change this!
Within five years, more than half of America's children and teenagers will have at least one nonwhite parent. But when the Cooperative Children's Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison looked at 3,200 children's books published in the United States last year, it found that only 14 percent had black, Latino, Asian, or Native American main characters. Meanwhile, industry data collected by publisher Lee & Low and others suggest that roughly 80 percent of the children's book world—authors and illustrators, editors, execs, marketers, and reviewers—is white, like me. - Dashka Slater, Mother Jones, 9/9/2016
When we read literary fiction we enhance our ability to gauge the emotions of others. It is human empathy. The Anglo boy (and his dog) is the typical and predominating protagonist in children's books that are written, published and heavily promoted. If the literary life of Anglo and male children is inundated with stories about Anglo children and male children we reinforce the problem of lack of diversity. We raise Anglo children (especially boys) to become Anglo adults who do not gain the ability to understand the perspectives of people who don't look like them and don't share their color, ethnicity and/or gender. As a result, they become adults who have no regard for the culture and lives of people who do not look like them. This (empathy) is an ability that is crucial in a world that is increasingly diverse. Our world is getting smaller and more heterogeneous every day.
The Effect of Children's Literature
Chinese-American author Grace Lin recently spoke to this in a TEDx Talk, using the example of how a school librarian effectively used children's literature to stop children from bullying an Asian classmate. The solution was the reading of Lin's adventure story, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, featuring a Chinese girl named Minli.
In an increasingly heterogeneous world we need to write, put our financial and physical and psychological resources behind publishing and promoting and purchasing books by authors of color and women that feature children of color and girls. These books must be at book fairs, in book stores, at book signings and in book reviews. We must stop nurturing the false notion in every generation that "Anglo" and "male" rules the world. It only causes us problems in our schools, neighborhoods, universities, workplaces and governments. We have a bigger world than Anglo and male. Our future as human beings depends on constantly facilitating an open world built on open minds.
Lori Leak Travels To Paris
As I wrote above, I have written a children's book, Lori Leak Travel to Paris. It features a marvelous female protagonist, an intelligent, adventurous, curious African-American girl named Lori Leak who travels to Paris with her family and experiences French culture. This is a book through which children, especially African-American girls, can see adventurous, intelligent globetrotting girls are the norm.
Now that it is written, my illustrator, Kristen Palana (Palme d'Or winner for Best Animated Short Film in 2014) and I have launched a crowdfunding campaign. Our goal is the promotion this book and its positive portrayal of girls at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. We are already looking to the next book in the series, Lori Leak Travels to Copenhagen
It is only through the writing, publishing and promotion of books featuring positive and powerful portrayals of girls and children of color in general are being written. Now we must put real effort and money behind the publishing and promotion of these book. This is how we will empower not only girls but increase diversity in our world. Open minds open the world.