Day: July 6, 2016

Math is not my favorite subject, so compiling statistics is not going to be fun…and it’s going to take a long time, I think, because right now I’m going by books that have been reviewed in Canada’s leading children’s literature journal, CM.  But I know from experience that not all books GET reviewed.  So that means contacting Canadian publishers directly and asking them to submit data on their books by and about black people.  This morning I made a list of books (published in Canada since 2000) that were reviewed in CM.  Here are the trends I’m finding so far:

1. There are lots of picture books about African or Caribbean folktales.
2. There are lots of picture books about African safari animals.
3. There are many more non-fiction books than fiction at the MG/YA level.

Since I’m interested in stories by and about black people, I’m not including the animal/endangered…