Balancing the books: The importance of diverse and inclusive books collections in Early Years settings.

Ask a group of strangers to name the best books for children in the Early Years and you’ll likely hear the same titles being listed, with knowing, nostalgic smiles.?The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Dogger. The Tiger Who Came to Tea. We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.?All brilliant books that have stood the test of time and which, for many adults who have grown up in the UK, have been woven into the very fabric of our culture.

These books will have rightly found their place in most EYFS libraries, but the problem arises when books like these are the only ones that children come across. In Early Years settings, leaders and practitioners have an opportunity and a duty to expose children to a wealth of books that represent the beautiful diversity of the world around us. For many children, their perceptions of the world are shaped and validated by the stories they hear and the pictures they see in books. Failing to show books that feature an inclusive range of role models from different family backgrounds, experiences and cultural heritages sends children the message that there are certain types of people who are welcomed in your setting - and in society more widely - and that others are outsiders. It also gives the impression that literature is only for people who look or behave in a particular way - running the risk of making children feel unwelcome in the world of books before they have even learned to read.

This places Early Years practitioners in a position of utmost importance when it comes to selecting literature for their settings. But what does it look like to have a diverse and inclusive book collection?

Cultural and Ethnic Balance

In recent years, awareness of the woeful lack of diversity in children’s publishing has started to gain traction. Research from?CLPE’s Reflecting Realities report?shows that only?10%?of children's books published in 2019 featured ethnic minority characters.?This compares to?7%?in 2018 and?4%?in 2017 - a marked and welcomed improvement, but still not nearly enough when you consider that?33.5%?of children in our schools are from a Black, Asian or Minority Ethnic background. The publishing industry is playing a long-needed game of catch-up, but what this means for schools and Early Years settings is that audits are necessary and budgets may need to be allocated to purchase newly-published titles to redress the balance. There’s a wonderful opportunity here for leaders to embrace the challenge of diversifying their book collections and giving the children in their settings the gift of inclusive books that welcome and validate a wide range of readers.

When you audit your EYFS book collection, you will probably find books that show characters of different ethnicities around the world. You’re likely to spot?Handa’s Surprise?or?Anna Hibiscus -?but what about books that represent the diverse population of the UK? Do you also have UK-based books in your collection that show cultural diversity depicted in an authentic way? We love Ken Wilson-Max’s picture books for this, like?Astro Girl?and the?Lenny?series, or the gems found among the catalogue of diverse publisher?Lantana Books, like?Maisie’s Scrapbook?and?Nimesh the Adventurer.

Books that help readers to understand different cultures are essential too - like?Child's Play Publishing’s?Travellers Tales?series of beautiful picture books that depict life in the travelling community, or Medeia Cohan’s?Hats of Faith,?which provides a simple introduction to the importance of head coverings across different faiths.

Disability Awareness

The search for diverse and inclusive children's books should not be limited to looking at ethnic and cultural representations alone. As leaders and practitioners, we have an opportunity to strive for a wider view of representation. According to?Papworth Trust, 7% of children in the UK are disabled and 10% of children in the UK live in a family with at least one disabled person. Are these children able to see positive representations of disability in any of the books in your EYFS book collections?

Author James Catchpole, whose new picture book?What Happened to You?portrays the experience of being a child with a visible disability. The main character, Joe, has one leg just like the author James, who says in his letter to readers:?'By writing from a disabled perspective, for a disabled reader, I’ve realised that I actually have something meaningful to say to non disabled readers and their parents too. All I have to do is to invite them to walk, for a minute, in Joe’s shoe.’?The need for inclusive books is not simply a vehicle to allow under-represented children to see themselves reflected on the page, but it’s also important so that their classmates - and their future friends and co-employees - can see them too. It’s a key part of PSED, and it’s a key part of creating an inclusive setting. For the young children in our nurseries, this is also an empathy journey like no other, backed up by research that shows that the empathy that we feel for book characters wires our brains to have the same sensitivity towards people in real life.*

For a while, books that represented characters with physical disabilities were a niche segment of the UK children’s book market. Traditionally these books have been independently published and not always quality controlled to the standards you might look for in your nursery library. They were ‘issue books’ - books that explore what it is like to live with a particular condition, designed to educate and inform. But if you only ever see yourself represented in an ‘issue book’, what message does that give you about yourself? In recent years, mainstream publishers are waking up to the need for more inclusive books, and now we are beginning to see an increasing number of main or background characters with disabilities featured where the story is not?about?the disability itself. We see glasses-wearing heroes like?Eliot Midnight Superhero, and sport-loving Max in?Max the Champion, who just happens to wear a hearing aid and require an asthma inhaler. Pictures are so important at this age, and the seemingly incidental details in a story - like a hearing aid or a leg splint - can make the world of difference, even in the illustrated background of a scene. Books about disabilities and books representing disabled characters are not necessarily the same thing - but both essential in any inclusive Early Years library.

Neurodiversity

According to the?British Medical Association, it is estimated that approximately one in every 100 children in the UK has autism, with four times as many boys being diagnosed than girls. While diagnosis is much less common in the Early Years, books that show children that different ways of seeing the world are valid and welcomed are fundamental even at the earliest of ages. The?Pablo?books, published by Penguin, are created by writers on the autistic spectrum and are grounded in the real-life experiences of autistic children. Also having been made into a Cbeebies program, the Pablo stories demonstrate how everyday tasks can present challenges for autistic children like Pablo, who feels unsettled by too much noise, bright lights or changes to routine. Michael White, who voices one of the characters in the Cbeebies series, says?‘‘Never think autism is a bad thing. Autism is just another way of looking at life. Yes, it can be tricky for some people to understand the emotions and feelings, but Pablo will help you to get insight into this matter. And with this helpful information, everyone can interact and enjoy life without feeling isolated because of their differences’.?Reading stories about people who think in non-neurotypical ways helps children to value difference, to be aware of differing ways of seeing the world and to be sensitive to the needs of other people - all excellent aims for children in any EYFS setting. For children who do recognise themselves in the pages of books like the Pablo stories, the very presence of characters like themselves can increase feelings of reassurance and self-acceptance.

All Kinds of Families

Families come in all shapes and sizes. If your book collection has not been updated any time recently, the chances are the families in the stories will fit a certain pattern. Now’s the time to search for books showing blended families, single-parent families, separated families, same-sex parenting and stories of adoption or foster care. Sophie Beer’s?Love Makes a Family?beautifully expresses the message that loving families come in all forms. All sorts of families are portrayed on the pages of this attractive board-book - positively, colourfully and reassuringly demonstrating that the love between family members is what matters, regardless of the shape or size of the family. Whether a child has one parent, two mums, two dads, one of each - or something else altogether - this simple preschool read-aloud is an essential for nursery and preschool libraries.

Five Steps to Take

If you feel that your EYFS book collections lack diversity and inclusivity, it can feel like a big undertaking to know where to start to redress the balance. Identifying the gaps, knowing where to look for recommended books and getting staff on board with your aims are all vital to success. Here are five steps that leaders can take to kick-start diversifying their collections:

1. Make an audit?- nothing formal has to be done, but look through your setting’s libraries with a view to seeing where the gaps are. Look for authentic representations of ethnic and cultural diversity, disabilities, learning difficulties, medical conditions and different types of families. You’re not likely to have every single type of book, especially for the very youngest age groups, but writing a list of where you see gaps can help you to target your purchasing well.
2. Visit trusted sources for recommendations?- if you are looking specifically for diverse and inclusive books for Early Years, try the booklists we have put together for the BooksForTopics website, like the?Diverse Books For EYFS list, or try our?50 Recommended Reads?packs for a more comprehensive library top-up. Other helpful places to look for diverse books are?Letterbox Library,?A New Chapter,?and?EmpathyLab,?as well as diverse publishers of picture books, like?Lantana,?Child’s Play?and?Tiny Owl.
3. Don’t be afraid to cull old books.?It goes against the grain to get rid of books, especially when funding for new ones is scarce. However, there is nothing wrong with getting rid of outdated books in favour of a better balance - and especially if some of the books you do have contain unhelpful representations of race, gender, ability or class.
4. Help staff to navigate the books.?Once you have ensured that you have a balanced collection in place, put together a list of the inclusive books you have within the setting, to make sure that staff are able to locate them easily and make good use of them in story time. Make sure that inclusive books are integrated into your team’s planning for learning opportunities and story times, as well as being available for children to browse independently.
5. Involve your community.?Different EYFS settings will naturally have different ethnic make-ups, but the parents within your community may already have some brilliant book recommendations to share with you that represent their own cultures, experiences and values well. Equally, why not share details of recommended inclusive books in a book recommendation section on your newsletter or share the link to the inclusive booklists on the BooksForTopics website for parents to browse at their leisure.

It’s easy to look on diversifying your book collection as another tick-box exercise, but when you really consider the impact of allowing the children in your setting to see the beautiful diversity of the population reflected on the pages they look at - it’s nothing short of a wonderful opportunity.

*Raymond Marr et al, exploring the link between reading fiction and empathy, 2009, York University, Toronto

Alison Leach is the founder of BooksForTopics, a website that supports thousands of schools in finding great books to enrich their curriculums and to promote reading for pleasure. As an experienced primary teacher, Alison knows that it is not always easy to source the right books amid the time pressures of teaching and she is passionate about helping the best books reach the spotlight.

Visit?BooksForTopics.com?to find out more, or follow Alison on Twitter or Instagram as @booksfortopics.

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