Young Latino Readers See Little of Themselves in Classroom Books

Education experts say lack of familiar images could be an obstacle for young readers

Don’t count “Dora the Explorer” as evidence of equitable diversity in children’s book characters, say education experts and teachers who work in the country’s growing Latino populations. They are worried that young Hispanic readers seldom see themselves in the books written for school children, despite the availability of children’s books by Latino authors. Hispanic students make up a quarter of the nation’s public school enrollment, according to the Pew Hispanic Center’s analysis of census data. But books by celebrated authors Julia Alvarez, Alma Flor Ada, Pam Munoz Ryan and Gary Soto are not making it into the classrooms. Instead, books about white human characters like Junie B. Jones, Cam Jensen, Judy Moody, Stink and Big Nate are most prominent in schools. An occasional African American, Asian or Hispanic character may pop up in supporting roles. “Kids do have a different kind of connection when they see a character that looks like them or they experience a plot or a theme that relates to something they’ve experienced in their lives,” Jane Fleming, an assistant professor at the Erikson Institute, an early childhood development graduate school, told the New York Times. (NYT)

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