"WE ARE GOING TO HAVE A BLACK PRESIDENT -- LITERATURE SHOULD CATCH UP": According to a new study of Newbery Medal winners for excellence in children's literature (and I can't find the primary materials online), "Characters depicted in Newbery winners are more likely to be white, male and come from two-parent households than the average U.S. child." Worse, the paper claims, is that "the trend has accelerated even as the U.S. has diversified, with fewer black and Hispanic main characters in the past 27 years than in the Civil Rights era of 1951-79," with the last book featuring a Hispanic protagonist to win being Shadow of a Bull by Maia Wojciechowska, in 1965.
I believe we have folks here who'd like to comment on this.
e.t.a. via tortoiseshelly, go here and search for "Do You See What I See?: Portrayals of Diversity in Newbery-Medal-Winning Children’s Literature," and you'll be able to find the study.
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