*cat for scale in the first image

For my data visualization analysis, I wanted to look closely at my bookshelf. I brought most of my personally purchased “classroom” books home with me at the start of the COVID shut down. I wanted to be able to use them to teach virtually while we were locked out of the building. They have been stored in my home with my other books, including a fairly large collection of comics, graphic novels, and children’s picture books I have been collecting my entire life. Now that restrictions are lessening, and students are starting to return to my classrooms, I’ve been closely examining the books I collect, and the books I present to my students. I have been aware of the 2015 infographic below, published by the School Library Journal. I had not seen the updated 2018 version until after I began to analyze my own collection.

The infographics above are primarily looking at race representation in children’s books, and include the additional category of “Animals, Trucks, etc.” It’s creators, Huyck and Park Dahlen also remarked about their imagery, “”One important distinction between the 2015 and 2018 infographics is that we made a deliberate decision to crack a section of the children’s mirrors to indicate what Debbie Reese calls ‘funhouse mirrors’ and Ebony Elizabeth Thomas calls ‘distorted funhouse mirrors of the self.’ Children’s literature continues to misrepresent underrepresented communities, and we wanted this infographic to show not just the low quantity of existing literature, but also the inaccuracy and uneven quality of some of those books….” (2018).

When I purchase books for my classroom, I try to reflect the students I am seeing, as well as represent characters and real people that do not look like, or have similar backgrounds to my students. I believe, looking at my own books compared to these infographs, that while my book selections do offer a diverse selection of characters, when I am looking for LGBTQ+ representation that is appropriate for younger ages, my collection is seriously lacking. The two books that remain that include openly LGBTQ+ characters, and are intended for children in grades 8 and below, are Pizza Witch written and illustrated by Sarah Graley, and Mooncakes written by Suzanne Walker and illustrated by Wendy Xu. The last image I included is of books I own that represent either queer coded characters, or real life people who are known historically to be LGBTQ+ but are not identified as such in books created for children (i.e. Frida Kahlo and Jean-Michel Basquiat). Many other illustrated books were eliminated from my pile very early, because while they include LGBTQ+ representation, they are not appropriate for a classroom setting, such as The Essential Dykes to Watch Out For by Alison Bechdel.

I have found, in my search for LGBTQ+ representation in illustrated formats, that characters are often misrepresented, hypersexualized, or sex acts and genitals are depicted very openly. While there are plenty of depictions of heterosexual middle schoolers in books aimed at that age group, there are very few that depict LGBTQ+ youth, and even fewer that depict them having positive, joyful experiences with dating or romantic queer experiences that are appropriate to share in the classroom.

As I move toward by action research, I am going to continue to compile a resource for myself (and hopefully others) of LGBTQ+ comics, graphic novels, and picture books that are appropriate for classroom settings. I hope to enlist the help of children’s librarians as well as other educators.

Huyck, David and Sarah Park Dahlen. (2019 June 19). Diversity in Children’s Books 2018. sarahpark.com blog. Created in consultation with Edith Campbell, Molly Beth Griffin, K. T. Horning, Debbie Reese, Ebony Elizabeth Thomas, and Madeline Tyner, with statistics compiled by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center, School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison: ccbc.education.wisc.edu/books/pcstats.asp. Retrieved from readingspark.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/picture-this-diversity-in-childrens-books-2018-infographic.

Staff, S. (2019, June 19). An Updated Look at Diversity in Children. Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=an-updated-look-at-diversity-in-childrens-books