Meet the authors with Philadelphia ties working to diversify children’s books

Children’s books are growing up.

We’re buying more of them. According to the NPD Group, sales of children’s and young adult fiction and nonfiction are up 17% this year, compared to 2019′s pre-pandemic benchmark.

And there isn’t just more children’s literature in bookstores, school libraries, and on our little ones’ bookshelves. Today’s tomes — especially picture books — feature mature content. Children’s book authors are examining complicated emotions like fear, anger, and jealousy. They are confronting harsh realities like mental illness, sickness, and death. And many of the characters are diverse, featuring LGBTQ personalities and people of all shapes, sizes, races, and backgrounds, as well as people with disabilities.

“There was a time when we wanted to keep children sheltered from these issues; that time is now behind us,” said Naren Aryal , CEO and publisher of Northern Virginia-based children’s imprint Mascot Books. “But we are learning as a society that it’s better to talk about these things that have gone unspoken in the past.”

Children’s book authors have been writing complicated story arcs for kids since the 1960s, said Carl Lennertz, the executive editor of the Children’s Book Council. These books, however, were the exceptions, and kids who didn’t grow up white in a nuclear family continued to be othered in children’s literature. This despite the success of Jewish author Ezra Jack Keats’ 1962 award-winning The Snowy Day, about a Black boy playing in the snow.

In 2015, independent children’s book publisher Lee & Low, released a survey that examined diversity in the book industry and reported 2% of children’s books were written by Black authors and featured Black children. Latinos were treated similarly. Publishers increased the number of diverse children’s books, especially nonfiction and historical stories. Yet when Lee & Low repeated the survey five years later, there was only a slight uptick in stories that centered Black people.

According to the NPD Group, sales of children’s and young adult fiction and nonfiction are up 17% this year, compared to 2019′s pre-pandemic benchmark.

It wasn’t until the civil unrest of 2020 set off by the murder of George Floyd that the publishing industry really began to do more, Lennertz said. The number of nonfiction children’s books based on true stories in Black history began to increase, and adult books on race like Nikole Hannah-Jones’ The 1619 Project and Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist now boast companion books like Born on the Water and Antiracist Baby, respectively.

“Book publishing is a business,” said Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati, founder of the Philadelphia’s African American Children’s Book Project that produces the African American Children’s Book Fair. The book fair is more than 30 years old, yet in the years since the Black Lives Matter movement, it has more than doubled. “We are talking about Black lives and serious topics more openly now. Children’s books are part of that revolution.”

The revolution is not welcome by all. Many school districts in Pennsylvania and across the country are banning books that humanize the experiences of LGBTQ+ kids and explain details of Black people’s experiences, that, according to some white parents, leave children feeling guilty. Pittsburgh native Kelly Starling Lyons’ 2019 book Sing a Song: How “Lift Every Voice and Sing” Inspired Generations was among the 456 books banned last year in Pennsylvania’s Central York School District. The books were reinstated after a successful student protest.

“Today’s children’s books are providing an inclusive view of American history,” said Lyons, one of the cofounders of The Brown Bookshelf, an advocacy group that promotes the work of children’s book writers of color. “That scares some people.”

Even celebrity parents are among the authors creating the books they wish they had growing up, some said. Actress Jamie Lee Curtis’ series of children’s books, including Today I Feel Silly, encourages self-esteem. Actor and musician Cheech Marin’s chapter book series Cheech follows the silly happenings of a Latino school bus driver named Cheech. Lupita Nyong’o’s book, Sulwe, is about a little dark-skinned girl who wishes her skin was lighter. Hota Kotb’s is about the power of adoption. Ciara and Russell Wilson’s and Serena Williams’ both encourage children to have big dreams.

“Kids can handle the material. Their minds are open, they don’t prejudge,” said Lennertz who believes children’s books that feature diverse characters will lead to a better society. “What if the cop [who killed George Floyd] read a book that humanized Black children 20 years ago? Imagine how our country would be different.”

Here are a few books by authors with Philadelphia ties who are helping to drive the children’s literary renaissance.

A longtime Philadelphia schoolteacher, Hallee Adelman watched children deal with feelings of guilt, change, and fear for years. The child of parents who yelled a lot, she knew what they were going through. She released her first book, My Quiet Ship: When They Argue, in 2018 about a little boy who travels to an imaginary boat in the midst of his parents’ loud arguments. Next came a series of children’s books about big feelings starting with Way Past Mad, about a little girl who navigates all of the feelings during a particularly trying day. She’s written eight books. “Kids need love,” Adelman said. “They need to be heard, know that their feelings are important and they aren’t alone.”

Entrepreneur and mom Dawn Chavous was saddened when her eldest son told her that he wasn’t special after the two watched the Disney film Moana. “He didn’t think he was special because he couldn’t fly like one of the characters in the movie,” said Chavous, who lives in SouthPhilly. “My husband and I told him he was special all of the time.” She began to write, You Are Special, a collection of affirmations she turned into a children’s book and was published this year by South Carolina based-hybrid publisher Palmetto Publishing. Her message: “If somebody says something about you that isn’t true, ignore them. Kids need to know they are special, they are wonderful and they can do anything. They just need to shake it off.”

ABC News Live anchor Linsey Davis was tired of seeing more animals than Black children in picture books. “Trying to find books for my son with characters that look like him was difficult outside of February,” said Davis, who grew up outside of Philadelphia in Moorestown, N.J. She decided to write a series of whimsical children’s stories featuring Black and brown children. Her first book, The World Is Awake, was published by Zonderkidz Books in 2018 and celebrates everyday blessings. Her most recent, How High Is Heaven? helps kids deal with the death of loved ones, a particularly relevant issue now in the wake of COVID-19 and neverending gun violence. “I wanted to give children hope and comfort,” Davis said. “It’s not ‘goodbye’ — it’s ‘see you later.’ ”

Actor Brian Klugman grew up in Northeast Philadelphia with an undiagnosed bipolar disorder. “I had lots of feelings of shame and embarrassment,” said L.A.-based Klugman, who once starred in Castle. “I wanted to write the book I wish I had when I was a kid. You Are You, is Klugman’s ode to self-love. “Self-love is at the root of all of our challenges,” he said. His message to children: “The things we want to change often represent our greatest strengths.”

Jamilah Thompkins-Bigelow’s first picture book Mommy’s Khimar, featured a little Muslim girl playing dress-up with her mom’s head scarves. The Germantown-based author’s second book, Your Name is a Song, is about a little girl whose teacher and classmates can’t pronounce her name — Kora-jalimuso (KO-rah-DJAA-lee-MOO-so) — until she teaches them how to sing it. It was part of the Central York School District’s book ban. Thompkins-Bigelow’s third book, Abdul’s Story, about a young man with a learning disability, was released earlier this year. “It’s troubling that people want to ban people like me from existing in a book,” Thompkins-Bigelow said. “Are you bothered if your kids see me? There aren’t explicit messages in my books; they are just presentations of people who exist.”

Former television anchor Janet Zappala was volunteering at a Southern California horse farm when she met the 3,000-pound steer, Guapo. She decided to turn his story into the picture book Guapo’s Giant Heart: The True Story of the Calf Who Kept Growing about the importance of kindness. “We need to turn to each other, not on each other,” said Zappala, who used to live in Wynnewood, but now lives in California. “This book is my way of reminding people the importance of treating each other with kindness,” she said. A sequel to Guapo’s story will be released next year.