Diverse books and Story Box Library by Helen Adam

Updated June 2025

A lack of diverse books continues to fail children from marginalised backgrounds. This is something that should concern all Australians.

Recent research reveals a complex picture of progress and persistent challenges in children's literature representation. My earlier Australian research found that less than 5% of books in early childhood settings contained cultural diversity, with particularly alarming representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. More recent analyses of award-listed Australian children's picture books show that whilst diverse characters are becoming more prevalent, they often appear as non-specific background characters rather than central protagonists. Lack of representation also extends to family and gender diversity, especially LGBTIQA+, foster, step and blended families. 

International data reveals similar patterns. The London-based Centre for Literacy in Primary Education found UK books featuring minority ethnic characters increased from 4% (2017) to 30% (2022) before declining to 17% (2023). In the United States, whilst 51% of books contained content about people of colour in 2024, those featuring primary characters from these backgrounds actually decreased from 40% to 37% between 2023-2024. Progress remains fragile and uneven.

Diverse books can help achieve principles of diversity written into Australian education policies. The potential of diverse books in addressing these principles and equity more generally is too important to ignore.

StoryBox Library recognises and promotes the importance of these principles as a central focus to their aims and practice through ensuring diverse representation with a strong emphasis on First Nations voices, stories, and storytellers.

How Books Impact Little Readers Socially and Academically

Reading to children has a powerful impact on their academic and intellectual development, with new research providing compelling evidence of diverse books' specific benefits. In a recent study conducted by First Book in the US (2023) demonstrated measurable academic gains within just five months of introducing diverse classroom libraries. Students showed an average 9-point increase in reading assessment scores—3 points higher than expected yearly gains. Remarkably, the lowest-scoring students demonstrated the greatest improvements, with average gains of 11 points.

Beyond test scores, children increased their reading time by 4 hours per week when provided with diverse, representative texts. This addresses a crucial finding: children learn about themselves and the world through the books they encounter, and importantly, can develop understanding and respect for themselves and those different from them. Recent neuroscience research reinforces this, showing that reading for pleasure from a young age improves cognition, mental health, and brain development regardless of socioeconomic background (Sun et al., 2023).

But a lack of diverse books means we have a serious problem. Currently, children from marginalised backgrounds rarely see themselves reflected in the books they're exposed to. Research over the last two decades shows the world presented in children's books remains overwhelmingly white, male and middle class. For children from underrepresented groups, this can lead to a sense of exclusion. This can then impact on their sense of identity and on their educational and social outcomes.

New Challenges: The Rise of Book Censorship

These representation challenges are now compounded by an alarming rise in book censorship, particularly affecting diverse literature. In the 2023-2024 school year, over 10,000 instances of book bans occurred in US public schools,affecting 4,218 unique titles. Significantly, 36% of these banned books featured characters of colour and 25% featured LGBTQIA+ characters. This systematic removal of diverse voices has profound implications: as over half of US children are from culturally diverse backgrounds, "this erasure in school libraries has deeply harmful impacts on the mental health of students of colour."

Whilst less prevalent, similar calls for book restrictions are emerging in the UK and Australia, threatening the modest progress achieved in diversifying children's literature. This concerning trend means that even as diverse books are published, their availability to children in schools faces increasing threats.

How Can We Make Bookshelves More Diverse?

The call for more diverse books for children continues gaining momentum globally, supported by increasingly robust evidence of their educational, social, and emotional benefits. Voices of Aboriginal and culturally diverse writers advocating for change are strengthening, though significant work remains.

International collaborative efforts show promise. The Diverse Books for All Coalition in the United States brings together over 30 organisations addressing three interconnected challenges: lack of access to affordable, diverse books; need for clear narratives about their value; and support for educators to select and use them effectively. Technology-enhanced approaches like StoryBox Library, a digital storytelling  platform demonstrate how mobile platforms can extend literacy support across socioeconomic boundaries.

Publications of diverse books remain minoritised, but awareness and advocacy continue growing. The challenge now involves not only increasing diverse book availability but protecting access to them in educational settings.

The recent development of two databases from the National Centre for Australian Children's Literature remains an important step. One of these is a database of culturally diverse literature and the other is dedicated to Aboriginal and Torres Strait  Islander Literature. 

How StoryBox Library Is Helping

StoryBox Library is to be applauded for their efforts in not only promoting diverse literature for teachers, parents and children to share and enjoy, but for ensuring that those who read these books for StoryBox Library also represent the diversity of our society and of the books they read. As well as this, the work they are doing through their Arts Council grant continues to provide more and more stories written and read by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creators and storytellers. But wait! There's more!

SBL also promotes inclusivity and diversity by introducing children to high-quality literature that reflects the family and cultural diversity within Australian society. It is very exciting to see this taking place

These important steps forward could be supported with better training for teachers and increased discussion among those who write, publish and source books for children. When we share diverse books with children, they gain opportunities to see themselves reflected and affirmed. Importantly we broaden children's perspectives and understandings of those that are different to themselves.

The Conversation, CC BY-ND

Five Stories To Get You Started

https://storyboxhub.com/stories/in-your-dreams/

https://storyboxhub.com/stories/the-patchwork-bike/

https://storyboxhub.com/stories/ayu-and-the-perfect-moon/

https://storyboxhub.com/stories/my-two-blankets/

https://storyboxhub.com/stories/feathers/

This article has been updated from an article which originally appeared in The Conversation in 2019 by Helen Adam, Associate Professor in Literacy Education and Children's Literature, Edith Cowan University.