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By: Sereena Gray[/align]


[align=right]Dated: 27/07/2005
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[align=left]The Education Secretary Ruth Kelly announced on Tuesday that babies and toddlers will be given a free bag of books and crayons aimed at encouraging them to develop a taste for learning.

But the list of books compiled by the Booktrust, which will be distributed to parents by health visitors and through libraries, has come under fire for not reflecting Britain’s multicultural society enough.

Although a few of the books include pictures of black children such as ‘Peek A Boo’ by Jan Ormerod and ‘Happy Baby’ by Sandra Lousada, there are none by black authors or illustrators.
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[align=left]Missed opportunity
Black Britain spoke to Steve Adams who is the owner of the Willesden Bookshop in north-west London, which specialises in selling multicultural children’s books.

He said that none of the books on the list were included in his multicultural collections for young children.

“There are a lot of board books available now which have got colourful and realistic photographs of kids of all different ethnicities.

“But none of the ones mentioned strike me as falling into that category, so it might seem a bit of a missed opportunity.�

He also said that it was vitally important for children to be able to read books which show positive images of themselves.

“We live in probably the most mixed are of London and we get lots of parents coming in and one of the yardsticks by which they choose is whether it’s something that will reflect their child’s life and background.�

Mr Adams also commented that in the last ten years the availability of books aimed at black children has improved, so there is no longer any excuse for people who provide books not to take this on board.

Official comment

In response to Mr Adams’ comments the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) released this statement.

“The Booktrust chooses the books independently based on quality of materials, content and suitability, age appropriateness and cost and availability.

“All books comply with equal opportunities principles.�

A Spokesperson from the Booktrust defended the current book list and said:

“It’s a rolling process so the selection of books are actually reviewed every few months.

“So the current list will be rotated in due course, and it’s for exactly that reason, because we do try to make them as diverse and as big a range of books as possible.�

Welcome principle

The idea behind the scheme has been welcomed however by those responsible for educating young children.

Beverly Noble is a Sure Start Manager and has been involved in rolling out the first phase of the programme in her nursery in south London.

She said, “You would be surprised at the level of parents with poor literacy skills, (people are often skilled at hiding this fact) and it is only when they have children that this comes to light as children will expect parents to read stories.

“Linked to Bookstart is the regular use of libraries, all babies are issued with a library ticket, again a strategy to get children and parents to use the library service.

“We have found that parents who have engaged in this process become active learners themselves.�
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yeah the same govt will be quick to geve them money for CARNIVAL so we can have SKIN GALORE

when it comes to books for Black children...NOTHING

To me, you can have all the black authors and illustrators in the world on your shelves but if the staff don't give a s**t about portraying black role models and showing positive black images, then it is a complete waste of time.

My wife is a nursery officer in London and i know that urban areas such as London are well catered for with regards to positive black promotion solelybecause of the staff andmanagementmake-up in these areas. Venture further out and the picture dramatically changes.

So i feel that more emphasis should be placed on making sure that staff and more importantly, management are themselves diverse in their thinking and teaching because once this has been established, than government will have no choice but to cater toethnicity across the board....

Iit does irreparable damage to push white faces and images in black childrens faces day after day. I refuse to show white books to my children. If its a common European folk story then it must have a black face representing.

Imagine white children growing up with black chioldren and images in books throughout their youth. Unthinkable for the majority population.

then why is it so acceptable for us??

Furthermore I think that this reliance on government to provide us with representative images and teaching belies a weakness and refusal to take the matter in our own hands and develop alternative reading material for our children. How the hell we expect white Britain to actively be bothered to show positive black represenatation in our childrens minds is beyond me.

Its our fault if these books are not in our childrens faces. We need more stories and plays about Carribean/African struggles and history. A national re-enactment of the story of the haitian revolution/ island specific rebellionswould be a good start. But this is reflected in Carribean/Africanadult arts as well. Instaed of a story about Kojo we have stories at the Catford theatre etc about man/woman foolishness that educates and informs no-one and just joke out our culture.