Introducing Inclusive Books for Children
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NCLUSIVE Books for Children, a registered charity, believe that as a society, we are on the cusp of what they hope will be an inclusion revolution. They wish to assist in that with the creation of an exciting new website and a new award helping to celebrate and amplify inclusive children’s books. We spoke with founder Sarah Satha and some of the team about their plans and the origins of the project.
Sarah explains: ”I’ve always been an avid devourer of books. When [my husband] Marcus and I had our first child, I was really excited to introduce her to books and reading. Imagine my disillusionment when I understood the go-to choices for first books conjured a story-world in which a girl of mixed heritage, like her, was nowhere to be seen.” This led Sarah to scour the internet searching for inclusive books. Together, with husband Marcus, Sarah began to wonder whether they might be able to support positive change. “Marcus and I lean heavily in favour of movements for social justice. We started by offering support to initiatives that nurture aspiring authors and illustrators from underrepresented backgrounds.”
As Sarah was working on these she spent more time searching out books for her own family. She says: “I wondered, if there was a beautiful,
easy-to-use-website that gathered the many excellent inclusive children’s books, would that be helpful to other families that felt the same way and also potentially improve the economics of the sector?” Galvanised by this thought, Sarah started cataloguing over 300 books and reaching out to potential reviewers, identifying more books as she went along. Sarah feels the review team is integral to the project, saying: “It’s possibly the most exciting thing about this project. Reviewers are teachers, librarians, publishing professionals, Carnegie judges and are often a combination of those. Everyone is a heartfelt advocate for diversity.” Among the team, there were some early advocates who provided advice and support. “One was Farrah Serroukh, Research and Development Director at the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE). This led to a partnership with CLPE, who check our database of books and provide a list and bespoke reviews of any titles we might have missed.”
A number of inclusive books are published by smaller, independent publishers who might not always have the budget and resources to secure profile and visibility for their books and authors.
Another early advocate for the project was Fabia Turner, founder of the Jericho Prize. “Fabia became our very first reviewer, giving me the faith that we might actually complete
Jake Hope (@Jake_Hope) is a freelance development and children’s book consultant, and a former chair of CILIP’s Youth Libraries Group (YLG).
www.jakehope.org.
the project. Now she is our Head of Content, bringing her unwavering devotion to inclusivity in children’s books, her unfailingly high standards of excellence in everything she does,
Sarah, Marcus and family. Autumn-Winter 2023
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