Inclusive Books for Children, Patricia explains: “‘There’s a lot of books out there and it’s difficult for busy adults to research them all. Having a website that holds all of this data, will make things a little easier for readers everywhere to share an even wider world of stories.” Alongside aiding parents and carers in choosing books, Sarah has had early contact and interest from a range of professionals as well. “Many teachers and librarians we’ve spoken to have told us it will help them in their work too. We hope they will help themselves to our recommendations and list.”
There’s a big role for the recommendations and lists to help inform decisions around class reads and books for promotion and displays, helping to ensure that all initiatives can be inclusive. Sarah says: “Please also spread the word!
Bookshop.org is an affiliate link on the website and our goal is to drive sales to support independent bookshops. We will be creating digital kits for in store displays to support the inclusive book lists and our new Inclusive Books for Children Awards. We want to build our relationships with bookshops and libraries so please reach out if there’s anything we could be doing. High on our agenda following the launch is tailoring a section of the website to the needs of librarians.”
The website will launch on 14 September with the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education hosting a party to mark the occasion. Janet Noble, chair of judges for the Yoto Carnegies in 2023 and a member of the review team says: “Recent surveys have highlighted that publishers are beginning to seriously address representation in the sector.” Janet feels Inclusive Books for Children have successfully mapped these publications and describes the site as an “accessible and authoritative guide which has been peer reviewed by librarians, teachers, booksellers, and other children’s literature experts”.
We were also keen to find out more from Sarah about the plans for the Inclusive Books for Children Awards that she mentioned. “These will celebrate the best inclusive children’s books published in the UK each year with a £1,000 prize in three age categories.’
l Books for Babies and toddlers 0-3 years; l Picture Books for readers aged 3+; l Children’s fiction for readers aged 5-9.
Submissions for the awards will open on 14 September and close on 27 October and all books will undergo consideration from an in-house long-listing team. An esteemed panel of six judges will then
select the shortlists and the winners which will be announced in March. Libraries and bookshops will be able to support through stocking and displaying the selected books and helping to spread the word. The prize will be supported with a range of materials.
Sarah explains how they are keen to recognise the achievements and talents of authors and illustrators with the aim that this will “inspire others to follow in their footsteps and incentivise publishers to feed us even more brilliant, inclusive books”. These are big, but worthwhile ambitions and ones which both the website and awards will help to achieve in generating greater excitement, visibility and awareness among parents, carers, librarians, booksellers and teachers supporting the idea of an inclusion revolution. Full details on eligibility and how to submit will be available through the website www.
inclusivebooksforchildren.org/awards. Find out more about Inclusive Books for Children by visiting www.
inclusivebooksforchildren.org and seeing how you are able to use it to help inform your work and to spread the word in order that everyone benefits from the wealth of inclusive titles explored there. PEN&INC.
Autumn-Winter 2023
PEN&INC. 25
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