Kidlit Diversity in 2025

On 23 April, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center University of Wisconsin-Madison (CCBC) released diversity figures for youth literature published in the United States in 2025. Their numbers are based upon the books that are sent to the Center for that given year. The CCBC is quite transparent with the criteria they use to measure representation. Gathering this data is time consuming, and it’s also quite important. The flaw I’ve always seen with this system is that publishers can send close to the same amount of books to the CCBC every year, but they can be more intentional about the books they select. This year’s decrease indicates no such shenanigans from them.

In an interview with Clare Seguin, Kathleen “KT” Horning described the beginnings of the this annual survey back in 1985. Her colleague, Ginny Moore Kruse, was serving on the Coretta Scott King Award committee and as part of the work, she identified all children’s books written by Black authors because they’d be eligible for the award.

The year Ginny was on the committee for the first time she saw everything that was eligible. Everything by a black author or illustrator is eligible whether it’s culturally conscious or not. As the year went on and Ginny’s list kept, well, I won’t even say growing, it was more like stagnating by the end of the year there were only 18 titles on that list. 18.

This was 1985. This was a year when there were over 2500 children’s books published overall. We were so shocked by this number. There was a feeling among us in the library world and in the publishing world that there was much more, but here we had the documentary evidence. We decided to publish that number in an annual publication we do called CCBC Choices.

Over the years, data did eventually grow to include other racial and ethnic groups and it continues to be used in many ways. It supports grants, documents the need for more books by marginalized authors, and grounds academic research. I want readers to know that the publishing landscape still falls far short of meeting the needs of BIPOC readers, and, I want to trace the impact of censorship and other social and political factors that publishers react to when their output becomes more less inclusive.

I had prepared a graph that would illuminate the yearly change for each group, but I’m still waiting for the CCBC to approve use of their data that is available to the public to be used in a graph. For now, we’ll just consider the numbers.

In 2025, there were 398 books (11%) by Black authors, and 491(13%) about Black people.  In 2024, there were 462 books (12.7%) by Black authors and 574 (15.8%) about. The number is decreasing. The data suggests there has always been more books about Blacks than by them in youth literature.

The number of books by Asians /Asian Americans and Latines was greater than the number of about, but the number of books about Blacks, Native American, Pacific Islanders, and Arab/Arab Americans was greater than the amount by. Across racial and ethnic groups, there was less representation in 2025 than the previous year. The number of diverse books is decreasing.

In 2025, 33% of the books that the CCBC received had at least one BIPOC character. 21% of the books had at least one animal main character. 38% of picture books had at least one BIPOC illustrator. These numbers were supplied to me by staff at the CCBC, who are available to assist in gathering more nuanced data sets.

If this decrease is sustained, how will it impact reading scores and interests? How will young people growing up in segregated communities build their capacity for empathy and understanding for people who don’t share their cultural experiences? What will be available to reinforce self-worth in marginalized youth?

Fewer BIPOC books being published means a decreased demand for BIPOC authors and illustrators to write or to speak at events. I’ve heard anecdotally that contracts have shrunk, and there are fewer speaking engagements and conference visits. BIPOC librarians don’t get the invitations, either.

Then, there are those who prefer AI created stories over those by BIPOC authors. What kind of dystopia is this? These overall trends don’t indicate quality, we can’t separate the cream from the crud, using data, but we can measure the opportunity for stories to be available that provide readers with windows into their own identity, or doors to the world around them. We can also realize how important it is to amplify the voices of all marginalized creators. Mention and share their books and posts on all your socials. You may be surprised when your family and friends start taking your reading suggestions. Place requests at your local library to purchase specific titles by marginalized authors. When reviewing conferences or panels, comment on the (lack of) representation. ALA Annual is coming up. Be sure to stand in the signing lines for LGBTQIA+ or BIPOC authors and attend their sessions so their publishers can witness how much these authors are loved.

The above map depicts the diversity of the United States’ population in 2020. Kidsdata.org provides much more granular information to help us see the inconsistency between the representation in books being published and the size of the market to demand them.

Did you know people are libraries, filled with stories, poems, data, and insights? These are disappearing, too.

Continue to cite the CCBC numbers. Use them in any random way you can to promote the demand for inclusivity in youth literature.  

Be well. Do good.

Filed under: Representation