Race and gender in children's books research

 Using artificial intelligence, researchers combed through 1,130 children’s books written in the last century, comparing two sets of diverse children’s books—one a collection of popular books that garnered major literary awards, the other favored by identity-based awards. The software analyzed data on skin tone, race, age, and gender. Among the findings: While more characters with darker skin color begin to appear over time, the most popular books—those most frequently checked out of libraries and lining classroom bookshelves—continue to depict people of color in lighter skin tones. More insidiously, when adult characters are “moral or upstanding,” their skin color tends to appear lighter. (excerpted from Eutopia)

Adukia, A. et al. (2021). Wajt we teach about race and gender: What  representation in images and text in children's books. Brown University Annenberg Institute.

https://www.edworkingpapers.com/sites/default/files/ai21-462.pdf

Representation in children's books study

 1,133 books from 19 different award categories, published over the last 100 years, were studied to examine issues of race and gender. The analysis of images revealed the following about race in children’s books:

•  Books in the Mainstream collection are more likely to depict lighter-skinned characters than those in the Diversity collection.  Specifically, books in the Mainstream collection are much more likely to depict characters who are racially ambiguous in terms of skin color, disproportionately using skin colors that cannot be classified either as that of light-skinned characters nor as that of dark-skinned characters, a technique the authors call “butterscotching.”
• Over the last two decades, representation of lighter skin tones in Mainstream books has actually increased.
• Children are more likely than adults to be shown with lighter skin, in both Mainstream and Diversity collections.
• Females have always appeared in pictures over time, but they are predominantly white females and still average less than 50 percent of pictures and text.

The authors also compared the female appearances in images to female mentions in text and found:

• Females are more consistently seen in images than written about in the text, except in the collection of books specifically selected to highlight females. The authors deduced that this suggests “symbolic inclusion of females in pictures without their substantive inclusion in the actual story.”
• Males, especially white males, are persistently more likely to be represented by every measure, with little change over time.
• Adukia, A. et al. (2021). What we teach about race and gender: Representation in images and text of children's books. Becker Friedman Institute. 
• https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=new-study-looks-race-gender-representation-in-award-winning-childrens-books&utm_source=Marketing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=april22AcademicNewswire

 

Study on children's books that portray animals

Animals with human traits in children's books lead to less-factual learning
A recent study showed that children's books that portray animals with human characteristics hindered factual learning, abstract thinking and conceptual reasoning about animals. "Books that portray animals realistically lead to more learning and more accurate biological understanding," said the study's author Patricia Ganea, a psychologist at the University of Toronto.
Ganea, P.  et al. (2014). Do cavies talk? The effect of anthropomorphic books on children's knowledge about animals. Frontiers in Psychology, 5.
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00283/abstract

Do cavies talk?: The effect of anthropomorphic books on children's knowledge about animals - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00283/abstract#sthash.fsyrfpDa.dpuf

Do cavies talk?: The effect of anthropomorphic books on children's knowledge about animals - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00283/abstract#sthash.fsyrfpDa.dpuf

Do cavies talk?: The effect of anthropomorphic books on children's knowledge about animals - See more at: http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00283/abstract#sthash.fsyrfpDa.dpuf

Publishing for children study

Fully 55% of buyers of works that publishers designate for kids aged 12 to 17 (YA books) are 18 or older, with the largest segment aged 30 to 44. Accounting for 28% of sales, these adults aren’t just purchasing for others—when asked about the intended recipient, they report that 78% of the time they are purchasing books for their own reading. The insights are courtesy of  a biannual study from Bowker Market Research that explores the changing nature of publishing for kids.
Bowker. (2012). Understanding the Children’s Book Consumer in the Digital Age. New York: Bowker.

http://www.bowker.com/en-US/aboutus/press_room/2012/pr_09132012.shtml