"7% of BAME main characters that are in children's books, compared to the 33.5% of BAME children that are in the UK educational school system" - Guardian September 2019.
The research team at the Centre of Literacy in Primary Education who wrote the Reflecting Realities report which highlighted this cataphoric marginalised percentage. The Look Like Me Book Challenge C.I.C. acknowledge that this statistic is unacceptable, we are teaching our BAME young people that their stories are irrelevant and by continually under representing them in fairy tales, where their imagination lives.
Award-winning Number 1 Author Winsome Duncan has a passion to be a part of the solution by changing these dreadful statistics. Her company works with groups of 30 children ages 7-18 years old to create a community book through play, storytelling, character building, and, artwork design. The Look Like Me Book Challenge has been set up via Go Fund Me to raise £10,000 to produce young authors and to offer an opportunity for our mini entrepreneurs to earn extra pocket money through the sales of their books.
Our Look Like Me Book Challenge manifesto is simple:
To increase the diversity of main characters in children’s books to 10% over the next five years
To create a BAME author association to support UK authors
To get corporate publishing houses/bookshops to offer a diverse book selection
Help us to raise awareness by interviewing us, sharing our campaign, and making a generous donation: https://www.gofundme.com/f/look-like-me-book-challenge
Contact:
CEO Winsome Duncan is available for interviews for television, radio, news features, panel discussions, newspapers, and magazines.