Our Data
A First-Ever Look at Multicultural Picture Books
We’ve collected, coded, and cataloged thousands of picture books published since 2002 depicting Black and Indigenous people and People of Color (BIPOC), and our data is available to the public — live and free for your use.
Disparities in Representation
We have collected and analyzed more-than 5975 books published since 2002 featuring Black and Indigenous Peoples and People of Color (BIPOC). The graphs to the right show the percentage of books in our collection featuring characters from each racial/cultural group. Not all groups are represented equally – or in the same way. Click the tabs below to see the types of stories available for each group.Graph Key
20% Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American
7% Bi/Multiracial/Mixed Race
31% Black/African/African American
27% Brown-Skinned and/or Race Unspecified
7% First/Native Nations/American Indian/Indigenous
13% Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American
3% Middle Eastern/North African/Arab
14% Multi-Racial Cast of Characters
22% White/European American/Caucasian
Graph Key
20% Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American
7% Bi/Multiracial/Mixed Race
31% Black/African/African American
27% Brown-Skinned and/or Race Unspecified
7% First/Native Nations/American Indian/Indigenous
13% Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American
3% Middle Eastern/North African/Arab
14% Multi-Racial Cast of Characters
22% White/European American/Caucasian
Of the 1179 books featuring Asian/Pacific Islander/Asian American characters:
Of the 397 books featuring Bi/Multiracial/Mixed Race characters:
Of the 1832 books featuring Black/African/African American characters:
Of the 1617 books featuring Brown-Skinned and/or Race Unspecified characters:
Of the 434 books featuring First/Native Nations/American Indian/Indigenous characters:
Of the 765 books featuring Latinx/Hispanic/Latin American characters:
Of the 181 books featuring Middle Eastern/North African/Arab characters:
Of the 852 books featuring Multi-Racial Cast of Characters characters:
Of the 1318 books featuring White/European American/Caucasian characters:
Category Key
These are descriptions of our categories
Any Child/Teen:Books featuring BIPOC in which race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, culture, im/migration, and/or religious, sacred, or origin stories are not central to the storyline. These elements may be present, but they are not essential to the plot and could be changed without changing the story.
Biography/Autobiography:Narrative books about the life of a particular person or group of people from a historical or contemporary perspective. These titles may be entirely nonfiction or may be partly nonfiction as in the case of fictionalized retellings of someone’s life.
Centering Culture & Identity:Books featuring BIPOC in which race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, culture, immigration/migration, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and/or religious, sacred, or origin stories (and their intersections) are central to the storyline. These books explicitly focus on the diverse expressions of human experience, depending on these elements to drive the plot. These also include plots that center joy in or celebration of BIPOC cultures and identities.
Cross Group:Books portraying relationships between main or secondary characters across racial or cultural difference, including but not limited to those depicting peer group and cross-generational friendships. These stories do not need to be focused on culture or race. However, the cross-group relationship needs to be important/significant to the book/title. The interactions depicted may be positive, negative, or resolving.
Folklore:Books featuring tales, proverbs, songs, nursery rhymes, lullabies, and/or legends that transmit the knowledge, traditions, practices and rituals, and values of a particular group of people. These do not include religious, foundational, origin myths and stories, or indigenous traditional or sacred stories (see Centering Culture & Identity).
Incidental:Books featuring a racially diverse cast of non-primary characters; or books featuring animal main character(s) with BIPOC as secondary characters.
Informational:Narrative books (with or without a storyline) presenting factual information; may be encyclopedic. BIPOC are depicted, but race/culture is not always central to the content.
Oppression & Resilience:Books about group-based injustice and struggles for justice. These include stories about BIPOC who experience and/or resist structural oppressions such as enslavement, internment, imprisonment, or violent conflict; persecution in or forced displacement from their homelands; or barriers to basic freedoms such as land, food, housing, education, health & wellness, bodily autonomy, sexual or gender autonomy, etc.
Race/Culture/Identity Concepts:Books that explore and/or compare specific aspects of human difference, inviting readers to consider varying perspectives related to race, ethnicity, culture, tribal affiliation or intersectional identities including religion, immigration, gender or sexual orientation.
Our full database of titles is not available for download. If you are a scholar or researcher interested in publishing or presenting about any of our data, please reach out to us directly to discuss.
