Picturebooks, part 6 - Mirrors and windows

Emily Drabble, head of children’s books promotion and prizes at BookTrust and former co-editor of The Guardian’s children’s book section, describes diverse picturebooks as ‘books by and about all kinds of people, as the UK and the world are full of all kinds of people. So that means boys, girls, all different colours, all different races and religions, all different sexualities and all different disabilities and anything else you can think of – so our books don’t leave anyone out.’

In 1990, children’s literature scholar Rudine Sims Bishop wrote that ‘books are sometimes windows, offering views of the world that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.’