diversity — Blog 2 — TheNextGenLibrarian

I knew it would be a while before I got around to doing the next genre section of my Diversity Audit, but we have been working diligently on it in between state testing, classes and all around end of year busy-ness. Since the final steps require me to fill them out, it’s not going as fast as it could if all my library aides could complete the spreadsheet (haha). I was able to complete Science Fiction this week and liked how equal it was between male and female authors, but I’m still very low in Non-Binary or Trans authors in all categories so I will do more research to include them in future purchases. #ownvoices authors was up from other categories, but still not where I want it to be. And, as always, we need more representation in other races/ethnicities other than white. Main characters are close in Male and Female, but need more Non-Binary or Trans characters. Again, there were no strong standouts for main character ethnicity other than White, as usual. In Main Character characteristics the four stand outs were: LGBTQIA+, neurodiversity, set outside of the US and adopted, but even then the highest total books that had diversity of any kind was 13. We need to do better in Sci-Fi overall with purchasing and publishing. White males and females aren’t the only ones set in space—I just know it! Does anyone have any suggestions for more diverse sci-fi books in middle grade or young adult? Shout them in the comments!

Scary is the newest genre section I was able to finish in the diversity audit of my middle school library collection. As you can tell from the charts below, Scary was very disappointing. I would put it close to my lowest diverse section so far, which is Adventure. If not for the significant amount of female characters it would be considered the worst so far.

To be honest I wasn’t expecting a lot of diversity in the Scary genre section. Most of us think of Goosebumps, Five Nights at Freddy’s, Bad Girls Don’t Die, The Haunting of Sunshine Girl and other equally terrifying stories that feature mostly white characters. Recently Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon was published and chosen as a ProjectLIT Middle Grade selection because it was the first scary book that I can remember that featured a Black person on the cover and a Black female author. We need more #ownvoices, diverse and inclusive books in this genre so I will make it a point of purchasing books like this moving forward. When Set Outside the US is the highest in Main Character Characteristics, there’s something wrong.

I was excited to see there were more female MCs than male, even if only slightly. Does that mean the publishing industry thinks girls are scary?! LOL We need to do better overall in this area…now on to Humor. I believe this one will also be heavily white in authors and main characters due to books like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, James Patterson’s Middle School series and more. I’m hoping I’m wrong!

Mystery—I’m coming for you next! Dun-dun-dun!

Diversity Audit: Science Fiction & Scary