The original plan was to create an infographic for the statistics for the 2019 publishing year  however, these have not been made public yet and so I decided to create an infographic using Canva to help depict the different ways the CCBC collects their data; a look at the “BY” versus “ABOUT.”

Not only do the CCBC look at who the story is about but they look at the author as well. In a time when movements like #ownvoices are starting to gain attention, I think this is an important subtopic to look at. For me creating the visual was a good way for me to see how I could use the statistics gathered from the CCBC to help insight a deeper conversation surrounding diversity in children’s literature.

It would not, however, be a conversation I would have within a lesson before giving students background knowledge. These stats would demand a higher level of thinking and deeper conversations with students about not only diversity in literature but diversity in ownership. Can we only write about “categories” we “fit” in? Can these statistics look skewed in any way? Just because there are less stories “BY” authors, does it mean the stories “ABOUT” are written by white authors?

I think creating this infographic and looking at these numbers would insight another potential lesson plan but would need to be with the same group of students in my original plan. I think visuals, infographics in particular, are great at getting a short burst of attention grabbing information across while still leaving room to have deeper discussions.