Why is there still a lack of diversity in children’s books?

Late in 2019, Better Reading was awarded a grant from the Copyright Agency to produce a six-part series, A Conversation About Diversity in Children’s Writing. At the time we could not have predicted what 2020 would bring. We now understand more than ever how little we know, and how important these conversations are. It’s a time for us to ask questions, and listen to the answers provided by people who are more knowledgeable than us on this subject. In this episode, that person is Laura Bloom.

Laura Bloom is the author of eight critically acclaimed and bestselling novels for adults and children, and an award winning screenwriter for film and television. Her most recent novel, Mika and Max, about an unlikely friendship which springs up between a young girl and a boy with autism, is published by Walker Books and is on sale now. Her next novel, The Women and The Girls, will be published by Allen and Unwin in 2021.

In this episode, Laura and Cheryl discuss motherhood, the importance of disabled characters in books, and how both her and her son are active in the Every Australian Counts movement for People With Disability.

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Acknowledgment of Cultural Fund support

Better Reading acknowledges the support provided by Copyright Agency.