Diversity in Picture Books

By Melanie Hope Greenberg

My attention to cultural diversity started with my third picture book, It’s My Earth Too (Krull/ Doubleday BFYR 1992). In that book, I depicted children from all over the world, and I became painfully aware that the characters in my first two books were only white. I am white and Jewish and grew up in a lower middle class neighborhood in the South Bronx in New York City. I went to school with many students who were Black, Hispanic and Asian. Cultural diversity has always surrounded me. Now I ride the New York City subways with people of every race, shape, size, age, gender, color and costume. Tolerance and democracy are practiced on the New York City subways. This is the world I see on a daily basis. A world that is not homogenized. The characters in my books now have various skin shades, cultures, and genders, reflecting the world that I experience.

Picture book crafting challenges me to depict life in its simplest forms. At the same time I find the craft multi-dimensional. When crafting picture books the text tells one story and, whether I am the book’s author or not, my art must serve to tell that author’s story. However, the art and use of symbols can serve to tell several other stories silently. That leaves openings for young people to read the text lines as well as to read between the lines and add their own interpretations.

In 1995, I wrote and illustrated a picture book called Aunt Lilly’s Laundromat (Dutton).

It’s a story of a hardworking Haitian woman who blends her Caribbean culture with her Brooklyn culture. It’s also about carrying on the traditions of one’s culture from generation to generation, no matter where one lives. The idea came from seeing the hardworking Asian owner of the Laundromat that I use asleep in a chair in the back room. I am a big fan of Haitian art, so I switched cultures to paint what I love but still write an authentic story. In that book, the paintings on Aunt Lilly’s walls or unfinished on her easel enlarge to become a full sized page whenever she has memories of her childhood in Haiti.

I also illustrated Down in the Subway (Cohen/ DK Ink-Richard Jackson 1998 / Reprinted with Star Bright Books 2003).

In this book symbols from Shavism (ancient Hinduism) blended with Caribbean culture. I painted several silent stories which included my yoga practice philosophies. I realized during the process of crafting this book that the Caribbean Island Lady is Mother Nature, granting gifts of the four elements to the hot and weary subway riders. Blending cultures and discovering silent subplots added a tapestry to each image. 

In Good Morning Digger (Rockwell/Viking 2005) the main characters are of color because that fit a story which takes place in an urban environment. The art is straightforward and not multi-dimensional; not all manuscripts call for that.

My recent book, Mermaids on Parade, includes diverse New York City community members. During an author visit to Brooklyn Central Library, the Youth Wing directors told me what books were needed on their shelves: Young people need books and art that relate to their world in order to get excited about reading, they said. Serendipitous with this great suggestion, I was invited to march in an art parade, the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, with a performing arts troupe from the D.U.M.B.O. community in Brooklyn. At the parade I saw people of every race, shape, size, age, gender, and color—in costumes and even in no clothes whatsoever!  I took photos as ideas for a book. This parade of psychedelic honky tonk took tolerance and democracy to a new level by including creatures of the sea and other oddities of nature. However, knowing that my audience is PreK to second grade I kept the tone of the art and costumes in the book “carnival” and “covered up.”

While writing Mermaids on Parade I loved researching Coney Island’s history with its own culturally diverse communities. I knew I could express that in my art. I playfully include people from my photos such as a man in a miniskirt, seashell bra, beads, high-top sneakers, long blonde wig and a beard. This is how I add layers of real life experiences silently to the main story. This character, along with mustached women, mermaids with beards and a blue skinned creature, just fit naturally into the fabric of everyday life.

The last part of the Mermaid Parade that I include in my book is a ritual to open the ocean. King Neptune and Queen Mermaid jump in the waves and throw fruit into the ocean to appease the sea gods and goddesses. This reminds me of Caribbean rituals and deities. The parade, which also takes place on or before the Summer Solstice, is a hodgepodge of different rituals taken from several cultures. These ideas leave room to open discussions with young people.

Influences from real life experiences and the diverse cultures and communities in the city that I live in always find their way into my books. Through books like these I share these experiences with young people and get them excited about reading. If they relate to either Brooklyn, or a subway, or a digger, or Coney Island, or a parade, or getting dressed up in a costume, or seeing culturally diverse creatures of the sea, it sparks the love of reading. Just as Coney Island became world famous and global in its heyday, young people can experience the world through books with stories and silent stories that include layers of truth, diversity, tolerance and democracy. Young people can see what I see in real life and paint into my books. It helps to know that we are all together and that we all belong.