As a young, British Pakistani student, I always wondered why the GCSE and A-level syllabi were so scarce of books and literature from authors of color. I’m not talking about the ones that shed a negative impression on Asian or African culture, but the ones that depict the beauty and importance of our communities. Only now that I have gotten to my final year of university, I’m seeing a mixture of cultures being taught through literature. Times are finally changing and the publishing industry is becoming increasingly focused on producing various books for schools and educators. Penguin has constructed an inspirational project known as the Lit in Colour project to overcome this problem, and I’ll be exploring all the ways this has become an incredible breakthrough.
What is the Lit in Colour project?
The Lit in Colour project, curated by Penguin Books UK, aims to provide schools with the support and tools they need to expand their reading lists and provide them with more books by authors of color. Penguin has teamed up with The Runnymede Trust, an independent research organization that fights for racial justice in Britain, to properly support this project. Both companies aim to work together to create an inclusive society, where children are being taught the significance and purpose of diversity within the UK.
Along with the support of their principal partner The Runnymede Trust, Penguin has also teamed up with Pearson, The Black Writers Guild, Oxford Cambridge and RSA (OCR), National Literacy Trust, Oxford University Press, Bloomsbury, Tes, and Twinkl, all of which deserve the recognition too!
Why is it important?
Organizations like Penguin and passionate individuals all over the country are also trying to make the history curriculum accessible to students who are not already being represented. But why books? How do books help students feel more involved?
As an English Literature undergraduate myself, I can understand where Penguin is coming from when they state that:
”Books and reading also have a unique role to play in increasing empathy and understanding.”
Whether these books are fictional or non-fictional, it’s increasingly important that we ensure the accuracy and fairness of picking how they are being told. This is because the subjects, people, and themes being discussed within these books will heavily influence children and how they think, especially younger children. Older students can form more of their own opinions on topics but may feel incredibly left out and alienated if the novel speaks against their culture/ ethnic minority. I, amongst many other members of ethnic minority groups, can name lots of instances where this has unfortunately been the case.
Penguin recognizes that if this continues, students who aren’t from ethnic backgrounds will remain uneducated about their peers. Britain, as we know it today, is an extremely diverse country and this needs to stop being ignored and start being acted upon. Furthermore, The Runnymede Trust recognizes that without a range of books from authors of color, the increase of racism will continue and maybe even at a faster rate. There isn’t just a singular reason why this project is so crucial, but a multitude of reasons that the companies above are dealing with their expert knowledge.
How do schools receive support through the Lit in Colour project?
An outstanding list of achieving this has already been compiled on the website linked above. However, I’m going to use this space to hone in on the ones I find extra special.
The first on the list that stood out to me was that the collaboration with Oxford University Press reaches out to not only students and schools but parents too. Parents have the right to know what their children are and are not studying. This makes this project more inclusive and achievable because younger students have more support with choosing the right, diverse books for them and parents get to understand the importance of variety from a young age.
Another attribute of this project that has attracted my attention is Penguin’s work with Bloomsbury. Both publishers have ensured that new plays on the English curriculum also create more representation. They’ve made sure to cover every form of literature from poetry and fiction, now to making sure that plays are also being made more accessible and widely representative. Bloomsbury has already managed to donate copies of set texts to schools, which includes a range of authors from different backgrounds. From Khaled Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns to Benjamin Zephaniah’s Refugee Boy, the new spec covers a ton! To see more of the established reading lists click here, where each academic and lunar year can be found!
What is the future of the Lit in Colour project?
On their website, Penguin has established their passion and enthusiasm to keep the ball running, to ensure that ideas from different perspectives are continuously thought of. To undergo this, they’ve elected an external advisory board of people to help them challenge current views and provide new ones.
I have full faith that Penguin alongside their partners, will successfully contribute to making Britain a fairer and equal society. I’m thrilled to know that students of the next and upcoming generations will have what was missing when I was their age. Children deserve to have a proper education, and a proper education in which they see themselves being represented and their peers acknowledged. Thank you Penguin and partners for making such a remarkable difference!
Want to read more about diversity in the publishing industry? Click here.
Want to read something new? Check out Bookstr’s very own list of poetry, here.
