Cultivating Empathy through Literature 

My name is Vicky Mahoney and my goal this year was to diversify my classroom library collection. I was born in the Philippines and my family immigrated to America when I was two years old. My father worked for the US Navy and he was able to bring his family to America for a better life. My mom loved to read and she took me to the public library whenever she had the chance. I was a voracious reader growing up. I loved books by Beverly Cleary and Judy Blume. Unfortunately, as I was growing up I never found books that had main characters that looked like me.

As a former school librarian I noticed that more children’s books have characters from diverse backgrounds. However, there is still a huge gap in representation. In 2019 the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education reviewed fiction and nonfiction children’s books for ages 3-11. They found that only ten percent of the books published featured characters from ethnic minority backgrounds. 

My goal for this project was to increase my classroom library collection of diverse characters and find books that teach the Sustainable Development Goals.