The number of children’s books featuring a Black main character dropped by more than a fifth between 2023 and 2024, according to a new report by a literacy charity.

The report by Inclusive Books for Children (IBC) surveyed books published last year for readers aged one to nine. Of the 2,721 books surveyed, only 51 (1.9%) featured a Black main character, down by 21.5% compared with 2023.

The charity described the findings as a “catastrophic decline in Black representation”, and said the report revealed “stark inequalities” in UK children’s publishing.

It also reported that about 6% of children’s books featured marginalised main characters, and just under half (49%) of those were created by authors or illustrators from those groups.

Representation was low across a range of identity groups. Just 35 books (1.3%) featured south Asian main characters, while about 12.5% of children in English nursery and primary schools have south Asian heritage.

Only seven books featured disabled main characters, with most created by non-disabled authors or illustrators, and six featured neurodivergent main characters.

Earlier this year, a number of leading Black literary figures told the Guardian that UK publishing is less accessible to Black authors now than it was five years ago. While the Black Lives Matter movement of 2020 led to many publishing houses making commitments to address racial inequality in the industry, a number of industry figures said there has since been a noticeable downturn in the number of Black writers being published.

Analysis by the Bookseller in 2023 also found that the boom in Black authors being published after 2020 “failed to result in the promised broadening of publishing’s output”.

Jasmine Richards, founder of inclusive fiction studio Storymix, said: “The steep drop in books for five-to-nine-year-olds featuring Black main characters is not just disappointing – it’s further evidence of the quiet rollback that has taken place over the last two years. And if you’ve been paying attention, it’s not a surprise.”

The survey also arrives against a backdrop of a wider reading crisis: the National Literacy Trust reports that reading for pleasure is at an all-time low, with only one in three children aged eight to 18 saying they enjoy reading in 2025, a 36% drop since 2005.

skip past newsletter promotion

after newsletter promotion

The IBC report “highlights the huge missed opportunity to show children, through high-quality, authentic storytelling, that everybody belongs and everybody adds value to society,” said Marcus Satha, who co-founded the charity with his partner Sarah after struggling to find representative books to read with their two mixed-heritage children.

Sarah added that the report’s findings are important because “we face a reading for pleasure crisis, and the narrow range of books hogging shelves is clearly not doing a good job of enticing a wider range of potential book lovers.”

It is also “not enough to plug the gap” with “non-Own Voice stories” – books featuring main characters with marginalised identities created by authors and illustrators with no lived experience of that identity. “This type of representation is superficial, and the reader can sense it.”

About the authors

“In this meticulously researched history of states pursuing the dirty bomb, the authors show how countries like the US, Russia, and the UK concluded that it is a weapon of mass disruption, not mass destruction, and not worth pursuing. They present excellent suggestions how to keep it that way. A great read.”

—Siegfried S. Hecker, author of Hinge Points: An Inside Look at North Korea’s Nuclear Program

“Sherlock Holmes solved a mystery by focusing on what didn’t happen: a dog that didn’t bark. The authors of this rigorously researched volume similarly explain why a widely expected event didn’t happen—why several countries developed and tested radiological weapons but never deployed or used them, even though they are relatively cheap, easy to make, and assumed to have devastating effects. Their meticulous and highly readable analysis not only sheds light on a long-dormant mystery of the nuclear age, it also provides valuable insights into whether and under what circumstances states may again pursue radiological weapons and offers practical recommendations for mitigating the dangers of their possible future development. With evidence that interest in radiation dispersal as a weapon of war may be returning—for example, Russia’s Poseidon “super torpedo”—Death Dust is especially timely and should be read by nuclear policymakers as well as members of the general public concerned about the nuclear threat.”

—Robert Einhorn, Brookings Institution, former Assistant Secretary of State for Nonproliferation

“This exceptional account of the development of radiological weapons—’death dust’—is powerful and comprehensive. The authors reveal the history of such weapons programs around the world. Their analysis of Russian threats to use radiological weapons in Ukraine is a reminder that this danger lives on.”

—Rose Gottemoeller, Stanford University, former Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security