Artwork for Future Proofing Equality in Children’s Publishing symposium with an illustration by David Roberts from We Are Your Children (Macmillan)
By Meike Eckern
A Space for Candid Exchange and Collective Action
Last month, publishing professionals, librarians, booksellers, and academics gathered at Manchester Metropolitan University for the one-day Future-Proofing Equality in Children’s Publishing symposium.The purpose of and tone for the event was set in the opening remarks by event director and Lecturer in Publishing at the university Dylan Calder, “We want to prepare for the modelling in the US that may happen to other countries.”
He elaborated that the ongoing backlash against equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives in the United States—where school districts and state-level actors are driving unprecedented levels of book removals and bans— is now reverberating through international markets. Because so much of the global children’s sector depended on U.S. sales and rights models, shifts in American political climates are increasingly influencing which stories are acquired, developed, or quietly abandoned long before publication.
Such developments, Calder noted, point to a broader cultural pattern: children’s literature is often the first target in ideological campaigns that later spread across the broader cultural sector. This echoes concerns that were also expressed earlier this year at the Frankfurt Kids Conference, themed “Children’s Books in a Fragile World.”
Calder described the day as a space for candid exchange and collective action. The symposium, organized by MMU’s Centre for Fiction and the AHEAD program, was framed as the first in a series of international conversations scheduled to move on to Bologna Children’s Book Fair and Frankfurter Buchmesse in 2026. Its core premise: children’s publishing has become a frontline in wider cultural conflicts, particularly around the representation of Black, queer, migrant, disabled, and otherwise marginalized communities.
A Sector at a Critical Turning Point
Keynote speaker David Roberts; Image: Publishing Perspectives
The morning’s keynote by author-illustrator David Roberts grounded the threat in lived experience. Roberts noted that even joyful, non-issue-based books have been swept into U.S. challenges, including two he illustrated. Sofia Valdez, Future Prez was targeted over a supposed Pride symbol on the cover, and Bathe the Cat was banned in Iowa and Florida simply because his illustrations depict the parents as a same-sex couple.
Roberts argued that children deserve to see their lives reflected not only in stories about identity struggles:
“What I love about this,” Roberts said, “is that this book is not about being a same-sex couple. It’s simply about a silly story. … I value the books that are so-and-so has two mums or so-and-so has two dads. Those sorts of books are important. But I think it’s also important that we have books that are just about fun. I have gay friends, who have families, who have children. When do they see their families represented? They shouldn’t only see them represented in the books that are about queer families.”
Data Behind the Crisis
If the keynote captured the emotional stakes, the following panel—Acknowledging the Present—laid out the structural ones.
Farrah Serroukh of the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education presented new data from the Reflecting Realities survey on ethnic representation in UK children’s publishing: while overall representation is recovering, picture books dropped sharply to 38 percent — a warning signal in a format central to early childhood reading.
Importantly, Serroukh stressed that inclusion must focus on craft as much as numbers: representation needs to move beyond cameo roles or “short-term stays” toward multi-dimensional characters who feel thoughtfully developed.
Dr. Melanie Ramdarshan Bold expanded the conversation to creators, presenting research showing how underrepresentation suppresses aspirations, limits access, and destabilizes the careers for creators of color. Publishing Perspectives has covered this issue before. “The industry hasn’t built the infrastructure to sustain inclusive voices,” she argued, noting the prevalence of “superficial or opportunistic engagement with diversity.”
Beth Cox, presenting early findings from the Reflecting Disability study, echoed that authenticity matters: “The most impactful stories were the ones where disability was just one part of a character’s life… alongside other nuances of class, culture, or family.” More than 400 books have been analyzed so far, and while representation is improving, quality remains uneven.
HarperCollins Art Director Elorine Grant captured the momentum—and the fragility—of progress. She recalled starting her career “in a room where they said Black characters won’t sell,” only to now see entire imprints devoted to diverse voices. Still, she warned, “I’ve seen such gain and don’t want it to slip back.”
Panelists for Acknoledging the Presence. From left: Malika Booker (chair), Jake Hope, Elorine Grant, Beth Cox, Melanie Ramdarshan Bold, Farrah Serroukh; Image: Publishing Perspectives
Frontline Stories From Three Countries
The afternoon’s Voices from the Frontline session brought transatlantic urgency into focus. U.S. publisher Namrata Tripathi (Kokila Books, Penguin Random House) spoke about the emotional and logistical toll of book challenges, emphasizing the need for a community “support group” among publishing professionals. She urged attendees to engage locally, to become involved in decisions at local schools and libraries. Canadian and UK speakers shared parallel experiences, reinforcing librarian Jake Hope’s view that “public libraries are radical institutions” because they function as equalizers.
Ideas for a Changing Landscape
The Disrupt & Innovate session invited speakers to pitch bold, sometimes provocative proposals. This included a broad range of ideas from limiting the number of new titles published each month to ensure visibility for books, to a new award judged directly by children to diversify taste-shaping mechanisms. Others advocated for statutory school libraries, Creative Inclusion Leads within publishing houses, and curriculum reforms at the university level.
As the UK is bracing for pressures already reshaping the U.S. market, the symposium provided a space for close exchange and to ignite ideas, and closed with a call for a shared manifesto—principles that authors, editors, illustrators, teachers, librarians, and booksellers can integrate into daily practice—to safeguard, in Calder’s words, “the right of every child to read, to read widely, to read freely, and to discover their rights through reading.”
More from Publishing Perspectives on children’s books here, more on book bannings is here, more on the freedom to publish and freedom of expression is here,