ARTD6000

South Asian Representation within Children's Picture Books

To start off my dissertation I thought about the possible Ideas I could look into, what exactly did i want to research into? Is there a reason for my choice?

I decided I wanted to look further into Children's picture books as that's my main interest in the type of work I want to create, I then started to wonder about my own childhood, what books I read and what I noticed, and I realised I had never read any books growing up that had characters that remotely resembled me in any way. My aim for this topic is to i.) help south asian kids to see themselves more in picture books ii.) to gain a confidence and self-esteem within seeing ourselves iii.) show how important it is to see good representation when you're young iv.) to share south asian culture (positively).

1. How can lack of representation affect South Asian children
2. How do South Asian children feel beng able to see themselves within the character
3. How good representation can affect Non-South Asian children's perspective of South Asians
4. How older South Asians feel seeing themselves more represented compared to when they were younger
5. The difference when Non-South Asians write about South Asian characters vs South Asians writing about South Asian characters

Rough Estimate of requirements

Introduction (5-10% of the essay):
- Start with an engaging opening or hook.
- Provide background/context.
- Present your thesis statement or main argument.
Body (70-80% of the essay):
- Divide the body into several sections or paragraphs based on your main points or arguments.
- Each section should focus on one main idea or argument.
- Use topic sentences to introduce each section's main point.
- Provide evidence, examples, and analysis to support your points.
- Use transitional phrases to create flow between sections.
Conclusion (10-15% of the essay):
- Summarize the main points discussed in the body.
- Restate the thesis in a different way.
- Provide closure or suggestions for further discussion (if applicable).
- Avoid introducing new information in the conclusion.

Introduction: Around 200-400 words
Body: Approximately 2,800-3,200 words (divided into multiple sections/paragraphs)
Conclusion: About 400-600 words

South Asian Book Illustrations!

These are my own personal books I got about south asian people, they vary from age ranges but otherwise they tell a story that's important to their heritage. From clothing, weddings, festivals and food!

Online Images!

Billy and the Beast by Nadia Shireen

Cinnamon by Neil Gaiman and Divya Srinivasan

Chapatti Moon by Pippa Goodhart

Like the Moon Loves the Sky by Hena Khan and Saffa Khan

The Little Book of Hindu Deities by Sanjay Patel

Malala’s Magic Pencil by Malala Yousafzai

Rapunzel by Chloe Perkins and Archana Sreenivasan

Over the summer I came up with a survey for some of my south asian friends and family to fill out and got quite a lot of answers back! A lot of them being overly similar to one another giving me the information that there's still a lot of us, those who are living in a foreign country that have also grew up on a lack of representation.

I realise I may not have enough information before coming up with this survey and may go back into it once i've done much more research on my topic and see if anything has changed or if I want to come up with a better range of questions to ask. I primarily focused on asking adults as it's easier to get their opinion compared to a child who may not really think much on the issue or has much to say.

Summer 2023

Now over the summer I had a lot of time to work on my dissertation and how I can include South Asian diversity into my topic, luckily one of my cousins (distant) had a wedding, more importantly a traditional one and I wanted to include some pictures into this blog as it was fun, colourful, loud but also helped me appreciate my culture and experience it more as I don't normally get the chance.

Online Research

- story starts off with Bilal playing outside, his dad letting him know he needs help with cooking. His friends accompany him and ask him what Daal is and how it's made.

- Bilal is worried his friends may not like the food they cook due to some comments he overhears. 'it smells funny', something a lot of non desi people tend to react towards south asian foods.

- At the end, they all gather together and try the Daal, which they liked. Bilal was happy to know his friends enjoyed the food he eats.

- Ariana is excited for the festival, wanting to help out the best she can and have the perfect Diwali. Her brother is wanting to only spend time with her.

- lot's of colours used to represent the festival of lights

- text gives us an insight on what happens during the festival

- there's a lot of pink, purples and blues used for the book, I believe this to represent the night skies as the lights would then stand out

- there's also a lot of detail within the clothes and the decorations used, the illustrator did not leave any blank spaces where it doesn't need to be

Trip To Waterstones

After some feedback I was told to look into waterstones and see what picture books they had to offer. Overall there was only a small section but they did have quite a lot of books, mostly based on animals and dinosaurs.

The book: Who Are You? shows some diversity for most ethnicities. It's a fun way to introduce young children to people from around the world and what they do and how they look.

These two books tackled a little bit of mistreatment from other people. The Proudest Blue shares a story of a Hijbi girl starting school, however her classmates make remarks on what she's wearing but she continues to be proud of who she is and what she wears. I included the authors note at the end! Coming to England follows a black family spending time in, what seems to be London, they enjoy the first few hours but as they stay they get realise not everyone likes them because of their skin colour.

' In The Secret Garden, Mary's maid says to her, "I thought you was a black too," and Mary stamps her foot and says, "You thought I was a native! You dared! You don't know anything about natives! They are not people. ..." I skipped that whole book, setting it on a shelf for later, noting that it would have to be accompanied by an appropriate conversation about colonialism and ugly views of native peoples. '

I never noticed how racist so many children’s books are until I started reading to my kids

My Own Children's Illustration

These illustrations are for my project however two of these places include the Middle east and South Asia! specifically Mecca and Delhi. I felt like including it as it's a positive picture book that shows the journey of a traveler, Ibn Battuta and what he had seen travelling the world.