Children’s authors of colour published in UK rose to 11.7% of market in 2021

Illustrator Dapo Adeola expressed concern about the number of ‘cookie cutter books’ being published. Photograph: Waterstones/PA

New research has found that 11.7% of children’s book creators published in the UK in 2021 were people of colour, up from 5.6% in 2017.

Despite the big improvement, though, “the UK’s body of children’s literature overall remains far from representative” said Diana Gerald, chief executive of BookTrust, in the report’s introduction.