Diversity in kids’ books is not a ‘woke agenda’. And there certainly isn’t too much of it

‘People with imaginative empathy don’t judge a book by its cover. A good story transcends culture and taps into our most elemental feelings.’ Photograph: eli_asenova/Getty Images

For the last two years, my friend the artist Sher Rill Ng and I have been giving readings and illustration workshops at the Robinson’s Bookshop in the Glen. Last Christmas, this bookshop stocked the most copies of our latest children’s book, Millie Mak the Maker. “These are just going to fly off the shelves,” one bookseller said warmly, pointing to the mountainous stack she wanted us to sign. Glen Waverley is a highly-educated, affluent and diverse suburb; 63% of its residents speak a language other than English at home.

Our books sell well. And from a superficial glance at our names, our books are also the sort Robinson’s owner Susanne Horman might classify as the kind of “diversity and inclusion” titles she wants to stop stocking. Her own bookshop chain apologised on Monday after Horman called for more picture books with “just white kids on the cover” and “traditional nuclear white family stories” on social media, claiming her comments were “taken out of context”.