A new database of children’s books featuring multiculturalism and diversity has been created with the aid of the ACT Education Directorate.
Created by the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature (NCACL), the Cultural Diversity Database (CDD) provides a resource for educators, parents and young readers who are looking to learn more about what binds us in common humanity, and what sets us apart.
According to Emeritus Professor of Children’s Literature and Director of the NCACL, Belle Alderman, Australia is just the third country in the world to create such a database after the United States and Canada.
Dr Alderman said children needed to see themselves in the books they read.
“It helps them to build engagement with, and a love for books, and it helps to validate their own identities,” Dr Alderman said.
“These books can be the mirrors in which they see themselves — and the windows, through which other people see them.”
She said the database was built on a collection of books featuring Australia’s culturally diverse population and focused on knowledge and understanding of both similarities and differences.
Created by a team of experts including teachers, teacher librarians, literacy and literature experts, academics and staff at the ACT Education Directorate, the database is itself diverse in its range of storytelling genres and media, she said.
“We have books ranging from Morris Gleitzman’s Once series, set against the backdrop of the Holocaust, to Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, which tells the story of a migrant’s journey in beautifully-drawn pictures,” Dr Alderman said.
The database can be accessed on the NCACL website at this PS News link.
