Who are the 75?

The Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison has tracked children's books by and about people of color in the US since 1994. Their study of African American children's book authors goes back further to 1985 (based on the books received by the CCBC).

Take a guess ... how many children's books by African Americans were published in 2005? According to the CCBC, seventy-five (75) out of an estimated 5,000 total children's books published. Seventy-five! This is down from 99 in 2004. The highest year was twelve years ago in 1995, when an estimated 100 children's books were published by black authors.

This multi-cultural annual tracking study also covers books by Latinos, Asian-Pacific Americans, and American Indian.