Young Latino Students Don’t See Themselves in Books, according
to the New York Times. Hispanic students make up nearly a
quarter of public school students, but only a small fraction of
characters in books for elementary students. The main characters
in the most popular books are white with African-American, Asian
or Hispanic characters more likely to appear in supporting
roles. “Kids do have a different kind of connection when they
see a character that looks like them or they experience a plot
or a theme that relates to something they’ve experienced in
their lives,” said Jane Fleming, an assistant professor at the
Erikson Institute, a graduate school in early childhood
development in Chicago. She and Sandy Ruvalcaba Carrillo, an
elementary school teacher in Chicago who works with students who
speak languages other than English at home, reviewed 250 book
series aimed at second to fourth graders and found just two that
featured a Latino main character. The Cooperative Children’s
Book Center at the University of