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Of over 3,200 children’s books published in 2013, only 93 were about black people, a study reveals.

The data from the US shows that 2.9% of books checked were about black people, a startling statistic when you consider over 12% of America’s population is black.

And this isn’t an issue which is confined to the US.

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British children do not have enough representation of different races in their books, according to experts including the Children’s Laureate, Malorie Blackman.

And American authors have spoken out about the issue, even claiming that this issue is an "apartheid of children’s literature".

(Image: Thomas Life)

With all the the reaction about a boy being sent home for dressing up as Christian Grey, it seems strange that there was little reaction to ethnic diversity, or the lack thereof.

The lack of diversity affects how children see stories, for example when a school asked a BAME child to wearing pink tights when performing Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Think about what children were wearing for World Book Day recently.

There’s no data on the percentage of books in the UK about BAME children, but there are indicators.

In the What Kids Are Reading Report, in the most read books list for children in years one to 11, there wasn’t a single book which featured a black main character.

Malorie Blackman, the Children’s Laureate and author of the popular Noughts and Crosses trilogy, has called for more representation in what kids are reading.

(Image: Archives New Zealand)

She said: "Children will go with any story as long as its good but white adults sometimes think that if a black child's on the cover it is perhaps not for them.

“Books teach children to see the world through the eyes of others and empathise with others. It’s about the story."

She also recounted that when she was younger, she never once read a book that featured a black child, which left her feeling "totally invisible".

While 2014 US data indicates a slight increase in diversity (5.1% rather than 2.9%) it certainly seems we have a long way to go when it comes to fair representation in literature.