It’s been 43 years since the Newberry was awarded to a children’s book with a Hispanic main character

LatinaLista — Probably the most coveted award for any children’s book author is the Newberry Award. Given by the American Library Association (ALA) for the past 86 years to those authors whose works were deemed the best literature for children, the ALA, surprisingly, has a very monochrome view of what constitutes good literature.

Thanks to a very insightful article that appeared in Bloomberg, it seems that the last time the Newberry was awarded to a book that had a Latino character as its protagonist was — 43 years ago.
African Americans have fared better with a black child as the main character of a Newberry award-winning book eight years ago.
Last year only 10% of new children’s books published were about children of color, according to the Cooperative Children’s Book Center.
It would seem children’s literature has to catch up to real life when it comes to depicting a child’s world these days.
In fact, the first new children’s book of 2009 should be titled something like “Malia and Sasha’s Big Move to Pennsylvania Avenue.”