– a Call to Action for Authors and Illustrators ✍🏾

A priority for M2M Books is to publish an increasing number of baby and toddler books, picture books, and fiction featuring characters and storylines relatable to children, from toddlers to teens, who find themselves excluded in British children’s books by their ethnicity, culture, neurodivergence, or disability.

M2M Books are treating this early-reading audience as a priority because we understand that the next generation of diverse authors, editors, proofreaders, illustrators, librarians, retailers, reviewers, literary agents, printers, and publishers, can only emerge from a generation of children that love books. And for diverse children to learn to love books, we need them to become immersed in a steady stream of engaging stories that relate to their lived experiences and include characters that represent their perspectives.

As a UK publisher, it is also a priority that M2M Books publish titles written and illustrated by UK-based authors and UK-based artists who share the same marginalised identity as their main characters (own voice). For when a character’s identity is central to a story but the creators are not from that community, more often than not, there are problematic aspects to the depiction (ask Jamie Oliver!). For example, tokenistic representation such as a main character wearing a hearing aid as a superficial nod towards disability. Or, in a Peter and Paul story, just colouring Paul brown and adding a predictable subplot about the evils of racism. We agree with the report’s conclusion that ‘however well researched a work might be, the lack of lived experience shows. Own Voice stories generally bring depth that such books entirely lack’.

So, if you are a UK-based author or illustrator from a marginalised community, with an idea for a baby and toddler book, picture book, children’s fiction, or another style of book appealing to children aged 1-9 from the marginalised community you identify with, we would love to see your idea.

British own voice representation in children’s literature is extra crucial right now because the Excluded Voices report highlights a worrying upward trend in UK publishers commissioning children’s books from overseas. So, instead of investing in British talent to diversify their portfolios, in order to plug the diversity gap, mainstream UK publishers are favouring international talent for British editions. For example, repackaging African-American titles as tick-boxing substitutes for commissioning UK-based creatives from African or Afro-Caribbean heritages.

Key Takeaways from the Excluded Voices Report

• Main-character representation in baby and toddler books is extremely low across all marginalised groups, representing just 2.8% of output.
• Black main characters in baby and toddler books dropped 21.5% between 2023 and 2024, now featuring in a measly 1.9% of the entire published output.
• In 2024, no baby and toddler books offered neurodivergent or disabled representation at main-character level and just two picture books were published with neurodivergent main characters.
• Only two baby and toddler books were by British own voice authors.

‘My heart sank when I read about the limited representation in Baby and Toddler books. I can’t express how important this category is. The warmth of hearing my own toddler excitedly exclaim, “that’s me” as we read together, I understand how impactful this is for early reading experiences. The absence of neurodivergent or disabled main characters highlights a persistent gap. Structural barriers in publishing must not excuse the lack of investment in inclusive early years content. Prioritising Own Voice creators is essential if we are to build meaningful representation from the very beginning.’

The Black Nursery Manager, Liz Pemberton

• In children’s fiction, the output of books with Black main characters was down 50% between 2023 and 2024 (George Floyd and BLM trend publishing).
• Despite 2.6% of England’s school and nursery population having East and South East Asian (ESEA) heritage, during 2024, only 0.8% of children’s books published for one-to-nine-year-olds featured ESEA main characters.
• Representation of Middle Eastern or North African characters was even more pitiful. And nearly half of the output in this category was based on war or refugee narratives.
• Disabled representation at main-character level has entirely faltered with numbers of published books too small to be meaningful in terms of discerning any real trend.

So, tokenistic, trend-driven, grant-securing, one-hit-wonder publishing of books for marginalised children is the depressing norm in the UK and the situation is getting worse. Our job, therefore, is to buck this trend and to publish the books our diverse children will want to read, to invest in and nurture UK-based authors and illustrators from diverse backgrounds, and to demonstrate that publishing for children from minority communities is a viable and worthwhile strategy for mainstream publishers. M2M Books are working right now to publish our first picture book around Easter 2026. And we want to publish more.

Share your own experiences in our comments. Get in touch with your ideas.

M2M Books believe that creative talent is everywhere – it’s only the opportunity that’s missing.