You have probably seen him on his hit television CNN show, United Shades of America, or even doing stand up comedy. Well, comedian, director, producer, and advocate W. Kamau Bell is on a mission to help children of color become inspired readers and find themselves in the pages of literature through ColorPop Books.
ColorPop Books, according to People Magazine, is a new online bookshop that offers curated book bundles aims to fill that gap and help families provide a wider range of books for their children. ColorPop Books is a project that was created by the education non-profit DonorsChoose.
“I know that my three Black daughters, mixed-race Black daughters, respond to books that reflect their lives and with characters that look like them or have similar life experiences,” Bell, who is also a DonorsChoose board member told People in a recent interview. “And so if my daughters are doing it, more kids should have access to this because not every kid has the access to a great dad like me.”
It is has been proven that representation in books matters. It aids children the opportunity to become avid readers and build a healthy, positive self-identity.
Per a 2022 research study, researchers found that only 39% of children’s books that were published in the United States feature at least one character of color. Children’s publisher Scholastic released a report that stated that children of color thrive and become excited to read when they can follow stories about characters that look like them.
“I was a big reader,” Bell shared with the popular entertainment news outlet. “My mom said I was reading the back of cereal boxes, I was that kid. I had to sort of make characters Black in my mind. So for example, Spider-Man was…well before Spider-Man was actually Black in the comic books, Spider-Man was Black to me. He was just like, Peter Parker felt like he was Black to me. Weirdly, the main character from The Catcher in the Rye, Holden Caulfield, was Black to me just because…that’s how I read the book now.”
He continued, “If you hand my kids a book and it’s a little White boy on the cover, they’re not going to respond to it right away. They’re not going to try to make that character fit them. They’re going to be like, ‘no, let me find the book with a little Black girl on the cover.’”
The ColorPop Book Bundles include book bundles that are inclusive of everyone. Bundles promote Pride, Black Joy, LatinX voices, Girls in STEM, books about grief, and much more.
Photo Credit(s)/Featured Image: ColorPop Books Instagram; W. Kamau Bell Instagram
