Books as Mirrors: Black Immigrant Young Adult Literature

Illustration: Niege Borges

What might it feel like to open a book and see reflections of yourself?

Characters who speak like you. Settings that remind you of home. Story events that resemble your lived experiences.

In 1990, Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, Professor Emerita at Ohio State University, wrote an article titled “Mirrors, Windows, and Sliding Glass Doors”. In the piece, she argued that books can be mirrors for children to see themselves. Books can also be windows for them to see in other worlds that differ from their own. Sliding glass doors, according to her, allows for children to see different worlds as well.

Essentially, diversity representation in children’s literature needs to go both ways. In an interview with Reading Rockets, Bishop says:

“I mean it’s not just children who have been marginalized who need these books. It’s also the children who always find their mirrors in the books, and therefore, get an exaggerated sense of self worth and a false sense of what the world is like because it’s becoming more and more diverse as time goes on.”