Can anyone think of an ethnic childrens storybook character apart from Pochahontas?
Jasmine? Gretel from Hansel and such. Wow. I see why this is so tough. Storybook characters are so (no offense intended to anyone) white bread! Maybe instead of trying to represent her ethnic type she should go way OUT of type and be Snow White or Raggedy Ann and someone “white bread” (blond, blue eyed) should be Pochanantas to show that you don’t have to be typecast. Momma Bear is also “ethnic” and she is brown. You know of the three bears. I’m sorry. I seem to be reaching now. Good luck! PS I love someone’s Mulan suggestion and I actually thought of Little Black Sambo who was Indian, I think, as in from India. I still have my copy of that book from over 50 years ago!
I know of a book that got really bad press from African-Americans, but the story is about a little black boy who outsmarts creatures much bigger and stronger than he is, and he ends up saving himself and his family. You would think that a story like that would be a favorite to read to black children, but it is virtually banned everywhere because the name of the title character is Sambo. It seems like throwing the baby out with the bathwater to ban a good book because another group used the title in a bad way.
How about Lilo. Wow! What a hard question actually! I have loads of multi-racial, multi-ethnic story books and loads of other stuff, but none of the “popular” stories that I can think of (or have) have coloured, black or other ethnic backgrounded people taking the main role. I have one book about a birthday party where all the main nursery rhyme characters you can think about attend the party and in this they are all white apart from Cinderella. She is brown!
