Our mission
Our core aim is to help parents and carers source more diverse, inclusive books for children, so supporting primary schools and community libraries via our new bookgifting scheme is another way of achieving this. The IBC Book Box offers a wide selection of exciting inclusive books that will be received directly and enjoyed by children.
We are also keenly aware of the current unequal access to school library provision, and it’s also likely that many, if not all, school and community libraries suffer from a lack of diverse and inclusive texts.
For example, despite 36% of primary school-aged children in the UK being from minority ethnic backgrounds, only 1% of books published for that age group in 2017 contained a main character portrayed as being from a minoritised ethnic background, increasing to 14% in 2022.
So, while progress is being made, it could take decades for library book stock to become fully inclusive without further curation and support. The IBC Book Box, which comprises books with protagonists from a range of ethnicities and other identies, is contributing towards closing the gap.
