12 | The Writer • January 2020
WRITER AT WORK
BY TONYA ABARI
W
hen Hannah Grieco sat
down to read to her
6-year-old daughter,
she couldn’t believe the
words that jumped out from the page of
a popular middle-grade series.
“He must’ve thought we had just
broken out of a mental hospital or
something!”
Grieco, a writer and advocate, was
truly disappointed that such a well-
known book – one that her 9-year-old
older daughter brought back home
from her elementary school library –
casually included such insensitive,
damaging language.
Frustrated, Grieco immediately
took to Twitter.
“Don’t publish words that hurt peo-
ple, marginalize people – that teaches
kids to hurt and marginalize people,
too. Do better!” Grieco tweeted.
Afterward, she was even more sur-
prised when a follower left a crass reply
beneath the original comment. The fol-
lower, a fellow writer, argued that the
words in this particular instance “are
mild compared to other books” and that
shielding children from this kind of lan-
guage is censorship and does not pre-
pare them for “the real world.”
Grieco, who writes disability aware-
ness pieces for parents, disagreed.
“It’s not censorship. Not at all.
Writing thoughtfully is not the same
as language erasure,” says Grieco.
“Using language to show a lived expe-
rience is very different than using
language to casually mock a
marginalized group of people. Per-
haps authors – especially those writ-
ing for children – should do everyone
a favor and use a sensitivity reader.”
•••The Society of Children’s Books Writ-
ers and Illustrators (SCBWI) describes
a sensitivity reader as “someone who
provides feedback on topics such as
race, gender, sexuality, illness, and dis-
abilities.” In other words, a sensitivity
reader ensures that marginalized
groups are fairly represented in books.
Usually, a sensitivity reader has a lived
experience from one or more under-
represented groups and has a vast
knowledge and awareness of stereo-
types within these groups.
“Seeing misrepresentations of race,
culture, or ethnicity, especially in chil-
dren’s books, is unsettling – young read-
ers are very impressionable,” explains
Teresa Robeson, a picture book author
whose debut, Queen of Physics, high-
lights the accomplishments of Chinese
physicist Wu Chien Shiung.
That’s why Robeson’s commitment to
writing about her own culture as an
#ownvoices author is so vital. According
to the most recent survey by the Coop-
erative Children’s Book Center (CCBC),
there still aren’t enough books that mir-
ror the world’s vast diversity. Not only
diversity in the stories, but also in
authors who are writing these stories.
Still, Robeson “applauds writers who
want to include diverse characters in
their books.” She continues, “however,it’s important to avoid using generaliza-
tions. Professional sensitivity readers
are excellent resources to flag this.”
Jason Low, publisher and co-owner
of Lee & Low Books, prefers to use the
term “targeted expert readers.” In an
article he penned for The Horn Book,
Low explains, “The reason why we use
this term is that it shifts the attention
away from cultures and sensitivities
and focuses on the true function of
what these readers do for us: they are
experts in a particular subject.”
Targeted experts evaluate ethnicity
or culture; alternatively, they can pro-
vide subject-matter expertise on tech-
nical terms or concepts.
Children’s publishing houses
already follow a detailed editorial pro-
cess. A single draft goes through sev-
eral rounds of reviews, including
developmental editing, fact checking,
copy editing, and proofreading. Now,
more and more publishers are taking
advantage of the extra eyes from tar-
geted experts in an effort to produce
more authentically diverse texts.
•••In recent years, quite a few kidlit
authors have been called out on social
media for misrepresenting marginal-
ized groups.
“We have a lot of people writing
cross-culturally, and a lot of people
have done it poorly and done damage,”
says Dhonielle Clayton, an author and
seasoned sensitivity reader.
For example, J.K. Rowling’s 2016The importance of
sensitivity readers
Are you writing kidlit outside of a lived experience? Here’s why
hiring an expert to read your manuscript is essential.