By Paige Whipple
Children’s book illustrator Kimberly Hopkins said Tuesday that books for children and young adults need to include a variety of characters that better reflect the country’s diversity.
Photo by Paige Whipple
In a speech at Towson University’s Cook Library, Hopkins said young people need to be exposed to characters of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientations, social classes, religions, places, ages and abilities. Stories about immigrants and adopted children should also be more prevalent, she said.
“When someone is interacting with a book and the character is someone they relate to, it’s a mirror book,” said Hopkins, a Towson lecturer who illustrated the award-winning book, The Springtime Dance. “If they don’t relate to them, it’s a window book. And there are far more mirror books for certain types of people than for others. I have diverse children and I want them to be represented in the books they read.”
Hopkins also addressed trends in children’s books.
“The most popular trend is that children’s books should be short and they should be funny,” she said. “When it’s 8:30 at night, I don’t want to read my kid a 50-page book. The title is also very important, because you’re catering to the kids, but also to parents that are choosing the books and librarians that are putting the books on the shelves.”
Hopkins was quick to add that while trends come and go, quality books last forever.
“Every editor and publisher would tell you that trends don’t matter, but a good story does,” she said. “When you illustrate, don’t just draw the words. Add something to the stories. Add to the emotion and enhance the story.”
Hopkins published The Springtime Dance in 2014 after a long career in graphic design and experience with illustrating in graduate school. She recalled reading Cinderella to her mother at a young age and reading over her father’s shoulder when he perused the daily newspaper.
“I’ve had a love affair with reading and writing for as long as I can remember,” she said. “In kindergarten, I would read books to anyone that would listen. I would look over my dad’s shoulder every single day when he read the newspaper and say, ‘What’s that word?’ ‘What’s that word?’”
Hopkins said she met Valerie Smalkin, a former lawyer turned puppeteer and children’s entertainer, at a painting class in Baltimore. The two teamed up to work on The Springtime Dance, and Smalkin started her own publishing company to ensure that the book was made a reality.
Hopkins used a mixture of digital and traditional elements in the illustration of the book, explaining that she combined what she learned in a children’s illustration class in graduate school and her professional experience.
“My graphic design background was a huge part in actually getting this book to press,” she said. “I’ve been in graphic design for a really long time, but I’ve only been doing illustration since grad school.”
Hopkins also said that keeping the balance between the digital and traditional mediums was the biggest challenge she faced while working on the book.
“Having enough internal confidence to take that leap and take that risk was so hard,” she said. “I was both excited and terrified at the same time. Everyone can appreciate that sensation even if they’re a mathematician or an engineer.”
Correction: A previous version of this story had some factual errors that have been corrected or deleted. First, Hopkins met Smalkin in Baltimore, not New York; second, Hopkin said books for children and young adults should include characters of different races, sexual orientations, social classes and abilities — not “mental abilities,” as was reported; third, the books to which Hopkins referred during her speech were “children’s books” or “young adult books,” not “books for teenagers.” Finally, Hopkins did not imply, as the previous story may have been interpreted, that diversity in children’s books was not a problem. The Baltimore Watchdog regrets the errors.