Elementary classroom libraries : the importance of multicultural children's literature

Quality children's literature is an imperative component of elementary literacy instruction. Students read and interact with numerous texts over their elementary career, and one of the most utilized book collections is the classroom library. Multicultural children's literature is a branch of literature that explores diverse experiences in which students of different cultures can see themselves, or books in which students are able to develop a respect and understanding of different cultures and worldviews. The dynamic connection of multicultural children's literature and the classroom library is introduced and explored in this paper. Through survey data, I analyze the perceptions of multicultural children's literature that current Indiana K-6 elementary educators hold and to what extent they include multicultural children's literature in their classroom libraries. A survey was conducted and analyzed to determine the average size of an elementary classroom library, the percentage of multicultural children's books in classroom libraries and the opinion of multicultural children's literature held by elementary teachers.