The No 1 Best Selling Superhero Book Highlighting The Need For BAME Main Characters

Let us introduce you to the Number 1 best-selling superhero book, The Popcorn House, written by 30 budding young writers from Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic backgrounds during the COVID pandemic.

Figures show that between 2007 and 2017 only 8.6% of children’s book creators were people of colour, but this lockdown Black History Month saw author Winsome Duncan begin to change the narrative within the publishing industry with her own ‘Look Like Me Book Challenge’ campaign.

The hybrid publisher and award-winning entrepreneur from South London gathered the 30 young writers and formed her own alternative education series, guiding young people on reading, drawing and writing skills for the ultimate creation of ‘The Popcorn House’ book.

The London author stresses the underrepresentation of BAME children as the main characters in fairy tales, where their imagination lies. The Reflecting Realities report written by Farrah Serroukh, the Learning Programme Leader at the Centre of Literacy in Primary Education, highlights that 1% of BAME are the main characters in children’s books.

The innovative book follows the adventure of two cousins named Zion and Nevaeh, who mistakenly enter the magical land of Kalaria. Using their superpowers, the dynamic duo conjures an invisibility hoodie and spaceships to help them escape from Panjiro and the K-bots.

Winsome hopes that she can enable more young people affected negatively by lockdown to be proud of their culture with this campaign, and teach them to turn to writing in order to maintain more equal representation across society. Make sure to check out the book and buy your copy here.