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Aimée Felone and David Stevens outside the #ReadtheOnePercent bookshop in Brixton.
Aimée Felone and David Stevens outside the #ReadtheOnePercent bookshop in Brixton. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian
Aimée Felone and David Stevens outside the #ReadtheOnePercent bookshop in Brixton. Photograph: Sarah Lee/The Guardian

Penguin Random House pledges £15,000 to diverse children's bookshop

This article is more than 5 years old

Publisher says it hopes to help the #ReadtheOnePercent pop-up store in south London ‘smash its target’ of £30,000, which it is crowdfunding in order to become permanent

Penguin Random House has pledged £15,000 to south London’s #ReadtheOnePercent bookshop, which only stocks children’s books with characters from diverse backgrounds, praising it for playing “a critical role” in highlighting books that better reflect society.

The pop-up in Brixton was launched by independent publisher Knights Of in October 2018, prompted by a report by the Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) that found that only 1% of children’s books published in 2017 had a black, Asian or minority ethnic (BAME) main character. Offering its customers children’s books that contain BAME or disabled characters or titles that explore gender and class, its founders Aimée Felone and David Stevens launched a crowdfunding campaign to raise £30,000 in order to make the Brixton branch permanent, hire a specialist children’s bookseller, and open more pop-up shops around the UK and Ireland in conjunction with local booksellers.

With Felone and Stevens having already raised £17,000 in donations from more than 300 members of the public, Penguin Random House, the UK’s largest publisher, announced on Wednesday morning that it would match up to £15,000 of public donations made from that day on, in the hope it would encourage more donations to the campaign.

The shop still needs to reach its £30,000 crowdfunding goal independently of Penguin Random House’s pledge by 15 January 2019, in order to receive the donations.

“It’s widely acknowledged that the publishing industry has work to do to ensure books better reflect our society. While many publishers are now working hard to do this, the #ReadtheOnePercent bookshop is playing a critical role in highlighting this urgent need and celebrating books which are truly representative,” said Rebecca Sinclair, brand and communications director at Penguin Random House, which runs the Write Now scheme to mentor writers from underrepresented communities. “It’s a brilliant initiative that captured the attention of many of us at Penguin Random House so we are thrilled to make this donation which we hope will help the bookshop smash its target and achieve its ambitions.”

Felone said that she and Stevens were “delighted” to have Penguin Random House matching donations. “The #ReadtheOnePercent campaign has far surpassed our expectations and has highlighted demand for a permanent kids’ bookshop,” she said. “Having this support means we’re not only extending our reach towards a community that has expressed a desire for inclusive books but ensures inclusive representation in books reaching across the UK and Ireland.”

The current version of the #ReadtheOnePercent pop-up in Brixton is set to close on 23 December.

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