Pages of possibility: Cultivating empowered young minds through diverse characters in literature.

Strong claims have been made about the importance of representation in children’s literature, suggesting that seeing characters who share similar cultural, ethnic, or racial backgrounds can enhance children’s self-concept, engagement, and enjoyment of reading. However, much of the existing evidence is anecdotal, with limited empirical studies directly examining the effects of diverse storybooks on children’s attitudes toward reading and the development of their self-concept. This study aimed to explore the impact of culturally relevant storybooks featuring Black main characters on children’s self-concept and reading enjoyment. A total of 105 children from Black ethnic backgrounds, aged 6–7 years, were randomly assigned to either an experimental group (n = 51), reading books with Black main characters, or a control group (n = 54), reading books with White main characters. Results indicated that children in the experimental group showed significant increases in reading enjoyment compared with those in the control group, suggesting that exposure to culturally relevant characters can positively influence children’s engagement with reading. However, no significant changes were observed in self-concept scores or deeper levels of narrative transportation. These findings not only contribute to a growing body of literature emphasizing the potential benefits of diverse representation in children’s books but also highlight the need for further research to explore the long-term effects and underlying mechanisms of these interventions. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved)