Yalla, Habibi: Where are the Arab American Voices in Children's Literature?

Every April, during Arab American heritage month, librarians and teachers put together displays and curate collections which feature authors who are not Arab American. The Arab world is often conflated with the Muslim world, and Arab Americans are often confused with South Asians. However, Arabs come from twenty-two countries that span Western Asia and North Africa and may identify as Christian, Muslim (Sunni, Shi’a, among other sects), Druze, Jews, Yazidis, Zoroastrian, Baha’i, Alawites, among others.

In 2020, the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, for the first year ever, tracked “Arab” as a category. There were a total of 17 books in 2020 with an author who identified as Arab or of Arab heritage. Of the 17 books, only eight had an Arab as the main character. That year, they found that Arab authors made up 0.54% of the books published. In 2022, they found these numbers had not significantly changed, as Arab authors made up 0.9% of all books published.

In spite of the Arab world's rich literary history, Arab children in the United States rarely see themselves portrayed positively in children’s literature – or at all. In this panel, Arab American authors from various countries will explore the importance of authentic Arab representation in kidlit, guide educators to identify harmful tropes and negative stereotypes, and provide examples of positive representation that empower Arab and non-Arab children in the classroom.