Being mixed-race and children's books

There's an article in the Guardian by Laura Smith about being mixed-race in Britain that gives some insight and provocative perspectives. She notes the growing number of mixed-race people in the UK:

The last national census counted 680,000 mixed race people, accounting for 1.2% of the overall population and nearly 15% of the ethnic minority population - and that is widely believed to be an underestimate.

And also the lack of representation or understanding in the media and other public discussions:

Despite our growth in numbers and our incredible visibility, we are utterly absent from any public debate on race.

Which made me think about the children's books available. People like Rudine Sims Bishop have written about how important it is for children to see themselves mirrored in the world around them. So how many children's books available today provide that opportunity for children who have parents from different ethnic backgrounds?

I worked on one such book when I was at Children's Book Press. Two Mrs. Gibsons by Toyomi Igus was about a girl's relationship with the her different Mrs. Gibsons: her African American grandmother and her Japanese mother. It was based Toyomi's experiences growing up. When that book came out (1997), we weren't aware of many other books featuring a mixed-race child. And looking at the resource page from Cynthia Leitich Smith - Interracial Family Themes in Picture Books - it looks like most of the books she lists came out around the same time. I still don't know of many novels available.

Interestingly, academic Karen Sands-O'Connor wrote about Two Mrs. Gibsons along with a few other picture books showing mixed-race children, with her concern that focusing on difference in these books in some ways undermines their attempts to show the experience - the article, "Why Are People Different: Multiracial Families in Picture Books and the Dialogue of Difference" is in The Lion & the Unicorn.

I am less aware of what's available in the UK, but would guess there is very little published. Mary Hoffman spoke at the recent Diversity Matters conference about an early book she created featuring a mixed-race family, in which race was not the focus of the book (it was about being a middle child - sorry, I missed the title in my notes from the event). She said that she thinks books today don't reflect the kinds of families most children have. I know that Tony Bradman also created a picture book featuring a mixed race child and parents, and had problems getting a co-edition in the US because there was discomfort about the whole mixed-race thing. Does anyone know of others? And what about novels - are they out there and I just haven't come across them?

If this really is a growing group of people, then isn't it time for public discourse, and the books published, to reflect this reality? I'd be curious to hear other people's thoughts on this, and of titles of books published in the US, the UK, or anywhere else for that matter. Are we moving forward?