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Many, many wonderful sessions and signings at BEA this past weekend but the diversity sessions are what mattered most to me. The diveristy sessions were not all listed in the official program and all schedule within an extremely tight time frame (some at the exact same time!)  yet the #WeNeedDiversity session managed to fill the room. Other sessions included “Where are All the Kids of Color” and “Multicultural Publishers in Conversation”. My presence was in spirit and via Twitter. I leave it to  Lyn Miller Lachmann who was there to give a recap.

Both panelists reminded the audience that in our quest to get the major publishers to take on more diverse books, we cannot lose sight of the diverse books that are available today. Nearly half of those books, according to John, are published by small presses. And those small presses need our love. If it turns out that the…

Sunday was a glorious spring day and I had a great time hanging out with Jacqueline Woodson (right), Kwame Alexander, and Bryan Collier (center) at the Studio Museum in Harlem book festival (photo by Andre Ware). My presentation wasn’t fantastic, but I’m learning to be more flexible—if you expected to present before a group of kids and instead you have an audience of adults, what do you do? Improvisation isn’t one of my strengths so I need to work on that. I’m heading to California in a few days and will have a chance to speak to a class of 3rd graders while I’m in Berkeley. Last week I presented before two fifth grade classes and they were amazing—lots of energy, lots of questions, and before I even began the principal handed me this letter:

Not every class will have that reaction so I have to learn to feel out…

Skipping Stones is a nonprofit magazine founded in 1988 for youth that encourages communication, cooperation, creativity and celebration of cultural and environmental richness. Published 4 times each year, it provides a playful forum for sharing ideas and experiences among youth from different countries and cultures. Each year,Skipping Stones recognizes outstanding books and teaching resources with the Skipping Stones Honor Awards. The honored books promote an understanding of cultures, cultivate cooperation and encourage a deeper understanding of the world’s diversity. They also encourage ecological richness, respect for multiple viewpoints and closer relationships within human societies.

2014BookAwardsPR.web

Well, I had an opportunity today to test the elementary waters I wrote about yesterday. I went to Bushwick to drop off a book order at a school that I love—I’ve worked with this charter school for years and they always roll out the red carpet for me. Today I wasn’t expecting to stay long but the librarian wanted me to speak with the principal so I took a seat and watched as 25 first grade students buzzed about the room. There were a lot of small fires to put out but the librarian was up to the task. One boy came up to me and asked, “Are you Marshawn’s mom?” I explained that I was a visiting author and then pulled out the new books—within seconds I had a small cluster of kids around me and little hands reaching for the four books. They stroked the covers—“Oooh! They’re so…

I haven’t said much publicly about the #weneeddiversebooks campaign but I took a moment last week to write a piece for The Huffington Post and it just went up this afternoon. Here’s a taste:

The recent #weneeddiversebooks social media campaign has raised awareness of the need for greater diversity in children’s literature, and I am happy to see this important issue garner the attention it deserves. Activism around diversity isn’t new, of course, but repeated calls for change over the past few decades have largely fallen on deaf ears. Those of us who have been advocating for greater diversity and equity in children’s publishing are watching to see what will happen next. Will the overwhelmingly white publishing industry simply add a few more authors of color and call it a day? Will those who are new to the struggle be satisfied with superficial rather than structural change?

Missing from…

#WeNeedDiverseBooks formed in direct response to the all white male panel selected to be the voice of kidlit at BookCon. The movement happened because so many people are so tired of the lack of books that feature characters of diverse ethnicity, sexual preference or religion. This issue is simply the tip of the iceberg and as such, will have no simple solution. What I’m saying is, it ain’t over.

As readers/consumers we have to remain vigilant. Watch the lists and articles to be sure they are truly diverse and if not, call them on it! Request books at your local library and book store by authors of color. There are plenty of suggestions on what we as readers can do but the real work lies with publishers. Not only do books need to be published by authors of color, by Native Americans, authors who are LGBTQ or with different abilities…

title: Silver People

author: Margarita Engle

date: HMH Children’s Books; March 2013

main character: Mateo

“Strange as it seems, the ‘globalization’ of international trade did not begin with the Internet but was launched a century ago when a new waterway suddenly made the world seem small.” This line ends Silver People, the story of the workers who built the Panama Canal in which Margarita Engle combines the voices of workers from Cuba, Panama, Jamaica and the United States to tell the story of the conditions in which the Canal was built. From the very beginning of the story, readers are aware of the differing treatment people received that took into account details such as skin tone, country of origin and gender. Although perpetuated by the Whites in power, this racism is so institutionalized that not even they can alter this system. They’re also aware of the culture…

#WeNeedDiverseBooks because this month, there are FIVE Young Adult books released in the United States Written by authors of color.

 

Truth or Dare (Rumor Central #4) by Reshonda Tate Billingsley; Kensington

Cat Person by Seo Kim; Koyama Press

The Great Greene Heist by Varian Johnson; Arthur A. Levine

A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatrama; Nancy Paulsen Books

This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki; First Second Press

 

Complete list of 2014 releases.

In 2013 there were FIVE

P.S. Be Eleven by Rita Williams Garcia; Amistad, 21 May
How I became a ghostby Tim Tingle; Road Runner Press; 28 May
Get over it by Nikki Carter; Dafina Press; 28 May
The savage blue (The vicious deep ) by Zoraida Córdova; Sourcebooks Fire, May
Death, Dickinson and the Demented life of Frenchie Garcia by Jenny Torres-Sanchez; Running Press Kids; 28 May

In 2012 there were SIX

Title: Words With Wings

Author: Nikki Grimes

Date: Wordsong; 2013

Main Character: Gabriella/Gabby

I am always amazed at how books I read one after the other share similar themes, plots or characters.

On the first leg of my trip to Amarillo, TX last week, I decided it was time to dive into Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard. Bachelard (1884-1962) was a European philosopher whose research was devoted to the domain of intimacy. I’ve only completed the first chapter of the book so far, but in this chapter he describes our relationship to houses both in dreams and daydreams and how the presence of a house in daydreams, literature or poetry through our intimate connection with them, provides a sense of protection. While dreams have been studied, daydreams are more difficult to capture and analyze but Gaston says still of significance.

“Poetry comes naturally from a daydream”.

He describes daydreams…