Before I get into my blog post, of course I need to jump and shout for the books that took home medals and honors at the ALA Youth Media Awards yesterday! Congratulations, all of you wonderful, talented writers and artists!! I was in the audience for the awards announcements in Chicago and was overjoyed to see many of my own personal favorites celebrated. Since everyone in the children’s literature blogoverse is likely to be writing about the awards, I will not, except to say that I was gratified to see a more diverse list of winners across the award spectrum than we have perhaps ever seen before. Thank you, dedicated ALA committees!
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I was fortunate enough to attend the Day of Diversity sponsored collaboratively by ALSC (the Association for Library Service to Children) and the CBC (Children’s Book Council). I can only imagine the amount of time and effort that went into planning this event! Thank you, ALSC and CBC, for taking this important step toward action for children and children’s books. The event was the first of its kind for these organizations, and as such there was a limited number of attendees. It felt like a kickoff to what I hope can turn into a two- or three-day conference for hundreds of participants.
(Note: I will recap the presentations in a future post. For those who would like to read up on the day sooner, Debbie Reese did a nice job of presenting the day and her own perspective here, Zetta Elliott posted some of her thoughts here, Edi Campbell posted here, and Sarah Park Dahlen has posted here. Now that everyone is returning from ALA, you can also use a search engine and type in ALA, CBC, and “Day of Diversity” — several blog posts should crop up this week.) If you’re impatient to get to the “what one thing can I do now?” part of this post, it’s at the end.
Every attendee brought a different perspective and range of experiences to this conference. The speakers were eloquent and moving, and the moderators were fabulous. There were some deeply personal stories told and some grim statistics and urgent pleas shared that I will carry with me always.
What I appreciated most was the focus on action, not just talk. This conversation—about the appalling lack of diversity in children’s books and its severe life- and culture-altering consequences—has been going on for decades, and yet little has changed even as the urgency has grown. In fact, some numbers (for both literacy achievement and for diverse representation of ALL of our nation’s people in children’s books) have gotten *worse* over the past several years. With so much conversation happening in the mainstream, especially over the past couple of years, especially with the advent of movements like #WeNeedDiverseBooks and other social media efforts, how can that be?
It can be because the power structure itself, the race and class make-up of the decision makers and gatekeepers, hasn’t changed much at all. It is not inclusive, not by a long shot, not yet. There are hard conversations to be had and radical shifts to be made.
We all know by experience that large-scale social change can grind all too slowly. So what can we do now, each one of us, right now, to create change in our own communities and spheres of influence? “Moving Into Action” panel moderator Satia Orange challenged us at the end of the day: What will you personally do to create change? What will you do by the end of this week? by February 28? and by the end of August 2015? “Do something dramatic!” she said. People were invited to come to the guest microphone and share something specific that they will do to make change happen.
This challenge is such a good one! Specific, concrete steps are the ones that stick and end up leading to long-term, big-picture goals.
So, what can one person do?
Here are a few possibilities, ideas that came out of discussions during the day. I invite you to choose one, just one, to do this week. And one (maybe the same one, expanded, or a different one) to do in February. And then inspire yourself to plan a little bigger to begin by August.
The ideas below are all things one person can do. Really.
1) Adopt a classroom and send the children a book (or books, if you can afford it) every month to enrich and diversify their collection. For ideas on titles, check out The Brown Bookshelf, the CBC Resource Page of book lists, the book lists created for Pat Mora’s Día de los Niños programs, my own World Full of Color diversity database, SLJ’s list of culturally diverse books, Debbie Reese’s recommended lists (one of which is here) and any number of great lists that can be found online. This idea was shared by Crazy QuiltEdi blogger Edi Campbell. It’s so simple and so helpful an idea that it knocked my socks off. Just about anyone reading this post can do this, and spread the word. Gather friends together to sponsor an underserved school! Each friend adopts one classroom and donates a book a month.
2) Buy a book by an author of color featuring a main protagonist of color. This is pretty simple, folks. And I would add that if you do that at your local bookstore, they will be more likely to continue to stock their shelves with diverse books.
3) Go further and shift your reading habits. Early in the year, I had thought it would be interesting to try reversing the dismal national publishing statistics; that is, I would read 90% books featuring main characters of color and only 10% featuring white people. Unfortunately, that’s unrealistic for several reasons including the lack of books to fill that 90%, as well as my bookseller’s need to read to read a lot of what’s on publishers’ lists to make buying decisions. So what I came up with, what my experiment will be for 2015, is to Read 50/50. I think it’s very possible to alternate in this way, and I invite anyone interested to join me. Thanks to Zetta Elliott, I also just read Ebony Elizabeth Thomas’s Dark Fantastic blog post and learned about NCTE’s 2015 National African American Read In, a month-long reading invitational. Share your reading plan with friends. Share your passion!
4) Help a teacher by alerting her or him to Perspectives for a Diverse America‘s K-12 Literacy-Based Anti-Bias Curriculum. Common Core teaching plans often limit themselves to Appendix B titles, but don’t need to. Link them to Appendix D, a resource for diverse titles and Common Core applications.
5) Partner up. Ask your local hospital to consider including library card applications in the take-home bags at hospitals. If the hospital doesn’t already work with Reach Out and Read, a program that helps distribute free books to families, tell them about it. Same with any pediatricians you know.
6) Chat with a librarian. One librarian at the Day of Diversity mentioned that their system gives kids a “side card” that allows them to check out paperback books even when they have overdue books and can’t use their regular cards. That way, children aren’t ever punished by withholding reading. Talk with your local librarian and invite her or him to consider such a program.
7) Make books your birthday gifts. For adults as well as children, give people the pleasure of a book that you love, and branch out with the choices. Find beautiful books written by authors of color, books that offer mirrors or windows into the lives of main characters of color. Surprise someone with a glorious book!
I’ve got plans for the bookstore, as well, and will continue to blog about our efforts and diversity in publishing and children’s books here at ShelfTalker.
What are your ideas for grassroots diversifying?
Great post, Elizabeth. Thanks for focusing on the specific actions everyone can take to advance this very necessary transformation. Anyone looking for birthday books can check out our site, Birthday Party Pledge–we have diverse books in almost every genre and an actual pledge to help people commit to giving diverse books only as gifts for one year. http://birthdaypartypledge.com/
We’ll have to update our lists to include yesterday’s award winners!
Hey Elizabeth and everyone else who contributed ideas! This is so great. I’m thrilled to have this resource and to bookmark it, along with the post-Diversity Day evaluations by everyone else.
I wanted to add one idea, which is something I try to do a couple of times a month – snag a book that would qualify as “diverse” (by and featuring a person of color and/or a First Nations person and/ or a person who identifies as LGBTQA) and then put it in my nearest Little Free Library. I tend to do it for adult books as well as kids’ books, but I might focus more on children’s and YA lit for a few months after all of these blog posts. It’s fun to see them disappear into the neighborhood!
Hi Suzi,
Thanks! Good idea.
I do the same thing also with children’s and YA, especially. Keep spreading
the message.
For item 2, please consider books by American Indian authors. My Best Books page has links to books I compiled for the SLJ columns I did, and links to the books selected by the American Indian Library Association.
Best Books lists at American Indians in Children’s Literature:
http://americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com/p/best-books.html
Yes, the big takeaway from the day was “What will you do tomorrow?” Satia Orange challenged us, didn’t she? So glad you shared these!
My idea for grassroots diversifying is one that could be easily repeated in any community with an indie bookstore for kids: Modern First Library, which Austin, TX, retailer BookPeople and I got off the ground last summer.
http://www.bookpeople.com/bookpeople-modern-first-library
I visited the store over the weekend and was thrilled to see that the prominent Modern First Library display has grown and appears to be thriving.
Here’s some background on how Modern First Library got started:
https://bookpeopleblog.wordpress.com/2014/07/01/introducing-bookpeoples-modern-first-library/
http://cynthialeitichsmith.blogspot.com/2014/09/guest-post-chris-barton-on-diversity.html
A wonderful article full of really good ideas. I wondered if you would also consider books originating outside of the United Sates, but which deal with the American experience for the migrant child. Yes, of course, I have one. However I will not give its title here because this is not about promoting my book. It is, however, about promoting the idea. Many of our children from the Caribbean, and I suspect Latin America also, are left with grandparents while their parents, (often mothers), go to the USA to work. These children are called barrel children in Jamaica, because parents regularly send them barrels of food, clothes, toys etc., none of which really make up for the parents’ absence. When the children eventually join their parents it is not always the joyful reunion for which they have been hoping. There are often challenges, including coming to terms with a mother whom the child may no longer know very well. It is this overcoming, while finding oneself as an adolescent, that makes for a story with universal appeal. Diane Browne
Love the ACTION items -here are three more, and resources to consult as you work on the “adopt a classroom” approach:
1) Do NOT believe the lie you’ve been fed that there are not “enough” books published by diverse authors to feed your 90 percent shift idea listed above. It’s not true and it’s perpetuated by the big publishers and their friends at the New York Times.
2) Buy DIRECTLY from award-winning, minority-OWNED publishing firms created by entrepreneurs like me who are not going to stand by until “traditional” (a.k.a. white male – owned and operated) publishers decide to value our literature. Why? Then, they keep 90%+ of every sale. No thanks. Minority-owned, in my case Latina-military-veteran-owned firms are INNOVATING with children’s literature and young adult literature, in book and eBook formats daily, We’re winning awards in international competitions. Here’s just one example. http://www.CaptainMama.com. This is the FIRST bilingual (English/Spanish) children’s picture book series about women in the military. Main character is a young Latino boy whose mother flies military airplanes. How’s THAT for breaking gender and ethnic stereotypes while inspiring children of color to dream way beyond their current circumstances? 🙂
3) Get to know Latinas4LatinoLit.org. The 2013 NYT end-of-year children’s literature round-up, again, COMPLETELY ignored books authored by Latinos or with Latino characters; #L4LL (as they’re known in all social media places) responded with their own “Remarkable Latino Children’s Literature” lists that have been widely shared globally. NPR then interviewed the #L4LL founders and several authors. Here’s that link.
http://latinas4latinolit.org/2013/12/on-npr-latino-childrens-lit-to-top-lists/
There’s truly so much to do to stop the monopolistic practices in place in school districts who are chained to the big publishers for their curriculum materials and supplemental reading materials. #WeNeedDiverseBooks activists have to create and enter through the classroom back door, side window and air ducts to make the voices of “minority” (a word that is NO LONGER accurate for describing my state’s K-12 population) authors heard!
Graciela Tiscareño-Sato
CEO, Publisher, Speaker & Bilingual STEM Consultant
Gracefully Global Group LLC
Online Store for Books/DVDs: http://www.GracefullyGlobal.com/commerce
Tel: (510) 542-9449
Gracefully Global Group LLC is a Woman, Hispanic and Veteran-Owned Business, certified by the Small Business Administration as a Woman-Owned Small Business and as MWBE by the Supplier Clearinghouse with VON #13090120.
2014 White House Champion of Change, Women Veteran Leaders
Consider buying, reading and promoting books written by authors with disabilities as well as books with MAIN CHARACTERS (not just sidekicks) who have disabilities.
Start here…
http://www.ala.org/awardsgrants/schneider-family-book-award
also this blog here…
https://disabilityinkidlit.wordpress.com/
There is plenty more that needs to be done to build an more inclusive world. Why not start with a book?
Perhaps I am naive and out of touch. I am, after all, a white author (with some Native American roots), but in my stories I have tried to make my characters diverse because I think kids should see themselves in stories. My themes have centered on friends working together to solve a problem. I have always thought that if we could work together as one and see ourselves as friends, not people of different colors, that many of our world’s problems would be solved.