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In a groundbreaking announcement, First Book, a non-profit social enterprise launched the Stories for All Project. The project’s aim is to introduce a significant number of multicultural books into the hands of low-income children. LEE & LOW was chosen as one of two publishers to be a part of this endeavor and receive a $500,000 award.

For us the presence of this project further addresses the fact that diverse books are a necessity. Making multicultural books available to low-income families is a step toward addressing the chasm between people who believe these books are important to actually making the books available to the children who need them.

For years I have been involved in conversations with librarians and educators on the subject of how we need more diverse books. However, there is this strange disconnect where people continue to point out the lack of diverse books without doing the most obvious thing, which is supporting the companies that publish these books in the first place. The support is simple. It involves buying the books. It also involves telling people about the books and recommending them to buy the books. The more this happens the more books we can publish.

Under the Mesquite author Guadalupe Garcia McCall thanks the William C. Morris and Pura Belpre award committees that honored her book, along with readers:

Here’s one of my very favorite parts of Guadalupe’s Morris Ceremony speech at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference:

lotsa bling

I realized that I had to write not to be published, but to be read. I wanted young people to connect with my book, to have it make an impact on them. I wanted my book to help them.

You see, I have taught many Lupitas in my 23 years in the classroom. I’ve listened to them talk, to me and to each other, but I’ve also read their innermost thoughts, their dreams, their fears, their triumphs, their losses.  Sometimes, their stories spill out of them, sometimes they keep their pain tucked away, where no one can see it.

I wrote this story for those young people who can’t talk about it, for those who are struggling alone in the dark. I wanted to show them that they have great strength within them, that the human spirit is resilient, that the loss of a loved one does not mean the end of love, that we carry that love inside, that we can take it with us; it is ours forever.

The full text of Guadalupe’s speech will be posted on the YALSA web site soon, and I’ll link to that as soon as it is. Meanwhile, if you can’t get enough of Under the Mesquite, you can listen to podcasts of Guadalupe reading four poems from the book here.

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We’ve got some exciting news to share: LEE & LOW BOOKS has acquired multicultural children’s book publisher Children’s Book Press.

From the press release: January 26, 2012—Continuing to expand despite a difficult economy, LEE & LOW BOOKS, an independent publisher of high quality books for children that focuses on diversity, announced today that it has acquired the assets of Children’s Book Press. Founded in 1975, Children’s Book Press, based in San Francisco, was the first specialty publisher of multicultural children’s books in the United States. With this addition LEE & LOW BOOKS becomes one of the largest independent multicultural children’s publishers in the country with over 650-titles in print. “This is a tremendous honor for us to keep the prestigious collection of Children’s Book Press alive, and have the opportunity to build on its 36-year history,” said Jason Low, Publisher of LEE & LOW BOOKS.

Children’s Book Press and LEE & LOW BOOKS share similar missions of promoting diversity through the publication of books for young readers. In 2010, LEE & LOW BOOKS, founded in 1991 with a focus on illustrated books for the K-6 market, expanded its range to the young adult market through the launch of Tu Books, an imprint for science fiction, fantasy, and mystery novels. Children’s Book Press will maintain its own identity as a separate imprint of LEE & LOW BOOKS, joining Tu Books and its firmly established educational arm, Bebop Books.

“Creating continuity for the mission of Children’s Book Press is important to us, since its commitment to diversity was so groundbreaking,” notes Jason Low. “Children’s Book Press started the trend of featuring people of color in the pages of books—before this, the reading experience was exclusively white.”

So, there you have it, folks. We’re excited to keep growing, and thankful for you, our readers, who have allowed us to do so.

5 Comments on BIG news: We’ve acquired Children’s Book Press, last added: 1/28/2012

Winning a major book award is surprising every time it happens. Like all publishers, we pretend not to pay attention to the mock award committee announcements that multiply in our inboxes each December and early January. Of course, we do not deny ourselves a little excitement when we spot one of our titles on someone’s favorites list, but we try to keep our expectations realistic. The chances of winning one of the “big” awards are like the chances of winning the Lotto, and it is a good idea to protect ourselves by not letting our hopes get too high.

¡Olé!

This season, however, we did win some big awards, and it felt great to have our books recognized and included in the good company of books from other houses that we know and respect. Also worth mentioning is the fact that we received as many awards as quite a few larger houses, which is an accomplishment for independent publishing.

An award designation means a book will be read by a wider audience. As our books are included in library collections across the country, those collections become more diverse by the sheer presence of our books. Awards give validation not only to the quality of the books we publish, but to the very core of our mission to promote cultural diversity, take risks on stories that need to be told, and nurture new talent.

January was a fantastic month for LEE & LOW, and our hopes that 2011 will turn into a year to remember would not be possible without readers like you who have supported us year in and year out. We are grateful to everyone out there who has read and enjoyed our books and has helped spread the word about books that are “about everyone” and “for everyone.” We could not do what we do without you. Thank you all.

We took a short break from blogging in the wake of last week’s big event in the children’s book world: the American Library Association’s annual announcement of their Youth Media Awards—or, as some like to call it, “The Oscars of Children’s Literature.” No outlandish outfits at these Oscars, but a few of our books do now have nice, shiny accessories on their covers:

Yummy: The Last Days of a Southside Shorty, winner of the Coretta Scott King Author Award Honor and an ALA Notable Children’s Book

Seeds of Change: Planting a Path to Peace, winner of the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent in Illustration

¡Olé! Flamenco, winner of the Pura Belpré Author Award Honor and an ALA Notable Children’s Book

And a bit more good news we received:

Yummy is on YALSA’s Top Ten Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers and the Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens lists for 2011!

Seeds of Change is on the Amelia Bloomer Project 2011 List from the American Library Association’s Feminist Task Force

and Sharing Our Homeland is a Sydney Taylor Notable Book from the Association of Jewish Libraries

We are THRILLED THRILLED THRILLED to have so many of our books honored this year! It’s really something for a small indie publisher like us to be able to make a showing in the big leagues like this.

On that note, Kyra over at Black Threads in Kid’s Lit has a fascinating breakdown of Coretta Scott King Award statistics, including some interesting numbers on winners broken down b

It’s official! Our new Tu Books imprint has acquired its first two books, which will be published in Fall 2011. Here’s the formal announcement:

Stacy Whitman at Lee & Low Books has acquired the first novels for the Tu Books imprint, which launches in fall 2011. The imprint will focus on multicultural MG/YA science fiction and fantasy. For the launch list, Whitman has acquired World rights to a YA paranormal thriller tentatively titled Wolf Mark by Joseph Bruchac, author of Codetalker and Skeleton Man. When Lucas King’s black-ops father is kidnapped and his best friend, Meena, put in danger, Lucas’s only chance to save them is hidden away in an abandoned, monster-guarded mansion. The deal was done by Barbara Kouts of the Barbara S. Kouts Agency.

Whitman has also bought world rights to Galaxy Games by Greg Fishbone, a MG science fiction trilogy about an incoming asteroid that turns out to be an alien spaceship, visiting Earth to recruit a team of kid athletes to compete in the upcoming Galaxy Games Tournament. The first book, tentatively titled Preliminaries, will be published as part of the Tu Books launch list in fall 2011. The three-book deal was completed by Garrett Hicks of Will Entertainment.

We hope you’re as excited as we are! They’re great books, and we’re looking forward to introducing them to you, our readers.

Well, this is exciting! Oprah’s Book Club just released its 2010 Kids’ Reading List, full of books recommended by the American Library Association—and our very own Tofu Quilt makes an appearance!

It’s one of seven books recommended for kids ages 10 to 12, and it’s in really great company. Tofu Quilt isn’t the only book featuring people of color, either; Where the Mountain Meets the Moon by Grace Lin (who also illustrated our Where on Earth is My Bagel) is based on Chinese folklore, and One Crazy Summer by Rita Williams-Garcia is about three African American sisters in 1968 Black Panther San Francisco.

Thanks, Oprah and ALA!

We have some very exciting news to share: we have acquired Tu Publishing, an independent press focusing on diverse fantasy and science fiction for children and young adults! Founded by Stacy Whitman last fall to address the need for more books featuring diverse characters and inspired by non-Western cultures, Tu is becoming Tu Books, an imprint of LEE & LOW. Several manuscripts are already in the works, with hopes of releasing the first books under the new imprint next year.

From the official announcement:

“This is a natural fit for us,” says LEE & LOW publisher Jason Low. “Our customers have been asking us for years to publish stories for older readers. Tu represents an excellent way for us to bring diversity to a whole new audience.”

Read the full announcement.

Learn more about Tu Books at leeandlow.com, and about Editorial Director Stacy Whitman at her blog.