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By: Contributing Bloguistas:,
on 7/25/2014
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U.S. readers definitely need more and more diverse books. Especially for children, both Anglo and the marginalized children of color. A bilingual book by Kat Aragon, published last month, relates to that need, as well as to the U.S. sickness of bullying. Below is the publisher's description of Boy Zorro and the Bully (El Niño Zorro y el Peleón).
• ISBN: 978-1-60448-027-6 • Paperback • $8.95
• Ages 4 to 8 • 24 pages
• Bilingual English/Spanish edition
• Published: July, 2014http://www.lecturabooks.com/
"Every day Benny Lopez woke up looking for a way to help people. One day he finds a mask and wears it while helping an elderly lady cross a busy street. With that act of grace, he becomes Boy Zorro—defender of good. Then, one morning at school, he helps stop a bully from intimidating another student. The bully is punished and sees the error of his ways. Boy Zorro made a difference. This book helps children understand that bullying is hurtful and wrong but when everyone does their part, it can be stopped."
The motto of Zorro's publisher, Lectura Books, is: "for English learners and parent involvement." Below are my thoughts as a former teacher of latino first-graders, and father of a boy and a girl.
Zorrito, I'll call him, uses his outfit to empower himself and begin acting like a "hero" of good deeds. He's a great role model taking pride in his kind acts. It's great that the principal, Ramos, is a latino.
When he has a school encounter with a bigger kid who's bullying another kid, the action gets going. Zorrito "makes a difference" by running to the principal when the bully threatens him. He snitches, is what kids would call it.
Telling an adult is one correct thing to do. One, but not the only thing. This book would be a good start for kids to discuss how to deal with bullying, as long as the discussion is extended to other methods and questions.
Like, what if there's no adult around? What if the bully doesn't let you go to tell an adult? After you tell, how will you deal with the accusation that you're a snitch?
One book can't cover all of life's possibilities. As I said, Zorro is a good start.
Recent studies and reports on school bullying have shifted away from just telling an adult. As a parent, I know kids need to learn many other things. When to run away. How not to get backed into a corner. How to try to get other kid-bystanders involved. As a parent, I told my kid it was okay if he was sent to the principal's office because he was defending himself. (I can hear you teachers cringing out there.)
In Zorro, the latino principal holds an assembly, tells the bully to apologize and admit his mistakes. He gets a week suspended from school and detention for a month after that. Pure punishment.
Bullies are a U.S. epidemic. Newer studies and reports, again, advocate treating that sickness. A bully at home for a week will not necessarily cure himself. Detention is a junior form of prison solitary. I know principals who prefer to keep bullies in the school, give or get them counseling and teach them why their bullying needs to be corrected. It's no simple task.
In Zorro, the bully problem has a positive outcome. For that reason it can help parents and kids see that they don't need to tolerate bullying.
To encourage more books from this author and other latinos' books aimed at latino kids, I also looked at the illustrations. What struck me was the skin color of the characters. One black boy is the only one with dark skin. I saw no real color distinction between latino kids and ones who are assumedly Anglo. I wasn't sure why complexions were done this way.
Unless something was intended that I haven't thought of, I'd suggest to the illustrator, Noel Ill, that the skin tones of his afroamericano character would work for some latinos.
Teachers of latinoamericano kids deal with the color line every day. Darker kids can get shunned by lighter-skinned latino kids. Many kids call their color "blanco," to not be identified with what class society considers an "inferior" color or "inferior" race, like indios. It's not the kids' fault, it's a prejudice from the country they were raised in. Books aimed at them need to acknowledge that some do have darker skin. Otherwise one of our major, latino characteristics would get whitewashed. I'm not sure if anything good is served by that.
Females in the book: girls in the background who don't speak or play any role in the story. From experience, I believe--and have read--that boys will like books that include girls, so long as they're engaging books. I'm uncertain there's value in leaving girls totally out of any book. (The only other female is the elderly woman--maybe Anglo--who Zorrito helps to cross a street.)
Latino boys do need more books like Zorro, as well as "boy books" with girls, especially, playing greater roles as they do in real life.
To help publicize Zorro, I'll give the author, publisher, and illustrator, for that matter, space here if they would like to explain more about the book. Yes, I've examined a lot about it; such books are important, especially given that few are published each year. Because I'm Chicano, have taught bilingual latino kids, and hope to publish books aimed at them, I have a great interest in examining the work of other latinos.
Our First Voice books should aspire to be superior to others being written. If expecting books to meet such a standard offends someone, I prefer that to my saying nothing about our literature needing improvement. And when mine are published, I'll ask help holding them to similar standards.
Es todo, hoy,
RudyG, a.k.a. a former bilingual teacher and still a father
By: Contributing Bloguistas:,
on 7/4/2014
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Lots of opportunities, to hear what People of Color are saying about the need for diversity in speculative lit, and place to submit your spec stories. From editors looking for diversity in different forms. Gente, read on.
Alternate Visions: Musings on Diversity in SF
 |
| Vandana Singh |
Vandana Singh, born in New Delhi, India (now living near Boston), writes:
"The best speculative fiction, like travel, does that to you – it takes you to strange places, from which vantage point you can no longer take your home for granted. It renders the familiar strange, and the strange becomes, for the duration of the story, the norm. The reversal of the gaze, the journey in the shoes of the Other, is one of the great promises of speculative fiction.
"This is only one reason why we need diversity in speculative fiction. And by diversity I don’t just mean white writers including other places and races in their fiction – that has its importance, but I don’t consider it here. What I am really interested in is the fiction of authorsfrom different countries, cultures, races, genders, sexual orientations, physical abilities and experiences. The former is – emphatically — not a substitute for the latter.
"
Thoughts as to why some of us might write SF, and why diversity in SF is absolutely necessary: such as for writers from post-colonial nations to imagine their own futures, their own alternatives, is a deeply revolutionary, freeing act. We need new paradigms, new ways of relating to the non-human universe, if we are to survive the climate crisis. The postcolonial, so called ‘third world’ nations, and indigenous communities within the ‘first world’ are being/will be most deeply affected by climate change, despite having done the least to cause the problem.
"Let’s keep calling out instances of narrow bigotry, of suppression of marginalized voices. Let’s keep talking, being honest, owning what we write, owning up when we mess up. Let’s keep using words from our mother tongues, our other tongues, so that those unused to it can get at least a glimpse of the world from our various perspectives."
Diverse writers on reviewing the Other
Another worthwhile read is Inclusive Reviewing: A Discussion by Samuel R. Delany, et al. Strange Horizons, a magazine of and about speculative fiction and related nonfiction, published the transcript of a round-table discussion of issues raised by Nisi Shawl in her essay, Reviewing the Other.
Excerpt: "Speaking as the Other myself, I marvel at the possibilities created by the linguistic gap. Say you are a Mexican, a Venezuelan, or a Brazilian; which reviewer, trying to write in English, will write the truest, honest-to-God English text? There is no right, accurate answer to this (it would be an unspoken expectation), but maybe the Mexican would have more knowledge of English due to geographical proximity to the US, while the Venezuelan and the Brazilian wouldn't have this advantage. But the Mexican and Venezuelan are Spanish speakers, while the Brazilian is a member of the only people in Latin America who doesn't speak Spanish, only Portuguese. For all three of them the conundrum is the same: every time they start writing in English, they will almost necessarily—at least in the first draft—add totally different cultural baggage. This might seem obvious but nobody seems to think that might generate an entirely different review and that's where the Other really enters the stage."
Junot Díaz in L.A.
"Junot Díaz reads from This Is How You Lose Her. Finally, a Los Angeles appearance! I'll be doing an event Friday, Sept. 19 - Skylight Books @ 7:30pm, 1818 North Vermont Ave., L.A. Voy a Los Angeles el 19 de Septiembre! Libreria Skylight. Nos vemos ahí, sí?"
My advice is that you go hear and talk with Junot--he's an experience. Erudite, smooth, some say cute. And gente may think he thinks much of himself, but then, there is much to his work and his dynamic presentations. Muy recomendado.
Jim C. Hines edits E-book on sci-fi diversity
"13 essays on the importance of representation in science fiction and fantasy, with an introduction by author Alex Dally MacFarlane. Proceeds from the sale of this collection go to the Carl Brandon Society to support Con or Bust.
Description from Hines: These essays do a marvelous job of answering the question, Why does representation [diversity] matter? and of looking at different types of representation in spec genres. I’m a big believer in the importance and power of story. The contributors to Invisible showed me new aspects of that power, things I hadn’t necessarily considered before. [Includes bonus material from Gabriel Cuellar and Ithiliana.' On sale for $2.99.
Learning to write about "us," the Other
Last week, K. T. Bradford posted: "I had the honor to teach at a week-long Writing the Other workshop and retreat. Writing about people and places outside of the cultural 'norm' or one's direct understanding is hard to do. It's called Writing the Other, and it's a skill that must be learned and often worked at diligently by people who want to be great writers." The workshop and writing retreat was held in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and included authors Mary Robinette Kowal, Nisi Shawl, Cynthia Ward and David Anthony Durham.
"They challenged 26 students to dive into dialect and dialogue, gender and sexuality, disability, writing the Other in history, and world-building. The workshop/retreat was an opportunity to hang out with the teachers, opportunities for one-on-one critiques -- plus the freedom and safety to ask questions and make mistakes. The leading question was: Why not just avoid writing characters who are a different race or gender or class or religion from you?"
Even famous Anglo authors' works get whitewashed
 |
| white guy from the film |
Ursula K. Le Guin, Americanauthor of novels, children's books, and short stories, mainly in the genres of fantasyand science fiction, wrote about her Earthsea series in her article, How the Sci Fi Channel wrecked my books. Here's some excerpts:
"The Sci Fi Channel aired its final installment of Legend of Earthsea, the miniseries based—loosely, as it turns out—on my Earthsea books. The books, A Wizard of Earthsea and The Tombs of Atuan, which were published more than 30 years ago, are about two young people finding out what their power, their freedom, and their responsibilities are. I don't know what the film is about. It's full of scenes from the story, arranged differently, in an entirely different plot, so that they make no sense. My protagonist is Ged, a boy with red-brown skin. In the film, he's a petulant white kid.Readers wondering why I 'let them change the story' may find some answers here.
"Most of the characters in my fantasy and far-future science fiction books are not white. They're mixed; they're rainbow. In my first big science fiction novel, The Left Hand of Darkness, the only person from Earth is a black man, and everybody else in the book is Inuit (or Tibetan) brown. In the two fantasy novels the miniseries is 'based on,' everybody is brown or copper-red or black, except the Kargish people in the East and their descendants in the Archipelago, who are white, with fair or dark hair. The central character Tenar, a Karg, is a white brunette. Ged, an Archipelagan, is red-brown. His friend, Vetch, is black. In the miniseries, Tenar is played by Smallville's Kristin Kreuk, the only person in the miniseries who looks at all Asian. Ged and Vetch are white."
Le Guin is an Americanauthor of novels, children's books, and short stories, mainly in the genres of fantasyand science fiction.
Bryan Thomas Schmidt anthology of "non-Western writers"
 |
| Bryan Thomas Schmidt |
Can People of Color who live in the U.S. be considered "non-Western?" Editor Schmidt will be dealing with that problem in his next anthology:
"People who are living or have lived in non-Western cultures, especially the ones they write about, will absolutely have a leg up, as authenticity is really important to me. I hope to publish more stories by non-Western writers than Western."
DESCRIPTION: "An anthology of the culture clash between aliens and people of Earth’s various cultures as they encounter each other on Earth or in the universe. Stories should not all be Western earthlings. I’d love to have as many stories, authors and cultures represented as possible. Of course I will take the best stories. People need to learn about cultures and perspectives and that has educational value. I want them to see the nuances and differences of peoples, worldviews and cultures but not necessarily in a threatening or overly controversial way.
"Seeking authenticity, I want a good balance in the cultures, stories, and locations recommended. Research any culture you choose. Do not write what you think they are. Do not write stereotypes. I am inviting a few Western writers whom I know have traveled and have strong cultural knowledge, sensitivity and passion for places they visited. I really do want something authentic. Not every Mexican is the same, for example, but please have it so your Mexicans are real enough my actual Mexican friends would tell me you got it right. (I do have friends around the world who will read for cultural authenticity before I make final selections, so I want authentic.) What are the odd little cultural quirks people exhibit which would strike outsiders as odd but insiders, as perfectly normal?"
Submissions Open: July 1, 2014 through September 15, 2014
Word Counts: 3000-7000 words; pay rate: $.06/word ("I would accept a really good story longer than 7k, but contact me, and it will be under much more scrutiny. 3-5k is my sweet spot, honestly. 5-7 is okay.")
Publication, Late Summer/Fall of 2015 (TBD)
Submit to: WorldEncounterssubs AT gmail.com
Submissions outside these dates and parameters may be rejected and possibly cannot be resubmitted. I reserve the right to close submissions at any time if the slush pile is too big and I have what I need. No money is promised or contracts offered until the Kickstarter funds. No simultaneous submissions.
Bryan Thomas Schmidt is author/editor of adult and children’s speculative fiction. His short stories appeared in magazines, anthologies and online. He edited the anthologies Space Battles: Full Throttle Space Tales #6 for Flying Pen Press, Beyond The Sun for Fairwood Press, Raygun Chronicles: Space Opera For a New Age for Every Day, and Shattered Shields for Baen Books. His YA anthology Choiceswill be out from Edge Science Fiction and Fantasy in 2015.
Editor looking for diverse protagonists
C.C. Finlay will edit two more issues ofThe Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2015. Finlay has published half a dozen books and dozens of stories, been translated into sixteen languages, and nominated for some awards.
March/April 2015 issue of F&SF - Reading period: Aug. 1-15, 2014
Sept./Oct. 2015 issue of F&SF - Reading period: Jan. 1-15, 2015
I E-mailed Finlay to ask if he'd considered tabulating PoC stats, like how many stories he received with non-Anglo protagonists or from authors who are black, latino, etc. He responded that he'd love to see that kind of data, but didn't know a way to estimate about authors without asking them to provide identifying information, which some might be reluctant to do.
La Bloga question: If Finlay is open to the possibility, what about other editors of magazines and anthologies? Why shouldn't latinos and other PoC request (demand?) this from those who decide which stories are getting published? How could PoC collectively launch such an initiative?
Finlay did respond that he would again be looking for diverse protagonists in stories and, depending on submissions and time, might try to keep track of that. He thanked me for the suggestion. You can go to his Nectar for Rejectomancers post for a breakdown of past submissions he received for the July/August issue he edited. Something it would be good for writers to see from all editors and publishers.
For latinos with a spec "Punk" story
From Susan MacGregor, an On Spec magazine editor, comes this first Call for Submissions for On Spec's new Punk Theme issue, on all things 'punk'.
Steampunk, Cyberpunk, Biopunk, and many other types of ‘punk’ derivatives have become popular sub-genres of speculative fiction. What classifies them as ‘punk’ are a number of literary devices that include:
1). Setting: specific technologies associated with particular ‘ages’, ‘societies’ and/or time frames (both the past or future), e,g., the Victorian Age often defines Steampunk (but not always). Nanotech experiments of the future may define Biopunk, (but not always).
2). Tone: a sense of novelty, or being on the cutting edge of that particular technology, within its time frame.
3). Style: language and/or a narrative style specific to that particular technology, reflective of the time, and/or writers of that time.
4). Characterization: wide open. Characters can reflect their time and the concerns of their place in that time, or be transplants from another time and/or genre.
Sub-genres include, but are not limited to: Atompunk, Biopunk, Clockpunk, Cyberpunk, Decopunk, Dieselpunk, Dreampunk, Mythpunk, Nanopunk, Stonepunk, and others. For further definitions, this Wikipedia link on Cyberpunk Derivatives may prove helpful.
From Sept. 1 to Oct. 15th, 2014, we will seek the best of each "punk" sub-genre, top stories that represent their particular punk sub-genre. We are looking not only for the best, but what is new, what hasn’t been ‘punked’ before. Originality is the name of the game. If you have a piece that explores the themes and technology of a new era and/or society, we want to see it. We’rll consider everything 'punk', from the serious to the ridiculous. Surprise, delight, and amaze us!
Word maximum: 6,000 words. Accompany your submission with ‘PUNK THEME ISSUE’ in the subject line. Estimated publishing/issue date: Spring, 2015. We will post about this on On Spec’s new and updated website shortly; check it for full submission guidelines. Hold off on sending manuscripts until the submission window; anything before Sept. 1 will be deleted. Read all the guidelines.
A mother answers why latinos should write latino spec lit
In Antariksh Yatra's article, above, she said, "I came across an essay by Norman Spinrad in Asimov’s magazine, in which he discoursed knowingly about why there was no third world science fiction. Because, he said, third world cultures have no conception of the future. One could write a thesis on all the things wrong with this."
"My son is 12; he loves sci-fi, but I have noticed it does pander to specific demographics. Thanks to all of you for bravely going where your sci-fi spirits take you. I will definitely be inspired to have my son read your works. Gracias por inspirar a una nueva generación de aficionados del sci-fi latino! :) LaSirena
Es todo, hoy,
By: Stacy Dillon,
on 6/10/2014
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Fast talking basketball kid Josh lives for the game. It makes sense since his father Chuck "Da Man" Bell was a player in his own right back in the day. Chuck played the European League, but now stays home to take care of the house while Josh's mom is the Vice Principal at his school. Josh's twin Jordan (JB) lives for basketball too, but things are starting to shift.
Miss Sweet Tea in her pink Reeboks has caught JB's attention, and Josh isn't quite sure how to be without JB. He finds himself missing his brother's wisecracks and bets. He's not used to being one. Even on the court their flow has changed, and Josh crosses a line in a way that he wouldn't have even considered before.
Girls and basketball aren't the only things that the Bell family is dealing with. Mrs. Bell is trying, trying, trying to get Chuck to deal with his health issues. He is a man who likes his treats, he gets fired up over his sons' games, and he simply refuses to see a doctor despite his spells.
This story of the love of the game, shifting allegiances and family will take readers on a journey they are not likely to forget. There's a rawness and realness to Josh both on and off the court. Alexander's free verse brings the pace of the story up, but there are moments that give the reader real pause as well. For example in Basketball Rule #3 Alexander writes:" Never let anyone / lower your goals. / Others' expectations / of you are determined / by their limitations / of life. / The sky is your limit, sons. / Always shoot / for the sun / and you
will shine." And the poem Dear Jordan will leave you breathless.
The Crossover is a quick read, but it is a book that should and will be reread. Add this to your TBR pile, asap!
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By:
Cheryl Rainfield,
on 6/9/2014
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I am honored that SCARS is included in a thoughtful B&N blog post: “8 Great YAs About Mental Health Issues” written by Dahlia Adler.
Dahlia includes some powerful YA books on various mental health issues, including Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson (eating disorders), It’s Kind of a Funny Story, by Ned Vizzini (depression), OCD Love Story by Corey Ann Haydu (OCD), and Crazy by Amy Reed (bi-polar).
Check out her post for the entire list and thoughtful descriptions of the books from someone who’s clearly read them and been touched by them, and to leave a comment about your favorite YA books that deal with mental health issues.
I think it’s important that we have books that deal with mental health issues in honest and realistic ways–and that provide hope. We all need to know that we’re not alone, and that things can get better.
Saturday morning (May 31, 2014) I woke early with a feeling of joy and excitement. Several hundred miles away from me, a group of eight men and women were in New York City, getting ready for their session at Book Con 2014 (BookCon is part of Book Expo America, BEA for short). The weeks, days, and hours prior to their session were--for me--a roller coaster of highs and lows. I cannot imagine what it was like for them. What follows is the story of We Need Diverse Books as I experienced it. It is my thank you and shout out to a group that sparked a moment and movement that may mark the turning point in the all white world of children's books...
In April, two things happened. BEA announced a panel of blockbuster kidlit writers. That panel was composed of four men and a cat. And, BookCon announced its line-up of authors. This "blindingly white" situation prompted indignation amongst a lot of people. A group was formed. That group is We Need Diverse Books. Their goal was/is to promote books that showcase and promote diversity of content, and diversity of authors that create that content. On May 28th, Aisha Saeed wrote about the upcoming trip to NYC.
I followed the campaign when it was launched in late April, offering help as I could behind-the-scenes, but mostly I used social media to promote the We Need Diverse Books campaign. This is the first graphic the WNDB team released:
Gorgeous, isn't it? The energy radiating from the team was inspiring. With twitter driving it, the campaign took off around the world. Media covered it. The result? BookCon invited the team to do a session in NYC on Saturday morning.
On the 29th (Thursday), I made a graphic with the WNDB logo and location info for their session. I started to tweet it:
On Friday morning (May 30), excitement was building.
Ilene Wong of the WNDB team sent this tweet:
My excitement grew when I saw tweets of photos of large displays announcing the location of the WNDB session:
That excitement was tamped down a bit as I read tweets from Cheryl Willis Hudson of
Just Us Books. She was walking through the exhibit halls at BEA, looking for books within the diverse framework. She didn't see much, but did take photos and sent them out. Aren't they terrific? Here's her photo of
Because They Marched at the Holiday House booth:
And here's a photo she snapped of Jacqueline Woodson signing books. See what Cheryl said? "Long line" --- cool!
Here's more photos Cheryl sent out:
As I read tweets from Cheryl and those in the We Need Diverse Books hashtag on twitter, I saw that Cinco Punto Press had tweeted a photo of Tim Tingle's
House of Purple Cedar. It was there, on their table, at BEA. I retweeted their photo:
There were to be two other sessions at BEA that focused on diversity. I tweeted info on them, too. One was "Multicultural Publishers in Conversation." Here's that flyer. As you can see,
Just Us Books and
Cinco Punto Press were scheduled for that conversation on Saturday at 12:45.
Here's the flyer for the third session, "Where Are the People of Color in Children's Books?":
But look! See the time slot in the red bar at top of the graphic? Saturday, 10:00 AM... The same time as the We Need Diverse Books session! I was stomping mad about that, with various obscenities whirling in my head. Then I saw this set of tweets by Ellen Oh (retweeted by Ilene Wong):
What obstacles, I wondered? I figured one was the overlap of the WNDB session and the conversation with publishers session, but Ellen said "obstacles" (plural), so what else went wrong?! Lights out for me... I went to bed.
Early Saturday morning I was up and catching up on tweets from the night. I learned that the hard copy of the conference program did not have the WNDB session in it.
People at the Javits were sending out tweets and photos:
And
Jacqueline Woodson snapped a
way-cool photo of Matt de la Pena arriving at her house. They were going to head over to the Javits center together.
As 10:00 AM drew near, the #WeNeedDiverseBooks tweets from the conference were growing in number.
I saw that the WNDB team had created swag!
And panelist
Grace Lin had a "cheat sheet" handout with ways that booksellers can hand-sell books to consumers who shy away from books by or about people of color (get the
pdf from her blog):
I wondered how big the room was but when the first photos of the room (as it filled up) started to come across twitter, I estimated 200 chairs. This photo was taken by Ilene Wong, as she notes, 35 minutes before the panel started.
And...
And of course, people in the audience were taking/tweeting LOTS of photos of the panelists:
The room itself filled up and people were turned away (media reports later said there were 300 people in the room, with people in the aisles and three-deep along the back wall). Meanwhile, in the room, the panelists received a terrific reception from the audience:
Panelists delivered powerful remarks that were tweeted and retweeted. Again and again I wished I was in that room rather than hundreds of miles away. I was glad to see tweets indicating that
Matt de la Pena had a few things to say about the shut down of the Mexican American Studies program in Tucson Unified School district. Over and over, I was glad for twitter. The emotion captured in photos was astounding.
An
unedited audio of the session is now available at the We Need Diverse Books tumblr. No doubt the panelists and WNDB team was bursting with joy once the session ended. Marieke Nijkamp's tweet captures some of their emotion:
I was especially moved by
Mike Jung's tweets as he left the conference:
It was VERY poor planning on the part of BEA to offer WNDB and the "Where are the People of Color" session at the same time. I assume it and the "Multicultural Publishers in Conversation" session were both in the program. A curious thing, though, was the floor announcement, as captured in this photo tweeted by
Daniel Jose Older (photo taken by
Tiffany D. Jackson). See the title for the session? How small it is in comparison to the titles of other sessions? And doesn't it look like it was pasted on there? Why?!
Of course, Daniel's jab ("Diversity is so awesome!!!!) is directed at conference planners, and not diversity itself. I don't know if he made it to the 12:45 session. Cheryl Willis Hudson was there and tweeted some photos. Here's one:
Today (June 2, 2014), several recaps of BEA were loaded online. I especially liked what
Lyn Miller Lachmann said in her piece, and what
Allie Bruce said in hers. Both are committed to diversity, and their commitment shows in their writing. I loved hearing the voices of
Ellen Oh,
Lamar Giles, and
Jacqueline Woodson in their
interview with NPR. Claire Kirch's recap for Publishers Weekly is
here. Among the things you'll read is that WNDB is working with the National Education Association, and that Lee and Low is launching a "
New Visions Award." The big news? That a book festival is being planned...
A good many people have been pushing for diversity for a very long time. With respect to Native people objecting, I think back to William Apes, a Pequot man who was raised by a white family for a portion of his childhood. He read the books they gave him, and because of what he read, was afraid of Indians! He wrote about that fear as an adult, in his
Son of the Forest, published in 1831.
In June of 2014, it feels like some substantial change will take hold because the demographics in the country are shifting dramatically. I am optimistic. And--I look forward to meeting members of
the WNDB team in Washington DC in 2016 at a festival of diversity in children's books! The plans are in the works. Till then, AICL stands with We Need Diverse Books. This is a cheesy closure but I'll use it anyway... STAY TUNED.
A special note of thanks to Cheryl Willis Hudson of Just Us Books for all that she shared from BEA.
By: Brian Minter,
on 5/13/2014
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Last week, hundreds of thousands of parents, educators and readers of all ages issued a call for more diversity in children’s literature, rallying under the banner of #WeNeedDiverseBooks. The campaign spread quickly from Twitter to media outlets around the world as people shared powerful stories about the need for all children to see themselves in books.
Today First Book is answering the call with a market-driven solution addressing the lack of diversity in children’s literature.
Children from all walks of life need to see themselves – and others – in the stories they read. So First Book - a nonprofit social enterprise that provides new books to kids in need – has reached out to U.S. and Canadian publishers and asked to see more books from new and underrepresented voices.
But we understand that publishers won’t print what they can’t sell, so First Book is putting our money where our mouth is and pledging to purchase 10,000 copies of every title we select.
Once published, the titles will be available to children everywhere.
In addition to helping bring these new voices to the children in our national network of schools and programs and to bookshelves everywhere, First Book will also fund, for the first time ever, affordable paperback editions of diverse titles that have previously only been publicly available in expensive hardcover formats.
Although we’re excited about the attention this critical issue has been receiving lately, our commitment isn’t new. Today’s announcement is part of First Book’s Stories for All Project, our ongoing efforts to increase the diversity in children’s books.
Join us in helping all children see themselves – and others – in the stories they read.
Click here to sign up for occasional email messages about The Stories for All Project and other First Book news.
Click here to download a PDF copy of the ‘Request for Proposals’ that First Book issued to publishers.
The post A Market-Driven Solution to the Need for Diverse Books appeared first on First Book Blog.
By: Tabitha Thompson,
on 5/9/2014
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Utah Children's Writers
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Recently our blogger Yamile wrote about including diversity in our books for children. One of her great points was to make the character of ethnicity the hero or heroine rather than the sidekick.
I'd like to continue with that topic as I am currently working on a picture book to help young children understand how to approach people with physical disabilities.
There aren't a lot of books that include differently abled leads, but (UCW's own) Julie Daines' book, "Unraveled" offers young readers a heroine whose legs are crippled. Daines said that she wanted to provide a love story without the perfect princess-type heroine.
Frankly, I'm surprised there aren't more heroes and heroines with such issues. Not only does it increase understanding of diversity in readership, but in the most clinical of writing terms, it can be very useful to the drama of the story as it adds another layer of difficulty with which the character must contend.
Another tough, but useful, subject is long-term illness in children.
Lupus is a topic dear to my heart (in the interest of full disclosure, I am the board chair of the Lupus Foundation of America, Utah Chapter). And I get to interact with some of our youth who are dealing with this disease. They are bright, enthusiastic, and overburdened--trying to balance the regular social interactions and school with fatigue and other health-related complications.
Lupus causes flares and remissions of widely variable time frames--sometimes within the same day. This is difficult for a lot of adults to understand. But kids are often labeled by their peers as "fakers"; symptoms ebb and wane, affecting different parts of the body at different times, and fatigue is always lurking in the background.
So, while I add a rousing cheer to Yamile's great post and remind you, our UCW blog readers, to consider diversity of all kinds in your lead characters, allow me one latitude (I promise to only take the blog sideways ONCE this year):
Tomorrow is the Walk to End Lupus Now in Salt Lake City's Liberty Park.
I invite you to join us. Walk. People watch. And see some really heroic characters.
www.utahlupus.org
Normally on Friday I do a post that rounds up article/blog post links that I shared on Twitter over the previous week. But as I was working on my roundup for this week, I discovered that, what with the whole #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign and all, I had shared a LOT of links related to diversity. So I decided to pull those into a separate post. There's a lot here to absorb. I hope you all find things of interest. Also, please note that MotherReader's 48 Hour Book Challenge this year (the 9th annual) will focus on the reading of diverse books.
Links on Diversity + Gender
18 Adorable Reasons #WeNeedDiverseBooks | selected @leeandlow shared @buzzfeed http://ow.ly/wq7Ix via @compelledtoread
A Rambling Rant on Race and Writing | @lisayee1 at Red Room |"Do not presume -- but do dare to imagine." http://ow.ly/wvKNK #diversity
Let the Handsell-Off Begin: Booksellers Take The #GreatGreeneChallenge http://ow.ly/wDQXc @PublishersWkly #kidlit #WeNeedDiverseBooks
A success! ReedPOP Adds diversity BookCon Panel in response to #DiverseNeedDiverseBooks campaign http://ow.ly/wDQtA @PublishersWkly
Good stuff on encouraging girls in math | @Girlstart, STEM, and a Surprise from @varianjohnson http://ow.ly/wDvla #GreatGreenChallenge
Because books are mirrors, some of @RIFWEB favorite images from the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign http://ow.ly/wBgLj
Our kids’ grey matter is neither pink nor blue – when will book publishers realise this? @katyguest36912 @Independent http://ow.ly/wyJZb
YA #LGBTQ Novels Where the Focus Isn't Coming Out - list from @NinaTyndall at Small Avalanches http://ow.ly/wt60B #diversity
Writing as Feminist, Mariko Tamaki @NerdyBookClub I try not to write about chars that are white + straight by default http://ow.ly/wt4tX
squeetus: Thoughts on whether white writers can write non-white characters from @haleshannon (who has) http://ow.ly/wvJ0H
Paying Attention to #Diversity | Recent link roundup @medinger http://ow.ly/wt4no #WeNeedDiverseBooks
Great resource @cybils blog: Diverse Book Recommendations from Cybils titles for #WeNeedDiverseBooks http://ow.ly/wt4Eg
LGBTQ & You: How to Support Your Students as a librarian | @sljournal http://ow.ly/woc5p
Program #Diversity: Do Libraries Serve Kids with Disabilities? | @sljournal http://ow.ly/woc0D
5 Cultures #Kidlit Readers Can Explore for #WeNeedDiverseBooks @jendonn @5M4B http://ow.ly/wqst0
#WeNeedDiverseBooks …and What We Can Do About It, an action plan from Becky Levine http://ow.ly/wqrZl
My most favorite sci fi and fantasy books with diversities of various sorts from @charlotteslib http://ow.ly/wqqOw #WeNeedDiverseBooks
Presenting Lenore creates a #WeNeedDiverseBooks categorized Review Archive http://ow.ly/wqqGM @lenoreva
#WeNeedDiverseBooks diversity campaign goes viral, thoughts + images from @Devas_T at The Brown Bookshelf http://ow.ly/wqqp8
Putting your money where your mouth is at Biblio File: Diverse Book Reading List http://ow.ly/wqpA4 #WeNeedDiverseBooks
© 2014 by Jennifer Robinson of Jen Robinson's Book Page. All rights reserved. You can also follow me @JensBookPage or at my Growing Bookworms page on Facebook.
I believe so strongly that we need diversity in books. I hope you do, too.
Join in the discussion through the Twitter Chat on May 2nd at 2pm (EST) using the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks. Share your thoughts on the issues with diversity in literature and why diversity matters to you.
There are a ton of YA and kidlit authors, industry professionals, and readers taking part in this. I hope you’ll check out some of the books. There are so many diverse, important books that can help bring greater empathy to our world.
Five years ago this happened. Five years ago! I now realize that there are a lot of books in Spanish for children that are incredible difficult to find in the US. And not only books for children, books, in general. I ordered Cien Años de Soledad right before Gabriel Garcia Marquez died and I'm still waiting for it.
What I realized these last five years too is that there aren't a lot of books about kids whose lives stray even a little from the norm. Or if there are, these books are "niche, issue books." My kids read and write English because it's the language of the country where they were born. I also strive to introduce them to writers and artists that marked me as a child because that cultural legacy belongs to them too, in Spanish, the language of our family.
I write stories about dancers, and soccer players, girls fighting to win the middle school government election, all told from the point of view of characters who live between cultures. That's a subject close to my heart because I'm the granddaughter of immigrants, and immigrant myself, mother of children who look at me with doubt when a stranger asks where they're from.
The DIA school in Salt Lake invited me to present at their school because in Utah at the time, there wasn't a single Hispanic/Latina published writer. I might be wrong, but I think it's still true to this day. I hope this will change soon, not only because of selfish reasons. After all, I am submitting to agents at the moment, trying to find representation for my middle grade novel about a Latina dancer crippled by anxiety, who finds healing in the world of competitive Irish dancing. I know there is a lot of talent in the Latin community, and also the Polynesian, and the African American, and the regular Utah who descends from the Pioneers.
I read once that books are the mirror of society, and so far, our shelves don't represent the beauty and diversity I see everywhere I go even in homogenous Utah. Our state lauds the Pioneers and their struggles to live in a land where they could worship and live in peace. That desire to live in peace and achieve one's potential is still very much burning in the hearts of hundreds of people, many of them children, whose skin color, accents, sexual orientation and beliefs vary from our own.
Let's give everyone a chance to see themselves in the media! Growing up one of my favorite shows
was Heidi, the girl of the Alps. I had no idea where Switzerland was or what it was like to be a shepherdess, but I had just lost my grandfather and I missed him more than I could express. I didn't express it and developed what I now know was anxiety. I loved that show because I saw myself reflected in it. When Heidi was taken away from her "abuelito" I cried my little heart out. And how I celebrated once they were united! Heidi's friend, Clara, was in a wheelchair. Poor Clara. But what a forward thinking show! Clara was smart and kind and she was the best influence Heidi could ever want.
I want every child to see themselves in a book, a movie, a musical. Not like the quirky sidekick, but the hero/ine. Because we are all the heroes of our own stories. I invite you to participate in the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign on Facebook and Twitter. Why do you think we need them?
If you're a white male, you'll have an abundance of opportunities to imagine yourself on the stage this year at BookCon. The list of authors is being called "blindingly white" by BookRiot. If you're a white male or a cat, you could imagine yourself on the Blockbuster Kid Lit panel.
If you're not a white male--or a cat--you're out of luck. Rachel Renee Russell, author of the Dork Diaries (which I haven't read), was offered a set of pre-written questions with which to use to interview what Rick Riordan (one of the panelists) called the "Four White Dudes of Kids' Lit" (see his tweet on April 11, 2014). Russell asked to be a panelist instead, and that apparently went nowhere.
If you've been following this situation, you've likely read some of the responses to it. Over the weekend, a new response emerged that involves ACTION. Here's the poster for the We Need Diverse Books event taking place this week:
Perusing the 15 books in that set, it is clear that the planners of the campaign envision diversity in a broad range. It isn't, in other words, just books by or about authors of color, or authors who are citizens or members of one of the 500+ federally recognized tribes. It is about body type. It is about sexual orientation. It is about all of us.
What can you do?
RIGHT NOW (or sometime before May 1), take a photograph that in some way states why you think we need books that represent all of us. The photo can capture whatever it is you want to highlight. The planners suggest holding a sign that says "We need diverse books because _____." Send your photo to
[email protected] or submit it
via the Tumblr page. Starting at 1:00 PM EST on May 1, 2014 people will be using the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks to share the photos.
On May 2, 2014 there will be a Twitter chat--again using that hashtag--at 2:00 PM EST. Share your thoughts on existing problems with the lack of diversity in children's and young adult literature, and share the positives, too.
On May 3, 2014 at 2:00 EST there will be book giveaways and a "put your money where your mouth is" component to the campaign.
Regular readers of
American Indians in Children's Literature know that I encourage people to buy books from independent booksellers. My recommendation?
Birchbark Books.
The poster (above) includes Eric Gansworth's
If I Ever Get Out of Here, which you can
get from Birchbark Books. I want you to get it, but I also want you to get every book on my lists of recommended books. You can start with the lists I put together for the 2008 and 2013 "Focus On" columns I wrote for
School Library Journal. Here's the lists:
Native Voices (November 1, 2008)
Resources and Kid Lit about American Indians (November 5, 2013)
Please join the campaign!
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I couldn’t agree with you more. Kids with horrid experiences tucked away, need to read about characters who are like them. Congrats on recognition of your work.
Thank you so much, C Lee. (hugging you) i appreciate it. And I know you reach kids too with your books!