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My word this year is ‘shine’. It can be so easy catching myself not shining my brightest. Typically, those are times I don’t allow others to shine. I’m too bright too dull the glow of others! (Repeating 3x daily)

Technology helps me, helps us, shine. I recently updated my iPhone to the new IOS and found that I went back to the same ol’ settings I’ve had. While I appreciate Apple making me aware of some of the new functions, I’ve found my comfort zone. But to shine like a new copper penny, when I go for the trade in, I think I’ll go ahead and make some  real changes. I’ve never really used the Passport app so, I plan to explore that and a few other options. Changing the phone around keeps the brain young!

AND!! I decided to upgrade the Nook! I love playing with new tech toys and finding new ways to locate and share information but I can be frugal, too. If it ain’t broke, why get rid of it? I hate to admit this out loud but I do still have two of the old-fashioned heavy televisions and I drive a 2000 Honda. I was so surprised to hear that cars now tell you when the air is low in your tires! Not only am I saving money by keeping what still works, but it seems like I’m still thinking for myself as well.

René Saldaña Jr. shines brilliantly over at LatinosinKidlit when he firmly states “the books are not hard to find.” I agree, Reñe! It’s old and lame to say you can’t find any Latino books. True, there are not enough, but the ones that are there can be found.

Bringing that real shine to diversity, Kathryn Allan and Djibril al-Ayad discuss their forthcoming anthology Accessing the Future which explores disability and the intersectionality of race, nationality, gender, sexuality and class. They’re raising funds through Indiegogo to get this amazing book published so, check out the interview and shine on them with a little donation to support the cause.

Cynthia Leitich Smith Shines no matter what! Her recent blog post details the WeNeedDiverseBooks announcement to incorporate as a non-profit and its inaugural advisory board members Grace Lin, Jacqueline Woodson, Matt de la Peña, Cynthia Leitich Smith and Cindy Pon.
“Incorporating will give us the legitimacy and standing we need to move forward with our mission,” says Lamar Giles, VP of Communications. “We have many exciting projects in the works.”

On the BrownBookShelf, Sharon Flake asks about how well you shine. She asks “Are you unstoppable?”

On September 30, 2014, my new novel, Unstoppable Octobia May, will hit bookstores nationwide.  On that day I would love you and/or the young people you influence to join me in shouting out to the world that they too are unstoppable by holding up the following sign, words, image:

I AM UNSTOPPABLE

#UNSTOPPABLEOCTOBIAMAY

Shining winners of the 2014 South Asian Book Awards

Elizabeth Suneby

Razia’s Ray of Hope: One Girl’s Dream of an Education
(Kids Can Press, 2013)

Jennifer Bradbury

A Moment Comes
(Atheneum Book, an imprint of Simon & Schuster, 2013)

2014 Honor Winner
Farhana Zia
The Garden of My Imaan
(Peachtree, 2013)

Kudos to Walter Mays, president elect of the Assembly of Literature for Adolescents of the NCTE for his efforts to bring more diversity to the ALAN workshop which will be held this November in Washington DC. Among the many outstanding authors on the roster we’ll find

Jason Reynolds

Jenny Han

Kwame Alexander

Pam Muñoz Ryan

C.J. Farley

Coe Booth

Christopher Paul Curtis

Ying Compestine

Vinson Compestine

Atia Abawi

Tanuja Desai Hidier

Patrick Flores-Scott

Kekla Magoon

G. Neri

WOW!!! W0 W!!!! I will be there! You?

Have you been following #WeNeedDiverseBooks on FB or Tumblr? They’ve been coming up with spot on books pairs this summer.

The WNDB Team has most recently been joined by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton. the Cake Literary Ladies!

You know everything is bigger in Texas, including the state’s annual library conference. TLA has got to be the most popular state library conference in the nation. Call for papers is currently open.

The Américas Award created a list of selected Américas Award titles that highlight issues surrounding children and the border.  This and other thematic guides can be found on the Américas website:www.claspprograms.org/americasaward.  Contribute your activities and titles on our Facebook page: Facebook.com/americasaward.

Children’s laureate Malorie Blackman, authors, illustrators, poets in the UK are part of a movement demanding the government insure a presence of good libraries in all schools.

And in the US? Well, the schools in Chicago all have libraries, but half of them have librarians. The Mayor’s CEO says they can’t find librarians to fill the positions. That reminds me so much of publishers saying they can’t find authors of color. Numerous schools around Indiana have lost librarians, most often in elementary schools. I’ve heard of some schools in the state relying upon the public library to come in and provide library services. Not all librarians are created equal! While both a public and school librarian would be familiar with children’s and young adult literature, the public librarian would work more on programming and not be familiar with the curriculum as a school librarian would. Librarians provide technology training for students and staff, often teaching classes and providing professional development. I don’t know how we think schools can do without them.

Kate DiCamillo is our current National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature.

BrownBookShelf continues the “Making Our Own Market” series with an interview of self published author DuEwa Frazier.

 Eventually, I taught myself how to self-publish. There was no one there to hold my hand through the entire process but I did receive support. I took writing workshops with the late, great poet, Louis Reyes Rivera and was mentored by Abiodun Oyewole of the Last Poets. I attended many of the Center for Black Literature’s National Black Writers Conference’s early panels and workshops. I later took children’s writing and non-fiction workshops at other centers in the city. I became a part of a community of writers who had academics and cultural consciousness in their backgrounds.

We’re already talking Back to School. Summer here has been slow to warm and it feels like it hasn’t really started yet. Slow to warm and high humidity here makes me wonder how in the world June 2014 could have been the hottest June on record. Ah! To get out of my little bubble! #WeNeedDiverseBooks

An assistantship with The Center for Children’s Books (CCB) during her time at GSLIS at the University of Illinois  Urbana-Champagin provided Ayanna Coleman with the knowledge and skills she needs to navigate the publishing world, and this past December she used that knowledge to  launched her own literary agency, Quill Shift Literary Agency. Quill Shift Literary Agency handles all the traditional duties of a literary agency while embracing new technologies and spheres to empower readers to join in on the publishing process, providing further foundation for writers’ success. The agency’s hallmark services are editorial guidance, pre-publication and audience buzz creation and author care and advocacy.

Today, Ayanna describes what brought her to where she is today.

The Diversity in Kid Lit Dream

I am a dreamer. It’s actually quite strange how often my mind wanders blissfully into REM and produces fantastic scenarios for my unconscious self to battle. The thing is, dreams so often just live in your head. It’s what you do with the dreams, make them realities or dismiss them as frivolities, that matters.

I do not wish to keep my dreams of a world where there is full diversity in children’s literature inside my mind any longer. I want this dream to become a reality through a vision that creates evolutionary action in the book industry; an evolution that will consider diversity an essential dimension to broaden and shape young minds through the provision of equitable views and examples in their reading experiences. I believe the following would be appropriate starting points:

1) Greater diversity in the kid lit industry

2) Greater diversity of talent creation and being promotion by their publishers

3) More contemporary, “just happens to be stories” with diverse protagonists

4) Better collaboration and support between all parties involved in this journey to equity in children’s literature

Diversity in the Industry

Yes, everyone’s been talking about the lack of diversity in publishing and that does need to change, but I’d also love to see more diversity in youth and teen services librarians, more diversity in teachers promoting literature to our kids, and more diversity in booksellers hand-selling books to families. All of these people are just as important as the editors, marketing and publicity managers, sales force, designers, and agents who touch the books during production. Everyone has a part to play. Some books have become a phenomenon from the frenzy of librarians. If teachers put a book on the curriculum, that’s guaranteed sales for the next 5 years. By booksellers hand-selling, they are giving these books an extra push to become great.

If people in these positions don’t reflect the many cultures in our society, the likelihood of understanding the necessity to continually advocate for and promote different cultures decreases. People with shared and different life experiences from varied backgrounds must work in the industry of storytelling so that all stories have the opportunity to be understood and passed on.

Diversity of Creators

We’ve all seen the numbers, out of 3,200 children’s books surveyed by the CCBC in 2013, only 67 of them were written by African Americans. That’s abysmal. Look, I don’t care if you write outside your culture, but I want to see stories by and about people from all backgrounds.

Working in a library gives one a great perspective and, for the past 5 years while working in children’s libraries, I have had over 1,500 books per year travel across my desk. Out of those 1,500 books, perhaps 15 make me excited. That’s not to say that the other 1,485 aren’t phenomenal, but let’s be real. If you are a librarian, reviewer, bookseller, you’ll hear a lot of buzz about a lot of books that don’t necessarily deserve it. Why can’t some of that buzz be pushed towards books with authors who don’t all look like they’ve strolled out of on one of Junot Diaz’s MFA programs? I think Noah Berlatsky said it perfectly in his article, Diversity in Children’s Lit: Mediocrity Matters as Much as Masterpieces:

“Mediocre-to-decent books with white protagonists regularly get massive marketing pushes and dutifully race up the bestseller lists, where they become the thing to talk about just because everyone else is talking about them. And, of course, when those books with white protagonists flop, nobody says, well, no more books with white protagonists—they just find the next one and promote that. Why shouldn’t mediocre-to-decent books with diverse protagonists have the same opportunity?”

Why, indeed.

Just Happens To Be

I truly believe that children’s literature can change the world and imaginative, thought-provoking, boundary-pushing diverse represented picture books, middle grade, and young adult stories are the means in which we can help mold the minds of our future leaders. Kids need to see that they can be whoever they want, do anything they can dream up, and love anyone whom they meet. If there are more ducks in picture books than Asian boys, that’s a problem. It’s also a problem that certain ethnicities are pigeon-holed into the same old stories. Do editors and librarians actually think that African American teens are overjoyed when they see another slavery book hit the shelves? That’s not their reality, and it’s getting passed off as “fiction just for them”. What a shame when historical fiction for others looks like steampunk murder mysteries. All kids should have the opportunity to see themselves in fiction and one characteristic like ethnicity, or ability, or sexual orientation should not define the story a character stars in or the role in the story a character plays.

Collaboration

I launched Quill Shift Literary Agency in 2013 because, as a an avid reader who never saw herself in books—a middle class black girl living a “normal teenage life”—and still see few examples in today’s books, it was time to stop huffing and puffing at the books crossing my desk and step up to try and help make change. This is not the journey of one individual. I cannot make things change alone. I would be privileged to work with the many tireless individuals who have been speaking up about diversity in children’s literature for years. Collaboration only works, however, if people are willing to work with each other–old voices and new voices, loud voices and subtle voices, full inclusion for inclusion.

How do I make all these parts come together?

• I add to the industry by becoming one of the voices that seek, applaud, and promote like hell books created by and featuringpeople from different cultures—a young, hungry, Black agent who is, and will always be, a librarian.

• Once a project comes across my desk that I know will connect with kids (but I also know the industry will have a hard time swallowing) I will take it on, becoming a knowledgeable, motivated advocate for the author and their work.

• I will showcase manuscripts and expose them to those who matter–the end consumers–the parents, teachers, librarians, people in the industry, and teenagers to read sneak peek portions and give me their thoughts. If they want to see it published, they can make their voices heard through minimal donations, aka market muscle, to illustrate to the publishing industry that these stories do have marketable value. I call these people Shifters. All proceeds earned through this market-testing will be put back into the continued promotion and support of underrepresented diverse works.

Books that haven’t been published yet, that are going through the scrutiny and rejection now, are the ones that need the most support to change what’s on the bookshelves a year from now. Quill Shift Literary Agency is providing a platform to empower people to realize the dream of diversifying bookshelves in our libraries, schools, and homes.

To be honest, my vision doesn’t matter. It’s society’s collective vision that will make a difference.

Do I hope that my vision will become society’s vision? Of course! More importantly, I’m hoping that someday I’ll wake up, go to work, start cataloging books and see more of the diversity I pass on the streets during the New York rush hour represented on the covers and within the content of future Kid Lit. I’ll pinch myself and realize it’s not a dream. Then, just maybe, I’ll allow myself a second to think that I may have had a lil’ something to do with it.