Diversity in the News

July 11th - July 18th, 2013

CBC DIVERSITY/COMMITTEE MEMBERS IN THE NEWS

• Children's literature lacks diversity, say authors, librarians at The Tennessean – includes thoughts from Alvina Ling, Executive Editorial Director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and CBC Diversity Committee Member

ON OUR RADAR

• Kids React Adorably To Cheerios Ad That Sparked Racist Backlash (VIDEO) at the Huffington Post
• Related:  The Cheerios ad (VIDEO); an interview (VIDEO) with the young star of the ad and her family about the controversy on MSNBC
• Part IV: Are All Book Covers Created Equal? Bank Street 6th-Graders Talk With Knopf Editors!
• Has ‘Caucasian’ Lost Its Meaning? at the New York Times
• 'Fat Angie' Author Reaches Out to At-Risk Kids at PW – the author has embarked on an At-Risk tour, using her book as a springboard for “conversations with at-risk youngsters, including those who are economically disadvantaged, bullied, and LGBTQ.”
• Community Angered by Tossed Black History Collection at School Library Journal

Shelley Diaz: How I Got into Publishing

Guest post by associate editor at School Library Journal

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I decided I wanted to work in children’s publishing in sixth grade. I had devoured all of the Anne of Green Gables books by this time, and I was convinced that I could be the Dominican Lucy Maud Montgomery. I kept writing through middle school and high school, and pondered over different career paths (should I be a literary agent, an editor?), and even momentarily thought about being a cultural anthropologist instead.

The fact remained: I was fascinated by stories—all people’s stories.

I declared my English Lit/Latino Studies double-major freshman year at Columbia University, and was lucky enough to snag an editorial internship with Dell Publishing (a crossword puzzle publisher) through my Hispanic Scholarship Fund mentor. That summer internship cemented my desire to work in publishing, while at the same time reinforced the fact that it had to be with work that I cared about (crossword puzzles, were just not that interesting), and at a place that gave me the opportunity to advocate for diverse literature.

Diversity in the News

March 21st – March 28th, 2013

ON OUR RADAR

• A New Way for Gay Characters in Y.A., in the Atlantic Wire
• What Makes a Good YA Coming-Out Novel?, via the Horn Book
• On Spies and Purple Socks and Such – Harriet the Spy as queer text, via the Horn Book
• Thread about whether biracial/multiracial/mixed POC characters are more common in YA than POC with a single ethnicity, via Diversity in YA
• "Speak the Language." -- Children's Book Illustrator E.B. Lewis Shares His Emotional Work and Words, from How to Be a Children's Book Illustrator
• 5 Things Meg Medina Learned While Writing YAQUI DELGADO, via Diversity in YA
• New blog alert: Rich in Color is dedicated to promoting young adult fiction starring people of color or written by people of color.
• Sesame Street’s “Maria” Opens Girls Write Now’s Reading Series by Shelley Diaz at SLJ
• At YALSA’s The Hub: History of American Women through Books

We Need Diverse "Diverse" Books

An It's Complicated! — Marketing & Sales guest post by the Assistant Editor of School Library Journal's Book Reviews, Shelley Diaz.

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After gobbling up L. M. Montgomery’s Anne of Green Gables series, I remember asking my sixth grade teacher, “What would life in 1908 have been like for a girl like me?” She paused, turned red and finally admitted that she just didn’t know. The very next day, she had hours’ worth of research to share with me about the Louisiana Purchase and the Spanish-American War, but my 11-year-old heart had already internalized the rub.

People of color are an indelible part of American history, and the books that are created and marketed in schools and libraries have to reflect that. They shouldn’t just be pigeonholed to their respective “Heritage” Month, and forgotten about for the rest of the year, but displayed and celebrated with every topic covered in the curriculum. Gary Soto’s Too Many Tamales can be served alongside Mother’s Day favorite, Are You My Mother? Nikki Giovanni’s poetry collections can accompany J. Patrick Lewis and Shel Silverstein’s during April’s National Poetry month. And though some may posit that these titles don’t exist, there are countless examples of award-winning and well-written books featuring diverse characters for children. There are publishers’ backlists full of important and relevant treasures that can be re-issued, re-packaged, and re-touted to that end. Organizations like CBC Diversity, REFORMA, and all of ALA’s other ethnic associations would serve as great partners to further this endeavor. This should be a continuous conversation, an open dialogue in which all who care about kids participate.

Take Three! A New "It's Complicated!" Conversation

Here we go again! As part of CBC Diversity's ongoing effort, we're pleased to present the third  dialogue in the "It's Complicated!" blog series starting later today, this time addressing the sales and marketing of multicultural books.

The following voices inside and outside the publishing industry will each contribute one blog post to the series over the week, addressing how to market multicultural books to teachers, librarians and, ultimately, kids. The guest bloggers will also be participating in the open dialogue in the comments section of the site:

• Nina Lindsay, Supervising Librarian for Children’s Services at the Oakland Public Library in CA
• Victoria Stapleton, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers School & Library Marketing Director
• Shelley Diaz, Assistant Editor at School Library Journal's Book Reviews
• Corinne Hatcher, Librarian/Media Specialist at Champaign Central High School
• Amy Bowllan, Coordinator of Media Resources and Research at the Hewitt School in New York City

Our first "It's Complicated!" blog dialogue in May 2012 addressed a topic that has arisen frequently at the Diversity table — the concept of responsibility and authenticity when writing about diverse characters and how authors, editors, and agents can choose/write stories that reflect the diverse nature of our society.

Our second "It's Complicated!" blog dialogue in September 2012 addressed a topic that had been bubbling up for quite some time — book covers and the faces and aesthetic choices we see and/or do not see on the front of picture, middle grade, and YA books.

Review both conversations by clicking here and scrolling down!

As always, we urge everyone to participate in what we hope will be an informative and insightful conversation. We really appreciate hearing from you, our readers, through the comments section of the posts about the parts of the discussion that you feel are most important and want to talk further about.