More Interesting Articles

These were some very interesting articles from listservs I follow.

Salon: #WeNeedDiverseBooks goes viral

Lee and Low Books: Where Can I Find Great Diverse Children's Books?

New York Public Library: Celebrating Diverse Children's Books: These Stories Dazzle and Reflect

NPR - New Initiative Aims to Encourage Diversity in Kids' Publishing

Teen Librarian Toolbox: Dear Media: Let Me Help You Write That Article on YA Literature

Anne Ursu: On 'The John Green Effect,' Contemporary Realism, and Form as a Political Act

Zetta Elliott, The Huffington Post: It's Not Me, It's You: Letting Go of the Status Quo

There is also a great list of Native authors and illustrators by Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature, and this is the link to her WeNeedDiverseBooks post.

Diversity and Multicultural Books

School Library Journal has a really great variety of articles in this month's journal, many focusing on diversity. You can check out some of the features on the web:

Landing page for May 2014: The Diversity Issue

Article: We Need Diverse Books...But Are We Willing to Discuss Them With Our Kids?

Feature: An Expanded Cultural Diversity Booklist: SLJ Readers Respond

There are a great number of multicultural books featured throughout the journal. One example is Don’t Say a Word, Mamá, featured in an article focusing on summer reading for K-3.

Along the same lines, Booklist just had a great webinar titled "Reaching All Readers: New Multicultural Books for Children and Teens." If you visit their webinar archive, the webinar should be available next week. There were great handouts and a list of books from each publisher was also provided. A great resource!

I'd like to take a few moments to include some book covers of some of my favorite multicultural books. I've previously mentioned The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales, but these are just three of my favorites as well. Give them a try if you can!

Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, Grace Lin

Cat Girl's Day Off, Kimberly Pauley

Who Am I Without Him? A Collection of Stories about Girls and the Boys in their Lives, Sharon G. Flake

Mexican Katniss

Diversity in Young Adult Literature: "Where is the African-American Harry Potter or the Mexican Katniss?" 

An interesting article featured on CNN.