We Need Diverse Books

Today social media has been flooded with comments about why we need diverse books. There have been some amazing comments & images that you can see if you visit the Tumblr or visit #WeNeedDiverseBooks on Twitter.

A few months after we started Rich in Color I wrote a blog post about why we need diverse lit. It is still one of my favorite pieces of writing because diverse lit means a lot to me and I want diverse lit to be available for all of our children and the grownups too.

A few weeks ago, I wrote another post, but this time over at Nerdybookclub. It was about how I was specifically addressing the need for diverse books in my school library. It focused in on our Hmong collection, but also on the addition of bilingual materials and diverse literature for all students.

One other place that I have addressed this is in an article that is part of School Library Journal's Diversity Issue. I was more than a little excited to be able to contribute there. By the way, here are some of the resources that I highlighted in the article:

Diversity on the Shelf

Latin@s in Kid Lit

Africa Reading Challenge

Award Lists

CCBC-Net

Resource List

Stacey Diaz article

Lee & Low Tweet

Birthday Party Pledge

A snapshot of a few books on my list of favorites

Finally, May 2nd is a day for discussion and continued use of social media, but Saturday is the day when we are going to be challenged to purchase materials. Just in case you are wondering what to buy or track down at the library, I wanted to give you a some titles of my favorite diverse lit. That list was done for Multicultural Children's Lit Day and I kept it to picture books and middle grade. I've since modified it to include young adult lit. The more inclusive list is now on my goodreads shelf. 

Happy reading!