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!

#WeNeedDiverseBooks Campaign

Ellen Oh and many other people have gotten together to make some noise around diversity in literature and why we need it. 

According to the tumblr page, here is what will be happening on May 1st:

On May 1^st at 1pm (EST), there will be a public call for action that will spread over 3 days. We’re starting with a visual social media campaign using the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks. We want people to tweet, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, blog, and post anywhere they can to help make the hashtag go viral.

For the visual part of the campaign: 

• Take a photo holding a sign that says “We need diverse books because ___________________________.” Fill in the blank with an important, poignant, funny, and/or personal reason why this campaign is important to you. 
• The photo can be of you or a friend or anyone who wants to support diversity in kids’ lit. It can be a photo of the sign without you if you would prefer not to be in a picture. Be as creative as you want! Pose the sign with your favorite stuffed animal or at your favorite library. Get a bunch of friends to hold a bunch of signs. 
• However you want to do it, we want to share it! There will be a Tumblr at http://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com/ that will host all of the photos and messages for the campaign. Please submit your visual component by May 1^st to weneeddiversebooks@yahoo.com with the subject line “photo” or submit it right on our Tumblr page here and it will be posted throughout the first day. 
• Starting at 1:00PM (EST) the Tumblr will start posting and it will be your job to reblog, tweet, Facebook, or share wherever you think will help get the word out. 
• The intent is that from 1pm EST to 3pm EST, there will be a nonstop hashtag party to spread the word. We hope that we’ll get enough people to participate to make the hashtag trend and grab the notice of more media outlets.
• The Tumblr will continue to be active throughout the length of the campaign, and for however long we need to keep this discussion going, so we welcome everyone to keep emailing or sending in submissions even after May 1^st.

There will also be more happening on May 2nd and 3rd. If you would like to be involved please head to their tumblr page http://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com to find out more. 

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

Previous Week: 

Geisel Award Books

I have been continuing the Geisel Challenge with Mr. Schu and Colby Sharp. Little Mouse is my favorite. I love his expression and one very special moment in the story when he has a sudden hilarious realization. Of course any book featuring underwear is popular in my library. The others are also fun. 

How did this even happen you wonder? Well, I went to Barnes & Noble to buy some books and had to read a few while I was there. Some were library books too, but I also went to the CCBC Choices presentation at our local CESA. It was fun to connect with Megan Schliesman and Merri Lindgren that day. They are amazingly knowledgable about children's and YA lit. You can see some of their presentation in the following videos:

2014: Great New Books for Younger Children (Birth - Grade 5) from South Central Libary System on Vimeo.

2014 Great New Books for Older Children & Teens (Grades 6 - Grade 12) from South Central Libary System on Vimeo.

It was also fabulous to get to spend time cruising the books and reading some of them. I adored Beekle, Puddle Pug, The Raven and the Loon, Mooncakes, Wild Berries, Benjamin Bear in Bright Ideas and one that isn't pictured called Trouper. Many of the others were also excellent. It was a great week for picture books.

Poetry

Forest Has a Song was a quiet and sweet book. Tap Dancing on the Roof was humorous and quirky. I loved this Korean form of poetry that was new to me. Now Sheba Sings the Song by Maya Angelou was beautiful. I picked it up because I recognized the title from an excerpt in Ashley Bryan's ABCs of African American Poetry that I read earlier in the month. The portraits that the poem responds to are amazing and the words are powerful. It is written for older readers in mind not your pre-school set.

Non-fiction

While at CCBC Choices I went to a session about the Common Core and the we learned about using literary non-fiction to teach about the author's craft of lyrical writing. The instructor, Billie Finco, used the book Have You Heard the Nesting Bird in the lesson. It is a beautiful book and could also be used to teach about onomatopoeia or any number of things. I would love to see it paired with Mama Built a Little Nest or Look Up! 

Scraps is another fabulous book by Lois Ehlert. Her illustrations are always so engaging. I highlighted Grandfather Gandhi on Non-fiction Picture Book Wednesday. Philip Reid Saves the Statue of Freedom would be a nice companion with Brick by Brick to highlight the contributions of African Americans in the history of the White House. Diversity in Youth Literature was a nice intro level professional book about the need for diversity in children's lit and ways to find and evaluate what is out there already. As I suspected, This Star Won't Go Out required tissues, but I was glad to learn more about the beautiful and inspirational Esther Earl.

One other book that I read was Three Years and Eight Months by Icy Smith. I had never heard about the Japanese occupation in Hong Kong so this was quite educational. The book is based on events experienced by her relatives during the occupation. You can learn more about it in the video below. Icy also shares her desire for more diverse literature to be available for children.

Speaking of diversity in children's literature, if you are interested in promoting diverse lit, please visit the We Need Diverse Books Campaign page to find out how you can help.

Middle Grade

I Wanna Be Your Shoebox is a fun middle-grade coming of age book with a girl who is facing many changes including the terminal illness of her grandfather, a dating mother and a possible move. 

The Coming Week:

I am still listening to A Lion Among Men on a Playaway when walking the dog or doing other tasks. The Fire Chronicle is the CD in my car. I didn't get to Caminar this week like I thought I would, but it is next. I wish you wonderful week of reading.

Celebrate!

Ruth Ayres has a link-up on Saturdays where people link to posts that are celebrations about their week. I love this reminder to celebrate every day. Here are some of my celebrations from the week in no particular order.

1. I got to attend a session of the CCBC Choices. This is a time when the CCBC brings copies of the books that they have chosen as the best of the previous year. It is a wonderful opportunity to see and even read many of those books and evaluate them for purchase. It's also a chance to chat with colleagues about books. It's a Nerdybookclub type of event.

2. Our spring break stretched to Tuesday and I had the house to myself since my daughter's school district went back a day earlier than we did. It was a treat to be able to wake up when I felt like it, watch a movie and then walk my dog leisurely on Tuesday morning when I would normally be teaching. It felt like I was getting away with something.

3. Our trees have buds on them!!! The grass if finally becoming green and I saw daffodils.

4. I got three really large boxes of books at school. It is so fun to unpack them. A large chunk of this order was biographies of women. Earlier this year I realized that not quite a third of our biographies were of women and so am working to even that out a bit.

5. I got to meet with the architects to go over the plans for our school building remodel. It was interesting to hear about and dream about the possibilities for the new library space.

6. Oops! I had to jump back in and mention Poem in Your Pocket Day. My pre-K class got to Skype with a class in Missouri and there were poems being read all over the school. You can see snippets of them here

I hope you had much to celebrate this week.

Poetry Friday

I love this poem duet - or I guess the correct terminology is poem in two voices. Happy Friday! 

Non-fiction Picture Book Wednesday

Alyson Beecher over at Kid Lit Frenzy hosts a Non-fiction Picture Book Challenge and has a roundup every Wednesday. I am giving it a try for the first time.

Here are some of the best non-fiction picture books I have read in the past week or two.

Grandfather Gandhi by Arun Gandhi & Bethany Hegedus and illustrated by Evan Turk is a picture book memoir. I have upper grade teachers asking for memoirs for their literature units and this is one I can certainly hand to them enthusiastically. The text has a positive and powerful message about anger and the illustrations are fabulous.

Mama Built a Little Nest by Jennifer Ward and illustrated by Steve Jenkins is another book with fantastic illustrations. Steve Jenkins always wows me. The book is set up to have a simple rhyming text as one portion paired with a paragraph or two of informational text about each of the types of birds and the varieties of their nest styles. I found it fascinating.

Wolfsnail: A Backyard Predator by Sarah C. Campbell and illustrated by Sarah C. and Richard P. Campbell is exactly what narrative non-fiction for young readers should be. It is compelling and tells a story filled with facts, but not so many that it is overwhelming or boring for young readers. It won a Geisel honor and I would love more books like this.

Have a great week!

It's Monday! What are you reading?

It's Monday! What are you reading? is a meme hosted by Sheila at Book Journeys. Jen Vincent over at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee Moye from Unleashing Readers decided to put a children's and YA spin on it and they invite anyone with an interest to join in. You can participate by creating your post then visit one of their sites to add your site. Finally, visit at least three participant blogs and comment to spread the love.

If you want to know more about what I am reading, visit me at my Goodreads shelf. Images via Goodreads unless otherwise noted.

The Past Week: 

Geisel Award 

Wolfsnail is so incredible. I have read it with students and they love it. This is a fantastic way to introduce narrative non-fiction. The picture books were great too. Elephant and Piggie have such amusing facial expressions and they are so perfectly child-like. I am so glad that Mr. Schu and Colby Sharp had this idea. I am loving it every week and of course loving their videos about the books.

Middle Grade & Young Adult Fiction

These were all a lot of fun. My Basmati Bat Mitzvah, First Daughter and The Blossoming Universe of Violet Diamond were both contemporary coming of age novels with interesting characters. I totally enjoyed them. Grasshopper Jungle was an experience that cannot be explained, but was amazing. Death Spiral is an engrossing mystery and I will review it over on Rich in Color sometime soon. Killer of Enemies was a fantastic steampunk story that I loved. It was an excellent batch of reading this week.

Poetry

I love that in the month of April we are reminded to seek out poetry. I hope that I continue this habit. I enjoyed Dare to Dream the most of all of these. I think it was because it is a mix of biography and poetry. Also, the focus is on inspirational people. Birmingham, 1963 was very moving and I also appreciated the poems around thankfulness in Giving Thanks.

Early Chapter Books

These images are from the publisher's website. I just got these in the mail this week. Both of the books were written by Hmong authors. I am always on the lookout for more books that represent the Hmong community. I wrote a post about that over at the Nerdybookclub blog this week. These are great additions to our library because the qeej is an instrument that I know one of our students plays and many of our Hmong students have likely seen and heard it played before. Shoua and the Northern Lights Dragon shares Hmong culture, but more than that it is a fun story that also happens to delve into gender roles. I am excited to share these with my students.

The Coming Week:

I am listening to A Lion Among Men on a Playaway when walking the dog or doing other tasks. The Fire Chronicle is the CD in my car. Diversity in Youth Literature will likely take a few weeks because I am just reading a bit at a time. I had been avoiding This Star Won't Go Out because I didn't want to cry, but I told my students I would finish it over spring break so I am determined to get it done - tears or no tears. Next up is Caminar and then who knows? I still have two days of Spring Break so will just keep reading. Happy reading to you!