This April is the 20th annual National Diversity Awareness Month. We want to celebrate by acknowledging and appreciating our differences and similarities, and diversifying our reading! But what does “diversity” even mean? Diversity, at first glance, is a simple enough term to define. It means a group is heterogeneous or different characteristically. The parts that …
Four years ago, we shared a book list aimed at kids, tweens, and teens to help them understand and talk about social justice, race, and cultural awareness. It came on the heels of the shooting deaths of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and soon after the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers. …
Read more “Books to Empower & Foster Understanding about Race and Social Justice for Kids and Teens”
In the midst of our nation’s most recent social turmoil – following the shooting deaths of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota, and soon after the shooting deaths of five Dallas police officers – you may find it difficult to discuss with children and young adults the images and information they’re seeing in the …
Read more “Social Justice, Race, & Cultural Awareness: Books for Kids, Tweens, & Teens”
If you missed the earlier post on diverse picture books, start there for the full background on the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. The short(er) version is this: the majority of books published, reviewed, and talked about are books about the majority view: that is, Caucasian, able-bodied, heterosexual, average weight, of a two-parent family, and with no discernable …
Read more “#WeNeedDiverseBooks – Middle Grade Reader Edition”
If you’re a parent of little ones, or even little ones big enough to resent the term “little ones,” you may have noticed a problem with the books available for children. Or maybe you haven’t. It took me awhile to catch on because the books available largely reflect my own experience. The problem is this: …