Industry News
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Dan Brown’s International Blockbuster ‘The Da Vinci Code’ to be Adapted For Young Adults
New York and London —The Random House US and Penguin Random House UK children’s divisions of Penguin Random House will jointly publish a young adult adaptation of Dan Brown’s The Da …
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PJ Lynch Announced as Laureate Na NÓg by President Michael D. Higgins
On Tuesday 17th May, 2016, author and illustrator PJ Lynch was announced as the fourth Laureate na nÓg, Ireland’s laureate for children’s literature, at a special event at the Arts Council’s …
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Commemorating 100 Years of Roald Dahl
The redesigned hardcovers will hit bookstores on September 6, 2016! The new book covers are a part of a year-long celebration of Dahl by Penguin Young Readers and the Roald …
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Scholastic News Kids Press Corps Now Accepting Applications for 2016-2017 School Year
Kids ages 10-14 with a “nose for news” encouraged to apply New York, NY – May 17, 2016 – The Scholastic News Kids Press Corps, a team of Kid Reporters …
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National Readathon Day Campaign Now Includes Facebook Donate Option And Profile Picture Frame
NEW YORK, NY — Penguin Random House, which is partnering with the American Library Association (ALA) for this year’s National Readathon Day, announced today that readers everywhere will be able to …
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15 Student Heroes Honored For Remarkable Reading and Math Gains
BOSTON, MA – Global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH) today announced the 15 winners of the national 2016 180 Student Awards, which recognize students who have made tremendous gains in …
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Children’s Books in the Classroom
Lewis Carroll’s classic fantasy Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) ushered in a golden age of children’s literature, one that captured the playful joy of children. But it wasn’t until the mid-20th century …
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YALSA Releases Position Paper, Adopting a Summer Learning Approach for Increased Impact
CHICAGO, IL — The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), a division of the American Library Association (ALA) has released a new position paper titled, “Adopting a Summer Learning Approach …
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Winners of the 2016 Comstock-Gág Read Aloud Books Awards Announced
For the twelfth year, children have chosen the best books when read out loud to them in the Minnesota State University Moorhead’s (MSUM) Comstock-Gág Read Aloud Book Awards program. The …
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Library of Congress and Mid-Atlantic Public Libraries Kick Off Summer Essay Contest
Washington, D.C. — The Library of Congress today launched its annual summer 12essay contest, in conjunction with public libraries in the Mid-Atlantic region, to encourage rising 5th- and 6th-grade students to …
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#DrawingDiversity: ‘Double Trouble for Anna Hibiscus’ illustrated by Lauren Tobia
Double Trouble for Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke, illustrated by Lauren Tobia (Kane Miller, September 2015). All rights reserved.
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Hachette Book Group and KADOKAWA Form Joint Venture
New York, NY — Hachette Book Group and KADOKAWA Corporation announced today that they have entered into an agreement to create a new venture, joining HBG’s Yen Press imprint, a …
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Lion Forge Comics Announces Slate of Fan-Focused Events and Giveaways at BookExpo America
May 6, 2016 – Chicago, IL — When BookExpo America, North America’s largest publishing event, rolls into McCormick Place next week, bibliophiles won’t be the only fans with a long list …
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Duke Energy and Reading Is Fundamental Partner to Boost Childhood Reading Skills
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Duke Energy and Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), the nation’s 10largest children’s literacy organization, are partnering to minimize the summer slide and improve the reading proficiency of more than 3,000 …
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Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Announces First Quarter 2016 Results
BOSTON, MA — Global learning company Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (“HMH” or the “Company”) (NASDAQ: HMHC) today announced its financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2016. First Quarter …
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Ninth Annual Children’s Choice Book Awards Winners Announced During the 97th Annual Children’s Book Week
New York, NY — May 6, 2016 – The Children’s Book Council and Every Child a Reader today announced the winners of the ninth annual Children’s Choice Book Awards (CCBA). …
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The Rise of the Wordless Picture Book
Led by moderator Allyn Johnston, v-p and publisher of Beach Lane Books, author-illustrators Henry Cole, Raúl Colón, Marla Frazee, Stephen Savage, and David Wiesner discussed the liberation that comes with purely visual storytelling — …
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HarperCollins Publishers Reveal Details On Veronica Roth’s New Book
New York, NY — HarperCollins Publishers announced today details on Veronica Roth’s next book with HarperCollins. The first in a two-book deal by international bestselling author Veronica Roth, author of the …
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Judy Blume and Her Husband Open a Bookstore in Florida
Both Blume and Cooper have been devoting a great deal of their time to Books & Books Key West. They have enjoyed taking a hands-on approach with the operations of …
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Most Diverse? Verse! 5 Easy Steps for Promoting Diversity with Poetry
Contributed by by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
Where do we find the most diversity in any genre in children’s literature? Poetry—but it might not always be easy to see, as much of the diversity is embedded in anthologies that aren’t necessarily categorized as diverse. In the 700+ poems that we have published so far in The Poetry Friday Anthology series, nearly a third reflect diverse experiences of culture, language, religion, and more, including poems that address underrepresented topics such as Diwali (by Uma Krishnaswami), Ramadan (by Ibtisam Barakat), Day of the Dead (by René Saldaña, Jr.), Dashain (by Margarita Engle), and Gay Pride Day (by Lesléa Newman).
You might never look to the National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry, edited by J. Patrick Lewis (National Geographic, 2016), for diverse poems, yet it contains poems by 20 diverse poets. Poems to Learn by Heart, compiled by Caroline Kennedy (Disney, 2013), contains poems by at least 17 diverse poets. And more than a quarter of the poets are diverse in The Death of the Hat: A Brief History of Poetry in 50 Objects by Paul B. Janeczko (Candlewick, 2015).
No other genre, however, goes out of print more quickly than poetry. Our challenge: How can we make sure that diverse poetry books find their audience? Here are things we’ve been trying:
1. Give Poetry a Media Boost. Remind media outlets that many children’s poems take only 20 seconds to read; send frequent suggestions of poems that can be read at the beginning or end of a television or radio segment. Poetry also lends itself to social media sharing since you can tweet a line or create a graphic to convey a lot in a compact package.
2. Make Poetry Swag. Use diverse poems in short format cards and handy giveaways. It’s easy and inexpensive to make effective poetry swag that you can distribute at conferences such as ILA, NCTE, TLA, ALA, and also BEA. Encourage independent booksellers to give freebies to budding poetry fans. We encourage booksellers and educators to visit our Pinterest board where hundreds of poems are downloadable and free.
3. Promote Poetry as Read-Alikes. Pair poetry books with other works of fiction or nonfiction for “read-alike” suggestions connected by theme or topic (like family, food, animals, school) in promotional materials. Get inspired by “Hamilton” and create visuals that cast classic poems with diverse characters.
4. Cultivate Talent. Publish more anthologies of stories, essays, and poems by diverse authors. Be open to new poetic formats from various traditions. Editors: before sending a rejection letter to an author of color for a picture book, poetry collection, or novel that doesn’t fit the needs of your publishing house, consider whether you can use that author’s talents in a future anthology or even add that author to a current work-in-progress.
5. Highlight Diverse Poets. Suggest teams of diverse poets from a single anthology for “Featured Author” sessions at festivals, conferences, and promotional videos. In January of this year, Pomelo Books worked with children’s literature professor Jeana Hrepich at Antioch University (Seattle) to create programs for MultiCultural Children’s Book Day with a team of poets: Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Julie Larios, Charles Waters, and Janet Wong.
Poetry is the ideal vehicle for promoting diversity in children’s literature.I It can be read in just a few minutes, but holds great depth, beautiful language, and much feeling. And with very little effort, we can make sure that diverse poems reach many more children and grow a few more poets for the future.
Sylvia Vardell (left) is Professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at Texas Woman¹s University and the 2014 recipient of the ALA Scholastic Library Publishing Award. Her current work focuses on poetry for children, including a regular blog, PoetryforChildren and the poetry column for ALA’s Book Links magazine.
Janet Wong (right) is a graduate of Yale Law School and former lawyer who switched careers and became a children¹s poet. Her dramatic career change has been featured on The Oprah Winfrey Show, CNN¹s Paula Zahn Show, and Radical Sabbatical.
Together, Vardell and Wong are the creative forces behind Pomelo Books and The Poetry Friday Anthology series, launched in 2012 and adopted by thousands of school districts nationwide.
