Blog
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The Children’s Book Council and DOGObooks.com Partner to Encourage Kids to Read More This Summer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Tiburon, CA May 20, 2015 — For the 3rd year in a row The Children’s Book Council is proud to once again partner with DOGObooks.com on their …
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16 Students and 5 Teachers Named National 180 Award Winners for Academic Success
NEW YORK, NY – May 11, 2015 – Sixteen incredible students and five dedicated teachers in grades 3 through 12 have been named 2015 National 180 Award winners by Scholastic (NASDAQ: …
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Happy Birthday, Margaret Wise Brown!
Brown was a shy and thoughtful child with a love of animals that would later shine through her work. She attended Hollins University in Virginia before returning to New York …
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Razorbill Acquires Sequel to An Ember in the Ashes, The New York Times Bestselling Novel by Sabaa Tahir
New York, NY — Razorbill, an imprint of Penguin Young Readers, has acquired the sequel to An Ember in the Ashes, the New York Times bestselling debut novel by Sabaa Tahir. An Ember in …
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Diverse Characterization Matters
(or Why I’m Grateful for Being Forced to Watch a Kid’s Show About Mermaids)
I was visiting my sister in Boston a month ago, and found myself amused (and strangely inspired) by watching, of all things, the kid’s show Bubble Guppies. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s basically a cartoon about a group of merperson preschoolers who go on adventures and learn life lessons in the sea (is merperson correct? Mermaid boys and girls who go to school in the ocean…I’m not sure why I’m looking for any of it to make logical sense. It’s cute and draws my two nephews in like flies).
The point is that this show follows your typical preschool cartoon formula. Present children with a group of very enthusiastic (one might say too enthusiastic) preschool characters who sing, smile a whole lot, and are oh so happy to make learning fun! What caught my attention in watching this show with my two-year-old nephew Cole one morning was that there was one kid in the group (named Nonny) who was clearly different than the rest. I’m not talking about the color of his skin or his cultural makeup (which this show represents nicely with a diverse cartoon cast), but his personality. Unlike the others in the show, Nonny rarely smiles (even when singing, which is amusing to watch. He has a permanent skeptical face). He’s shy, always looks wary of the goings-on around him, and is thoughtful and reserved. Basically he’s the kid I was as a child, the kid I see some of my friends have now, the kid who stays on the outside of the group until it’s safe to come in and play.
It occurred to me in watching this character that I would have loved Nonny growing up because he reflected me and didn’t fit in naturally with the rest of the more extroverted and boisterous group taking the focus and attention. And in the show, that was presented as a-OK.
I mention this story because I think this sort of thoughtful characterization on the part of the show creators (yes, on a preschool cartoon) is applicable to the way we look at the literature that is shaping our children today. When you take a look at the ongoing diversity conversation in this industry, you have to experience it through an impressionable child’s eyes, and how all characters in every story are portrayed within the diversity spectrum from top to bottom. Children are so malleable and so hungry to explore and understand the world around them and, most importantly, how they fit inside it, that they are hyper-attuned to how any character they see that reflects their own image fits into his or her surroundings (in television, literature, and other mediums). Nonny works well because, while he’s different, he’s not called-out for being so, nor ostracized from the group as the stereotypical quiet kid. He just joins into the group when he wants, and kids who watch the program have the benefit of watching a character who is a little quieter and yet still has a place inside that world (of merpeople).
Now I’ll confess here that I’m a white female working inside the publishing industry, so my inspirational characters growing up were Eloise (as a small child), Catherine (from Catherine, Called Birdy), and Jane Eyre (minus the crazy wife in the attic). But those characters were so vital to my own childhood development in identifying with strong female figures with heart and intelligence and endurance I could aspire to in my own life, that they’ve stuck with me still now that I’m into my thirties. And for my nephews, my friends’ children, and my own (theoretical) children down the line, I want to gift them with a world where they have access to a variety of characters who fit their identities that they can safely attach to and learn from, both in personality and in their cultural makeup.
While I think we are making strides toward more diverse children’s literature, so, so many children of differing cultural backgrounds remain so sorely underrepresented in the books created for them today. And just like my connection with little Nonny on Bubble Guppies, there are so many children throughout the world looking for a bit of themselves in everything they’re soaking in with the literature they devour. It breaks my heart that some of them likely aren’t finding it.
So it’s worth reiterating that producing, marketing, publicizing, and selling children’s books featuring diverse characters isn’t just an item to check off our list to then move on to the next thing. It’s a necessary, fundamental shift that is vital to how we do business to gift future generations with a more colorful and safe world to develop in, to become the best people they can be. With so many kids of all different backgrounds looking for a little bit of themselves in the literature that’s shaping them, day by day, it is our duty to make sure that literature is up to the task.
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Announcing Our Children's Book Week Bookstore Display Contest Winner!
View photos of all the entries here. Share the best of Book Week with your friends and fellow kid lit lovers! Book Week is beautiful! See bookstore window displays here: …
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Hollywood Director Todd Haynes May Adapt Wonderstruck
Selznick drew inspiration from a great number of sources for this project including an E. L. Konigsburg novel, a documentary called Through Deaf Eyes, and two exhibits at the American Museum of Natural …
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Chelsea Clinton Aims to Inform and Inspire Young Readers to Change the World in Book this Fall
New York, NY — In a new book for young readers ages 10-14 scheduled for publication on September 15, 2015, Chelsea Clinton breaks down some of the world’s biggest challenges …
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Coloring Books for Adults
Penguin Random House recently acquired the next two books by Johanna Basford the “queen of coloring,” to be released in the fall of 2016. The book will be edited by …
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Rick Riordan Has Written a New Percy Jackson Companion Book
Artist John Rocco created both the interior illustrations and the cover art. Disney Hyperion will release the book on August 18, 2015. That date coincides with Percy Jackson’s birthday. (Rick Riordan’s …
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Children's Book Council to Receive BookExpo America's Industry Ambassador Award
Norwalk, CT, May 19, 2015: BookExpo America (BEA) is pleased to announce that the Children’s Book Council has been singled out to receive this year’s Industry Ambassador Award. This will …
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New York Times Bestselling YA Fantasy Author Laini Taylor Signs New Three-Book Deal with Little, Brown Books For Young Readers
New York, NY – Following the international success of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone Trilogy, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers will publish three new young adult novels by New …
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Happy Birthday, L. Frank Baum!
Baum did not begin writing for children until he was in his forties, having previously worked as a journalist and businessman. He developed a love of storytelling by spinning tales …
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Erin Stein to Launch Imprint
The first title that will be released by Imprint is a book entitled Babies Ruin Everything; the release has been scheduled for Spring 2016. Matthew Swanson and Robbie Behr, husband-and-wife …
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Tuck Everlasting Musical to Debut On Broadway in 2016
The Broadway-bound musical — about love, family and living life to the fullest — features a book by Claudia Shear, music by Chris Miller and lyrics by Nathan Tysen. It …
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The CBC and the unPrison Project's Prison Nursery Libraries Initiative Featured on MSNBC
In honor of Mother’s Day and the 96th annual Children’s Book Week, the Children’s Book Council partnered with the unPrison Project to establish prison-nursery libraries in 10 states. Jiang-Stein spoke …
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What Are You?
A Post That Has Nothing to Do with Sookie Stackhouse
Contributed to CBC Diversity by Christian Trimmer
“What are you?”
“Uh…”
“I mean, where are you from?”
“Oh! Chicago.”
“No, where are you from from?”
“America?”Throughout my life, I’ve had conversations like the above. It’s human nature to put people into categories, and I was not easily placed. I inherited my Vietnamese mother’s eyes and cheekbones and my white father’s nose and skin tone, giving me what has been called an “exotic” look.
From an early age, I made efforts to define my racial identity (something kids do as early as two years old, for themselves and others, according to a number of studies). As a boy, I identified as white. Other than my mom, who was the only one in her family to move to the United States, all of my relatives were white. The neighborhood I lived in was predominantly white. Plus, everyone on the TV shows I watched and in the books I read were white (or animals). On top of that, when I went to Little Saigon in Chicago with my mom, I felt distinctly “other.” It’s not surprising that I would choose to identify with my white half. Dr. Erin Winkler, an associate professor at the University of Wisconsin, notes, “[C]hildren pick up on the ways in which whiteness is normalized and privileged in U.S. society…picture books, children’s movies, television, and children’s songs…all include subtle messages that whiteness is preferable.”
But my classmates had different ideas. My eyes were slanted enough to earn me the label “Chinese” (it was the 1980s—everyone Asian was Chinese). I excelled at school, particularly in math, and was an accomplished tennis player (a sport that requires focus and discipline), only because, as my peers regularly informed me, I was Asian.
Throughout high school, I continued to try to downplay my Vietnamese heritage—I wanted to be like the cool, popular white kids around me. When I got to college, though, I started to self-identify as Asian (I’ll tell you why over a drink). Mind you, I didn’t join any of the Asian-American groups on campus; I simply started saying “I’m Asian” when asked “What are you?” After moving to Los Angeles, I switched back to white (I’ll tell you why over a drink). My commercial agent thought differently, sending me to castings where I was alternately the whitest, most Asian, or least Hispanic person there.
It’s only within the last decade that I’ve embraced both sides of my heritage. (The opportunity to choose one’s own racial identity is a relatively new one.) It’s important to me that I honor my mom and dad’s influences on me, so I make a point to correct people if they place me in just one category. For a while, I used the word “Eurasian.” Now, I describe myself as biracial and give the specifics if asked.
I’ve chatted with friends who are biracial or multiracial, and we’ve all had very different experiences, depending on our mix, gender, and geography. One thing we have in common is that none of us could single out a book from our childhoods that captured the experience of being multiracial. Where were the books for us? Don’t “exotic” people deserve to have their stories told, too?
Happily, today there are a number of children’s books that are about or star kids who are mixed. (Do a search on Goodreads and you’ll find lists for all reading levels.) I’ve had the pleasure of reading novels that have characters whose upbringings mirror my own, books like The Counterfeit Family Tree of Vee Crawford-Wong by Lindsay Tam Holland, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han and Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I saw myself in Vee, Lara Jean, and Park’s stories. I would have loved to have read them as a teenager.
With nine million Americans identifying as more than one race, with one in every seven marriages being between spouses of a different race or ethnicity, and with the number of mixed-race babies soaring, the demand for more of these stories is growing.
As an editor, I’m looking to acquire projects that address the biracial experience. As a writer, I hope someday soon to add to the canon of existing titles.
Christian Trimmer is an executive editor for Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. He is also the author of the picture book Simon’s New Bed, out 8/25/15. Learn more at christiantrimmer.com.
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Little Free Library® Announces Worldwide Book Drive for Children's and Young Adult Books At Its 25,000 Locations
Minneapolis, MN — To mark its third anniversary as a non-profit organization on Saturday, May 16, 2015, Little Free Library® invites the public to participate in the Worldwide Little Free Library Book Drive by donating new …
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Turning Prisons into Reading Centers
Every child in the world deserves reading and literacy, not just those whose parents live in the free world.
Contributed to CBC Diversity by Deborah Jiang-Stein
At a time when most babies coo along with lullaby wind-up toys, my ambient sounds were women’s voices in small clusters and the wail of a siren across the prison compound for count time. Count is when prisoners report to their bunks in their cells or living units while the guards count the population. Three times a day for a year, the siren blasted in my backyard—the prison yard.
I was born in prison during the beginning of one of my birth mother’s many prison sentences. She was a heroin addict sentenced for drug-related crimes, much like many in prison today. She was in the first months of pregnancy at the time of her sentence, and I lived in the prison for a year until Child Protection Services removed me for placement into foster care. Later, I was adopted into a family of academics, my parents both English teachers.
But sometimes I’ve wondered: Did anyone read to me in prison? Was my birth mother allowed board books in the room I shared with her for the year we spent together?
Whether she did or didn’t, I’ll never know. What I do know is that my love of learning, one reason why I am a writer today, is because the family who adopted me instilled a love of words and reading within me, along with a passion for art, music, theater, and dance — all things creative.
My exposure to reading as a child led me to found The unPrison Project because:
1. I have a deep-rooted tie to women in prisons, especially mothers.
But most of all because the facts prove what I’ve known all along:
2. Life skills like reading and literacy, and non-cognitive skills like persistence, goals planning, and self-confidences, all contribute to success in our communities.
I also founded The unPrison Project because:
- Two thirds of women in prisons are mothers, the majority with young children under age 10.
- 7-10% of women sentenced to prison are pregnant at time of sentencing.
- Most often, infants are removed at birth and if arrangements aren’t made with a family member for custody so the baby enters the foster care system. Thus begins a second generation of trauma due to mother-child separation.
The science of early childhood development teaches us that a child acquires the ability to think, speak, learn, and reason during his or her first three years of life. A baby’s early experiences shape his or her brain’s architecture, building either a strong or a fragile foundation for life, learning, and health. Adverse early experiences and deprivation can impact a baby’s brain development for an entire lifetime, and positive learning experiences can set the path for self-esteem and possibility.
After years of speaking in prisons to talk about the value of life skills, I recognized the void of children’s books in visiting rooms as well as in the prison nurseries where I visited mother-baby programs.
Nine states (New York, Washington, West Virginia, California, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, South Dakota) currently have on-site nurseries for a select number of pregnant inmate mothers to live with and care for their babies born during their prison sentence, and another nursery is scheduled to open in the Wyoming women’s prison in the near future. Often, local community agencies will donate nursery supplies, clothes, cribs, and other material needs, but there’s always a need for new and current diverse books.
Many prisons say they only have “only a few dog-eared books” in their visiting rooms. Visiting rooms in prisons, as well as in juvenile detentions, are the equivalent to one of the largest “in the margins” classrooms. These spaces are ripe for the development of on-site children’s book library carts and reading centers for learning and literacy.
By stocking prison nurseries with inclusive children’s books for ages 0-3, babies born in prison are groomed for a lifelong love of reading and learning.
Literacy is learned, and parents who can’t read or write often pass on illiteracy.
A partnership between the Children’s Book Council and The unPrison Project is providing an abundance of new books for prison nurseries, and also for visiting rooms in prisons. Our goal is to help set the groundwork for literacy in the next generation and, at the same time, nurture new bonding and parenting skills for incarcerated mothers, which is as important inside prison as it is outside.
This specific and large diverse market of incarcerated mothers and their children need attention. What if prison nurseries and visiting rooms were turned into reading centers? Providing an environment of reading and literacy will help change the prospects of babies born to mothers in prisons. As the late Walter Dean Myers said, “What I believe is that we need to have every child reading to give them a shot at life.”
The CBC/unPrison Project partnership makes a statement that reading is for every child, not just those with parents in the free world. The CBC/unPrison Project partnership makes a statement that reading is for every child, not just those with parents in the free world.
Reading creates an altered state, a grounding between parent and child. If it weren’t for my early exposure to reading and the exploration I’ve found in words and books, I most likely would have continued to follow in the footsteps of my birth mother. Instead, I’ve made my mission to give back in whatever ways I can to the communities of my roots, those inside prisons.
Our world will be a better place when we each find ways to give service to others and, for me, I can’t imagine a better way than to open up a world of possibilities through stories.
Deborah Jiang-Stein, author of the memoir, Prison Baby, is a national speaker and founder of The unPrison Project, a 501c3 nonprofit working to empower and inspire incarcerated women and girls with programs, resources, and tools for life skills and mentoring. For more than 10 years, Deborah has championed support for people in need of freedom, education, shelter, and job development.
- Two thirds of women in prisons are mothers, the majority with young children under age 10.
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Marcia Brown Has Passed On
“Ms. Brown was one of only two artists — the other is David Wiesner — to receive the Caldecott Medal three times. She also illustrated six Caldecott Honor Books, as the runners-up are …
