Blog
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The Rise in Transgender Children's Books
Recent and forthcoming titles include I am Jazz (Dial Books/Penguin Young Readers Group), a picture book co-written by transgender teen Jazz Jennings; the middle-grade novel Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky …
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Announcing the 2015 Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Awards
Westchester, NY — The Anne Izard Storytellers’ Choice Awards Committee is pleased to announce the recipients of the 12th biennial Awards. The awards will be presented in a ceremony on Tuesday, June 16, …
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Ezra Jack Keats Inducted into the NYS Writers Hall of Fame at Sixth Annual Ceremony
NEW YORK—June 5, 2015—Ezra Jack Keats (1916-1983) is among seven distinguished writers who were inducted this week into the NYS Writers Hall of Fame. The induction took place on June …
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HarperCollins to Launch the Explore the World of Margaret Wise Brown Program
First up is a fresh edition of The Dead Bird, featuring art by Christian Robinson, who won Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors for Josephine: The Dazzling Life of Josephine Baker, …
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Vermont Youth Book Awards Announced
The 2015 Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award goes to Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library by Chris Grabenstein (Random House, 2013). Named in honor of the late Vermont author, the Fisher Award …
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Scholastic Completes Sale of Educational Technology and Services Business Segment
New York, NY – Scholastic Corporation (NASDAQ: SCHL), the global children’s publishing, education and media company, announced today it had completed the previously reported sale of its Educational Technology and Services …
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All You Really Need to Know is What Jacqueline Woodson Said at BookCon
I always feel a little nostalgic and reflective at this time of year, because I started my publishing career in June of 1993. Looking back at the market then, I mostly giggle. Then I think about what I was complicit in perpetuating, and I want to barf.
This is the first book I ever helped to edit.
This is the first novel I ever published.
Two thousand years from now an archaeologist might reasonably assume that in the early nineties there was a law banning books for teens that didn’t feature straight white blond girls. I remember I brought up Won’t Know Till I Get There by Walter Dean Myers at an editorial meeting that fall—I’d read it in 8th Grade—and people stared at me, slack-jawed, not comprehending why I thought it would be cool to talk to him and maybe even try to work with him. “On a basketball book?” was one response. (From a very smart and well-meaning colleague whom I still love and respect, no less; I’m sure that person would also want to barf now, remembering this.)
On that note, not to make this post all about me, I have to add: June 2015 does mark an especially proud professional and personal moment. Soho Teen just published Adam Silvera’s debut, More Happy Than Not. I only mention this because I can imagine the response I would have gotten if I’d pitched the premise at the conference room table twenty-two years ago, to a room full of smart editors:
“A gay Puerto Rican boy from the Bronx wrestles with his sexual identity…”
I wouldn’t have made it that far. I wouldn’t have made it past “gay.”
It would be nice to pat myself on the back—I just did—but this post (I swear!) was intended to be a diversity takeaway from BEA and BookCon. In short, from my perspective, there has been real progress (in spite of the fact that the Children’s Breakfast Panel was still white-authors-only, almost comical given the 2014 BookCon backlash). And I am proud that the progress has come from inside the industry through the CBC, which was just awarded the BEA Industry Ambassador Award for its Diversity Initiative (of which I am a part) and outside the industry through the grassroots organization We Need Diverse Books, which has raised awareness and called out the industry’s collective intransigence.
So I’ll leave you with a beautiful nugget of wisdom from one of my favorite authors, Jacqueline Woodson, who sat on the BookCon We Need Diverse Books panel on Sunday May 31st. When asked why she thought Brown Girl Dreaming resonated with so many, she said it was her most deeply personal book to date. “The most personal is the most universal,” she concluded.
That is diversity, right there.
It is also all we really need to know or keep in mind when we make business decisions. We should all have that carved into our office doors. I hadn’t even realized it until she articulated it, but it speaks exactly to why I acquired Adam Silvera’s novel. And it speaks to why we in publishing are all finally, maybe, (I hope?) starting to lumber in the right direction.
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Jacqueline Woodson Named Young People's Poet Laureate
As laureate, Woodson will collaborate with the Poetry Foundation on issues relating to young people’s literature, as well as promote poetry among children and their families, teachers, and librarians. Woodson, …
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DreamWorks Animation to Adapt The Adventures of Beekle
Jason Reitman will serve as both the director and screenwriter. This project marks the first time Reitman will take the helm on an animated movie. The Adventures of Beekle: The …
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2015 Lambda Literary Award Winners Announced
The 2015 Lambda Literary Award winner in the LGBT Children’s/Young Adult category is: Five, Six, Seven, Nate!, by Tim Federle (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers) Finalists: Beyond Magenta: …
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Oscar Winner Eddie Redmayne Enters the Wizarding World as Newt Scamander in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
BURBANK, CA — Academy Award-winning actor Eddie Redmayne has been cast as Newt Scamander in Warner Bros. Pictures’ much-anticipated wizarding world adventure “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” The announcement …
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James Patterson Launches Children’s Book Imprint That Aims to Save Lives with Books
NEW YORK, NY – James Patterson is launching a children’s book imprint at Little, Brown & Company called jimmy patterson that will be unwaveringly focused on one goal: turning kids into …
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We Need Diverse Books,™ School Library Journal, and American Booksellers Association Create Booktalking Kits
The kits—including annotated WNDB™ book lists with shelftalkers and suggestions of comparative titles—will be available online through the Spring 2015 ABA Children’s White Boxes, and at diversebooks.org and www.slj.com. The …
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The Rewards of Re-Reading
According to Seltzer, each subsequent read provides the opportunity to take in more of the story and appreciate the author’s craft in a new way. It also gives us a …
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Submissions Open for the 2015 WNDB™ Walter Dean Myers Grant
Eligibility Applicants must identify as diverse Applicants must be unpublished as illustrators and/or authors. This includes both trade publishing and self-publishing. Essays, short stories, and articles do not render an …
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2015 Children's Choices List Announced
Each year, over 36,000 children from across the United States read newly-published children’s and young adult trade books and vote on their favorites. Culled from more than 500 titles, the …
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Survey: State Teachers of the Year Would Prioritize School Funding on Anti-Poverty, Early Learning & Reducing Learning Barriers
New York, NY–May 20, 2015–As the school year nears its close, the new class of State Teachers of the Year shared their perspectives on pressing issues facing educators today through …
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Neil Gaiman On His Love of Children's Books
I never forget how much I loved being a reader of children’s books as a kid, and how much they changed me — how much the inside of my head …
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2015 Boston Globe–Horn Book Awards Announced
This year’s winners are: PICTURE BOOK AWARD WINNER: The Farmer and the Clown by Marla Frazee (Beach Lane Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing Division) PICTURE BOOK …
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National Ambassador Kate DiCamillo on the Joy of Summer Reading
As the school year begins winding down, DiCamillo is spreading the word about the importance of summer reading and public libraries. She’s even suggested a few books to kick off …
