Blog
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#DrawingDiversity: ‘Grandfather Gandhi’ illustrated by Evan Turk
Grandfather Gandhi by Arun Gandhi and Bethany Hegedus, illustrated by Evan Turk (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, March 2014). All rights reserved. @simonkidsuk
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Malinda Lo to Write a Young Adult Mystery Novel
I’ve been reading mystery fiction since I was a child, when I devoured Nancy Drews by the dozen, and even today the main genre of fiction I read is crime …
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Holiday Gifts for Every Kid Lit Lover!
Shop now at the official Children’s Book Week Store! Established in 1919, Children’s Book Week is the longest-running national literacy initiative in the country. From May 2-8, 2016, the Children’s …
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U.S. House passes Every Student Succeeds Act
CHICAGO – The U.S. House of Representatives passed S. 1177, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). The bill now moves on to the Senate and if passed, and signed into …
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Michael Pietsch Praises Young Readers
The generation of young readers now entering their adult years had a richer diet of superb books published for them than any before…As this generation comes to the market over …
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Penguin Random House Reveals New E-book Terms of Sale for Libraries
Under the new model, all adult and children’s frontlist and backlist e-books will be available for licensing without loan caps (as was previously the case for Penguin titles). The move …
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2016 Morris Award Finalists Announced
This year’s finalists are: Because You’ll Never Meet Me by Leah Thomas (Bloomsbury Children’s Books) Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert (Hyperion/Disney Book Group) Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Balzer …
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It’s the Economy
Contributed by Nikki Garcia, Assistant Editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
As someone who’s been lucky enough to be an editor for over two years, I’m interested in highlighting and advocating for all kinds of diversity. By now, we’re all familiar with the different types of diversity: race and ethnicity, sexuality and gender, ability, and religion—but one that doesn’t seem to be spoken about as much is socioeconomic diversity. This is the one I have felt deeply over the years. Money plays an important role in all of our lives—whether it’s the school we attended and the amount of financial aid we received, or access to job opportunities, our identities have all been shaped by finances from an early age. I often felt like I had to figure it out for myself—and figure it out for my family too. So when we talk about diversity of authors, their characters, and their stories—and the publishing professionals who turn these stories into books—economics are and always will be a factor.
This is something I’ve experienced firsthand. Growing up in New York City, one of the most expensive cities in the world, money was a constant worry. Even when I was too young to really understand how money worked, I still held my breath until this magical day arrived… payday. I knew money was something my parents stressed about. I could feel it in the air. But it wasn’t until I was much older that I truly understood that many of my hardships came from a socioeconomic level. My family didn’t have an understanding of the best ways to handle money, and this lack of knowledge was passed down, generation by generation.
My parents also assumed I was being given all of the information I needed from my high school guidance counselor regarding affordable colleges and how to apply for financial aid for school. But because the school was extremely overcrowded, I never received this information. This led to attending colleges I couldn’t really afford and racking up a student loan debt I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. So much information was missing, and I wasn’t taught to go look for it because… well, that was just not something we did.
These hiccups along the way to working in publishing made it so much harder to get to this moment in my career. This makes me question whether many people in publishing have had similar experiences. I wonder about the aspiring authors who can’t afford writing classes, or the promising future editors, publicists, and others who can’t afford to spend a summer in New York City to take on an internship. And what about all of those smart and diverse individuals who don’t even know that publishing exists as a viable career option? What can we do to help bring more socioeconomic diversity into the world of publishing?
I’m so happy to see organizations like We Need Diverse Books begin to tackle this problem. Their scholarship program is only the first step in adding more diversity. So I’m posing this question: How do we reach the high school and college students that are figuring all of this out on their own? How do we help the ones who don’t have the means or the information to help themselves? All suggestions are welcome.
Nikki Garcia is an assistant editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers where she works on books for all ages. During her time at LBYR, she has had the honor of working with authors such as Peter Brown, Wendy Mass, Matthew Quick, and Monica Brown. Born and raised right here in New York City, Nikki graduated from St. John’s University, and thankfully didn’t have to travel very far to make her dreams come true.
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My Very Own Library and Scholastic Book Fairs Give Low-Income Students the Chance to Choose Books for Free and Build Home Libraries
In Chicago, IL; Milwaukee, WI; Newark, NJ; Richmond, CA; Wilmington, DE and the Dominican Republic, 25,000 Kids Each Choose 10 New Books to Read and Own NEW YORK, NY—December 3, …
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Random House Children’s Books to Publish a New Line of Books From Actress, Mathematician, and Bestselling Author Danica McKellar
New York, NY — Random House Children’s Books has acquired a new line of kid-friendly math books from New York Times bestselling author Danica McKellar, it was announced today by …
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Girls Who Code Partners with Penguin Young Readers
Some of the projects in development include a nonfiction book introducing coding for summer 2017, and a series of middle-grade fiction titles and board books. Girls Who Code…is a graphically …
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Why Reading is More Than Fundamental
Reading not only sparks a child’s imagination, but paves the way for lifelong learning. Reading tugs [children] outside of themselves, connecting them to a wider world and filling it with wonder. …
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#DrawingDiversity: ‘Niño Wrestles the World’ by Yuyi Morales
Niño Wrestles the World by Yuyi Morales (Neal Porter Books – Roaring Brook Press/@macmillankids, June 2013). All rights reserved.
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Happy 30th Anniversary, ‘Polar Express’!
Allsburg and the team at Houghton MIfflin Harcourt Books for Young Readers are confident that the anniversary edition features an improved look, while preserving the magic of the original. As part …
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Read-Alouds for All Ages
From literary dinners, festive staged readings, and read-aloud sleepovers, there are countless ways incorporate reading aloud into your everyday routine. The benefits are clear: comprehension, vocabulary, and imagination are developed …
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Winners Announced for the 2015 Goodreads Choice Awards
More than 3 million votes were cast for this year’s awards. Several popular authors — including two Children’s Choice Book Award winners — were recognized with this honor for their latest …
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An Editor’s Response
Contributed by Yolanda Scott, Editorial Director at Charlesbridge
I’ve been following the controversy surrounding the text and illustrations of the picture book A Fine Dessert (NPR story here and NYT article here), and I want to comment from my perspective as an editor. I wasn’t the editor of A Fine Dessert, but I could have been. Well, not literally, as the manuscript wasn’t submitted to me, but I mean that I easily could have been the editor of a book that despite my best intentions was accused of propagating stereotypes about slavery. It could have happened because I’m white: the product of a white-dominant society and a white-dominant industry that influence me in ways that I am sometimes blind to.
When I first read A Fine Dessert, I didn’t stop for a second to think that there might be anything offensive in either the text or illustrations. I was a bit lukewarm on the book, as memory serves, but only due to a concern about the story arc. Mostly, I was intrigued by the recipe for blackberry fool, which I photocopied and brought home to try with my daughter.
So when the blogs and Twitter started exploding with anger and indignation, I was surprised. And I thought, Thank goodness that wasn’t my book. But I knew in my heart it could have been. My efforts to police my books aren’t enough. I like to think I have been useful in some ways: removing a picture of a raccoon from the clothing of a black baby, changing the name of a scary bull in a picture book from “black bull” to “big bull” (as well as changing its color), and getting rid of the watermelons in a plantation scene. I noticed these problems and changed them, but given the egregious nature of all three, I’m not sitting here patting myself on the back. Instead, I’m scared about what I’m not noticing.
My knee-jerk reaction to controversies like those surrounding A Fine Dessert is to want to retreat and stop publishing anything that could be considered controversial, or anything that might show my ignorance. And there are some people, understandably so, who would say that it is better for a book not to be published than to be published if it’s flawed. I get that, I really do, but I’m not sure it’s the answer.
The answer, I think, includes hiring more people of color in publishing, more actively seeking out works by people of color, and finding ways to publish those works with sensitivity. Publishers should also commit to finding appropriate expert readers for works in progress. And we all need to listen better and learn from one another—especially when mistakes come to light. These are not new ideas, but they are important ones that bear repeating.
There is much work to be done.
Yolanda Scott is editorial director at Charlesbridge, where she has edited nearly 200 books since beginning her career in 1995. She is a co-founder of Children’s Books Boston, sits on the board of directors of the Children’s Book Council, and is a member of the CBC Diversity Committee. She lives near Boston.
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Public Libraries Build New Spaces for Teens
With newly-designed areas for silent study, group work, video and music production, gaming, and more, public libraries are quickly becoming hot spots for teens. [Librarians] are making a concerted effort to …
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Bestselling Diary of a Wimpy Kid Author Jeff Kinney Brings Laughter and Literacy Around the World
New York, NY — Jeff Kinney, author of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, is on an unprecedented global tour to meet and greet international readers of his books …
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How to Keep Kids Readings Over the Holidays
Here are a few tips for encouraging young readers to keep at it: Bring books on your trip Listen to an audio book on the road Set an example by …
