Weekly Roundup: June 30 - July 6, 2013

• Multicultural Books for Children: 40+ Book Lists at Pragmatic Mom

• Whitewashing: The Disappearance of Race and Ethnicity from YA Covers  at Inside a Dog

• Sci Fi Fantasy Books for Kids That Have Disabled Characters  at Patheos

• Russian Book for Teens Tackles LGBT Prejudice, Growing Up  at The Moscow News

• Kolkata Schools Tweek Classics to Teach Gender Sensitivity  at Times of India

Double Dose: Weekly Roundup: June 16 - June 29, 2013

• Openly YA Tour Hits the Road at Publisher's Weekly

• Resources for Parents of Gender Variant Children  at Express Milwaukee

• As Demographics Shift, Kids' Books Stay Stubbornly White  at NPR's Code Switch

• Why Hasn't the Number of Multicultural Books Increased in Eighteen Years?  at Lee & Low's blog

• Shaikha Bodour Emphasises Importance of Providing More Books to Visually Impaired  at Gulf News

• How Young Adult Literature Challenges Gender Norms  at Thought Catalog

• Degrees of Difficulty: Writing the Other at Rich in Color

• When Every Culture Is a Foreign Culture: Writing on the Autism Spectrum  at Rich in Color

Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!

Weekly Roundup: June 2 - June 8, 2013

•  Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman: 'I'm Looking Forward to Redressing the Balance for Teenagers' at The Guardian

• New Book Details How to Teach Yoga to Autistic and Special-Needs Kids at SunSentinel

• The Worry-Free Vacation at Rich in Color

• A Short List of Great Resources for Racial Diversity in Young Adult Sci-Fi  at bitchmedia

•  Black Characters Put Parents Off Books, New Children's Laureate Says at the Telegraph

• What Is Authentic, And What Is Offensive?  at CBC Diversity

• Mermaids in America  at Diversity in YA

Weekly Roundup: May 19 - May 25, 2013

• Little Women: Children's Literature's Stand-In Parents at The Guardian

• Ruth Feldman's 'Blue Thread' An Important YA Read: Review at New Voices

•  Archie Comics Gay Kiss: 'Playful Poke' Issue Released on Aug. 7 at Examiner.com

• Diversity on the Page, Behind the Pencil, and in the Office at Publisher's Weekly

• Using Diversity in YA Literature to Open the Doors of Reading  at ALA

• Book Covers: How Gender Is Not the Only Issue  at the HuffPost

• Children's Book Author Allen Say On Winning Awards & His Latest Project  at Oregon Public Broadcasting

• 2013 Middle Grade Black Boys: Seriously, People?  at Fuse #8

Book Review: Gum Girl!: Book 1, Chews Your Destiny

Gum Girl!: Book 1, Chews Your Destiny

written and illustrated by Rhode Montijo
pub date: July 9, 2013

In this fun early chapter book graphic novel hybrid, Montijo begins a series about a girl who discovers she has new superpowers as Gum Girl. Gabby Gomez loves to chew gum. She loves it so much that she even chews gum in bed--until the morning she wakes up with a wad of the stuff stuck in her hair. While her mom is able to get the gum out with peanut butter, she outlaws gum chewing for her daughter. Poor Gabby doesn't know what to do without her chewable obsession. Fortunately/unfortunately, she finds a piece of "limited edition MIGHTY-MEGA ULTRA-STRETCHY SUPER-DUPER EXTENDA-BUBBLE BUBBLE GUM" in her pocket and gives into temptation, despite her mother's new edict. Gabby gets what's coming to get for disobeying sooner than later though when she blows her biggest bubble ever and consequently gets electrocuted. She ends up covered in gum, but soon discovers that her gum-covered self has new stretchy, gummy powers that allow her to right wrongs and help people in need.

Weekly Roundup: May 12 - May 18, 2013

• Celebrate YA Books That Feature Haitian Culture at The Hub

• 10 YA Books About Southeast Asian Americans at Diversity in YA

Older but still good:

• Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Characters in YA Fiction at The Hub

Rest in Peace, Fredrick McKissack

 Fredrick L. McKissack

August 12, 1939 - April 28, 2013

On April 28, 2013, respected and prolific children's book author, Fredrick L. McKissack, passed away from congestive heart failure. He was 73. Over the course of an over three-decade collaboration, Mr. McKissack and his wife, Patricia McKissack, wrote over 100 children's books. Winning many awards--including multiple Coretta Scott King awards--the McKissacks focused on biographies and histories, chronicling the lives of influential African Americans and the Black experience in America. One book by the McKissacks that had a great impact on me was Rebels Against Slavery: American Slave Revolts. I remember reading it in junior high and being shocked and empowered by the accounts of those who fought against slavery as slaves--stories I had never heard in school. The world of children's literature is poorer for his loss, but the books he left us are a lasting legacy. You can read more about Mr. McKissack's life in The New York Times and Publisher's Weekly.

It's Children's Book Week!

It's national Children's Book Week here in the U.S.! Children's Book Week was established in 1919 and celebrates children's books and reading. Events are held nationwide and you can find out what's going on in your area by visiting the official Children's Book Week website. While there you can also print the official 2013 Children's Book Week bookmark by Grace Lin that includes instructions on how to draw a Chinese Dragon!

Weekly Roundup: May 5 - May 11, 2013

• The Gender Coverup at the HuffPost

• YA Books Need to Reflect Our Diverse Society at The Telegraph

• Fredrick McKissack, Half of Award-Winning Writing Team, Dies at 73  at SLJ

•  Judging Covers at CBC Diversity

Book Review: Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel

Ask My Mood Ring How I Feel 

 by Diana López 
pub date: June 11, 2013

Erica Montenegro, known by her nickname "Chia", is used to only having to worry about her witty t-shirt collection, her annoying younger siblings Carmen and Jimmy, "close encounters" with cute boys, and her expansive Chia pet collection. All that changes the summer before eighth grade when Erica learns her mother has breast cancer. When her family journeys to a special church, to pray for her mother to be healed, Chia makes a promesa to God in el cuarto de milagros (the Miracle Room) that in thanks for her mother surviving cancer, she will make a sacrifice. When Chia decides her sacrifice will be participating in the Race for the Cure breast cancer awareness walk, as well as getting 500 sponsors for the walk, she knows it will take effort. But walking in the hot San Antonio sun is harder than she thought, and getting people to open their doors and hear her out--let alone sponsor her--seems nearly impossible.

Weekly Roundup: April 28 - May 4, 2013

• This, That, Both, Neither: The Badging of Biracial Identity in Young Adult Realism at YALSA

• The UAE's IBBY Conference Was 'Much More Than Bringing Children Together with Books' at The National

• Anne Frank's Diary Too 'Pornographic' For 7th-Grade Students, Claims Michigan Parent at the Huffington Post 

• Racial and gender inequalities in YA literature covered in new issue of YALSA's Journal of Research on Libraries and Young Adults at American Libraries Magazine

 Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments!

 

Weekly Roundup: April 21 - April 27, 2013

• Review of Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught at The Guardian

• Penguin Books India Launches 'INKED' at India Education Diary

• Ezra Jack Keats Is Celebrated by Akron Art Museum for Classic Illustrated Storybook "The Snowy Day" at Cleveland.com (I saw this exhibit at The Jewish Museum in New York and highly recommend it to anyone who has the chance to see it)

Rest in Peace, E.L. Konigsburg

 

E.L. Konigsburg

February 10, 1930 - April 19, 2013

Last Friday, two-time Newbery medalist E.L. Konigsburg passed away. Konigsburg's career as a children's book author spanned over half a century and her books are beloved by generations of readers. Many of her books are modern classics and she was a pioneer of diversity, including characters of different races and abilities in her stories. We're sad to loose such an amazingly talented writer, but so grateful for the stories she left us. You can read more about E.L. Konigsburg's life and work at BBC News and the Huffington Post.

 

Weekly Roundup: April 14-20, 2013

Every week we come across various article and things that relate to diversity issues in children's and young adult books. Rather than attempting to write individual posts about each one, we've decided to try a weekly roundup. We're just going to link to things we deem most pertinent, but some good ones are sure to slip through the cracks, so if you have anything to add, please let us know in the comments!

 Weekly roundup for April 14-20:

• "To J.K. Rowling, from Cho Chang"  by Rachel Rostad at Youtube (not safe for work)

• Response to Critiques of "To J.K. Rowling, from Cho Chang" by Rachel Rostad at Youtube

•  Children's Books with Minority Characters Are Hard to Find; Here Are at Few Resources at Southern California Public Radio

• From the Heart: Illustrating Across Race and Culture  upcoming event with author/illustrator Anne Sibley O'Brien in Watertown, MA

•  Representing LGBT Romance on Young Adult Book Covers on Malinda Lo's blog

•  How Do You Find Feminist Children's Books? at bitchmedia

Older articles that may be of interest:

• Talking to Kids About Race  at the Battle Creek Enquirer

• Publishers Speak Out About Diversity: An Interview with the CBC Diversity Committee at YALSA

• Publishing and Diversity  at American Indians in Children's Literature

2013 Coretta Scott King, Pura Belpre, Schneider Family, and Stonewall Book Award Winners

Since we began this blog in February, and the ALA awards are announced in January, we decided not to post about the winners. However, there has been a lot of interest in the posts cataloging the Asian/Pacific Heritage Awards and The Rainbow List, so we thought we'd better go ahead and post the Coretta Scott King, Pura Belpre, Schneider Family, and Stonewall Book award winners here, even though we're a few months late!

2013 Coretta Scott King Book Awards

Illustrator

Winner:

2013 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature

Earlier this month, the winners of the 2013 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature were announced. The winners are books selected by the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) "which promote Asian/Pacific culture and heritage and are awarded based on literary and artistic merit" (from their website).

The winners and honorees for picture books, children's literature, and young adult literature are below.

Book Recommendations: Happy Year of the Snake!

Happy Chinese New Year! Today marks the beginning of the Year of the Snake. When you're done playing with the fun Google Doodle for today, check out the blogs below for Lunar New Year picture book recommendations. My apologies for not making up our own list--we'll be sure to make up for it next year!