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

Read What 6th Graders Think of Books and Marketing in a Chain Store

We've been following a series about a group of 6th grade students in NYC that studied book covers and various diversity issues including race and gender. As a part of their study, the students visited a big local bookstore chain (that remains nameless) and commented on what they saw. Among the insightful thoughts the 6th graders shared are these:

“I think that once the people who buy books realize that boys can bake and girls can fight dragons, authors will start making more books like that.”

“In the chapter book section, I saw that most of the books that had non-Caucasian characters didn’t have that character on the cover.”

“On the covers, I saw thin, pretty girls. I didn’t see any overweight girls or anyone with acne. I think that these covers shape an idea of perfect in a girls mind, and makes them want to be like that, even though everyone was born perfect.”

“I was disgusted that the authors didn’t seem to realize that not every girl is having problems that she needs her boyfriend to solve.”

We're really impressed with what these students observed, as well as their thoughtful responses, which highlight the importance of educating children about diversity issues.  Click here to read more about what these intelligent 6th graders had to say. All quotes and pictures come from the site.

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!

 

Resources for Talking to Children About Race Article at the Huffington Post

Over at the HuffPost, they've posted an article on Resources for Talking to Your Children About Race. Though I disagree with the authors contention that at some point all children begin to exclude others based on outside differences (pretty sure this never happened to me), I agree with her assertion that race and racism needs to be discussed with children intentionally. I thought her suggestions for opening dialogue about race, exposing children to racial diversity, and her book recommendations were worth passing along--you can read the article in its entirety here.

Do you agree or disagree with the article? Do you have any favorite books you use for discussing race with children? We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments!

All the Colors of the Rainbow: 2012 YA Book Covers That Display Racial Diversity

As a follow-up to the last post, we thought something positive was in order. So, here are all the YA covers from 2012 we could find that prominently feature POC. Enjoy and be encouraged--things are changing, even if it is not as quickly as we might hope.