“A Market-Driven Solution to the Need for Diverse Books”

First Book (an organization that provides access to books for children in need) announced today that they aren’t just supporting the need for more diverse books in the publishing world for children and teens, but they’re also “putting our money where our mouth is and pledging to purchase 10,000 copies of every title we select.”

Last week, Twitter was awash with librarians, publishers, authors, families, and people around the world promoting the importance of providing diverse books for kids with the hashtag: #WeNeedDiverseBooks.  Children need to be able to see themselves in the literature they read and diversity in books is severely lacking.  Book awards such as the Coretta Scott King Award and the Pura Belpre Award promote African American authors and illustrators and Hispanic authors and illustrators respectively, but they don’t have a large selection to choose from as can be seen by authors and illustrators winning the awards multiple times.  Not only does diversity include race, but religion, culture, disabilities and anything that makes children different.  Books are an amazing way to create dialog between children and adults when discussing differences, friendships, families, and more.

For more information about First Book and their new initiative, check out their blog post.

Check out the official website of the campaign #WeNeedDiverseBooks.

And you’ll definitely want to check out this culturally diverse booklist created by School Library Journal.