“These people are writing in a voice and with the knowledge and insight that we have been lacking.” “You can address the same issues probably even better because you have a Black character that has not been made into a one-dimensional figure,” Lewis said. Instead of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” try “The Hate U Give” by Angie Thomas, she urged. She challenged teachers to find alternatives to classic novels that could teach kids the same lessons. Lewis set out books that featured Black girls on the cover, and her students devoured them. In 2017, she created Read Woke, a program in which students explore literature that challenges social norms. People told Cicely Lewis, school librarian at Gwinnett County’s Meadowcreek High School in Norcross, that the students - 80% Latino in a low socioeconomic area - did not read, so why bother? But Lewis disagreed. “We are still battling against this assumption and belief that our story can be told by someone else and that is OK and that we are not eager or capable or can’t control our own narrative,” Nicole Johnson said. Much of that advocacy has focused on allowing children of color to see themselves as main characters in books written by writers that look like them. “What is happening right now is the result of decades of advocacy.” “When these conversations crop up, new voices come on board,” said Nicole Johnson, executive director of We Need Diverse Books. Many underrepresented writers believe that 2020 could become that watershed moment. “We saw the same pattern we have seen in the past five years with a little bit of an increase but not a huge watershed moment,” Horning said. Books about white children, talking bears, trucks, monsters, potatoes and more represent nearly three-quarters (71%) of children’s and young adult books published in 2019.įrom 2018 to 2019, the total number of children’s books by or about African Americans increased 0.5%, said Horning, citing statistics from the Book Center. Only about half of the books about Black or American Indian/First Nations people were actually written by Black or American Indian/First Nations writers, in contrast to books which the Book Center categorized as having Latinx, Asian and Asian American or Pacific Islander characters. Explore Bestselling authors talk candidly about race, injustice, and inequality it will be another couple of years before we see the change," she said. “If three of the five big publishers really commit to doing what they say they are going to do and hire people of color and actively pursue people of color and give them good contracts and pay them. Two Black women were also recently hired as publishers - Dana Canedy at Simon and Schuster and Lisa Lucas for Knopf imprints Pantheon and Schocken Books.īut it will take time to see any impact, Horning said. Hachette Book Group said it plans to set goals for staff diversity and book list diversity and share that data with all employees.
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