An Unhappy Birthday for the President
President’s Day falls this year, as always, in the midst of Black History Month. With educators, parents and citizens across race striving to make African American history and culture much, much more than a 28 Day celebration, what role does black history have in the study of our founding fathers? A recent controversy in the children’s literature world shows that George Washington, a slaveholder, can no longer escape our scrutiny. In January, Scholastic Press canceled the publication of A Birthday Cake for George Washington by Ramin Ganeshram and illustrated...
Read MoreBy Any Means Necessary: Malcolm X’s Early Years as an Audiobook Download
Celebrate Malcolm X’s 90th Birthday with a Spoken Word Performance of His Teen Years! Meet Malcolm X Before He Knew He Was Destined to Fight for #BlackLivesMatter! FREE MP3 SPOKEN WORD On 5/21/15 a free MP3 audiobook download of the acclaimed young adult novel X: A Novel will be available for one week. Readers who grab that file between 5/21/15 (8 AM EST) and 5/27/15 will be able to keep the spoken word performance of Malcolm X’s teenage years indefinitely. SIGN UP VIA TEXT You can sign-up on the spot to get a text alert when the download file becomes available....
Read MoreReaping Frustration: YA Novels & Diversity in Awards Season
A children’s book award season that began in November with a racist joke by National Book Award host Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events) minutes after Jacqueline Woodson accepted her National Book Award for Brown Girl Dreaming ended with resounding support for diverse books at the 2015 ALA Youth Media Awards on February 2nd. Daniel Handler’s tasteless remarks were followed by a tasteful donation of $10,000 to We Need Diverse books and a pledge to match donations up to $100,000. Before the 24 hours were out, close to 1/4 million dollars...
Read MorePeaceful & Proud Inside: Muslim Families in KidLit
With the headlines screaming “Muslim Extremists” and “Muslim Terrorists” in wake of attacks in Paris, it is good time to feed your children a good diet of books featuring Muslim families from around the world and from our very own neighborhoods. After 9/11, many looked to the bookshelves in the United States and found them bereft of stories about Muslim children and families. Children’s book authors, illustrators and publishers sought to quickly fill the gap in our literature. We still have so far to go, but there are now so many wonderful stories—including the...
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