Free Virtual Event! Indigenous Voices: Authentic Children's Literature in the Classroom and Library - May 25 - May 26, 2021

Register here! https://sdcoe.k12oms.org/event_register.php?id=201019

Rethinking Thanksgiving at the Library

As the fall holiday season begins, it's good to think about how to provide service in a more inclusive way with our collections and how we spotlight Native voices. This 2018 article by Dr. Debbie Reese has some great suggestions.

To read the whole NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) blog post, please click here.

How Diverse WERE Kid's Books Published in 2018?

It is always great news when Sarah Park Dahlen and David Huyck collaborate to produce a clear infographic of how diverse books published for youth are.  Their stats are based on the great work of our Cooperative Children's Book Center at UW-Madison School of Education. The inventory the CCBC does is based on 3, 134 books published in 2018.

There were significant changes from the  first iteration  of this infographic in 2015 but IMHO, there is a long way to go.

What can we do as youth library staff to help increase the number of diverse youth books?

• Buy them
• Highlight, display, booktalk them and use them consistently in programs
• Promote them at every opportunity with colleagues in your networks
• Be vocal in demanding from publishers and jobbers more #ownvoices #weneeddiversebooks titles

We all can play an important part in this work!

To access this infographic and read more about the work, please stop by Sarah Park Dahlen's blog.

#OwnVoices

Not sure what the whole #OwnVoices thing is?  Here's some good info about what it is and why it matter to people who work with kids and teens.  #OwnVocies is the latest hashtag in the fight for more diverse books.  It is used to recommend novels with diverse characters whose author hails from that same diverse group.  It began in a tweet from author Corinne Duyvis and has spread and sparked discussion about what authentic voices look like in novels.  So, to make your journey into the #OwnVoices discussion a bit easier, I have compiled some articles, booklists, and other fun goodies!

Corinne Duyvis website
Read Brightly article
YA Interrobang Twitter highlights
CCBC African/African America #OwnVoices Books
CCBC LAtinx #OwnVoices Books
Goodreads #OwnVoices Booklists

Diversity-Celebrating Summer Reading List Available

We're the People, a group of bloggers, authors, academics and publishers, have been working since 2015 to introduce more diversity into Summer Reading lists. Each year's group suggests and closely reads books to "identify microaggressions, cultural misappropriation or examples that negated our struggle for social justice and inclusion."

The recommended books are by and about IPOC (Indigenous and People of Color), people with disabilities and people from the LGBTQ+ community. Each book has at least two readers and is thoroughly discussed, vetted and given second reads.

Stop here for the full free downloadable 2018 list.