Fantasy vs. Reality

Yesterday was a big day! Print copies of The Girl Who Swallowed the Sun finally arrived, we launched Kid Lit EQUALITY, and my latest Huffington Post essay went up. First things first: head over to the KLE website and click on DOWNLOADS; Maya Gonzalez has created the most beautiful posters that you can print out and share with kids and/or adults. I’m tempted to send the link to those white women teachers in Staten Island who wore NYPD t-shirts on the first day of school…

For now I’ll just share some of my HuffPo article—I hope you’ll read the whole essay and share with others:

Lots of people clamor for greater diversity in kid lit but remain silent whenever another Black teenager is shot down — Ramarley, Trayvon, Jordan, Renisha, and now Michael Brown. They cling to the fantasy that white supremacy has shaped every US institution except the publishing industry. They look at the reality of racial dominance in children’s literature and pretend that the innocence ascribed to white children extends equally to Black children. At a moment when 75 percent of whites have no minority friends, the need for diverse children’s literature (which can foster cross-cultural understanding at an early age) is greater than ever.

The Kid Lit Equality movement asks people to stand up and speak out about the ways our community serves — or could better serve — youth who are marginalized in our society and then under- and/or misrepresented in children’s literature. Some of us are traditionally published authors and some of us have started our own presses in order to create a wider range of stories that reflect these kids’ diverse realities.

Have you seen Maya’s video? It’s powerful:

Have you seen Elizabeth Bluemle’s latest article over at Shelftalker? How can she best help emerging writers of color? Add your ideas in the comments section…