We Need Diverse Books

  The #WeNeedDiverseBooks hashtag is all the rage now and frankly I am a bit surprised that it has taken this long for people to realize that books about those that are "different" are grossly underrepresented in books at all levels (from picture books to yfic). I love vampires, werewolves and the like too but from monitoring the new books over the past few years as they come in to my library it seems that every author has written about those topics and then some. All that is left now is to write about teen vampires in love on Mars (smile).
 
 I had hesitated about blogging about this but this recent post in the ALA digest got me thinking and I began to ruminate on diverse books, what they mean for different people and how we can promote books that otherwise would fall by the wayside.This is the diverse books site. I think they do a pretty darn good job of saying what they are, how you can help (through donating time or talent) and how you can find diverse books.

Here is a long but very well written article on flavorwire that basically reviews the highlights of the movement and ends on a hopeful note saying that perhaps this movement has started a groundswell of change. Popular site huffingtonpost has a list of some amazing reasons why we need diversity in books. (I was blown away by #1)

Finally here is  a very diverse booklist on goodreads. I found a list of 50 diverse books every child should know and last but not least here is my humble submission of a few diverse books for the 9-12 age group.

The Way to Stay in Destiny by Augusta Scattergood

Stella by Starlight by Augusta M Draper

Bad Boy: A Memoir by Walter Dean Myers

Paperboy by Vince Vawter

Ghetto Cowboy by G. Neri

The Life and Times of Benny Alvarez by Peter Johnson

Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor