A non-profit and a
grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates
essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote
literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.
We Need Diverse Books and Penguin Random House are excited to announce the launch of the Black Creatives Fund, an initiative with a mission of supporting emerging and established Black writers and illustrators! More about the program here.
Help support Black creatives! This month 100% of the profits from this Out of Print design will go to our Black Creatives Fund, which aims to support new and existing Black writers and illustrators via mentorship, workshops, and community-building.
“During Black Lives Matter [protests], the community was demanding Black-authored books from Black-owned businesses. But I want people to remember that Black
authors have been around for centuries. Don’t just limit it to one
summer, a few Black authors, and a few Black bookstores.“ — VaLinda Miller, owner of Turning Page Bookshop in Goose Creek, South Carolina
“A lot of books about marginalized kids
focus on racism and the trauma kids of color sometimes face. Those
stories are important, but they aren’t the only stories kids should
have.
Kids of all shades deserve to walk into a bookstore and
find books that mirror their experiences or read about someone that
looks like them going on an adventure and saving the world.”
“Heroes, as historians and activists have noted for generations, are
often made mythic in ways that are troubling. Social change is never
wrought by individuals. Movement is a collective endeavor and the
romantic ideal of the hero obscures that truth.”
WE ARE NOT FREE is a 2021 Walter Honoree!!! 🎉 Established in 2016, the Walter Dean Myers Award celebrates diversity in children’s literature in two categories, Teens and Younger Readers, and I am just so blown away that this year’s judging committee chose We Are Not Free as one of their honor books! ✨ @weneeddiversebooks does such incredible work promoting inclusive literature, creating opportunities for marginalized creators, and building a more equitable industry, so this is such a huge, huge honor. 🌸 Thank you so much to WNDB and the judges, and congratulations to the winners and my fellow honorees!
Winner, Teen Category: PUNCHING THE AIR by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam (illus. by Omar T. Pasha)
Honors, Teen Category: WE ARE NOT FREE by Traci Chee, ALMOST AMERICAN GIRL by Robin Ha
Winner, Younger Readers Category: WHEN STARS ARE SCATTERED by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed (color by Iman Geddy)
Honors, Younger Readers Category: KING AND THE DRAGONFLIES by Kacen Callender, EVERYTHING SAD IS UNTRUE by Daniel Nayeri
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, we honor the memory of the victims of this atrocity, and uplift the voices of the survivors and their descendants. May we continue to teach history, and never forget.
We Need Diverse Books is elated to see so many talented diverse authors and illustrators among this year’s American Library Association 2021 Youth Media Awards! Full list of winners.
WNDB is especially thrilled to congratulate Michaela Goade, who became the first BIPOC woman to win the Caldecott Medal with her win for the picture book We Are Water Protectors. Goade, a Tlingit artist, is also the first Indigenous person to receive the Caldecott. We Are Water Protectors was written by Carole Lindstrom (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe).
This year’s cohort of winners & honorees comprises some of the most accomplished voices in children’s literature and is also one of the most diverse groups in the history of #ALAYMA. We’re proud that we’ve had a chance to work with and honor many of these creators, including:
Elizabeth Acevedo, a two-time Walter Award winner and Honoree
Carole Boston Weatherford, Walter Award winner
Kacen Callender, a Walter Honoree
Traci Chee, a Walter Honoree
Ernesto Cisneros, a Flying Lessons WNDB in the Classroom set winner
Erin Entrada Kelly, a WNDB mentor
I.W. Gregorio, a WNDB co-founder
Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, both Walter Award winners
Gene Yuen Lang, a former member of the Advisory Board and Fresh Ink contributor
David LaRochelle, a WNDB mentor
Carole Lindstrom, a Walter Awards volunteer
Daniel Nayeri, a Walter Honoree
Kekla Magoon, a Walter Honoree
Tochi Onyebuchi, a contributor to A Universe of Wishes
Jason Reynolds, a two-time Walter Award winner and Fresh Ink contributor
Rebecca Roanhorse, a contributor to A Universe of Wishes
Yamile Saied Mendez, a Walter Grant recipient
Linda Sue Park, Internship Grant Committee Honorary Chair & The Hero Next Door contributor
Jacqueline Woodson, former Advisory Board member
Many other Youth Media Awards winners and honorees have been featured on the WNDB blog, on our YouTube channel, and on our other social media platforms. Congratulations to all!
Today officially marks my last day as a 2020 We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) mentee. Being a mentee with WNDB and under the direction of Floyd Cooper has truly been an enjoyable and enlightening experience. Floyd is a talented and an ingenious illustrator who always looked out for me and my interests. I’m thankful that I was chosen to work under this master illustrator, as he helped challenge and encourage me when it came to building my portfolio as an illustrator. Floyd made sure that when it came to my work, that I also learned how to relate and incorporate my identity as a black illustrator through the pages that I illustrated. For that, I am grateful to him and We Need Diverse Books to have been a 2020 illustration mentee! @weneeddiversebooks
Saundra Mitchell is holding open submissions for the third and final OUT
anthology, OUT THERE: Into the Queer New Yonder! Coming May 2022 from
Inkyard Press.
OUT THERE will feature stories written by queer YA authors, about queer
teen protagonists, and there are two slots to be filled through open
submissions by any queer YA author.
If selected, your story will join stories by Leah Johnson, Kalynn
Bayron, Alex London, Nita Tyndall, Abdi Nazemian, Alechia Dow, Kayla
Ancrum, Naomi Kanakia, Adam Sass, Mason Deaver, Claire Kann, Zabé Ellor,
Emma K. Ohland, Jim McCarthy and Z Brewer in this fantastic, futuristic
collection!
Authors may be published or unpublished, agented or unagented.
Submissions will be considered by the review panel, featuring Saundra
Mitchell, and and award-winning authors Tehlor Kay Mejia and Julian
Winters. Mejia appeared in ALL OUT, and Winters appeared in OUT NOW. The
two authors whose stories are selected will be paid $900 US, and a
prorated share of any royalties.
“Creating a world where every child can read diversely starts with
us coming together to advocate for change within the publishing
industry, in our schools and communities.” Read more about how We Need
Diverse Books will continue our work in 2021 and beyond, and the causes
we hope you’ll join us in uniting around.
MEET CUTE DIARY by Emery Lee (05/04/21) | art by @motekill | design byErin Ferdinand - ”[A] swoon-worthy, heartfelt rom-com about how a transgender teen’s
first love challenges his ideas about perfect relationships.“
HEALER OF THE WATER MONSTER by Brian Young (05/11/21) | art by Shonto Begay - "A middle-grade chapter book about a
young Navajo boy who gets lost in the desert and comes across a sick
water monster from the Navajo Creation Story.”
LOVE & OTHER NATURAL DISASTERS by Misa Sugiura (06/08/21) | art by Hannah Good | design by Alison Klapthor - “[A] delightfully disastrous queer YA
rom-com… When Nozomi Nagai pictured the ideal summer romance, a fake
one wasn’t what she had in mind.”
JO JO MAKOONS by Dawn Quigley (05/11/21) | art by Tara Audibert | design by Andrea Vandergrift - “Jo Jo Makoons Azure is a spirited
seven-year-old who moves through the world a little differently than
anyone else on her Ojibwe reservation…”
SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA by Cynthia Leitich Smith (06/01/21) | art by Floyd Cooper | design by Catherine San Juan - “[A] modern take on J.M. Barrie’s Peter
Pan, one that’s centered on its girl characters and told from a
decidedly Indigenous point of view.”
FINDING JUNIE KIM by Ellen Oh (05/04/21) | art by Alex Cho | design by Joel Tippie - “[When] Junie decides to interview her
grandparents, she soon uncovers their unbelievable tales of bravery as
kids during the Korean War.”
The second star from the right will take them very far from home…
Lily and Wendy have been best friends since they became
stepsisters. But with their feuding parents planning to spend the summer
apart, what will become of their family—and their friendship?
Little do they know that a mysterious boy has been watching them
from the oak tree outside their window. A boy who intends to take them
away from home for good, to an island of wild animals, Merfolk, Fairies,
and kidnapped children.
A boy who calls himself Peter Pan.
* * *
We Need Diverse Books is excited to reveal the cover of Cynthia Leitich-Smith’s forthcoming Indigenous-centered Peter Pan retelling,
SISTERS OF THE NEVERSEA (June 1, 2021 from Heartdrum). The cover was
illustrated by Floyd Cooper.Read more about the book here!
