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.
“Part of loving yourself is loving the skin you’re in. I mean this metaphorically and literally, but right now I’m focusing on the literal meaning. I’m Jamaican-American and my husband is American of Korean descent. Our daughter’s skin colour is brown and I need to teach her to love the skin she’s in. How do I do that in a country with as huge a race problem as America? America is a country that loves the theory that all men are created equal, but doesn’t love the practice.
How do I teach her that she’s smart and beautiful and that she can be anyone she wants to be when the country and media tell her otherwise? Or completely erases her outright? How many cartoons and TV shows feature only white boys and girls? How many black and brown and Asian characters (if you can find any at all) are relegated to the position of lowly side-kick?”
If you liked The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, try Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon because both are gorgeous, impossible love stories starring seriously ill teenagers.
It shouldn’t be as hard as it is to find a YA book written about black girls, by black girls, on the shelves. And 11-year-old Marley Dias shouldn’t have to do all the work herself. Luckily, we’ve pulled together a list of black girl authors and their novels for you to check out. They’re sharing why what they do is so important, and the stories that made them believe they could grow up to become the authors they are today.
The next WNDBChat is happening on Wednesday, October 28th at 9pm Eastern and 6pm Pacific! And we’re talking romance with authors Corey Ann Haydu (OCD Love Story), Bill Konigsberg (Openly Straight), Anna-Marie McLemore (The Weight of Feathers), and Nicola Yoon (Everything, Everything)!
Congrats to WNDB team member nicolayoon on hitting the New York Times’ Best seller’s list with her debut Everything, Everything! It’s on the best seller list again this week too!
If you’ll be at the BookCon in New York City this week(end) do stop by the following panels/signings to meet these amazing authors on the WNDB team and celebrated by the WNDB team!
Bears repeating and hope to see you at BookCon this weekend!
THE BOOKCON SIGNINGS & PANELS
*BookCon signings are in-booth or autographing area as noted
Saturday, May 30th
Nicola Yoon – 10am (Penguin Random House)
Shannon Hale – 10:30am (Candlewick Press booth)
We Need Diverse Books Panel: Science Fiction/Fantasy with Kameron Hurley, Ken Liu, Joe Monti, Nnedi Okorafor, Daniel Jose Older – 11am in Room 1A21.
Daniel Jose Older & Nnedi Okorafor – 12:30pm (Autographing area)
Ken Liu – 12:30pm (Autographing area)
Kameron Hurley - 12:30pm (Autographing area)
Lamar Giles - 12:45pm (Mystery Writers of America booth)
Jason Reynolds & Ellen Hopkins – 5pm (Autographing area)
Sunday, May 31st
Melissa de la Cruz - 11am (Autographing area)
We Need Diverse Books Panel: Luminaries of Children’s Literature with Libba Bray, Soman Chainani, David Levithan, Meg Medina, and Jacqueline Woodson – 11:15am in Room 1A10.
From left to right: Sona Charaipotra, Ilene Wong Gregorio, Fonda Lee, Miranda Paul, Adam Silvera, Sabaa Tahir, Nicola Yoon, Francesca Zappia. (Danielle Paige was moderator.)
![bisexual-books:
“Diversity League panel at ALA Midwinter
”
weneeddiversebooks [waves] Hi everyone!
From left to right: Sona Charaipotra, Ilene Wong Gregorio, Fonda Lee, Miranda Paul, Adam Silvera, Sabaa Tahir, Nicola Yoon, Francesca Zappia. (Danielle...](https://64.media.tumblr.com/fe5850fd6e128de9118c48520358fe31/tumblr_nj1u3siHAx1s9sqfoo1_500.jpg)