Official Tumblr of We Need Diverse Books

"We all should know that diversity makes for a rich tapestry, and we must understand that all the threads of the tapestry are equal in value no matter what their color."

"When I was blogging a lot, I used to feel a lot of anxiety about comments—I was afraid to check them, and I don’t know why. It got to the point where I was feeling bad about myself all the time, for no good reason—I just had this general sense of doom, like some cosmic axe was about to fall, like all these imaginary people were very, very disappointed in me. It wasn’t productive. It wasn’t doing anybody any good. By the time Wild Awake came out, I realized that most of what I was doing on the internet was making me unhappy. So I stopped."

"I experience my queerness more as a project. I no longer feel like I need to tether myself to one particular way of being in the world. I identify as a queer, gender non-conforming femme. I’m not a boy. I’m not a girl. Most days, I feel more magical than can be captured in words or in gender norms."

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As librarians, one of our greatest challenges in this arena might come when we overlook the differences in cultural dynamics from one group to the next. What might seem loud or disruptive to one group of people might be a totally normal interaction to another. Before we ban and humiliate patrons for being “too boisterous,” I challenge librarians to ask ourselves: “Is this creating a real problem — is anyone actually threatened or in danger here? … Is this really worth adding one more cut to the thousands this person already has?”

A lot of well-meaning librarians have talked about how part of our mission is to guide and teach the public about “the proper way to behave in a library.” When what they really mean, I think without realizing it, is “the proper way to behave white and middle class.”

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I have spent most of my life having to read writers and characters who rarely resemble me. Yes, the point of reading is empathy. Yes, books can be windows into unfamiliar worlds. But at some point you realize that there are readers who look at the window and don’t see a window at all; that they have the privilege of looking into a mirror. Which is part of what makes books like Otherbound and Throne of the Crescent Moon invaluable. They remind the ones with the mirrors that there are windows to be looked out of, too. And to the rest, they are reminders that you are not other even though you are othered, that it’s okay to be tired of gazing longingly into dusty windows, okay to go in search of a mirror.

Diversity cannot be forced. It can only be true.

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"As a writer of color, I feel a certain pressure to write characters of color, and to write the stories that the world “needs.” This can be burdensome at times. I want to write characters of color, for sure, but I’m not convinced that all these books need to deal with Race with a capital R, as if the only purpose black characters serve in literature is to enlighten readers about our complicated racial history."

"Any book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his deep and continuing needs, is good for him."