Diverse Books - Blog Posts
I want to adopt Kiko
favourite characters (4/?) kiko himura (starfish)
I draw a girl without a face, drawing somebody else’s face onto her own reflection. I draw a girl with arms that reach up to the clouds, but all the clouds avoid her because she’s made of night and not day.
do you have any wlw books that star women of colour?
i do!
girls of paper and fire by natasha ngan
girl serpent thorn by melissa bashardoust
take a hint, dani brown by talia hibbert
the bone shard daughter by andrea stewart
the space between worlds by micaiah johnson
the true queen by zen cho
empress of forever by max gladstone
falling into place by sheryn munir
waiting on a bright moon by jy yang
the avant-guards by carly usdin & noah hayes
that could be enough by alyssa cole
abbott by saladin ahmed
a dead djinn in cairo by p djeli clark
the stars and the blackness between them by junauda petrus
the henna wars by adiba jaigirdar
you should see me in a crown by leah johnson
burning roses by s l huang
yellow rose by yoshiya nobuko
don’t date rosa santos by nina moreno
clap when you land by elizabeth acevedo
shatter the sky by rebecca kim wells
the good luck girls by charlotte nicole davis
in the vanishers’ palace by aliette de bodard
once ghosted, twice shy by alyssa cole
afterlove by tanya byrne
buuza!! by shazleen khan
motor crush by brenden fletcher
not for use in navigation by iona datt sharma
ninefox gambit by yoon ha lee
a blade so black by l l mckinney
mangos and mistletoe by adrianna herrera
patsy by nicole dennis benn
escaping exodus by nicky drayden
we set the dark on fire by tehlor kay mejia
the weight of the stars by k ancrum
We need more diverse books in literature. More voices need to be represented.
The Cooperative Children’s Book Center has released the results of their 2019 survey on diversity in kidlit/YA.
We thank them for this invaluable work, note their commitment to adding Arabs/Arab Americans in future surveys, and present these graphs of their findings.
The 3,716 books surveyed have this many main characters total for the following groups:
Black/African: 11.9%
First/Native Nations: 1%
Asian/Asian American: 8.7%
Latinx: 5.3%
Pacific Islander: 0.05%
White: 41.8%
Animal/Other: 29.2%
LGBTQIAP+: 3.1%
Disability: 3.4%
“Taken together, books about white children, talking bears, trucks, monsters, potatoes, etc. represent nearly three quarters (71%) of children’s and young adult books published in 2019.” - librarian Madeline Tyner
When we looked at the breakdown for IPOC creatives who wrote and/or illustrated stories with characters of their own race, we found the following:
First/Native Nations: 68.2%
Pacific Islander: 80%
Latinx: 95.7%
Asian/Asian American: 100%*
*NOTE: these percentages include both authors and illustrators and, as pointed out by author Linda Sue Park for past surveys, Asians/Asian Americans are frequently illustrators but not necessarily authors of their own stories, meaning this is not fully reflective of #OwnVoices representation.
Black/African creatives wrote and/or illustrated only 46.4% of stories featuring Black/African characters.
This is the work that still needs to be done.
“I still don’t think k!lling it with a pipe is right, that would make us worse than the dragon.” “Worse than the dragon?! K!lling a murderous, evil, child-eäting dragon with a pipe makes you as bad as the dragon?! Does k!lling a d!ctator by stäbbing them make you as bad as the d!ctator?! No! I don’t know about you, but child-eäting-anything is in the same category as d!ctators, humän träffickers, and släve öwners, and that category is called "people and things I would k!ll without a doubt"!” Everyone stared at him in horror, but he could not care less. The anger boiled in his blood and warmed him up.
A small part of my book:
"...and Kyle just stood there, shock and hurt flowed through him. How was he supposed to react to that? He turned around to go back home but he heard the water move behind him. He turned back around and was met with Anthony’s sad face.
“I’m sorry for my mother's behavior. I hope I can substitute her?” Kyle couldn’t help but smile.
“I would actually prefer you to her.” A shy smile flew over his beautiful features. "
Me, Writertok completion open on my laptop and Writblr open on my phone
POV:
The hot merman love interest saves the protagonist from drowning but they hate each other.
If anyone has name suggestions, I would love to hear them.
I have, literally, written for three days straight and I have a permanent headache
Would you read a book about three brothers with family issues during a dragon apocalypse with history-accurate dragons and creatures from mainly Scandinavian folklore that also has queer, ethnic, and disabled diversity?
Please follow me and help me write and publish my book.
Would you read a book about three brothers with family issues during a dragon apocalypse with history-accurate dragons and creatures from mainly Scandinavian folklore that also has queer, ethnic, and disabled diversity?
Please follow me and help me write and publish my book.