On Sunday, this blog shared a letter from Ellen Oh on why We Need Diverse Books more now then ever. The various librarians who write Free for All are big fans of diversity in books. In the past, we’ve written posts about overall diversity in books and diversity in the horror genre. We’ve also shared reading suggestions for books that deal with race and the experiences of refugees.
Why are we such cheerleaders for diversity around here? Is it because we serve a wonderful, diverse community and we want to represent all of our patrons through our collections and our recommendations? Yes. Do we see it as the library’s responsibility to be a place (physical and digital) for everyone? Yes, we do.
And there’s more. We also firmly believe that books, literature and stories can offer our world something it desperately needs: empathy. If you’re a reader (and if you are reading this blog, it’s probably a safe bet that you are), you won’t need science to tell you that books can help you understand the lives and experiences of those who are different from you and therefor cultivate empathy. But it can be easy to fall into reading ruts where we read books that are about people just like us or that confirm our world view.
The We Need Diverse Books campaign targets the world of children’s and young adult literature, where there is a desperate need to ensure that our young people see themselves, those like them and those completely different from them on the pages of their books. Their mission is an important one and so I urge you to support it by checking out diverse books from the library and sharing them with children and teens.
But there’s overwhelming evidence out there that children and teens aren’t the only ones who could use more empathy in their lives, so I would also urge our adult readers to make a concentrated effort to read diverse books. If you need some help finding books for yourself or for the young ones in your life, here are some great places to try:
For the past two years, We Need Diverse Books has recognized outstanding children’s and young adult literature with the Walter Dean Myers’ Award.
The Pura Belpre Award is given to children’s books written by Latino/Latina authors and illustrators.
The Coretta Scott King Award is for African-American authors and illustrators of books for children and young adults.
The American Indian Youth Literature Awards are given to books that are by or about American Indians.
Arab American Book Awards may be given to books in the categories of adult fiction, adult non-fiction, poetry and child/young adult books.
In addition to giving out awards, the Jewish Book Council also provides book reviews, support for authors and book group recommendations.
For readers looking to add books with LGBT themes to their reading repertoire, there’s the Over the Rainbow List of adult books compiled by the American Library Association’s LGBT Roundtable. The Stonewall Awards are given annually to fiction, non-fiction and children’s and young adult titles and the Lambda Literary website provides ongoing reviews, author interviews and other news from the LBGT literary scene.
When considering what constitutes diversity, of course, you must consider race, ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation. But as Lisa Lucas of the National Book Foundation encouraged Americans yesterday during an interview with NPR, don’t forget to also seek out books that will give you “protracted engagement” with those people who have radically different political views than you do too. For those on the liberal side of the political spectrum she suggests Strangers in Their Own Land by Arlie Russell Hochschild and for conservatives, her pick is Between the World and Me by Te-Nehisi Coates. If books can indeed help us better understand those on the other side of the political divide, than reading them right now could be an act of great patriotism.
Because we want to help our readers with the ongoing task of identifying great diverse books that are worthy of their time and attention, we are launching a new Pinterest board this week dedicated to diverse books. (Check out our Pinterest Primer to get instructions on how to follow this and all our Pinterest boards). Right now the board is small, but we are eager to see it grow, so we’d like your suggestions for books worthy of a pin. We’re looking for books that encompass all types of diversity (racial, religious, ethnic, sexual and gender, cultural and political). E-mail your picks for diverse books for kids, teens or adults to me at mrobinson@noblenet.org and I’ll make sure they are added. I can honestly say that reading diverse books has made my life richer, my perspective wider and (I hope), my personality more empathetic. And I wish the same for all of you.