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Author: Annie O'Brien

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Illustration by Michaela Goade (Tlingit-Haida) from We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom (Anishinabe/Metis; enrolled member, Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe) Note: This summer I read the middle grade novel, Indian No More by Charlene Willing McManis (Umpqua) with Traci Sorell (Cherokee Nation). In the book, ten-year-old Regina, enrolled in the Confederate Tribes of Grand Ronde, ...continue reading "9 Ways to Lift Up & Learn from Indigenous Voices"

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Illustration by Lauren Tobia from Happy in Our Skin by Fran Manushkin Since we began collecting and coding titles for the Diverse BookFinder in 2015, we've been keeping track of the appearances of bi/multiracial families -- that is, parents and/or children of different races and/or mixed-race people, including families built through transracial adoption. (We include ...continue reading "Multiracial Families in Recent Picture Books"
The image is a photo of author Kao Kalia Yang, head turned and smiling slightly at the camera.

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At the close of Immigrant Heritage Month, also the month in which we honor World Refugee Day, we celebrate the work of an important new picture book writer. In the late 1950's, when the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America went to the high mountains of Laos to commission 32,000 Hmong men ...continue reading "A New Voice in Picture Books: Hmong Writer Kao Kalia Yang"

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This is the first post in a series sharing data from our collection that identifies significant gaps in representation of BIPOC characters in picture books. This past month, in honor of Asian and Pacific Islander American (AAPI) Heritage Month — which pays “tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America's ...continue reading "Who’s Missing? Asian and Pacific Islander American Biographies"

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Last week Director Krista Aronson and I, as cofounders of the Diverse BookFinder, had the pleasure of joining Andrew Grant-Thomas and Melissa Giraud of EmbraceRace, for a webinar as a follow-up to our action guide on selecting “good” books among those featuring characters who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). One of our ...continue reading "“I HATE FICTION!” — Choosing Diverse Books for Particular Readers"

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Our first post gave instructions for finding e-books through your local library. But what if you don’t have access to a public library, or your library doesn’t subscribe to the CloudLibrary? Below, we offer our thoughts on two programs offering electronic picture books, free for the first 30 days with a trial subscription -- Epic! ...continue reading "For These Strange & Difficult Times: Finding Diverse Electronic Picture Books #2"

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As our schools and libraries are closed, we at the Diverse BookFinder are trying to continue to offer access and resources related to picture books featuring BIPOC. This post will explore e-books, with a few recommended titles that you can borrow immediately (unless they’re already on loan in your library system). Through the coming weeks, ...continue reading "For These Strange & Difficult Times: Finding Diverse Electronic Picture Books #1"

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This piece was co-authored by our co-founder and children's book creator, Anne Sibley O'Brien, and our project coordinator, Dr. Andrea Breau. Last month, we once again joined the excellent offering of Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemorative activities at Bates College, hosting the only event on the day-long program for families with young children. To ...continue reading "Using K-3 Picture Books to Talk About Race & Racism With Children"

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Happy 2020! Perhaps, like people all around the world who follow the Gregorian calendar, you just marked the new year with ceremony, ritual, or a party. (My husband and I sent our daughter and son-in-law out for their first date in six months while we stayed in with our grandchildren. As our new granddaughter slept, ...continue reading "Happy New Year — All Year Round!"

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Around the world in the northern hemisphere, festivals mark the darkest time of the year. Celebrating the victory of light over darkness, candles are lit on trees, and in windows, menorahs, and kinaras; lamps, lanterns, and strings of lights glow. Here are a selection of BIPOC titles from our collection about celebrations of light in ...continue reading "Lighting the Lights"

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