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Category: News & Views

Interested in what’s recently been happening in the Diverse BookFinder world? Want to hear what our team thinks and what inspires us? Want to read views and opinions from some of the leaders in the diversity and children’s publishing spaces? You’re in the right place.

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Illustration from Max and the Tag-along Moon by Floyd Cooper My books tend to explore humanity - emotional, historical, and biographical. The Picture Book Buzz - Interview with Floyd Cooper by Maria Marshall With the passing of illustrator and author Floyd Cooper this month, the children's books field has lost one of its giants. Reading ...continue reading "Floyd Cooper: An Appreciation"

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Illustration by Scott M. Fischer from Lottie Paris and the Best Place by Angela Johnson Last month I received an unexpected and delightful invitation: to meet via Zoom with the “Black Moms of Austria,” the “Black Dads of Germany,” and a number of their allies, to share the Diverse BookFinder’s research on Cross Group books. The contact ...continue reading "The Power of Cross Group Books — Internationally!"

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Illustration by Julie Kim from Where's Halmoni? Recently, I was working in the children’s room of a public library when a young patron approached the desk. They were planning to read a book to their siblings’ third grade class and wanted some recommendations. Great, I thought, here’s my chance to suggest some diverse books. Then ...continue reading "LOL Books"

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Christine still remembers the butterflies in the pit of her stomach as she performed traditional Korean fan dances as a 12-year-old growing up in Southern California. She never dreamed that over 30 years later, she would be channeling her inner fan dancer to write Hannah’s story. Christine is a second generation Korean American wife and ...continue reading "“Once a storyteller, always a storyteller!” – An Author Interview with Christine Paik"

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Illustrations by Theodore Taylor III, Gordon C. James, Jennifer Zivoin, Luisa Uribe, Shane Evans, Noa Denton, and Bryan Collier As we continue to remember, mourn, and work for change, how do we have conversations with children about racial justice? How do we interrupt the pervasiveness of anti-blackness in our nation, to protect Black and Brown ...continue reading "Racial Justice in Picture Books: Countering Anti-Blackness"

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Sandhya Acharya is a children's book author and writer based in Santa Clara, California. Her book, 10 Gulab Jamuns, has been reviewed by Publishers Weekly. Booklist Online, Asian and Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), Mid-west Book Review, among others, and was also selected as part of the curriculum at Children's Literacy Initiative (CLI), a U.S Department ...continue reading "“We come from such diverse backgrounds in this country, it is a beautiful thing to share.” – An Author Interview with Sandhya Acharya"

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Laura Beals D’Elia is the Library Teacher at the Armstrong Elementary School in Westborough, MA. She has been an elementary library teacher since 2002. She has a BA in English and Children’s Literature from Framingham State University and a MLIS from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. She has presented at various state and national conferences on ...continue reading "What Does a Diverse Collection Look Like?"

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We are all born with gifts and talents of some kind. Some people sing, some people dance, some people can create things with their hands. I always wrote stories and poetry.  Award-winning author Rita Lorraine Hubbard is a retired special education teacher of 20 years who now champions unsung heroes whose stories need to be ...continue reading "“You’re Never too Old to Learn” – An Author Interview with Rita Lorraine Hubbard"

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In this final post of our series highlighting the representation of diverse languages and cultures in picture books, DBF intern and MLIS graduate student Kat Wyly examines how essential it is to include global titles in translation in order to achieve broad representation in collections. The series highlights the Diverse BookFinder (DBF), not only as ...continue reading "The Representation of Language & Cultural Identity in U.S. Picture Books, A Series (5)"

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Illustration by Laura K. Horton from The Gift of Ramadan by Rabiah York Lumbard As a child growing up in America, I loved seeing friends and families gather around a table filled with plates of sticky dates, fruit salads and crispy, spicy samosas. I remember feeling hopeful and filled with a sense of belonging. The holy month of ...continue reading "It’s Ramadan – Around the World"

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