Recently The New York Times paired articles by Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers, discussing the lack of representation of people of color in children’s literature. Those excellent articles—which pointed out that in the long history of children’s literature we haven’t made much progress—caught the attention of best-selling author Jennifer Weiner, who started the #colormyshelf hashtag on Twitter asking for suggestions of diverse books that she could go purchase for her daughter. What a wonderful way to bring attention to what parents can do!
Just because diverse books don’t always show up front and center in bookstores doesn’t mean they don’t exist. Here’s a list of places to find great diverse books for young readers. Buy them, read them, recommend them. Showing demand for diverse books is one of the best ways to encourage the publication of more of them!
1. Publishers: Several small publishers (us included) focus on diverse books. They’re a great place to start, and you can usually buy books from them directly, order them through an online retailer like Amazon or Barnes & Noble, or ask your local bookstore to order them (which also displays a demand for diverse titles):
Lee & Low Books (diverse books for young readers featuring a range of cultures)
Tu Books, an imprint of Lee & Low (diverse middle grade and young adult speculative fiction)
Children’s Book Press, an imprint of Lee & Low (bilingual English/Spanish picture books)
Shen’s Books, an imprint of Lee & Low Books (Asian/Asian American books for young readers)
Cinco Puntos Press (adult and children’s literature, and multicultural and bilingual books from Texas, the Mexican-American border, and Mexico)
Just Us Books (black interest and multicultural books for children and young adults)
Roadrunner Press (fiction and nonfiction for young readers focusing on the American West and America’s Native Nations)
Piñata Books, an imprint of Arte Público (juvenile and young adult books focused on Hispanic culture and by U.S. Hispanic authors)
Groundwood Books (Canadian publisher of books for young readers with a focus on diverse voices)
2. Blogs That Recommend Diverse Books: There are some great bloggers out there who do the hard work of seeking out, reading, and recommending diverse children’s books, so you don’t have to! Just hop over to their blogs to find great new books to add to your collection:
The Brown Bookshelf (African American books)
American Indians in Children’s Literature (Native American books)
Latinos in KidLit (Latino books )
BookDragon (all diverse books, with a special focus on Asian/Pacific Islanders cultures)
Diversity in YA (diverse young adult books)
Rich in Color (diverse young adult books)
I’m Here! I’m Queer! What the Hell Do I Read? (LGBTQ books for young readers)
Crazy QuiltEdi (diverse books for all young readers)
Lee & Low Pinterest Board (diverse books searchable by genre and age)
Colorin Colorado (diverse books and book lists, including many bilingual books)
3. Awards: If you’re simply looking for the best of the best that’s been published each year, awards are the place. Books that win these awards have been vetted by experts (mostly librarians) so you can expect them to be top quality, beautiful, and culturally accurate.
Coretta Scott King Award (African American books)
Pura Belpré Award (Latino books)
Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
American Indian Youth Literature Award
Rainbow Project Reading List (LGBTQ books for young readers)
Américas Book Award (Latin American, Caribbean, and Latino books)
Tomás Rivera Book Award (Mexican American books)
Notable Books for a Global Society (outstanding trade books that help promote understanding across lines of culture, race, sexual orientation, values, and ethnicity)
Ezra Jack Keats Book Award (winning books must avoid stereotypes and reflect the “multicultural nature of our world”)
Freeman Book Awards (books about East and Southeast Asia)
Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature (diverse books by diverse authors)
4. Bookstores: If you prefer to purchase your books through good old-fashioned browsing, there are several great independent bookstores that make it a point to stock diverse books. Below are a few we’ve been to, or that have been recommended to us by readers. If you’re in the area, be sure to stop by to support them!
Avid Bookshop, Athens, GA
Calamus Bookstore, Boston, MA
La Casa Azul New York, NY
Women and Children First, Chicago, IL
The Book Stall, Winnetka, IL
Politics and Prose, Washington DC
Teaching for Change Bookstore, Washington DC
The Flying Pig Bookstore, Shelburne, VT
Birchbark Books, Minneapolis, MN
Ancestry Books, Minneapolis, MN (coming soon)
Antigone Books, Tucson, AZ
Wellesley Books, Wellesley, MA
Librería Martinez, Santa Ana, CA
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments!
note: Updated 3/24 to add additional resources for finding books with LGBTQ content
