In our upcoming Google Hangout on Air, we are joined by authors and advocates who want to get diverse books into the hands of students around the world.
It began with a Twitter exchange and has since evolved into a full-fledged movement: The #WeNeedDiverseBooks (WNDB) campaign seeks to increase the number of diverse books on classroom shelves and spread awareness about the lack of multicultural representation in literature. According to their mission statement, WNDB is a “grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates essential change in the publishing industry” and recognizes all diverse experiences, including LGBT gender diversity, individuals with disabilities, and cultural, ethnic, and religious minorities.
Join us at 8:00 p.m. EST Oct. 27 for the Hangout on Air featuring these distinguished guests:
Shane Evans is known for his work as a picture book illustrator, but he has also delved into graphic and web design for clients including Nike, and the Kansas City International Jazz Festival. Winner of the Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, the Coretta Scott King Award, and the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding nonfiction for Children, Evans’s work is often influenced by his travels to Africa, South America, Asia, Europe, and the Caribbean. Most recently, Evans illustrated Taye Diggs’s Mixed Me! and Chocolate Me! Mixed Me! was released Oct. 6.
I.W. Gregorio identifies as a “practicing surgeon by day, masked avenging YA writer by night.” A founding member of WNDB, she currently serves as the organization’s vice president of development. Gregorio’s writing has appeared in The Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, and Journal of General Internal Medicine. Her debut novel, None of the Above, was inspired by an intersex patient that she met during her residency.
Miranda Paul is a children’s author and executive vice president of outreach for WNDB. Her books One Plastic Bag and Water Is Water were named Junior Library Guild selections, and she was a guest presenter at the Library of Congress Young Readers Center. In addition to writing children’s books, Paul is the administrator of Rate Your Story, a website that encourages aspiring writers.
Angie Manfredi is the innovative head of youth services for Los Alamos County Library System in New Mexico. She replaced her library’s reference section with graphic novels and manga—boosting circulation and the library’s reader base. She thinks outside the box of what must be to what could be. Manfredi does not believe in gendering books, and she served as the moderator for a session titled “Girls Like Fart Jokes and Boys Have Feelings.” In her own words, “Miss Angie doesn’t believe there are books for boys or girls, there are just books.” She was named the Association for Library Service to Children Member of the Month in February 2014.
From what makes a book diverse in the first place to why those books are necessary for majority and minority students alike, ILA’s Google Hangout on Air will address more about the benefit and need for diverse books.
The Hangout on Air will be live-tweeted. To join the conversation on Twitter, use #ILAHangout.
Alexandra Baruch is ILA's communications intern.