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Monday, June 9, 2014

Books filled with life's quirks, kinks, and diversity - #weneeddiversebooks

Diverse books for young readers were plentiful at the Chicago Black Authors tent this weekend at the 2014 Printer's Row Literature Festival in Chicago, Il.


We faced a steady stream of interested kids, parents and teachers both Saturday and Sunday.  I had the misfortune of selling out my stock of copies of Pull early on Saturday, but the supply was replenished for Sunday. And, although people listened when I talked about that book and how the hero deals with life in the aftermath of domestic violence that left him and his sisters orphans, teachers and people who work with youth were all ears about Minority of One. The hero is a black, gay teen, but it's not the story of a difficult coming out. Instead it's the story of his day-to-day life after he comes out to accepting parents. It's a hero who happens to be gay, but also has to face other issues. It was also my best seller during the fest with some adults saying they wished they had seen a book like this years ago, especially those dealing with at-risk youth.  Kids of all races had already told me they wanted more books about what high school and life is really like.  That's what the independent authors of Chicago Black Author Network are trying to present to them.

Life, with all its quirks, kinks, and diversity.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

Super Fan

I have this Superfan named Michael. It's always nice to know someone out there reads--and loves--my books. He took upon himself the task to make my books easily available to others. He had to special order my new book, Minority of One from his local Barnes and Noble  because they don't carry it. And then, he persuaded them to obtain copies and put them up for sale. He spent several weeks having meetings with people at his local B&N to get them to give the books more than just a listing in the catalog.

Here they are, Pull, Being God and Minority of One, all on a Florida B&N stack among the Top Teen Picks. Even more, he's talking to local kids about the books, especially kids of color.  He'll soon be  sporting a brand new BABinns fan T-shirt. He'll also have info cards to spread out, in the store and local hang-outs for kids.  I'm proud of him, and proud to see that at least in this store, the top teen shelf shows diversity.

This was one of the suggestions from a multicultural discussion at the CCBC (Cooperative Children's Book Center) listserve earlier this year. We developed action items and tangible ways to do more to get diversity into the hands of kids. Michael, I salute the work you did.  Barnes & Noble, I salute you for giving this a go.

#weneeddiversebooks