Rally the troops for Linda Sue Park!!

So,  I think I've finally started to get a hang of twitter (yes, I've had a twitter account for seven years and am only just figuring out how to really use it...I am a slow learner when it comes to technology!) and while hanging out there, I got a whiff of this competition between Linda Sue Park (the Linda Sue Park, of A Single Shard and A Long Walk to Water fame) and two other authors whom shall not be named. 

Well! We can't let those to other authors win, can we? NO, NO, NO!

So, I'm doing everything I can to insure that #TeamPark reigns victorious! I'm offering five of these prints:

as one of the prizes you can get (by random drawing) if you join #TeamPark! This is NOT one of the Rabbit hOle project perks, this is only a prize if you join #TeamPark! How do you join? So glad you asked:

1. Go here: igg.me/at/rabbitholekc
2. Donate any amount to help build the Rabbit hOle, a national museum of the children's book (HOW COOL IS THAT!??).
3.  Tweet or DM @LindaSuePark to let me know you've joined #TeamPark! OR email jordan@rabbitholekc.com
4. If you've been recruited for #TeamPark by another team member, please tweet or DM  @LindaSuePark after you make your donation.

Are you already a member of #TeamPark?  Ask friends and family to join the team! For every new team member you recruit, your name will go into the prize drawing AGAIN*, to increase your chances of winning Linda's signed books or my prints!

*I might be offering an advanced reading copy of the new novel as a prize, too (have to see if I can get an extra). So, if you join now and recruit others and you can up your chances of getting it!

My TEDx talk!

Just in case you missed it, here's my TEDx talk:

It was a rather momentous event for me. I was super nervous (I refused to watch any other speakers ahead of me as I didn't want to psyche myself out) even though I had practiced and practiced for hours and hours for days and weeks, under the guidance of a speech coach, no less. 

my speech with all my speaking notes!

But, I did it and now that the speech is over, I feel really proud. It's like what I said before, public speaking is not a talent I was given. I've worked at it and have gotten much better but I don't think it's a skill that will set me apart. So, compared to a seriously talented speaker like my good friend Jarrett Krosocka (who has not just given one TED talk, but two!), I was probably just decent---but, for me, I think I did pretty well. 

In some ways, I think it is the epitome of my speaking career--I've never given a speech with this much pressure before. I truly felt a responsibility. So many times when we talk about diversity in children's literature, we are talking to people who already know its importance--many times we are "preaching to the choir." This TEDx talk was really an opportunity to reach people who rarely think about children's books, much less the diversity of them. And because of that, I truly gave it my all--and I hope you liked it!

If you did like my speech, I'm going to shamelessly ask you to share it as much as possible! It would be a dream for this thing to go viral!

get this exclusive print and support WNDB!

The WNDB Indigogo campaign is going full throttle! It's going great, but there's still more than half of the goal to achieve. To sweeten the pot, I've donated some exclusive, never-before-sold prints to the WNDB Indiegogo campaign! There are five of these available now:

from "Bringing in the New Year"

If/when those sell out, there will be five of these up as perks:

from The Ugly Vegetables

These prints are 13x19 inches and can be personally autographed by yours truly! And, most importantly, they want to have a home with you!

So, please contribute to the WNDB campaign! Even if you are unable to contribute, please spread the word wide and far!

We Need Diverse Books Needs YOU

Go to the WNDB Indiegogo Campaign!
WeNeedDiverseBooks, whose advisory board I am proud to say I am a part of,  has just launched its Indiegogo Campaign! Please consider donating!

Your donations will help bring diverse books and authors to disadvantaged schools, host the Inaugural Kidlit Diversity Festival and more!As well as art for their holiday card, I've donated a personal event and dinner (Will I make you cupcakes? You'll have to find out...). Or you could have dinner with the incredible Jacqueline Woodson in Park Slope or a signed Dav Pilkey print or even more! Lots of fun prizes, go check it out!

Please spread the word!

wishes that readers don't know they have

Q: Are diverse books really that important? When I was a child, I didn't see (fill in the blank) and I'm just fine!

I attempt to add to Janice's response and answer another question with this post  that I did for The BookPeople in Austin, TX to support their Modern First Library program.

Here is an excerpt: 

...it’s hard to miss something that you didn’t know could’ve existed. In my book, Starry River of the Sky, I write about the legend of the Moon Lady who can grant your most secret wish. It can be a wish so secret that you, yourself, might not even know you have it. But when she grants your wish, when your most secret wish comes true, it is a revelation. 

That is what diverse books are. They are the wishes that many readers don’t know they have. They are for the readers who finally see themselves...

Read the rest HERE!

We Need Diverse Books audio stream!

Did you miss the WeNeedDiverse Panel? Well, you can hear it here!
 

NPR coverage of the panel!

Fellow panelists Lamar Giles, Ellen Oh and Jacqueline Woodson are featured in this NPR interview about the panel!!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2014/06/02/318098926/-weneeddiversebooks-campaign-comes-to-inaugural-bookcon?ft=1&f=1032

on my desk monday

On my desk is the neat WeNeedDiverseBooks swag I swiped after the completely awesome panel discussion. I was so honored to be here on the panel as well as in a packed room of people so passionate about diverse books!

What the attendees saw:

What we saw:

No disrespect to my attractive fellow panelists, but I think our view was the better one!

A Cheat Sheet for Selling Diversity

edited to add: If you are having problems downloading cheat sheet as a pdf try HERE to get it in jpg form.

So, tomorrow is the We Need Diverse Books panel discussion! I hope to see you there!!

You may be wondering if I decided to make the cheat sheet I discussed earlier.

The short answer is yes.

download the sheet HERE

However, it wasn't without hesitations. I was very conflicted as I felt that, perhaps, by describing the books without the multicultural label it could be construed that I was ashamed of it. That, somehow, I was afraid of these books wearing their diversity label proudly. I'm still concerned about that.

However (as I wrote on the sheet), I do feel that these books are much more than their racial identities. These are all books with universal themes and emotions that all readers can relate to. But, the racial label, unfortunately, tends to blind readers to everything else that these stories are. And, that, in the end, make the books invisible. Which is an even graver issue, in my mind.

So, here is the Cheat Sheet! Due to my own time, it's not as extensive as I wanted (if people find this useful, I'd love to expand this into 3 or 4 different sheets, one for MG, YA, etc).  But, please download it and distribute it wisely as well as widely. Because we need people to read diverse books and they aren't going to without some help.

Tell me if this is a good idea...

So, next week, I'll be speaking on the WeNeedDiverseBooks panel at BookCon. As you know, I've been very gung-ho about the campaign. Even though this is an issue we've been talking about for over 15 years (yes, my first book was published over 15 years ago! eeks!), I am hopeful that maybe now the time has come for some real, concrete changes.  As I said earlier, I have some ideas...


My biggest concern about diverse books is that the general public does not realize that these books are for them. 

A million years ago, I was a bookseller at a children's bookstore. I was not a very good one (mainly because I was socially inept) but I did learn a couple of things.

1. A customer who doesn't know what she wants can decide in two nanoseconds what she does not want.

2. A bookseller has only one of those nanoseconds to change the customer's mind.


It was very easy for me to interpret "That's not for me," when a customer had only looked at the multicultural cover. Customers put books in different compartments in their mind to decide whether or not they wanted it and the books with diverse covers were immediately put in the "multicultural" box that they had already decided they weren't interested in.

However, a bookstore floor is no place to deliver a lecture. Moreover, these customers were definitely NOT racists or horrible people in anyway. They were wonderful, intelligent people who loved books. I'm willing to bet money most probably didn't even register why they had immediately felt that the book wasn't for them.

So,  what I thought would be interesting would be to create a "Cheat Sheet" for booksellers that would help them "refocus"the customer's view of the book.  It would be fast, easy, non-diversity focused descriptions for the customer to relate to. The idea is that it would help booksellers get consumers to put the book in a different compartment than the "multicultural" box that they've already decided they aren't interested in:

However, does this"refocusing" the sales pitches of diverse books make it seem like we are trying to hide it or are ashamed of it? That is NOT what I am trying to do. I think multicultural books are more than their ethnicity--in the end they are stories with universal themes. The point of this "cheat sheet" would be to be focus on those themes.

But maybe this is a slippery slope? Would it be a step backwards? What do you think?

The World Agrees

I'm so, so honored to be a part of the WeNeedDiverse panel at this year's BookCon! Yes, BookCon realized (after the WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign went viral) that diverse books and their authors are a vital part of book culture and made changes. The campaign organizers were invited to give a panel and they very graciously asked me to be a part of it.

It's a bittersweet victory for diverse books.  As I mentioned earlier, we've been having this conversation for years. The Ugly Vegetables was first published in 1999 and, while there have been some strides, I realize there's been very little ground covered in these last 15 years. But, maybe, with the WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign unleashing the power of social media, we can have this conversation again with some more substantial changes. We have to try, at least!

But we also need everyone to partake in the discussion and act. My worry is that this issue becomes an "Us" vs "Them" issue--each person confused on who the "us" and the "them" are. Authors vs Booksellers? Readers vs. Publishers? People of Color vs Caucasians?

Well, it's none of the above. We ALL need diverse books. And I hope we can all work together to so that everyone can have them.

How? I have some ideas and thoughts that I'll start sharing here...and maybe we can figure things out at the panel! If you can, please come to the panel discussion and help pack the house. Let's prove to BookCon that we care beyond our keyboard and that a group of diverse authors can get a standing-room-only crowd, too!

WeNeedDiverseBooks winners!

Thanks so much for everyone who participated in my WeNeedDiverseBooks giveaway! Apologies for not being that organized on my end, I received a lot of entries on twitter, instagram, FB, etc and it was rather a trial by fire as I haven't mastered all additional social media outlets! I learned a lot, though...including that I am kind of a luddite.

But without further ado! Here are the winners (chosen at random by Rain Dragon!)

Selenia, you have won The Great Green Heist!

(though you will have to wait until I get it in from my local indie, it's on order)

Stephanie DeFrance, you have won the paperback copy of Starry River of the Sky!

And Kari M. you have won the etsy print:

Please contact me via gracelin.manager@gmail.com with your mailing address and I'll get these out to you ASAP!

Thanks again for your support!

We Need Diverse Books and We Also Need People to Read Them

I'm off to MN to see the Starry River of the Sky production (very excited!), so I'm not sure how active I'll be able to be for part 2 and 3 of the WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. I'm going to try, of course, but in the meantime I'd like to share a bittersweet message that was passed on from Lucia Saperstein from the Open Book Foundation, who organized a visit for me in Washington last October.  She had given some preparation suggestions to a friend of hers about another school visit I was doing and received this (which I've edited a bit, for identification reasons):

I really appreciated your suggestions for the Grace Lin visit to our elementary school and adoptive families group.  The presentations were fabulous in every way (I attended 4 while she was in town). I wanted to share with you one lasting impact that I had not anticipated -- opening the eyes of our school librarian.  She is a white woman, probably mid 40s, from a rural area near here.  When I started talking to her about preparing for the visit, it became clear that she had not read anything by Grace Lin and didn't know anything about her, even though "Where the Mountain Meets the Moon" was one of the state books last year.  

I sensed push back from her on my interest in the Asian elements of Grace Lin's work.  But little by little, she read, and she read to classes, and later she told me that Asian children who had never spoken during library time were excitedly sharing and speaking and asking questions... I struggled during the lead up to Grace Lin's visit because I was trying to help the librarian who at first had no enthusiasm (the public library assigned Grace Lin to the school).  In the end, I think the librarian realized how much all the children loved her work...  

I was also very happy that my daughter's teacher embraced Grace Lin.  She even showed up at a night presentation at the public library and told me that, as an African-American, she was deeply moved by Grace Lin's talk about embracing her race and culture.

This is why we don't just need diverse books, but we need people to realize that these diverse books are books for everyone. The above is just one of the many examples I can give of the misguided dismissal of my books. The librarian who was surprised how well my "ethnic" book went over with all the students. The father who was surprised that his son loved "your Oriental dragon book" so much that he (the son) insisted on giving it to all his friends for birthday gifts. I could go on and on...

And this is not to brag about my book, this is to say that it's easy to sell both kids and diverse books too short. I'm extremely honored to speak at schools with diverse populations, but I know my old elementary school with its homogeneous population found sharing my books just as fun, rewarding and eye-opening. I am thrilled when an Asian-American girl loves and connects with my books, but I know an Iranian anthropologist, a Jewish 4th grade boy, and a half-Indian teenager  that love some of my books just as much.

Diverse books are for everyone...a good story is a good story, multicultural or not.

Participate in WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS and win a gift from me!

**EDITED TO ADD

Kate also challenged independent bookstores to handsell  The Great Green Heist. To sweeten the pot, I will give any bookstore who participates a print from my etsy store. Once you start selling, just contact me at gracelin.manager@gmail.com with your mailing address and I'll get the print out to you! Let's make The Great Green Heist a bestseller!

So this whole WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS campaign* has really gotten my ginger up. Like I said, it bothers me that there are more cats than people of color invited to the BookCon and, now, most recently the official response to the controversy is that only industry people find the line-up problematic, not readers and customers. 

The sad thing is that to companies that run Bookcons it probably seems true. As author Kate Messner said in a recent blog post, "At the end of the day, publishing is a business that needs to make money to survive. Given that reality, the best way for readers to ask for more diversity in children’s literature is not with words and tweets and blog posts alone but also with dollars."

Which is probably why the 3rd portion of the WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS campaign asks people to purchase diverse books and photograph them. Not sure what book to get?  In that same recent blog post by Kate**, she also challenged everyone to preorder the mg novel The Great Green Heist (which looks awesome!) 

So, to encourage participation in the  WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS campaign, I am having a giveaway!

I have pre-ordered the The Great Green Heist:

I have  a paperback copy of Starry River of the Sky: 

and I have restocked the prints in my etsy store:

If you participate in the WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS campaign, I will put your name in for a random drawing for one of these prizes. There are 3 parts of the campaign and you can enter for each part you participate in!

All you have to do is copy and paste the url of your photo (of your sign and/or your bookshelf as requested by the campaign, I'll just go by the honor system for the twitter chat!) in the comments section of this post. If there are a lot of entries, I'm happy to offer even more prizes! 

So, please spread the word and participate!

* I am not an organizer of the campaign nor did I have anything to do with its origins. I just think it's awesome and want people to support it.

We Need Diverse Books Campaign

So thanks to Facebook, I caught wind of the WE NEED DIVERSE BOOKS campaign. I really encourage everyone participate! It's pretty sad that there are more cats than people of color invited to a premier book national book event (not that I don't like cats).  So, please take part in this campaign--I'm going to try to join the twitter chat on May 2nd even though I've never done one before (and I might be late because I'll be coming into MN about that time)!

Here's all the info, plus a link for the FB event:

Recently, there’s been a groundswell of discontent over the lack of diversity in children’s literature. The issue is being picked up by news outlets llike the NYT, CNN, EW, and many more. But while we individually care about diversity, there is still a disconnect. BEA’s Bookcon recently announced an all-white-male panel of “luminaries of children’s literature,” and when we pointed out the lack of diversity, nothing changed.

Now is the time to raise our voices into a roar that can’t be ignored. Here’s how:

On May 1st at 1pm (EST), there will be a public call for action that will spread over 3 days. We’re starting with a visual social media campaign using the hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks. We want people to tweet, Tumblr, Instagram, Facebook, blog, and post anywhere they can to help make the hashtag go viral.

For the visual part of the campaign:

• Take a photo holding a sign that says “We need diverse books because ___________________________.” Fill in the blank with an important, poignant, funny, and/or personal reason why this campaign is important to you.

• The photo can be of you or a friend or anyone who wants to support diversity in kids’ lit. It can be a photo of the sign without you if you would prefer not to be in a picture. Be as creative as you want! Pose the sign with your favorite stuffed animal or at your favorite library. Get a bunch of friends to hold a bunch of signs.

• However you want to do it, we want to share it! There will be a Tumblr athttp://weneeddiversebooks.tumblr.com/ that will host all of the photos and messages for the campaign. Please submit your visual component by May 1st to weneeddiversebooks@yahoo.com with the subject line “photo” or submit it right on our Tumblr page here and it will be posted throughout the first day.

• Starting at 1:00PM (EST) the Tumblr will start posting and it will be your job to reblog, tweet, Facebook, or share wherever you think will help get the word out.

• The intent is that from 1pm EST to 3pm EST, there will be a nonstop hashtag party to spread the word. We hope that we’ll get enough people to participate to make the hashtag trend and grab the notice of more media outlets.

• The Tumblr will continue to be active throughout the length of the campaign, and for however long we need to keep this discussion going, so we welcome everyone to keep emailing or sending in submissions even after May 1st.

On May 2nd, the second part of our campaign will roll out with a Twitter chat scheduled for 2pm (EST) using the same hashtag. Please use #WeNeedDiverseBooks at 2pm on May 2nd and share your thoughts on the issues with diversity in literature and why diversity matters to you.

On May 3rd, 2pm (EST), the third portion of our campaign will begin. There will be a Diversify Your Shelves initiative to encourage people to put their money where their mouth is and buy diverse books and take photos of them. Diversify Your Shelves is all about actively seeking out diverse literature in bookstores and libraries, and there will be some fantastic giveaways for people who participate in the campaign! More details to come!

We hope that you will take part in this in any way you can. We need to spread the word far and wide so that it will trend on Twitter. So that media outlets will pick it up as a news item. So that the organizers of BEA and every big conference and festival out there gets the message that diversity is important to everyone. We hope you will help us by being a part of this movement.

Hope you will all be joining me!