In the bad old days which weren't all that long ago children and teen books in libraries were nearly all featuring white characters, written by white authors, and lent out by white librarians. Breanna J. McDaniel's Go Forth And Tell introduces younger readers to a shero who decided to do something about that.
Augusta Braxton Baker grew up listening to and enthralled by her grandmother's stories. In college she discovered a passion for introducing folk tales to a larger audience. When she became a children's librarian in New York she realized that although many of the kids she served were Black few of the books in stock had Black characters and the ones that did had very negative portrayals. She began to search for and write the kind of stories she wanted to share with them. "She wanted Black children to have heroes that rose up and looked, talked, and shined bright...just like them."
And that was just the beginning.
On a purrrsonal note, when I made my weekly visits to the Beverly (Massachusetts) Public Library and tore through the children's section I noticed the lack of diverse characters in the books I checked out. In more recent years I have been thrilled to see diversity of all kinds flourishing. I hate that so many people are trying to ban the books that make all our children feel valued and seen. That's what this blog is all about--fighting for diversity and inclusion and the asking of inconvenient questions in the books we all, but especially kids and teens have access to.
A great big shout out goes out to the authors of these books and the very brave librarians who fight for children to have access to them.
Jules Hathaway
Sent from my U.S.Cellular© Smartphone
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