Comments on: Guest blogger Kyra Hicks: Black Kid’s Lit Authors – Down 12% in 2007

By: kallison

kallison — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 10:21:41 +0000

Would be interesting to see if these stats have improved since Obama?

By: What’s New in YA Releases? «

What’s New in YA Releases? « — Fri, 02 May 2008 10:44:57 +0000

[...] all over especially when it’s a book by an author that you love. With the news that the number of books by African American authors was down in 2007 compared to 2008, it is with pleasure that I present [...]

By: Rob

Rob — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:52:32 +0000

I am a children’s librarian in Queens, NY, which is the most culturally diverse place in the world. I am very intrigued by this finding and not quite sure what the solution is. I did notice that many of the African-American patrons don’t seem to be aware of the great black authors and often take books out by white authors. Many parents would come in looking for a book for their child to read and I would try to steer them towards writers such as Walter Dean Myers and Jacqueline Woodson. When showing them the book they would often indicate they hadn’t heard of them. So who knows why this is? Are schools not pushing them? Maybe Barnes & Noble or Borders doesn’t do enough to promote black authors? Hopefully this trend will change

By: Speak Up…Who’s Your Favorite? «

Speak Up…Who’s Your Favorite? « — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 15:49:15 +0000

[...] number of children’s titles by authors of color was down in 2007. But that doesn’t mean we can’t pay homage to the authors who wrote some great [...]

By: Paula

Paula — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:50:41 +0000

The first step is informing. Thanks Kyra for diligently staying on the most current stats. I don’t know if we can impact increasing that number or not, but we can certainly do our best to ensure folks know about and support the books that are being published lest the industry think these books aren’t in demand.

By: Becky

Becky — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 18:45:44 +0000

Thanks for this post. So informative. So important.

By: Carla Sarratt

Carla Sarratt — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 12:24:44 +0000

Kyra, thanks for an informative blog. I didn’t know that I could donate and have my self-published books counted so I will take care of that pronto.

It is very disturbing to see the number go down from one year to the next and it was a pretty big jump at that.

By: Kelly Starling Lyons

Kelly Starling Lyons — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 01:57:20 +0000

Kyra,

Thank you for keeping us informed. It’s disturbing that the number of books by African-American children’s book authors has declined even from the terribly low 2006 statistic. I hope our numbers will rise in 2008. It’s a tough economy and a challenging time for the children’s book industry. We need parents, teachers and librarians to support our titles and let publishers know that our books sell and matter. Children of color deserve stories that speak to their history, dreams and experiences.