Celebrating the Multifaceted, Multicultural, and Multicolored World of YA Fiction

Diversity in YA Fiction (DIYA) is a website and book tour founded by two young adult authors, Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon, to celebrate diverse stories in YA. From the site: “DIYA is a positive, friendly gathering of readers and writers who want to see diversity in their fiction. We come from all walks of [ Read the full article… ]

Help! My Kids Don’t Like to Read

If you’re a teacher, author, librarian, bookstore employee, chances are that you’ve been asked, “How do I get my kids or students to read more?” or “How do I get my kids or students to like reading?” As a teacher, I was asked some variation of those questions.  Since becoming an author, I’ve been asked [ Read the full article… ]

Booked for the Holidays

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas!  Around us we see decorations, holiday sales, and traditional holiday food and drink like egg nog and candy canes.  Turn on the radio and you can hear Donny Hathaway croon “This Christmas” as well as Michael Jackson and his brothers let us know that “Santa Claus is [ Read the full article… ]

Milestones

Brown Gold: Milestones of African American Children’s Picture Books, 1845-2002, by Michelle H. Martin is a compelling history and analysis of African-American children’s picture books from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. The book above was published by McLoughlin Brothers, 1875. Read a sample of Brown Gold by clicking here. I could write an entire [ Read the full article… ]