Diversity Baby was born on April 2nd, so she’s no April Fool.
Diversity Baby knows is curious about her world and all the people in it.
Diversity Baby comes from a family of readers.
Diversity Baby’s bookshelf has plenty of space for new books.
Diversity Baby needs to experience many viewpoints.
Diversity Baby needs to know that she can be a hero.
Diversity Baby needs to know that everyone can be a hero.
Diversity Baby was about one month old when the BEA’s annual BookCon announced its lineup of featured authors, all of the same race and gender, and the Internet exploded with calls for change.
Diversity Baby doesn’t know about Tumblr, Twitter, or trending hashtags, but she would have been proud of the effort that many thousands of people expended to bring more voices to the books she will grow up with.
Diversity Baby also didn’t attend the annual New England Society of Book Writers and Illustrators conference that happened during the weekend of the #weneeddiversebooks campaign.
Diversity Baby would have heard, from editors at the conference, that decades of effort have been slowly turning the tide in favor of diversity.
Diversity Baby would have heard anecdotal evidence that major booksellers are no longer rejecting books with minority characters featured prominently on the cover.
Diversity Baby would have heard that the marketing departments, the last holdouts at many major publishing houses, have finally come around.
Diversity Baby would have heard that diverse books are now being seen as a big plus within the industry, and that editors are searching for new and original voices.
Diversity Baby will be about two months old when BookCon happens, now including a new panel of diverse authors from the #weneeddiversebooks movement–including Grace Lin, Matt de la Peña and Jacqueline Woodson.
Diversity Baby needs diverse books.
Diversity Baby needs diverse voices.
Every baby is a Diversity Baby.
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Greg R. Fishbone is the proud father of Diversity Baby and her big sister, Diversity Girl. Greg writes galactic fiction for young readers and has a new webcomic at http://gfishbone.com/septina
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What do you consider diverse? Are we talking strictly racially diverse/minorities? My audio adventure “Tales from Captain Davy Jones locker – Quetzalcoatl” is about a boy with one leg around 1900. He discovers & rescues a legendary sea creature and together they battle bullies, discover treasure and work to save Garrett’s father’s fishing business.
Such an important topic! This mom feels the same way. #weneeddiversebooks!! Diversity babies will love Barefoot Books. They’ll be happy with the very inclusive stories and illustrations. I know my babies are. 🙂
I was reading Ferdinand to a diverse group of little ones during Indies First Storytime when this truth hit me. It’s a wonderful thing to be “different.”
Great post, Greg! Congrats on your sweet baby!
I think diverse books are important too! 🙂 P.S. Diversity Baby is super cute! XD