Posts Tagged Diverse MG Lit

WNDMG Wednesday — Call for Submissions

By on November 9, 2022   /   Articles, WNDMG  
We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around
We Need Diverse MG Logo hands holding reading globe with stars and spirals floating around

Illustration by: Aixa Perez-Prado

WNDMG Wednesday Submissions

It’s a WNDMG Wednesday call for submissions! This month we’re excited to tell you that we’re looking to expand our team.  We’ve been a fixture on the Mixed-Up Files blog for two years now,  providing readers with once-a-month posts designed to center diverse writers, books, and readers.

Now it’s time to grow! We’re eager to add more voices to those to contribute content for this important series.

Who Should Apply?

Do you love middle-grade books as much as we do? Are you a middle-grade book writer, librarian, or media specialist from an underrepresented or marginalized community? We’re eager to add your voice to the ongoing conversation about diversifying our bookshelves!

WNDMG Contributor Responsibilities

Posting: WNDMG is part of the Mixed-Up Files blog team, which means our contributors work together with the whole blog to keep us running. As a WNDMG contributor, we would ask you to post 2-3 times a year for the series, plus possibly 1-2 times a year for the blog as well.

We value original, quality posts on discussion-invoking topics about diversifying our bookshelves and the publishing industry, unique book lists, or author interviews.

((What don’t we do? Book reviews or self-published books.))

Promotion: We need dedicated new members who will commit to regularly promoting our blog via their own social media pages as well as our own. We also urge you to share the good news when our members have a launch or great news to share!

Blog Upkeep: We ask EACH Mixed-Up Files/WNDMG contributor to take at least one blog maintenance job. A few examples of these jobs (there are more!) are:

  • Updating one of our social media pages
  • Keeping our Oh MG! sidebar news updated
  • Interview team (they rotate taking interview requests that come in…but Mixed-Up Files members are always welcome to coordinate interviews themselves!)

 

If you’re interested in joining us, click here to fill out an application.

 

Tip to help you prepare: Read some of our posts here: We Need Diverse Middle Grade. What would you like to see in this series? Use that to help you craft your submission sample.

Please spread the word to others who might be interested. If you applied a while back and would still like to join us, we’d be happy to receive a new application from you.

Applications will be open until December 1. We can’t wait to hear from you and will contact all applicants by mid December. If you have questions, we’re happy to answer them—leave a comment below.

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Diversity in MG Lit #38 July 2022

By on July 20, 2022   /   Articles  

Diversity in MG Lit

Summer is typically a quieter time for book releases. The big surge of new books tends to come in the spring and fall. This is convenient for me this year as I’m going to be very busy with the revision of a new novel in August. My plan is to highlight July and August releases this month. If my revision proves particularly time consuming I will skip my usual mid-August post guilt free because I’ve already given you those titles now. However if time permits, I’ll do half of the September diverse releases in August and the rest in September.
Here are new middle grade diverse titles to get excited about.
Available in July:
book cover Children of the QuicksandsSet in a remote Nigerian village far from the jangle of cellphones and human noises, Children of the Quicksands by Efua Traoré, tells the story of a girl who defies her grandmother and gets lost in a parallel world. Plenty of thrills and chills memorably set in the culture and traditions of Nigeria and featuring Yoruban mythology. This is Traoré’s debut novel
Ravenous Things by Derrick Chow is on the surface the typical MG spooky story–a riff on the Pied Piper tale complete with evil rats and a haunted subway train and tunnels. It is also an examination of grief and the lengths the bereaved will go for one last moment with a loved one. In an era of unprecedented loss this book is likely to speak to more than the just thrill seekers. I recommend it for the older end of MG readers. This is Chow’s debut novelbook cover Ravenous Things
Sweet and Sour by Debbi Michiko Florence looks a little bit like a romance novel on the cover, but it’s really a friendship story about long time friends Mai and Zach who spend summers together in Mystic, Connetecut. A misunderstanding breaks their friendship but with the support of loving parents they learn to turn over a new leaf and try again.
book cover Last BeekeeperThe survival of bees has always been one of my environmental interests so I was glad to see The Last Beekeeper by Pablo Caraya a climate fiction tale that will thrill young climate activists. Yolanda Cicerón is a climate warrior who puts all her hopes on saving honey bees. Along with the thrills and action is a celebration of the determination and resilience of the Latinx community.
Available in August
Non Fiction
We Are Your Children Too: Black students, white supremacists and the battle for America’s schools in Prince Edward County Virginia by P O’Connell Pearson is the story of an often forgotten piece of the struggle to desegregate schools. It’s 1954. Brown v, Board of Education passed and rather than integrate a county in Virginia decided to close the public schools entirely.  This well-referenced and photo-illustrated book will be of interest to young activists and teachers looking to round out their knowledge of our nation’s education history.
Kid Trailblazers: true tales of childhood from change-makers and leaders words by Robin Stevenson, art by Allison Steinfeld, Here’s another in the True Tales of Childhood series: Chipper, illustrated stories about Benazir Bhutto, Kamala Harris, Stacy Abrams, Dorothy Pitman Hughes, John Lewis, Marley Diaz, Mari Copeny, Greta Thunberg, Ai Weiwei, Shonda Rhimes and Elliot Page among others.
The Antiracist Kid: a book about identity, justice and activism words by Tiffany Jewell, art by Nicole Miles is a handbook meant to help kids 8-12 understand the language and concepts underlying identity, social justice and activism. It contains lots of affirming strategies and dwells more on positive action than blame. A solid choice for families who need a conversation starter.
Graphic Novels
book cover InvisibleInvisible by Christina Gonzalez & Gabriela Epstein is a great friendship story about five kids who have nothing in common besides all of them speaking Spanish. They have community service hours to complete and forge an unlikely friendship in the process. The art is fun and vibrant and the considerable amount of Spanish dialog is translated into English for readers who can’t do that for themselves. It’s tricky to inclusively convey the experience of being bilingual in print but this graphic novel does it more successfully than most.
Chapter Books
book cover Surely SurelySurely Surely Marisol Rainey by Erin Entrada Kelly occupies that vital territory in what I think of as the Ramona Quimby/Encyclopedia Brown zone. This is where kids fall in love with reading for the first time, or don’t. Find themselves reflected in books for the first time, or don’t. I’m thrilled to see Filipino-American champion of kindness, Marisol Rainey back for book two in the series. I hope we see more sweetly-illustrated books about overcoming fears big and small. She joins some other notable diverse characters in the chapter book space. Mindy Kim by Lyla Lee
Ryan Hart by Reneé Watson
Jojo Makoons by Dawn Quigley
Yasmin by Saadia Faruqi
Juana and Lucas by Juana Medina
Anna Hibiscus by Atinuke
Punky Aloha by Shar Tuiasoa
I welcome them all but I do wish that more of them were about human boys. Just putting that thought out there, hoping that several brand new (hopefully diverse) Encyclopedia Browns or Nate the Greats come along.
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Diversity in MG #32 January 2022.

By on February 17, 2022   /   Articles, Book Lists, Diversity, Fiction, Nonfiction  
Hello Mixed Up Files friends. I’m so happy to step into the new year spreading the word about all the new diverse books for MG readers. I’ll begin with three nonfiction books that came out last fall and end with some new fiction.
book cover Threads of PeaceThreads of Peace: how Mohandas Ghandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. Changed the World by Uma Krishnaswami is a dual biography of two great leaders in non-violent resistance. I appreciate very much how the flow of history is presented. It points out similarities and differences between British-ruled India and the Jim Crow South. We see how each man developed their ideas about non-violent resistance to tyranny over many years and much study. Teachers will be glad to see lots of source notes, maps, a glossary and timelines. Readers will appreciate the many historical photographs and the lively writing. Perfect for middle school and high school history classes and also a great book club choice for church youth groups.
book cover Black Birds in the SkyBlack Birds in the Sky: the story and legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre by Brandy Colbert is a detailed account of the destruction of a thriving Black community in Oklahoma. It describes how black families in the Greenwood district of Tulsa became so economically successful. It highlights notable people of the era such as Ida B Wells-Barnett. (happy side note: my local public high school changed its name from Woodrow Willson High to Ida B. Wells High) This title is generally shelved with the YA titles and is best suited to older middle grade readers.
I’m a big folktale fan. The graphic novel BlancaFlor: the hero with secret powers, a folk tale book cover BlancaFlorfrom Latin America by Nadja Spiegelman & Sergio García Sánchez was right up my alley. The art is energetic and whimsical. The story, everything you want in a folktale. It is billed as a feminist leaning story but I found BlancaFlor a tad too self effacing to claim that crown. She is stuck between a prince in desperate want of her magic powers and a family admonishing her not to show off–familiar ground for many mortal girls and women. There is also a Spanish edition of this title and it is from the same publisher who created Black Heros of the Wild West. I’m looking forward to many more diverse graphic novels in their future. (TOON 2021)
I wish Annie Blooms (the bookstore where I work) had a manifesto section. Aint Burned All the Bright by Jason Reynolds, art by Jason Griffin, would be its star title. It’s a short but powerful reflection on breathing. A timely topic but also an evergreen one given the rates of asthma in inner city children and emphysema in minority adults. I think the book will speak deeply to MG and YA readers. It’s best value though is in the implicit encouragement to write and illustrate a manifesto of your own. (Atheneum 2022)
book cover Dream Annie DreamI have a suspicion that while many aspects of everyday racism are the same as always, there is an increase in that particularly pernicious entitlement nonsense. “You only got …insert impressive achievement here…because you are a minority.” Ugh! This is exactly the territory Waka T Brown covers in her novel Dream, Annie, Dream. Seventh grader Annie Inoue lands a lead in the middle school musical The King and I only to hear from classmates that she only got the part because she’s Asian. Her hard won self confidence unfolds beautifully. A solid follow up to Brown’s debut While I Was Away. (QuillTree 2022)
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