Friends, I started writing these Diversity in MG Lit posts six years ago in the fall of 2018. Today marks my 50th post. I wanted to reflect on how far we’ve come and where we might best spend our energy in support of diverse books in the future.
The Cooperative Children’s Book Center has been carefully and exhaustively compiling data on the racial and cultural composition of children’s book characters and children’s book authors and illustrators. Their data shows broad and consistent advances in the number of children’s books both by diverse creators and about diverse characters. The improvement has been particularly strong for Black, Asian, and Latine creators and characters. Each of those categories include more than 10% of the children’s books studied. Indigenous American, Pacific Islander and Arab titles saw a doubling over the last six years though the overall numbers are lower than 10%.
Equally encouraging is the recognition diverse titles receive. Taking the window of 2018-2024, all the National Book Award winners but one were diverse. And in the ten years before that (2007-2017) six of the ten winners were Black, Indigenous, or Asian.
The American Library Association has many book awards meant to elevate diverse books and their creators. But if we only look at the Newbery Award which does not make race or ethnicity of the author a qualification, all but one of the Newbery medals from 2018 to 2024 went to diverse authors–86%. Each Newbery committee can select as many as 5 honor books in a year. There were 26 honor books and 77% of them went to diverse authors.
This is all very encouraging and has come about due to the efforts of groups like We Need Diverse Books which formed to address this issue in 2014. It’s worth remembering that teachers, librarians, and independent booksellers have been pushing for greater diversity for many decades before social media brought the issue to wider attention.
We have much to celebrate as we complete the circle of another year. And yet there has been a dramatic rise in book banning and virtually all of it targets books for young readers by diverse creators and about the diverse experience. The LGBT+ experience has been a particular target of book banning.
Many anticipate that these bans will increase as the Trump administration takes office. Some states, most recently New Jersey, have passed laws to prevent book bans. Local action does seem to be the most effective deterrent. Book banning is broadly unpopular even among conservatives. And most book banning attempts ultimately fail, though not without causing disruption and heart ache. For my part I plan to pay close attention to my local school board and encourage my state representatives to enact anti-book ban legislation.
I have a far bigger concern than the bans though. Most diverse books are bought by teachers for their in-class collection or by librarians for school and public libraries. The children who need diverse books the most rely almost entirely on these free access opportunities. However, school and library funding has been decreasing for years. The most diverse communities have little or no access to an independent bookstore leaving them only the smaller inventory at big box stores. For example, I work at a medium-sized indy in Portland. Our middle grade section holds hundreds of individual MG titles. By contrast the local Target typically has no more than 30 MG book choices.
In some ways because book bans are emotionally-laden events, they distract from a far more dangerous agenda. Project 2025 would destroy public education as we know it. Among many objectives, it calls for the elimination of Title 1 funding and Head Start programs. Those programs make literacy possible for millions of low income and mostly diverse children. If those children never learn to read, it will not matter how many diverse books we create for them.
So although I will gladly continue to trumpet the arrival of new diverse books for middle grade readers, the lion’s share of my attention will go toward protecting public education and public libraries for all children. Our teachers and librarians and all of our children have never needed our support more.
Special shout out this month to diverse holiday books. A personal favorite is Nicholas the Maker by Brian W Parker. He is the author illustrator and publisher of this charming origin story of Santa featuring black characters, fantastical creatures, and heaps of holiday joy . I also love Lullaby for the King by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Michelle Carlos. On a holiday book shelf awash in reindeer and snow, shiny trees and wrapped presents, it’s nice to see a book that is about the real 
Christmas story and not the ever present commercial version.
Here is a new series from the creator of the Explorer Club, SJ King. It’s called The Time Keepers, and it features time travel adventures with lots of rich historical detail. Like the earlier series there’s a nicely diverse cast and some non-fiction back matter. It’s an easier read than Kate Messner’s Ranger in Time series but a step up in reading level from Laurel Snyder’s Charlie and Mouse.
I’m so thrilled to see this debut graphic novel from a fellow Portlander and Filipino American illustrator and animator Zachary Sterling. I love it that he used a Filipino word of greeting for his title Mabuhay! It’s the story of first generation siblings JJ and Althea who are working hard at fitting in at school and who dread working on the family food truck. When the monsters of Filipino mythology come for their family the brother and sister team up to protect their own. A sweet story with top notch art and, perhaps best of all, an easy recipe for chicken adobo.
On a more serious note, Neal Shusterman has written a graphic novel called Courage to Dream: tales of hope in the holocaust, illustrated by Andrés Vera Martínez. This is for the older middle grade readers. It carefully and clearly represents the horrors of the holocaust, but gives attention to the hope and courage of the Jewish community and the help of their allies. If you are looking to open a conversation about anti-semitism in the present, this might be a good place to start.
Tagging Freedom by Rhonda Roumani also intersects with the politics of the moment. It is about cousins, one in Damascas, Syria and one in the US. Kareem, the Syrian cousin, gets involved in using graffiti as a means of protest against injustice. His parents send him to live in the US with his cousin Sam who is trying to fit in with the popular crowd at school. It’s a good conversation starter about how activism changes the way people see the world.
Books for kids by indigenous authors are also few and far between and rarest of all perhaps are those by and about Native Alaskans. Eagle Drums by Nausgraq Rainey Hopson is the story of a boy who encounters an eagle god while on a mountain expedition to collect obsidian. It features Iñupiaq cultural folklore and beautiful color illustrations. This is one of my favorite book covers this year.
