Update Nov. 2019: Scholastic’s celebratory children’s books about Donald Trump are finally OUT OF PRINT, after thousands of teachers, parents, and students sent letters. Update June 2018: Scholastic issued a statement, defending the books without responding to any of the points in the review below. Read more in Despite National Outrage, Scholastic Defends Children’s Books […]
Junot Díaz’s Islandborn: Before and After
The new children’s book Islandborn by Junot Díaz tells the story of a young girl, Lola, who learns from family and friends about the island where she was born. The island is not named in the book, but readers can deduce that the story is based on the history of the Dominican Republic. “Every kid in […]
CCBC 2017 Multicultural Statistics
The Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC) of the School of Education, University of Wisconsin-Madison has started to release the 2017 publishing statistics on children’s books about people of color and first/native nations and by people of color and first/native nations. The CCBC’s tracking information doesn’t consider the quality of the titles but does indicate the […]
Why is the Monster Black in Islandborn?
Update: The editorial director at Dial (the publishing house for Islandborn) called the Teaching for Change office on February 6 to say that in response to the concerns surfaced in the article below, a new version of the first edition of the book is being printed. She noted that this decision was made to meet the goal of having a book […]
Dragons in a Bag Cover Reveal
The See What We See (SWWS) coalition is thrilled to introduce the cover for Dragons in a Bag by Zetta Elliott. Random House will release Dragons in a Bag in October of 2018. It is a wonderful middle grade novel, the first in a series, that will leave you clamoring for the sequel. This is […]
Sources for Book Reviews and Recommendations
We encourage you to visit the following blogs and websites on multicultural and social justice children’s books. Africa Access Review. An online database with over 1,000 annotations and reviews of children’s books on Africa and the annual Children’s Africana Book Award. American Indians in Children’s Literature (AICL). Established in 2006, AICL provides critical perspectives and analysis of […]
