From Goodreads’ description of Stephen Emond’s new book, Bright Lights, Dark Nights: Walter Wilcox has never been in love. That is, until he meets Naomi, and sparks, and clever jokes, fly. But when his cop dad is caught in a racial profiling scandal, Walter and Naomi, who is African American, … Continue reading →

A great post about reading diversely, by another white lady: Kelly Jensen on Stacked. I don’t agree with everything she says — I get why she does it, but not buying books by white men seems a bit much, since the vast majority of writers in every demographic group are … Continue reading →

And here’s the list, roughly in order of how strongly I’d recommend them, with links to my Goodreads reviews:         

I’m a quarter of the way through my Diverse Authors Project year, so it seems like a good time for an update. With pretty charts! NB: This is based on the authors’ own websites and Goodreads pages. Not everyone chooses to make their sexuality, gender identity, races, or nationalities a … Continue reading →

The pitch: Mai, or Mia as she’s known at school, is the thoroughly SoCal daughter of Vietnamese refugees. Her big beach plans for the summer are cut short when her dad announces a family trip to Vietnam to help her grandmother, Ba, say goodbye to her grandfather’s memory. All Mai can … Continue reading →

I started this project two weeks ago. So far I’ve read: Temple Grandin: How the Girl Who Loved Cows Embraced Autism and Changed the World, by Sy Montgomery (a bit of a cheat, since Grandin didn’t write this herself, but Montgomery interviewed her extensively and much of the book, as … Continue reading →

If you’re paying attention to the kidlit world at all, you know about the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign. To paraphrase Shonda Rimes (who was talking about television), it’s not about diversifying, it’s about normalizing: the world is vastly more diverse than TV, or popular children’s literature, shows us. White suburban American mom-and-dad … Continue reading →

The pitch: Kate has lived her entire life in the rambling, quirky old house everyone calls Big Red. When her parents tell her they have to move, she decides to fight back. The review: Time to ‘fess up: I cannot approach books about homes objectively. My family made a few … Continue reading →

I still have a handful of books that are on my recommended summer reading list due to general acclaim even though I haven’t read them yet. Sometimes I read one and am embarrassed about putting my stamp of approval on it. But Make Lemonade is staying on the list forever, unless I can get … Continue reading →

I picked this up because I loved Airborn, Oppel’s steampunk airship (is that redundant?) adventure, and also because TRAINS. (Unfortunately the Amtrak Pennsylvanian I read it on was not as well-appointed as the opulent Boundless.) This tale takes place after the completion of the Canadian Pacific Railway, on the maiden … Continue reading →