Avoiding white default
BOOKS: (There are many memoirs and thoughtful books about race available. These talk specifically about childhood but are just a beginning of what is there.)
- “Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?” and Other Conversations About Race, by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D. (Basic Books, 1997)
- The Black Girl Next Door (A Memoir), by Jennifer Baszile (Touchstone, 2009)
- Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance, by Barack Obama (Three Rivers Press, 1995)
- The Year of the Dog, by Grace Lin (Little, Brown and Company, 2006) – A novelized memoir.
WEB ARTICLES:
- Straight Talk on Race: Challenging the Stereotypes in Kids’ Books, by Mitali Perkins, School Library Journal (April 1, 2009)
- Mary Anne Mohanraj Gets You Up To Speed, Part II, by Mary Anne Mohanraj (John Scalzi’s Whatever blog, Mar. 13, 2009)
- “I Don’t See Color, Kids Are Just Kids”, by Tanisha Davis-Doss, Connections: the Journal of the National School Reform Faculty (Fall, 2006)
- Shame, by Pam Noles, The Infinite Matrix (Jan. 4, 2006)
- I Didn’t Dream of Dragons, by Deepa D. (Livejournal blog, Jan. 13, 2009)
- It’s not like choosing the color of her hair, by A.C.E. Bauer (In the Rabbit Hole, July 2008)
- What’s the Story? Reflections on White Privilege in the Publication of Children’s Books, by Laura Atkins (Roehampton University, London, July 2009)
- Who Gets To Be A Superhero? Race And Identity In Comics, by Gene Demby (NPR blog, Code Switch: Frontiers of Race, Culture and Ethnicity, January 11, 2014)
- Addressing Troubling Tropes Regarding Asian and Asian-Americans in YA (and Excuses For Them That Need to Stop), by Ciel Rouge (Tumblr blog, March 7, 2014)
- Diversity is Not Enough: Race, Power, Publishing, by Daniel José Older (BuzzFeed, April 17, 2014)
- MFA vs. POC, by Junot Díaz (The New Yorker, April 30, 2014)
- Should white people write about people of color?, by Malinda Lo (April 24, 2014)
- Links and articles about diversity in YA, by Diversity in YA (January, 2014 and forward)
CHILDREN’S BOOKS READING LISTS: (Some lists are within websites.)
- Cynthia Leitich Smith’s website
- The Brown Bookshelf
- American Indians in Children’s Literature
- Oyate
- Celebrating Cultural Diversity Through Children’s Literature
- Library Thing shelftalker
- Ciel Rouge
- Diversity in YA
- Latin@s in Kid Lit
- Rich in Color
GRAPHIC NOVELS: (This is a sampling.)
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The list became so long, I figured it deserved its own page. Please see Graphic novels featuring many cultures.