Mitali Perkins's Blog, page 38

Selling Color in a White World

Please answer this  call from Elizabeth Bluemle, bookseller and blogger at Publishers Weekly, for input on how to "sell color in a white world."

At the New England Independent Booksellers Association trade show next week, the Children's Bookselling Advisory Council is holding a panel discussion on this topic. I'd love for booksellers, authors, publishers and editors, sales reps and publicists to attend and share their successful strategies for getting past reluctant or stymied gatekeepers and ...

Reprise: Should We Bowdlerize Classic Children's Books For Racism?

When classic children's books strike us as racist today, Philip Nel raises an interesting question . Even if we amend them to tone down the racism, do we "simply dress up racial and colonial ideologies in different costumes?"



Nel says that if we answer affirmatively, we face a choice:

(1) Discourage children from reading them.

(2) Permit children to read only the bowdlerized versions.

(3) Allow children to read any version, original or bowdlerized.

I took a poll about this issue last summer,...

Second Prize Fire Escape Poetry Contest 2010

I'm delighted to present the second prize winner in the Fire Escape's Eighth Annual Poetry Contest for teens between cultures, MISMATCHED SOCKS, by Lucia, born in China.



"The hardest thing about balancing two cultures is...well...dealing with the fact that they can't be balanced," says Lucia. "The scale is always tipping one way or the other as you try to satisfy both cultures' vastly different customs and beliefs. But being thrown about as the scale goes topsy turvy is also one of...

Brooklyn Book Festival 2010 ... with an NYPL Postscript

I was invited to present on a panel at Brooklyn Book Festival 2010 , so I traveled to New York after a lovely couple of days in Lititz, PA. I promised to take you along, so here we go ...







Brooklyn Borough Hall. The place to to be on 9/12/10.


Rain does not daunt book-loving diehards.


Indie bookseller WORD Brooklyn was having a blast. Can't you tell? (L to R: Stephanie Anderson, Christine Onorati, Jenn Northington)


Susanna Reich, Mikki Knudsen, and Rebecca Stead chatting in...

Lititz Kid Lit Festival 2010

A thousand thanks to the incomparable indie bookseller Aaron's Books and the town of Lititz, Pennsylvania, including the fabulous Lititz Bed and Breakfast , for a weekend of hospitality and just plain fun. Here are some highlights:





Pennsylvanians must read their papers because many came in response to this article that ran last week in the Lancaster Times.




The warm and welcoming children's area in Aaron's Bookstore.


Cyn Balog, Holly Huxter, Josh Berk, Bookseller Sam...

The Little Indie That Could

"I love your work!  I only wish I had more African American students so that I could use your books."



"HUH?" asks NYT bestselling author Nikki Grimes in the current issue of Hunger Mountain , and many of us echo her incredulous response.



As an antidote to discouraging words from such gatekeepers, may I present—TA DA!— Aaron's Books Lititz 2010 Kid Lit Festival .



BOOKS OPEN WORLDS

2010 Lititz Kid-Lit FestivalFocuses on Diversity in Children's Literature

If you traveled to the small town of ...

A Dozen Great Multicultural Blogs

I follow some great blogs, as you can see by the list in my sidebar, but here are a few that focus specifically on ethnic and cultural diversity in the Kid/YA book world.

A Wrung Sponge
American Indians in Children's Literature
Brown Bookshelf
Brown Paper
Color Online
Crazy Quilts 
Happy Nappy Bookseller
Lee and Low
PaperTigers
Reading in Color
Shen's Books
Smithsonian's Book Dragon
Are there others you would add to this list? Please leave them in the comments.

Come visit...

Eleven Great Multicultural Blogs

I follow some great blogs, as you can see by the list in my sidebar, but here are a few that focus specifically on ethnic and cultural diversity in the Kid/YA book world.

A Wrung Sponge
American Indians in Children's Literature
Brown Bookshelf
Brown Paper
Color Online
Happy Nappy Bookseller
Lee and Low
PaperTigers
Reading in Color
Shen's Books
Smithsonian's Book Dragon
Are there others you would add to this list? Please leave them in the comments.

Come visit me on the Fire...

Funny Books Featuring Multicultural Protagonists

The number one request from booksellers during our conversation last week about selling multicultural titles was for "less serious books that are more fun."



I put out a call on twitter for Kid/YA books featuring multicultural protagonists, and below are the responses. Feel free to add more suggestions of funny books in the comments and I'll update the list.



Younger Readers



THE WATSONS GO TO BIRMINGHAM by Christopher Paul Curtis

KIMCHI AND CALAMARI by Rose Kent

ALVIN HO by Lenore Look

LUV ...

Happy I Have A Dream Day

Listen to an audio recording of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. giving the "I Have a Dream" speech during the Civil Rights rally on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963.

Come visit me on the Fire Escape!