something new

Somehow, despite consuming a pint of ice cream yesterday, I’ve managed to reach my “target weight.” I’m feeling a little stressed out this week and since I was feeling blue earlier this month, I’ve been careful to keep up with my exercise routine. I run every other day but after yesterday’s ice cream lapse, I went again today thanks to a friend who texted me to meet her at the park. Today’s craving? Chocolate. When it comes to weight, I generally take one step forward and two steps back; on Friday I’m having my cholesterol tested again so chocolate after ice cream (and pumpkin bread on Tuesday) probably isn’t a good idea. But it WILL happen if I write 500 words this afternoon. My Fitbit battery is about to die, so I’ll add a few thousand steps on my way to the hardware store and grab something sweet on the way home. It’s about balance, right? I’ve been feeling off kilter lately because I started a new teaching job on Saturday and then socialized quite a bit on Sunday, and then tried to wrap up three new book projects while maintaining my 500 words per day quota. The illustrated middle-grade novel has just been submitted for review and I hope to have a copy in my hands by Monday. Final art came in from my illustrators in London and Hong Kong, so my designer is busy putting those picture books together, too. I wonder what it will be like once the new books are done and I have nothing to distract me from this novel-in-progress…

Something else that’s new is an exciting blog, Reading While White, developed by a group of radical librarians (several of whom I am proud to call “friend”). The first post by Allie Jane Bruce should make clear why this is a very necessary endeavor:

“But if we White people talk about racism as if we are not part of the equation, we are the problem. We have a responsibility not just to boost marginalized voices as much as we can, but also to examine ourselves and our Whiteness. And we must create all-White spaces in which we can do this work without burdening non-White communities. People of color and First/Native Nations have enough work to do in analyzing how racism has impacted their lives. To ask them to also educate us on our Whiteness is White privilege in the extreme.”

Diversity in children’s literature always ends up being a panel of marginalized writers talking about their struggle to get published and/or stocked in bookstores and/or taught in schools. But the truth is, the children’s literature community is dominated by one group: white women. They make up the majority of teachers, librarians, and editors in this country. So if we hope to address the inequality within our community, we must have support from those who are largely responsible for the disparities that exist. I have no problem whatsoever with white women librarians creating a space where other white people can talk about privilege and bias and power—and guilt and shame and resentment and anxiety and all the other emotions that powerful, privileged people too often try to deny or simply don’t know how/where to talk about. I’ve already written one short essay about white women and white supremacy in publishing and would like to write another, but I know that my voice will never carry as much weight as the voices of other white women. So I commend these allies and offer my full support—and urge you to check out their site.