By Christian Trimmer, executive editor at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Many of the biggest lessons in my life I learned from books. Bridge to Terabithia helped me understand loss and grief. I figured out how to be a good friend and listener from Judy Blume’s novels. The Romantic Movement challenged me to be more actively present in my relationships. And from Jurassic Park, I learned never to extract dinosaur DNA from amber-entombed mosquitoes.
It’s heartening that today’s youth are embracing books like Wonder, Out of My Mind, The Thing About Jellyfish, and Eleanor & Park—novels that highlight differences and encourage compassion. I can imagine the wonderful conversations these stories are sparking, and I bet kids who read these books feel better equipped to navigate challenging situations and confront injustice. And I’m going to contend that parents and educators who buy these books for their children are doing so not only because the novels are excellent reads, but also because they recognize the potential lessons to be gleaned from the pages.
With that in mind, I ask that you put books like the following into the hands of your customers, kids, and students:
These are just some of my recent favorites. Goodreads offers a number book lists featuring titles that address LGBTQ themes, like this one, and the American Library Association has recognized some truly magnificent books with its Stonewall Award.
Despite some amazing progress for LGBTQ rights, kids who identify within those groups still face big challenges at school and at home. Nine out of ten kids who identify as LGBTQ report being bullied. They’re eight times more likely to end up homeless. LGBTQ kids are four times more likely to attempt suicide than their straight peers. Nearly half of transgender youth have seriously contemplated suicide; twenty-five percent have attempted it. (More facts here and here.)
I’m not asking you to promote LGBTQ literature in the faint hope that young people might be more compassionate if they read these books. Studies, like those noted in this article, prove that reading makes us more empathetic. Young people who have read about Katie Hill’s decision to drop out of school and take her classes online because the bullying got so bad will be less likely to inflict the same pain on someone else. Tweens who have read Better Nate Than Ever will no doubt be sweeter to the kid who may or may not be (but who is probably) gay. Teens will realize how much they have in common with Arin Andrews after they read his memoir.
As publishers, booksellers, educators, and parents, we have this grand opportunity to shape and mold young people’s minds with the literature we give to them. I feel incredibly fortunate that my parents and educators encouraged me to read so much when I was younger—I wouldn’t be the man I am today without the books of my youth. And I wish there had been more books like the ones noted in this post when I was a teenager. As a gay kid growing up in a conservative town in the 1990s, I would have found solace in these stories, and maybe my peers would have been a bit kinder. The only gay character I knew of back then was Matt Fielding on Melrose Place. I know we can do better.
Christian Trimmer is an executive editor for Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. He is also the author of Simon’s New Bed and (Mimi and Shu in) I’ll Race You!, out December 2015. Learn more at christiantrimmer.com.
By Ebony LaDelle, marketing manager at Simon & Schuster
At this year’s Brooklyn Book Festival, I had the pleasure of meeting one of my favorite authors, Edwidge Danticat. When she found out I worked in publishing, she looked at me and said, “So you’re like a unicorn.” “I’m sorry?” I replied, star struck. “You’re one of the few black people who actually work in publishing,” she said, “You’re a unicorn.”
Growing up in the Midwest, I was fortunate. My mother taught me the power of reading at a young age. She couldn’t afford to buy me a collection of books, but she made sure to take me to our local library. Goosebumps, The Boxcar Children, The Baby-Sitters Club…those books transported me into a world of make-believe.
Make-believe was fun, but it wasn’t until I checked out the first book where I felt the author got ME, that I fully recognized how underrepresented I was. I was in middle school, and on a trip to the library, I saw a cover that spoke to me in ways I had never experienced before. The cover was of an African-American girl who looked to be my age, with almond-shaped eyes and full lips, and the title was The Skin I’m In. The main character, Maleeka Madison, was a smart and tall, skinny, dark-skinned girl who didn’t feel like she fit in, and was insecure about her chocolate skin.
This book was one of my favorites and helped shape my thoughts, ideas, and even my future in publishing. I always considered myself a fan of books, but the thought of working in such an industry seemed unattainable until that moment.
Last week, Publisher’s Weekly released their annual salary survey, reporting that 89% of the people who work in publishing are white. 89% is a staggering number, but I can attest that this industry is still very much white, and it shows in the books being acquired. It’s also one of the main reasons I created Coloring Books, a biweekly newsletter that highlights both adult and children’s books by people of color. Instead of constantly complaining, I want to be a part of the solution. So what can the publishing industry do to help combat this problem?
As a hiring manager, hold yourself accountable for minority hires. Be honest with yourself. When’s the last time you hired someone of color?
Volunteer to go to career fairs, high schools, and colleges to speak to minorities about a career in publishing.
Alexender Chee hit the nail on the head when he said, “if your tastes are not diverse, your life may also not be.” Make a conscious effort to present an accurate landscape of the world we live in; your willingness will be reflected in your social circle, your interests, and the titles you look for. If these things aren’t showing you a community outside of what you know, then it’s time to reevaluate.
Please stop saying, “there’s not a market for this title.” And this is based off of…? Publishing one book from an author of color does not make you an expert. How many books are published from white authors that don’t make the bestsellers list? And yet these books are published every season. I’ve learned as a marketer that what works for one book may not work for another. But that hasn’t stopped us from publishing books.
Understand that change takes time and commitment. You’re transforming the way an industry has been run for years. Don’t be overwhelmed or expect a quick fix. This will take years of work. But do your part, and hold others accountable as well. If everyone committed to doing small things, it could have a lasting effect.
Publishers have to realize that little girls like I was are interested in the business, but do not think of it as a viable career. When we see images of white people on the cover of every book in our local bookstore or library, we see make-believe. We see an unattainable world. It wasn’t until The Skin I’m In that I realized a brown-skinned girl like myself could turn my passion for books into a career. It wasn’t until I saw a mirror image of myself that I knew this was a world I could be accepted in.
Ebony LaDelle is a marketing manager at Simon & Schuster and a champion of promoting diversity through her biweekly newsletter, Coloring Books. You can follow her on Twitter at @_coloringbooks.
The newsletter is a great resource for librarians, teachers, booksellers, parents and caregivers, publishing professionals, and children’s literature lovers. Find thought-provoking articles, diverse new releases, and more in this month’s issue and …
A year and a half ago, my book, The Novice,
went viral on a social reading app called Wattpad, being read over 6.5
million times. I receive dozens of messages from my fans every day. Two
questions are asked the most. The first is not unusual: aspiring writers
requesting I read and comment on their work. But the other might
surprise you. It’s people asking me if I am Indian/Pakistani/Asian.
At
first I thought it was just curiosity about my profile picture, as I am
an unusual mix: half Indian and half Caucasian Brazilian. But there was
one thing that all of the askers had in common — they were all young
Asians.
They will usually go on to talk about how I have inspired
them to write or read more. Others simply empathized with my characters,
sometimes mentioning dark-skinned ones such as Seraph in Summoner: The Novice. It seemed to me that they wanted a role model. I wondered why that was, until I realized something.
As
I understand it, children will often seek role models that they can
empathize with, choosing those that are similar to them. When you ask a
young girl to name her role model, she will invariably select a woman.
Ask a boy and he’ll often choose a man. It follows that this is true of
culture, race, and appearance.
Yet, when you look at publishing,
there are fewer ethnic minority authors that are representative of the
Western world. More often than not, when I go to author events, I find
myself as the only minority in the room. I don’t think this is evidence
of biases or racist tendencies in the industry though.
I believe
the problem is cyclical. A lack of minority authors to inspire budding
writers causes a dearth of them again in the next generation. The
problem is made worse by a similar lack of ethnic minorities in
children’s books. Even if they do appear, the book is often either set
in that character’s country of ethnic origin, or the book is
specifically about race and culture.
In the end, lack of
diversity in publishing sends an unintentional message to children of
minority backgrounds: Reading and writing isn’t for them. Considering
how important reading is to a child’s development, this is a real
problem.
But why does this happen? It may be a simple emulation of
the “greats,” who lived in a far less diverse society. Perhaps authors
choose to write characters that are most similar to themselves. But I
think there is an element of fear when writing a minority character,
which adds to the problem. The writer might ask his or herself:
• Is the character unintentionally being portrayed as a stereotype? • Is the language used to describe the character’s skin color offensive? • How does one describe an East Asian person’s eye shape or skin tone? • Is white the “default” for a character unless you describe their color? • Is skin tone the best way to identify a character’s race? • In a fantasy world, is race irrelevant?
In
an age of snap judgements, Twitter shaming, and author controversies,
it can be easy to play it safe and avoid creating diverse characters
altogether. I urge authors to be brave. The answers to these questions
are not as hard to find as you might think:
• Read diverse books
with diverse characters. Most authors learned their trade by reading and
studying authors that came before them. This is no different. •
Ask. If you yourself aren’t from a diverse background, you’ll know
people who are. If in doubt, see what they think is the best way to go.
They won’t have all the answers and opinions will differ, but isn’t that
the case with all writing? • Trust your editor. He or she can help you get on the right track. Don’t be afraid to seek guidance if you’re unsure.
As
writers, we need to break the cycle. We should celebrate authors who
include diverse characters and not demonize them if they don’t do it
perfectly.
There’s no easy solution. I don’t think that diverse
writers should be given special treatment, or that we should lower the
bar for them. Instead, writers like me should take our responsibility as
role models seriously; the best people to inspire reading and writing
are the authors themselves, be that through mentoring or simple
engagement with fans. And maybe by having this conversation, we can
encourage writers to be more representative of the world we live in,
whatever their genre or background.
Taran Matharu wrote his first
book when he was nine years old. At twenty-two, he began posting The
Novice on Wattpad (the online writing website) and reached over three
million reads in less than six months. The Novice is the first of three
books in the Summoner series, and Taran Matharu’s fiction debut. Taran
lives in London.
By Audrey Maynard, Children’s Editor at Tilbury House Books
Confucius is credited with saying, “True wisdom is knowing what you don’t know.” As a white editor who values working on books with authors and illustrators from different regions, religions, and cultures, it’s always been important to acknowledge my limitations. One lesson I’ve learned over time is the value of hiring independent cultural consultants to help spot issues in manuscripts. It is an unfair burden on authors or illustrators to presume that any one person can act as spokesperson for an entire religion, tribe, or ethnic group. Too often those of us from majority culture perspectives look for the “single story” or the single perspective. Unfortunately, as others have observed, this can lead to simplistic representations and stereotypes in books that otherwise might have a lot to offer. Having a third-party cultural expert can facilitate conversations that go beyond the specifics of a manuscript and that can be vital to the success of the book.
In 2010, I began editing a picture book with Lee Francis, a member of the Penobscot tribe. Her manuscript was a tribute to a special uncle, a man renowned for his basket-making skills. Lee wanted to honor his work and write a contemporary depiction of life on Indian Island. As Lee and I talked about different illustration and design styles for the story, Jan Brett’s images for The Mitten came up. Lee was enthusiastic about its design and layout. Thinking I had Lee’s approval, I conferred with the illustrator Susan Drucker. Although Susan is not Native, she was very committed to the project and to getting as many of the cultural details of the story right as possible. Susan and I discussed the idea of using the sidebars to show kids how to make a basket. We traveled together to the Penobscot Reservation on Indian Island. With Lee as our guide, we took photos of the houses, the trees, and the workshops. For the next five months, Susan researched native basket-making techniques as part of her quest to make a beautifully detailed book.
On a gray November day, Susan and I returned to Indian Island and met with Lee and Theresa Secord, the Director of the Maine Indian Basket Association. Theresa was the perfect cultural consultant for the book. We gathered in the tribal offices and Lee and Theresa carefully looked through Susan’s dummy of Kunu’s Basket. Susan and I eagerly awaited their reaction. We both hoped to see big smiles as payoff for Susan’s hard work. Theresa began the critique by asking Lee some questions about her uncle, and it quickly became clear that there were problems that needed attention. Theresa explained to us that although the drawings were well executed, and although she was appreciative of the efforts being made for cultural accuracy, the sidebar illustrations needed revision. Theresa’s mission is to preserve cultural integrity – and privacy. She explained that crafts people are vulnerable to imitators, and she worried that unscrupulous people might use Susan’s step-by-step illustrations to “rip off” their Native Culture. Lee was clearly in agreement with Theresa’s perspective. Susan and I were astonished and confused. Our original goal – to produce a culturally authentic story – had been met, but in the end, it appeared, a higher value needed to be followed. The story of Kunu’s basket could remain a story about a basket-making apprenticeship, but the details of how a traditional Penobscot Pack basket was built could not be featured in the sidebars or the end notes.
As an illustrator, Susan was dismayed that her research and art would not be used. However, we both understood that the knowledge of basket-making was not ours to share. It was a twist we never could have anticipated, but the request was one that needed to be honored. Kunu’s Basket was published in 2012, and it was selected as part of the Reading Is Fundamental’s 2012/2013 STEAM Multicultural Collection and the Cooperative Children’s Book Center Choices in 2013.
Audrey Maynard has been Children’s Book Editor at Tilbury House for 14 years. Before working as an editor, she taught young children in Oakland, New York City and in rural Maine.
Firebird by Misty Copeland, illustrated by Christopher Myers (G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers/Penguin, September 2014). All rights reserved @penguinrandomhouse
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In 1992, I created a comic strip called Mama’s Boyz because there were so few that starred black characters. It was picked up by King Features and distributed weekly to close to 900 papers for almost 20 years.
In 1995, I sent a Mama’s Boyz book sample to several publishers. And they sent them all back. One editor even added a note saying that they, “would NEVER be interested in my black-sitcom style of humor.” It wasn’t just THAT they rejected my work. It was HOW they did it. So I changed my goal.
Note to self #1: Avoid publishers!
In 1997, I self-published, Mama’s Boyz: As American as Sweet Potato Pie!, but even though it had a foreword by one of the most famous cartoonists in the world, Lynn Johnston (creator of the popular For Better or For Worse) and I had received some pretty good press in mainstream publications, my customers were still 99.9% African American boys.
But it still did pretty well. As a result, a few years later, I got a call from Alex Simmons, who had written comic books such as Archie, Batman, and Scooby Doo. He pitched a series of graphic novels based on historical African-American figures to a major publisher, and they wanted me to illustrate them. I was thrilled! But just as it was gathering steam, our editor (African American) left the company and the project fizzled out.
Note to self #2: Why didn’t you listen to note #1? You big dummy!
In 2007, I published my second book Mama’s Boyz: Home Schoolin’. And it wasn’t until a librarian in Stamford, Connecticut, GAVE out copies to her reading group, that I realized that other kids could actually enjoy my work too. I mean boys AND girls. Black, white, Latino, Asian… In fact, my biggest fans turned out to be two sisters of Indian ancestry. “I would have never bought this book for my daughters,” their mother told me, “but they absolutely LOVE it!” This made me realize that it wasn’t the kids who didn’t want my book, it was the parents who didn’t want their kids to want my book. The school book fairs where I sold the most, were the ones where the kids had their own money, and mom and dad were nowhere to be found.
Note to self #3: Avoid parents!
One day at a book festival, an adorable little blonde cherub around five years old grabbed a copy of Please Don’t Yell at We!
and ran off as fast as she could. Her mother demanded that she bring the book back. She refused, hiding it behind her back. She REALLY wanted that book. Seeing me watching, the woman promptly walked over to her daughter, whispered something, and pointed to me. The girl quickly, and sadly, handed over the book, which she then put back on my table.
Note to self #4: UGH! I only have two stupid rules and I keep breaking them. See Note #3!!! No wonder no one wants to publish you!!!
Fast forward to 2013, when I wrote my first middle-grade novel The Offenders: Saving the World While Serving Detention!,
the story of five middle-school bullies (three boys and two girls of different ethnicities) who gain super powers. But instead of transforming into cool superheroes, they are forced to take on the characteristics of the kids they pick on. Now they’re the ones who are being teased, and by the same kids who they are trying to help! I even hired my own two teenage sons as co-writers to make the dialogue more believable.! This time, I chose to only put silhouettes of the characters on the cover to see if that would impact sales. After all, over the years, I saw firsthand how trying to get people to stop at a table full of books with brown faces is like trying to drag a boy down the doll aisle at Wal-Mart
Now that I had the book, I needed to do something different at the book fairs, starting with my appearance. My wife and I came up with “The Uniform.” My Mama’s Boyz sweatshirt was replaced by a buttoned dress shirt; no sunglasses; no baseball cap; definitely no hoodie. I even shaved off my goatee and left only my mustache. And as far as the table goes, I would ONLY put out The Offenders. During my next two events, where I normally did poorly, The Offenders was one of their best sellers! I even had a few schools order them in bulk to teach their kids about bullying.
In late 2013, Scholastic offered me the opportunity to illustrate The Zero Degree Zombie Zone, written by Patrik Henry Bass and edited by Andrea Davis Pinkney.
What I loved about The Zero Degree Zombie Zone was that even though the four main kids are black, it wasn’t boxed in as “a black book.” I suddenly reached a whole new level of exposure, attending my first ever signing at BEA and a ton of other great events, including the National Book Festival in Washington, DC. I was even reimbursed for gas! Then one day I checked the mail, and there was a pin and a certificate from the Junior Library Guild. Wow!
And now, I’m proud to announce that I am currently working on a yet-untitled graphic novel to be published by another major publisher in 2017. It’s the story of Jordan Banks, an aspiring artist whose mom makes him go to a prestigious prep school instead.
I’d like to leave you with a few suggestions for those of us who REALLY want to see more diversity in the children’s book industry:
PUBLISHERS: • Hire people who know how to find diverse talent and content. I would have never gotten to do the Scholastic book if not for Andrea Davis Pinkney. • Look for people who have a proven track record, and give them the freedom to bring THEIR ideas to life. People like Wade and Cheryl Hudson, Eric Velasquez, Zetta Elliott, Shadra Strickland… have been thriving in this industry for decades. Tap into that. • Let diverse authors and illustrators create stories that are fun and exciting. Too many books for kids of color are biographies about slavery and the Civil Rights Movement. If the only books that white kids had were on Thomas Jefferson and Teddy Roosevelt, then maybe they wouldn’t be so excited about reading either. • Black illustrators can draw white characters, too — we’re versatile and would LOVE to work on a major title! You don’t have to wait until you find a manuscript about a black kid to hire us. A book on George Washington Carver will NEVER sell as wel
l as a book on George Washington. And a book on George Washington will NEVER sell like Diary of a Wimpy Kid. • If you’ve done a book starring a character of color before and it didn’t do well, please don’t say, “Well, we tried it and it didn’t work, so let’s never do that again.” Maybe it wasn’t the right book! White books fail all the time, but you keep making them.
WHITE PARENTS: • If your kid wants a book that stars people of color, let them get it. It won’t hurt them.
BLACK PARENTS: • Our friends give our kids books starring white protagonists all the time, but we never give THEIR kids books starring kids of color. So start! • Sales are like voting; every one counts. So if you see authors who make the kinds of books that you think are important to your kids, please support them. And ask your library to order them as well.
GATEKEEPERS: • You have an enormous effect on book sales. I know librarians who ONLY order books that get great reviews from 2 or 3 publications. Find that Little Engine That Could, and give it a push. • Use reviewers who get it. You can’t send a vegetarian to review a steak house. So stop. • Include diverse books in discussions with other books on the same topic. Books like The Offenders should be discussed alongside other books on bullying or superheroes.
SCHOOLS: • Include our books in your class reading lists. It will have an enormous impact — and not just on the kids of color. Black authors are like the Whos in Horton Hears a Who: “We are here! We are here!” If the only time your kids see an African American is on the news, in sports, or in movies, they are already forming detrimental opinions that they will carry into adulthood. • You don’t have to wait until Black History Month to invite us to do a school visit. We have the same impact in October, or May, or even November! And last but definitely not least,
AUTHORS FOR DIVERSITY: • If you’re writing about characters from backgrounds that you know nothing about, do the research. For The Offenders, because one of the characters is adopted, I interviewed parents who had adopted kids from other cultures. For the Latino boy, I let my Latino friends critique it.
We all have a job to do, so let’s get to work!
Jerry Craft has illustrated and written close to two dozen children’s books. He is the creator of Mama’s Boyz, a comic strip that was distributed by King Features for almost two decades, making him one of the few syndicated black cartoonists ever. He has won five African American Literary Awards and is currently working on a graphic novel for early 2017 release. Visit his website at www.jerrycraft.net, and follow him on Facebook and Twitter. He can be contacted at jerrycraft@aol.com
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