The Case of the Missing Books/10 years of data

#ownvoices in Children’s Books: A State of Emergency/ Blog Series 1 of 3

The graph below shows the children’s books that were missing by POC and Indigenous people in the children’s book industry over the last 10 years. That is if we were creating an equitable number of books per year to white Americans. It can be challenging to wrap our minds around …

What I Learned from 3 Years of Teaching How to Make Children’s Books

#ownvoices in Children’s Books: A State of Emergency/ Blog Series 2 of 3

I’m no stranger to the inequities that exist for People of Color, Indigenous and Queer authors and artists. I’ve been teaching and lecturing about it and its impact for 20 years in the children’s book industry. I speak from knowing and teach from understanding on a personal level. So why …

5 Ways SCHOOL OF THE FREE MIND Commits to #OWNVOICES Rising in Children’s Books NOW

#ownvoices in Children’s Books: A State of Emergency/ Blog Series 3 of 3

What I shared in Part One and Part Two of this series contributes to why I felt driven to stronger action with School of the Free Mind, my online school. The children’s book industry feels like a state of emergency for our communities and a powerful place to invest our …

The Pop-Ups Series-Honoring our gay grandfathers and those who paved the way

A new bilingual children’s book series that celebrates LGBTQ history through the lens of multicultural and multigenerational queer family The Pop-Ups’ Picnic, the first book in the series, will be published by Reflection Press in 2017 The Pop-Ups are what we call GrandPop and PopPop, Sky’s grandfathers. Like all grandparents, …

We Are Stronger Together

Aligning with Other Indie Presses

I am fiercely independent and I’m drawn to those who are too. But no one can or should live without others. We are stronger together. And in these days we need our strength. We need each other, even in our independence. As I walk toward independently publishing my own children’s …

COMING OUT for our Kids in the Children’s Book Industry

Making Books that Center LGBTQ Kids

A Book That Shows How Creativity Can Keep You Strong When You’re Courageously Being Yourself The Boy Who Drew Dresses/the Very True Tale of a Perfectly Gay Little Boy will be published by Reflection Press in 2017 This is a story about my friend Paul Gallo. Today he is a …

Calling OUT Indie-QUEER!

Changing Voice in the Children's Book Industry

Two Books that Honor Mexican Heritage AND LGBTQ Experience Death In the Family and When We Love Someone We Sing to Them will be published in 2017 by Reflection Press. Written and illustrated by me, Death In the Family is not a Dia de los Muertos book with cultural references and …

Is Equality in the Children’s Book Industry Possible?

And Do We Have Time to Wait? (infographic)

When we look at CCBC’s statistics in the framework of how many books we need to make to stand in equity with white Americans, we begin to understand our real position. I estimate that the children’s book industry would have to increase its production level by 45% to accommodate an …

Why Children’s Books are a Radical Act

I just released Children’s Books as a Radical Act on Indiegogo to support my first 6 independently published children’s books. What makes these books radical? Why is it noteworthy that they’re independently published? Why children’s books of all things? Radical? Any time we center ourselves as POC, indigenous or queer …

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