when i look back at the books of my childhood, in my imagination, i see myself looking back. my strong proud forehead alive with thought. my clear eyes open wide to see. i am here! this is my face. i am hear! this is my face. this is where my story …
I estimate that if Latino and African American communities were to create an equitable number of children’s books as Euro Americans, Latinos must create another 890 books and African Americans must create another 600 books—per year. That’s a 94% increase for Latinos and 88% increase for African Americans. ALL communities …
I am pleased to officially introduce WHALEHEART, the first anthology in The Heart of It Collection, and Reflection Press’ first full color children’s book! Whaleheart grew out of my desire to begin creating change right now. After nearly 20 years of sharing the CCBC’s annual diversity statistics of who does …
The Falling. It’s that delicious time of year when there’s a detectable shift in the seasons. I can feel the changing, the Falling, as everything around me shimmers through yet another of our eternal cycles. I’ve been craving this shift, longing for it. Today after a hot spell, the skies …
I have been silent for months now. Spinning in sacred circle, spiraling further into my heart, deep fuschia ritual exploding out into dusk until night, I pray into the darkness. The blackblue night becomes me, my face pressed into my own eternity, I am star. I steer myself out as …
I’ll never forget it. In February of last year I had this wild idea that I thought just might work…. It was at that critical mass moment right before the diversity conversation exploded in the children’s book world with assistance from the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign later that summer. Many of us …
Our culture has a powerful trend toward the boy-girl gender binary and conformity comes into play from a child’s earliest possible moment. By being gender free, Call Me Tree provides for some a much needed break from the constant boy-girl assumptions and requirements. It can also provide a moment to …
AS A PEOPLE, WE ARE IN DIRE NEED OF LGBT CHILDREN’S BOOKS, ESPECIALLY FROM COMMUNITIES OF COLOR!!! I want to begin by shouting that out BIG AND BOLD! #LGBTkidlit #LGBTofcolorkidlit #LGBTlatinokidlit #LGBTQIkidlit #LGBTfamiliesofcolor I knew what I would find when I began researching LGBTQI children’s literature to include in my …
[24 days ’till Daily Peace] At the Teachers 4 Social Justice conference a couple of years ago, I began presenting ideas about how to use peace in the classroom. Not peace as in ‘peace and quiet,’ but peace as a tool for accelerating change and supporting each other in purposeful …
[31 days ’till Daily Peace] As we begin December, we turn our attention toward my Believing is Seeing e-course starting January 1st, 2015 and explore the many faces and journeys of peace. Because I cannot ignore the current state of affairs in Ferguson and the US, I wanted to begin …
