The CBC Diversity initiative was founded in 2012, as part of the Children’s Book Council’s commitment to promoting diverse voices in literature for young people. We believe that all children deserve to see their world reflected in the books they read. We recognize that diversity takes on many forms, including differences in race, religion, gender, geography, sexual orientation, class, and ability.
In addition to championing diverse authors and illustrators, CBC Diversity strives to open up the publishing industry to a wider range of employees. We’ve taken an active role in recruiting diverse candidates, participating in school career fairs and partnering with We Need Diverse Books on its summer internship program.
Please tell us about the
most recent diverse book you published.
I’m
still at the very early stages of building my list, but I was fortunate enough
to edit two books with diverse characters recently:
The Fantastic Body is a nonfiction,
illustrated guide to the human body for kids. Because the book would be so
heavily illustrated, we wanted the children depicted to be multifaceted and
diverse. The book is nonfiction and prescriptive, so the text doesn’t actually
address race in a direct way. It’s important to address serious issues of race,
culture, and identity in diverse books, but it’s also important to show that
children are children, no matter their background, and that there are more
things that unite them than divide them. I firmly believe in publishing books
featuring diverse characters without making race the main issue, so I’m proud
of that book.
I
was also the developmental editor for a middle grade series of novels called
Shred Girls. The first book, Lindsay’s
Joyride, is about young girls who befriend each other through their shared
love of BMX. What I loved about the book was how multifaceted every main
character was. Lindsay likes comic books, but she also, it turned out, loves
riding bikes. And she likes many other things: her new friends. Her Mexican
grandmother’s cooking. The cute boy who rides at the same park. Kombucha.
Mariana Pajón, Colombian cyclist and two-time Olympic gold medalist and BMX
World Champion. No one thing defined her, nor any other character. While
Lindsay is Latina and proud, her heritage informs the novel but isn’t its sole
focus.
Alvina Ling is the Vice President, Editor-in-Chief at Hachette Book Group/Little Brown Books for Young Readers.
When and where did you start working in publishing, and what was your
entry-level position and title?
I started here at Little, Brown Books for
Young Readers (when we were based in Boston) in August 1999 as an Editorial
Assistant. I’ve been with this company ever since, now as Editor-in-Chief!
Tell us about your most recent book and how you came to
write/illustrate it.
My
debut novel, The Truth of Right Now, was just published last week by
Simon Pulse and I’m seriously excited that it’s finally out in the world! It’s
a story I had wanted to write for several years before I actually did it. I’m a
playwright and 2013 turned out to be a pretty slow year for me professionally,
so I thought it might be a good time to write the novel and it worked out
perfectly. I wrote it as a response to some incredibly disturbing trends in the
national news (if you read the book, you’ll know what I’m talking about). I
wanted to address some of the ugly issues that teens face from their
perspectives and without the distance of a news headline.
Do you think of yourself as a diverse author/illustrator?
Tell us about your most recent book and
how you came to write/illustrate it.
Lou Lou and Pea and
the Mural Mystery is about two best friends, Lou Lou Bombay and Peacock
Pearl. Lou Lou loves horticulture and Pea loves art. Every Friday afternoon,
they get together in Lou Lou’s backyard garden for their PSPP
(Post-School-Pre-Parents) tea party. They chat about school, discuss Pea’s
latest fashions, and plot the weekend’s activities.
But all plans go out the window when a series of small
crimes crop up around El Corazón, their quirky neighborhood, right before the
Día de los Muertos procession. First, Pea’s cousin’s quinceañera dress is
tragically ruined. Then Lou Lou’s beloved camellia bush, Pinky, suffers a
serious blow. And that’s just the beginning! When clues start to appear in El
Corazón’s outdoor murals, the best friends join forces, using Lou Lou’s floral
expertise and Pea’s artistic genius to solve the mysteries.
This is my first middle grade novel, and I began working on
it when I was caring for my mom during an illness. My mom was a school
librarian who cultivated my love of reading, so I felt that writing a
children’s book was a fitting way to spend my time. I wanted to tell a story
inspired by my neighborhood, San Francisco’s Mission District, and its amazing
community art, food, traditions, and local culture.
Tell us about your
most recent book and how you came to write/illustrate it.
My new book is titled Genius
– The Game. It is the first in a series of books about child prodigies from
diverse backgrounds who come together to change their stars and the world. The
launch pad for their revolution is a competition called the Game. There, they
will compete with 200 other prodigies in a contest that will not only test
their brains but also challenge their ideals.
Genius – The Game
explores the outer reaches of technology, the explosive power of young minds,
and the bonds of family. It is filled with big ideas and even bigger emotions.
But more than just a book, the Genius series is a movement – it is my call to
the youth of the world: liberate your minds and you can liberate the planet.
Tell us about the most recent diverse book you represented. My most recent sale, which has not yet been publicly announced, is a young adult novel that fearlessly confronts the national and cultural issues concerning the “Black Lives Matter” movement. I can report that this project sold in a highly aggressive auction, which would indicate that publishers are very interested in this kind of narrative. I’m looking forward to sharing more news about this fantastic book in early 2016!
How do you go about finding diverse authors and illustrators?
I have found social media, particularly Twitter, to be very useful as a platform for letting writers know the kinds of themes and stories I’m looking to represent. Several of my now-clients first approached me because they saw me talking about issues and concepts I was hoping to find in my submissions. Also, the sales of past books with diversity elements have helped position me as an agent with a strong interest in this area.
Please tell us about the most recent diverse book you published.
Mixed Me! by Taye Diggs, illustrated by Shane W. Evans is coming out this fall. It’s the story of a mixed-race boy— a subject both Taye and Shane know well. I like Mixed Me! as a companion to Taye and Shane’s first book together, Chocolate Me! (which we just published in paperback on the Square Fish list), but the two books are meant to stand alone.
Please tell us about the most recent diverse book you published.
While I was at Scholastic, I had the great pleasure of editing Edwidge Danticat’s first picture book, Eight Days: A Story of Haiti. It explored a young Haitian boy’s experience in the eight days following the devastating earthquake.
I also published the Jewel Society series, which features four best friends of varying backgrounds and academic interests. By working together and using their individual strengths, the girls solve a series of jewel heists in and around the Washington, DC area. A smart and sassy series for girls!
And here at FSG, I’ve just acquired a young middle-grade series starring two best friends, one of which is Latina. They live in a quirky neighborhood, inspired by The Mission District of San Francisco, where the townspeople are as diverse as the girls’ adventures, and where Spanish is spoken widely.
What is one factor holding you back from publishing more diverse books OR what’s the biggest challenge for publishing companies who want to feature more diverse titles?
There is nothing at Macmillan holding me back from publishing diverse books. As an editor committed to publishing more authors and illustrators of color, I’m always on the look-out for new talent. The Brown Bookshelf is a great place to go to learn about diversity in children’s literature and to get ideas about people I’d like to work with! In fact I wish there were more resources like it (websites or associations) that collected and featured diverse children’s book creators, especially those who are not yet published. And of course I rely on agents who are representing new talent with an eye toward diversity.
Please tell us about the most recent diverse book you published.
I recently published Jumped In by Patrick Flores-Scott. This novel is about Sam, a teen who’s in a depressed state due to the breakdown of his family. He’s pretty much getting by in life by being a slacker, always remaining under the radar so he can fade into the background. But then he’s paired in English class with the much feared Luis, a Latino who is said to be in a hardcore gang. Together the two team up in a poetry slam contest and emerge, after much introspection and hard work, as very capable, talented students. It’s a book about breaking boundaries and stereotypes, as well as friendship, tragedy, and the power of words.
What is one factor holding you back from publishing more diverse books?
Nothing is holding me back from publishing diverse books – it’s very much something that I feel passionate about doing. I don’t feel I see enough submissions about diverse characters just living in the world and experiencing life through strong storytelling. In other words, submissions where the story is the story and the characters just happen to be Latino or African American rather than their diversity driving the storyline. I tend to see more agenda-oriented books on the topic and these can be harder to position and market, and are often less appealing to young readers.
Tell us about your debut and how you came to write it.
Bird is a story about a 12-year-old girl named Jewel who was born on the day her brother John died. Jewel’s grandfather had nicknamed John “Bird”, and Bird thought he really could fly – at five years old, he jumped off a cliff. Grandpa hasn’t spoken a word since. Jewel is mixed race – Jamaican/Mexican/White – living in rural Iowa, and on the night of her 12th birthday, the anniversary of her brother’s death, she finds a boy in the tree she climbs. And his name is John. There are a lot of different beliefs in the Jamaican and Mexican cultures about what happens when you die, and this mysterious friend certainly upsets the silence in her house.
As for how the story started: I had just finished reading Keeper by Kathi Appelt, and was sick at home from work. I had also finished my first manuscript and was fretting that I might not have another idea for another novel. Ever. I was thinking about this for hours, and finally I got so sick of myself that I said, Crystal, either you get up out of bed and write your next book, or you go to sleep because you’re sick. But you’re not going to lie in bed thinking about not writing your next book.
And then I started thinking more about Keeper, and how I loved that story; it’s about a girl who thought her mother turned into a mermaid and goes out to sea in search of her. And I thought, A girl who thinks her mother was a mermaid - that’s such a great idea – but what if… there were a boy who thought he was a bird? What would he do? And immediately I saw this little kid, arms outstretched, jumping off a cliff because he thought he could fly. I remember gasping as I saw it play out in my mind. Then the voice of the protagonist, Jewel’s voice, started speaking – like started narrating to me – and I got out of bed and wrote down what she said. That’s how I wrote the first chapter of Bird.
The CBC Diversity initiative was founded in 2012, as part of the Children’s Book Council’s commitment to promoting diverse voices in literature for young people. We believe that all children deserve to see their world reflected in the books they read. We recognize that diversity takes on many forms, including differences in race, religion, gender, geography, sexual orientation, class, and ability.
I recently published Jumped In by Patrick Flores-Scott. This novel is about Sam, a teen who’s in a depressed state due to the breakdown of his family. He’s pretty much getting by in life by being a slacker, always remaining under the radar so he can fade into the background. But then he’s paired in English class with the much feared Luis, a Latino who is said to be in a hardcore gang. Together the two team up in a poetry slam contest and emerge, after much introspection and hard work, as very capable, talented students. It’s a book about breaking boundaries and stereotypes, as well as friendship, tragedy, and the power of words.
