Malorie Blackman laments the lack of BAME children’s characters. I know – it’s a real battle to get writers of colour publishedMy daughter, like me, is of mixed heritage. She has wildly curly hair, as have I. When she was born four years ago I was given five copies of the same kids’ picture book by well-meaning friends and relatives. It was called Guess How Much I Love You. This book, whose lead characters are rabbits, was a bestseller in the 1990s. Back then it flew off the shelves. What I did not expect when I was pregnant with my daughter was that it would be far easier to find her a rabbit picture book than one featuring a child like her with brown skin and curls.This week Malorie Blackman, author of Noughts and Crosses, told Channel 4 News that of the many books she read as a child “not one of them featured a black child like me”, adding that “it made me feel invisible in the world of literature”. And when, in her mid-20s, she noticed in a children’s bookshop that little had changed, “that’s when I decided that I wanted to write for children ... for the child in me, really, for all the books I wish I could have read as a child”.If we feel disconnected from each other, perhaps it starts in this skewed, unrepresentative vision of the world that begins in our books when we are at knee height Related: Whatever happened to author Dorothy West? Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2019-08-17 07:00:41 UTC ]
Black bookshop owners are finding that their efforts are paying off by sharing stories and bringing communities closer together through their local store. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-03 08:27:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Twenty-three people have been included in The Bookseller's Bookshop Heroes class of 2021, a list of some of the best individual booksellers in the UK and Ireland. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-03 04:23:58 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“Our Journey Together" promises to capture “the greatness" of the Trump White House, but critics aren't convinced. Continue reading at HuffPost
[ HuffPost | 2021-11-20 12:07:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this
One reader reflects on why a picture book with messages about love, perseverance, and imperfection has connected with so many readers in the last two years. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2021-11-18 11:37:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Fay Evans alleges a ‘striking similarity’ between the 2019 Excitable Edgar TV campaign and her 2017 book Fred the Fire-Sneezing DragonThe author of a self-published children’s book about a dragon that causes havoc with its fiery sneezes is suing John Lewis over its 2019 Christmas ad about a... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-11-16 14:46:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A picture book and two middle grade books introduce young people to art mediums and their messages. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-11-12 21:41:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Comics creator Rachel Smythe has the #5 book in the country with 'Lore Olympus, Vol. 1.' Plus YouTube science educator Philipp Dettmer lands two spots below with 'Immune,' and 'Aaron Slater, Illustrator,' the latest Questioneers book by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts, tops our picture book list. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2021-11-12 05:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Will Smith has partnered with Black-owned bookshops and artists of colour across the UK and America to celebrate his upcoming memoir Will (Century), with Sevenoaks Bookshop featuring an artist’s display. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-11-11 02:48:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Following the acclaimed author’s decision not to have Beautiful World, Where Are You translated by an Israeli publisher, two major retailers have removed her work from their shelvesBooks by Sally Rooney will no longer be sold in two Israeli bookshop chains, after the acclaimed writer’s decision... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2021-11-05 16:14:29 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“How War Changed Rondo,” a picture book by the Ukrainian artists Romana Romanyshyn and Andriy Lesiv, captures the unrelenting destructiveness of wartime as a young person experiences it. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-11-05 04:04:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
HarperCollins Children's Books has signed a new four-book deal with picture book creator Emma Chichester Clark. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-26 17:42:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Benjamin Zephaniah is writing a “powerfully moving” picture book about the voyage of "HMT Empire Windrush" to be published by Scholastic UK in April 2022. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-23 10:30:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Essay Photo by Eileen Pan / Unsplash “Instead of a totalizing interpretation,” writes the author, translators should seek a dialogical one. “We have to leave space,” he writes, “for a story, an anecdote, a metaphorical footnote.” We all spend a... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2021-10-20 18:36:14 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Macmillan Children’s Books has pounced for Five Bears, a new picture book written and illustrated by Catherine Rayner. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-19 14:57:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this
A new children’s bookshop in Hitchin is specialising in inclusive titles, including books that celebrate neurodiversity. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-10-11 14:30:39 UTC ]
More news stories like this
We interviewed booksellers about their experience of the pandemic and their customers. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2021-10-07 05:14:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Shah Muhammad Rais, who was made famous in The Bookseller of Kabul, has vowed to keep his bookshop open, despite having had only two customers since the Taliban retook the country in the middle of August. Founded in 1974 Rais’s store has seen regimes (along with foreign powers) come and go, and... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2021-09-28 15:00:23 UTC ]
More news stories like this
And of course it includes a two-story library — modeled on the Bodleian at Oxford University — for his massive collection of books. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2021-09-28 09:00:26 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Puffin has acquired a "heart-warming" debut picture book by writer and journalist Freddy McConnell, illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-23 19:01:01 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Simon & Schuster Children’s Books is launching a new picture book partnership between author Frances Stickley and debut illustrator Eamonn O’Neill, signing two books from the pair. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-09-23 10:52:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this