YA Wednesday: Matters of Race

After the horrific events of this past week, the blogosphere is buzzing with posts about race in America and the Black Lives Matter movement. When I was a kid, there weren’t a lot of books tackling issues of race, identity, and prejudice, aside from To Kill a Mockingbird. The only children’s book author of color I’d ever heard of was Ezra Jack Keats. At least in terms of books, we’ve come a long way. Today, reading lists about race and racial injustice for Children and Young Adults abound. So do numerous sites offering resources for talking to your child about race and prejudice.

• Read Brightly offers these resources for discussions around race.

• Over at School Library Journal, a librarian has created a #BlackLivesMatter booklist for teens.

• For younger kids, check out The Institute for Humane Education’s list of 14 Children’s Picture Books Exploring Race and Racism

• On The Guardian Children and Teenagers Opinion Page, Daniel José Older wonders: do black children’s lives matter if nobody writes about them?

• A new YA book inspired by the the Black Lives Matter movement was in a bidding war between no less than 13 publishing houses and will be made into a feature film starring Hunger Games actress, and activist, Amandla Stenberg.

• Meanwhile, a yet-to-be-published Black Lives Matter book for middle grade kids is getting a lot of flak.

• Apparently Marvel Comics has a new black character – but there’s one problem.

Clearly, we still have a ways to go, as this 2012 article in The Wire addresses about the ongoing problem of race in YA.

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