Because Black Lives Matter, a Collection of Resources

Last night I sat and watched with my entire family the Kid Lit Rally for Black Lives Matter hosted by The Brown Bookshelf. It was a powerful, important and moving call to action. Below I am including a link to the recording in hopes that you will check it out and spend some time with it.

One of the things that I hear repeatedly and have worked to convey is the importance of every day diversity in our collections, on our reading lists, and in our personal and professional reading. This was also repeated multiple times last night. It’s important for white librarians like myself to remember that diversity, equity and inclusion can’t just be putting up a Black History Month display, but must include making sure that every book list, every book display, every book recommendation and our collections as a whole are diverse and inclusive. This is why I began the process in 2015 of doing Diversity Audits and have spent the last five years of my life not only holding myself personally accountable, but teaching and training others to do the same. Librarianship is still over 80% white and female, and no matter our good intentions, we come to the table with implicit bias and work in systems with systemic racism. We try to share tools here at TLT all the time to help ourselves and our peers do better. So today I’m sharing more of those tools with you. My fellow white librarians, we owe it to the youth serve to do the work, on ourselves and in our libraries.

Kid Lit for Black Lives Matter: Recording of the rally

https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=248795633092755&ref=watch_permalink

Book Lists of Interest for You

SLJ – 50 BIPOC Board Books: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=50-Board-Books-That-Show-IBPOC-Faces-diversity-baby

Black Boy Joy for Younger Kids/Middle Grade: https://www.helpingkidsrise.org/post/2018/01/23/black-boy-joy-books-highlighting-the-everyday-life-of-being-a-black-boy?fbclid=IwAR23zymuKspxMesvZiG_wW1rUNocFJAYYe5zWtjduLdN_3RFnjXoWC9FjzM

Black Boy Joy Picture Books: https://www.readbrightly.com/picture-books-featuring-black-male-protagonists/?fbclid=IwAR0kHrFLns9cjpva_Qbu62nCIA-vD3pXAG5u5y5vC2d0hVW4aT6rv3ZC02w

Picture Books with Black Female Protagonists: https://www.readbrightly.com/picture-books-featuring-black-female-protagonists/?fbclid=IwAR0xEcRMTVsZPYmL-iXrfUSfAIpJuUo6f8VYO3PpYMv7RaDA3LF0NaIJMUA

YA Black Girl Magic: https://www.epicreads.com/blog/black-girl-magic-books/?fbclid=IwAR0ft7qSt4YeMPtEN_jXWzewOQjdElvQFj0ZXY1_RBJ_Mg2C5fiePvJxrVc

Diverse Meet Cutes and Rom Coms: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=meet-cutes-come-all-colors-YA-diversity-romance-POC&fbclid=IwAR0GmjLvKNt_p16R_12_ohYYmIRDmK1loDKox9pr-YjXzUip2mPQgr3LW68

YA with Black Authors 2020: https://www.buzzfeed.com/farrahpenn/young-adult-books-by-black-authors-2020?fbclid=IwAR2RiRZdAHwZ-x5dxNan2O5CuYSAL6ieppEg7Sz2aHOhCdxsWpGFPgFJ4ko

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