I was reading a blog post on Color Online, which lead me to an interesting SLJ article, Straight Talk on Race: Challenging the Stereotypes in Kids' Books by Mitali Perkins. I found it to be a fascinating read. As the demographics of the United States continue to change, it's more important than ever to create more diversity in children's literature. What is the importance of describing a character's race? If you don't describe them at all in your novel, is the default white? In the … [Read more...]