Today I ran across a great post over at MyBrownBaby explaining why we need more black children’s books in major retailers like Borders. The author of the post and creator of MyBrownBaby, Denene Millner breaks down what happened when she recently went to Borders. Check out this excerpt and follow the link to her site to find out how it all played out.
My neighborhood Borders was running a children’s book drive for a local hospital and since Denene loves the children and books, I offered to purchase two books for donation. Grateful I was participating, the cashier offered up a stack of books for me to choose from. And what do you know, not nan one of them””save for a lone “Princess and the Frog” book buried all the way in the back/bottom of the pile””featured children of color.
Not. One.
Now, you know how I do: I’m a huge proponent of children’s books featuring characters that look like my girlpies, and I’m especially gangsta about getting these books into the hands of ALL children, not just black kids…
For the full article click here…
Denene says
Lamar and Ronnie,
Thank you SO much for linking to MyBrownBaby and sharing my post with your readers. Getting bookstores to respect us parents and our children, and the authors that care enough about kids of color to write books for them, is no easy fete, but it's a necessary one. I'm looking for solutions, and I'm hoping between your readers and mine, we can find a way to hold Borders accountable. This shouldn't happen to moms who are looking for books for their babies.
Lamar says
There really is no reason for any bookstore that can stock 6 shelves of street lit to not be able to devote half of one shelf to books that showcase diversity.
Dantresomi says
quite honestly, really
all i can say is
SUPPORT black owned book stores.
be for who, who be for you…
Heck, they don't even carry decent black lit or black non fiction. If there isn't one in your area, drive out to a city or town that has one…
Sherryle Jackson says
We have to be dilligent about our images as well as our products. We use to have an insititution in the DC area called, Karibu Bookstore. It was much more than a bookstore; it was a cultural center. Most of these black boostores are closed so we are forced to take what the major chains offer us or go to the internet. As an author and a teacher of teens I think it is important to stand up to the establishment that are there to service the entire community. I wrote a similar piece on my book blog about being a CHristian fiction author but only being classified in one place-African American Interest. We have ranted about it at a recent Faith and Fiction retreat. As if we are children of a lesser God, you won't find us in Christian Fiction section.
So what do we do? Author Carleen Brice whose book Orange Mint and Honey was made into lifetime Movie Network movie, Sins of the Mother has a bolg called White Readers Meet Black Authors where she tries to bridge the gap between whatis perceived to be the majority culture and talented writers in our AA community. We need more AA bookstores. I for one have made a concious effort to buy AA books for all “the brown babies” I know this Christmas with a link or list of where to get more titles by AA authors.
Is there a list of AA children, teens and young adult authors? I would like to work on a list of AA bookstores as well. My sister and I wanted to work on one for Black-owned hair care distributors and retailers. What better way to empower and show cooperative Economics than US coming together and sharing our resources.
book blog: http://www.thefateofthefire.blogspot.com
Alter ego blog, Capitol M (Mom),Capitol T(teacher) http://www.capitolmcapitolt.blogspot.com
MrsRW says
I totally agree. I always try to give books, or at least educational items, to my nephews as birthday and Christmas gifts. I can't tell you how frustrating it is trying to find books relevant to little black boys. I am right behind you on this one.