Author Q&A with Elizabeth Acevedo

Tell us about your most recent book and how you came to write/illustrate it.My debut novel, The Poet X, came out a month ago! I began writing the book when I was an 8th grade English Language Arts teacher in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The novel was a direct response to working in a school...

Author Q&A with Sayantani DasGupta

Why is diversity in science fiction and fantasy so critical?I grew up on science fiction and fantasy – Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time to The Hobbit to Star Wars, Star Trek, and Carl Sagan’s amazing show, Cosmos. Science fiction taught me to imagine big, to envision things beyond my reckoning. It taught me to...

Something Personal

By Soman ChainaniWriting THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD & EVIL series is like running a fantasy corporation. Six years into writing, five books later, I wake up every day and juggle over 150 characters, 40 plot lines, and a world so big it feels like it’s outgrowing my own head. But it’s what I was born...

Author Q&A with Tomi Adeyemi

Tell us about your most recent book and how you came to write/illustrate it.My debut novel is Children of Blood and Bone and it comes out on March 6th, 2018. From a creative standpoint, I came to write it by discovering the orisha—West African deities—through a stroke of luck while on a fellowship in Brazil....

Phoebe Yeh: How I Got into Publishing

VP & Publisher of Crown Books for Young Readers, Random House Children’s BooksSenior Year.  Second Semester.  It started with a Children’s Literature class I took with Jane Yolen.  I admit, I hadn’t read any children’s books…since middle school, seventh grade, back in my day.  And I had definitely never heard of Natalie Babbitt and Steven...

The Big Bed by Bunmi Laditan; illustrated by Tom Knight (Farrar, Straus and Giroux BYR, February 2018). All rights reserved. @macmillanchildrensbooks

MCBBD Feature: Family and Food: A Multicultural list for Preschool through 3rd Grade

JaNay Brown-Wood, author of Grandma’s Tiny House: A Counting Story, shares her book list “​Family and Food: A Multicultural list for Preschool through 3rd Grade” Check out the preview below and the full list & 3 book giveaway on the Multicultural Children’s Book Day website. 1. Grandma’s Tiny House: A Counting Story by JaNay Brown-WoodThis...

In Conversation with Author JaNay Brown-Wood

By Julie BlivenThe first diversity question today is how do you self identify?I am a black American woman. How did your background influence your early reading and writing habits, if at all?I grew up in a family where education was of utmost importance. Reading, writing, and all things academic were as normal and mandatory as...

MCCBD Feature: Diverse Books about Inclusion that Make the World a Better Place

Jo Meserve Mach, Vera Lynne Stroup-Rentier, and Mary Birdsell, authors of Claire Wants a Boxing Name, share their book list “​Books Making the World Better Through Inclusion.” Check out the preview below and the full list on the Multicultural Children’s Book Day website. 1. Emanuel’s Dream by Lauri Ann Thompson, illustrated by Sean QuallsI love true...

MCCBD Feature: Books for Teens Featuring African-American Protagonists

Mike Mullin, author of Surface Tension, shares his book list “​Books for Teens Featuring African-American Protagonists.” Check out the preview below and the full list & 5 book giveaway on the Multicultural Children’s Book Day website. 1. Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. TaylorI first read this novel the same year I first...