I know, I know! It’s been a while. Please know that I have no intentions of walking away from this blog. I think promoting literacy for teens of color as well as promoting authors of color and their works is too important. Life sometimes just gets in the way. This is going to be a quick post and it will be my last until well into January. I will post new releases for that month and hope to mention debut authors of color. It would be great if you help me out by taking the time to mention some of them in the comments. I’ve got several authors to interview and even more book reviews to put to paper. I’d like to follow up on some of 2014 debut authors and look at some of the ways YAs are creating and connecting with books. And, I’d like to commit more to self published authors.

January will have me judging the final rounds of young adult non-fiction for the CYBILS. The finalists will be announced soon. I need to update another list on the Birthday Party Pledge. Have you taken the pledge? The pledge is a simple way to act on your commitment to diversity in children’s literature: you simple deciding to give books written by an author of color for children’s birthday presents.

I’ve acted upon my commitment to diversity and social justice by adopting a local classroom. I’m simply donate books to the 3rd grade’s classroom library. In Indiana this is a critical year because 3rd graders are given a crucial literacy test that year. Getting books close to those children will be very important!

Late January will find me in Chicago for ALA Midwinter. In addition to attending sessions and picking up ARCs in the exhibit hall, I’ll be attending and ALSC diversity event and presenting during the Ignite Session. My session is “The Kids Are Not All White” and will be presented that Sunday of the conference.

Hmm January is sounding kind of busy! I don’t have any other conferences planned for 2015, so it will all be a surprise to me at this point. 2015 will be the year I buy my domain (no!! I’m not going anywhere!) and get serious with my production of instructional videos. Maybe I’ll even go back to doing book review videos of which there was that one.

The Twinjas are holding it down this month with their second annual Diversity Month celebration. The month is almost over and gives a great opportunity to read back over posts from Maya Gonzales, Hannah Gomez, Zetta Elliott, Justina Ireland, Joseph Bruchac and many, many more.

A special shout out to librarian Amy Cheney who took the time to chase down Fame of Thrones by Amir Abrams (K-Teen). It’s actually the same book as Lights, Love and Lip Gloss and means there was only one book released by an author of color this month. One book.

2014 was a year for me to ‘shine’. As with other Words of the Year that I’ve chose, ‘shine’ gave me new ways to grow and to perceive the world around me. 2015 will challenge me with diligence. While ‘diligence’ can be seen simply as remaining productively faithful to something or someone, it is a seen as a virtue in three of the world’s major religions. In 2015 I will be diligent and I will travel! Whatever 2015 brings your way, I hope it fills you with, peace, love and good books!