If you are a YALSA member I’m on the ballot to be on the Printz Committee and I’d appreciate your vote.

IF you are an ALSC member, please consider voting for Angie Manfredi, Sujei Lugo and Thaddeus Andrecki (both of whom have ended up at the bottom of the list). These individuals are as committed to diversity as they are to literature and children. I’m voting for them!

 

This new release from J. K. Rowlings…

Excited about J. K. Rowling’s newest release, are you? Loved that Harry Potter and want to read whatever she writes next? Well, not so fast there! Rowling’s latest, History of Magic in North America is replete with Native American cultural misappropriations. In her latest writing, Rowlings has taken elements of “Native American” culture (I have to put that in quotes because that’s pretty much the same as saying “African” culture. Like each African nation has it’s own culture, so does each Native American nation) whether based in fact or fiction and represented them as truth. N.K. Jemison describes her offensiveness.

It’s even more crucial for religions that are alive, and whose adherents still suffer for misconceptions and misappropriations. But these are easier to research, and it’s often much easier to figure out when you’re about to put a foot right into a morass of discrimination and objectification. All the evidence is there, sometimes still wet with blood. You just need to read. You just need to ask people. You just need to think. – See more at: http://nkjemisin.com/2016/03/it-couldve-been-great/#sthash.HJxxkzgO.dpuf

Debbie Reese has been curating Native responses to Rowlings offenses. Take the time to read one, two or all of them. The offense runs deep.

By repurposing Indigenous legends to which she has no claim, Rowling silences the voices of those from whom she steals, and gaslights yet another generation. Not intentionally, but simply by drowning them out in her wake as she sails into her enchanting New World. Read more from Aaron Paquette at http://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/paquette-j-k-rowling-lifts-indigenous-traditions-but-ignores-history.

I’ve never flat our rejected a book without reading it. Never. But, this one I reject on It’s premise.

That new list from In the Margins…

In the Margins Book Award and Selection Committee (ITM), a committee under the umbrella of Library Services for Youth in Custody (LYSC) is committed to promoting and highlighting diverse books and voices that have been in the margins. ITM strives to find the best books for teens living in poverty, on the streets, in custody – or a cycle of all three. ITM just announced their 2016 Award winners and they’re listed below.

In the Margins Top Fiction Award, 2016: Tattooed Teardrops by P.D. Workman.

In the Margins Top Non-Fiction Award, 2016:  America’s Massacre: The Audacity of Despair and a Message of Hope by Tewhan Butler.

Social Justice/Advocacy Award Winner: Girls in Justice by Richard Ross.

In the Margins Official 2016 Top Ten List

Butler, Tewhan. America’s Massacre: The Audacity of Despair and a Message of Hope. Raise UP Media. October 2014. PB $19.99. ISBN 9780692281826.

Carter, Alton. The Boy Who Carried Bricks: A True Story of Survival. Roadrunner Press. March 2014. 196p. HC $18.95. ISBN 9781937054342.

Deutch, Kevin. The Triangle: A Year on the Ground with New York’s Blood and Crips. Lyons Press. December 2014. 214p. PB $16.95. ISBN 9781493007608.

Frank, E.R. Dime. Simon Teen. May 2015. 336p. HC $17.99. ISBN 9781481431606.

Kern, Peggy. Little Peach. Balzer + Bray. March 2015. 208p. HC $17.99. ISBN 9780062266958.

Laboucane-Benson, Patti. The Outside Circle. House of Anansi Press. June 2015. 264p. PB $19.95. ISBN 9781770899377.

Lewis, Tony Jr. Slugg: A Boy’s Life in the Age of Mass Incarceration. Hanover Place Press. July 2015. 166p. PB $9.99.

Ross, Richard. Girls in Justice. The Image of Justice. 2015. 192p. HC $29.95. ISBN 9780985510619.

Voloj, Julian. Ghetto Brother: Warrior to Peacemaker. NBM Publishing. May 2015. 128p. PB $12.99. ISBN 9781561639489.

Workman, P.D. Tattooed Teardrops. PD Workman. August 2014. 292p. PB $15.95. ISBN 9780993768750.

Annotations, the full list and further information on the committee and selections can be found at: http://youthlibraries.org/2016-margins-official-list-0
The 2016 Committee members are:

• Sabrina Carnesi, School Librarian, Crittenden Middle School, VA
• Amy Cheney, District Library Manager, Oakland Unified School District, CA
• Dale Clark, Teacher-Librarian, Fraser Park Secondary, Burnaby Youth Custody Services, Burnaby, BC, Canada
• Joe Coyle, Project Coordinator, Mix IT Up!, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL
• Marvin DeBose Sr., Library Supervisor, Free Library of Philadelphia, PA
• Lisa Goldstein, Division Manager, Central Youth Wing, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
• Sian Marshall, Head of Teen Services, Oxford Public Library, Oxford Michigan
• Maggie Novario, Teen Librarian, Fort Vancouver Regional Library District, WA
• Kerry Sutherland, Youth Services Librarian, Akron-Summit County Public Library, OH

Thanks to you all for creating such an important list.