Diversity in book collections
Assessing your library – home and school – for a wide range of stories
Diversity in children’s literature has been a hot topic in recent months and, with Harmony Week taking place this month (18-24 March, 2024), it’s a good time to think about the range of stories on offer in our home and school libraries.
A good starting point might be episode 146 of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast, in which Megan Daley shared tips for assessing and ensuring diversity and inclusion in library collections.
”I’ve been scrambling for a few years now to add books to my own school library that show a range of experiences, diverse representations and points of view,” Megan says.
“Children learn about themselves and the world through the books they are introduced to as read-alouds with their grown-ups and as read-to-self experiences, so it’s important to ensure there are representations of diverse, marginalised, and minority people and communities in the books we read. Children also develop empathy, respect and understand for themselves and others through books.”
Listen to the episode here (or where you get your podcasts) to hear Megan’s tips for conducting a diversity audit on your collection – and read the show notes at for an epic list of recommended titles to explore.
UPDATES FROM TEAM YKNR
Another busy month for Team YKNR, with a book launch, a literary festival (or two), and a lot of writing and talking… mostly talking.
SAVE THE DATE: In exciting news, we’re preparing for a FREE EXCLUSIVE YKNR Zoom event about Teens & Reading on 25 March, 2024, at 7.30pm (AEDST).
Featuring Dr Bronwyn Reddan from Deakin University’s Teen Reading and Digital Practices Research Programme, as well as Trisha Buckley, experienced secondary school teacher-librarian, book reviewer, literary judge and vice-president CBCA (Qld branch), we’ll be looking at how teens discover books, what they’re reading, how to keep them reading and more.
Places will be limited, so keep an eye on the YKNR Facebook community for more details and bookings (paid subscribers will receive an update next week).
HELLO FROM MEGAN DALEY
Megan is an award-winning teacher-librarian working in Brisbane, the author of Raising Readers: How to nurture a child’s love of books, and co-host of the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. Her debut picture book THE BEEHIVE is out now! More about Megan here.
The Sydney launch of 'The Beehive' was such a great event - so many bees, so many kidlit people, so much laughter, crafting and book buying! Glee Books went above and beyond to make the launch an event to remember, so many thanks! Highlights for me were meeting illustrator Max Hamilton for the very first time and of course, catching up with Al Tait – always a cause for celebration!
MEGAN’S BOOKMARK REVIEWS
Each month, I share full reviews of two outstanding books that have crossed my desk. Bookmark these for your young readers.
‘Tayta’s Secret Ingredient’ by Amal Abu-Eid. Illustrated by Cara King
This is such a great title for celebrating Harmony Day in schools and educational settings – for all year round, really. Amal Abu-Eid is an educator and author who likes to create stories related to her Muslim Lebanese Australian identity. The power of a child seeing themselves in story really is so important and this title is a great one to add into the mix.
Billy loves Harmony Day. He loves the colours, the clothes and especially the food. This year Tayta is making a Lebanese treat, for Billy to share with his class but he can't share the recipe because Tayta bakes with a secret ingredient.
Tayta's Secret Ingredient is a heart-warming intergenerational story about everyday life in multicultural Australia, with a young boy baking alongside his fabulous grandmother. Highly recommended.
‘Esme in the Limelight’ by Kate Gordon
Kate Gordon delivers a fourth title in a set of companion titles with characters so many readers have come to know, believe in and cheer for. Perfectly pitched at readers 11+, these heartfelt novels are ones that stay with you long after finishing the final page.
Esme doesn’t like the girl she sees in the mirror. Not pretty enough. Not thin enough. Not smart enough or talented enough. Nothing at all like her big sister, Ro. Then, a new friend comes into her life—a friend who wants Esme to be exactly who she is, or so Esme thinks.
For a while, Esme likes who she sees in the mirror—even if it never really feels like her. But then, she messes up. Her friend goes away, leaving her alone. There’s no-one to help cover up the fact that she is a talentless nobody whose only real dream is to work in a milk bar—which will never be good enough for her controlling mother.
A book about finding friendship in unlikely places and finding yourself in even stranger ones …And, most importantly … ice cream.
Companion novels:
‘Aster’s Good Right Things’ by Kate Gordon
‘Indigo in the Storm’ by Kate Gordon
‘Xavier in the Meantime’ by Kate Gordon
HELLO FROM ALLISON RUSHBY
The award-winning, bestselling author of many, many books for children and adults, Allison Rushby’s novels are firm favourites in the Your Kid’s Next Read community. Her latest illustrated junior fiction series, The Wish Sisters, is fast gaining fans. More about Allison R here.
I just spent a lovely few days at the Beyond the Book Literature Festival on the Sunshine Coast and what an amazing few days it was. For a start, I got to hang out with a fantastic bunch of authors and illustrators. Just a few of them include: Katrina Nannestad, Zanni Louise, Sami Bayly, C.S. Pacat, Louise Park, Ellie Marney, Mick Elliott, Sarah Ayoub, Graham Akhurst, Sarah Armstrong, Oliver Phommavanh and Alison Stegert. So good!
I got to speak to lecture theatres full of amazing young readers who asked me truly insightful questions. And best of all? I had several YKNR members approach me to let me know how much they love the group – they mentioned the fantastic book recommendations they always get, how much they like the giveaways and just how nice everyone is.
It was the *perfect festival! (*sure, the authors and illustrators who aren’t from the sub-tropics almost died from the heat, but being from Brisbane, I was fine!).
And then I came home to the laundry.
And a structural edit.
Back to reality then!
THREAD OF THE MONTH
I loved this. We’re a magical Facebook group! I had never thought about us like that, but it’s true. All you need do is ask and book recommendation fairies will magically appear – 91 of them in this case!
HELLO FROM ALLISON TAIT
Writing as A. L. Tait, Allison is the internationally published, bestselling author of three middle-grade series: The Mapmaker Chronicles, The Ateban Cipher and the Maven & Reeve Mysteries. She is an in-demand speaker, a writing teacher for kids and adults, and co-host of the YKNR podcast. Her latest novel THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE is out now. More about Allison here.
As first term unfolds, I’m keeping an eye on my PLCC* Backpack and putting together some new resources to add THE FIRST SUMMER OF CALLIE McGEE to the mix. You can see some of what’s included in my backpack here.
I love this project, which pulls together teacher and student resources in one travelling backpack. It can be booked (FREE!) by schools for a term at a time, and each backpack contains lots of surprises.
I’ve worked really hard to include inspiring and entertaining activities in my backpack – there’s even a BOOK OF SECRETS your students can add to, as well as early drafts of chapters of some of my novels – and I do hope that some of you might book it a ticket to your school!
Of course, mine is not the only backpack available – click the red button (below) to see what’s on offer (including a backpack from Allison Rushby!).
*PLCC stands for Primary Libraries: Creative Collaboration, and their website is a wonderful bank of library resources. They also support the Author Pen Pals project.
IT’S AWARDS SEASON
The long- and shortlists for Australia’s literary awards are beginning to appear and, of course, always provoke a lot of discussion. At Your Kid’s Next Read, we keep our eyes on awards relating to children’s literature – both the children’s choice and adult-judged awards.
So far, we’ve got short lists for the West Australian Young Readers’ Book Awards (see them here) and the Children’s Book Council of Australia Book Of The Year Awards Notables (longlists), which you can see here.
As a teacher librarian, Megan uses the CBCA lists extensively in her library in different ways – but she has also been a judge for the Queensland Literary Awards, and others, in the past. And, with more awards lists to come, it’s worth thinking about how the winners are chosen.
”The reason I enjoy being a judge is that it helps me to see the scope of what is out there in the publishing world and sometimes things that wouldn’t normally come across my desk as a reviewer or a teacher librarian,” she says. “It gives me a good idea of the trends.”
In episode 44 of the YKNR podcast, Megan took us behind the scenes of how books come to be entered for awards, the intense process for judging, and how the winners are decided. It’s worth a listen for parents, educators and authors!
MARCH BOOKMAIL WINNER
Each month, we give away a prize pack consisting of some of the brilliant bookmail sent to us for the Your Kid’s Next Read podcast. One winner* is chosen from our full subscriber list by random draw and announced here!
There are FIVE books in the MARCH prize pack.
The MARCH bookmail giveaway winner is … Anne Weaver
Congrats! We’ll be in touch by email.
Want a chance to win next month? All you have to do is subscribe.
Here’s to a Harmonious month!
We’ll see you in April with more bookish goodness. Later this month, paid subscribers can look forward to some essential tips and information about Teens & Reading.
Allison T, Allison R and Megan
*Australian mailing addresses only. Prize consists of one copy of each book pictured, sent as a pack to the winner by Australia Post. Winner will be contacted by email and prize must be claimed within 14 days or a redraw will take place. You must be subscribed to the YKNR newsletter by midnight (AEDST) the night before publication each month to be eligible to win. No correspondence will be entered into.