Last week, I got to go to the Michigan Library Association’s Spring Institute for the first time.  I’ve never been before because it’s specifically for youth and teen librarians, and I’m officially an adult librarian – someone has to stay behind to staff the library!  But this year it was just far enough away, plus my friend Nakenya and I gave two presentations – basically the same thing we did at the Allied Media Conference last year, but in two 50-minute talks instead of one long one and with added books we’ve read since then.  We mostly book talked our favorite diverse books.

I experimented with Canva for the first time and made this nifty infographic with the latest data from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center. (They were kind enough to give me permission to do this.)

And here are the presentations:
Diversity in Youth Literature Part 1: Picture Books and Early Chapter Books

Diversity in Youth Literature Part 2: Middle Grade and Young Adult

We also have handouts with the titles typed out rather than the covers – contact me if you’d like that.

Obviously, this is only a short selection of our favorites.  We haven’t read everything, as much as we’d like to, so please share your favorites in the comments!

Also, be sure to check out Nakenya’s Facebook page, The Amped Up Librarian.  She is so full of enthusiasm and a lot of fun to work with.