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Session Submission Summary

Children’s Literature in the Digital Age: Can Social Media Lead to Social Change?

Thu, December 1, 8:45 to 10:15am, Omni Nashville, Floor: Level 2, Broadway Ballroom A

Session Submission Type: Symposium

Abstract

Although stories matter (Fox & Short, 2003), not all stories are equally present in today’s literary landscape. Over the past decade, much has been made of the persistence of racial and ethnic achievement gaps in literacy and educational attainment. These conversations have extended from classrooms and communities to the White House. However, until recently, less attention has been paid to a corresponding gap in children's literature and media. Then, in the spring of 2014, New York Times op-eds by the late pioneering Black children’s author Walter Dean Myers and his son Christopher Myers thrust the glaring disparities in children's publishing and media into the public discourse (Myers, 2014; Myers, 2014). Their powerful op-eds referenced their work with children as well as their lifelong commitments as writers to represent diverse kids’ lives. Both authors cited studies by the University of Wisconsin’s Cooperative Children’s Book Center, which has analyzed trends in children’s publishing on an annual basis for more than two decades, and found that every year, over 90% of all children’s and young adult books published feature White characters – a statistic that has not moved since the 1960s (CCBC, 2014).
After the Myers father-and-son editorials appeared on the front page of one of the nation’s most esteemed fora for literature, the largest publishers remained largely silent. Soon, a bold new campaign and hashtag were launched on social media -- #WeNeedDiverseBooks. Prominent voices within the industry, including Jason Low, founder and CEO of the multicultural publisher Lee and Low Books, publisher and editorial director Stacy Whitman of the diverse science fiction and fantasy imprint Tu Books, and award-winning young adult author and advocate Malinda Lo became leading voices in serious conversations around diversifying children’s literature, and analyzing racial disparities in media more generally. They are connected to a protest tradition launched decades ago by children’s literature diversity pioneers such as Augusta Baker, Nancy Larrick, and Rudine Sims Bishop, as well as many authors, librarians, educators, and community activists who work with some of the nation’s most vulnerable young people today.
Yet as author, creative writing professor, and activist Daniel José Older and others pointed out during the heated discussions, calling for diversity is not enough:
The question industry professionals need to ask themselves is: “How can I use my position to help create a literary world that is diverse, equitable, and doesn’t just represent the same segment of society it always has since its inception? What concrete actions can I take to make actual change and move beyond the tired conversation we’ve been having for decades? (Older, 2014)
This proposed session for the Literacy Research Association’s 2016 annual meeting in Nashville will feature leading authors, librarian, scholars, and educators talking about social media as a tool for advancing more diverse and informed reviewing and publishing practices. Using the #SlaveryWithoutASmile twitter campaign as a recent exemplar, this dialogue will address the power of a rapid and collective approach to social change, as well as the changing role of authors/librarians/scholars in shaping the aims and material (published books) of children’s and young adult literature publishing.

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