Things like posting to social media, signing petitions, and calling out racism when you see it are all important, but not everyone is comfortable taking the same actions.
Long term, how can we help to prevent the need to have to take this kind of action in the first place?
Sometimes social justice is ensuring books with diverse characters get into the hands of the next generation of children.
In the children’s publishing industry, books are eight times more likely to feature an animal as the protagonist than a person of color. In classrooms and home bookshelves across America, children are not seeing it modeled for them that Black children can be leaders, or even seeing what a diverse team of people look like, because it is not reflected in the media that they are exposed to from birth.
“I love Pete the Cat, Clifford the Big Red Dog, and the Berenstain Bears, but what I am saying is, my children should have an easier time finding a book with a character who looks like them than an animal.” ~Author Deedee Cummings
Sometimes social justice can be introducing our children to diversity as early as possible. Children of all colors need to see Black and Brown characters as leaders. Reading is magic. Seeing yourself in a book builds your esteem. Seeing your world in a book builds your empathy.
We need to shatter the goal we have set for this illustrated series so that we can achieve the projects we have beyond the goal of these books. It is all needed in a world that lacks the richness of diverse stories.
Please do not think any gift is too small. WE NEED NUMBERS TOO! We need hundreds of people to say, “YES! These stories need to be told!”
Kayla: A Modern-Day Princess is a five-part series with so many important themes for today’s youth and is inspired by the life of the author’s daughter, actress Kayla Pecchioni.
The series will be released during the Spring and Summer months of 2021. Follow this story as Princess Kayla pursues her dream of a career in musical theatre. Along the way, Kayla will form beautiful friendships, learn from her mother’s example, and always stay true to herself. Kayla will show girls that princesses, leaders, and heroes come in all colors.
There are many ways you can help support this Kickstarter campaign:
· Pledge as much as you can.
· Share the Kickstarter link with everyone you know by email, text, and social media.
· Talk about this project in a blog.
· Buy extra copies to share with a classroom, community center, neighbor, or library.
· Pledge one of the higher levels for your child’s classroom and Deedee (the author) or Kayla (the inspiration) will schedule a virtual visit!
· Tell people about this dream & ask them to give and tell others too.
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The Children’s Book Council: The Numbers Are In– 2019 CCBC Diversity Statistics “What does all of this mean? Our numbers continue to show what they have shown for the past 35 years: Despite slow progress, the number of books featuring BIPOC protagonists lags far behind the number of books with white main characters–or even those with animals or other characters. Taken together, books about white children, talking bears, trucks, monsters, potatoes, etc. represent nearly three-quarters (71%) of children’s and young adult books published in 2019.”
