From: jane_at_kidslikeus.org
Date: Thu, 14 Feb 2013 09:51:38 -0700

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black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'" mce_style="font-famil y: "Times New Roman","serif"; color: black; mso-fareast I, too, have been followin g with great interest. I very much appreciate the focus of this discussion as well as contributors' ideas for taking action. Just wanted to confirm&nb sp;some points others have already made and add a few cents to the mix . mal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal mce_style="font-size:12pt;LIN

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Roman','serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'" mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; co 1. Like Christine, I have done similar "rounds" at the IRA exhibits for the pa st couple of years. During IRA 2012 in Chicago, I went to all the children' s book publisher exhibits and asked for help locating short chapter books w ith Latino primary characters (I work in primary grade classrooms in Chicag o and a colleague and I were doing a review at the time).

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COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'" mce_style="font -family: "Times New Roman","serif"; color: black; mso-f I took notes.

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Most responses were just straightforward, matter-of-fact "No."

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Roman','serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'" m ce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; col In m ost cases there were no explanations, alternative suggestions, or regrets o ffered. In one case, a rep pointed me to a picture book with a middle easte rn primary character as an alternative. iv style="font-size:12pt;LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class =MsoNormal mce_style="font-size:12pt;LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0

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OR: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'" mce_style="font-fa mily: "Times New Roman","serif"; color: black; mso-fare Other notable responses from sales reps included… yle="font-size:12pt;LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=Mso Normal mce_style="font-size:12pt;LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt

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"It has to have universal appeal.” When I asked what she mean t, she confirmed “It can't just be about that." (I guess, meaning b eing Latino?). pt;LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class=MsoNormal mce_style

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="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'; COLOR: black; mso-fareast-font- family: 'Times New Roman'" mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman& quot;,"serif"; color: black; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Some reps tried to be helpful at first, but quickly moved on when they realized they didn’t have anything to offer me. In two cases, sales reps took time to talk with me about the schools I wor k in and why I saw this as so important for my students.

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lack; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman'" mce_style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; color: black; mso-fareast-f All of the sales reps I talk ed to were white women. Every single one. I met a single person o f color "in training" at one publishing house booth. One. In an exhibi t space in McCormick Place the size of several football fields. At an i nternational reading conference. In Chicago. In 2012. Enough said . MARGIN: 0in 0in 4pt" class=MsoNormal mce_style="font-size:12pt;LINE-HEI

2. I agree with Shelley and Ch ristine that there is a huge marketing gap that leads to a lack of awa reness of the excellent titles that are being published. I volunteer t raining time with Kids Like Us, a small urban literacy nonprofit i n Chicago, and we are always surprised at how many titles in KLU collection have not made it onto classroom and library shelves. As others have p ointed out, it's a vicious cycle: books don't get promoted, teachers and li brarians aren't aware of them, they don't sell widely, they go out of print quickly, and then lack of sales gets used as justification for cautio n about publishing the next title featuring a character of color.

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But there also does ex ist "a dearth" of titles in some formats and genres. For example,&nbsp ;the lack of images Motoko Rich was referring to, in part, i n the NYT article was in transitional chapter book series in part icular. In a review of hundreds of series (3 or more books) published in th e past ten years, we've found only two so far that have a consiste nt primary Latino character: Get Ready for Gabi! and Zapato Po wer. Get Ready for Gabi! has six titles, five of which are now out of print, as far as we can tell. Zapato Power has 4 titles. Tran sitional chapter book series may not be considered the greatest literature ever written, but the format serves a really important role in the dev elopment of interest, persistence, stamina, and reading fluency for yo ung readers. If you don't find kids like you in the kinds of books that alm ost all kids are reading through second and third grade, we t hink this sends a pretty strong message about who books and reading a nd wri ting are for. If we are somehow wrong about this dearth of series titles, I would be thrilled to be told so.


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(By the way, Elizabeth, we also have a working l ist of the "Black Ramona Quimbys" you are looking for that will soon be on the KLU website, but until then I'd be happy to send or share on the list.)

3. I've talked with many people in publishing about this, and the issue of "market" always come s up. I'm no financier, but I just do not buy this line. Let's run some num bers, shall we? There are 400,000 kids in Chicago Public Schools alone. We all know that all kids love all kinds of great books and bene fit tremendously from a multicultural collection. But let's even set that a side for just a second. In CPS, 91% of our students are children of color; about half are Latino. There are 472 elementary schools, each of which has 2-4 classrooms per grade. That's about 2500 2nd and 3rd grade cla ssrooms alone. I'm quite sure if they knew about it, every one of those tea chers would trade a few Magic Tree Houses or Junie B . Joneses in their classroom libraries for all six books in the&n bsp; Get Ready for Gabi series (no offense to MTH and JBJ&nbsp ;-- kids love them, too). That's 15,000 books right there. I bet most of th e first and fourth grade teachers would take them, too, for kids who are ex ce lling or still working on their reading fluency. Let's call it 25,000 boo ks. One series. One city. Keep multiplying. And that's just classr oom libraries. Maybe my math is way off. And I'm sure I don' t understand enough about publishing or how books sales to large school dis tricts work. But I don't get it. Wouldn't you take that market?

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4. Kids Like Us regularly champions the small presses in ou r trainings (we love Lee & Low, CBP, Tu, Cinco Puntos, etc.) but we can do more. I love the idea of a "buy and promote this book today" feature th at some have suggested, and I will pitch this to KLU to get going&nbsp ;on our e-mail blasts and Twitter feed (_at_KLUBooks) asap. We have a pretty small reach at the moment, but every little bit of awareness helps . This is central to KLU's mission, so if others are considering this, plea se count us in if we can coordinate efforts.

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Thanks for an important discussion...

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-------- Jane Fleming Kids Like Us

jane_at_kidslikeus.org www.kidslikeus.org

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Received on Thu 14 Feb 2013 09:51:38 AM CST