From the Idaho Commission for Libraries Scoop newsletter, Vol. 16, No. 9
Disability in Kidlit is dedicated to discussing the portrayal of disability in middle grade and young adult literature. Kidlit publishes articles, reviews, interviews, and discussions examining this topic from various angles — and always from the disabled perspective.
Diverse BookFinder is a comprehensive collection of children’s picture books featuring Black and Indigenous people and People of Color (BIPOC). They’ve cataloged and analyzed trade picture books fitting these criteria, published since 2002, to surface and create a unique circulating collection, a search tool, and a source of critical data.
Picture the Dream is the first exhibition of its kind to delve into the events, people, and themes of the civil rights movement through children’s picture books. The online portion of the exhibit includes teacher resources, a family discussion guide, and a book list and bibliography.
Seedlings Braille Books for Children contributes to literacy by providing visually impaired children equal opportunity to develop the love of reading. At this time, less than 20% of the 50,000 blind children in the United States are proficient in Braille. All too often, the written word has been inaccessible to them, and this is what Seedlings is working to change, by increasing the availability and lowering the cost of Braille books for
children.
The American Sign Language (ASL) Stories Directory makes it easy to find hundreds of free videos of ASL retellings of favorite children’s books. Research shows that reading and signing stories together helps promote essential literacy skills for ALL children: deaf, hard of hearing, and hearing. Use the ASL Stories Directory to quickly find stories by a child’s age or by a book’s title.
Community, Connecting, Cultivating & Constructing Conversations through Literacy is a list developed by members of the Black Caucus of the American Library Association (BCALA) and the Association for Library Service to Children’s (ALSC) Quicklists Consulting Committee. This list is intended to support conversations about dismantling systems of racial injustice.
Embracing Gender Identities is a booklist created to help support conversations about gender identity and expression. This list includes recommended informational picture books, as well as works of fiction and nonfiction, that challenge gender norms and explore the wide spectrum of gender identity. It includes additional resources for parents.