Diversity On the Shelf 2015 Challenge

What should arrive this morning via my library system's inter-library grey envelope but the May, 2014 Diversity Issue of School Library Journal (only a little late, but I'll take it, as we do have a large library system after all). It just so happens that this past week I'd been revisiting Walter Dean Myer's New York Times editorial from this past summer entitled "Where Are the People of Color in Children's Books?"  in which he reflects upon the lack of novels with African-American characters he read growing up and his concern that the landscape hadn't changed all that drastically since his childhood.

At the same time I'd been thinking, in hindsight and perhaps with a hint of smug, that I'VE read a fair number of young adult novels featuring diverse main characters this year and loved them. But when I went back through my Goodreads list of books I'd read I was unpleasantly surprised to come up with this anemic number: 8.

8 out of 102 books I read this year. Eeek.

(Can I count the two I only coincidentally happen to be in the middle of right now which both happen to feature African-American main characters? I must admit I picked them up before coming upon my anemic little number.)

So I was pleasantly surprised to come upon the world of book challenges thanks to an article from SLJ's Diversity Issue. I'm not speaking of zealots burning Catcher In The Rye but rather pages online where you can sign up for challenges to read a certain type or quantity of books. I'm a librarian, I had no idea.

Hence I'm hitching my ride to the Diversity On the Shelf 2015 Challenge in an effort to feed my anemic 2014 number.

Beginning January 1st I'm shooting for the 3rd Shelf of the challenge: 13-18 books featuring diverse main characters.

As I read mostly young adult novels, some of the titles I look forward to reading in 2015 can be found on my beautiful, vacant-but-soon-to-be-filled Diversity on the Shelf 2015 Goodreads bookshelf.

Happy New Year (of Reading)!