Marjuan Canady has released the third book in her Callaloo children's book series: Callaloo The Trickster & The Magic Quilt. You can also read her recent Op-Ed for Blavity where she discusses "Why Diversity Really Doesn't Matter for Children's Literature".
"According to a 2017 Cooperative Children’s Book Center study, 31% of children’s books in the mainstream publishing industry featured multicultural themes, but only 7% of those books were written by authors and illustrators of color. This shows that the publishing industry acknowledges an audience that is desperately in search of books and images that truly reflect varied experiences of children of color, however, publishers prefer to award the work to white authors due to bias."
"On this journey, I have learned there’s plenty of “diversity” in children’s publishing as I’ve met hundreds of authors and illustrators of color across the world who are creating incredible work for our youngsters. A lack of diversity isn’t the roadblock, the problem is equity. Until we have access to resources and respect for our perspectives, aesthetics, and culture is shown, we will always have this “diversity” problem."
