I read 20 books last month. Fourteen were by or about diverse characters — that’s 70 percent, an improvement from last month. Twelve of those were for children, shown below. They are picture books unless otherwise noted.
Top row: “A Little Piece of Ground” by Elizabeth Laird (middle grade); “A Place Where Hurricanes Happen” by Renée Watson; “Freedom on the Menu” by Carole Boston Weatherford; “Hana Hashimoto, Sixth Violin” by Chieri Uegaki
Middle row: “Harlem’s Little Blackbird” by Renée Watson; “Leontyne Price: Voice of a Century” by Carole Boston Weatherford; “Little Melba and Her Big Trombone” by Katheryn Russell-Brown; “Mahalia Jackson: Walking with Kings and Queens” by Nina Nolan
Bottom row: “Pablo Neruda: Poet of the People” by Monica Brown; “Soccer Star” by Mina Javaherbin; “The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage” by Selina Alko; “Those Shoes” by Maribeth Boelts
The two adult books on my diverse reading list in February were “On Beauty” by Zadie Smith and “MARCH: Book One” by Congressman John Lewis. The latter is a graphic novel about Lewis’ involvement in the civil rights movement and would be great for teenagers as well as adults.
In case you missed it, my We Need Diverse Books resolution this year is 50 books. I’m almost halfway there already — maybe I need to bump it up?
What diverse reading have you been doing?
Kara Newhouse 
Just finished “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt de la Pena and illustrated by Christian Robinson. Great book! And Misty Copeland’s “Firebird,” illustrated by Christopher Myers, also a great book!
I’ve been hearing good things about “Last Stop on Market Street,” but my library’s copy has been popular. I hadn’t heard of Firebird, so I’ll check that one out. Thanks for the recs!
Have only read one of the diverse books you mentioned. Thanks for the list.
Ah, wonderful. Hope you enjoy them! I’m just re-reading “Mahalia Jackson: Walking with Kings and Queens” and the language is wonderful. I’ll be reviewing it soon.
That’s one book I really want to read. Will look forward to your review.
Michaela DePrince, Taking Flight: From War Orphan to Star Ballerina…great story!
Oh I’ve seen that mentioned a few places now. And I love nonfiction. I’ve kind of de-prioritized YA and MG at the moment but I’ll add it to my to-read list!
Lol, I realized a few minutes after posting my reply that I am in the middle of a YA book actually — “X,” a fictionalized bio of Malcolm X as a child/young adult. It’s written by one his daughters, Ilyasah Shabazz, and Kekla Magoon.
I’m loving it. Have you read it? Makes me wanna re-read his autobiography.
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