From August through December, I read 23 diverse children’s books, bringing my year-end total to 68.
That means I surpassed my We Need Diverse Books resolution of 50 diverse books even without counting adult books!
My grand total for children’s books this year is 151. Diverse books being 45 percent of that is a number I feel good about. But it didn’t happen by chance. I’ve found titles by following the Cooperative Children’s Book Center blog, reading recommendations in Rethinking Schools magazine, keeping up with the We Need Diverse Books newsletters and Twitter account, and participating a variety of other social media conversations. And also, of course, paying attention to the new children’s book shelves at my local library.
I plan to keep up those efforts in 2016 and will decide on my new We Need Diverse Books resolution next week. In the meantime, below are the diverse kids’ titles I read in August through December. To see the rest of my 2015 list, visit these posts: January, February, March, April through July.
Row 1: (All related to civil rights) “Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer” by Carole Boston Weatherford, “Voices from the March on Washington” by George Ella Lyon and J. Patrick Lewis, “Lillian’s Right to Vote” by Jonah Winter, “Seeds of Freedom: The Peaceful Integration of Huntsville, Alabama” by Hester Bass
Row 2: (All fictional picture books) “One Word from Sophia” by Jim Averbeck, “Last Stop on Market Street” by Matt de la Peña, “Lion Lion” by Miriam Busch, “Mango, Abuela, and Me” by Meg Medina
Row 3: (All middle grade or YA; 1st three deal with LGBT themes) “Honor Girl” by Maggie Thrash, “George” by Alex Gino, “Lies We Tell Ourselves” by Robin Talley, “Wonder” by R.J. Palacio
Row 4: (All picture books; 1st two are nonfiction) “Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table” by Jacqueline Briggs Martin, “One Plastic Bag” by Miranda Paul, “The Big Box” by Toni and Slade Morrison, “Please, Louise,” by Toni and Slade Morrison
Row 5: “A Storm Called Katrina” by Myron Uhlberg, “Mama’s Nightingale” by Edwidge Danticat, “Minna’s Patchwork Coast” by Lauren A. Mills, “The Smallest Girl in the Smallest Grade” by Justin Roberts
Row 6: (All fictional picture books) “The First Day in Grapes” by L. King Pérez, “Little Kunoichi: The Ninja Girl” by Sanae Ishida, “Langston’s Train Ride” by Robert Burleigh
Kara Newhouse 
These look great. I’m in the process of collecting books for a Martin Luther King day project at my kids’ school. I’m going to look into a couple of the books you’ve listed here. Thanks!
Awesome! What’s the project? If you’re looking at the civil rights movement more broadly than MLK, you may also want to try these: “Mahalia Jackson: Walking with Kings and Queens,” “MARCH: Book One” by John Lewis (from my February list), “John Lewis in the Lead” by James Haskins and “Turning 15 on the Road to Freedom” by Lynda Blackmon Lowery (both from my March list).
Thanks! For MLK day, my kids’ elementary school will have reading groups (we have other projects going on too). Seeds of Freedom and Lillian’s Right to Vote look perfect. Another book I’m considering is Separate is Never Equal. All of them look pretty good for K-4.
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