Archives for Dive into Diversity

Women’s Equality Day

On August 26th, 1920, U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby certified the 19th Amendment and that date became known as “Women’s Equality Day.” The National Constitution Center’s article, Why is August 26 Known As Women's Equality Day? writes, “In 1971, Representative Bella Abzug championed a bill in the U.S. Congress to designate August 26 as ‘Women’s Equality Day.’ The bill says that ‘the President is authorized and requested to issue a proclamation annually in commemoration of that day in 1920, on which the women of America were first given the right to vote.’” Unfortunately, women’s equality and voting rights are
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Appreciating Nature

Time spent outdoors is both physically and mentally healthy for all of us. Spending time in nature promotes creativity, relieves stress and is just plain fun – especially for kids. Best of all, most of us won’t need to travel far to enjoy the great outdoors – Westchester County has great places to visit and commune with nature. I found Westchester Magazine’s article, These Are the Top Outdoor Activities in Westchester to be particularly helpful in finding so many wonderful green spaces in our area. Pairing outdoor adventures with great books creates even better opportunities to enjoy the benefits of
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Traveling Through Picture Books

In Caitlin Morton’s article for Condé Nast, 29 Children's Books That Will Teach Your Kids About the World, she writes, “Aside from actually hopping on a plane, reading is the best way for children to learn about the world—and travel books for kids happen to be some of the most touching, open-minded works out there.” Travel picture books can teach us about new places, and they can also let us connect to our family’s heritage. Gathered here are picture books perfect for sharing that travel to many places and times – enjoy traveling through the pages of these notable titles!
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Celebrate Pride in June

Now more than ever it is important to celebrate Pride and show support for LGBTQ+ families! The attack on LGBTQ+ rights this year and the psychological toll it has had on LGBTQ+ kids, teens and their families has been enormous. This wave of hate is being perpetrated by only a small (though powerful) minority of Americans. This hateful legislative push runs completely counter to the beliefs and values of most Americans. Matt Lavietes and Elliott Ramos write in their NBC article, “As the number of anti-LGBTQ bills hits record highs, research shows that so, too, has support for LGBTQ rights
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Happy Spring Birthdays!

There are so many talented and diverse children’s authors and illustrators to recommend! To highlight them, I am ending my series of celebrating their birthdays on a seasonal basis with Spring birthdays. I started with summer, I covered Autumn birthdays and Winter birthdays and now it’s Springtime! Another wonderful resource for excellent diverse book recommendations is Social Justice Books: A Teaching for Change Project. I hope you enjoy the range of great titles below for preschoolers to sixth-graders! Author and Illustrator Diane Dillon, Birthday: March 12th I Can Be Anything (Preschool – 2nd grade) Libby / Library Catalog “A young
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Books to Celebrate International Transgender Day of Visibility

International Transgender Day of Visibility is an annual event that occurs on March 31st. The day is dedicated to celebrating the accomplishments and contributions of transgender and gender nonconforming people and raising awareness of discrimination faced by transgender people in the United States and worldwide. Sadly, injustices continue – Texas families are now fighting against recent efforts to harm transgender children and tear apart their families by Governor Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton. For further information, you can read NPR’s website article, A Texas Judge Blocks the State from Investigating Parents of Transgender Youth. In support of those
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Girl Power Picture Books

Gathered together here to celebrate Women’s History Month are noteworthy picture books written by diverse authors of great girls celebrating themselves and others, sharing family traditions, and reveling in both small and large accomplishments. I recommend as a great resource for Women’s History Month the National Women's History Museum. The museum’s resources include interesting online exhibits, digital classroom resources, Brave Girl Virtual Storytimes, and more. Enjoy sharing these with your young feminists of all genders! K-3 Women's History Grab & Go Kits will be available Monday, March 7th while supplies last. Laxmi’s Mooch by Shelly Anand, Nabi H. Ali &
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Children’s Titles to Celebrate Black History Part 2

Veronica Chambers writes in her New York Times article, How Negro History Week Became Black History Month and Why It Matters Now, ”Why does Black History Month in particular, and the study of Black history overall, still matter so much? ‘There’s no question that history is and continues to be a battleground. The origin stories that we tell matter a great deal for where we set the bar and how we set the bar going forward,’ noted Professor Jones, of Johns Hopkins. ‘So when you talk about people like Carter G. Woodson, these are men who knew that if you
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Announcing the Winter 2021 Project LIT Titles

Since becoming a Project LIT chapter, we’ve enjoyed reading and discussing Project LIT books with kids and teens. Last month, we were thrilled to see the announcements of new titles in the Winter 2021 Project LIT book list. We’re excited to share the list with you, and to highlight a couple titles that are of particular interest to our librarians. You can find the full Project LIT book lists for Middle Grade and Young Adult on the Reading Lists page of our website. Middle Grade: Ashley’s Picks Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim Libby Library Catalog This book has
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.

Children’s Nonfiction Titles to Celebrate Black History Part 1

The banning of children’s books on Black history (And children’s books on the LGBTQIA+ experience) has greatly risen recently throughout the United States. Students and teachers are fighting back. One student and teacher victory (for now) led to the rescinding of a book ban instituted by the Central York Pennsylvania School District board. Alyssa Shotwell wrote in her article in the Mary Sue, “Last year, heated school debates resulted in the York, Pennsylvania schools banning (and, in some cases, holding ongoing ‘reviews’ of) a four-page list of materials. In the list sent to teachers across the Central York District, books
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Dive Into Diversity: 2021 Releases

White Plains is a wonderfully diverse community! Parents, children, and teens have expressed an interest in titles that reflect the diversity in the community, and Ashley, Kathlyn, and Raquel's “Dive Into Diversity” column will spotlight noteworthy children's and teen titles that are inclusive, diverse, and multicultural to fulfill that interest. Ashley's portion is aimed at readers in grades 4-6. It is absolutely shocking to me that 2021 is winding down! This year has been quite the whirlwind. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future holds as we head into 2022! There have been a ton of amazing diverse books
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Dive into Diversity: #fREADom to Read

Recently, well-respected, award-winning children’s and teen titles have faced severe, targeted censorship attacks in such states as Texas, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia, Georgia and Illinois. Award winning titles such as the Newbery-winning title New Kid by Jerry Craft have faced heavy racist and anti-LGBTQIA+ attacks, and we in the Trove wanted to celebrate and support the #fREADom to read them, and all books that affirm the uniqueness and special characteristics of every child and teen. The excellent children’s books highlighted in this blog come from Texas State Representative Matt Krause’s list of over 800 titles (16 pages!) he is seeking “to
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Dive into Diversity: Most Popular YA of 2021

In 2021, my Dive into Diversity posts about young adult books will focus on a different genre each month. I’ll highlight books with characters that represent a range of experiences and identities. I’ll also feature authors who share an aspect of their characters’ identity as much as possible. For the last post of 2021, I looked at the circulation data for the YA fiction collection to see which books checked out the most. I came up with this list of the top ten most popular YA fiction books published in 2021, written by authors with diverse perspectives. When You Look
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

Dive Into Diversity: Let’s Laugh

White Plains is a wonderfully diverse community! Parents, children, and teens have expressed an interest in titles that reflect the diversity in the community, and Ashley, Kathlyn, and Raquel's “Dive Into Diversity” column will spotlight noteworthy children's and teen titles that are inclusive, diverse, and multicultural to fulfill that interest. Ashley's portion is aimed at readers in grades 4-6. National Comedy Day is held on November 7th. To celebrate, here are some humorous diverse book selections that may make you laugh! Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez For children in grades 4-8. Library Collection: Print Hoopla: eBook
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Dive into Diversity: Happy Winter Birthdays!

There are so many talented and diverse children’s authors and illustrators to recommend! To highlight them, I have continued with my series of celebrating their birthdays on a seasonal basis. I started with summer, I covered Autumn birthdays, and here we are now at Winter birthdays! I hope you enjoy the great titles below. A great resource to find even more diverse notable titles for kids is the Colours of Us website, The Colours of Us: All About Multicultural Children's Books. Happy Winter birthdays! Author and Illustrator Jason Chin, Birthday: December 5th Redwoods (Preschool – 2nd Grade) OverDrive hoopla Library
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Dive into Diversity: YA Humor

In 2021, my Dive into Diversity posts about young adult books will focus on a different genre each month. I’ll highlight books with characters that represent a range of experiences and identities. I’ll also feature authors who share an aspect of their characters’ identity as much as possible. This month I've collected humorous YA books, from romantic comedy to dark humor. YA is not typically known for its comedies, so this was a bit of a challenge. While not all of the books below will be entirely positive or uplifting, all contain an aspect of humor. This month I read
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

Dive into Diversity: YA Fantasy

In 2021, my Dive into Diversity posts about young adult books will focus on a different genre each month. I’ll highlight books with characters that represent a range of experiences and identities. I’ll also feature authors who share an aspect of their characters’ identity as much as possible. This month we have the last genre theme for the year: my favorite, YA fantasy. This month I read Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko, which had been on my list for quite a while–so long, in fact, that its sequel was recently published. I had high hopes, and Raybearer exceeded them. The story
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.

Dive Into Diversity: Food, Family, Friends

White Plains is a wonderfully diverse community! Parents, children, and teens have expressed an interest in titles that reflect the diversity in the community, and Ashley, Kathlyn, and Raquel's “Dive Into Diversity” column will spotlight noteworthy children's and teen titles that are inclusive, diverse, and multicultural to fulfill that interest. Ashley's portion is aimed at readers in grades 4-6. As we delve deeper into the fall and the weather gets chillier, I usually find myself reconnecting with friends and spending time with family around the holidays. I hope you enjoy reading these diverse recommendations that combine all three – food,
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Dive into Diversity: National Diabetes Awareness Month

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), “Diagnosed cases of type 1 and type 2 diabetes are surging among youth in the United States. From 2001 to 2017, the number of people under age 20 living with type 1 diabetes increased by 45%, and the number living with type 2 diabetes grew by 95%.” According to the article, “New Research Uncovers Concerning Increases in Youth Living with Diabetes in the U.S.,” “The greatest increases in type 2 diabetes prevalence were seen in youth who are Black or Hispanic, and the
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Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.

Dive Into Diversity: Spooky Stories

White Plains is a wonderfully diverse community! Parents, children, and teens have expressed an interest in titles that reflect the diversity in the community, and Ashley, Kathlyn, and Raquel's “Dive Into Diversity” column will spotlight noteworthy children's and teen titles that are inclusive, diverse, and multicultural to fulfill that interest. Ashley's portion is aimed at readers in grades 4-6. School has begun again and the weather will turn chillier as we head into fall and the spooky season! When I was a kid, I was a big fan of watching Are You Afraid of the Dark? and reading the Goosebumps
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Categories: Authors & Books, Events, Featured, Homepage Kids, Kids, and Library News.