The organization We Need Diverse Books has come a long way from its 2014 origins, when reaction to BookCon’s all-white, mostly male author lineup galvanized discussions online. What started as a digital call to action was the beginning of tangible change.
“We had to make programming that would create the change we wanted to see in the world,” says Ellen Oh, a WNDB founding member, former CEO, and honorary trustee. “We had to fundraise for it. We had to take what was essentially a hashtag campaign and turn it into a grassroots nonprofit volunteer organization.”
Since its founding, We Need Diverse Books has advocated for children’s literature that showcases a diversity of identities and experiences. One way it does this is by getting books that feature diverse characters and stories into the hands of children at no cost: to date, the organization has donated more than 100,000 books to schools and libraries across the country. But the classroom isn’t the only place WNDB has made an impact.
“From the start, we knew that in order to get diverse books on the shelves, we had to enact change across the entire publishing pipeline,” says executive director Caroline Richmond.
This expansive approach is evident in WNDB’s wide scope of initiatives, which include mentorship programs for writers of color and a
variety of grants for students, authors, illustrators, and educators. The organization offers resources to publishing workers as well, with programs such as Rise Up, which helps young professionals connect and provides networking opportunities in an industry that remains primarily white.
“We’re helping diverse creators to be able to tell their stories and get them published,” Richmond says. “We’re diversifying the publishing workforce as well so that the people acquiring the books, editing them, designing them, marketing them, and selling them are also diverse. It’s a holistic change.”
Checking the facts
As WNDB got off the ground, the need for its work was repeatedly made clear.
“I feel like every BIPOC creator had a story about a rejection that started with, ‘We already have a that race book already,’ ” Oh says. The Cooperative Children’s Book Center, a research library at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Education, releases annual data tracking the number of new books it receives each year that are written by BIPOC writers and that include BIPOC characters. In 2014, the CCBC reported that of the 3,500 books submitted, 3.7% were written by Asian Pacific or Asian Pacific American authors, 2.4% were written by Black authors, 1.7% by Latinx authors, and 0.6% by Indigenous authors. It was these numbers that WNDB pointed to as evidence that its work was necessary.
“Those CCBC stats really helped us set our battle plan,” says Dhonielle Clayton, former COO and recently appointed board chair of WNDB. She explains that the data raised a number of questions: “How are we going to change things? How are we going to work with publishers? How are we going to work with authors? And how are we going to give the inventory of diverse books that already exist a real boost?”
The most recent statistics, released by CCBC in April, reflect some of the fruits of WNDB’s labor. “Following a long period of relative stagnancy, around 2015, the number of children’s books the CCBC received by BIPOC creators and about BIPOC characters began to increase,” according to a press release that accompanied the report. Of the 3,491 books the CCBC collected in 2023, 18.4% were written by Asian authors, 13.4% by Black authors, 11.4% by Latinx authors, and 2.4 % by Indigenous authors. (Books by Pacific Islanders, previously included in the Asian author category, make up less than 1%.)
Meeting the challenges
As more diverse books are published, WNDB, like the publishing industry as a whole, is contending with book bans. In 2023, the organization’s Books Save Lives grant provided five schools in Florida, Michigan, and Texas—states particularly affected by book bans—up to $5,000 worth of diverse titles.
“The numbers show that we’ve made actual change happen,” Oh says. “The problem now is that our very visible success is also why book bans have risen in the last few years. WNDB’s job is to make sure that we don’t go back.” This past September, PEN America reported that the 2023–2024 school year saw more than 10,000 book bans, nearly triple the number from the previous school year, with books featuring characters of color and/or LGBTQ+ characters “overwhelmingly” targeted.
“It’s directly affecting the authors we’re serving, and it’s hurting our kids who really need these books,” Richmond says. “What’s concerning to me is the lasting effects that soft censorship will have on the diversity of our bookshelves, because it’s very hard to measure. Its aim is that diverse books are never shelved, or never bought in the first place, out of fear. It’s teachers and librarians not wanting to lose their jobs or feeling that they might be under threat if they buy and shelve a certain book.”
Even as book bans and soft censorship remain pressing issues, WNDB has other areas of concern. Clayton says publishing has yet to grapple with the “next big problem” of visibility, noting that simply having diverse books is not enough.
“You can publish as many diverse titles as you want, but if you don’t market those titles, they don’t find readers,” she says. “We’re getting a lot of great, diverse authors coming through, but their books are going to be out of print in a year because they’re not being put in stores. They’re not getting marketing. They’re not getting support.”
WNDB also plans to expand its efforts in the adult publishing sphere. Details have yet to be announced, but the need, according to Clayton, is palpable.
“Adult publishing doesn’t think they have a problem,” she says. “It’s easy to say, What about the children? Of course, children need to be reading about different kinds of people and building empathy, but adults think that they don’t need to continue to work on that part of themselves.”
Diversifying publishing isn’t just the right thing to do, according to Clayton; it’s the smart thing. Otherwise, “you’re leaving money on the table,” she says. “There are so many people who read who want to see themselves in the pages of books.”
