Diverse Book Recommendations for #WeNeedDiverseBooks

If you’re not already aware, there’s a wonderful thing happening in the book world these past few days. A campaign called #WeNeedDiverseBooks (link is here) is trying to bring together likeminded folks to push for change in the publishing industry. We all envision lists that include more books for people of every color, ethnicity, faith, sexuality, and ability level.

I found myself tweeting between classes at my school, enlisting the aid of students to take my photo, and talking it up non-stop. But my tiny contributions are dwarfed by the great idea from Cybils’ volunteers to post suggestions for diverse reading from our very own finalists.

Cybils has long sought out diversity in both our judges and nominations. We decided nearly at our inception not to simply wait to see who showed up or what got nominated. We make the effort, year after year, to ensure that we’re not missing out on great stories and a variety of perspectives.

Below is a highly incomplete list of the many diverse titles and authors we’ve helped uncover and reward since 2006. Most of us are on hiatus now, and so I’m posting only what a handful of category organizers could whip up from their own categories on short notice. Missing is the YA fiction and graphic novel lists, for example, both of which have scores of books with characters of different races and cultures. Feel free to browse our lists of finalists from the menu above for more recommendations.

–Anne Boles Levy, Cybils Co-Founder

Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto
by Paul B. Janeczko
Candlewick Press

How Oliver Olson Changed the World
by Claudia Mills
Farrar, Straus & Giroux