#1000BlackGirlBooks Wants to Connect Black Girls with Relatble Books

Eleven-year-old Marley Dias told her mom she was "sick of reading books about white boys and dogs."

The sixth grader from New Jersey told The Huffington Post that she loves to read, but that she has a hard time relating to the characters in the required books she reads in school because she has nothing in common with them. 

I was frustrated... in fifth grade where I wasn't reading [books with] a character that I could connect with.

Her mom, Janice Dias, asked Marley what she planned on doing about it. At first, Marley said that she decided to create a book guide which would feature black characters, but she ultimately decided to take her idea a step further. So she initiated #1000BlackGirlBooks in November, a book drive where she collected books in which black girls were the main characters -- not the sidekicks or background characters.
 
Marley, who works with her mom's organization GrassROOTS Community Foundation, plans to collect 1000 books by Feb. 1, to donate to children. On Feb. 11, she'll travel to her mom's hometown, St. Mary, Jamaica, to host a book festival and give the books to schools and libraries. Marley said she hopes this book drive helps more young black girls read about characters they can relate to. So far, she's collected nearly 500 books.

I know there's a lot of black girl books out there, I just haven't read them.  So if we started this I would find them and other people would be able to read them, as well.

I write everyday," she said, in reference to her blog. Marley said she wants to become a magazine editor when she grows up and she hopes to maybe even write a book of her own for young girls like her one day.

A Multi-Award Nominated Book from Canada for Kids

A Canadian book, Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be, has been getting awards but is not being offered south of the border.  The award winning kids book about evolution was turned down by several American publishers because it was too controversial, according to the book's author.

"I had more than one publishing professional in the U.S. indicate to me that, because of the potential for controversy, it would be hard to make the numbers work," Loxton told The Huffington Post. "They said it was a tough sell."

The National Science Teachers Association  says the book fills a need. "This book complies with the ideas set forth about evolution by the National Science Education Standards and fills a gap in books about evolution for this age group," the association said in a statement.

Canadian libraries are praising Daniel Loxton's book about evolution. But across the border in the United States, the subject matter may be too much of a hot potato to touch for some publishers.

After Evolution: How We and All Living Things Came to Be was published by Kids Can Press in Canada. It has begun receiving literary nominations.

Last year British Columbia author Loxton's book was nominated for a Silver Birch Award for the book that is geared to primary school students, aged 8 to 13.

It's currently in the running for the Lane Anderson Award for Canadian science books and Norma Fleck Award for Canadian children’s nonfiction.

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