To be recognized as an official African American Read-In Host, it’s easy as I,2,3:
- Select books, poems, speeches (anything) authored by African Americans;
- Hold your event during the month of February; and
- Report results by submitting an African American Read-In Report Card.
The first step is to choose a piece written by an African American author. NCTE has a Resolution on the Need for Diverse Children’s and Young Adult Books.
The African American Read-In Toolkit provides a variety of resources to help support both individual hosts and hosting organizations implement and promote African American Read-In programs. Included in the toolkit are a number of booklists including one that was crowdsourced at an NCTE Annual Convention.
The September 2016 #NCTEchat was on the topic of Black Girls’ Literacies. Detra Price-Dennis compiled a list of Black Girls’ Literacies Resources that were shared during #NCTEchat.
Tune in to the Text Messages podcast episode #weneeddiversebooks to hear about recently-published YA titles that celebrate diversity in a range of genres. There’s something for every reader here: comic book superheroes, Civil Rights history, love stories, humorous essays, poetry, artwork, and stories of suspense.
What titles would you add to these lists?