I’ve already posted this via social media, and I want as many people to see it as possible.  This last week the children’s literature world has been taken over by one careless, thoughtless and thoroughly racist remark by David Handler at the National Book Awards.  It was directed at Jacqueline Woodson, an author I have had the pleasure to hear speak at ALA.  When you read her latest book, the one that won the National Book Award, you hear her voice on the page, in the poetry, in the powerful beauty of her words.

Now Jacqueline Woodson has responded in an Op Ed piece in the New York Times.  And she has once again put her voice on the page in words of beauty and strength.  Read it and know that as librarians and teachers we have to make sure that ALL of the people we serve can find themselves in the books we have.