My Library Is... Diverse

Research has shown that diverse books are beneficial in many ways: they provide students with affirmation of their identities, they allow students to see other perspectives and experiences, and they help to create empathy and community. Professor Rudine Sims Bishop has described how diverse books can function as “mirrors,” “windows,” and “sliding doors”—one of librarians’ most loved analogies!—and I could not agree with her more. Reading diverse books really does help us to become better and more empathetic human beings.

I decided to apply for the RAILS My Library Is… Grant because I thought that many of my middle school students could benefit from a lesson in empathy. My school, River Trails Middle School, is quite ethnically diverse. While this is one of the things that I love most about working here, the diversity of our student body can sometimes bring up issues such as racial insensitivity, stereotyping, and bias, none of which we want in our schools.

Diverse graphic novels

Because graphic novels are extremely popular at my library, I used the grant award to purchase 32 new graphic novels by authors from ethnically and racially diverse backgrounds. The idea was that I would take something that I knew my students already liked and read–graphic novels–and use that as a tool to help students to develop greater cultural awareness and empathy. I am excited to see the effects that these books will have on my students and how they relate to one another.

Diverse and inclusive book sets

I used the remainder of the grant award to purchase nine sets of diverse and inclusive novels (10 books each, 90 in total) that I could use with my Book Club. The problem that I had been having was that my local public library was unable to round up enough copies of the same book for each student in my group to get a copy. This meant that we were unable to all read the same book at the same time and then discuss, which is the whole point of having a book club! Having nine sets of books that we can read has been a game changer.

In case you are curious, the nine books that I chose were:

Freewater, by Amina Luqman-Dawson
Front Desk, by Kelly Yang
The Last Cuentista, by Donna Barba Higuera
Wink, by Rob Harrell
The War That Saved My Life, by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley 
Red Queen, by Victoria Aveyard
Refugee, by Alan Gratz
Orbiting Jupiter, by Gary D. Schmidt 
Ghost, by Jason Reynolds

I can’t thank RAILS enough for providing my library with this much-needed grant money. The books that I was able to purchase will impact not only today’s students, but also the waves of students who will come after them. Thank you so much for your support of libraries!  

This week’s blog post was written by Rebecca Milos, LRC Director, River Trails Middle School.

This project was made possible by the My Library Is... Grant.