Publishing Serendipity

It sometimes happens in publishing that more than one publisher releases a book about the same subject or person in the same season or soon after. This is occurring more and more, especially with biographies. Recently we published a picture book biography of Wangari Maathai, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning scientist and environmentalist who initiated a tree planting movement in Kenya that resulted in the planting of 30 million trees. Our book was the fourth book about Maathai to be published for children in the past couple of years.Seeds of Change image

Why does this happen? Serendipity? Coincidence? Stars lining up in a certain alignment? Publishers in general are on constant lookout for inspirational stories. At the same time, authors are writing about people who inspire them, and experienced authors are doing their homework, searching for stories that are absent in the marketplace in an effort to present something new to readers. It is entirely possible that four different authors, around the same time, came to the same conclusion that there were no books on Wangari Maathai for children and decided to do something about it. This is where overlap can occur.

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This Week in Diversity: Heat Wave

Most of the country looks poised for a hot weekend, so here are some pieces to read while you lurk in the air-conditioned splendor of indoors.

Hampton Stevens, guest blogging for Ta-Nahisi Coates, shares a story of a child trying to puzzle our increasingly globalized world, courtesy of the FIFA World Cup, and points to the communication issues inherent in terms like “African American.”

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Hello, DC!

We’re packing up and shipping out this weekend to the American Library Association annual convention in Washington, D.C. If you’ll be there too, we’d love to see you!

We’ll be at booth #2711 all day every day, so stop on by. If our charm and good looks alone are not enough to entice you (ahem), we’ll also be giving away ARCs of our FIRST EVER GRAPHIC NOVEL, Yummy! Yes, OK, I am really excited about this one.

We’ll also be giving away posters featuring the oh-so-lovely artwork of Seaside Dream plus other posters and bookmarks. Plus we’ve got a jam-packed signing schedule of super authors and illustrators:

Saturday, June 26
9-10 am: Ching Yeung Russell (Tofu Quilt)

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Video Thursday: The Lost Tribes of NYC

A loving ode to the diversity of voices heard in New York City every day:

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Dancing in the Fishbowl

I take ballet classes at the Ailey Extension, which offers open classes for adults. Most of the time, my class meets on the fifth floor, and the building’s amazing floor-to-ceiling windows give us a view of the sun setting over midtown. Sometimes, like last night, we dance in the studio affectionately referred to as The Fishbowl, a ground-floor studio whose two walls of floor-to-ceiling windows give us a view of everyone walking past on 9th avenue or 55th street.

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This Week in Diversity: Oil, Russia, and Avenue Q

The oil spill in the Gulf has been all over the news lately, and, frustrating though the lack of progress has been, there have been many efforts to stem the oil geyser. What about oil spills that don’t have a large impact on Americans? The Times looks at the Niger River Delta, which has seen the equivalent of the Exxon-Valdez spill a year every year for fifty years, with little attempt at cleanup or attention to the disastrous effect on the area’s ecosystem or economic future.

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Poll: Picture Books with Same-Sex Parents

We’re all about diversity here at Lee & Low, and we know that diversity means more than just race. It’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, and we’re wondering what our readers would think about picture books portraying the growing number of families led by same-sex parents—would you buy or review picture books featuring same-sex parents, whether for your library, classroom, kids, or personal collection?

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