In recent years, we have seen a welcome increase in books that center diversity in race, class, ability, sexuality, and more. As members of religious minority groups (Sadaf is Muslim, Heidi is Jewish) — and at a time when both Islamophobia and antisemitism are on the rise (deeply troubling and alarming statistics are available from the Anti-Defamation League and the Council on American-Islamic Relations) — we believe it is vital to include religion in conversations around diverse books.
When a group of people is vilified, one way of fighting back is to take ownership of the narrative, and that’s what we have done through our work separately — with, respectively, KitaabWorld’s “Counter Islamophobia Through Stories” effort and the “Love Your Neighbor” recommendations from the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) — and, now, the two of us in discussion with each other.
Read the entire article at Horn Books.
Lantern Reads 