-The Kidd World Media Monthly Blog-

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January 2008

J. Gill Report: Publishing African American Books
and Multicultural Literature*

By J. Gill Kidd World Media News Corespondent

Are African American and Multicultural Children Books sales on the rise?

When I first starting working for Kidd World Media .The CEO told me that there was a serious lack of African American(Black American) and Multicultural Children Books in circulation. At first I didn’t believe him. “Are you kidding me I told him.” “There are plenty African American(Black American) and Multicultural Children Books out there.” So I went out to prove him wrong. Of course I started with the Big Chain stores-Barnes and Noble, Dalton etc. Immediately I found plenty of books featuring African American Children(Black American) on the covers. But upon further investigation all of these books had two themes in common. One book was either a historical book featuring a African American Child(Black American) with a famed African American leader like Martin Luther King or Harriet Tubman and other notable African American(Black American) persons. The other category had books about African American Children playing sports. That’s right. We can either meet our ancestors or make a jump shot! I asked one sales representative in one major bookstore, “Do you have any action and adventure books featuring African American kids(Black American) or any Multicultural children?” She then said, “Yes as a matter of fact I do.” At this point I was excited. I just started imagining the kinds of books she had there. Books about African American Children(Black American) in action type roles similar to my favorite Indiana Jones series with Harrison Ford. Or maybe a young Latino boy with super natural strength and the desire to save people unselfishly. So as we walked a few bookcases over she located the book and said, “Here it is!” To my chagrin the book was about a couple of African American(Black American) and Latino teenagers living in the ghetto. Some of their parents were even on drugs. One of the teens was even having a baby. I thought to myself, “Is this what she meant when she said “Adventure”. “This isn’t adventure this is depressing,” I thought. In reality they should have named this section, “Usual nonsense of Blacks and other Races.” This was just the tip of the literature iceberg. As I soon discovered finding African American(Black American) and Latino Books with an adventure theme was going to be a real challenge.
To be continued…………

Make sure you check back next week for the “J. Gill Report”