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Curriculum Library Guide: Diversity in Children's Literature

Special library within the Jerry Falwell Library

Awards given by ALA honoring excellence in diverse children's literature

The Coretta Scott King Award goes to chosen outstanding books for children and young adults by African American authors and illustrators that reflect the African American experience.

The Pura Belpré Award is presented to a Latino or Latina writer and illustrator whose work portrays and celebrates Latino culture.

Additional Awards

“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of a larger human experience."

-Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop

Sims Bishop, R. (1990). Mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. Perspectives, 1(3), ix–xi.