"Take Your Reading Material With You Everywhere You Go And Think Of It As A Treasure And A Lifeline."

ok so crying over a book is one of the most prominent sign of compassion for humanity. you’re crying over someone who isn’t really there, doesn’t really exist, but you still feel for them as if you've known them your entire life.

Books with cats make the best reading environment ♡

I want you to know BLACK LIVES MATTER.

That just because I’m a different poc doesn’t mean your problem isn’t my problem. Injustice happening to my African American community, Asian, Muslim, Palestinians. Any injustice to you is an injustice for pocs. And people really hate that my account isn’t about just one social injustice.

I will forever advocate and support anyone that faced unfairness, discrimination, and straight hate for being who they are.

I support our trans community, I support the lgbtq+, I support poc businesses. And fight against injustice. Fight against sexism, fight against discrimination, fight against racism, and a fight against child abuse.

I come from a very hateful home, I experienced most of everything that I fight against. And if I didn’t experience it myself I witness it first hand happening to another.

The people who want us angry, bitter and revengeful are the same people who will have us against each other and ask the question “what has _____ community done for you??” Or “Your community is so racist how could I you even say you support us”

I’ll never let someone’s stupid opinion of me change what I think is important. This account is all about support of diverse communities and I may not know everything so when I slip up my only request is that you educate me and teach me how to help.

Knowledge can bring us together, but we can’t let the ones who are against us, bring us to fight one another. When you see another community in need that’s different from yours learn about it, reach out and help.

Every community has its flaws. Black eyed peas,

Where is the love

“But if you only have love for your own race. Then you only leave space to discriminate. And to discriminate only generates hate. And when you hate then you're bound to get irate, yeah. Madness is what you demonstrate. And that's exactly how anger works and operates. Man, you gotta have love just to set it straight. Take control of your mind and meditate Let your soul gravitate to the love, y'all, y'all”.

Writing about a child rapist did not make Vladimir Nabokov a child rapist.

Writing about an authoritarian theocracy did not make Margaret Atwood an authoritarian theocrat.

Writing about adultery did not make Leo Tolstoy an adulterer.

Writing about a ghost did not make Toni Morrison a ghost.

Writing about a murderer did not make Fyodor Dostoevsky a murderer.

Writing about a teenage addict did not make Isabel Allende a teenage addict.

Writing about dragons and ice zombies did not make George R.R. Martin either of those things.

Writing about rich heiresses, socially awkward bachelors, and cougar widows did not make Jane Austen any of those things.

Writing about people who can control earthquakes did not make N.K. Jemisin able to control earthquakes.

Writing about your favorite characters and/or ships in situations that you choose does not make you a bad person.

It’s a shame that in this day and age these things need to be said.

Trivia Tuesday #1

My biggest bookworm pet peeve is when other people open their books way too wide. I weep over white lines in the book's spine.

chillin’ 🌿✨

Please Reblog is Your Blog is Safe for Non-Binary People.

If my mutuals can’t rb this then we can’t be mutuals

Ello just passing spreading love ❤️🍓

hi flaym! thank you for dropping by, have a great day! ❤️🍓

We need more diverse books in literature. More voices need to be represented.

The Cooperative Children’s Book Center has released the results of their 2019 survey on diversity in kidlit/YA.

We thank them for this invaluable work, note their commitment to adding Arabs/Arab Americans in future surveys, and present these graphs of their findings.

The 3,716 books surveyed have this many main characters total for the following groups:

Black/African: 11.9%

First/Native Nations: 1%

Asian/Asian American: 8.7%

Latinx: 5.3%

Pacific Islander: 0.05%

White: 41.8%

Animal/Other: 29.2%

LGBTQIAP+: 3.1%

Disability: 3.4%

“Taken together, books about white children, talking bears, trucks, monsters, potatoes, etc. represent nearly three quarters (71%) of children’s and young adult books published in 2019.” - librarian Madeline Tyner

When we looked at the breakdown for IPOC creatives who wrote and/or illustrated stories with characters of their own race, we found the following:

First/Native Nations: 68.2%

Pacific Islander: 80%

Latinx: 95.7%

Asian/Asian American: 100%*

*NOTE: these percentages include both authors and illustrators and, as pointed out by author Linda Sue Park for past surveys, Asians/Asian Americans are frequently illustrators but not necessarily authors of their own stories, meaning this is not fully reflective of #OwnVoices representation.

Black/African creatives wrote and/or illustrated only 46.4% of stories featuring Black/African characters.

This is the work that still needs to be done.

Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.

Alberto Manguel, Canadian translator and essayist