#WeNeedDiverseBooks

Why Do We Need Diverse Books?

Diversity has always been such an interesting topic to me.

I grew up (and still work) in a primarily Hispanic and African-American community.  My friends were from all kinds of backgrounds.  If you look at my senior prom group picture, you'll find white, Hispanic, African-American, Indian, Chinese, and Filipino girls.  My group of friends that I hang with on the weekend are Japanese, Indian, Hispanic, Chinese and white.  Diversity has been the norm for me.

But as a white person, I always saw people who look like me on TV, in the movies and on book covers.  It was only when I started working as a librarian with a large minority population that I began to look at "diverse" literature.  I noticed that so many books written about African-Americans focused on slavery or the civil rights movement.  So many books about Hispanics were migrant stories.  These books did not reflect the experiences of my students and, quite frankly, didn't appeal to them either.

At the 2014 Texas Library Association Conference, I moderated a panel called "People Who Look Like Me: Beyond Civil Rights and Migrants" with authors Alaya Dawn Johnson, Diana Lopez, and Jason Reynolds as well as 4 local teens.  The conversation was wonderful.  The authors shared how they write about diverse characters and stories.  The teens made several eye-opening comments that gave us a great insight into what they are looking for.  For instance, one teen mentioned that most books about Hispanic characters sound more like her mother and grandmother than her.  Another teen preferred covers without pictures of the characters since they are often stereotypes and restrict her imagination.  I've never had so many people come up to me after a program and tell me how much they enjoyed the conversation and wanted to hear more.

"People Who Look Like Me: Beyond Civil Rights and Migrants" panel at 2014 Texas Library Association Conference

Why do we need diverse books? 

Because everyone is different and we need to have conversations about our differences and find our similarities.



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Make Your Own Medals

A few weeks ago, one of my favorite events of the year rolled around -- the Texas Library Association Conference.  It was held in San Antonio right around the start of another one of my favorite events - Fiesta!

I love to give handmade gifts to the people I work with at conference.  Baked goods are always great (and I was already planning to make cookies), but I wanted something more.

One Friday night around midnight, I had a brilliant idea.  I could make Fiesta medals for my committee members, friends and publishers.  But I had no idea how to do this, so I hopped out of bed and turned to one of my favorite inspiration places - Pinterest.

I couldn't find any Fiesta medals, but I got several ideas on how to start.

I read about something called Dimensional Magic from Mod Podge and figured it would work to give my medals a little heft.

Then it was off to the craft stores to figure out the rest.  My shopping list included:

• Heavy duty scrapbook paper (glittery!)
• Colored card stock
• Ribbon (heavy grosgrain works best) - 1.5" wide
• Pin backs - 1.25"
• Jump rings - 15 mm and 9 mm
• Fabric glue
• Mod Podge (or regular glue)
• Hot glue gun
• And lots and lots of Dimensional Magic

I decided to go with a 2" round medallion with a 1.5" insert that I printed with the logo of my choice.

Adjustable circle cutter was great!  Cutting mat was essential.  Used painters tape to secure the mat to the table.

Heavy glitter scrapbook paper for the background.  Important to use heavy paper.  Regular card stock warped badly.

 
I used logos from the committees I was representing and printed them on card stock.  I cut out 1.5" circles of each.  Then I glued the logos to the scrapbook paper and let dry.  Using a small nail, I poked a hole through each one to use later for my jump rings.

Cover your working area with waxed paper and leave lots of space.

Once the medallions were dry, I squeezed a layer of Dimensional Magic over each medallion.  The first one was sooooo easy!  I started on the outer edge and worked my way in.  The liquid covered the entire surface and stopped right at the edge.  It was beautiful!  I let that one sit to see how it would turn out.  Dimensional Magic takes about 24 hours to dry.  I am impatient and managed to mess up the first one. But eventually I got them to work.

Important!!!  Try to work in a dry (not humid) environment.  If your medallions start to warp, the Dimensional Magic will lose its edge and run all over the place.  It's a real mess.  As you can see from the picture, the liquid has moved towards the edges and left some spaces not as dimensional.  They still dry with a nice sheen and a little rigidity.

Be sure to pop any bubbles that form.  I used a push pin.



As the medallions dried and the Dimensional Magic became more clear, I worked on the ribbons.  I cut lengths of 5"-6".

Using 15 mm jump rings, I threaded the ribbon through each ring.  I found that if you fold the ends of the ribbon over each other, you get a better end result.


I folded each ribbon leaving the top edge hanging over a little.  Using Liquid Stitch (I had some laying around), I put a small line of glue across the the flap and folded it over. 

Large paper clips worked great to hold the flaps in place while they dried.

After the ribbons dried, I used a hot glue gun to add the pin backs.

When everything was dry, I used my nail to hammer through the hole I previously made in the medallions (and Dimensional Magic) and attached the medallions to the ribbon using the 9mm jump rings.

Here's the finished project.  I love how the glitter paper becomes so glossy!

The yellow polka dot ribbons was heavier and held up better than the thinner red, white and blue.

The white card stock logo showed more of the red background than the yellow.

This was a crazy project.  I think I went to 3 different craft stores and made daily trips for almost a week.

Because my library is a little humid (especially in the evening when they turn the air off),  my medallions warped overnight, and I had a big mess when I tried to apply the Dimensional Magic.  I went through 5 bottles of the stuff.  Thanks to my mom for bringing me the last bottle I needed.

This is not a quick project.  There is a lot of drying time (and 4 different kinds of glue!).  I had about 4 days to actually work on this project and it took me all of them.  But I was trying things out as I went along, so that made things a little tougher.  If you have everything laid out and ready to go, this is at least a 2 day project.

But the possibilities are endless!  You can customize your logos to whatever you want.  All you need is a computer and printer.  The SPOT logos were printed with a regular laser printer on yellow card stock.

The biggest challenge for me was finding ribbon to coordinate with my medallions and being patient enough to let the glue dry.

Good luck!


By the way, I received no compensation for any of the materials used.  Also, the logos are the property of the Texas Library Association and the Young Adult Round Table of TLA.

Creativity

What does it mean to be creative?

For a long time, I did not consider myself to be creative.  I like making things, but my skill set is sorely lacking.  I can't draw or paint, power tools are my enemy, even my handwriting is pretty bad.  School projects used to drive fear into my heart.  Nothing looked the way I wanted it.

The advent of the computer and Internet have helped me make my projects look more polished.  I can find graphics to manipulate (PhotoShop is a dangerous tool!), play with fonts, and incorporate different layouts.  Creating library displays (print and video) is something I love doing.  I consider myself to be more of a designer than a creator.

I bake. My chocolate chip cookies are amazing as is my chocolate cake.  But they both come from great recipes that I've modified a bit.  And my cakes don't look pretty.  Decorating is another skill I lack.

I also crochet and knit.  I can follow a pattern pretty well, except for the major shaping projects like clothing.  I've even improvised a few patterns myself.  But I still need that inspiration piece, something to model my work on.

People tell me I'm creative, but I feel like a fraud because none of my ideas come completely from my brain.

So what is creativity?  Is it the idea? The finished project?  What does creativity look like in the modern age?

I will be sharing different projects that I've worked on - yarn work, baking, library displays, crafty gifts - as well as where I get my inspiration.

I hope you get some ideas to spark your creativity and share your own projects.