This blog post is a few weeks/months late, but now seems like a good time to post it. For the past three years Carrie (a frequent guest blogger and MadLibs writer) and I celebrate our February birthdays by hosting a birthday book drive. It started as many ideas do as a whim. I thought it would be fun to celebrate my birthday by collecting new books by authors of color and giving them to schools in my neighborhood. I put up a Facebook post about it and people were excited to share in the experience. Carrie joined in since she also has a February birthday and we expanded the book drive to include books about disabilities.

This year we contemplated not doing the book drive since it fell during the long middle of COVID. February was a harsh time since we were hitting the one year mark of COVID life, it was cold and wet in Seattle, and the novelty of sourdough had worn off. I checked in with a teacher friend to ask if she had a need for new books, especially since she was teaching remotely. She text back saying YES! As school had abruptly shut down the prior March she had emptied out her classroom library and sent those books home with kids. She wasn’t counting on getting many of the books back and would have to rebuild her classroom library – a huge expense for a school with 50% of the students qualifying for free and reduced lunch (proxy for low income). We heard a similar story from a school librarian who said a lot of the books weren’t returned from the previous school year and she was hoping to rebuild their collection with new books.

I’m glad we decided to host the book drive again. Many of our friends enthusiastically chose books from our wish list or from the Fakequity Bookshop, and others told us about titles to add. The books we collected were by authors of color, by authors with disabilities, or about disabilities. We purposefully selected these focuses because we want to highlight these books for students. We want to make it a little easier for them to find the right book to expose them to new ideas or reflect back their own experiences. Author Grace Lin, posted about how books are important, but they are just a tool – an important tool, but it still takes work to create change.

When we shared the books through socially distance drop off or a few porch pickups, people were excited. A high school librarian said he planned to feature the books during his weekly library book pick-up and return day. A teacher friend sent a note saying she loved the new picture books and they would provide excitement, inspiration, and art to her lessons. Thank you to our friends and family Amber, Brooke, Carmen, Chandra, Christena, Dasha, Debra, Emi, Friend, Hannah, Heather, Heidi & Jill, Ivan, Jean, Jessica, Kristina, Lauren, Leslie, Lisa, Liz, Mia, Rebekah, Renee, Ruby & Shalimar, Sarah, Stacy, Tina, Tracy, and others I may have accidently missed. If you ordered books from the Fakequity Bookshop link, I reinvested those proceeds into ordering over a dozen books for this book drive – thank you.

The Book List

Every year someone ask what books we collected and shared with schools, so here is the list of books. The books went to three elementary schools, one middle school, and two high schools in Southeast Seattle. I listed the race of the author, this is a best guest – please know there may be errors in here. I also marked if the book is about disabilities or by a disabled author, again I used a best guess here.

I hope you’ll read some of these books. I also hope you’ll share them with others, especially kids who may be in your life.

Title	Author	Race	Disability
Lead from the Outside	Abrams, Stacey	Black
The Poet X	Acevedo, Elizabeth	Black
The Essential Gwendolyn Books	Alexander, Elizabeth	Black
One Person No Vote	Anderson, Carol	Black
We Are Not Yet Equal	Anderson, Carol	Black
Leaving Yesler	Baco, Peter	Asian
A friend for Henry	Bailey, Jenn		X
James Baldwin The Fire Next Time	Baldwin, James	Black
ElDeafo Superpower Edition	Bell, Cece	white	X – Deaf
The Vanishing Half	Bennett, Brit	Black
Dear Black Boy	Bennett, Martellus	Black
All the Weight of Our Dreams	Brown, Et al	Asian/Black/Latinx/Middle East/Native/Pacific Islander	X
The Pretty One	Brown, Keah	Black
A Splash of Red	Bryant, Jen		X
Six Dots	Bryant, Jen		X – blindness
The Best We Could Do	Bui, Thi	Asian
Mindful Moves	Cardoza, Nicole	Black
Ordinary Ohana	Cataluna, Lee	Pacific Islander
Nico Bravo and the Cellar Dwellers	Cavallaro, Mike
The School of Good and Evil	Chainiani, Soman
Finish the Fight	Chambers, Veronica	Black
Pashmina	Chanani, Nidhi	Middle East
How to Write an Autobiographical Novel	Chee, Alexander	Asian
We Are Not Free	Chee, Traci	Asian
My Unforgotten Seattle	Chew, Ron	Asian
Role Models Who Look Like Me	Cho, Jasmine M.	Asian
Efren Divided	Cisneros, Ernesto	Latinx
The House on Mango Street	Cisneros, Sandra	Latinx
Between the World and Me	Coates, Ta-Nehisi	Black
Eloquent Rage	Cooper, Britney	Black
I am not a Label	Curnell, Cerrie		X
Twisted: The Tangled History of Black Hair Culture	Dabiri, Emma	Black
Invisible Differences	Dachez, Julie		X – Asperger Syndrome
Helen Keller’s Teacher	Davidson, Margart	White	X – Deaf
Patsy	Dennis-Benn, Nicole	white
Lifting as we Climb	Dionne, Evette	Black
Pet	Emezi, Akwaeke	Black
The Birchbark House	Erdrich, Louise	Native/Indigenous
Yasmin The Superhero	Faruqi, Saadia	Asian
Where we Once Belonged	Figiel, Sia	Pacific Islander
Jasmine Toguchi Mochi Queen	Florence, Debbi Michiko	Asian
Ho’onani Hula Warrior	Gale, Heather	Pacific Islander topic, author’s race unknown
Make Me Rain poems & prose	Giovanni, Nikki	Black
Kamala Harris Rooted in Justice	Grimes, Nikki	Black / Asian
Real Friends	Hale, Shannon	White	X – anxiety
Superheroes Are Everywhere	Harris, Kamala	Black / Asian
Kamala & Maya’s Big Idea	Harris, Meena	Black
Ambitious Girl	Harris, Meena & Marissa Valdez	Black
Not My Idea: A Book About Whiteness	Higginbotham, Anastasia	White
Eyes that Kiss in the Corners	Ho, Joanna	Asian
Minor Feelings	Hong, Cathy Park	Asian
The Oldest Student	Hubbard, Rita Lorraine and Oge Mora	Black
Displacement	Hughes, Kiku	Asian
Their eyes were watching god	Hurston, Zora Neale	Black
Every Body Looking	Iloh, Candice	Black
The Parker Inheritance	Jhonson, Varian	Black
Home for Chinese New Year: A Story Told in English and Chinese	Jie, Wei	Asian
The Shark King	Johnson, R. Kikuo	Black
Twins	Johnson, Varian and Shannon Wright	Black
Under My Hijab	Khan, Hena	Middle East
This is Our Constitution	Khan, Khizr	Asian
Stad Up Yumi Chung	Kim, Jessica	Asian
Bug Boys	Knetzger, Laura	white
Interpreters of Maladies	Lahiri, Jhumpa	Asian
Measuring Up	LaMotte, Lily	Asian
K-Pop Confidential	Lee, Stephen	Asian
Across that Bridge	Lewis, John	Black
Snapdragon	Leyh, Kat
Show Me a Sign	LeZotte, Ann Clare		X – Deaf
Invisible Emmie	Libenson, Terri	White	X
Just Jaime	Libenson, Terri	White	X
Positively Izzy	Libenson, Terri	White	X
Mulan: Before the Sword	Lin, Grace	Asian
We Are Water Protectors	Lindstrom, Carole	Native/Indigenous
The Paper Menagerie	Liu, Ken	Asian
Journey of the Freckled Indian: A Tlingit Culture Story	London, Alyssa Yáx Ádi Yádi	Native/Indigenous
Hannah’s Down Syndrome Superpowers	Lyarbough, Lori Leigh	white	X
What is Given from the Heart	McKissack, Patricia	Black
Evelyn Del Rey is Moving Away	Medina, Meg	Latinx
Tia Isa Wants a Car	Medina, Meg	Latinx
Sanctuary	Mendoza, Paola	Latinx
When Stars are Scattered	Mohamed, Omar	Black	X
Saturday	Mora, Oge	Black
Kim Jiyoung, Born 1982	Nam-Joo, Cho	Asian
It’s Trevor Noah: Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Adapted for Young Readers)	Noah, Trevor	Black
Ikenga	Okorafor, Nnedi	Black
The Remembering Balloons	Oliveros, Jessie		X
Anger is a Gift	Oshiro, Mark	Asian	X
Love and Rage	Owners, Lama Rod	Black	X
A Long Walk to Water	Park, Linda Sue	Asian
A Single Shard	Park, Linda Sue	Asian	X
Ghost Boy	Parker Rhodes, Jewell	Black
Strange Birds	Perez, Celia C.	Latinx
Outside, Inside	Pham, LeUyen	Asian	X — COVID related
Vietnamese Children’s Stories	Phuoc, Tran Thi Minh	Asian
Tallulah the Tooth Fairy CEO	Pizzoli	Black
Gabi: A Girl in Pieces	Quintero, Isabel	Latinx
One Life	Rapinoe, Megan
For Every One	Reynolds, Jason	Black
Long Way Down	Reynolds, Jason	Black
Stamped	Reynolds, Jason	Black
Jake Makes a World	Rhodes-Pitt, Sharifa	Black	X
Filipino Celebrations	Romulo, Liana	Asian
Silent Days Silent Dreams	Say, Allen	Asian	X
Festival of Colors	Sehgal, Kabir	Asian
How to Solve a Problem	Shiraishi, Ashima	Asian
Just Ask	Sotomayor, Sonia	Latinx	X
Solo Pregunta (Just Ask — Spanish)	Sotomayor, Sonia	Latinx	X
The Autism-Friendly Guide to Periods	Steward, Robyn	White	X
Nos Ll amaron Enemigo (They Called Us Enemy — Spanish)	Takei, George	Asian
They Called Us Enemy — Extended Edition	Takei, George	Asian
Opposite of Fate	Tan, Amy	Asian
Guts	Telgerman, Rainna	white	X
From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea	Thom, Kai Cheng	Asian	X
Braiding Sweetgrass	Wall-Kimmerer, Robin	Native/Indigenous
Magic Ramen The Story of Momofuku Ando	Wang, Andrea	Asian
Stargazing	Wang, Jen	Asian	X
Navigate Your Stars	Ward, Jesmyn	Black
Disability Visibility: First Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century	Wong, Alice	Asian	X
Solitary	Woodfox, Albert
This is the Rope	Woodson, Jacqueline	Black
Superman Smashes the Klan	Yang, Gene Luen	Asian
The Most Beautiful Things	Yang, Kao Kalia	Asian	X – aging
Malala Mi Historia	Yousafzai, Malala	Middle East

Link to a Google Spreadsheet in case the list isn’t screen reader friendly.

---

Thank you to our Patreon subscribers. At this time I don’t offer ‘extras’ or bonuses for Patreons. I blog after working a full-time job, volunteer and family commitments thus it is hard to find time to create more content. Whatever level you are comfortable giving helps to keep the blog ad-free, pay for back end cost, research cost, supporting other POC efforts, etc. If your financial situation changes please make this one of the first things you turn-off — you can still access the same content and when/if you are able to re-subscribe we’ll appreciate it.

Abby, Adrienne, Adrienne, Agent001, Aimie, Alessandra P., Alessandra Z., Alexa, Aline, Alison F.P., Alison P., Allison K., Amanda, Amber, Amira, Amy H., Amy K., Amy P., Andie, Andrea, Angelica, Ann, Ashlie, Avery, Barb, Barrett, Brad, brian, Bridget, Brooke B., Brooke D.W., Cadence, Caitlin, Calandra, Callista, Carmen, Carol, Carolyn, Carrie B., Carrie C., Carrie S., Caryn, Catherine L., Catherine S., Cedra, Celicia, Chelsea, Christine, Clara, Clark, Claudia, Claudia A., Courtney, Dan, Daniel, Danielle, Danya, Darcy, Darcy E., Deb, Denyse, Diana, Don, E., Ed, Edith B., Edith B. (2), Elizabeth, Emiko, emily, Erica J., Erica L., Erica R.B., Erin, Evan, Francis, Hannah, Hayden, Heather, Heidi, Heidi H., Heidi N and Laura P, Heidi S., Hilary, Hope, J., Jaime, Jake, Jelena, Janet, Jean, Jeanne, Jen, Jena, Jenn, Jennet, Jennifer C., Jennifer M., Jennifer T., Jennifer W., Jessa, Jessica F., Jessica G., Jessica R., Jessie, Jillian, Jody, John, Jon G., Jon P., Jordan, Julia, June, Karen, Kari, Kate C., Kate G., Kate T., Kathryn, Katie B., Katie D., Katie O., Kawai, Keisha, Kelli, Kellie H., Kellie M., Kelly, Kimberly, Kirsten, Krista D.B., Krista W., Kristen, Kumar, Kyla, Laura T., Laura G., Laurel, Lauren, Laurie B., Laurie K., Leah, Lindsay, Lisa C., Lisa P.W., Lisa S., Liz, Lori, Lori N., Lyn, Lynn, Maggie, Maka, Marc, Mareeha, Marge, Marilee, Mark, Marki, Mary, Matthew M., matthew w., Maura, McKenzie, Melissa, Meredith, Michael, Michele, Michelle, Mickey, Migee, Mike, Milo, Mindy, Miranda, Misha, Molly, Myrna, Nancy, Nat, Natasha D., Natasha R., Norah, Norrie, Peggy, PMM, Polly, Porsche, Rachel G., Rachel S.R., Raquel, Raquel S., Rebecca O., Rebecca S., Risa, Rise, Ruby, Ruchika, Sarah B., Sarah K.B., Sarah K., Sarah L., Sarah S., Sarena, Sarita, Sean, SEJE Consulting, Shannon, Sharon, Shaun, Shawna, Shelby, Shelley, Skyler, Steph, Stephanie, Stephen, Su, Susan, Susan M., Susan U., Tallie, Tana, Tania DSC, Tania T.D., Tara, TerraCorps, Terri, Titilayo, Tracy, Tyler, virginia, Vivian, Will, Willow, yoko, Yvette, Zan

If you subscribe to the blog, thank you. Please check fakequity.com for the most up to date version of the post. We often make grammatical and stylistic corrections after the first publishing which shows up in your inbox. Please subscribe, the sign-up box on the right sidebar (desktop version). To see what Erin is reading and recommended books check out the Fakequity Bookshop.