rgz Newsflash: #WeNeedDiverseBooks Indiegogo

Have you checked out the indiegogo for #WeNeedDiverseBooks? Matt de la Pena is such a great spokesman.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/we-need-diverse-books


Diverse Campaign w Thanks Card from Undercurrent on Vimeo.

Here's what diva Melissa Walker recommends to encourage progress:

1. Request diverse books at your local library and bookstore. Make sure your booksellers and librarians know that you want to read about people from various backgrounds.
2. Join the Twitter activism with#WeNeedDiverseBooks -- the conversation is buzzing daily (onTumblr too).
3. Support the indiegogo campaign (video above, starring favorite authors like John Green, Matt de la Peña and Jacqueline Woodson) to help keep the movement growing.

One Founder of the movement, author Ellen Oh, explained to NPR, "We need the representation, but we also need white kids to read about us, to recognize us, and not push us off into the other...not to think of us as exotic or being so very different." Follow the hashtagand the tumblr to hear some powerful stories.

Even donating to the cause, less than a latte, can help the campaign. Think about it, rgz. As Matt says, "Books are mirrors and windows."

Cover Stories: We Were Here by Matt de la Pena

I really loved Matt de la Peña's We Were Here, and I had to ask him about its unique and somewhat dreamy cover. Here's Matt:

"I never really had a vision for my We Were Here cover. I just remember thinking, Man, I hope my cover looks cool. That was my only thought. I kind of wanted it to be gritty. But covers and titles are the same for me - I don't think I deserve to think about them until I've done the heavy lifting and finished the book.

"This is my third book, and it's the first time I got to bring in my own guy (or at least recommend him). Nick Haas, a very talented graphic artist in Chicago, did all the art for the movie version of my first book, Ball Don't Lie. My editor, who has a really good eye for jacket art, dug his stuff and Random House agreed to give him a shot. They really liked what he came up with. He also redid the cover of my second book, Mexican WhiteBoy - it's SO MUCH BETTER. Check out both versions, the old is on the left, new on the right...

Read the rest of Matt's Cover Story here. (And see a trailer for the movie version of his book Ball Don't Lie, out this summer!)