You’ve heard about the incredible #1000blackgirlbooks campaign, right?

If not, here’s the scoop:

Marley Dias, age 11, decided she was sick of always reading about “white boys and dogs.” She asked, where are the characters who look like me? Those books about strong proud funny beautiful black girls were not showing up in her school curriculum, so she decided to do something about it: she started the #1000blackgirlbooks campaign. Through a smart social media campaign, Marley asked people from all over to fulfill one simple request: send her books with black girls as the main characters. Over the next few months, she was able to surpass her goal of collecting 1,000 books, while also appearing for interviews on the Nightly Show and Ellen DeGeneres. When she first began her campaign, our partners at Reach Incorporated sent her a set of their books featuring girls of color--Mariah Finds A Way, A Little Girl in a Big, Big World, and The Airplane Effect--and recently we sent her a few more, along with letters and photographs from Shout Mouse writers: black girls who decided to write “black girl books” themselves.  

These authors were super excited by Marley’s campaign, and wanted her to know that the books they had written were just what she was looking for. Temil, one of the authors of Trinitoga and The Day Tajon Got Shot, wrote in a letter to Marley, “I heard about the campaign you started and I agree. I just wanted to let you know that I have some books that are related to your topic and would like to send them your way.” Jonae, another author from Beacon House, added her support, saying “I am glad that you are doing this because there are not a lot of girls your age doing things like this so keep it up.”

We’ve now sent Marley our full collection of Black Girl Books, all listed below. We will keep writing, so this collection will keep growing, and hopefully one day with the help of girls like Marley, as well as our proud Black Girl Book authors--Temil, Jonae, Reiyanna, Trinity, Serenity, Zoe, Makayla S, Daijha, Ashley, Makayla H, Sasha, MH, Essence, Aijah, Mecca, NC, Dreonna, Darne’sha, Charles’e, Nadiya, MS, Yolencia, Kathia, Lisna, Victoria, Rose, Marilene, Nerlyne, Darline, Rosemyrtha, Mirelene, Sophia, Alta, Manoucheca, Jonia, Amira, Ayonna, China, De’Azia, Elexus, Erica, KF, Jermiyah, Lawrencia, Iyana, Rickkia, Sad’e, Sharhonda, and Tyandra (!!!)--we won’t need to start campaigns so that EVERYONE finds themselves represented on the page.

Go #1000BlackGirlBooks!