PRESS RELEASE
SHOUT MOUSE PRESS & AWARD-WINNING AUTHORS JOIN FORCES TO ELEVATE YOUTH VOICES

Jason Reynolds, Elizabeth Acevedo, Meg Medina and more join Megaphone Board to amplify diverse perspectives

As young people across the country speak out for a more inclusive,  just, and equitable future, Shout Mouse Press, a DC-based nonprofit writing and publishing program, is proud to announce the formation of its first-ever Megaphone Board to amplify youth voices. Composed of award-winning authors and advocates for diversifying youth literature, Megaphone Board members will lend their platforms to elevate the voices of Shout Mouse Press’s authors, all of whom are young people from marginalized communities and write books that speak to the most pressing issues of today, from #BlackLivesMatter to immigration to bullying to gender norms.

"My life is one of service. That service happens to be rooted in the idea that every human is not only valuable, but also adds to the value of other humans. The way this value is exchanged is most obviously through action. But there’s a more implicit vehicle that I believe to be equally as potent, and that’s the exchange of story,” explains Jason Reynolds, National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. “What Shout Mouse does is create the opportunity and environment for currency of story to be passed back and forth, from hand to hand, heart to heart, which in turn helps to make each of us more human and the world more whole."

Other Megaphone Board members also share Shout Mouse’s mission to center and amplify underheard voices. 

“I feel called to support Shout Mouse Press because it gives young writers a way to share their own narrative and points them toward the power of words to effect real change in their lives,” says Newbery Medalist Meg Medina, author of Merci Suárez Changes Gears.

“I believe deeply in Shout Mouse Press’s commitment to expanding, reimagining, and upending traditional ideas around both who should have access to literature, and who should be able to create it,” says journalist and award-winning author Clint Smith. “Its work is one that is guided by empathy, shaped by generosity, and devoted to using stories to build a better world.” 

At Shout Mouse Press, young people are coached to write and publish collaborative #OwnVoices books about the ideas that matter to them. These youth authors are underrepresented, both as characters and as creators, in the books read and taught at school and at home. Shout Mouse works in collaboration with other area nonprofits to recruit young writers, and then helps these young people tell their own stories in their own voices. The resulting books are sold and donated to schools, organizations, and individuals in order to diversify bookshelves — and change narratives — for the next generation.  

Each of the six prominent authors invited to join the inaugural Megaphone Board are prominent advocates for diverse voices in YA literature; they naturally gravitated to the work of Shout Mouse Press and its authors. When Medina learned about Voces Sin Fronteras, a collection of graphic memoirs by Latinx youth, she offered to write the foreword to their personal and profound stories. Likewise, Hena Khan, award-winning author of Amina’s Voice, wrote the foreword to and served as guest editor for I Am the Night Sky, an anthology of writing and art by Muslim American youth. When Jason Reynolds learned about young Shout Mouse authors tackling the complex topic of police brutality in their collaborative novel The Day Tajon Got Shot, he shouted out their work on all his social media accounts. Clint Smith, Elizabeth Acevedo, and Wendy Shang have all also participated in Shout Mouse programming, from writing workshops to author talks to book launches.

“We are so proud and excited to work with these dedicated champions of diversity in children’s literature,” says Kathy Crutcher, founder of Shout Mouse Press. “Each one of our authors can look to the Megaphone Board as role models for their future. We are grateful for the visibility the Megaphone Board will bring to the work of these outstanding young people — and grateful for the many ways the members of this Board continue to be advocates and beacons for young and marginalized voices everywhere.”

The Megaphone Board  

The Megaphone Board is a non-governing advisory group made up of influential and mission-aligned individuals in the publishing world who can attest to the importance of elevating underheard voices. By forming the Megaphone Board, these authors serve as the honorary head of the Shout Mouse “Megaphones” volunteer corps, who are dedicated readers, educators, and librarians who help amplify author voices by sharing their books with their communities and networks. The Megaphone Board will lend their support through sharing Shout Mouse’s work with their audiences, writing forewords for forthcoming books, and engaging with youth authors.

Founding Megaphone Board members include:

• Jason Reynolds, award-winning and #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen books for young people, including Miles Morales: Spider Man, the Track series, Long Way Down, which received a Newbery Honor, a Printz Honor, and a Coretta Scott King Honor, and Look Both Ways, which was a National Book Award Finalist. He serves as the 2020-2021 National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. 

• Meg Medina, Newbery Medalist and New York Times bestselling author of children’s and young adult books such as Merci Suárez Changes Gears, Burn Baby Burn, and Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass. 

• Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X, which won the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, as well as With the Fire on High and Clap When You Land. 

• Clint Smith, staff writer at The Atlantic and author of Counting Descent, which won the Literary Award for Best Poetry Book from the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a finalist for an NAACP Image Award, as well as the forthcoming narrative nonfiction book How the Word Is Passed (2021). 

• Hena Khan, a celebrated Pakistani-American author whose children’s and middle grade books include Amina’s Voice, which was named a Best Book by The Washington Post, Kirkus Reviews, NPR, and others, More to the Story, Under My Hijab, Like the Moon Loves the Sky, and It’s Ramadan, Curious George. 

• Wendy Wan-Long Shang, author of award-winning middle-grade books such as Not Your All-American Girl, This is Just a Test, The Way Home Looks Now, and The Great Wall of Lucy Wu. 

Shout Mouse Press is a non-profit writing and publishing program dedicated to amplifying underheard voices. We develop young leaders through Workshop, Publishing, Author Talk, and Author Pathways programming. We believe everyone has a story to tell and the ability to tell it. To date, we have published 40 books by over 300 teen authors. Book proceeds empower new youth authors and support scholarships for their communities. Follow us on Twitter @ShoutMousePress, Instagram @ShoutMousePress, and on Facebook.