WNDB's mission is to address the lack of diverse, non-majority narratives in children’s literature.

In an effort to change the perception that diverse books have trouble finding audiences, this kit is designed to help shed light on lesser-known books that are about diverse characters and/or written by diverse authors, and to give teachers, librarians and booksellers the tools they need to “booktalk” these books to their students, patrons, and customers.

This kit was initially inspired by the “Cheat Sheet for Selling Diversity” that Newbery Honor- winning author Grace Lin presented at the We Need Diverse Books panel at the inaugural BookCon in 2014. In her tenure as a bookseller, Grace saw firsthand how easy it was for people to pigeonhole diverse books into a “special interest” box. She found that pitching books using their universal hooks was by far the most effective way to sell them to readers.