• Advocate for these books, related professional development, and necessary budget allocations at your school. (See Appendix for the Sample Advocacy Letter template)

• Strategize fundraising. These are some examples of grassroots fundraising actions local communities can take to raise money for their books:

  • GSA sold pronoun pins as a fundraiser and used the funds to buy LGBTQ+ books for their local district’s elementary school.

  • An elementary school parent/teacher equity group held an auction to raise funding. The winner received a diverse books subscription and the school used funding raised to pay for their own diverse books subscriptions for the school library.

  • School district applied for district grant funding for diverse books and accompanying professional development.

  • School partnered with a local bookstore, and now when community members buy books, a percentage goes to school library to purchase additional books for its collections

  • Online wishlists for books can be shared for community members and organizations to support a library or classroom collection.

  • Donorschoose.org

• Say thank you. Tell the organizations, administrators, educators, and librarians who currently promote and provide access to diverse collections how important they are and how much the community supports their efforts. (See Short-Course Appendix for the “Thank-You” Letter Campaign template).

1. Buy their books and/or request that your local library, classroom, etc. buy their books.

2. Leave reviews! Proactively support the authors, illustrators and publishers creating these books by leaving positive reviews. The volume of these positive reviews are also significant to counter negative reviews grounded in racism, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, etc. Some places to spread the word about a great book and drown out hate:

   • Amazon.com

   • Goodreads.com

   • Storygraph.com

   • Bookshop.org or your local indie bookstore’s site

   • Barnes & Noble and other chain bookstores’ sites

   • Social Media (remember to include purchase or pre-order links in your posts!)

   • Your Library (check with your librarian about ways to review books)

3. Reach out to authors and illustrators. You can bet these creators are getting plenty of hate mail, which means messages of support are all the more important. And there are tons of ways to do it!

   • Request an in-person/virtual school visit or storytime (and if possible, compensate the author/illustrator for their time and labor)

   • Write to an author or illustrator to share how you appreciated their book:

     • Recent example from Saadia Faruqi

     • Send a thank you directly to creators or post on their social media (See Short-Course Appendix for Author Thank-You Ideas)

     • Consider organizing an Author Thank-You campaign with children or teens in your home, your class, a book club, etc. who all read the same book

   • Contacting Authors:

     • Go to the author or illustrator website. You’ll often find their email address or contact form there. (Sometimes an author or illustrator will provide their agent’s contact information. In that case, contact their agent.)

     • Message the author/illustrator over their social media. Keep the message brief and clear–authors can get A LOT of messages. If you’re hoping to communicate further (about a possible author visit, for example), ask for an email address.

A. Sample Adaptable Advocacy Letter for Diverse Books and Related Professional Development in Your Community

In the below sample letter, we divide the letter into important sections (name of section in bold – this language would not be included in your actual letter), and we provide sample and adaptable language (non-bold) that you could adapt to include in your letter. 

This letter assumes a context in which the “target” (the person to whom the letter is directed) has stated aligned values and now you’re writing to help realize these values through increased diverse books offerings, and related professional development, in the community.

Dear [Librarian/Teacher/Principal/Superintendent],

Start positively with a message of thanks and explicitly naming related values and messages the letter recipient or school/library community has named as important: Thank you for affirming values of [diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging] within our school community. We are grateful for your leadership in realizing these values in our children’s everyday lives at school.

State who you are: We are a group of [teachers, librarians, staff members, parents, guardians, etc.] who want to support you and partner with you in all ways we can to further the values of  [diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging] that we share as critical parts of our children’s school community and educational experience.

Share why diverse books matter: Pull relevant data and talking points from above that will be most persuasive to your audience.

Name a concrete request: We are writing to request the addition of ___ diverse books for [each classroom/library/etc.] in our elementary school [for this upcoming school year or other time period – time period may coincide with budget cycles]. We anticipate that growing our [classroom/library] offerings of diverse books will cost approximately ____. We also request a budget allocation of  ____ for professional development to support our teachers in best practices in sharing these books to further our collective values.

Name that you are here to help to realize this goal: We are committed to partnering with you and supporting you in this effort. We are gathering resources to assist with the curation and selection of these books as well as professional development options. We also want to help raise the initial money for this project as well as ensure future sustainable budget allocations for these books.

State the next step: Would you be willing to meet with us on a mutually agreeable date to discuss how we can work together to bring more diverse books and voices into our community? Please email us at _____ or call us at ____ to find a time that works best.

Show significant support from community through getting many signatures:

Sincerely, 

Name signatories below

B. Sample Adaptable Thank You Note

In the below sample letter, we divide the letter into important sections (name of section in bold – this language would not be included in your actual letter), and we provide sample and adaptable language (non-bold) that you could adapt to include in your letter. 

This letter assumes a context in which the “target” (the person to whom the letter is directed) has stated aligned values and has committed to at least some of what you have requested. If they haven’t, then the tone and approach would be different than the below letter. You will likely need to gather more support in your community and re-approach the target, anticipating their barriers to action.

Dear [Librarian/Teacher/Principal/Superintendent],

Start positively with message of thanks and explicitly naming related values and messages the letter recipient or school/library community has named as important: Thank you again for affirming values of [diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging] within our school community. We appreciated [share something positive about the meeting].

Name what was agreed upon in the meeting: Thank you for agreeing to [name agreements clearly and specifically, possibly in bullet points].

Name that your group is here to help/support/partner: Please know that we are here to support and partner with you in all ways we can. [Name examples if applicable.]

Name next steps and who will do each one and by what date: In the spirit of partnership and advancing our joint effort, our next steps include: [name next steps, who is responsible for each one, and by which date they will be done.]

Please let us know if we are missing any next steps.

Thank you again for partnering with us to realize in ever more deepening ways our jointly held values of [name values].

Show significant support from community through getting many signatures:

Sincerely, 

Name signatories below

C. Author Thank-You Letter Ideas

Thank-you letters, emails, and messages are a wonderful way to show your support and appreciation to an author and let them know what their book means to you. What you say is entirely up to you, but always keep in mind that your message is just like a thank-you card for a gift, which means you’re not writing with the expectation of a response (though you might get one!) and you can write as much or as little as you want (simply writing “Thank you!” is more than enough).

Need some ideas to get started?

• Why did you like the book (plot, characters, voice, style, cover art, etc.)?

• What about the book excited/challenged you?

• What did the book make you feel or think about?

• What stood out to you the most about the book?

• What is something new you learned from the book?

• Why are you grateful for the book?

• How did the book impact you/your life?

Check out “An Open Letter to an Author” by Kim Ukura for inspiration!