Every other week, we hope to post a diversity roundup — a collection of interesting links around the web relating to MG/YA books and diversity issues. If you have a link that you think we should share, please email us!

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African American Read-In With Bleeding Violet

The Happy Nappy Bookseller, Reading in Color, and Crazy Quilts will be sponsoring an African-American Read-In on Feb. 20th, featuring Dia Reeves’ Bleeding Violet! What is this, you wonder? Well:

“Schools, churches, libraries, bookstores, community and professional organizations, and interested citizens are urged to make literacy a significant part of Black History Month by hosting and coordinating Read-Ins in their communities. Hosting a Read-In can be as simple as bringing together friends to share a book, or as elaborate as arranging public readings and media presentations that feature professional African American writers.”

You do not have to be African American to join in! All you have to do is read Bleeding Violet and show up on Feb. 20th to discuss it. Go to Ari’s blog now to vote on where you want to do the discussion.

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Support Afghan Women

In celebration of the publication of Trent Reedy’s Words to Dust, editor Cheryl Klein is generously donating to Women for Afghan Women.

For every person who “Likes” the Words in the Dust page on Facebook, and/or retweets the link and hashtag below on Twitter, I will donate $1 of my own money to Women for Afghan Women

To find out more about how Cheryl Klein acquired this unique novel and how you can help her raise money, visit her blog.

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Of Note

• “I also love how Asha doesn’t intend to do anything big or raise society’s awareness. Part of the story is Asha’s own awareness being raised as the book goes along, of putting words to her emotions and realizing the need for action. I like this because too many times in teen books, it starts with the main character already having Strongly Held Ideals and Acting On Them. Here, we get to see Asha’s growth and progression done in a very natural, realistic way.” — A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy on The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson

• “I’ve been saying for years that if you want to know what’s going to be on television in five or ten years, look at what’s happening in books today. Like clockwork, we authors always predict exactly where the mass culture is heading.” — Brent Hartinger on why teen novels are a decade ahead of television

• “The most important part of a book is always the words of the story; it is never the cover. There are good covers and there are bad covers, but most often, there are mediocre covers. No cover will ever perfectly match an author’s vision for her book, and no cover will ever attract every reader. That’s why it is so important to look beyond the cover, in all cases.” — Malinda Lo on why you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover

• “It’s a strange thing to be a writer, creator, producer, artist and belong to some kind of “other” group. Every one of us — I think — struggles with how responsible we are to our communities.” — Aymar Jean Christian, On Embracing the Burden of Representation, at Racialicious

• “The crop of students moving through college right now includes the largest group of mixed-race people ever to come of age in the United States, and they are only the vanguard: the country is in the midst of a demographic shift driven by immigration and intermarriage.” — Susan Saulny, Black? White? Asian? More Young Americans Choose All of the Above in the New York Times

• “I also really love the way girls are today: you can be girly AND athletic. I wanted my character to reflect that idea because when I was growing up, there was a bit of the sense that you could only be one or the other.” — Wendy Wan-Long Shang at Reading in Color