Do book dreams come true?!

                                                                    Legend Born

    I have been a reader my whole life. It started in Elementary with my first book (read alone)  being Zach's Alligator by Shirley Mozelle. I kept up the momentum all throughout school and was always that kid who had a book with her.  I don't think there was a time growing up that I did not enjoy reading, I still remember reading in my homemade forts on the weekend. 

"Why are we talking about reading as children, Heather?"

 I bring this up because, I was one of those kids who read that series written by that lady who doesn't  believe in everyone having equal rights. I ate those books up, I was at early releases, I watched the movies constantly. I mean I saw the first one 24 times before I stopped counting. I loved the magic and the mystery. There was something missing though, something important where were the awesome Black characters? I know there were a few characters of brown skin but they really didn't have a huge involvement in the series. I always seemed to recognize that there weren't characters that looked like me in the books I wanted to read or the books I was reading. 

I'm old now and I still love reading but now I get what I wanted when I was a kid. CHARACTERS THAT LOOK LIKE ME!!

I picked up Legendborn because I had heard great things, it had a beautiful cover, it was written by a POC, and it had POC as characters. I picked it up the other day and actually had to put it down for a second because it made me tear up. The book wasn't sad, the main character just reminded me of myself. She has big curly hair just like I do. I finished the book and the Black girl gets dudes, kicks butt, and leads the story. #Teamnick

What does all this mean for you? It means that if you have a chance to write diverse characters DO IT. It means if you have the chance to share works by POC about POC you should DO IT. I will never really be able to express how much these books would have meant to middle school me. I can express how much they mean to adult me, who after years of reading is finally getting books with characters who look like I do. 

Diversity matters!!