Shelburne Public Library hosting reading challenge honouring black authors

Written By Paula Brown

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Shelburne Public Library, in honour of Black History Month, has launched a reading challenge for local teens called the Celebrate Black Authors Challenge. 

“We're encouraging everyone in the community to read diverse literature and this month specifically, titles by black authors in celebration of Black History Month,” said Jade Wyse, Young Adult and Technical Services Librarian at the local library.  

The Celebrate Black Authors Challenge is focused towards teens in the community, from ages 13 to 18, encouraging the reading of Young Adult (YA) books by black authors. The reading challenge is inspired by the Festival of Literary Diversity (FOLD), launched by the FOLD Foundation, which is devoted to celebrating underrepresented authors and story tellers. FOLD Foundation annually releases a reading challenge with a variety of books for readers to diversify their reading. 

“We as librarians know that diversifying our reading is important, everyone deserves to see themselves in the literature they read,” said Wyse. “We're trying to foster a love of recreational reading, and we think it's important that our community sees themselves in the literature, it's important for teens, at a time where they're growing, to see themselves there.” 

The Shelburne Public Library is providing some recommendations for books to read including Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, The Sun Is Also A Star by Nicola Yoon, Dear Justyce by Nic Stone, and Stamped by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. 

For the Celebrate Black Authors Challenge, every time a participant takes out a book by a black author they will earn a ballot and sending a review of the book will earn two extra ballots. The winner of the reading challenge will win a signed first edition of Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give. 

The library will also be hosting short videos every Tuesday at 4 p.m. throughout the month, which will talk about specific novels written by a black authors available at the local library. 

Wyse said that while the challenge is inspired and in honour of Black History Month, diverse reading is something that residents should strive for all year long. 

“If people are looking for recommendations the rest of the year, we have those,” said Wyse. 

For more information about the Celebrate Black Authors Challenge visit the Shelburne Public Library's social media accounts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.