But at no point did these authors separate themselves from the rest of the world of children’s literature (as some of their works sometimes are, unnaturally, “separated” from others, after all, this is not to say that challenges don’t exist for “diverse” authors and literature). Quite the opposite in fact, they contend (as do I) that good literature is universal literature, because good stories—including those that celebrate our backgrounds—are about more than just who we appear to be, or how we’ve been categorized. At the heart of it, the best literature reaches readers because it exposes and in some way celebrates the strengths and frailties of what we all have in common: our humanity. This, in my view, is the literature that all “diverse” writers—in the true sense of the word—should aspire to write, and the type that I feel strongest about championing in my own work.
