Malorie Blackman: "Children's books still have a long way to go before they are truly diverse."

Once told to "go back to where she came from" (she was born in Clapham), children's laureate Malorie Blackman is now famous for her books on race and identity. Here she reveals the books that shaped her and why YA fiction has a lot to improve...

"I once had a bookseller tell me, 'Your books are just for black children and we don't have that many black children in this area,'" Malorie Blackman says.

She's serious. It's serious. We're silent; then she laughs, quickly. "I haven't had this said to me in quite some time," she says, "but we still have a way to go in this country to diversify books. And that isn't just for books, that's films and TV, too."

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via Science fiction | The Guardian http://ift.tt/1q5gWTn