Black Male Contemporary Characters in Series Books

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

I decided a few years ago to write a book series for males under the pen name P. Boyd. I did this to make sure that boys didn’t reject the book simply because the author happens to be female. My focus in penning this series was to ensure that African American males had contemporary stories about their childhood. They needed something positive to speak to their experience about being children in an ever changing world. At the time, I found no books that included young black males as characters willing to change their environment for the better. In short, my aim was to target the middle ground in literature where reality meets fiction. The result was a story that was crafted to include two African American male characters that decided to open up a detective agency. Their goal was to solve the petty crimes in the neighborhood. I wanted to craft the characters are brilliant, ingenious, ambitious, and curious. Some readers of this blog may wonder why I wrote this series. My answer is simple. In order to any child to believe they are worthy, they must be confirmed through the experiences they read about at school. Black males are no different. In order for black males to be confirmed as brilliant, driven, and ingenious, they must have those experiences confirmed in the literature.

Happy Reading!

Tiffany A. Flowers, Children’s Author 

Books for Black Males Beginning to Read

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

After careful research, I found there are only 3-4 authors that write series books for young African American males in grades 1-3. This is a problem considering there are very few book series written for African American males in the early grades. This is an issue considering early reading is the foundation for reading success. If black males have very few reading choices that include their experiences, how will they become successful readers?

As an author, I knew I had to do something. Therefore, I penned an unusual book series with African American males that are beginning readers as my audience. The Guardians of History is a sci-fi/historical book series about a family of mythical guardians that are charged with traveling back in time to ensure that certain moments in history take place. Key figures in African American history are highlighted in a historical fiction/science fiction format. I plan to pen more books in this series. I am excited about the impact of this series and the positive dynamic of the storylines.

Happy Reading!

Tiffany A. Flowers, Children’s Author   

Getting Girls Hooked on Reading

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

As a literacy advocate, learned a long time ago that the best way to get girls reading is to get them interested in a series book. Once they realize the joy of reading, they will seek out books they want to read independently. I highly recommend getting girls hooked on reading beginning in first grade through seventh grade. Series books are the best way to keep the fire lit on a child's desire to continue reading. For girls of color, the same rules apply. The issue is finding books they can read that reflect their images.


Happy Reading!

Tiffany A. Flowers, Children's Author

Black teen girls need voice in YA literature….

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

I love that there are at least five authors writing for black teen girls in the publishing industry. This is far more than what existed years ago when I was a child. However, it is just not enough. We need more authors, stories, and narratives that speak to the diversity of experiences of black teen girls. It is not until black girls complain about the lack of images, narratives, and availability of texts is when this is seen as a problem. The books just don’t exist on a large scale. Authors must continue to write a variety of fiction in order for black girls to engage in reading on a large scale. Also, the availability of those texts must remain a priority. Black girls must have voice in the literature in order to provide a more diverse and equitable view of their experiences.

Tiffany A. Flowers, Children’s Author

Positive black male characters are a must…

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

As a writer, I made a pledge to myself years ago. I vowed to create at least one book per year that featured a black male character as the main protagonist in the book. Why? Because when it comes to the children’s book literary world… black males are just invisible…

Sure there are occasional books here and there…

However, there has been no commitment to creating entire book series that feature African American males in abundance. I have searched high and low and out of the 400 series books that I found on the market. There are about two that include an African American male as the main character. I wrote three series which include African American male characters, and I will continue until the end of my career. Unless there is a concerted effort to create more books that feature diverse characters by authors and publishers…those books will never come to fruition.

Tiffany A. Flowers, Children’s Author  

Real experiences for real children

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

The hardest part about writing for children is making sure that I stay true to myself as a writer. I strongly believe in crafting stories that are realistic and speak to children’s experiences. I tried to make sure that I followed this thinking as I penned my installment about the rooftop club. At the time, I had never written a story from the perspective of the villains or in this case the bullies of the school. In this book, I attempted to include their perspectives and also to show what happens when bullies are reported. They don’t stop being bullies. They simply just retaliate and get worse. Many children go through this and don’t understand the language to communicate their experiences. It is my hope that children, parents, teachers, and caregivers see the importance of discussing this work. Diverse children need to read about diverse experiences.

Tiffany A. Flowers, Children’s Author

Diverse Books offer Realistic Experiences for Children

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

I wrote the Rooftop Club book series in 2006. It was long before I became a published author. My goal with the series was to write a series for African American boys and girls that they could relate to as children of color. I wrote the series and set it in the backdrop of a city. I chose Chicago, Illinois since it is my home. Also, I wanted to ensure that I wrote a children’s book that dealt with a serious issue that often does not get addressed. Therefore, I penned the first installment of the book series that deals with bullying among older and younger children. My goal through this work was to create a book that was realistic and helped children open up and have discussions about how they feel when these things happen. The response has been pretty good. However, each time I see a news story it makes me wonder whether my work could have helped open up dialogue about this issue. Bullying is a serious issue for schools and especially children of color that often experience this issue daily. The problem with most books on this issue is that bullying is limited to small incidents and doesn’t really reflect the experiences of the children going through this daily nightmare. This is why we need diverse books. Children need to see realistic experiences in books to help them navigate tough circumstances.

Tiffany A. Flowers, Children’s Author    

This way little girls of color can see themselves….

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

This way little girls of color can see themselves….

I remember when I first wrote the book, For those who stare at the moon. I wanted to pen a book that focused on the imagination of girls. My goal when writing the book was for little girls to dream beyond the stars. I used my cousin as a model by providing the illustrator of my book with pictures of her as a little girl. I felt my cousin was one of the most beautiful little girls I had ever seen in my life. Her chocolate complexion, long eyelashes, and almond eyes reminded me of the beautiful little girls I would see pictures of from the Motherland. I had my illustrator apply her likeness to the book and I felt her image was the icing on the cake of a great work.

It wasn’t until I went to get the book printed that I ran into a problem. People of all races began asking me to lighten her skin on the cover of the book. I refused because my goal was to show beautiful little black girls that our beauty comes in all shades. I ignored those requests, because after careful research I realized that there were few books on the market that dared to do what I had accomplished. I had created a book where the beauty of little mocha girls was celebrated and honored. I had made them exactly who they are…

As more books emerge in the movement to diversify books, I hope people will view this as a wake up call. We need books that reflect our children. How else will they see themselves?

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

How I began…

In 2007, I officially penned my first children’s book. It now seems like it was decades ago. As a diverse author, I now know so much more about the industry, being a writer, and my target market. My goal is to write high quality books that can be enjoyed by all children. However, my mission is to ensure that children of color have richer experiences than I did with reading. I remember going through the stack after stack in the library looking for books where I could see my reflection. It was just impossible during 1980 to find books about African American girls. I could say that it was just my library in my neighborhood that didn’t have books. However, after learning about children’s literature during graduate school, I quickly learned one undisputable fact. The books didn’t exist. Why was it so hard to create books that reflected my image, experiences or culture? These were the thoughts I had going through graduate school. Then it hit me…

It wasn’t up to someone else to produce those stories. This was my responsibility. This inspiration led me to a discovery about myself that allowed my imagination, mind, and drive to be set free. I look back on those times of disillusionment and I smile. If it were not for the bad experiences I had, I could never create good experiences for children. If it were not for the absence of experiences I had in literature, I could never have create the experiences that give children life.

Each time I write a page as an diverse author… Each time I read a page as a diverse reader…I find life between those lines…

I write, read, and breathe to make sure that every child has the right to do the same.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

Tiffany A. Flowers, Children’s Author