For over 10 years, #ReadYourWorld’s mission is to not only raise awareness for the kids’ books that celebrate diversity but to get more of these books into classrooms and libraries.
We have supported the work of hundreds of authors and publishers. With their sponsorship, we have been able to give FREE thousands of books (and e-books) to children across the country and the world. We offer FREE classroom kits and resources that are available to all and offer free live author interviews on Instagram to our followers. By elevating the voices of multicultural and diverse authors, we have brought their stories to the attention of kid-lit readers who might not have known about them before.
Funds raised help us continue and expand this work into the future, so that we can change the world, one book at a time.
Please help us as we strive to create a future where every child feels seen, valued, and inspired by the stories they read, leading to a more empathetic and inclusive society. You are not just making a donation – you are making a difference.
Our fundraiser starts in time for Giving Tuesday and ends shortly after Read Your World Day at the end of January.
Contribute to our annual fundraiser and discover gifts at every level!
Read Your World will be celebrating our 12th annual Multicultural Children’s Book Day in January 2025. Subscribe here to be in the loop about all upcoming activities. As part of that event, we ship Read Your World Teacher Celebration Kits free of charge to classroom teachers.
Each kit includes:
And you can help!
For every $100 we receive in donations, we are able to send out one Read Your World Teacher Celebration Kit to give teachers the tools they need. Please join the cause to equip classroom teachers with diverse books from a variety of voices. Any donation of any size helps!
Your donation is a gift that keeps giving as teachers use this kit over and over, year after year.
After you donate, you’ll be featured on our donor wall (if you grant us permission of course) and can claim your donation as a tax deduction.
Click to see the full list of donors
As a registered 501(c)3 nonprofit, donations are the lifeblood of our organization. When you donate, you empower us to continue to raise awareness about children’s and YA books that celebrate diversity and get those books into the hands of readers. Your donation truly makes a difference in the lives of children!
Click here to see all our grantors.According to the American Library Association, banning books is the removal of materials “based upon the objections of a person or group.” Challenging books is the attempt to remove or restrict these materials. Essential to note is that banning or challenging books “do not simply involve a person expressing a point of view; rather, they are an attempt to remove material from the curriculum or library, thereby restricting the access of others.”
Most frequently, books are challenged or banned out of a stated desire to protect children from material deemed explicit or offensive. The difficulty lies in the fact that these terms are subjective.
What material is appropriate for a particular child should ultimately be determined by that child’s caregivers, not a school or government. No one person or group should have the power to make that determination for all children in a school or locality. Indeed, our U.S. Constitution protects the right to freedom of expression and access to information.
The state of Illinois is leading the path against banned books by outlawing the practice. Governor J.B. Pritzker signed into law a bill that disqualifies from state funding any Illinois public libraries that restrict or ban materials because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.
Book bans and challenges are often used to suppress the voices of historically marginalized groups, such as LGBTQIA and BIPOC. Because their works often challenge the dominant narrative, they are seen as threatening to long-held beliefs and are therefore vulnerable to book bans and challenges.
All children deserve to see themselves and their experiences reflected in books. Equally important, all children need to read about experiences other than their own, in order to gain empathy and understanding of our diverse society.
Good books act as windows, allowing us access to other ways of life, and mirrors, reflecting our own experiences. Yet according to the Children’s Cooperative Book Center, the percentage of children’s books featuring diverse characters is still far below their actual representation in society, and only a portion of these books are created by creators from that culture/community. Read Your World exists to rectify this disparity.For many children, the library (in particular the school library) is their primary — and often their only — means of accessing books. Removing materials from these libraries makes it prohibitively difficult for children to access these books. Book bans mean that children and teens have little opportunity to read books that can act as windows and doors. This deficit of high-quality diverse books negatively impacts the self-esteem of marginalized children and impedes the ability of all children to build empathy for others.
There are many meaningful and impactful actions you can take to fight book bans:
Your donation — however large or small — makes a tremendous difference!
Read Your World is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization with more than a decade’s worth of experience in supporting access to diverse books through multiple ongoing initiatives:
Through all of these projects, we amplify the work of authors, illustrators, and publishers of diverse books for children and teens. And we help put books into the hands of the children who want and need them.
In the current climate of challenged and banned books, it is more important than ever to get diverse books into the hands of readers. Kids need to both see themselves reflected back in a book and see people who are not like them. Reading fiction has been scientifically validated as an effective way to foster empathy.
With your help, we can open children’s hearts and minds to do this important anti-racism and anti-bias work. You can make a difference by donating today to Read Your World Inc.
