Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit First Book, dedicated to providing books and other resources to classrooms and programs serving children in need, has teamed with 26 additional nonprofits nationwide to form the Diverse Books for All Coalition, an initiative to address the urgent need for increased access to diverse children’s books.

As organizer of this new effort, First Book has received a $1 million, 18-month grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to support the endeavor. Other founding members of the coalition include American Academy of Pediatrics-CA3, Reach Out and Read, Reading Is Fundamental, Too Small to Fail, and We Need Diverse Books.

“We’ve been working on these issues for 30 years now,” Kyle Zimmer, president, CEO, and cofounder of First Book said about how the idea for the coalition took shape. “But we’re not the only one. There’s a wonderful field of institutions that have been focused on diversity of children’s books for decades. And, although there’s been progress, it’s not fast enough. All of us are recognizing that we are stronger together and that it’s important to the field for us to recognize these common, shared parts of our mission, and to lock arms and really make it happen.”

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