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      • Yuyi Morales Picture Book Scholarship
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      • Kathryn Otoshi Scholarship
  • Home
  • Writing
    • Writing Children's Picture Books
    • Lets Get Funny: Writing Humor For Kids
    • Middle Grade Mastery
    • How to Self Publish with Crowd Funding Now
    • The Chapter Book Alchemist
    • Writing for Love and Money
    • Writing Character-Driven Stories
    • Rules To Break To Make Your Picture Book Workshop
    • Developing Your Writer's and Character's Voices
    • Workshop Intensives
    • FAQs
  • Art & Illustration
    • Illustrating Children's Books
    • The Hero's Art Journey
  • Software
    • Fun with Photoshop for Kids Book Creatives
    • Rock Your Writing with Scrivener
    • Awesome Author/Illustrator Websites with Weebly
  • About Us
    • Why Us?
    • Meet the Faculty
    • Testimonials
    • Books by Students
    • As Seen In
    • Privacy Policy
    • Contact Us
  • Blogfish
  • Community
    • Resources >
      • Bookshoppe >
        • Faculty Books
        • Blogger's Books
        • Picture Books >
          • Picture Books P.2
          • Picture Books P.3
        • Chapter Books >
          • Chapter Book P. 2
          • Chapter Book P. 3
          • Chapter Book P. 4
          • Chapter Book P. 5
      • Other Resoures
    • Course Scholarships >
      • Yuyi Morales Picture Book Scholarship
      • Andrea Davis Pinkney MG CB Mastery Scholarship
      • Rafael Lopez Pat Cummings Illustrating Picture Books Scholarship
      • Kathryn Otoshi Scholarship
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The Kathryn Otoshi Merit Scholarship for Self-Publishing or Becoming an Independent Publisher with Crowdfunding is now closed as this has become an instant access, on-demand course!

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The Children's Book Academy is proud and excited to offer merit scholarships for writers and/or illustrators of color or identifying as LBGQT currently underrepresented in the children's publishing industry for our upcoming interactive self and indie publishing course that will open all sorts of doors for participants. We want to help support increased diversity in the field to improve cultural representation so that it reflects the true make-up of the United States!

We are also offering scholarships for low income folks, who might not otherwise be able to take this course, folks who identify as a person with a disability, as well as scholarships for SCBWI Regional Advisers, Assistant RAs and Illustrator Coordinators who do so much unpaid work to help our field.

We hope that you will share our initiative for social justice by sharing the link to this page.

Easy Peasy Scholarship Criteria
Applicants need to represent the following:
  • Be a member of an ethnic minority or  or identify as LGBQT or special needs.
  • Be excited about making chapter books and contributing to the field to help make a better world through chapter books whether it's just by creating more delight or by skillfully and subtly integrating social justice themes in your work
  • All applicants must write a 40-60 word description of themselves, their background, and why they'd be a good candidate for this scholarship
  • Writers must compose an up-to 100-word descriptive pitch for the chapter book that they'd like to work on during the course
  • Illustrators must include a link to their website
  • Applicants must complete the short submission below.

To find out more about this 4-week e-course click here.

Congratulations to 2015 winners
JA MacTavish, Nina Ki, Janet O'Neil, Ave Maria Cross, Olivia Dickerson, June Perkins, and Jane Arias!


About Kathryn Otoshi

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Kathryn Otoshi is an award winning author/illustrator living in the Bay area. Books she's written and illustrated include:
  • What Emily Saw
  • Simon and the Sock Monster
  • Zero, One, and Two

Books she has illustrated only include:
  • Marcello the Movie Mouse
  • The Saddest Little Robot
  • Maneki Neko: The Tale of the Beckoning Cat
Kathryn's latest book, One, is the winner of 10 awards, including the E.B. White Read Aloud Honor, the Nautilus Gold Award, and the Mom's Choice Award.She has been a guest speaker and panelist at many conferences, including the San Francisco Writer's Conference, Book Passage Annual Children's Book Conference, Mill Valley Film Festival, International Readings at Harbourfront, the Carmel Authors and Ideas Festival, Project Cornerstone Champion Breakfast, and is currently working with Facing History and Ourselves, to reach out to schools and the community to encourage character building assets in our youth.

Her independent publishing company, KO Kid's Books is dedicated ti creating the highest quality books for children. They use high-grade, imported paper of their books to ensure the quality and integrity of the original illustrations.

You can visit Kathryn's website at KO Kid's Books where you can purchase her books.  You can also find her books in most bookstores.


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A Little About Racial Diversity in Children's Books.

While we offer scholarships to all individuals who identify as being in the groups mentioned above, the statistics on racial representation in children's books are incredibly disheartening. And while some folks (i.e. Anglo people) genuinely believe that we've moved beyond this into a color-blind society, the reality of this is simply not true.  

Here are some links that I hope that you'll explore. 
Diversity Is Not Enough: Race, Power, Publishing by Daniel Jose Older on Buzzfeed

Lee and Low Curriculum Corner: Race
An article with 8 links to article on the subject.

Literary Agents Discuss the Diversity Gap in Publishing by Jason Low on Lee and Low
An article that I'm in about agents and diversity put together by the fabulous Jason Low.

As Demographics Shift, Kids' Books Stay Stubbornly White by Elizabeth Blair on NPR's Code Switch Blog

Artist Illustrates Dramatic Lack of Diversity in Kid's Books by Jason Boog on GalleyCat

Race, Gender, and Disability in Today's Children's Literature by Kira Isak Pirofski on Critical Multicultural Pavilion 

Children's Literature Stuck in the Past: Why Is There Still a Lack of Diversity In Books for Kids? on AirTalk from KPCC

Polka Dots, Self-Portraits, and First Voice Multicultural Children's Books by Maya Gonzales on The Children's Book Academy
There are so many blog posts out there about this issue. I recently met with some editors in NY and learned something super interesting. There are two main reasons that publishers are not publishing the kinds of books that we all need to truly help get to a color blind society and that is not enough people buy diverse children's books and that many people of color who have not had the kinds of educational opportunities that middle class folks have had with 2 generations or more of university graduates behind them don't always have the skills needed. Hence these scholarships and a request to help support diversity by buying diverse books. :)  Here's a wee graphic from Lee and Low.
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