Books for every teen. Books for every story. Books for Everybody.
Mission Statement
Access to diverse middle grade and young adult books in school libraries, classrooms, and curriculums has the potential to cultivate students’ senses of imagination and help them transform themselves into avid readers, analytical thinkers, and active leaders within their communities. Often times it is the books that make us feel most seen, that truly turn us into readers.
So many books feel old, outdated, and stuffy to young people who are just beginning to learn how to love books and become readers. Students, families, and schools need more tools to be able to better find and include diverse middle grade and young adult books into their libraries and curriculums. This is why Everybody Books was built.
Recent Blog Posts
“We need diverse representation not only so every kid can see themselves as the hero of the story, but so that every kid can understand that other kinds of kids are also the heroes of the story.”
— Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg
On Everybody Books you will find intersectional books for each of the following identity categories. Check them out!
“Books are sometimes windows, offering views of worlds that may be real or imagined, familiar or strange. These windows are also sliding glass doors, and readers have only to walk through in imagination to become part of whatever world has been created or recreated by the author. When lighting conditions are just right, however, a window can also be a mirror. Literature transforms human experience and reflects it back to us, and in that reflection we can see our own lives and experiences as part of the larger human experience. Reading, then, becomes a means of self-affirmation, and readers often seek their mirrors in books.”
— Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop
Get Involved
Is access to diverse middle grade & young adult books important to you? If so, we would love to see your book reviews! We are accepting book reviews from pre-teens, teens, teachers, and educators. You can also join our newsletter to get updates about diverse young adult books!
Links to submit reviews and subscribe to our newsletter can be found under “Contact” on the top menu bar.
A note on the removal of the term “#OwnVoices” from the Everybody Books resource site:
The term “#OwnVoices” has been removed from all pages, book descriptions, and blog posts on Everybody Books and will no longer be used on our site. Author Corinne Duyvis coined the term #OwnVoices in September 2015. Originally used in a Twitter thread, it was a hashtag meant to indicate that a book was written by an author of the protagonist’s same identity group. This term has been used as a catchall and has been particularly problematic when describing books with LGBTQIA+ themes and sometimes disability themes. Authors have been forced to out themselves as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex, and/or asexual or as a person with a disability. This has often something they have been forced to do before they are personally ready to be out. Though the term was created and used initially with good intentions, it has been harmful to many authors. In solidarity with the amazing young adult, middle grade, and children’s authors who write diverse books, Everybody Books has decided to stop identifying books using this term.