Our Pod

Here at the Pod, we share thoughts and opinions about the growing need for diversity in
children’s literature. As we get rooted, we will feature stories about Mighty Girls and Gentle Warriors of Change. Please stay a while, and join the conversation.

#WHERESTORIESGROW

May 31, 2025
Purple frame and white centre. Text in black on the right reads: Libraries are Havens. On the left two images show libraries in Gaza before and after

Libraries Are Havens

As an educator, how would you continue teaching young children, when all that remains is a tent, with limited access to any food or water and […]
April 14, 2025

The Story of Vaisakhi

CHALLENGE INJUSTICE These are the words that come to mind when thinking of Vaisakhi. It’s not the food, festivals or folktales but the fierce commitment to being […]
March 15, 2025
Text on the left in black on white background reads: Happy Publication Day! On the right two images from the book We Are Cheesemakers. One is a fascera holding a cheese wheel to rest and the other is a brother and sister of Sikh heritage hiding under a blue checkered blanket.

Happy Publication Day!

The image of the sister and brother hiding under a blanket in their little ‘tug boat’ will hopefully encourage conversations about migration and displacement journeys. There […]
July 20, 2024

“Without Community There is No Liberation” – Audre Lorde

Some personal thoughts… In a speech, at “The Personal and the Political Panel” at the Second Sex Conference in New York, September 29, 1979, Audre Lorde implores the  audience […]
July 20, 2024

A Million Kites: Testimonies and Poems from the Children of Gaza

When words are spoken directly from the mouths of children, there are few, if any other words that can compare. Recent reports provide proof of the […]
June 2, 2024
Purple frame with two book covers on the left and text in black on white background on the right that reads: ghallugara (in Panjabi) and underneath, gen-o-cide. First book cover image is from The Valiant by Gurmeet Kaur, with illustrations of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra by Inkquisitive. Second image is The Wheat Fields still Whisper by Mallika Kaur. Alt text available in images.

In Solidarity for Collective Liberation

This June, 2024 is the 40th year of remembrance. Forty years of waiting for justice. Forty years of yearning for the Disappeared. Forty years of collective […]
April 16, 2024

Meet Rifk Ebeid: Giving Palestinian stories a space to exist

ALT TEXT included for all images. Narratives about marginalized communities are often packed into dense textbooks, making them inaccessible to young minds, or the stories are […]
April 12, 2024

An Independent Bookstore in Montreal – MAKTABA: Librairie Bookshop

For literature enthusiasts, a bookshop evokes the kind of emotion that can lift you off the ground and transport you to places familiar and unknown. They […]
December 6, 2023

13 Children’s Books to Talk about Palestine

This is not just another book list. Like you – the people who are raising their voices, condemning through protest, shouting, screaming and/or conveying through art […]
March 4, 2022
Lilac frame with black tag to the left. Tag has white text which gives website address and hashtag Where Stories Grow. In the white centre, an image to the left shows a photo of the book cover of A Lion's Mane placed standing up next to a lion plush toy on a windowsill.

World Book Day 2022

March 3, 2022 is World Book Day. Created by UNESCO on the 23rd April, 1995, World Book Day was designated as a day to celebrate books […]
September 21, 2021
Lilac frame with black tag on the bottom left. Tag includes website details for Saffron Press. In the centre there is an image on the left with the numbers 1907 in a square format in white on a yellow background. On the right, text reads: Featuring Project 1907: a grassroots group made up of Asian women on a white background.

Meet the Humans Behind Project 1907: Anti-Asian Racism

Whether in the aftermath of 9/11, or a global pandemic, Asian communities have continued to face countless acts of hate and violence. As a Canadian election […]
September 3, 2021
Lilac frame with black tag at the bottom left. Text in gold reads: Seeds of Knowledge. In the centre, there is white space with an image of Dr. Zetta Elliott on the left - a Black feminist writer - wearing a dark pink blouse and beaded necklace. To the right, text reads: Featuring the author of over 30 books for children, Zetta Elliott, PhD

Meet Dr. Zetta Elliott: writer of poetry, plays, essays, novels and stories for children

A few years ago, while living in Surrey, British Columbia, I came across the story of Barbara Howard – one of the fastest female sprinters in […]