11-Year-Old Starts Book Club For Young Black Boys
Marley Dias made waves by starting #1000BlackGirlBooks and has tuned it into many more opportunities and accomplishments. Now another 11-year-old in Missouri is carrying the torch.
After noticing that there aren’t a lot of books with young Black boys as protagonists, Sidney Keys III started a book club for other boys aged 8-10 called Books N Bros.
According to Huffington Post, the club has met monthly ever since September to discuss books with Black protagonists that they all vote on to read. When they meet, they discuss the latest reading, fill out worksheets and eat snacks.
“You get to a point when he is 11 years old and it was so shocking for him to relate to someone on the cover in a positive aspect rather than it be some negative urban story we see a lot,” his mother, Winnie Caldwell, told the local outlet. “I would like to make sure he sees himself in being whatever he can be.”
So far, Books N Bros is relatively small with only a handful of members. But it’s already growing and welcoming authors and adults to speak to the group and even become mentors.
Like many other things, the future of literature is clearly in the hands of the children.