17 Dec 2014

Dive Into Diversity: Challenge Announcement & Sign-Up

Earlier this year, the much needed, very awesome campaign for #WeNeedDiverseBooks took off in April and since then, it has been inspiring change in readers, bloggers and authors alike, who are demanding more diversity. And in the past month, through the money raised through Indiegogo, it's only further proven the fact just how passionate people are about this; I am, too.

Inspired by the campaign, one thing led to another and soon I had an idea - to host a diverse reading challenge in 2015. I was beyond excited, but I also knew I'd need some help to run it. So I reached out to one of my favourite blogs and co-blogger team, Estelle and Magan from Rather Be Reading. It turns out, they also liked the idea!

And so, Dive into Diversity was born and the rest is history.

(Also, special thanks to Rachel from Hello, Chelly for creating the button and banner!)


The challenge:
We want to keep this stress-free and fun, so all we challenge you to do is read and review diverse books in 2015. However many is up to you. But remember: the more you read, review, discuss, the better!

Books that count:
As for what counts as diverse, we like this definition taken from the We Need Diverse Books tumblr: "We recognize all diverse experiences, including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, people of color, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities."

How can I discover books to read throughout the challenge?
Check out this Diversity in YA/MG list or my diverse shelves:

Diversity --- QUILTBAG --- Racial, POC, Cultural

As for what I recommend? 3 of my favourite diverse books of 2014:

The Last Leaves Falling by Sarah Benwell - Japanese teenage; ALS disease; male MC. Sounds pretty diverse, right? Such a beautiful, thoughtful, heartbreaking book. This releases next year and boy, get ready to hear me talk about this one a lot. (Enter to win a preorder of this below!)

Jasper Jones by Criag Silvey - This book has YA/Adult crossover (I found my copy in the A section of the library) and the secondary character, who the book is actually named after, is Aboriginal. A wonderfully woven mystery with depth and character. Super cool fact: the author is from Western Australia (where I live) and is set in places I know of.

To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han - When I finished this book, I hugged it. It was just so enjoyable and sweet. It was also interesting to read about holding on to traditions and your culture, when it isn't always easy to. (my review)

Why join the challenge?
Why not? Not only is it going to be a fun, but it's going to support diverse books. Other cool things you can expect throughout the year: diverse posts, giveaways, maybe some challenges, lots of interaction.

How do I sign up?
First off, thanks for joining! To sign-up and show your participation:
- Write a post for your blog. In this post, link back to this sign-up post, include the button or banner and some of the books you look forward to reading for the challenge. If you don't have a blog, no worries! You can sign up with Youtube, Goodreads, Twitter and so on. Just remember you'll need a place to post reviews (Goodreads, Amazon, ect).
- Add your sign-up post in the linky below. This is a must to be eligible for any giveaways held throughout the year. 
- If you want to show your participation, feel free to grab the button to display on your blog. (optional)

I've signed up. Now what?
1. Come January, start reading diverse books!
2. Once you've written your diverse book review, add it to the monthly linky, which will post in the first week of every month.
3. Don't forget to use #DiversityDive to chat, share book recs, let others know what you're currently reading and more on Twitter.
4. Have fun!

Important challenge details:
- Dive into Diversity runs from January 1st, 2015 to 31st of December 2015.
- You can sign-up anytime throughout the year.
- Any book format is allowed - hardback, paperback, ebook, ect.

Dive Into Diversity Reading Challenge

<div align="center"> <a href="http://ratherbereadingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DiversityDive-Challenge-Button.png" title="Dive Into Diversity Reading Challenge 2015"><img src="http://ratherbereadingblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/12/DiversityDive-Challenge-Button.png" alt="Dive Into Diversity Reading Challenge" style="border:none;" /></a></div>

Who's ready to Dive into Diversity? 

29 comments:

  1. I'm so excited for this challenge!! Looking through your GoodReads shelf of diverse books I've read a lot more than I thought I had but I'm excited to be reading more in the next year :)

    My favourite diverse book so far has to be Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green. I absolutely loved it.

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    1. Thanks, Natalie! So glad to hear that! We're excited, too :) I've yet to read Will Grayson, Will Grayson but I'll be keeping my eye out for it. What I've read of J.G. so far I've enjoyed and the last book by D.L. blew me away.

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  2. This is such a fantastic idea! Can't wait to participate! :)

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    1. Thanks, Serena! So great to hear you're excited for the challenge!

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  3. I absolutely love this idea Bec and can't wait to participate either! It also gives me an excuse to reread a few favourites, like Aristotle and Dante. Mind if I add this up in the Aussie YA group? The more the merrier! <3

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    1. I'd love and appreciate it if you shared it with other Aussies! Please do! I can't wait to read Aristotle and Dante, it's definitely on my list!

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  4. I was about to run a Diversity Challenge with my students. This is perfect! Thanks!

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    1. You're welcome! Hope your student benefit and have fun with the challenge :)

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  5. I included a bunch of diversity themed squares in my SF/F bingo challenge for next year, and I've been looking for more diverse books, so this is exciting!

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    1. Thanks! We're excited, too, especially the response we've received so far!

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  6. Ooh this is such a lovely idea. I hope everyone has fun doing this challenge xD

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  7. This is a awesome challenge, great work Rebecca :-) I'm looking forward to spreading the words :-)

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    1. Thanks, Sarah! Have fun with the challenge :)

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  8. I'm working on my sign-up post and will come back to link up.

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  9. I had already decided to read more diverse books but this a great challenge to keep me on track! My post goes up on 12/31 but here's the link when it goes live : http://wp.me/pRYz7-Ko

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  10. Just signed up! Thanks for all the shelves on Goodreads Rebecca, found them very useful. Didn't know there were so many LGBT texts out there but it is nice to see (:

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    1. You're very welcome! Glad they were helpful. Have fun diving into diversity :)

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    2. Oh my gosh I was just reading through this post again, and I saw your recommendation for Jasper Jones. I live in WA as well! We had to read JJ for Literature class in year 11, did you have to read it for school as well? I thought it'd be another one of those boring "you must read this or you will fail English" books but it was actually amazing. Can't believe Craig Silvey is from WA as well! So good.

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  11. Thanks for this challenge. It is actually my #1 life (not just reading) goal for 2015 to read more diversely. I signed up using my GoodReads shelf I set up for this challenge. Thanks for allowing non-book bloggers to sign up!

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    1. You're welcome, glad and excited to host!

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  12. Thanks for hosting such a simple challenge. I'm really looking forward to diversifying my reading this year.

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  13. This is such a great idea and challenge! I love that it's stress free. One of my reading resolutions for 2015 was to read more diverse books, and I've already got a few planned that deal with mental illness. So much excitement, thanks for hosting this Becca.

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    1. Thanks, Jaz! Glad to have you onboard. Happy reading and I hope you discover some fantastic diverse books throughout the year!

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  14. I've just signed up, a little late to the party! Looking forward to participating.

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  15. From one Rebecca to another ... this is such a wonderful idea! Looking forward to seeing news of the first linky in my RSS reader soon!

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  16. This is a brilliant idea. I'm a little late but count me in!

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  17. Hi, I I saw your challenge and I was curious if it's only for YA/MG books. I read and review adult Adult/New Adult diverse books and was wodering if I could join in.

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  18. Thank you so much for doing this! Diversity, especially racially diversity, has been extremely important to me and am glad to see others expanding their reading! I will be signing up, thank you!

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