First Book’s New Initiative Pledges $500K to Buying Diversity Children’s Books

By Maryann Yin 

The nonprofit First Book has pledged $500,000 to purchasing children’s books that feature minorities, characters of color and diversity stories.

The new ‘OMG Books’ initiative, an acronym for Offering More Great Books, will help young readers have access to stories that are relevant to their lives. Many of the kids who benefit from First Book’s services come from low-income families and neighborhoods.

Here’s more from the release: “[CEO Kyle] Zimmer stressed that her team is moving fast; the offer went out to major publishers today, and First Book intends to have proposals secured within a week…The hundreds of thousands of books First Book plans to purchase through the OMG Books program will be available through the First Book Marketplace, a website offering deeply discounted books and educational materials exclusively to schools and programs serving kids in need.”