In this episode, Margaret Park speaks with Sarah Park Dahlen about choosing books with greater care and being more thoughtful about the narratives educators assign. Sarah is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign whose research focuses on Asian American youth literature and transracial Korean adoption. She co-edits Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, co-created the Diversity in Children's Books infographics, and co-edited Harry Potter and the Other: Race, Justice, and Difference in the Wizarding World with Ebony Elizabeth Thomas.

Together, they examine what it means to assign literature responsibly, how certain stories become normalized in schools, and why the books educators choose can shape how students understand themselves and others.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

Asian author alliance

https://www.instagram.com/asian_authors/

Maybook project

https://www.veryasianfoundation.org/may-book-project

Social justice books

https://www.splcenter.org/learning-for-justice/reading-for-justice-books-for-teens-and-young-adults/

Brown bookshelf

https://thebrownbookshelf.com/

Audits- lee and low books

https://www.leeandlow.com/about/diversity-baseline-survey/dbs3/