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Vanesse Lloyd-Sgambati wants you to know how many African American children’s books are out there

The African American Children's Book Project. January 24, 2017 Category: FeatureFeaturedMediumPeople
Vanesse Llyod-Sgambati describes herself as “fearless.” 

Here’s one example of why that might be true: Years ago, the founder and CEO of the Literary Media and Publishing Consultants, a firm that works with authors, publishers and corporate entities interested in literacy, tried to get Pope John Paul II to host a private audience at the Vatican for her son’s class at the Marymount International School of Rome.

To make a long story short, after two weeks of back-and-forth talking with the Vatican, she earned an hour-long audience with the leader of the Catholic faith, an honor usually reserved for heads of state and royalty.

That sort of passion is something she continues to hold today, but for more than 25 years now, it’s been directed toward another mission: making sure all African American children have access to books that reflect their image.

Lloyd-Sgambati remembers a “literary renaissance where books about African American themes were just jumping off the shelves.” But the problem she saw was that these publishers didn’t know how to market them.

She’s been working toward changing that through her company, which allows her to work with some of the top African American authors and illustrators around the country — but also through the African American Children’s Book Project, a nonprofit “formed to promote and preserve children’s literature written by or about African Americans.”

The nonprofit will host the 25th annual African American Children’s Book Fair on Saturday, Feb. 4, at the Community College of Philadelphia. It’s a free event where an average of 3,500 attendees come to buy books and interact with authors and illustrators of African American books.

Vanesse Lloyd Sgambati at a Philadelphia City Council hearing in 2015.

Vanesse Lloyd Sgambati. (Photo courtesy of Flickr user Philadelphia City Council, used via a Creative Commons license)

“The reason why people come is because there is a hunger for books. People want to own a book. That ownership changes the dynamics of how you interact with the book,” she said. “When you get to personalize it by meeting the person who wrote or illustrated it, it takes it to a higher level.”

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Even with this desire for more diverse books, though, Lloyd-Sgambati said she has witnessed a fluctuation through the years of how much attention is brought to these kinds of books.

So, Lloyd-Sgambati wants everyone to know that there are actually a lot of African American books out there. Case in point: Marley Dias, who won “Movement of the Year” at this past Philly Geek Awards for her #1000BlackGirlBooks effort, has collected more than 4,000 books about Black girls, as reported by NPR last February.

Lloyd-Sgambati said Dias hasn’t reached out to her yet, but she wants people like Dias and anyone else interested in African American books to know her door is always open. As someone who’s worked in publishing for this long now and has attended numerous international book fairs, she knows what’s out there and what’s coming.

And there’s a host of empowerment to be found in these books. Consider The Legendary Miss Lena Horne by Carole Boston Weatherford, which tells of the accomplishments of the African American actress who was also an adamant civil rights activist. Consider How to Build a Museum,” by Tonya Bolden, which tells the story of the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.

Lloyd-Sgambadi also wants to make sure that kids have these kinds of books easily accessible at their homes because, as she puts it, some kids grow up not even knowing how to hold a book. The upcoming book fair will have a number of corporate sponsors such as PECO giving out free books at its “Literary Village.”

It’s for the next generation she’s doing all of this — why Lloyd-Sgambati pushed so hard for that meeting with the pope, why she gets motivated looking at a photo of her granddaughter staring at a book with her mouth wide open.

“If you install the passion for doing better in life, that’s one of the best tools you can give your children,” she said.

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The African American Children’s Book Fair

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