Dhonielle Clayton is at the center of the push for increased racial diversity in children’s and YA fantasy books.

“As a child, a lot of the books I loved reading had no one who looked like me as a lead in those stories. I wanted to change that. As a librarian in Harlem, I was struck by how few books we had that reflected our students. I was a teacher and lover of books; I wanted kids of color to have the chance to go to magic schools and save the world.”