Panel Discussion: You're Telling My Kids They Can't Read This Book?

Andrew Laties won the 1987 Women’s National Book Association Award for bookselling, the 2006 Independent Publisher Award as an author, and the 2024 National Association of Black Journalists Award for publishing. He co-founded Easton Book Festival, The Children’s Bookstore, Chicago Children’s Museum Store, and Eric Carle Museum Bookstore. His books include Rebel Bookseller: Why Indie Businesses Represent Everything You Want to Fight For—From Free Speech to Buying Local to Building Communities and You’re Telling My Kids They Can’t Read This Book?: Our Hundred-Year Children’s-Literature Revolution and How We’ll Keep Fighting to Support Our Families’ Right to Read. You can find Andrew on Facebook at @andy.laties.

Waleska Santiago-Centeno is an award-winning educator and librarian at Crocker Farm Elementary School in Amherst, Massachusetts. Born and raised in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, Waleska moving to Springfield, MA in 1989, where she learned English and raised a family. She was accepted to the Frances Perkins program at Mount Holyoke College where she received a B.A. in Art History, and in 2016, she completed a Master’s degree in Museum Studies at Harvard University. Waleska draws from children’s literature, art history, museum studies, visual culture, and social justice and equity to engage students in age-appropriate and meaningful conversations about the world in which they live. In 2024, she became a trustee for the Eric Carle Museum.

Tiffany Jewell is a Black biracial writer, twin sister, first generation American, cisgender mama, anti-bias antiracist (ABAR) educator. She is the author of the #1 New York Times and #1 Indie Best Seller, This Book Is Anti-Racist, a book for young folks [and everyone] to support waking up, taking action, and doing the work of becoming antiracist.

Hannah Moushabeck is a second-generation Palestinian American author, editor, and book marketer who was raised in a family of publishers and booksellers in Western Massachusetts and England. Born in Brooklyn into Interlink Publishing, a family-run independent publishing house, she learned the power of literature at a young age. She is the author of Homeland: My Father Dreams of Palestine. She lives in Amherst, Massachusetts on the homelands of the Pocumtuc and Nipmuc Nations.

Alex Gino writes queer and progressive middle grade novels, including the Stonewall and Lambda Award-winning Melissa. They love glitter, ice cream, gardening, wordplay, and stories that reflect the complexity of being alive, and they would take a quiet coffee date with a friend over a loud and crowded party any day. Alex grew up on Staten Island, NY, where they started telling stories before they could hold a pencil. After thirteen years in Oakland, California, they now live in Western Massachusetts with Thunder the Wonder Cat. They are excited to continue to write stories for and about young LGBTQIA+ people. You can find Alex on Bluesky at @alexgino.bsky.social and on Facebook at @authoralexgino.