Growing up outside of Detroit, Ebony LaDelle noticed early on that the characters in most of the books available to her and her peers didn’t reflect the diversity of their experience; that is, there were very few books written by or about people of color.

“It helped me to understand why many of my peers were uninterested in reading; they didn’t feel connected to the characters. If anything, reading reaffirmed their position in this world as a minority.”

Several years working within the publishing industry brought LaDelle, who currently works a Senior Marketing Manager at HarperCollins, to the idea of Coloring Books — a “hand-picked list of hidden gems by diverse authors, books you may or may not know about, and recommendations of new talent to look out for.” You can read the latest newsletter here.

It’s quickly become one of our favorite newsletters. We recommend subscribing to it now, and getting in touch with LaDelle to tell her about your favorite books.