Our Book

The mission of the Diverse Achievers Foundation is built on our first book—Diverse Achievers: A Guide for Parents and Teachers on Using Children’s Literature to Promote Self-Esteem and an Understanding That Anyone Can Become An Achiever. 

The book is intended to serve as a resource for teachers and parents to help our children achieve success. By summarizing the works of over 80 contemporary children’s literature authors, we hope that parents and educators will use it as a directory to find works that will resonate with the children they hope to inspire. 

However, our book is more than just a summary and directory of other works. We provide engaging discussion questions for each of those books to stimulate in-depth discussions and critical thinking about tolerance, fairness, diversity, and the problems that stereotypes can cause. We cover the important issues related to diversity in achievement, including equality, equity, education, ongoing discrimination, and racism. In addition, we discuss the impacts of history, including slavery and the civil rights movement, and what they mean for today’s children. We also provide a thematic listing and index of authors and age ranges so that you can find the perfect book for that child who you wish to inspire to be the best version of themselves. 

Ultimately, through our book, we aim to serve as a partner to parents and teachers in working towards the goal of encouraging minority children to reach for success. We believe that our book will help parents, families, and children to work together to come to a deeper understanding of what it means to be a diverse achiever and how success is possible for anyone regardless of their skin color or background. 

Achievement is color blind.

All children need role models, but children of color often don’t see enough examples of inspirational people who look like them.

This selected bibliography provides summaries and discussion questions for 82 contemporary works of children’s literature. The stories are mostly about people of color, written by African-American authors. It highlights the lives, challenges, and accomplishments of people of color and is an essential resource for families and educators to introduce children to diverse achiever role models.

This book will help you to:

• Encourage children to read and engage with inspirational stories that champion diverse role models of color and others
• Stimulate discussion and critical thinking with questions and activities about fairness, tolerance, differences, and the problems associated with stereotypes
• Cover important topics such as the impact of slavery, civil rights, equality and equity, education, ongoing discrimination, and racism
• Locate the perfect story for teaching current topics and societal concerns using the thematic listing and author and age range indexes

The Authors

Diverse Achievers was co-authored by Irene Eizen and Gary Plummer, two career educators with over 90 years of combined experience in teaching, inspiring, and encouraging children to achieve their goals. Irene has taught children at all levels throughout her career, including her co-author. Inspired in part by Irene, Gary has spent over 40 years focusing on black studies and childhood education. Together, they hope that their work serves as a building block for other parents and educators that will help children of color reach even greater heights. 

See Our Reviews