Ellen Oh

Diversity will get an extra push at this week's BookCon and BookExpo America.

Last year, a virtually all-white lineup of speakers at publishing's annual national conventions highlighted the whiteness of the industry itself. BookCon's selection of four white, male authors for a discussion of children's books helped lead to the formation of the grassroots advocacy group We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) and the hasty assembly of the panel "The World Agrees: We Need Diverse Books."

In 2015, WNDB was helping out from the start.

A campaign to address the continuing lack of diversity in children's literature has been kicked off by a group of authors who are hoping to "raise [their] voices into a roar that can't be ignored".

The social media campaign, from authors including Ellen Oh, Aisha Saeed and Chelsea Pitcher, is being launched with a "public call for action" over the next three days.