Tamarind Books is a small independent British publisher specialising in picture books, fiction and non-fiction featuring black and Asian children and children with disabilities. It was founded by Verna Wilkins in 1987 with the mission of redressing the balance of diversity in children's publishing,"About Us", Tamarind website. and in 2007 became an imprint of Random House Children's Books UK.
History
Tamarind Books was founded by Grenada-born"Biography - Verna Wilkins", Government of Grenada, 30 September 2011. Verna Wilkins in 1987 after her five-year-old son came home from school with a "This is Me" booklet in which he had coloured himself pink. When she offered him a brown crayon to use instead, he refused, saying that the image he had drawn of himself had to have pink skin because it was for a book.Article for BBIA, Publishing News. When she researched the matter further, she arrived at the conclusion that her child and other children from the ethnic minorities were so under-represented in children's books that they were being denied an important stage in their learning, so she decided to start publishing books to meet that need."Tamarind Books' Verna Wilkins talks to Michelle Brooks about Making her Mark on Children's books", OHTV interview. YouTube, 24 August 2010.
For twenty years, Wilkins ran Tamarind Books from her home, writing many of the books herself, working with the support of her family and a small group of friends and freelancers. New books were published only when there was enough money in the company bank account. In the early years, she sold the books herself. Later, Tamarind books were distributed by commercial distributors.
Two of the imprint's best-known titles, both written by Wilkins, are The Life of Stephen Lawrence (2001), and Dave and The Tooth Fairy (1993), featuring a computer-literate black tooth fairy. Tamarind also specialises in biographies of black role models, in the Black Stars series, which includes biographies of Malorie Blackman, Benjamin Zephaniah, Rudolph Walker, Baroness Scotland, Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy, David Grant and Samantha Tross.
Acquisition by Random House In 2007, Tamarind Books was acquired by Random House Group Ltd and became an imprint of Random House Children's Books (UK)."Random House acquires Tamarind", The Bookseller, 7 December 2007.
In 2008, Tamarind Books was awarded the Decibel Cultural Diversity Award in the British Book Awards (Nibbies).
In October 2009, Wilkins retired from publishing,"Tamarind Publisher Verna Wilkins To Retire At RHCB", Book2book, 30 October 2009. and a successor, Patsy Isles, was announced. In January 2011, a new team comprising editors from Random House (Ruth Knowles, Parul Bavishi, Joe Marriott and Sue Buswell) were brought in to run Tamarind, with Verna Wilkins acting as a consultant, with the patrons of Tamarind, alongside Wilkins, being Michael Rosen, Benjamin Zephaniah, Jamila Gavin and Meera Syal."Tamarind Announces New Patrons", 6 December 2011.
The titles that were historically published under the Tamarind Books imprint are now part of the Puffin and Ladybird lists.Tamarind Books at Puffin.
Awards 2007: Tamarind Books Highly Commended at the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) Awards in category "IPG Diversity Award" 2008: Tamarind Books wins Cultural Diversity Award at the NibbiesPublishing News, 2008. "Verna Wilkins | The reluctant publisher – 20 years on", The Galley Club, 2008–2009.
References
External links Tamarind Books at Penguin. Verna Wilkins, "The Right To Be Seen", Patrick Hardy Lecture, 29 October 2008. "Verna Wilkins on Tamarind Books Part 1", Random House Children's Publishers UK, 27 August 2013.