School Library Journal (SLJ) is pleased to welcome a new blog by Edith Campbell. “Pearl’s & Ruby’s” launches this month.

A respected voice in publishing for young people, Campbell is among the best writers in the space, offering informed, nuanced commentary to deepen our understanding of literature, its impact and relation to the broader culture.

“This corner of SLJ’s blogging community,” as she tells it, “sits at the intersection of cultural institutions, social justice, and inclusivity. This blog is about building legacies and reaching out. And pulling in others along the way.”

Indeed, legacy resonates in the blog’s name. “My mother was Pearline, and my first grand girl is Ruby,” Campbell explains. “I’m doing this work to honor the generations before me and the generations to come; I belong to them both. The past and the present meet now, today, in this precious time that we have.”

A librarian at the Cunningham Memorial Library of Indiana State University, Campbell is a member of the We Are Kid Lit Collective, which curates summer reading lists centering BIPOC voices, and Black Cotton Reviewers. She has served on selection committees for the YALSA Printz Award, ALSC Sibert Informational Text Award, ALAN Walden Book Award, the Walter Award, ALSC Legacy Award, and ALAN Nielsen Donelson Award. She has written for the Journal of Children’s Literature and SLJ, including “The Problem with Picture Book Monkeys” (Dec. 2019). Campbell has blogged to promote literacy and social justice in young adult literature at Cotton Quilt Edi since 2006.

In addition to posting book reviews—with a focus on YA and middle grade—“Pearl’s & Ruby’s” will explore topics of the day. “I’m going to start by building book lists around political issues, so that young people can be informed, on a deeper basis, on some of the things that politicians are talking about,” says Campbell.

Each month, the blog will highlight an author representing a marginalized community, “to build that legacy I’m talking about,” she says.

Sujei Lugo, a children’s librarian at Boston Public Library, and Alia Jones, who is pursuing her MLIS degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, will be regular contributors to “Pearl’s & Ruby’s.”

Lugo, a former elementary school librarian in Puerto Rico, is a children's librarian at the Boston Public Library, Connolly Branch. She holds a MLIS from the University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus and a Ph.D. in LIS from Simmons University. She is an independent scholar, book reviewer, and active member of REFORMA (National Association to Promote Library & Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking), ALSC (Association for Library Services to Children) and the We Are Kid Lit Collective. She is the co-author of Islas Lectoras: bibliografía crítica de literatura infantil puertorriqueña (2000-2020), professional reading and bibliography focused on Puerto Rican children's literature published in the last two decades.

Jones is a MLIS student at UW-Madison, focusing on children's literature and youth services. She is a member of ALSC and has served on the Caldecott Award Committee and Coretta Scott King Book Award Jury.

VIsit “Pearl’s & Ruby’s” at slj.com/PearlsandRubys.