Lee & Low Books
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| Founded | 1991 |
|---|---|
| Founder | Philip Lee and Tom Low |
| Country of origin |
 United States |
| Headquarters location | New York City |
| Key people |
Tom Low (President) Jason Low (Vice President, Publisher) Craig Low (Vice President, Publisher of Bebop Books) |
| Publication types | Books |
| Official website | www |
Lee & Low Books is an independent children's book publisher focusing on diversity.
Lee & Low was founded in 1991 by Chinese Americans Tom Low and Philip Lee as a children's book publisher specializing in books featuring people of color and one of the few minority-owned publishing companies in the United States. Low says, "There was a void in children's books. Most of the books were targeted to Caucasians or contained animals or fairy tales. There was nothing dealing with contemporary issues and people of color.". Lee & Low published its first list in 1993 and immediately gained attention when its first book, Baseball Saved Us was given a full-page review in The New York Times Book Review.
In 1997, founder Tom Low's sons, Jason Low and Craig Low, joined Lee & Low, and in 2004, founder Philip Lee retired.
Lee & Low Books publishes primarily picture books, but in recent years has also published a small number of middle grade and young adult titles.
In January 2012, Lee & Low Books acquired the backlist titles of the now-defunct non-profit publisher, Children's Book Press, as well as the latter's existing contracts with authors and illustrators, with the name itself being revived as an imprint of Lee & Low Books.
In 2015, Lee & Low Books partnered with St.Catherine University and Assistant Professor Sarah Park Dahlen to conduct the Diversity Baseline Survey (DBS). The objectives were to look at 1) Gender 2) Race/ethnicity 3) Sexual Orientation 4) Disability in the publishing industry.
The Diversity Baseline Survey (DBS) was sent to 1,524 reviewer employees and 11,713 publishing employees for a total of 13,237 surveys deployed. The DBS survey results confirmed that the publishing industry is overwhelmingly white, at 79%, which corresponded with the numbers from Publishers Weekly's annual salary survey.
In 1994, Lee & Low began to publish Spanish/English bilingual books and Spanish translations of many of their English titles. The name Arcoiris, Spanish for rainbow, was chosen to reflect the diversity of the books and subject matter.
Founded in 2000, Bebop Books is an educational imprint of Lee & Low. Bebop Books prints leveled books for early readers in English and Spanish.
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Wikipedia