11-year-old launches book club promoting african american children’s literature

“Books N Bros is a book club for boys, and we read books and African American literature because every time I go to the library at my school, there aren’t many African American literature books there,” Sidney Keys III told St. Louis on the Air. After visiting EyeSeeMe, a nearby bookstore promoting African American children’s literature, Sydney discovered that he could see more of himself and show others more of themselves in books. Sidney’s mom, Winnie Caldwell, posted a video of him reading in the store in August that gained more than 62,000 views.

“You get to a point when he is 11-years-old and it was so shocking for him to relate to someone on the cover in a positive aspect rather than it be some negative urban story we see a lot,” she told on the Air. “I would like to make sure he sees himself in being whatever he can be.”