BATON ROUGE - On Wednesday, January 27, the East Baton Rouge Parish School System made history by becoming the first and only public school system in the country to have The Conscious Kid children’s book collection in every single public elementary school in the district.

This unique collection of 40 children’s books, curated by The Conscious Kid, focuses on and celebrates diversity. The entire collection is written by Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and features BIPOC and LGBTQ+ characters and stories. 

The initiative is a partnership between  Line4Line,  Knock Knock Children’s Museum, the East Baton Rouge Parish Public Library, and the East Baton Rouge Parish Public School System in a concerted effort to Support Conversations on Race, Racism, and Resistance. In all, the four partner organizations have distributed 2,280 books to 54 elementary schools and four community centers.

Lucy Perera, Director of Community Outreach Programs at the Knock Knock Museum told WBRZ, "These are books that celebrate the diversity of the children that are in our schools. So, the idea behind it is that children should be able to see themselves in the books."

To commemorate the delivery of the final set of books, the four partner groups participated in a special handing off ceremony on Wednesday morning at Cedarcrest Southmoor Elementary. Among those in attendance were officials from the East Baton Rouge Parish School System, EBR Parish Library System, and representatives from Line4Line, and Knock Knock Children’s Museum. 

All four of these organizations have expressed a commitment to eradicating racism in the Baton Rouge community. They believe that the new collection of books is one step towards achieving this goal.