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Tamarind Books was founded in 1987 as a small independent publisher specialising in picture books, fiction and non-fiction featuring black and Asian children and children with disabilities, with the mission of redressing the balance of diversity in children’s publishing. It is now an imprint of Random House Children’s Books UK.
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History
Tamarind Books was founded by Grenada-born 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. 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.
For twenty years, Verna 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, Verna sold the books herself. Later Tamarind books were distributed by commercial distributors.
Two of the best-known titles are The Life of Stephen Lawrence (2001) and Dave and The Tooth Fairy (1993), featuring a 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.
In 2007, Tamarind Books was acquired by Random House Group Ltd and became an imprint of Random House Children’s Books (UK).
In 2008, Tamarind Books was awarded the Decibel Cultural Diversity Award in the British Book Awards (Nibbies).
In October 2009, Verna Wilkins retired from publishing 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. Alongside Wilkins, the patrons of Tamarind are Michael Rosen, Benjamin Zephaniah, Jamila Gavin and Meera Syal.