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 . 1 it is now an imprint of random house children s books uk . contents 1 history 2 awards 3 references 4 external links history edit verna wilkins tamarind books was founded by grenada born 2 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 . 3 4 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 . 5 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 . 6 later tamarind books were distributed by commercial distributors . two of the best known titles are the life of stephen lawrence 2001 7 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 . 8 in 2007 tamarind books was acquired by random house group ltd and became an imprint of random house children s books uk . 9 in 2008 tamarind books was awarded the decibel cultural diversity award in the british book awards nibbies . 10 in october 2009 verna wilkins retired from publishing 11 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 . 12 13 awards edit 2007 tamarind books highly commended at the independent publishers guild ipg awards in category ipg diversity award 14 2008 tamarind books wins cultural diversity award at the nibbies 15 16 references edit about us tamarind website . biography verna wilkins government of grenada 30 september 2011 . kate agnew imaginary worlds where everyone is the same colour the guardian 7 october 2008 . article for bbia publishing news . archived september 17 2009 at the wayback machine . verna wilkins talks to ohtv s michelle brooks youtube . emma shercliff books for the masses publishing genre fiction in africa africa writes 13 july 2014 africa in words 18 august 2014 . life and death of a south london schoolboy tes 11 may 2008 . verna wilkins 15 april 2008 . samantha tross surgeon . tamarind . isbn 978 1 870516 48 8 . random house acquires tamarind the bookseller 7 december 2007 . philip james foyles and ccv pick up nibbies the bookseller 14 may 2008 . tamarind publisher verna wilkins to retire at rhcb book2book 30 october 2009 . tamarind announces new patrons 6 december 2011 . caroline horn tamarind more multicultural writing needed the bookseller 9 january 2012 . ipg march 2007 . independent publishing awards the pick of independent publishing . independent publishers guild . archived from the original on 13 may 2007 . retrieved 25 september 2013 . ipg diversity award ... highly commended in this category was tamarind books an independent that has specialised in multicultural children s books and titles for black children in particular for 20 years . publishing news 2008 . archived april 13 2008 at the wayback machine . verna wilkins the reluctant publisher 20 years on the gallery club 2008 2009 . external links edit tamarind website . verna wilkins the right to be seen patrick hardy lecture 29 october 2008 . children s literature portal retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title tamarind books & oldid 739112571 categories children s book publishersbook publishing companies of the united kingdomrandom housepublishing companies established in 1987black british writershidden categories articles with wayback machine links navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 12 september 2016 at 21 02 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; additional terms may apply . by using this site you agree to the terms of use and privacy policy . wikipedia is a registered trademark of the wikimedia foundation inc. a non profit organization . privacy policy about wikipedia disclaimers contact wikipedia developers cookie statement mobile view