Here's a welcome and link to the new kid on the block, Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, coedited by Sarah Park Dahlen and Gabrielle Atwood Halko. RDYL is a "peer-reviewed, online, open-access journal," meaning it is an academic journal that everyone can read for free. The debut number contains five meaty essays touching upon a number of themes related to diversity in  children's books and  in the scholarship drawn from them* and I especially enjoyed reading Michelle H. Martin and J. Elizabeth Mills' article about Full Cicada Moon, where they considered how their own different ethnic identities affected how they each read a book about a girl with an identity that overlapped that of each scholar. Worthwhile reading; take a look.

*What I mean is, the research frequently takes a self-reflexive turn. Told you, it's academic!