Caryn Wiseman

Caryn Wiseman (Com ’83, L/M) took what she calls a “circuitous route” to become a literary agent in children’s publishing. After years spent working in banking and consulting, “I wanted to do something that would make a positive difference in the world,” she says. The self-described voracious reader now represents authors a illustrators of children’s books, particularly books with social justice themes.

Ms. Wiseman, who works in Palo Alto, California, represents two Wahoo authors, Deborah “Debbie” Levy (Col ’78 L/M) and Tara Sullivan (Col ’04). Ms. Levy has written many children’s books. In 2016, she published I Dissent: Ruth Bader Ginsburg Makes Her Mark (Simon and Schuster), an acclaimed picture book about the Supreme Court justice and her lifetime of dissenting opinions. Ms. Sullivan is the author of Golden Boy (Puffin Books, 2014), a novel set in Tanzania about a boy who is outcast and hunted because of his albinism. Her 2016 book The Bitter Side of Sweet (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) is likewise about human rights struggles but set in the Ivory Coast, where the central characters work as forced laborers on a cacao plantation.

In the popular consciousness, a children’s story can be both a piece of entertainment and a tool for moral instruction, but is the social justice focus a new trend? Ms. Wiseman says it has gained strength and visibility in recent years, though it is not a new development. “There are quite a number of middle-grade and young-adult and even picture books that explore social justice themes, and the number grows every year,” she says, pointing to the We Need Diverse Books and Brown Bookshelf movements for greater diversity in children’s publishing. “There are quite a few authors, librarians, bloggers and editors who focus on social justice themes,” she says, “but there is still a long way to go.”