YA chicklit with POC

[oyceter]

Does anyone have recommendations for happy YA chicklit starring POC and/or by POC?

Qualifications:

I have read half of Dana Davidson's Jason & Kyra and got bored by the prose and descriptions of what everyone was wearing, I know about Melissa de la Cruz, I've read Does My Head Look Big in This? and liked it, may check out First Daughter soon,

Comments

[takumashii]

I'm going to suggest Haters by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. Despite the title, it doesn't deal with really heavy issues; it's more about popularity, trying to fit in at a new school, and class and race do come into it a little, but basically it's a happy book. The protagonist is latina, a mountain biker, and a little bit psychic. And there's romance.

I've been racking my brains for something good with a black protagonist, and sadly I think it's still the case that the mainstream publishes either what's Dark And Full Of Issues. There's Kimani Tru, though I'm concerned it might be too fluffy--I haven't read any of those yet. With trepidation, I will suggest Angela Johnson's Heaven. It's a melancholy book, like all of Johnson's books, but it's sweet and tender, and the issues in it are small family issues, not big gang-pregnancy-violence-oppression issues. It's about what happens when a girl with a loving family and a happy life in an idyllic small town learns that what she's thought all her life about her family isn't actually true. Also, Johnson writes like a dream.

[oyceter]

Oh, I've got Johnson's The First Part Last out right now, but am waiting to read it so I can get some fun stuff in first. Small family issues sounds good though, even though not necessarily fluffy.

Oooo, psychic-ness, awesome.

[takumashii]

There are no words for how awesome The First Part Last is. And Heaven is the sort-of-sequel!