POC in YA chicklit
This is for the 10th POC in SF Carnival, hosted by karnythia!
I joined 50books_poc last year to try to get myself to read more POC; I had unofficially been trying before, but without numbers or statistics, it was hard to see if I had been successful or not. While there were a few SF/F authors of color, the vast majority, as judging from my library shelves, were white. And I didn't feel up to reading the POC authors I largely did know, since most of the ones I'd heard of wrote Great Literary Tomes or Books Assigned in English Class.
While I have nothing against Great Literary Tomes, my brain has been on vacation for a while, and I wanted fluff. Happy, easy-to-read fluff. So I went through the few POC in YA recs that I had, and asked LJ and my YA librarian for more. A lot of the older POC-authored titles in YA focus on weighty issues like oppression, racism, Japanese internment, gangs, teen pregnancy, and etc., and again, while I have nothing against these books and feel it's necessary to have them, my brain wasn't up for it. Which is how I ended up consuming truckloads of YA chicklit by POC (or starring POC, though for 50books_poc, I tried to focus on POC authors).
Many of these were gathered via my librarian and internet recs and my flist, but in a desperate attempt to find more POC authors, I took to randomly browsing the library shelves and looking at author names. Because of this, I tended to find more Asian and Latina authors. I have a whole 'nother post on how awkward this made me feel, but that can wait till IBARW.
So here's a partial list of what I've found. Most of it is YA chicklit, which I find I like better than adult chicklit, due to the relative lack of conspicuous consumption and incompetence in the workplace, but some are just really good books that I stuck in there.
Assume authors are POC unless otherwise specified. Links are to my LJ write ups if I've read the book in question.
Highly recommended
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - A depressing yet howlingly funny book about Junior, a Spokane Indian, who decides to stop going to the rez school and start attending the white one. Also, the illustrations in this are priceless, especially if you've read romances like Cassie Edwards' Savage Fill-in-the-Blank.
MT Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party - author not POC. Absolutely brilliant book about the American revolution, slavery, liberty and property, told in great period voice. This isn't a happy read, but I love it to pieces for tearing down the mythology of the American revolution.
Chris Crutcher, Whale Talk - author not POC. A multiracial kid ends up starting a swim team at his school. Also not a happy read, and Crutcher has enough Issues in this book to populate ten problem novels, but his characterization and voice are so good that it works.
Susan Fletcher, Alphabet of Dreams and Shadow Spinner - author not POC. Alphabet of Dreams is a retelling of the story of the Three Magi from the POV of a dispossessed Persian princess, and Shadow Spinner is a retelling of Arabian Nights from the POV of a servant in the sultan's harem. Both have an excellent sense of time and place, though I love the latter more for the many women and for Shaharazad.
Justina Chen Headley, Nothing but the Truth (and a Few White Lies) and Girl Overboard - Putting aside the values of having more POC in my reading, this project would have been worth it just for the discovery of Headley. The first book is a slightly more standard identity quest by a half-Taiwanese, half-white girl, and the second is just marvelous. Headley is anti-racist and feminist, and both books show it. But more, she's extremely good at bringing in all aspects of her heroines' lives, particularly their family lives, and she's smart and funny to boot.
Angela Johnson, A Cool Moonlight, Bird, and The First Part Last - my other great discovery. The first two books are more for children, and the last is definitely not chicklit, being a book about teenage pregnancy. But what Johnson is good at is capturing her characters' emotional states and the little moments of life in clear, poetic prose.
Maureen Johnson, The Bermudez Triangle - author not POC. Sadly, only one of the three main characters is POC, but I love that while her race is part of her identity, it's not the big conflict of the book. A great look at friendship, teen sexuality, and how what happens over the summer affects the entire school year.
China Mieville, Un Lun Dun - author not POC. A fun, inventive romp through UnLondon, with oodles of wordplay, spelunking librarians, and a really kickass girl of color. I love how Mieville takes fantasy tropes and turns them on their head.
Kashmira Sheth, Keeping Corner - This by all rights should be a pamphlet on the horrors of being a child widow in 1910s India, but the author makes it more through her characterization and how she intertwines India's fledgling independent movement with the heroine's personal growth. I particularly like that the author comes at feminism from an Indian angle.
Susan Vaught, Stormwitch - author not POC. A young black girl in the 1960s South has to deal with the Civil Rights Movement even as she attempts to come into her own magically. Yay for YA fantasy with POC!
Elizabeth E. Wein, The Sunbird, The Mark of Solomon: The Lion Hunter, and The Mark of Solomon: The Empty Kingdom - author not POC. An excellent historical series about young Telemakos, son of British Medraut (Mordred) and his Aksumite wife. The books have intrigue and court politics like mad, and I love love love Telemakos, who is a wonder of a character.
Recommended
Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This? - Arab-Australian girl decides to wear the hijab.
Cherry Cheva, She's So Money - Thai-American girl tries to save her family's restaurant by setting up a cheating ring.
Melissa de la Cruz, Fresh Off the Boat - Filipina girl moves to America after her family goes bankrupt.
Caridad Ferrer, Adíos to My Old Life - Cuban-American teen joins a Latin version of American Idol.
Cynthia Kadohata, Weedflower - Japanese girl's family is placed in an internment camp located on Native American land.
Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, Zahrah the Windseeker and The Shadow Speaker - I like the latter better because it's darker, but I like both for their usage of West African mythology and culture.
Sherri Winston, The Kayla Chronicles - Black teen tries out for the school dance club to try to prove they discriminate against small-breasted girls for a feminist expose, but ends up making it.
More books
Martha Brooks, Bone Dance - author not POC. First Nations protagonists.
Joseph Bruchac, Code Talker - Navajo Marines in WWII and Indian boarding shools.
Cameron Dokey, The Storyteller's Daughter - author not POC. Retelling of Arabian Nights.
Sharon M. Draper, The Battle of Jericho - Hazing in high school.
Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard and Deep Wizardry - author not POC, main character not POC, but Kit has a pretty large role in the book. Fantasy.
Justine Larbalestier, Magic or Madness, Magic Lessons, and Magic's Child - author not POC. Fantasy trilogy on an indigenous Australian girl.
Ursula K. Le Guin, Powers - author not POC. Fantasy, touches on issues of slavery and power.
Donna Jo Napoli, Bound - author not POC. Chinese retelling of Cinderella.
Noriko Ogiwara, Dragon Sword and Wind Child - High fantasy translated from Japanese.
Tamora Pierce, Circle of Magic books, Circle Opens books, and The Will of the Empress - author not POC. One girl of the four protagonists is POC.
Carole Wilkinson, Dragon Keeper - author not POC. Pet rat! Sadly, not very memorable pet rat.
Lori Aurelia Williams, When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune - Girl tries to deal with her friend's abuse.
More that I know of, but haven't read:
Malin Alegria, Estrella's Quinceanera
Derrick Barnes, The Making of Dr. Truelove
Coe Booth, Tyrell
Dana Davidson, Jason & Kyra (and many others)
Kelly Easton, Hiroshima Dreams - author not POC
Alaya Dawn Johnson, Racing the Dark
Varian Johnson, Red Polka Dot in a World Full of Plaid and My Life as a Rhombus
Grace Lin, The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat
Mitali Perkins, many
Michele Serros, Honey Blonde Chica and ¡Scandalosa!
Drew Hayden Taylor, The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Haters
Bil Wright, When the Black Girl Sings
Lisa Yee, Millicent Min, Girl Genius, Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time, and So Totally Emily Ebers
David Yoo, Girls for Breakfast
Paula Yoo, Good Enough
Links:
- The Brown Bookshelf (focuses more on children's)
- The YA YA YAs list of Asian-American protagonists in YA fiction
- YA chick lit with POC post with recs in comments
I joined 50books_poc last year to try to get myself to read more POC; I had unofficially been trying before, but without numbers or statistics, it was hard to see if I had been successful or not. While there were a few SF/F authors of color, the vast majority, as judging from my library shelves, were white. And I didn't feel up to reading the POC authors I largely did know, since most of the ones I'd heard of wrote Great Literary Tomes or Books Assigned in English Class.
While I have nothing against Great Literary Tomes, my brain has been on vacation for a while, and I wanted fluff. Happy, easy-to-read fluff. So I went through the few POC in YA recs that I had, and asked LJ and my YA librarian for more. A lot of the older POC-authored titles in YA focus on weighty issues like oppression, racism, Japanese internment, gangs, teen pregnancy, and etc., and again, while I have nothing against these books and feel it's necessary to have them, my brain wasn't up for it. Which is how I ended up consuming truckloads of YA chicklit by POC (or starring POC, though for 50books_poc, I tried to focus on POC authors).
Many of these were gathered via my librarian and internet recs and my flist, but in a desperate attempt to find more POC authors, I took to randomly browsing the library shelves and looking at author names. Because of this, I tended to find more Asian and Latina authors. I have a whole 'nother post on how awkward this made me feel, but that can wait till IBARW.
So here's a partial list of what I've found. Most of it is YA chicklit, which I find I like better than adult chicklit, due to the relative lack of conspicuous consumption and incompetence in the workplace, but some are just really good books that I stuck in there.
Assume authors are POC unless otherwise specified. Links are to my LJ write ups if I've read the book in question.
Highly recommended
Sherman Alexie, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian - A depressing yet howlingly funny book about Junior, a Spokane Indian, who decides to stop going to the rez school and start attending the white one. Also, the illustrations in this are priceless, especially if you've read romances like Cassie Edwards' Savage Fill-in-the-Blank.
MT Anderson, The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: The Pox Party - author not POC. Absolutely brilliant book about the American revolution, slavery, liberty and property, told in great period voice. This isn't a happy read, but I love it to pieces for tearing down the mythology of the American revolution.
Chris Crutcher, Whale Talk - author not POC. A multiracial kid ends up starting a swim team at his school. Also not a happy read, and Crutcher has enough Issues in this book to populate ten problem novels, but his characterization and voice are so good that it works.
Susan Fletcher, Alphabet of Dreams and Shadow Spinner - author not POC. Alphabet of Dreams is a retelling of the story of the Three Magi from the POV of a dispossessed Persian princess, and Shadow Spinner is a retelling of Arabian Nights from the POV of a servant in the sultan's harem. Both have an excellent sense of time and place, though I love the latter more for the many women and for Shaharazad.
Justina Chen Headley, Nothing but the Truth (and a Few White Lies) and Girl Overboard - Putting aside the values of having more POC in my reading, this project would have been worth it just for the discovery of Headley. The first book is a slightly more standard identity quest by a half-Taiwanese, half-white girl, and the second is just marvelous. Headley is anti-racist and feminist, and both books show it. But more, she's extremely good at bringing in all aspects of her heroines' lives, particularly their family lives, and she's smart and funny to boot.
Angela Johnson, A Cool Moonlight, Bird, and The First Part Last - my other great discovery. The first two books are more for children, and the last is definitely not chicklit, being a book about teenage pregnancy. But what Johnson is good at is capturing her characters' emotional states and the little moments of life in clear, poetic prose.
Maureen Johnson, The Bermudez Triangle - author not POC. Sadly, only one of the three main characters is POC, but I love that while her race is part of her identity, it's not the big conflict of the book. A great look at friendship, teen sexuality, and how what happens over the summer affects the entire school year.
China Mieville, Un Lun Dun - author not POC. A fun, inventive romp through UnLondon, with oodles of wordplay, spelunking librarians, and a really kickass girl of color. I love how Mieville takes fantasy tropes and turns them on their head.
Kashmira Sheth, Keeping Corner - This by all rights should be a pamphlet on the horrors of being a child widow in 1910s India, but the author makes it more through her characterization and how she intertwines India's fledgling independent movement with the heroine's personal growth. I particularly like that the author comes at feminism from an Indian angle.
Susan Vaught, Stormwitch - author not POC. A young black girl in the 1960s South has to deal with the Civil Rights Movement even as she attempts to come into her own magically. Yay for YA fantasy with POC!
Elizabeth E. Wein, The Sunbird, The Mark of Solomon: The Lion Hunter, and The Mark of Solomon: The Empty Kingdom - author not POC. An excellent historical series about young Telemakos, son of British Medraut (Mordred) and his Aksumite wife. The books have intrigue and court politics like mad, and I love love love Telemakos, who is a wonder of a character.
Recommended
Randa Abdel-Fattah, Does My Head Look Big in This? - Arab-Australian girl decides to wear the hijab.
Cherry Cheva, She's So Money - Thai-American girl tries to save her family's restaurant by setting up a cheating ring.
Melissa de la Cruz, Fresh Off the Boat - Filipina girl moves to America after her family goes bankrupt.
Caridad Ferrer, Adíos to My Old Life - Cuban-American teen joins a Latin version of American Idol.
Cynthia Kadohata, Weedflower - Japanese girl's family is placed in an internment camp located on Native American land.
Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, Zahrah the Windseeker and The Shadow Speaker - I like the latter better because it's darker, but I like both for their usage of West African mythology and culture.
Sherri Winston, The Kayla Chronicles - Black teen tries out for the school dance club to try to prove they discriminate against small-breasted girls for a feminist expose, but ends up making it.
More books
Martha Brooks, Bone Dance - author not POC. First Nations protagonists.
Joseph Bruchac, Code Talker - Navajo Marines in WWII and Indian boarding shools.
Cameron Dokey, The Storyteller's Daughter - author not POC. Retelling of Arabian Nights.
Sharon M. Draper, The Battle of Jericho - Hazing in high school.
Diane Duane, So You Want to Be a Wizard and Deep Wizardry - author not POC, main character not POC, but Kit has a pretty large role in the book. Fantasy.
Justine Larbalestier, Magic or Madness, Magic Lessons, and Magic's Child - author not POC. Fantasy trilogy on an indigenous Australian girl.
Ursula K. Le Guin, Powers - author not POC. Fantasy, touches on issues of slavery and power.
Donna Jo Napoli, Bound - author not POC. Chinese retelling of Cinderella.
Noriko Ogiwara, Dragon Sword and Wind Child - High fantasy translated from Japanese.
Tamora Pierce, Circle of Magic books, Circle Opens books, and The Will of the Empress - author not POC. One girl of the four protagonists is POC.
Carole Wilkinson, Dragon Keeper - author not POC. Pet rat! Sadly, not very memorable pet rat.
Lori Aurelia Williams, When Kambia Elaine Flew in from Neptune - Girl tries to deal with her friend's abuse.
More that I know of, but haven't read:
Malin Alegria, Estrella's Quinceanera
Derrick Barnes, The Making of Dr. Truelove
Coe Booth, Tyrell
Dana Davidson, Jason & Kyra (and many others)
Kelly Easton, Hiroshima Dreams - author not POC
Alaya Dawn Johnson, Racing the Dark
Varian Johnson, Red Polka Dot in a World Full of Plaid and My Life as a Rhombus
Grace Lin, The Year of the Dog and The Year of the Rat
Mitali Perkins, many
Michele Serros, Honey Blonde Chica and ¡Scandalosa!
Drew Hayden Taylor, The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel
Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez, Haters
Bil Wright, When the Black Girl Sings
Lisa Yee, Millicent Min, Girl Genius, Stanford Wong Flunks Big Time, and So Totally Emily Ebers
David Yoo, Girls for Breakfast
Paula Yoo, Good Enough
Links:
- The Brown Bookshelf (focuses more on children's)
- The YA YA YAs list of Asian-American protagonists in YA fiction
- YA chick lit with POC post with recs in comments