YA chicklit with POC
Thu, Jan. 17th, 2008 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
oyceterDoes 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, read half of Born Confused and got bored by the prose, just read Whale Talk and will probably blaze through Crutcher's backlist, and read a few pages of The Fly on the Wall and got bored. I've also read Justine Larbalestier, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, Susan Vaught, Nancy Farmer, Tamora Pierce, and am planning on going through suggestions here. (How is Virginia Hamilton on the depressing scale?)
I also want books, not manga or comics.
I know about the imprint Kimani TRU but haven't read anything of theirs, so thumbs up or down are appreciated.
1. I want happy. As in, I am tired of scanning summaries of books about POC and going "gang, unwanted pregnancy, gang, violence, gang, OPPRESSION, gang, racism, gang, abusive boyfriend, gang, historical oppression, gang." (if you can't tell, please no more gangs!)
2. I am thinking of something sort of like Fresh off the Boat or Does My Head Look Big in This?, or like Maureen Johnson. Sarah Dessen works too (I would prefer interior angst over GANG). I tend to like girls who are not ashamed of their culture and/or race, interesting prose, and romance, but romance isn't required.
3. The book has to star a girl, or at least have her section of the story comprise of at least half.
ETA: 4. The book has to have a POC protagonist (not a secondary role, no matter how cool) or a POC author.
5. Fluff is good! Just to give you an idea... the last three books I have read were about hazing, Japanese internment camps, and physical and emotional abuse. I think I need to read something light and happy and fluffy before going there again.
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, read half of Born Confused and got bored by the prose, just read Whale Talk and will probably blaze through Crutcher's backlist, and read a few pages of The Fly on the Wall and got bored. I've also read Justine Larbalestier, Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu, Susan Vaught, Nancy Farmer, Tamora Pierce, and am planning on going through suggestions here. (How is Virginia Hamilton on the depressing scale?)
I also want books, not manga or comics.
I know about the imprint Kimani TRU but haven't read anything of theirs, so thumbs up or down are appreciated.
1. I want happy. As in, I am tired of scanning summaries of books about POC and going "gang, unwanted pregnancy, gang, violence, gang, OPPRESSION, gang, racism, gang, abusive boyfriend, gang, historical oppression, gang." (if you can't tell, please no more gangs!)
2. I am thinking of something sort of like Fresh off the Boat or Does My Head Look Big in This?, or like Maureen Johnson. Sarah Dessen works too (I would prefer interior angst over GANG). I tend to like girls who are not ashamed of their culture and/or race, interesting prose, and romance, but romance isn't required.
3. The book has to star a girl, or at least have her section of the story comprise of at least half.
ETA: 4. The book has to have a POC protagonist (not a secondary role, no matter how cool) or a POC author.
5. Fluff is good! Just to give you an idea... the last three books I have read were about hazing, Japanese internment camps, and physical and emotional abuse. I think I need to read something light and happy and fluffy before going there again.
(no subject)
Fri, Jan. 18th, 2008 03:16 am (UTC)Some of these titles do deal with historical oppression and racism, and most are more middle-grades/middle-school than YA, but all have girls of color at their center and all have moderately happy endings, as I recall.
The Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul-Choi (1945+ Korea)
The Girl-Son by Anne E. Neuberger (turn-of-20th-C Korea)
Who's Hu? by Lensey Namioka (USA, 1950s)
Of Nightingales that Weep by Katherine Paterson (medieval Japan)
The Skin I'm in by Sharon Flake (contemporary US)
The Roller Birds of Rampur by Indi Rana (contemporary-ish? UK and India)
One Bird by Kyoko Mori (1970s Japan)
The Spring Tone by Kazumi Yumoto (contemporary? Japan)
The Middle of Somewhere: A Story of South Africa by Sheila Gordon (apartheid-era)
The Clay Marble and Rice Without Rain by Minfong Ho (Thailand)
The Friends by Rosa Guy (1960s? USA (NYC, I think))
Who Is Carrie? by James Lincoln Collier & Christopher Collier (revolutionary-era North America)
Second Daughter by Mildred Pitts Walker (revolutionary/just-after North America)
Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye (1990s?-ish USA and Israel/Palestine)
Celebrating the Hero by Lyll Becerra de Jenkins (1980s? USA and Colombia)
Run Away Home by Patricia McKissack (1886 Alabama)
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan (Mexico and USA, Great Depression)
The Return by Sonia Levitin (Ethiopia, 1980s)
I'm sure I've forgotten some of the ones I had in mind; I'll post again if I think of them!
(and now, back to my previously scheduled lurking)
(no subject)
Mon, Jan. 21st, 2008 10:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Tue, Jan. 22nd, 2008 02:12 am (UTC)Actually, here's one more title--I just finished (and loved) it:
So Hard to Say (http://www.alexsanchez.com/So_Hard_To_Say/So_Hard_To_Say_Home_Page.htm) by Alex Sanchez (California, contemporary--viewpoint shifts between Xio (Mexican-American girl) and Frederick (Anglo boy), both thirteen-year-olds).
(no subject)
Tue, Jan. 22nd, 2008 06:58 pm (UTC)