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, 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.

Comments

[minim_calibre]

I would suggest the award winning Adios to My Old Life, by Caridad Ferrer.

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

I haven't read either of these yet, but I've heard read good reviews (from a reviewer with reliably excellent taste) on Dear Author for Sherri Winston's The Kayla Chronicles and Justina Chen Headley's Girl Overboard.

[minim_calibre]

(The author, full disclosure, is a friend, but she's also good, and it fits the bill. From the Booklist review: "Ali Montero, 17, has been brought up by her father, a music professor in Miami, to be a good Cuban American girl as well as a talented singer and guitarist. But he's not pleased when she makes the finals in a nationwide TV competition to find the "next Latin superstar." Could she win? Caught up in the performance rush with makeup, wardrobe, and publicity, she is helped by cute Jaime Lozano, a smart production major from NYU, who loves her. Ali's first-person colloquial narrative is "totally" with it. But there's also a real story here, with frenetic action, romance (including some hot sex), pop-scene fantasy, and surprises to the very end. What shines through in Cuban American writer Ferre's first novel (part of the MTV Fiction series), though, is the rich diversity of Latino culture, and the celebration of music and its universal connections.")

[oyceter]

Ohh, thank you! That sounds perfect, actually.

[oyceter]

And my library has it, so I placed a hold!

[oyceter]

Oh awesome, thank you. I love my library -- they don't have them yet, but both books have been ordered, which means I get holds!

[keilexandra]

Umm, this is not happy (though not uber-depressing, either, I think) or YA, but I just checked out A CONCISE CHINESE-AMERICAN DICTIONARY FOR LOVERS from the library and it looks very good. THE DIARY OF MA YAN is depressing POC YA, but not of the sort you mentioned specifically--just heart-breaking poverty.

Sorry about offering recs that don't fit your criteria, but I figured it was better than nothing. Will keep thinking, too.

[limb-of-satan.livejournal.com]

I've seen these while I was shelving in the library and thought they looked fun:

Bindi Babes/ Bollywood Babes/ Bhangra Babes by Narinder Dhami.

I've haven't read them so I can't answer to how good they actually are.

[oyceter]

Thanks! I may not grab those right now, just because the last few books I've read have been about hazing, Japanese internment, and physical and emotional abuse, but maybe after I read happy fluff for a bit.

[oyceter]

Ooo, thanks, and my library has them too.

[littlebutfierce]

I'll be interested to hear what you think of the Justina Chen Headley--I haven't read it, but I read her first book (Nothing But the Truth (and a few white lies)) & liked it, but w/reservations (it was a little high on the "OMG hapa girls are so beautiful! You're so lucky!" creep-factor--I can appreciate that she wrote the story thinking of her own mixed daughter, but still...).

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

You already know about this one, but I loved The Bermudez Triangle. Three protagonists, one a girl of color.

I remember enjoying Ellen Wittlinger's Hard Love but years ago, so I'm not sure if it totally qualifies. Boy meets lesbian Latina zine writer; sparks fly. I don't recall it being depressing, but it's not really chicklit.

Virginia Hamilton can be uplifting, but not cheerful or light. The books I've read by Jacqueline Woodson have been pretty serious, but she's written a lot so you might try her out.

This is definitely a genre that needs more of it! It reminds me of desperately looking for books about Jewish girls that were not about the Holocaust.

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

That sounds adorable.

[fresne.livejournal.com]

The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder, which as I recall had a number of POC characters and was about the power of imagination. As I recall it ended happily. Or at least with the characters picking a new thing to go research/become interested in.

[oyceter]

Huh ok. I think I will look for that one as well.

[oyceter]

I mean to read Bermudez Triangle, really! I actually own it but keep forgetting to get around to it.

Will keep the Hamilton and the Woodson in the back of my mind, but right now I desperately need fluff.

OMG. I was just so depressed scanning through the list of books about black teens at my library. I am sure they are not all depressing, but it was just: gangs, single-parent family, gangs, pregnant, gangs, etc.

[oyceter]

Oh huh. Is the main character POC? I've also been avoiding that for a while because everyone hates the sequel or something?

[telophase.livejournal.com]

When I was making my list of interesting YA books to read yesterday, going through Amazon was so disheartening, because I'd click on these cool-sounding titles, and get books on dying, gangs, slavery, divorce, etc. GAAAAAAH! The entire contemporary YA section is plagued by Message Books.

ETA: Not to mention the one that has the main character's family adopting a small almost-dead boy who's the only survivor of an illegal immigrant group crossing the border. AND the main character's aunt is a Bosnian refugee, which just seems like adding insult to injury there.

[takumashii.livejournal.com]

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.

apropos of a different post...

[sarahtales.livejournal.com]

I do not think you would be scared of the Bermudez Triangle girls! At least not Mel, she's very shy and sweet. It's a lovely warm book and was what put me onto Johnson in the first place, do try it.

[oyceter]

Aiiieeee! Yeah, there are a lot of YA message books, and unfortunately, it feels like if you add POC, it doubles the message quotient.

I mean, I am all for people knowing about the realities of slavery and the Civil Rights movement and the Japanese internment camps, but right now, I am reading nonfiction for that and need to feel like the world is not horrible.

Wow. That's um... depressing.

[fresne.livejournal.com]

I don't remember if it's tight POV or general. It's been 20 years, but the three characters I remember are a white girl (who has all the theater stuff or theater background, or something), a POC girl (who pushes the research forward) and Marshall, the POC girl's insanely cool little brother (who is all of six and therefore is designated the boy king. Kid had gravitas.)

I remember loving it when I was in middle school. I only found out there was a sequel just now when I looked up the author's name. Since the reviews were uniformly miserable, I think I'll skip it. Mind you, since I'm not currently 12-13, I couldn't tell you whether I'd still think it was awesome. But it was very... it valued research and learning and imagining things and playing dress up.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I just started poking about Amazon.com again, and in the description for a book about a teen with incurable leukemia (http://www.amazon.com/Deadline-Chris-Crutcher/dp/0060850892/ref=pd_sim_b_title_20), is this: "Crutcher fits far too much into this ambitious novel, which includes subplots about incest, pedophilia, manic depression, and intellectual freedom, as well as a Jesus-like character who appears in visions."

MY GOD IT'S MANGA.

Now I kind of want to hold a contest to see who can dig up the most over-the-top Message Book.

[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.

Re: apropos of a different post...

[oyceter]

Hee! Oh good! I have only good impressions of this book from people's recs, and from your siccing it on teenage boys ;).