Winston, Sherri - The Kayla Chronicles

[oyceter]

Kayla Dean and her best friend Rosalie have been ardent feminists for a while now, thanks to the influence of Rosalie's mom (Dr. X) and Kayla's now-deceased Grandma JoJo. Now, Rosalie wants Kayla to try out for the school's dance/cheerleader team, the Lady Lions, and write an expose on how the Lions discriminate against girls with "itty-bitty titties."

This is a very small book, and I had to be in the right mood to feel up to Kayla's voice, which is snappy and slangy and very fun. I was a little irritated that the main plot is mostly "Oh, I can be feminist and wear heels too!" as I felt the nuances of social expectations and gender roles and etc. weren't fully explored, and that the book took the easy way out with Rosalie's hardcore, "you're not a feminist unless you're like me" line.

I suspect a lot of this is just that I'm at the wrong age and place for the message and the book; I may have enjoyed it much more when I was reading tons of fantasy books featuring tomboys with swords as good and embroidering girly girls as simpering, evil, and cruel.

Still, it's a very fun book, and I laughed my way through it. It takes on romance, dance, family, and friendship, and while I think it could have taken more time with some of the issues, it's also possible that too many pages would have weighed it down as well. Also, I'm really enjoying this trend of YA novels for girls that star girls of color and make race an aspect of their lives, but not the main issue.

I'll be really interested to see what Winston writes next.

Links:
- buymeaclue's review

Comments

[octopedingenue]

I'd be interested in your take on Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone; I don't recall any POC, but it has interesting takes on body image and feminism versus(?) dance and art. Also Ptutu has made me a ballet sucker.

[jadelennox]

this is very much how I felt about this book. I definitely thought that Rosalie was way too much of a strawman -- the only two available definitions of feminism were "Don't care about your looks at all and never cooperate" and "Sexy dressing, extremely femininely- gendered girl power". Which was disappointing, because it never explored very complicated issue that it keeps raising, namely, if there is an empowering activity that a girl likes (such as dancing), but it is also part of an exploitative and sexist culture that includes no male dance teams (an issue not even raised) and sexy carwashes to raise money (an issue raised and glossed over), is that a good thing or a bad thing? Or both? How can we talk about it? And the book raised the question but then made the answer too easy by by the strawman nature of Rosalie's arguments.

But that being said, as you said , a very fun book, and I, also, laughed my way through it. And wow, I think I used up my comma allotment in the previous sentence.

So I think it was a net positive overall.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

...featuring tomboys with swords as good and embroidering girly girls as simpering, evil, and cruel.

You know, I always hated the shorthand that enjoying embroidery = simpering evil. I've always loved making stuff.

Now, I can see where enjoying the dull, tedious stuff like whipstitching flat panels together to make sheets, or miles and miles of hems would put a different spin on a character*, but just liking embroidery = antagonist? I don't think so!

(And where are all the people who like both? When I was in the SCA, there were tons of fighters who loved the artsy stuff. Harrumph.)



* Of course, my brain is now going "It's not the stitching they enjoy, it's the socializing with others while they're doing it!"