POC in YA chicklit

[oyceter]

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

Comments

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

Post is in memories! Well, will be. I read a review of Octavian Nothing that dissed it as the most brutal, depressing thing she'd ever read. So I'm skeptical. Is it truly hopeless?

[evilprodigy.livejournal.com]

I didn't think so! I thought it was realistically brutal, but not hopeless by far -- and I'm kind of frustrated with reviewers' tendencies to dismiss the real brutality of slavery portrayed in Octavian Nothing with "but it's too brutal to read about!"

/$.02

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

That wasn't the sum total of the review, so I hope I didn't portray it that way. It was more like "look, here's every book where the dog died, the best friend died, and life generally sucked rolled into one. With slavery!"

[oyceter]

Heeeee! I know what you mean... I think Rachel and I were talking once about distinguishing between books that were depressing because of the depressingness inherent in the subject matter (slavery, racism, the Holocaust, apocalypses) and depressingness that goes beyond the depressingness inherent in the subject matter (made up example: the protagonist survives a concentration camp despite losing her family there and makes a new life for herself elsewhere. Then a completely random truck runs over her dog, decapitates it, and its head lands in her lap. The end.)

So yeah, I think it's depressing, but not gratuitously so (I feel it is not a spoiler to tell you that Octavian does not have a decapitated dog).

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

And I think there's a line between creating empathy and showing reality and being...punishing, I guess. It's like those gratuitously violent movies that attempt to wag a finger at you for enjoying violence.

[bravecows.livejournal.com]

Thirding rec for Octavian Nothing -- it blew me away. It is brutal and depressing, but considering the subject matter that's kind of hard to avoid, and I didn't think it was hopeless.

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

I think I am convinced!

[oyceter]

Um. It is brutal and depressing, but given the subject matter, I wasn't that surprised. And I was actually gleefully vindicative when I read it because of how Anderson deconstructed certain ideas about the American Revolution, but that may just be me... I also didn't find it hopeless, but it is a pretty dark book.

So YMMV?

[lady-ganesh.livejournal.com]

That part does sound good. It's such a crazily romanticized time.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay, what a great round-up post! Definitely bookmarking this for later reference.

Re: Diane Duane--Nita always confuses me, because I think at some point it's revealed that Nita is short for Juanita (her last name is Callahan). But I think neither of her parents are shown to be POCs. & hey, a non-Latina girl could be named Juanita, but it still confused me.

[oyceter]

Yeah! I was confused by Nita and her name when I read the first book as well, though most people the comments said Nita wasn't POC.

[minnow1212.livejournal.com]

Memory-ing. Thanks.

[cofax7]

Marvelous post. Shall bookmark.

With regards to the Duanes, I'd argue that a main character is POC, in that Kit-and-Nita are both the leads; Kit is not a secondary character. I don't recall off the top of my head how the pov was distributed in the first two, but certainly in later novels it's split pretty much evenly between them (although that is complicated by later plot developments). That said, Kit's ethnicity is rarely touched on, and it's easy to not notice that he's Latino.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Kit's definitely a main characters overall, and gets a later book almost completely to himself, but the first two are pretty tight on Nita. I agree about their names and was confused even when I was ten and largely oblivious to race.

[cofax7]

Yeah, I kept double-checking, because I knew one of them was Latino, and I kept thinking it was Nita, because of her name being Juanita, but it wasn't, and I kept getting confused.

[oyceter]

Will take your word on it! I don't think I'm going to read further in the series, so my impression of the POV characters is solely based on the first three books. It's good to know that Kit gets more POV in the later ones.

[jadelennox]

Kit's whole family, does, actually, with a focus on his sister Carmelita, which is nice. Sadly, it's at the same time as the books go rapidly downhill.

But Angela Johnson ... *swoons*. Woman has never written a non-awesome book. Have you read Toning the Sweep? Three generations of American black women, teenager, mother, and grandmother, come together in a life history mixed-generational book of gorgeousness.

[oyceter]

Oh, I haven't read that one! Multi-generational! OMG must get my hands on it!

[magicnoire.livejournal.com]

Great post!

(Also, have a safe trip to Taiwan!)

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And have a good trip. I will see you when you return, yay!

[kinsugi.livejournal.com]

POC and science fiction? You don't mention Octavia Butler, winner of both the Hugo and Nebula awards, the "Oscars" of science fiction.

Here's the Wikipedia entry about this author:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octavia_E._Butler

Her web page (http://www.sfwa.org/members/Butler/) has some very interesting interviews, if you scroll down to find them.

I'll be interested in seeing what you think of her books.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

I don't think of Butler as writing YA at all -- even Fledgling with its young protagonist would have been too disturbing and adult for me until after high school. Certainly there's no way she's fluffy chicklit!

[oyceter]

If you're interested, I've actually got some write ups of Butler's books here, though I didn't include her in this list because the focus is on YA.

[jinian.livejournal.com]

Didn't you read Down to the Bone as well? If not, I recommend it. (I meant to mail you about it, but I kept thinking the phrase "lesbian Latina lolitas" was a spam-filter nightmare, and it's too appropriate to leave out.)

And those great illustrations in Part-Time Indian are by the awesome Ellen Forney. Check out her other work if you get a chance. The most recent book I've seen includes her series of technical writing for the Seattle alternative weekly, things like a doctor talking about reattaching blown-off fingers for the Fourth of July and a stripper teaching how to spin tassels on one's nipples. :)

[oyceter]

Oh, I didn't read that one! I will have to check it out, thanks!

Also, the Forney technical writing bits sound exactly up my alley (as in: interesting and somewhat odd non-fiction, not wanting to learn how to reattach fingers or spin tassels ^_~).

[pinkdormouse.livejournal.com]

Loads of recs! I'll have to see which I can find in my local library.

Thanks.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

I have started to read Octavian Nothing, I haven't been spoiled for anything, and I still have no idea what it will be about. Also, 'The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume One: The Pox Party' seems unnecessarily long, no?

I forced Un Lun Dun on my cousins, and they loved it! I'm going to have to wok my way through the rest of these, because I have been terrible at 50_books POC, unless I count manga (I'm thinking about limiting myself to half manga, and the rest have to be books? I can do it!).

[oyceter]

Yaaay more people reading Octavian Nothing! I am really interested as to what you will think.

And yaaaay more people reading Un Lun Dun!

[telophase.livejournal.com]

I took rachelmanija to the enormous Half-Price Books this weekend, and threw a book into her basket that sounded exactly like both her and you: Chinese Cinderella and the Secret Dragon Society (http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Cinderella-Secret-Dragon-Society/dp/0060567368/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212504003&sr=8-3). It appears to be a much-fictionalized sort=of retelling of the author's memoirs of growing up in China, Chinese Cinderella (http://www.amazon.com/Chinese-Cinderella-Story-Unwanted-Daughter/dp/0440228654/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1212504003&sr=8-1), that involves joining a secret martial-arts society and going on a secret mission to rescue some American airmen being held prisoner. XD

[oyceter]

Cool! I've avoided the memoir because I have read enough of the "abusive mother-figures in China" genre (hi Amy Tan!), but the fictionalized version sounds awesome!

[gair.livejournal.com]

Thank you SO MUCH for this! I'm putting together an undergraduate course on children in literature/children's literature (basic question is 'what work does the idea of THE CHILD do in texts'), and was horrified at how few books by/about people of colour I was coming up with. Will browse these lists in much detail. Thank you.

[oyceter]

Oh, awesome, glad to help! I'm probably missing a ton of more "classic" texts, but hopefully it'll still be useful.

[coffeeandink.livejournal.com]

Shannon Hale, Book of a Thousand Days? (author not POC)

[oyceter]

Oh, that's right, I forgot about that! I will have to read it some time.

[magistera.livejournal.com]

eeee, books! I love YA, so I'll be bookmarking this one. I mostly wanted to pop in to say that I'm about 3/4 of the way through Un Lun Dun, which I picked up after reading your review, and I love it. So thanks for the rec, because I probably would never have picked it up on my own :)

[oyceter]

Eeeeee! I'm so glad you like it!

[re-weird.livejournal.com]

Wow, thank you for so many recs! It will go in my memories for when I have more time to read and access to a library.

[kialio.livejournal.com]

Thanks for all the recommendations. I'm going to run to the book store now. :)

More book

[clarkco.livejournal.com]

I really liked your list but I noticed you left off some award winners and other highly acclaimed authors off your list.

If you're looking for some historical fiction with the scope and power of Octavian Nothing give, Elijah of Buxton by Christopher Paul Curtis a try. Although my favorite Christopher Paul Curtis novel is The Watsons Go To Birmingham, 1963. Another good read-a-like for Octavian Nothing is the 1976 Newbery Winner, Roll of Thunder, Hear by Cry by Mildred Taylor. I read it too young as a child; only by reading it again as an adult did I realize how awesome this book was. Plus the great thing about it is that it has a prequel and several sequels.

Another favorite book of mine is Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood by Ben Saenz. It was voted best YA book of 2004 by Adbooks (a listserv about adolescent books frequented by YA libraians, publishers and authors)

The Printz winner (The best YA book decided by A.L.A) last year was a graphic novel called American Born Chinese by Gene Yang. It is the story about Jin, the only Asian kid at his middle school and how he meet's the legendary Monkey King. It has a really cool format and story structure.

Lastly, anything by Walter Dean Myers. There's a reason he's a legend in YA fiction.

Re: More book

[oyceter]

The list isn't actually meant to be comprehensive, and I left off a lot of award winners and well-known authors largely because I was looking for YA books about POC that weren't about their POC-ness and were more fluffy.

I think I had checked out the Saenz, but never finished it because I hadn't been in the mood for it, and while I like Yang's book, the realizations about being Asian not being bad read as a little rote to me -- I completely agree with his conclusion, but having gone through that identity crisis myself, I've been looking more for books in which the protagonist doesn't angst about being a POC.

Of course, this is entirely subjective and mostly just a list of what I've been reading in the past year or so, ergo the randomness.

Re: More book

[(Anonymous)]

I didn't mean to imply your list was incomplete and you were crazy (CRAZY!) to leave off those award winners. They are all just books I really enjoyed and I'm always trying to prod people into reading books I love. Plus it seems like we have the same taste in authors. If you're in the mood to try some more graphic novels with Asian heroines you might try Re-Gifters by Mike Carey and Good As Lily by Derek Kirk Kim. Have you tried Cathy's Book by Sean Stewart that's nother book with a cool Asian lead character.

Re: More book

[oyceter]

No prob! I hadn't realized Sean Stewart had written something with an Asian main character; will check that out. I've heard similar good things about Derek Kirk Kim, but one of my Korean friends read Re-Gifters and noted that the writers basically made up a name that didn't sound Korean at all, and used nonsense drawings as hangeul sound effects, so will probably be skipping that one...

[were-duck.livejournal.com]

Here via mystickeeper

Thanks for this list! I know what you mean about depressing YA (the 'problem' novel, as I've heard some such referred to). I'm excited to start exploring some of these.

I hope you don't mind my friending you! You seem like someone worth following.

[oyceter]

No problem! And again, feel free to ask for expansions on any of the books I've read.

[nextian.livejournal.com]

Okay, it's really weird of me to be commenting on this in July '09. But OMG someone else who read Deeba from Un Lun Dun as a girl of color! I couldn't tell if it was supposed to be intentional or not -- I'm always really wary of "dark" turning out to be "brunette" in UK lit -- and I was reading her that way by force of will more than anything, which kind of embarrassed me. I am effing thrilled to find out that you agree.

This is a great list and as I'm just starting 50_bookspoc I hope to mine it for many recs.

[oyceter]

I definitely did! Although some of that might be because the person who recced it to me (I forgot who now) told me that it starred a girl of color, so I was pre-disposed to read it that way.