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I have *spreadsheets*.
21/10/11 15:27Is it just me, or is the Printz discussion (for the best YA book of the year) pretty white and straight, even more so than usual?
Because I am on the library's YA books committee, which does the Mock Printz, I am keeping *spreadsheets* (you can imagine that in glitter and sparkly letters if you like. I really like spreadsheets) of the YA books that get multiple starred reviews, and which ones I've read, and which ones I'm waiting to get in. (Because I am weird, I often use a random number generator to pick a book from the list and see which one I will read next. It's actually a good way of sniping books that might otherwise fall through the cracks.)
So today I was idly browsing through my spreadsheet and feeling nervous about not having read enough sufficiently diverse books yet, and I realized... my spreadsheet's not giving me a lot to pick from.
YA FICTION ON MY SPREADSHEET READ THUS FAR, tagged for characters of color, LGBT characters, characters with disabilities as the main characters.
---
ANYA'S GHOST by Vera Brosgol
BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY by Ruth Sepetys
BLINK & CAUTION by Tim Wynne-Jones
CHIME by Franny Billingsley
DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE by Laini Taylor
I AM J by Chris Beam -- main character is trans and multiracial
THE QUEEN OF HEARTS by Martha Brooks
THE QUEEN OF WATER by Laura Resau -- main character is Quechua
SIDEKICKS by Jack Ferraiolo
PAPER COVERS ROCK by Jenny Hubbard
KARMA by Cathy Ostlere -- main character is Indian-Canadian.
JASPER JONES by Craig Silvey
SILHOUETTED BY THE BLUE by Traci Jones -- main character is black.
So, it's a few.
But, here's the rest of my spreadsheet:
( I'll put this behind a cut )
I don't know all of the ones that have diverse characters, obviously, not having read them yet. From the cover and what I know of Paul Griffin's work, I think the main characters in Stay With Me are characters of color. Island's End is based on the native tribes of the Andaman islands. Brooklyn, Burning has a main character whose gender is never specified, which is a neat trick and I'm looking forward to reading it though I'm not sure if it counts from a diversity perspective. Three of those are short story anthologies. And, well, I really hope that I'm just missing a bunch that I haven't heard too much buzz about, because that is a really low number.
Because I am on the library's YA books committee, which does the Mock Printz, I am keeping *spreadsheets* (you can imagine that in glitter and sparkly letters if you like. I really like spreadsheets) of the YA books that get multiple starred reviews, and which ones I've read, and which ones I'm waiting to get in. (Because I am weird, I often use a random number generator to pick a book from the list and see which one I will read next. It's actually a good way of sniping books that might otherwise fall through the cracks.)
So today I was idly browsing through my spreadsheet and feeling nervous about not having read enough sufficiently diverse books yet, and I realized... my spreadsheet's not giving me a lot to pick from.
YA FICTION ON MY SPREADSHEET READ THUS FAR, tagged for characters of color, LGBT characters, characters with disabilities as the main characters.
---
ANYA'S GHOST by Vera Brosgol
BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY by Ruth Sepetys
BLINK & CAUTION by Tim Wynne-Jones
CHIME by Franny Billingsley
DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONE by Laini Taylor
I AM J by Chris Beam -- main character is trans and multiracial
THE QUEEN OF HEARTS by Martha Brooks
THE QUEEN OF WATER by Laura Resau -- main character is Quechua
SIDEKICKS by Jack Ferraiolo
PAPER COVERS ROCK by Jenny Hubbard
KARMA by Cathy Ostlere -- main character is Indian-Canadian.
JASPER JONES by Craig Silvey
SILHOUETTED BY THE BLUE by Traci Jones -- main character is black.
So, it's a few.
But, here's the rest of my spreadsheet:
( I'll put this behind a cut )
I don't know all of the ones that have diverse characters, obviously, not having read them yet. From the cover and what I know of Paul Griffin's work, I think the main characters in Stay With Me are characters of color. Island's End is based on the native tribes of the Andaman islands. Brooklyn, Burning has a main character whose gender is never specified, which is a neat trick and I'm looking forward to reading it though I'm not sure if it counts from a diversity perspective. Three of those are short story anthologies. And, well, I really hope that I'm just missing a bunch that I haven't heard too much buzz about, because that is a really low number.