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Connect with Sarah Ockler: How Diverse Is Your Bookshelf?

Posted on February 20th, 2009 by Sarah Ockler · Email post Email post · Print Print

I read young adult fiction. A lot of it. Middle Grade stuff, too. Pages and books and entire libraries of it! But until recently, I hadn’t given much thought to the diversity of my favorite bookshelves.

Diversity, yanno? Nope, I’m not talking about showing equal love for vampires, faeries, and humans (which I never could, because in that arena I’m 100% unapologetically biased… Edward… *swoon*… I mean…  *cough*… um, where were we?) Right. Diversity. That is, consciously seeking out a great read by an author whose race, culture, or ethnic background is different from my own.

If your book-buying (or borrowing) habits are anything like mine, you probably pick up a book based on a friend’s recommendation, or its cool cover (admit it!), or your previously established love for the author, or something that grabbed your attention in the flap copy. Or maybe something is on sale, like when Waldenbooks does it’s 3-for-2 deal. When that happens, I might even indulge in something *really* different from my usual picks. Like something with a dress or a pink shoe on the cover, or something about trolls with swords.

But the ethnicity of the writers who’d penned the stories in my to-be-read pile never really entered my mind until I hung out a while on author friend Carleen Brice’s White Readers Meet Black Authors, “your official invitation into the African American section of the bookstore.” Carleen’s informative, tongue-in-cheek blog focuses mostly on black writers, but it got me thinking about author diversity in general. When I did a quick inventory of my own shelves, I was disappointed to confirm what I already suspected — my books are shamefully lacking in the non-white author department.

Diverse Books: Sarah’s Current YA & MG List

  1. THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN, Sherman Alexie
  2. GIRL OVERBOARD, Justina Chen Headley
  3. THE KAYLA CHRONICLES, Sherri Winston
  4. A SINGLE SHARD, Linda Sue Park
  5. WHALE RIDER, Witi Ihimaera

Five books by authors of color. Five, out of hundreds of books on my shelves. Pretty pathetic, huh? Well… I’m working on it. Doret Canton (a.k.a. The Happy Nappy Bookseller) sent me a copy of Dream Jordan’s HOT GIRL as part of a giveaway she hosted on Carleen’s blog, encouraging readers to support minority authors by buying a children’s or YA title by a black writer. I also got some help in today’s mailbox — an ARC of Cynthea Liu’s upcoming PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE. Now my diverse book list is up to 7. :-)

Diversify Your Shelves

Take a look at your favorite YA and MG bookshelves. How diverse are they? If you’re white, how about checking out some Chinese or Native writers? If you’re black, have you read anything by Indian or Korean authors? No matter your race or ethnicity, I encourage you to try something new this month and pick up a book by an author of color — any color, as long as it’s not your own!

Not sure where to find books by writers of color? Here are some ideas to get you started:

  • The Brown Bookshelf
  • African American Children’s Books by The Happy Nappy Bookseller
  • White Readers Meet Black Authors
  • Check out some of the 2009 Debutantes, including Cynthea Liu (THE GREAT CALL OF CHINA and PARIS PAN TAKES THE DARE), Neesha Meminger (SHINE, COCONUT MOON), Cindy Pon (SILVER PHOENIX: BEYOND THE KINGDOM OF XIA), and Malinda Lo (ASH)
  • Browse books from my list of 5 above, and don’t forget Justina Chen Headley’s newest, NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL (I have to pick that up myself!)
  • And finally, leave a comment for a chance to win my copy of Dream Jordan’s HOT GIRL! I’ll select a reader at random and send it over to you as soon as I’m finished, as long as you promise to blog about it when you’re done!

Already a Diverse Reader?

If you’ve already got some YA and MG faves by writers of color or suggestions on where we can find more books and blogs like the ones listed above, leave some love in the comments and let us know.

Happy reading, all!

~ Sarah Ockler, Author of TWENTY BOY SUMMER

Related posts:

  1. Connect with Sarah Ockler: Sex in YA — Rating the Writing
  2. Connect with Sarah Ockler: Amazonfail a Win for the Indies?
  3. Connect with Sarah Ockler: National Writing Encouragement Day/Week/Month
  4. Connect with Sarah Ockler: Top 10 Reasons Books are Better than TV
  5. Author Spotlight: Sarah Ockler, TWENTY BOY SUMMER (Giveaway Alert: Now – 08/05/09)

Categories: Book Recommendations · Connect · Contests

Comments

  • 1 Thao // Feb 20, 2009 at 5:05 am

    Thanks for the post Sarah, makes me realize that English written books on my shelf are all by white author, expect for Flygirl. Silver Phoenix looks really good and I’ve always wanted to read this English book by a Vietnamese author – Stealing Buddha’s Dinner.

    I should diversify my shelf, seriously!

  • 2 cloudscome // Feb 20, 2009 at 8:19 am

    This is a great post. I am taking part in the Diversity Rocks! challenge here: http://diversebooks.blogspot.com/2008/12/2009-diversity-rocks-challenge.html

    Here are a few other blogs I read to find diverse books:

    http://blackeyedsusans.blogspot.com/
    http://www.papertigers.org/wordpress/
    http://www.mitaliblog.com/

    I’m glad to find AuthorsNow!

  • 3 Neesha // Feb 20, 2009 at 11:03 am

    Beautiful post, Sarah.

  • 4 sarahockler // Feb 20, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    Thanks for your thoughts, you guys!

    couldscome, welcome to AuthorsNow! I’m going to check out those other sites.

  • 5 admin // Feb 20, 2009 at 9:57 pm

    Sarah, have you seen the statistics put out by CCBC? It’s pretty interesting to see the numbers of books that are put out each year by “people of color.” Why does that phrase always sound so weird to me. Are white people not a color? ha! Anyway, here’s the link. Enjoy!

    http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/pcstats.htm

  • 6 MJ // Feb 21, 2009 at 6:48 am

    Please enter me for the Hot Girl giveaway!

    I teach kindergarten. My classroom library is very diverse but sadly my personal library is not.

  • 7 Doret // Feb 21, 2009 at 11:04 am

    Sarah, I can’t wait to hear what you think of Hot Girl. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did. I try to have diversity on my bookshelve but I am guilty of browsing with interest, books by authors who aren’t Black or White and never getting around to reading them. I put them on my mental tbr list but not enough make it to the top. So I also joined the Diversity Rocks challenge I think its going to keep me honest.

  • 8 The BrainLair // Feb 21, 2009 at 12:15 pm

    The weird thing is, I’m black but I work in a predominately white school corporation. My shelves are embarrassing. I will definitely link to Brown Bookshelf. I’ve self-censored for so long, I never even noticed when I stopped buying African American writers, with the exception of Christopher Paul Curtis. I’ve got other ethnicities covered. In my head I guess I didn’t want people to think I was purchasing them just because they were from black authors. Weird, huh?

  • 9 Brenda Gurung // Feb 21, 2009 at 1:53 pm

    My bookshelf (and reading habits in general) have always been ethnically diverse, but how about this extension to your thought, Sara:

    Let’s reach for all levels of diversity with openness to expand our perspectives: ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, gender, political, economic, age, … You get the picture.

    In general the American societies I study are on their way to embracing ethnic diversity, but we’ve got a ways to go for true, deep diversity. There’s so much more to all of us than our ethnicity.

  • 10 Brenda Gurung // Feb 21, 2009 at 1:57 pm

    PS Sorry, Sarah. I misread your name and left off the “h.”

  • 11 Kymberley // Feb 21, 2009 at 2:43 pm

    Native American authors I recommend are Cynthia Leitich-Smith (pre-Tantalize :) Louise Erdrich, Joseph Bruchac, and Sandra DeCoteau Orie.

    I love CCBC and Brown Bookshelf, and pretty much any/all of the authors already mentioned!!

  • 12 cora // Feb 21, 2009 at 4:24 pm

    Let’s reach for all levels of diversity with openness to expand our perspectives: ethnic, religious, sexual orientation, gender, political, economic, age, … You get the picture.

    Brenda, tell it. I’m there with you.

  • 13 cora // Feb 21, 2009 at 5:45 pm

    Arggg, I think I lost my first post. Let me try again and I’ll try not to be long-winded. My outlook mirrors Brenda’s.

    I run a lit group for young women. We focus on woc writers. I run an online discussion forum and blog to support what we do. I have only recently begun posting reviews on my personal blog and because I’m a one woman show, we don’t have as many reviews as I’d like on our community blog. That will be changing this year.

    I read across genres, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation. I think anyone who doesn’t have diverse reading habits is missing out on some much quality literature.

    I am very active at a social network for book lovers. Recently I began to explore teen book review sites and while I am disappointed, I am not surprised. The lack of diversity in the books reviewed is depressing.

    I wrote elsewhere that it is assumed that all readers are interested in popular, mainstream literature but that multicultural literature is limited in themes and characters and therefore, it appeals primarily to people of color. This is an unfounded assumption, but you’d have to read the literature to know this is untrue.

    Most often when black literature is reviewed by white reviewers it is historical fiction because you know black writers only write historical fiction and biographies. When I’ve asked white readers for multicultural recommendations, more than once I’ve been told, “But, I’m not black, why would I know black authors?” (Close your mouth)

    If you ask me to name my favorite authors and books, I can easily rattle of a list diverse by race, gender, genres, themes and cultures. I majored in English and I read plenty of the standard white guys. Like them, too.

    I am however a woman, an African American woman, and I have an affinity for hearing our voices. I am a curious, voracious reader and I want to hear other people’s stories, too. My reading habits reflect a real interest in diversity.

    If I’m guilty of anything is that I tend to forget about the white guys. I swear I like them, but let’s be real- they are not hurting for an audience.
    Women of color, people of color get little play except from readers who know and want to read quality literature from as many perspectives they can find.

    I have the good fortune of running a small community library. Our collection represents works primarily by and about women. Our collection reflects a commitment to multiculturalism and diversity. Our collection reflects the experiences, voices and aspirations of our readers and provides an introduction to worlds they don’t know but I know they could relate to in they open the book.

    I invite you to check us out at Color Online.

    I regularly read a wrung sponge, The Happy Nappy Bookseller, and The Brown Bookshelf. Recently discovered The Diversity Challenge, White Readers Read Black Authors and Lotus Reads.

    Thanks to KB at Brain Lair for sharing this link. Enjoying this discussion.

  • 14 cora // Feb 21, 2009 at 5:56 pm

    Short list of YA I recommend:

    Does My Head Look Big In This by Randa Abdel-Fattah
    When Kambia Elaine Flew In From Neptune by Lori A. Williams
    From The Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Jacqueline Woodson
    If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson
    Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier
    Perepolis byMarjane Satrapi
    A Step From Heaven by An Na
    A Stone In My Hand by Cathryn Clinton
    Sadika’s Way by Hina Hak
    Life Is Funny by E.R. Frank
    Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
    The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian by Sherman Alexie
    Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
    A Cool Moonlight by Angela Johnson
    Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
    Sold by Patricia McCormick

  • 15 Lenore // Feb 22, 2009 at 9:15 am

    I seek out books that are set in other countries and cultures. And I love to promote great books no matter what they are about. The color of an author’s skin isn’t something that even enters my mind, and I always thought was a GOOD thing…

  • 16 cora // Feb 22, 2009 at 6:25 pm

    Lenore,
    You mean you don’t see color as something that would negatively affect how you see someone? Why do we have to not see a person’s color? Why not see color and think it is something beautiful and good?
    I don’t filter out color. I take it in just like I do gender, age, nationality, culture and any other demographics. Color/ethnicity shapes who we are and impacts our perception as much as any other facet.

  • 17 epiphany Renee // Feb 24, 2009 at 5:28 am

    I am a person of color and I have to admit I have never thought of the race of the authors I am reading. In fact, unless I have seen an author photo I have no idea what ethnicity they might be. I have just never taken into account the Author ethnicity – the lead character’s color has been a swaying matter, such as in Memoirs of a Geisha and in Broken China.
    I am, however, already reading Ash by Malinda Lo (as well as your book, Twenty Boy Summer) for a debut author challenge.

  • 18 Henry Davis // Aug 19, 2009 at 3:12 pm

    There is a great book out called A Lesser Pain. A memoir about the influence that child abuse and prison has on the mind. The author has been incarcerated three times but finally beat the odds of recidivism, depression and drug abuse to become a published author. It is not just another story about an ex-con it really explores a lot of the subject matter that his peers rarely explore or admit to.

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