I join many others in saying that I appreciate the growing number of secondary characters who are of different colors and races, but we need more MAIN characters. And we feel that white-washing the covers is sneaky and wrong (showing the main character as being decidedly more white than he/she is in the book). We also need more non-white writers and authors. We know you're out there (speaking to you, A.K.!)
My plan is to highlight a book with a non-white main character every month, starting with Played this month. This is a companion book to Hooked (which I plan to read soon), and highlights some of the secondary characters from Hooked.
The main characters are Riley (suburban white girl) and Sam (from the Gila River Indian reservation); this is one of those great "you're the last person I'd ever fall in love with" stories that I never get tired of.
Highlights of this book, for me:
~A main character that's Native American... I loved Sam!
~Sam's friends on the Rez (Gila River Indian Reservation near Phoenix)
~His grandmother and her baskets
~The road trip to California (on a motorcycle!) and its unexpected consequences
~just a touch of a reverse love triangle going on between Sam, Riley and Fred
~the secret about Sam's father
~My first impression of Riley wasn't too great but she had some lessons to learn about peer pressure (haven't we all?)
Do you have any book recommendations that showcase diversity?
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I agree with you about secondary characters. I love when diverse types are chosen for such roles. It adds so much flavor to a story. Plus, I usually learn a lot about other cultures, beliefs, etc...
ReplyDeleteOh I love the learning... other than real life, no better way to learn than through a good book
DeleteI see much more diversity in MG books than in YA, for sure. In YA a recent read with a non-white protagonist is Gilded by Christina Farley. In it, a Korean-American girl, whose father moves her back to Korea after her mother dies, discovers her family has had generations-long interactions with some of the Korean deities.
ReplyDeleteI've been tempted to read this one... I read the sample chapter and it didn't hook me, but I might try it again (sometimes I have to be in the right mood)
DeleteIt's good that books like this are turing up more and more often! Pet peeve, though: "diverse" characters added as token nod towards the issue. There should never be a token anything.
ReplyDeleteYes!!! Couldn't agree more!
DeleteMargo, you touch on a topic that really bothered me when I was a kid. All the white, middle-class and upper-class families inhabiting the kids' library shelves.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the links to the blogs.
I know... especially since I was always in city schools where white was barely the majority. I'm so thankful for the diversity I grew up in real life and hope it gets that way more in fiction, too. Slowly but surely.
DeleteI love diversity books. Our world includes more than just one race. I want to open up the literary world for others.
ReplyDeleteSimone Elkeles has some great ones (at least two different series if I remember right), and many of Rick Riordan's books also have really fun diverse leads.
ReplyDelete