Welcome to the 2016 Cybils Speculative Reader! As a first run reader for the Cybils, I'll be briefly introducing you to the books on the list, giving you a mostly unbiased look at some of the plot.Enjoy! One of the strengths of speculative fiction... Read the rest of this post
Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!Today my flying book-boat icon is especially apropos, as I'm talking about a time travel book, where the travel took place onboard a pirate ship. Now, I don't actually love time travel novels, because a.)... Read the rest of this post
Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!If we say we never judge a book by its cover, we'll sound like better people, sure, but we'll be total liars. I chose this book based on its beautiful cover, and that first snap judgment was enough to pick... Read the rest of this post
By
Cynthia Leitich Smithfor
CynsationsOver the summer, the children's-YA book community has continued discussing diversity, decolonization, authenticity and representation both throughout the body of literature and the industry. Here are highlights; look for more in quickly upcoming, additional update posts.
Mirrors? Windows? How about Prisms? from Uma Krishnaswami. Peek: "...cultural content in children’s books needs to be woven into the story so the authors intention is not stamped all over it." See also Uma on
Tolstoy Was Not Writing for Me.
Twelve Fundamentals of Writing The "Other" and The Self by
Daniel Jose Older from Buzzfeed Books. Peek: "Every character has a relationship to power. This includes institutional, interpersonal, historical, cultural. It plays out in the micro-aggressions and hate crimes, sex, body image, life-changing decisions, everyday annoyances and the depth of historical community trauma."
Diversity in Book Publishing Isn't Just About Writers -- Marketing Matters, Too by Jean Ho from NPR. Peek: "For past projects, she has researched segmented audiences ranging from retired African-American women's books clubs, South Asian soccer organizations, Trinidadian-interest media outlets both stateside and abroad, to extracurricular programs geared toward South Bronx teens."
Looking Back: Diversity in Board Books by Joanna Marple from We Need Diverse Books. Peek: "...that children as young as six months can judge others by the color of their skin. Even if a caregiver never mentions race, children may well use skin color on their own, along with other differences, to judge themselves and others."
Drilling Down on Diversity in Picture Books from CCBlogC. Peek: "We’re keeping track of the things people want to know. Just how many picture books have animal, rather than human, characters? How many books about African American characters are historical? How many feature LGBTQ families? Or Muslims? Or people with disabilities? How many are by first-time authors or illustrators?"
Children's Books and the Color of Characters by
Kwame Alexander from The New York Times. Peek: "They all believe I am writing about them. Why is this so much harder for the grown-ups? Is race the only lens through which we can read the world?"
On White Fragility in Young Adult Literature by
Justine Larbalestier from Reading While White. Peek: "...we white authors can support Indigenous authors and Authors of Color by reading their books, recommending their books, blurbing their books, and recommending them to our agents. When we're invited to conferences, or festivals, or to be in anthologies, make sure they're not majority white."
When Defending Your Writing Becomes Defending Yourself by Matthew Salesses from NPR. Peek: "Here is a not uncommon experience. Writer
Emily X.R. Pan was told by the white writers in her workshop that the racism in her story could never happen — though every incident had happened to her."
There Is No Secret to Writing About People Who Don't Look Like You: The Importance of Empathy as Craft by Brandon Taylor from LitHub. Peek: "The best writing, the writing most alive with possibilities, is the writing that at once familiarizes and estranges; it’s writing that divorces us from our same-old contexts and shifts our thinking about ourselves and the world around us."
How Canada Publishes So Much Diverse Children's Literature by Ken Setterington from School Library Journal. Peek: "Considering that the entire Canadian market is about the size of the market in California alone (roughly 36 million), publishers must rely on sales outside of the country."
Biracial, Bicultural Roundtable (
Part One,
Part Two) by Cynthia Leitich Smith from We Need Diverse Books. Peek: "According to a 2015 Pew study, 6.9 percent of the U.S. population is biracial. According to the 2010 Census, between 2000 and 2010, the number of people identifying themselves with more than one race rose from 6.8 million to 9 million."
Cynsational Screening Room Related Links
Welcome to another session of Turning Pages! Mostly I'm not that big a fan of YA historical fiction that are set in modern history. Finding a novel set in the 70's or 80's feels weird, mainly because I've been alive during part of those years, and... Read the rest of this post
Welcome to another session of Turning Pages!When we talk about comfort reads, we have to mention the works of Joan Bauer. A little offbeat, a little unique, her books are always engaging and wise. Though quite a few are written for teens, many... Read the rest of this post
Brendan Buckley's Universe and Everything In It by Sundee T. Frazier
I was happy to see that MotherReader fudged the age requirement a bit, because this is listed as grade 4.5 reading level, but it's the book from my pile that I most wanted to read. And if our Gracious Leader can do it, so can I!
Brendan Buckley, the child of a black father and a white mother, is an intensely curious, scientifically-minded ten-year-old boy, trying to answer two complicated questions. Why doesn't he know his mother's father? And why are white people sometimes mean to black people?
When he accidentally runs into his grandfather Ed at a minerals exhibit, Brendan discovers they have a lot in common. And he feels compelled to try to solve the mystery of his grandfather's absence from his life... but he may not like the answer he gets.
Frazier takes what I guess could be called a post-modern approach to biracial identity here, and expresses it with sincerity and conviction. Although Brendan's life is not free of racism, he's not caught up in a black identity or a white identity, but open to all aspects of himself. His energy, commitment and intelligence make him a very likable character and I moved to tears by his final, triumphant self-acceptance. (9 & up)
198 pages
Reading: 1 hour, 18 minutes
Blogging: 25 minutes
By: tanita✿davis,
on 11/2/2016
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 9/7/2016
By: web,
on 6/5/2010
I liked this one. It was one of the finalists for a kids choice award out here, but no one but me in the family got the devour-a-list disease so the kids haven't read it yet.
This has been on my Amazon recs for a while. I just added it to my list -- thanks for the review!