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Race Uncovered
Interesting day today. The first thing I read was about covers and so was the last.
Steph Sue, in her review of The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa pointed out the whitewashing on the cover. Really? Still? The book is clearly about an Asian character, the cover is not. While the comments mentioned a dislike of the cover, none reacted to the whitewashing.
So much tip-toeing around racial issues, isn’t there? We carry our chips well.
As my day was winding down, I received an email that led me to Kate Hart’s recent post which enumerated the color of covers in YA.
I wonder how many white people who commented on these blogs will themselves include a book featuring a main character of color among their next book purchase or library check out? How many actually get that books written with Asian and Latino characters aren’t just written for Asian and Latino readers? That Ang Lee and Spike Lee don’t make movies just for Asians and Blacks and that it really is OK if white people watch BET?
I applaud Kate Hart’s presentation of just the facts, allowing readers to interpret on their own. Most simply chose to see Hart’s skill at crunching the numbers. Most, but not all. There are some very insightful comments to the post and a lot of really good information is shared. And it’s possible people just didn’t know what else to say. I get like that myself sometimes.
It’s disheartening to see the lack of ethnic representation on covers for two very distinct reasons. First someone thinks that putting people of color on a cover of a book will have a negative impact on sales. While book publishers continue the same marketing practices that they’ve had forever, America continues to brown! And, brown people do have babies. And, those babies do read! Not putting people of color on covers for this reason is simply racist by implying Black, Indian, Asian and Native faces aren’t good enough to sell books.
Second, the number of books with people of color on the covers derives from the fact that there simply aren’t enough books published that featuring teens of color! There are not enough books for libraries that service large numbers of teens of color to be able to fill their shelves with books for these teens who simply to want to read. And, there aren’t enough for white children, either!
White children need to have a wide selection of books available to them with teens of color so they can get a clue what the world really looks and feels like. The lives of teens of color need to be in print for validation to ALL teen readers. I really believe that all teens need to be able to get an idea of how to maneuver the world around them from what they read.
Like it or not, the world is changing. There are many YAs out there who are so sick and tired of this conversation. They truly have created a multicolored world for themselves yet, we give them books that don’t reflect this reality.
Unlike generations past, people of color today actually have the freedom to vote with their feet and their dollars so that they can work, buy and live where they and their money is accepted. These entrepreneurial folk are part of the new economy: they are self publishers who are controlling their stories while making a profit. When they cannot find dystopian stories, sci-fi, humor or spy novels that are trending with all white characters, they can write their own with characters that look like them!
We can continue to have conversations about who can tell the story, what should be on the cover or we can make ways to get authors of color published and get books with characters of color part of mainstream culture. We can quite hearing Native American, Latino, Asian American and Black children wonder when they’ll get to read more books with people like them.
I look for a global variety in the books that I read. I need a rich texture of reading that stretches my mind more than it validates my world. I want to grow readers who are confident enough in who they are to be able to accept others as they are. Books are a good starting point, a safe place for us to find ourselves and meet one another.
Summer Reading Matters
Ahh! Summer!
OOOoo!! Summer Reading!
Each season seems to temper our reading selection and summer seems to be the time to stop meeting expectations and read to truly enjoy whether it be a pile of classics, a newly purchased paperback romance or the ESPN magazines that have been stacking up all year. It’s easier to get some teens to read during the summer than others because even the most avid may want to take a break from all the books. Yet, we know that summer reading is critical for teens to retain and hopefully improve reading skills. Give them the newspaper, magazines, comic books, novels or biographies. Giving them what they want to read will keep them reading! Us too!
Why not try a summer themed book?
How Tia Lola saved the summer by Julia Alvarez Miquel’s loveable Aunt saves what promised to be a dull and boring summer.
Chameleon by Charles R. Smith Shawn’s mother may think it’s time for Shawn to grow up, but he’s planning nothing but fun for this summer before high school!
The summer I turned pretty; It’s not summer without you and We’ll always have summer by Jenny Han No one does summer romance like Jenny Han!
When the stars go blue Candid Ferrer Soledad by plans to spend her summer teaching dance and saving some money until stars cross and she meets Jonathan and gets talked into joined the drum and bugle corps.
The Watsons go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis A classic book about a family’s summer road trip.
Mare’s war by Tanita Davis Octavia and Tali spend their summer on a road trip with Mare, their red sports car driving grandmother who is too young to be called ‘grandma’.
Surf mules by Greg Neri Logan and Z-boy have finished high school and are given a summer job that could make them quite rich, if it doesn’t kill them first! Yeah, and they surf, too!
Marcello in the real world by Francisco S. Stork Marcelo Sandoval is given the summer after his junior year to experience the real 
world
Aristotle and Dante discover the secrets of the universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz: Aristotle and Dante meet at a pool when summer begins.
L.A. summer: friends til the bloody end by Sheryl Mallory Johnson Mikki, Carlette and Stacy have different talents and different backgrounds. Will this be the summer they become friends, or not?
Be sure to visit your local public library to sign up for summer reading programs and checkout a few of these great summer books!
A few online summer reading programs:
TD Banks Summer Reading Program
Scholastic’s Summer Challenge (International)
Target’s Roundup of Summer Reading Programs
review: Percy Lavon Julian Pioneering Chemist
title: Percy Lavon Julian: Pioneering Chemist Signature Lives Series
author: Darlene R. Stille
date: Compass Point Books; 2009
non-fiction
reading level: 7.0
There is a very limited range of biographies of people of color that are available for middle and high school readers, so I was glad to find Percy Lavon: Pioneering Chemist for my school media center.
I think in reviewing and booktalking non-fiction books to students, we have to begin to teach them to look at these books in ways they don’t typically treat fiction. Most important, they have to learn to look at the credibility of these books more so that the size of the volume or its overall attractiveness. Looking in the back of this book, I found a ‘selected bibliography’ that only listed secondary and tertiary sources. Yes, even Julian’s quotes in this book are lifted from non-primary sources.
Julian was born in Alabama in 1899 and in explaining his life, it is no doubt important to explain the conditions that Blacks faced in this region at that time. In this book, the description of this era is highlighted with a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. from the 1960s. Images of individuals are often separated from the textual context by several pages. While there are several images of Julian throughout the book, none show him actually engaged in work. As I’ve learned from reading Marc Aronson’s blog, we have to learn to read the images as well. This separation distracts from the importance of the individuals being discussed.
There’s a thin line between great and bad non-fiction as both leave you wanting to know more. The really good stuff engages readers in a way that leads them to wonder while the poorly written stuff leaves one to question events and details.
There was much to learn about Percy Lavon Julian and his numerous contributions to science. For example, through his work with soybeans, Julian was the first to synthesize steroids. But, I never got to know about his temperament, why he was accepted to DePauw or what his friendship with Joseph Pikl was like. While the discrimination of the times was presented, it was never made personal. Consequently, it was difficult to know what life really was like for Julian.
While this book stands as rare print documentation of someone who made significant contributions to history, it leaves out important elements that would help to make Julian less of a caricature and more human. I am glad that my students have at least this much information about Dr. Julian, but in learning how to effectively analyze these types of books, perhaps they’ll become motivated to add to the body of literature about people of color.
