In Which Kids Need Diverse Books

I've written about this topic in some fashion before (here, here, and here if you'd like to check it out), but I'm sorry to report that the need to talk about this is perennial. Book bans around the nation still going at full steam. Teachers and librarians are being called groomers for the audacious act of providing kids access to books with queer characters.

Before I go on, I want to apologize to my half dozen regular readers for not fulfilling my promise to blog monthly. A major crisis hit my family not long after the last post. It took up most of my mental energy for the rest of February, all of March, and well into April. I'm just now approaching a new normal and getting back into the things I set aside because they weren't top priority during a crisis.

I do want to note that, when my mental health was at its worst during the epicenter of the crisis, the two best ways to escape were reading and writing. I wasn't able to get in the right frame to work on my adult contemporary romance often, but when I did it, it was refreshing to escape to the world I created for a little while. 

All that taken care of, let's talk again about diverse books and why kids need them. I'm going to keep this simple.

1) Kids that are part of a minority group in some way (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, disabled, there's probably more I'm not thinking of) need to see kids like them. They need to see these kids as the heroes of the story. They also need to see them as background characters, just part of a functioning society.

2) Kids that are not part of any minority group, or are part of a group other than the one being represented need to see kids who aren't like them in stories. They need to see that it's not just the white, cishet, able-bodied, neurotypical kids who save the day or just have an every day experience they can relate to. They also need to see kids who are different from them as side characters, just part of a normal, functioning society.

Upper elementary and middle school age kids (you know, the age group middle grade books are written for?) in particular are in a stage in which they're beginning to figure out who they are. My 12yo has three classmates who came out as nonbinary between the end of elementary school and the beginning of middle school. And I'm sure that's just the start of the queer kids she'll meet. Many kids at this age are still figuring out how they identify, who they might want to date, etc. They might not sort themselves out until they're almost done with high school, or even well into adulthood. Heck, I'm 48 and I'm still figuring things out about myself.

But if both cishet kids and queer kids (whether or not they know yet that they're queer) grow up reading a diversity of books that feature a spectrum of queer experiences, we're a whole lot more likely to end up with a loving and accepting society.

Unless you live under a rock and literally never talk to a single kid, the odds are high that you know a queer kid and/or a BIPOC kid, probably a lot more than one of each. But how would I even know that, you ask? You don't need to. If the queer kids in your life see you as a safe person and come out to you, great. But just because none of them have doesn't mean they're not there. Oh, but everyone I know is white, you say. Do you know? Like for real know? Have you asked them all about their racial background? Could they be mixed race and white-appearing? Even if you have defied the odds and somehow really do know only white people, those white kids still need to read books with BIPOC kids.

There are lots of things we as a nation need to do to create a just and safe society for the rising generation and the generations that come after them. I don't know what they all are, and I don't know how to do the majority of them. But what I do know is that one important aspect is giving them the opportunity to read a diversity of books.

I'll end with a picture of my 12yo's graphic novel collection. She's white, and as of this time she identifies as cishet, though that could change as she ages and gets to know herself better. Regardless, her shelves are filled with books about BIPOC kids, books about queer kids, and, yes, books about cishet white kids. Because we don't need to throw anyone under the bus to make bookstore and library shelves reflect the actual world we live in.

In Which I Recommend Another Amazing, Diverse Magic School Book

Though the last book in the series was published almost 20 years ago now, thanks to the popularity of the movies and the theme park attractions based on them, the HP magic school books are firmly ingrained into our culture. 

However, there are new magic books coming out that I have hope may someday dethrone that series in the hearts of children. Last month I told you about Claribel Ortega's Witchlings, which I still highly recommend. But Witchlings isn't alone in creating an imaginative, fun, diverse magical world that holds its own against the HP world. Another fabulous contender is Dhonielle Clayton's The Marvellers, which came out this spring and which I just finished reading. 

In The Marvellers, Clayton imagines a magical society that mostly lives apart from the non-magical, whom they call Fewels. The Marvellers have built floating cities in the sky as well as a school that changes the way it looks every year known as the Arcanum. Starting at age 11, marveller children go and learn to harness their light at the Arcanum. Over the course of their first year, they are exposed to the five Paragons, and at the end of the year they learn their talent and join one of the Paragons. I love that the students aren't immediately boxed into one identity upon arrival. The MC of this book, Ella Durand, is from a magical family but not a Marveller family. Ella is from a Conjuror family. Conjurors are the descendants of slaves living in the Americas and the Caribbean. The Middle Passage changed their magic. They are in charge of the underworld and they use magic differently. They live in enclaves within Fewel cities. Marvellers have looked down on Conjurors for centuries, despite their shared history. Thanks to a change in Marveller law that her own parents pushed for, Ella is the first Conjuror to attend the Arcanum. Any Conjuror child is now welcome, but Ella is the only one who is brave enough to go. She encounters a lot of hate and prejudice, but also makes new friends, including a girl raised among Fewels who hates her magic and a boy with a secret who can talk to animals. The villain in this book is truly nuanced, and there are quite a few morally grey characters. The story tackles prejudice and racism head on, but is able to look at it differently because it takes place in an imaginary world. It tackles tough issues, but it feels like an engaging fantasy adventure and not at all like an issue book. The airborn world of the Marvellers is detailed, well conceived, and incredibly charming. I really want to visit the Arcanum and the floating cities. One thing I love about the book is that the students come from all over the world, which makes for a naturally diverse cast. The language issue is handled by having the students wear magical translation necklaces. As long as two people are wearing their necklaces, they'll hear each other in their native language. One student can be speaking French and another Swahili and there will be no communication problems. This book has so much to offer that the HP world lacks. It has made its way to the New York Times bestseller list. I hope it gets its own movie (or streaming show, which could actually reach a bigger audience) and earns a place in pop culture.

In Which I Tell You About a Really Awesome Book About Young Witches That You Need to Read

Okay, five or so faithful readers, I promised I would be back later to share some of my summer reads. Well, guess what, I'm back the very next day. Write this down, because it will probably never happen again. I'll write a post later this summer with a rundown of multiple books I've read, but for now I want to tell you about a book that everyone who likes middle grade fantasy should read, but you should especially read if you (or your kids) are a Harry Potter fan.

Just to be clear, I was a serious HP fan for many years. The books didn't come out until I was an adult, and I didn't discover them until book four came out when I was in graduate school. Despite this, I embraced the books and their world wholeheartedly. I got all the new books from #5 on on release day, read them within a couple days, and shared them with friends. I stood in line to see the first three movies the day they were released. I was all in.

Then I found out recently that the author is not a particularly nice person, to put it lightly. She is a vocal advocate against transgender rights in the UK. As if that wasn't bad enough, she has repeatedly told trans readers on Twitter that the message of belonging and acceptance that they found when they read her books as children was not meant for people like them. 

I believe it's possible to separate an artist's work from the artist and I have no plans to disown people who still enjoy the world. It really is an exceptionally cool and well-crafted world (though there are some problems and contradictions which, as my 17yo likes to say, produce plot holes big enough to drive a lorry through). However, after finding out this information about the writer I looked at the books with a more critical eye and realized there's prejudice baked into the books that I was blind to when I first read them. Just as one example, the books are rife with fatphobia. Can you name a single fat character from those books who is an admirable person? Ethnic and racial stereotypes that I didn't notice offhand as a white American reader are also all over the books. The author literally used two Chinese last names for Cho Chang's name. 

So I've stepped away from that world but I was longing to find another magical world that didn't have the same problems with either the author and the world. There's lots of great middle grade fantasy out there. I adore all of Rick Riordan's books as well as the books from his imprint that uplifts writers from marginalized cultures, Rick Riordan presents. Rick is pretty much the opposite of J.K. Rowling. He is actively trying to raise of the voices of cultural minorities and sexual and gender minorities and to do everything he can to make the books he writes as inclusive as possible. However, his books and the books from his imprint, while amazing and delightful, are a different type of fantasy from the Harry Potter books.

I'm happy to report that there's a recently released middle grade fantasy written by a nonbinary author of Dominican descent that is similar in vein to HP without all the negative elements above. The author, Claribel Ortega, was actively trying to create a world similar to the HP world in which people like her would feel welcome and see themselves. Claribel has succeeded admirably with Witchlings from Scholastic. 

The middle grade reader and HP fan at my house has not yet read this, but she was excited right away by a cover that showed that the main character and important supporting characters are girls. The cover really is delightful. I want to credit the artist Lissy Marlin and jacket designer Christopher Stengel.

The book is already an NY Times Bestseller, and I hope it finds its way into the hearts of countless MG readers and MG loving adults. There's lots of room left for multiple sequels and the story would make a great movie. Just like in the HP world, there's a magical world that lives alongside our modern world. One difference I love is that magical kids (witchlings) aren't shipped off the boarding school. There are schools within the magical towns that they attend during the day. There are whole witch families that are part of the plot, which I love. Claribel, by the way, circumvents that wizard/witch gender binary in HP by calling magical people of all genders witches. Boys and men are witches, girls and women are witches, and nonbinary people of all ages are witches (or witchlings if they haven't reached their full powers).

Kids are sorted in houses in a special ceremony at the age of 12. You can even find out which house/coven you would be sorted into by taking this quiz. The sorting kicks off the action when MC Seven Salazar isn't place in House Hyacinth with her best friend as she always dreamed but rather is one of three witches who are designated as "spares", an underclass within the magical community. Seven and her fellow spares turn out to be more formidable than anyone would have imagined. But I'll leave it to you to find out what else happens.

I recommend you run, not walk, to your nearest library or bookseller, to pick up this book. If buying a new book isn't in your budget and your library doesn't have the book, put in a request. I can't speak for all library systems, but our system is nearly always willing to buy my requests, especially if they're bestselling children's books.

In Which I Share Some Holiday Reads

 When I started this blog I had a goal of updating it at least monthly. Since my last post was nearly two months ago, I have clearly failed at that. I apologize to my tiny handful of faithful readers. My excuse is that I was wrapped up in trying to finish the steampunk airship adventure I started this spring. I succeeded and have now done a lot of edits based on feedback from critique partners and beta readers. I've sent out just a few queries to test the waters, but I'll be surprised (pleasantly of course) if one of these early queries results in an offer of representation. My instinct is that I probably still have some polishing to do before it will really shine for an agent. I'm focusing now on entering it in the Author Mentor Match mentorship contest and have picked out the four mentors I'm going to apply to. Just for fun, here's the latest aesthetic I created for my book. 

I'm not just here to brag about the book I finished, though. Since it's Christmas Eve, I figured I'd share some holiday reads I've enjoyed. And I say holiday reads as opposed to Christmas reads because one of them is about a holiday (actually two holidays that share a name) I don't celebrate.

As you may remember from last December's post, my family has a lot holiday reading traditions and I love Christmas books. For years I had a habit of reading Tony Abbot's beautiful Santa Claus origin story, Kringle, every December. However, this year I tried to read it and just couldn't get into it. I think I've read it too many times and just need to take a break from it. However, for those who haven't yet read it, I highly recommend it. It's a Santa Claus origin story told in the form of an epic fantasy including elves, goblins, and a rune that stops time. It even gives a nod to the Christian origin of the holiday, which the average Santa Claus story doesn't often do.

Last year, through #MGBooktober on Twitter, I discovered what might be my new favorite Christmas read, Kate Milford's Greenglass House. This fun mystery with just a hint of the paranormal is a wonderfully enjoyable book to curl up with in December. Even better, it has a sequel that also takes place at Christmas, Ghosts of Greenglass House. 

Today, instead of reading Kringle, which I brought with me on my Christmas travels just in case I felt inspired to read it, I'm reading another book that was recommended to me on Twitter. Like Greenglass House, this story is a mystery of a sort and takes place at an isolated hotel, but it is otherwise quite different. I'm really enjoying it so far. The book is Winterhouse by Ben Guterson.

This year at Advent my family moved away from the middle grade reading trend to read an adult novella by well known dog book writer W. Bruce Cameron. Even though it's written for adults, by my ten year old and my sixteen year old really enjoyed A Dog's Perfect Christmas, and I can confidently recommend it as a family read if you have children who are upper elementary or older.

My last recommended holiday read is a short story collection I read this fall, focusing on a holiday that is not mine. Once Upon an Eid is a collection of stories by Muslim writers from a variety of backgrounds that feature families celebrating both Eid Al Fitr and Edi Al Adha. I found the stories delightful and enjoyed learning about two holidays that are quite different from any of the holidays I celebrate. This book is a great example of how books from outside of our culture and experience can serve as windows into experiences different from your own.

If you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas Eve! I hope you have a wonderful holiday. If your winter holiday has already happened or is still to come, I hope it is or was a joyful time, in spite of any changes this never-ending pandemic caused. I'm thankful that my entire immediate family is now vaccinated along with my parents, brothers, and sister in law, so we can all gather (relatively) safely, but I still long for a day we can celebrate with larger groups of people without having to think so much about it. In the meantime, books, both holiday books and other books, will be here for us. In books we can peek into scenes from holidays we celebrate an holidays we don't celebrate. We can travel without need for a test, mask, or passport, to places that exist in our world and places that don't. 

In Which I Hope My Words Are Delicious Because I Need to Eat Them Again

Remember one of my earliest posts when I talked about creating diverse characters as a White writer and came to the conclusion that it's okay to write a POV character from a marginalized identity as long as I research it carefully? Well, if you're a fellow writer reading this and you think that's an awesome idea it is not my job to stop you, but, personally, in the 8 1/2 months since I wrote that post, I have changed my opinion.

This is thanks in large part to my interactions with my writing community, the #MGWaves, which includes writers from around the world and from a variety of ethnic and racial groups. The more they shared about how they feel when someone who cannot understand their experience tries to write from that viewpoint, the more I realized that I need to leave those stories to writers who know them intimately.

What does this mean for my writing? Well, in a practical sense, it meant a huge revision of the book formerly known as Anna Ono. The character is now Anna Otto and her fear of not fitting in in her new home comes not from being a multiethnic city girl but from being an immigrant from Sweden who is half American but never expected to actually move to America.

Now you're probably asking, well, why are you any more qualified to write that? You're not an immigrant from Sweden. That is true. I did, however, live in Sweden for a year so I have personal experience with what it feels like to adjust to a new country and fear you'll never fit in. I also still have Swedish friends and know the culture well. Ultimately, as writers we all need to decide what type of viewpoint character we feel like we can write. 

I doubt I'll ever set a book in Sweden, but I think that with a combination of my own experience, research, and talking with my Swedish friends, I could write such a story accurately, especially if the story was of an American kid who moved to Sweden. I think I would have a much harder time writing a story that takes place in another European country or writing an immigrant from another European country even though my character would be White. 

I think I can write a cisgender boy accurately as well as a cisgender girl even though I have never been a cisgender boy. But, while I might someday tackle a secondary character who is a trans girl or boy or a nonbinary child, I would not attempt to write a POV character who was not cisgender for the same reasons I have decided it is not my place to write a POV character who is a person of color.

Secondary characters are different creature from POV characters, I think. It's a fine line to tread between portraying a diverse world and not having characters outside your own ethnicity there as tokens, but I do think it's possible and desirable. Anna Otto has a friend who is half Scottish and half Mexican American. He was in the original book and I did not feel I needed to change him during the revision. 

If this book is ever published, it's possible that someone might call me out on some of my choices, even though I've tried very hard to be fair and respectful. It is not possible to please everyone. However, if I am honestly trying to portray our diverse world while simultaneously not stealing the stories of writers who were ignored for far too long, I feel like I have done my level best.

Just for fun, here's an aesthetic I created for Anna Otto. When I wrote the first version of the book last spring I didn't even know what an aesthetic was.

In Which I am a Majority Culture Author in a World in Which #WeNeedDiverseBooks

 As I mentioned in my first post, I was privileged as a child and still am as an adult to read books featuring main characters that are mostly like me. This is because I'm white, abled, cisgender, heterosexual, and upper middle class. I do not truly belong to any marginalized community. I know plenty of women who have experienced gender discrimination, but I have never personally felt it (though it may have happened to me without me knowing about it, of course). I identify with the neurodiverse community because I have ADHD, but I didn't even know this until I was in my 40's (I just though I was spacey and disorganized) and, because I've set up a lot of scaffolding for myself, I can "pass" as neurotypical in most situations. It's only behind the scenes that my ADHD tends to show itself.

Despite this, as I shared in my first post, I have a passion to create stories and characters to which a greater diversity of kids can relate. I love books that that portray diverse characters. I fell in love with Rick Riordan's mythology inspired books when my son was in elementary school, and I love how the Rick Riordan Presents imprint has allowed authors from diverse backgrounds to showcase stories inspired by myths and legends from their own underrepresented cultures. I also love the diverse cast of characters that Rick Riordan himself created. I've recently discovered some great series books featuring nonWhite girls as the stars. My 9 yo also loves these.

The question I face as a nonmarginalized author is, at what point does creating a carefully researched character from a culture that is not my own cross the line into cultural appropriation? Should I just err on the side of caution and only create characters who are like me as a child? I don't think so, but I do think I and other authors like me need to proceed with caution.

An example of this is Anna Ono, the 9yo protagonist from the book I'm currently querying, which I hope will be the first in a series. Anna is half Japanese and half Swedish. Her mother is an immigrant from Sweden and her father is Japanese American. Her multiethnicity first began as an accident. I wanted to create a character who was obsessed with palindromes due to both her first and last names being palindromes. Anna was easy to hit upon, but the only palindrome surname I could come up with that sounded at all reasonable with Anna was Ono, which would mean she had Japanese heritage.

I first reached out to a multiethnic friend to ask her opinion on whether it would be okay for me, as a white author, to create a multiethnic character. My friend's response was, "Maybe, if you approach it sensitively and do a lot of research." I decided to forge ahead and really own Anna Ono's multiethnic identity as a big part of the story. 

I think I succeeded. I hope I did. The friend I approached with the idea was one of my beta readers and approved of the way I approached the topic. Another friend who is a person of color and the child of immigrants said it was well done. If the book gets published I hope the readers, especially multiethnic readers, understand that I approached this character carefully and thoughtfully. I intended to create a unique character who will be loved by many and allow multiethnic kids who discover her to feel "seen" in a book, perhaps for the first time, and did not intend to imply that I know all there is to know about the multiethnic experience.

I am, of course, not the first white author to have created a nonwhite character. For a long time, nonwhite characters (the few there were) were only created by white authors. This is because white authors were the only ones being published. There's still a huge problem in the publishing industry with nonwhite authors not being represented or published at the rate they should be. There's a movement by some in the industry to begin to change that.

This is being partly addressed by the creation of a Twitter pitch party called #DVPit.  In case you don't know, Twitter pitch parties are events in which authors are invited to pitch their book in the form of a tweet during a certain timespan in a certain day using a certain set of hashtags. Agents (and some acquisitions editors) will peruse the feed. If a pitch intrigues them, they will like it, which is an invitation for the writer to submit more.

The original pitch party, as far as I know, is Pitch Madness, or #pitmad for short. This one is open to anyone. It's been followed by pitch events specific to picture books, faith based fiction, romance, and quite a few others. #DVPit is one of the newer pitch events and it's specifically for writers from marginalized communities. There's no policing. Any author who identifies with a marginalized community is invited to pitch.

There's been a controversy on Twitter recently involving a not at all marginalized author who pitched in DVPit despite not belonging to a marginalized community (and even justified it by stating on their blog that we're all marginalized in some way), got an agent through the event, and now has a book deal for a book representing a culture to which the writer doesn't belong and which presents a misrepresentation of that culture. 

I don't think I've done that with Anna Ono. I definitely did not and will not participate in a Twitter event that's not intended for me. I do feel I'm treading a fine line, however. And, no I don't share this to say "Woe is me." I enjoy a ton of advantages that are completely unrelated to anything I've done. I want to create books with characters that aren't all the suburban white kids I mostly read about during my childhood.  I hope I can do this thoughtfully and sensitively.