6/20/13

A look at diversity in middle grade fantasy and science fiction so far this year

Over at The Open Book, the blog of publisher Lee and Low, Jason Low asks a number of writers and reviewers and thinkers why the number of multicultural children's books hasn't gone up in the past 18 years. The responses are fascinating and thought provoking.

Apprently only ten percent of children's books published in a given year have multicultural content, but I think it's a lot lower in Middle Grade fantasy and science fiction, and I don't seen any surge in diversity.  2013 is, in fact, looking like the least diverse year since I started paying attention five or so years ago.

The year is pretty much half-way done, and these are all I know about and have read; please tell me I'm missing lots! 

Middle Grade fantasy and sci fi books

Astronaut Academy Re-Entry (2013), by Dave Roman  (quick insertion of much love for Astronaut Academy)

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time, by Frank Cottrell Boyce (2013 in the US)

Jinx, by Sage Blackwood (2013)

The Menagerie, by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari Sutherland (2013)

The Water Castle, by Megan Frazer Blakemore (2013)

The Wells Bequest, by  Polly Shulman (2013)

Ms. Yingling adds Playing With Fire (School for S.P.I.E.S., book 1) by Bruce Hale.  Thanks.


Upper MG/pushing toward YA

 City of a Thousand Dolls, by Miriam Forster (2013)

Hammer of Witches, by Shana Mlawski (2013)


I don't get it.  Looking at the five solidly MG books above that I've read (one graphic novel, four regular books), it's clear that it's really really easy to have a central character who isn't white in a fantasy/sci fi book.  And the fact that a central character might be a kid of color doesn't have to have anything to do with the plot--it does in The Water Castle, but not in the other four.   It doesn't have to be waved enthusiastically, with more emphasis than any other description of any other character.  All it takes is a tiny little default to non-white in one or two sentences, and you have the main character of The Menagerie--a kid who happens to be African American, or a bit of family background casually described, and you have one of the main characters of The Wells Bequest, who's family is from India.

Really easy.  Doesn't effect book marketing or sales.   Young readers won't bat an eyelid (unless they are excited to see themsleves represented). Why don't more writers/publishers do it? 

To end on a brighter note--I am not particularly aware of forthcoming books in general (for all I know, a flood tide of diversity is on its way...), but I do want to share the cover of an ARC that arrived in the mail recently from Scholastic.  It is the first book of the forthcoming Spirit Animals series, and it is utter bibliocake* for kids--it will be devoured.  It was only in my house for five minutes before my youngest was reading it.    And look!  A brown girl on the cover! She is not half hidden by another character, and she is not at all passive.  And my son, reading away, added that her animal is the one shown front and center, making it clear that she is a powerful main character.  (It is also a lovely cover for reversal of gendered expectations--the girl looks by far the most fierce).


And I bet that making her non-white was not hard at all, and I bet the series is going to sell like hot-cakes.

*"bibliocake" is like "bibliocrack," but age appropriate

Edited to add: thanks to commentors, here are some more forthcoming books with kids of color-- Sarwat Chadda's The City of Death, Paradox by A.J. Paquette, and possibly The Real Boy, by Anne Ursu.  Edited to add:  The Real Boy is a go! (confirmed by Anne herself in the comments).

 

And I've thought of another forthcoming one-- Darwen Arkwright and the School of Shadows, by A.J. Hartley.


Updated again:  Jinx, by Sage Blackwood, is now counted!  I couldn't remember him being described in the text, but Sage pointed me to the description-- "He saw himself reflected in the glass, a thin boy with black hair, brown eyes, and tan skin" (page 23 of the ARC, which is what I have), and indeed, Jinx as shown on the cover is several shades darker of skin than me (not that this is hard...).   And given the fact that he lives in a dense forest, the tan part isn't from time in the sun...

I totally missed that line of description both times I read the book...and it raises questions about how, when you have characters in a fantasy world, it can be hard to make it clear that they don't default to "white."

On the one hand, I think that authors having to underline the ethnicity or skin color of non-white characters is something that shouldn't Have to happen (and although it's possible to do it gracefully--see above--when your character isn't living on earth, you loose geographical referents that can serve as confirmation, and might have to fall back on food similes.  Assuming they have chocolate and coffee in fantasy land).

But on the other hand, people come in all sorts of colors, and often there aren't sufficient grounds for confident assumption, so even if you have a brown character on the cover, textual description is sometimes necessary to clinch things.   Like maybe two descriptions.  Thoughts????


26 comments:

  1. I've been finding more new books for my World Wednesday posts, but not so much fantasy. Here are a couple:
    Hale, Bruce. Playing with Fire (SCHOOL FOR S.P.I.E.S. #1)
    Omololu, C.J. Transcendence (Transcendence #1)(YA)

    And that's all I have so far this year, I think.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for Playing With Fire-I'll have to read it. I'm not trying to count YA, because of not knowing it as well, but Transcendence is striking, pretty darn unique in fact, in its cover showing a black teen boy front and center...

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  2. Oh my, I want a spirit animal. I'm also paying more attention to this issue--thanks for the year-to-date summary, somewhat sad as it is.

    And, could that be a kid of color on the cover of Anne Ursu's forthcoming The Real Boy?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think I want a spirit animal--it would probably demand attention.

      And I just peered at The Real Boy--he does indeed look like he's not necessarily of European descent...

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    2. I was reading the post and the comments, and saw this! Yes, The Real Boy's characters are all basically Middle Eastern/North African. The idea is the island is in the Mediterranean and people have been coming there for centuries from all around the sea, and so people are pretty mixed. I wanted to err on the side of the eastern Mediterranean because, well, of the post above....

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  3. Another for your upper MG list:
    Paradox by A.J. Paquette (hispanic protag)

    But that list is sad. We can do better.

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  4. don't forget sarwat chadda's The City of Death.
    it's a follow up to The Savage Fortress!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh yes--I'm looking forward to it! Thanks for the reminder.

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  5. I read Jasons article too and I'm glad he and several other people contributed to it. Power cedes nothing w/o a demand so I think the more folks demand it, the more we'll have. And also I think its important to highlight those independent creators who don't wait for the majors to move. Thanks for blogging about these books. I have a 8 yr old who is reading Alot and I am trying to get him into YA/Middle grade ..as he has tons of graphic novels under his belt.

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    Replies
    1. I have one son who is still primarily a graphic novel reader--but at least he's still excited about books! Good luck with yours.

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  6. Graphics are awesome, and can often be a great place to find multicultural work...

    I'm kind of dreading the dearth for the Cybils this year. I'm hopeful that people keep digging up names and titles so I can pitch some to be considered.

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    Replies
    1. I don't really know much about the YA side of things, but I have a feeling diversity is equally thin on the ground there...

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  7. All I can say is Yepeeeeeeeeee!!!!
    I also second Cindy Pon on: The Savage Fortress and The City of Death. Both are on my must read list.

    ~Akoss

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    Replies
    1. I hope you enjoy them--Savage Fortress was good.

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  8. This is a very good point, thank you for bringing it to my attention! I just read The True Meaning of Smekday recently and that doesn't have a white protagonist, but it was published in 2007. I'll have to keep an eye out!

    PS - I LOVE your term of bibliocake. I am going to find a way to use it...constantly!

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    1. I've never read Smekday (hangs head).

      And thanks for noticing and appreciating bibliocake. I thought it was rather clever, myself :)

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  9. Mike Jung's Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That is indeed a good one, but it's 2012....

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  10. Oops! I read it this year, which is why I thought it was a 2013 book. Hmm, what else is there? I can think of YA titles, but not MG.

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  11. In my 2013 MG fantasy, JINX, the protagonist is a person of color...

    In the recent past there seemed to be some kind of taboo against showing dark-skinned characters on the cover (even if they *were* the protagonist) and against allowing writers to write protagonists of any color that didn't match the author's.

    I did not run into any of this with JINX, however. So this gives me hope that things are changing. I think that book bloggers have played a role in this change, eg with the uproar over whitewashed covers.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I have thrown Jinx into the mix, but am leaving him ambiguous...The problem with making lists is that things in real life are blurry around the edges.

      I am even more curious now to see the cover of Jinx's Magic!

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    2. Thanks, Charlotte!

      If the writer is strict with him/herself about point-of-view, there's plenty of opportunity to describe other characters, but not much to describe the protagonist. You pretty much have to use the ol' "he saw his reflection" schtick or come up with some other device-- a Wanted poster, say, or Tiffany Aching's "See Me" spell.

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  12. Are you counting Jewish characters as multicultural? The Watcher in the Shadows by Chris Moriarty, the sequel to last year's Inquisitor's Apprentice, has a main character who is Jewish.

    One of the minor characters, the Inspector's assistant Philip Payton, is a character of color, and there are some plot points about his family moving to Harlem, and his former friendship with Irish gangster Paddy Doyle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Somedays I feel I should count Jewish characters, and some days I feel I shouldn't, but in any event I haven't done so to date.

      I haven't read The Watcher yet, but I loved the first one!

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  13. As a writer I struggle a lot with your point about how to let a reader know that a character isn't default white, without making a Big Stinking Deal about it. I always feel like describing the skin color only of non-whites just reinforces the idea that white is default, yet not to mention skin color or ethnicity at all means no one realizes how wide a diversity the characters may represent. For example, in one of my books, "The Bad Advice of Grandma Hasenfuss," it didn't really fit in to describe anyone's appearance much (the narrator is a sixth grade boy and people's skin color is the least of his concerns), so even though in my mind there are characters of various ethnicities, the reader really doesn't know. On the other hand, in my current book I've made it quite explicit that one main character is adopted from China, but there's another character who's African-American, and I'm struggling with how to make that clear but not the Point. Any thoughts, comments, advice that you or any of your other readers want to add about what you like or dislike when you read would be really interesting!

    Also, as others have said, we're not going to get more diversity unless we keep on demanding it. So thanks for making it an issue and continuing to keep it at the forefront!

    ReplyDelete

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