Diversity

Diversity in MG Lit #2 India, Pakistan, & Tibet

By on September 14, 2018   /   Book Lists, Diversity, Fiction, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers  
Asian literature is such a broad category that I will cluster books by geography. This month I’ll be featuring books set in India, Pakistan, and Tibet. I will focus on the stories of China and southeast Asia in a later post. Throughout this series I will try to focus on new books with a particular emphasis on debut authors and small or regional presses. Please share your favorite books about India, Pakistan, and Tibet in the comments.
  • MEET. YASMIN!by Saadia Faruqi, art by Hatem Aly, published by Picture Window Books and available in August 2018.
    • For the youngest MG readers, Pakistani-American Yasmin is going to be a real treat. She is a spunky, curious second grader with a fairly typical round of family and school-centric adventures. Her mother and grandmother are hijabis. She is not—as is common (but not universal) among Pakistani girls of this age. I appreciated the inclusion of live-in grandparents, including a grandfather in a wheelchair. The text of the story never mentions Yasmin’s ethnicity as an obstacle. The end notes contain some information about Pakistan, a short glossary of words in Urdu, a recipe for lassi and a craft suggestion. Large text, generous leading, and lively illustrations on every page make this a great choice for new readers. Saadia Faruqi has written short stories and essays for adults. This is her debut children’s book. Hatem Aly is the illustrator of the Newbery Honor winning Inquisitor’s Tale
  • RUNNING ON THE ROOF OF THE WORLD by Jess Butterworth, published by Algonquin Young Readers and available May 2018.

     

    • Here is a refugee story, an adventure story, a survival story and a mystery all in one. Most MG readers will have at least heard of the Dalai Lama but they are probably less familiar with the migration of thousands of Tibetan Buddhists over the Himalayas to India. Sam and Tash are two such refugees who flee to India when Tash’s parents are arrested for participating in the resistance to Chinese rule. They bring yaks on their journey. Twelve year old me would have read it just for the yaks. This one is on the easier end of the reading scale and it handles the brutality of the political situation in Tibet with a light touch—neither denying the violence nor giving it undue detail. I wish there was a map but otherwise this is a gem of book. It’s Jess Butterwoth’s debut novel.
  • AMAL UNBOUND by Aisha Saeed published by Nancy Paulson Books and available May 2018
    • Contemporary indentured servitude is far more common world wide than any government is willing to admit. It is hardly ever a topic of fiction even for adults, but Aisha Saeed has done a nice job of taking a topic full of brutality and monstrous injustice and fashioned it into a story that will arouse a readers conscience and compassion on the topic of slavery without crushing their spirit with to much brutal detail. Amal is a book-loving girl with dreams of higher education who is swept up by a local man who has the power of a feudal lord and made to serve as a maid in his home—an arrangement from which typically no-one returns. Amal is clever enough to get away and readers will rejoice in her escape.
  • THE NIGHT DIARY by Veera Hiranandani published by Dial Books for Young Readers and available in March of 2018.
    • Set in 1947 and told in diary entries addressed to her mother who died long ago, Nisha tells the story of how her half-Hindu and half-Muslim family decided to leave their home in response to the partition of India. Nisha is shy and her social circle is quite limited which, along with the diary format, makes this a more cerebral book than the others on this list. It’s an interesting slice of recent history that will likely be new to readers.
  • ARU SHA AND THE END OF TIME,by Roshani Chokshi published by Rick Riorden Presents and available in May of 2018.
    • Here’s a story in the Rick Riorden tradition of mythology come to life. Spunky middle school girl takes a dare she shouldn’t have while touring her friends through a museum of  Indian-American artifacts. Monsters are unleashed, pluck and cultural savvy are employed, the world is saved. It’s a romp any reader of the Percy Jackson books will love.
  • THE SERPANT’S SECRET: KIRANMALA & THE KINGDOM BEYOND  by Sayantani Dasgupta published by Scholastic and available June of 2018
    • This is probably my favorite book cover of the year. Love the colors and the girl with her bow and arrows facing down an army of snakes to save New Jersey. I feel like New Jersey is going to be okay. This is another fantasy based in Indian mythology with a sprinkle of romance and dollop of sass. I have some avid mythology readers at the shop and this was their favorite read of the summer
Lots of great books to choose from. If you’ve got a favorite I didn’t mention, please recommend it in the comments. Next month I’ll be featuring books from the Hispanic American experience.
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Judging a Book by its Title

By on August 22, 2018   /   Diversity, For Kids, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers, For Writers, Writing  

We’re told (often metaphorically) not to judge a book by its cover. But what about judging a book by its title? One of the most important and anxiety inducing things a writer must do is what some authors call “naming the baby.”

With my most recent novel, I went through seven titles. Six of them contained the word, summer. Because my publisher had a plethora of books with summer in the title that season, several needed to be changed. Lucky for me, my editor and her group got together and brainstormed. They came up with the title The First Last Day, which alluded to the Groundhog Day premise of the story—much better than the titles I had come up with.

Subsequently I’ve been agonizing over the title of a work in progress. This has made me think about titles I love and why I love them. It turns out some of my favorites are inspired by Bible stories, poetry, song lyrics, and other art forms. Not only are these titles catchy and meaningful, but they can also be a way to teach students how to identify allusions in what they read and how to use allusion in their own writing. Below are just a few titles I love that call to mind other works:

 

Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor

This novel, which won the 1977 Newbery Medal, is about racism during the Great Depression. The title is directly from the first line of a spiritual sung by slaves. Such songs were often used to inspire rebelliousness. The song is alluded to at the beginning of Chapter 11. It has been written that the thunder referred to in the title is a metaphor for all the hate the Logan family must put up with from whites like the Wallaces, a racist family in town. The second part of the title has been seen as a call to action against the injustices toward African Americans. I can’t think of a more perfect title for this novel.

 

Jacob Have I Loved by Katherine Paterson

The title of this novel, which won the 1981 Newbery Medal, came straight from the Bible and refers to the sibling rivalry of twin brothers Jacob and Esau. The quote reads: “As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.” The allusion to the quote has significance because the novel is about twins Sara Louise and Caroline. Louise, like Esau, is the child who lives in the shadow of the other twin. The novel follows her search for self and how she can find a place in the world apart from her sister.

 

Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake

The second half of this title is taken from a poem by Emily Dickinson. The novel is about a girl, who in the wake of a tornado that has destroyed her home, is developing feelings for another girl. The following quote from Dickinson appears in an epigraph and is repeated during a scene in the novel: “This is my letter to the world, that never wrote to me …” The quote has symbolic meaning for the main character who, like Dickinson’s narrator, entrusts an invisible audience with her inner thoughts. At the end of Dickinson’s poem, the speaker asks not to be judged for what she has written. This would seem to have significant meaning for Ivy who is on a journey of self-discovery and wonder.

 

Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Lowry’s novel about the Holocaust won the 1990 Newbery Medal. The title is from Psalm 147:4 in the Old Testament, which talks about God numbering the stars and naming each one of them. The quote alludes to the fact that if God can count the stars, He can see the persecution of the Jews. Although at one point, Annemarie, who is watching so much suffering, wonders how anyone could number the stars one by one. “There were too many. The sky was too big.”

 

She Loves You (Yeah, Yeah, Yeah) by Ann Hood

Beatles fans will recognize the line from the beginning of the hit song, “She Loves You.” The title is perfect for Hood’s novel about a girl growing up in the sixties during the Vietnam War and the Beatles era. In the novel, the main character, whose social status has diminished, is determined to see the band perform in Boston during its final world tour and to meet her beloved Paul McCartney.

 

 

 

If you have any favorite middle-grade titles that allude to a previous work of art, I’d love to hear about them in the comments section. Also, if you have any great titles kicking around in your brain that you don’t want, send them my way. Just kidding. Sort of.

 

 

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Diversity in MG Lit #1

By on August 15, 2018   /   Articles, Book Lists, Diversity, For Librarians, For Parents, For Teachers  

Dear Mixed Up Files followers, diverse literature is important to all of us here at the Mixed Up Files and we are eager to celebrate it—so much so that we decided to make it a monthly feature. Author/Bookseller Rosanne Parry will be heading up the project. She will be taking a very broad look at diversity to include race, ethnicity, religion, disability, class, gender and sexuality. Each month she will take one of these elements and round up 3-6 titles that celebrate it. As always we are eager to have our readers chime in with similar titles. We will be highlighting fiction, non-fiction, graphic novels and MG appropriate picture books. We will archive all the posts under the heading Diversity in MG Lit.

Rosanne has two books coming out in 2019. She has been in a flurry of revisions and copy editing all summer long. She will begin the first of her diverse book roundups on September 15th with a group of books that celebrate the cultures of India and Pakistan.

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