Stephanie

This month, I read Starflight by Melissa Landers, The Girl from Everywhere by Heidi Heilig, and Cress and Winter by Marissa Meyer. My favorite was Cress, and Starflight was a close second. Cress reminded me a little of Disney's version of Rapunzel in Tangled, and I love how her story was incorporated into this world.

Kristan

UMMMMMMM. I read this great book called "Baby's First Library, ABC" like ninety billion times. Does that mean it's my favorite by default? :P

(Note of explanation: I'm solo babysitting my 19 month old niece for almost 2 weeks.)

For a more grown-up answer, haha, the truth is that I'm slowly making my way through THE COST OF ALL THINGS by Maggie Lehrman, and I'm loving it. (Slow because of aforementioned niece, not because of the book at all.) Really great character work, and a fun, messy premise about magic and wishes and the price we pay for getting what we think we want.

Two years ago, a group of book bloggers got together with a simple, powerful mission:

Mindfully seek out diverse YA literature to read, discuss, and highlight.

We named ourselves the YA Diversity Book Club -- simple and straightforward -- and we've had such a great time finding new books to chat about each month.

To celebrate our 2-year anniversary, we would like to encourage others to read diversely too. So we're doing a 3-book giveaway, of forthcoming books from authors whose work we have featured and enjoyed in the past. We each chose one of the books personally. Here's mine -- the sequel to AN EMBER IN THE ASHES, which captivated me:

 A Torch Against the Night takes readers into the heart of the Empire as Laia and Elias fight their way north to liberate Laia’s brother from the horrors of Kauf Prison. Hunted by Empire soldiers, manipulated by the Commandant, and haunted by their pasts, Laia and Elias must outfox their enemies and confront the treacherousness of their own hearts.

In the city of Serra, Helene Aquilla finds herself bound to the will of the Empire’s twisted new leader, Marcus. When her loyalty is questioned, Helene finds herself taking on a mission to prove herself—a mission that might destroy her, instead.

To learn more about the other books in the giveaway, please visit The Reading Date and Teen Lit Rocks!

To enter the giveaway, see below:

Now the YADBC will be taking a summer hiatus, but you can always check out the past 2 years of YA Diversity Book Club posts on Tumblr!


On a personal note: I will be taking a step back from YADBC, due to a big responsibility coming in a little package this November. I will forever and always read diversely, though! I hope you will too.

The first official day of summer is just right around the corner, and depending on where you live, the hot sun is already turning your shoulders red. There's something extra magical about reading during the summer. It's the time of library reading lists and having crushes at summer camp, of graduations and new beginnings, of vacations and hanging out on the beach with a good book. Here are a few stories that captured us and still remind us of a summer in our lives:

Stephanie

One of my favorite memories of reading during the summer was when I graduated from high school. As a graduation present, my aunt invited me to come stay with her in Arizona for a month. It was the first time I'd been away from home for more than a week. On the weekends, we camped, went to outdoor markets, and hiked in national parks. During the week, my aunt worked, and I had her condo to myself. I would spend the entire day reading and writing, and it was magnificent. The book that stood out to me most, that always takes me back to that summer when I think about it, was The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It's about growing up and discovering yourself and traveling, and that's exactly what I was doing.

Kristan

Between my junior and senior years of college, I spent a summer abroad in Madrid, Spain. There were a million magical things about those 8 weeks -- the classes, the beaches, the history, the buildings, the markets, the trains -- but one of my favorite things was actually just sitting in the gardens outside the Palacio Real and reading my homework assignments. Novels completely in Spanish. I had to keep a Spanish-English dictionary with me to look up unfamiliar words. I was being immersed in a culture, and a body of literature, that were foreign to me. I was, as Stephanie said, growing up and discovering myself and traveling.

Sarah


Being the type to have summer camp crushes, let's talk (gothic) Romance. Confession: I didn't read JANE EYRE until two months shy of seventeen. Don't get me wrong, up to that point I'd read all of Austen, most of Dickens, every drop of Shakespeare (apart from the "histories.") British classics were my jam. But never had a Bronte brushed across the wild moors of my adolescent mind. And it was a blind accident that I plucked this one from a friend's shelf on my way to my brother's wedding.


The long and short of it is that my brother was getting married to my best friend (yeah that was a thing that happened.) It was an outdoor ceremony and they'd arranged everything themselves. The evening before, it was my job to keep watch over the stacks of chairs delivered by the rental company. We were in a public park so anyone could come along and steal some chairs or make chair art or knock the stacks over like chair-jenga. The chairs were in serious danger, okay?  I climbed to the top, took a Bronte with me, and was transported. to. misery. Sweet, haunted, repressed, mist-strewn misery. I was utterly ruined by this book. Of course, I only got to chapter thirteen before the stack of chairs had to come down. So I read one-handed while unfolding white wedding chairs in neat rows of ten (that's a lie, I can't remember how many chairs were in each row. I was distracted by delicious scandal and Yorkshire landscapes.) As it happens, I finished the book that night and took Jane and Rochester with me the next day as I brides-maided my way around the (gorgeous) wedding. And wondered if I'd ever be anybody's first wife.

Ingrid

The first book that pops into my mind is WILD AWAKE by Hilary T. Smith. I read it a few summers ago while on a camping trip (and blogged about it here.). Though the story has its share of tough issues, the lyrical writing and "wild child" storyline definitely stirred up those good-time summer feelings. Long bike rides, young love, music and mayhem... what's not to love?

Stephanie

Lately I've been catching up on books that I've been meaning to read for a long time (years in some cases). In May, I read Scarlet by Marissa Meyer, The Dream Thieves and Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater, Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo, Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell, Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell. I think my favorite was Ruin and Rising. I've been working on that series for such a long time, I can't believe it's over.

This month's YA Diversity Book Club selection is filled with magic and mythology. THE STAR-TOUCHED QUEEN by Roshani Chokshi is about a young woman whisked to a mysterious kingdom, where she might fall in love, discover incredible power latent inside herself, and change people's fates... or she could lose everything and everyone she has ever cared about.

As you can imagine, this was rich ground for our group discussion.





















































































Teen Lit Rocks: Thanks for the tip, Kristan! I haven't read anything else by her but know she's a favorite debut author by several writers I know through We Need Diverse Books. I look forward to her next book.


For more on THE STAR-TOUCHED QUEEN, check out:

• Q&A with author Roshani Chokshi at Teen Lit Rocks

• "Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The Star-Touched Queen Audiobook" at The Reading Date

The entire YA Diversity Book Club archives can now be found on Tumblr.

Next month we're celebrating our book club's 2-year anniversary!

It is always a pleasure to read and spotlight teen lit that features underrepresented or marginalized characters -- after all, that's the mission of YA Diversity Book Club -- but it is a particularly special honor to have S.J. Laidlaw, author of our April pick Fifteen Lanes, here to talk about some of her incredible life experiences and how they inspired her latest novel.

Please describe your book in a sentence or two. 

Set in Mumbai, Fifteen Lanes is the story of an impoverished sex worker’s daughter on the brink of being trafficked and a privileged but socially shunned Western girl, whose lives intertwine in a triumph of empathy over ignorance.

What was your inspiration for writing this book?

I spent over two years volunteering at NGOs that worked to prevent second generation trafficking in Mumbai, India. And I’ve spent many years counseling depressed teenagers clinically and in international schools.

One of the things that really surprised me about working with girls in the red-light district of Mumbai was how strong they were compared to many of the wealthy expat kids I’ve worked with. These brothel-raised girls are exposed to soul-destroying horrors and humiliations but somehow most of them rise above it. One thing is that they don’t consider themselves victims and definitely don’t want to be seen as such. I was constantly in awe of their resilience and determination. It was a story I had to tell.

What kind of research did you have to do to make sure your characters were authentic?

I’ve worked as a counselor in international schools and clinical settings for a long time, so that part of the research was already done, though I did interview the principal of the international school in Mumbai to discuss some of the cultural nuances I wanted to capture, for example attitudes toward homosexuality among her wealthy Indian students.

I spent more than two years volunteering at a night shelter in Kamathipura, the largest red-light district in Asia. I also tutored daughters of sex workers in my home and visited many organizations that provided support for the children of sex workers, including rescue homes and homes for HIV-infected children.

In addition, I attended a countrywide conference on sex trafficking in India and edited a national report on sex trafficking for Dasra, one of India’s largest strategic philanthropy organizations. The latter forced me to read extensively on sex trafficking so I could understand how the industry functioned.

How did you come to incorporate the diverse elements in your book? 

The story is told in the alternating first-person voices of an Indian brothel-raised girl and a Western girl, both of whom experience sexual violence. I also included a gay Indian boy, who’s struggling to come out to his family and friends. I wanted to include him for the many Asian boys I’ve counseled who’ve struggled with this. As hard as it is to be gay in Western culture, it’s even harder in most Asian cultures, including India.

How does the diversity in your book relate to your life? 

I left Canada when I was 21 years old to teach in a remote village in Africa. I spent close to three years in Africa. Often I was the only white person that people had ever seen. Some children in my village would run from me screaming. Others would stand at my window and watch me for hours, like I was a zoo animal. Most of the time I just read, or planned lessons, or marked papers, so I was the most boring zoo animal on the planet. But I learned what it felt like to be judged by my skin color. I also learned that a color is just that, nothing more. Even culture is an artifice to some extent. There are differences but they’re insignificant compared to the commonalities we all share that transcend culture.

Since that early beginning, I’ve continued to live and work overseas, mostly in the developing world. My students and counseling clients have always been racially, culturally and religiously diverse. Many are non-white and either Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu. Where I live, white kids are the minority.

When I do author visits now, I’m typically speaking to mostly, if not entirely, non-Western kids because I live in Asia and I speak to local as well as international school groups. I don’t know if I’d even be capable of writing a story about entirely mono-cultural kids. That hasn’t been my life experience for more than twenty-five years.

What are some of your favorite YA books about diverse characters?

I hate to choose favorites partly because I have a lot of author friends and I wouldn’t want to leave anyone off the list but also because I read voraciously and usually my favorite is the last book I’ve read. Today it’s Golden Boy by Tara Sullivan, which I finished reading yesterday! I’m also uniquely proud of the Gilded series, by Christina Farley, which draws on her years working in Korea. Christina and I have been critique partners for years.

I could read you some of the titles on my bookshelf that are staring at me as I answer these questions: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian, Lost Girl Found, Sold, I Am Taxi, Chanda’s Secrets, Copper Sun, When Everything Feels Like the Movies, Pigeon English, My Name is Parvana, Does My Head Look Big in This, Half of a Yellow Sun, Monster, I am Malala, The Alchemist and a bunch of adult books, many of which also feature diverse characters.

When I go into a bookstore I always scan the shelves for books set in foreign countries, with diverse characters, but truthfully I’m not sure I’m consciously thinking about promoting or supporting diversity. Those are just the books that interest me.

I enjoy books that help me to understand the world and different perspectives. I also look for books that resonate with me and because my life has been lived mostly in foreign lands, that results in choosing multicultural books. When I read Golden Boy I was transported back to my African home. I remembered the Albino boy in my village who the other children threw rocks at. I remember the hunted look in his eyes and our moment of kinship when I picked up a stick to chase off his tormentors.

What areas of diversity do you want to draw attention to or do you feel are underrepresented in books?

Personally, I’m interested in the lives of kids in the developing world who are marginalized through poverty, as well as ethnicity, gender or caste. I want to give a voice to children who have no voice. Someday I hope that they will have the education and freedom to tell their own stories but until that happens, I want to help bring their stories to light.


For more on FIFTEEN LANES, check out:

• Our group discussion at Teen Lit Rocks

• "Human Trafficking: Further Reading (and Fifteen Lanes book giveaway)" at The Reading Date

The entire YA Diversity Book Club archives can now be found on Tumblr, along with information about our upcoming book selections.

Next month we're reading THE STAR-TOUCHED QUEEN by Roshani Chokshi. Join us!

Facing the prospect a slow, dull Spring Break, Hannah impulsively decides to drive to Vegas to see Nick. (Don't worry, she brings her big sister and best friend along.) But when she gets there, she learns that Nick hasn't been completely truthful with her -- about his band, his friends, or himself.

Hannah and Nick have excellent chemistry, both as friends and as maybe more. But outside of their tingle-inducing moments, my favorite aspect of the novel was something I didn't expect at all: the setting!



Even though my parents are not gamblers, they love Vegas, so I've been many times throughout my life. I think author Jessica Love does a really nice job describing and making use of the unusual locale. (Unusual meaning we don't see it too much in YA lit.) She captures the energy and eclectic-ness of the Strip. She spotlights a few key landmarks and attractions, like the Eiffel Tower and the rollercoaster. And she also points out that this flashy Vegas is not the home of locals like Nick; it's the party spot, the tourist trap, the postcard. Nothing wrong with that. It's just an important note.







Anyway, it's a good analogy, actually, for what's going on with Nick throughout the story. (And even Hannah, to a degree.) The way we show people only certain aspects ourselves, even if they may not accurately represent the whole picture.

Will Nick and Hannah learn to reveal their whole, true selves to one another? Before it's too late? You'll just have to read to find out.


For more on IN REAL LIFE, check out:

• Our group discussion at The Reading Date
• Q&A with author Jessica Love at Teen Lit Rocks

The entire YA Diversity Book Club archives can now be found on Tumblr, along with information about our upcoming book selections.

Next month we're reading FIFTEEN LANES by S.J. Laidlaw. Join us!

Inspired by world mythology, maps, politics, and most of all Hawaii, THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE by Heidi Heilig is unlike any book we've read so far for the YA Diversity Book Club. It also falls into the #ownvoices movement, which is very cool. Have you read it? Here's what our book club thought:

What were your first impressions of The Girl From Everywhere?

We Heart YA: I loved Heilig’s writing and characters. The descriptions really drew me in; the story was very cinematic. The sailing, the mythology, the thieving… Lots of elements that I adore.

The Reading Date: YES the writing is descriptive and lovely. This one was out of my comfort zone but I could still relate to some of the family issues presented.

Teen Lit Rocks: I read PASSENGER earlier this year and loved it, so I wasn't sure what to expect from another book featuring a time-traveling girl on an old ship looking for answers about where she belongs. But, I was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it (even though I am not fond of the love triangle trope), but not as much as PASSENGER.

We Heart YA: Just curious, because I was intrigued by PASSENGER too: Are they actually similar? Or just both have the time travel/ship thing in common?

Teen Lit Rocks: There are also pirate and father-child issues, multi-culti romance, etc. I would say there are similarities, but there's more of a good vs. evil race in that one, whereas this is more of a heist type of story. There's more immersion in the various locales/time periods in PASSENGER, while GIRL stays mostly in Hawaii with brief moments in other settings. Anyhow, I highly recommend PASSENGER, especially since you enjoyed this story.

The Reading Date: I had read the PASSENGER comparisons which makes me curious to check it out sometime.

Maps, Time Travel, Pirate Ships and Dragons, oh my! How did you enjoy the time travel aspect of the story- was it easy to follow?

We Heart YA: At first I was worried the “timey-wimey” stuff would feel overwhelming to me, but because the writing was so strong in every way, I felt like the author knew what she was doing, so I trusted her with the time travel element too. And it did start to make sense pretty quickly -- as much sense as time travel can make, anyway! The only time my head kind of hurt was when Nix and Auntie Joss talked about Joss’s past and future… (Don’t want to say much more than that, because spoilers! Also because I’m still not sure I fully understood it, lol.)

The Reading Date: Er, yeah, sure, I could totally follow all the time travel stuff! OK, I got a little lost, but like you I went along for the ride.

Teen Lit Rocks: I was kind of bummed the maps didn't make it into the ARC. I think it would've been helpful to see the Maps she described. Time travel stories tend to create a paradox and a set of rules you have to keep straight, and it was mostly OK in this one, except it took a couple of read-throughs of the Auntie Joss situation for me to figure it out.

We Heart YA: Yeah I probably need to reread that exchange... By the way, the maps are viewable on Amazon! But I didn’t realize that until after I’d gotten pretty far into the book, and I have to say, I appreciated that I could follow the story easily without them. Sometimes in fantasy novels I’m hopelessly lost without the maps, and I hate that.

The Reading Date: I’m the odd-man out that doesn’t particularly care to refer to maps when I’m reading. I’d like to get everything from the text, but maybe in this case it would have been helpful to view the maps.

This own-voices book features a mixed-race heroine (“hapa haouli/haole”) and her bipolar father. Did this novel broaden your perspective in some way?

We Heart YA: Haha, well first of all, I’m biased because I’m a halfie (hapa) too! So I was really excited to read this story, about a halfie, by a halfie.

We Heart YA: Unless I missed it, the book never actually uses the word “bipolar,” which I think is an interesting choice. (Not right or wrong, just interesting!) To be honest, I don’t think I would have picked up on that specific trait/diagnosis for Slate, had I not been told. For me, his dominant issue was his addiction, and I thought that was portrayed and handled really well.

The Reading Date: I didn’t get that the father was bipolar either but only read about it through author interviews, including our book club q&a. And yes, I love own voices stories and was glad that the author felt comfortable enough to share some of her experience in the book.

Teen Lit Rocks: I didn't pick up on the father being bipolar at all. I thought of him as a perpetually grieving opium addict who was so focused on getting back to one timeline he couldn't see what was going on with his own daughter. I thought it was interesting how Kash, who was Persian, glossed as "half caste" (in India that meant a European dad and an Indian mom). That helped describe his looks to me. But can I take a moment to tell you that my friend Lauren (of Love Is Not a Triangle) and I have a joke about the disproportionate number of love interests with green eyes? Ha.

We Heart YA: Oh yeah, that’s definitely a thing. (Trope. Cliché.) My friend Linda wrote a great blog post about it, especially as relates to ASIAN characters (who are statistically almost never going to have green eyes). Link for anyone who is curious… http://wistfullylinda.blogspot.com/2012/09/part-3-green-eyed-asian-love-interest.html

The Reading Date: That blog post is a must-read. Thanks for the link!

What did you think of the character development? Any characters particularly stand out to you?

The Reading Date: My favorite character by far was Kashmir. I think he brought a lot of life to the story.

Teen Lit Rocks: I LOVED Kashmir as well. He was wise beyond his years, clever, kind and so obviously willing to do anything to help and protect his amira.

We Heart YA: I actually think Nix was my favorite (except for her name, which inexplicably bugged me). Like many “strong female protagonists” in YA, she is hyper-competent at an unusual skill, but Heidig did such a good job presenting her as fully formed -- i.e., flawed and vulnerable too -- that I didn’t mind in the least. She struck me as a normal (smart) girl who made the most of a strange upbringing, rather than a special snowflake who excelled at everything.

We Heart YA: But yes, lol, after that, Kashmir. He’s a bit like Aladdin, right? The charming rogue with a heart of gold.

This book takes you from modern-day New York to 1868 Hawaii. (The author talks about how she was inspired to write this story by a newspaper article about an act of piracy in Honolulu.) How did you enjoy the historical aspect of the story? Did it make you yearn to travel to Hawaii?

The Reading Date: I thought the setting was unique and it definitely made me want to go back to Hawaii.

Teen Lit Rocks: I have only been to Hawaii once, but it was amazing. It was obvious, though, that there are lingering tensions between the native Hawaiians, the Mainlanders, and even the Missionaries… Hawaii is a fascinating place; this book reminded me of the themes in THE DESCENDANTS.

We Heart YA: Ditto what Sandie said. I really liked getting a deeper look at Hawaii before it joined the US. I think the richness of the indigenous culture really came through.

What did you think of the romance/love triangle?

We Heart YA: Sigh. It was fine -- I get it -- but my heart was always, always with Kash.

The Reading Date: Hear, hear! #TeamKash

Teen Lit Rocks: I found the other love interest bland and almost forced by comparison to Kash. I understood her reasoning and felt like "Finally," but then the other guy (who is sweet but vanilla) kept popping up. I am NOT a fan of that ambiguity.

Did any particular passage or scene stand out to you?

The Reading Date: Heilig has a captivating way with words that elevated the story. I didn’t note any particular passages but was impressed with the writing overall.

We Heart YA: Same.

Teen Lit Rocks: Honestly, I enjoyed the conversations between Kash and Nix when they reminisce about their pasts, how he came to join the crew, and how they're both basically orphans who have only the Temptation… and the people on it.

Can you picture The Girl From Everywhere as a movie? Who would star?

We Heart YA: Absolutely! Like I said, the writing unfolded so cinematically for me. I would cast unknowns for Nix and Kash… And then I would love Tate Ellington (from Quantico) for Slate, and maybe Uzo Aduba (from Orange Is the New Black) for Bee?

The Reading Date: Great casting choices! Yes, I can totally see Tate Ellington for Slate.

Teen Lit Rocks: I pictured Slate as a little older than that. For Nix, I pictured someone like a younger Malese Jow or Sophie Wu (obviously not them, since they're older). As for Kash, I pictured him a bit like this Persian model: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/542613455079367964/ here's another photo https://www.pinterest.com/pin/542613455079367733/ (yes, that Pinterest page is called Hot Persian Men).

We Heart YA: Lol. Oh yeah, Kourosh Sadeghi definitely fits my mental image for Kash. (I had never heard of him, I’m just going off those pics.) And a young Malese Jow would be perfect! (She’s “unknown” enough for me.)

The Reading Date: Ooh I like Malese Jow for Nix. I saw Forever Young Adult suggests Janel Parrish for Nix -- http://foreveryoungadult.com/2016/02/24/the-girl-from-everywhere/ -- which I also like.

The Reading Date: And whoa, those green eyes on that Persian model!!

If you could time travel to any time/place where would you go?

The Reading Date: I’m not really one for looking backwards, though I’d like to go back a few years so I could hang out with my mom some more. Also, to go back and buy tickets to Hamilton!

We Heart YA: Omg, LOL, right? Or maybe I’d go forward in time to when Hamilton isn’t the only thing everyone can talk about. (Note: I’m sure it’s fabulous and I really want to see it, but Crazy Hype in general bugs me.)

Teen Lit Rocks: Oh, I love HAMILTON, but I love a lot of musical theatre. Time travel stories make me think of that controversial Louis C.K. bit where he says only white men have the privilege of time travel. People of color and women can't go back to most time periods and still have freedom. But as an observer, I think I would've enjoyed visiting the '20s because it was a decade of promise, the Harlem Renaissance, the youth culture, the dances, the gorgeous clothes.

We Heart YA: Dang, good point, CK...

Anything else you’d like to add?

The Reading Date: A fun, unique, and adventurous story overall, even though I did get a little lost in the details sometimes.

Teen Lit Rocks: Do you know if there are sequels planned? And hello, how could anyone be anything but Team Kash?

We Heart YA: I know Heilig recently turned in edits on a sequel! I think there are only these 2 books planned, though. Regardless, I would check out anything by her. Her storytelling was so thoughtful and imaginative, and her writing was just great. Plus, there’s the obvious commitment to diversity! ;)


For more on THE GIRL FROM EVERYWHERE, check out:

• Q&A with author Heidi Heilig at The Reading Date
• "Love the One You're With" at Teen Lit Rocks

The entire YA Diversity Book Club archives can now be found on Tumblr, along with information about our upcoming book selections.

Next month we're reading IN REAL LIFE by Jessica Love. Join us!