Black teens enjoy reading, too…Whowouldathunkit?

I don’t know whether to be overjoyed or annoyed at the recent Publisher’s Weekly article reporting that editors in the young adult genre are paying more attention to the interests of black teen readers. I’m happy that young black readers are finally getting some love from the publishing industry, but as a longtime bibliophile I am dismayed that it took so long.

Although black teens read plenty of books that feature no prominent black characters—Stephenie Meyer’s titles, for example—the emergence of more young adult publishing programs geared toward African-Americans is in many ways a response to demand. Most editors contacted by PW agree that the publishing industry is starting to understand that black teens not only want to read about themselves but are also an economically viable readership. “The aha! moment is unfolding slowly,” says Andrea Pinkney, v-p and executive editor at Scholastic, “but it is happening.” Read more…

Why the notion of young people of color finding enjoyment escaping into a good book is a concept so hard to grasp that it must be digested slowly escapes me, but at least publishers are gradually “getting it.” And what helped spark this epiphany in the publishing world? Vigilant parents like the ones here at ARP.

This need for more relatable titles aimed at African-American teenagers is also being spurred by parents, according to Cheryl Hudson, cofounder of Just Us Books, an African-American house focused on children’s titles that is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. It was feedback from parents that motivated the publisher to start releasing young adult titles in addition to the picture books it is known for.

The members of the ARP family are always looking for good books featuring children of color. The Publisher’s Weekly article includes a list of recommended titles aimed at black children. I’d love to hear some reader feedback on these. (Why so many historical titles? That seems to me a trend in literature aimed at African American youth.)

Image courtesy of babblingdweeb on Flickr.

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Comments

Lu wrote:

My two children who are old enough to read (both Black) love to do so, and it is ignorant to assume their taste for reading would be different solely because they are Black.

This list is helpful though – they like the Harry Potter type books but I would like to have them read more books with a Black character as the protagonist.

I recently read Walter Mosley’s first teen book, “47″ and I enjoyed it. Both of my boys are too young for it now but I can see them reading it when they are older.

Posted 10 Dec 2008 at 9:45 pm ¶
jen* wrote:

I read almost everything I could get my hands on when I was a kid – from about the age of 6 until I was 18. The older I got, the harder it was to find things I wanted to read – often because I’d read everything available by a particular author.

But looking back, the only YA book I can readily remember that actually had a black protagonist was Come a Stranger by Cynthia Voigt. I remember thinking it was an excellent book, but I don’t know if that’s just cuz it was about a black girl. However, I remember reading books that had no picture of the protagonist on the cover, and didn’t specify the race of the hero in its pages. I know that the assumption would be that these people were white – but I found it easier to imagine myself in the roles when there was no race mentioned.

Posted 11 Dec 2008 at 11:32 am ¶
Andrea wrote:

If any of your kids like science fiction, Octavia Butler wrote some really great, thought-provoking, entertaining sci fi that I read as a teenager and when I was in my early 20s. She was a black writer and all of her protagonists were also African or black American. Andre Norton also wrote some sci fi for kids called the Star Kat series with a black child as a main character. I know I read other series with black main characters when I was a kid, so they were certainly out there. I remember disliking the ones that were set in the civil rights era because they were too preachy. One well-regarded one I didn’t like was called something like Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. It was well written though, and some kids would probably enjoy it as well. All kids should be encouraged to read a variety of genres.

Posted 11 Dec 2008 at 2:29 pm ¶
S's mom wrote:

Lu, have your kids read LionBoy Trilogy? I’ve only read the first book in it, but it is along the same lines as Harry Potter. The protagonist is a boy with a white British mom and a black African dad.

http://www.amazon.com/Lionboy-Trilogy-Zizou-Corder/dp/0142402265/ref=pd_bbs_sr_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1229037916&sr=8-3

Posted 11 Dec 2008 at 6:27 pm ¶
Paula wrote:

Why so many historical titles? That seems to me a trend in literature aimed at African American youth

Exactly. Marva Allen’s comment in answer to Stacey Barney asking about the void of a black Gossip Girl is the norm – it’s as if we’re afraid the traditional books will go away if we allow niche books to seep into the market for Black teens.

Some other recommendations can be found at The Brown Bookshelf.com and they include traditional and newer -flavored books.

Posted 11 Dec 2008 at 6:53 pm ¶
deesha wrote:

**Marva Allen’s comment in answer to Stacey Barney asking about the void of a black Gossip Girl is the norm – it’s as if we’re afraid the traditional books will go away if we allow niche books to seep into the market for Black teens.**

Sadly, from what I have read on at least one (adult) black lit site, some black teens are reading Zane and the like. A black Gossip Girl would actually be preferable to that, if I had to choose between the two.

Posted 11 Dec 2008 at 11:07 pm ¶
deesha wrote:

I recommend the Miami book series by Patricia McKissack, and the Willemina (sp?) series by Valerie Wilson Wesley to anyone looking for nonfiction chapter books featuring young black protagonists. These are for readers ages 7 -11, I would say.

Posted 11 Dec 2008 at 11:16 pm ¶
Cynthia Leitich Smith wrote:

Thanks for this article. I’m a Native American children’s-YA author who’s been long interested in diversity in youth literature across the board.

My understanding is that historical titles have the strongest footing because of their curriculum hook for school librarians who increasingly have to justify each purpose. It is the same in Native lit.

My feeling is that we all have to make an effort to champion the books we support and, in this case, to make the argument that contemporary titles can encourage the kind of “free reading” that build graduates who’ll be readers for life.

Posted 12 Dec 2008 at 8:56 am ¶
Erin wrote:

I’d add pretty much anything by Walter Dean Myers to the list, but in particular Monster.

I just finished a class on African Americans in Children’s Literature, and the majority of the books we read had historical settings. Christopher Paul Curtis … Mildred Taylor … Patricia McKissack, etc. It’s interesting you bring that up – as a (white) kid I absolutely LOVED historical fiction, so I read most of these books – but the majority of books with white protagonists (or Asian, or Native, etc) were in historical settings as well. I can only think of a few contemporary books with black protagonists – Yolanda’s Genius by Carol Fenner, The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake, and Dancer by Lori Hewett.

Posted 13 Dec 2008 at 12:33 am ¶
Els Kushner wrote:

Jacqueline Woodson has written some terrific contemporary literature for kids and teens, including From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun, Hush, and Last Summer with Maizon.

There’s a kids’ literature blog called The Brown Bookshelf (http://thebrownbookshelf.com/) that’s a good source for reviews and recommendations of books by African-American authors and about African-American kids.

Posted 13 Dec 2008 at 1:32 pm ¶
Matt wrote:

Be careful with Octavia Butler – she’s one of my favorite writers, but a lot of her books are inappropriate for kids due to extreme violence. I still haven’t read all her books, but the ones I have (Xenogenesis series, Clay’s Ark) are a lot more violent and disturbing than I’d want my child reading until after they got through the teen years.

Very much agree that she’s a valuable writer, and the way she deals artfully with problems of race, sexuality and other perennial human concerns contribute positively to the discussion in a way that would interest more than just sci-fi fans.

Posted 13 Dec 2008 at 3:13 pm ¶
Felicia Pride wrote:

Thanks for posting the article that I co-wrote. I decided to choose YA as the topic for this annual feature in PW because I wanted to further continue conversations like this one.

I encourage you to check out a new resource that my organization BackList has started called THE BRIDGE IS OVER. We developed to help educators, youth providers and parents connect young people with the power of words. More info is at http://www.thebacklist.net.

Felicia Pride

Posted 28 Dec 2008 at 11:55 am ¶
Mollie wrote:

My 8 year old son told me that he wanted books about “kids just like me” and not books about the past. Right now, he enjoys reading the Ziggy and the Black Dinosaurs series.

Posted 30 Dec 2008 at 5:45 pm ¶
Rites Inc. wrote:

I remember when my son was younger I worried if he would ever develop a love of reading. Now he reads anything that interests him. Stories he reads just need to be good. No color line here.

Posted 01 Feb 2009 at 11:56 pm ¶