The Book Search

One of the trends in libraries and the literary world over the past few years, is to offer readers different view points.  Traditionally, literature has been full of white people.  People of color or other religions or sexual orientations were relegated to best friend roles or were minor characters.   So to have a number of stories, where the main character is a person of color and isn't a stereotype (like  African Americans only portrayed as slaves or in stories about the Civil Rights movement, or Hispanic characters only portrayed as migrants), is to offer a wider variety of people the opportunity to see their own stories in print.  It also offers an opportunity to people like me (a middle aged white lady) to see stories that are different from my own.  Here are two brand new stories that offer voices that are fresh, charismatic, AND happen to be told by and are about people of color. The first one is by author Renee Watson.  I read her book "Pieci...

This week I've been reading some of the young people's books that are on the list for possibilities for the National Book Award.  I find that I'm not such a good judge of great literature because I sometimes don't care for the award winners (like last year's pick-That Thing About Luck by Cynthia Kadohata, which I didn't really like) but I like to read (a lot) and so when someone smarts says "Wow, that's a really great book" it feels like I OUGHT to pay attention. Of the five that are on the short list for the book award, I've read three of them and believe it or not, I really liked all three.  The other two I've never heard of so I guess I need to get to the library (or more likely, to Amazon!).  Even more surprising, two of the selections this year are non fiction and one of the non fiction one is also poetry.  Holy cow, what diversity!  So here are the three I've read. "Revolution" by Debroah Wiles is a story about three...