Children's Librarian Mode: Activated
Jun. 18th, 2020 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
galaxysoupSince June is Pride Month and tomorrow is Juneteenth and both my country and the Harry Potter fandom are on metaphorical fire right now, I have decided to put on my (white) children's librarian hat to ADDRESS SOME STUFF and, in no particular order, PROVIDE SOME RESOURCES!
First up: a plug for your local library (obvs) and, failing that, for bookshop.org, which is the indie bookstore response to Amazon. If you want to be more intentional in your book-buying, here is a list of BIPOC-owned indie bookstores you can order from.
With book sourcing out of the way, we can move on to our first topic: JKR. Unfortunately, this stands for J. K. Rowling and not 'Just Kidding, Right???'
What does 'death of the author' mean?
Death of the author does not mean go kill somebody, and it doesn't mean 'pretend the author of this book never existed so I can enjoy it in unproblematic peace'. What it means is to discard everything the author may say or do outside of the book and focus only on what happens in the work. It means ignoring "lol Dumbledore is gay - J. K. Rowling" and saying "there is no explicit queer representation in these books".
To quote from TV Tropes, which I thought put it very well: "Death of the Author is a concept from mid-20th Century literary criticism; it holds that an author's intentions and biographical facts (the author's politics, religion, etc) should hold no special weight in determining an interpretation of their writing. This is usually understood as meaning that a writer's views about their own work are no more or less valid than the interpretations of any given reader. Intentions are one thing. What was actually accomplished might be something very different."
One fan's reasoning behind continuing to read the Harry Potter books
Obviously, everyone should make their own decision here. For some people, JKR being a giant TERF dirtbag is a fatal blow to their enjoyment of the books, no matter how much solace and enjoyment they might have found there before. For me, and maybe for others, it isn't. Are there things about the books that could have been done better? Absolutely. No work is ever perfect, although some get closer than others.
For me personally, I think the series still has a lot of valuable things to say about kindness, skepticism, questioning authority, and the social pressures of growing up in a turbulent time. I like the way it shows power systems from the governmental to the educational being only as perfect as the people in them, and the way public opinion and the media can be influenced and used as a weapon.
I also find them to be a lot of fun and a good read, and that on its own is a perfectly good reason to read and enjoy something. I'm not going to discourage kids who come into the library looking for them (side note: no librarian should ever make you feel judged for what you're reading, that's against the rules. No, seriously - it violates the Second Law of Librarianship), nor am I going to discourage my nephews from reading them in my non-professional sphere. I will absolutely have candid conversations with any of them who ask for one, though.
And now we can get on to the fun part: book recs! People who read fiction develop more empathy and emotional intelligence, two things we could use a lot more of in this world.
So you don't want to read Harry Potter but you still want to read a fantasy series
- My first stop when kids ask me for something to read after Harry Potter is usually Rick Riordan's books. They're on a similar reading and comprehension level, there's about a million of them, and they're very popular. The author, while white and straight, has a commendable track record of intentional representation (in fact, that's why he started writing them in the first place). His books are heavy on the mythology side of fantasy, and while the main series centers around the white, straight, dyslexic-and-ADHD Percy Jackson, the Kane Chronicles series is about biracial siblings, the Trials of Apollo series has gay and bi main characters, and the Magnus Chase series has a genderfluid character.
- Rick Riordan, beautiful human that he is, also created the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, in which authors are given a platform from which to write series based on their own cultures' mythologies and traditions. There's a ton of awesome stuff there, not all of which I have been able to read yet, but I want to particularly call out "Dragon Pearl" (Korean mythology IN SPACE! Plus a nonbinary secondary character) and "Sal and Gabi Destroy the Universe" (Cuban-American brujeria plus multiverse theory shenanigans!) as being extra fun.
- Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising" sequence is an older series but great for kids who like a bit of creepy horror thrown into their magical fantasy books.
- Tamora Pierce has a bunch of series that are fun, roughly grouped into the Tortall and Circle universes. Her 'Song of the Lioness' series was one of my childhood 'girl disguises herself as a boy and has adventures' staples and her stories tend to have fun female characters in particular. The Circle books have POC main characters. There are queer characters in several of her books, but they're often very subtly done.
RECS FROM THE COMMENTS:
- Diane Duane, who I can't believe I forgot! She has an absurd number of books, but the "Young Wizards" series (starting with the book "So You Want To Be A Wizard") is probably the best entry point for the purposes of this particular list.
Some good queer books for kids
These are basically all middle-grades books, because that's what I tend to read the most of, but there are a lot of good picturebooks out there too!
- "Alan Cole Is Not a Coward" by Eric Bell
- "Birdie And Me" by JMM Nuanez. Lovely siblings relationship book which includes a non-traditionally gender-presenting younger sibling who's still working out what's what
- "Don't Check Out This Book!" by Kate Klise. The queer rep is subtle, but there are very strong 'defy authority' overtones that I appreciate. Plus, a cool librarian character.
- "George" and "Rick" by Alex Gino. These get a little 'Gender and Sexuality 101', but they're sweet and a short read and some anvils do need to be dropped. Plus "Rick" has an ace main character, which is pretty rare!
- "Witch Boy", "The Hidden Witch", and "The Midwinter Witch" by Molly Knox Ostertag. These graphic novels are less about outright queer rep and more about deconstructing gender roles, but they're also an awesome fantasy romp with great worldbuilding and a black secondary lead character.
- "Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
- "Lumberjanes" by Noelle Stevenson. Graphic novel series with more queer rep than you can shake a stick at. There's a novel series that goes along with it, too.
- "The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James" by Ashley Herring Blake
- "PS I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
- "The Pants Project" by Cat Clarke
Kids' books with black main characters who get to have fun
Stories about slavery and racism and the civil rights movement are extremely important but also, shall we say, prevalent? It's getting progressively better, publishing-industry-wise, but it wasn't so long ago that a request for a book with a black main character would only net you "Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry" or maybe "Nightjohn". Which are good books! But sometimes you just want to read a book about a character like you who doesn't have 'escaping from slavery' or 'being discriminated against' as their only plotline.
Just like with the queer books list, these are almost entirely middle-grades books.
- "Sanity and Tallulah" and "Field Trip" by Molly Brooks. Hilarious graphic novel scifi adventure series WITH HIJINKS!
- "Ghost Squad" by Claribel Ortega. This book just came out and it was so much fun, plus I really want the cover art as a poster.
- "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia. This one does take place during the Civil Rights era and those events do come into it, but it's primarily about sibling shenanigans.
- "Hurricane Child" by Kacen Callender (published before they changed their name, so may be listed under Kheryn Callender instead). Also has queer rep!
- "Just Jamie" by Terri Libenson
- "The Only Black Girls In Town" by Brandy Colbert. Mysterious clues found in attics! Middle school angst!
- "Vera Vance, Comics Star" by Claudia Mills
- "Zahrah the Windseeker" by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. Afrofuturism solarpunk fairy tale!
- "Dactyl Hill Squad" by Daniel Jose Older. Granted, it does take place during the Civil War, but the main characters also ride dinosaurs, sooooo....
- "The Jumbies" by Tracey Baptiste
- "Jada Jones" series by Kelly Starling Lyons. This series and the next two are more in the 'early chapter book' reading range.
- "Zoey and Sassafras" series by Asia Citro
- "Miami Jackson" series by Patricia McKissack
So you also want to read grownup books for grownups
Most of these are links to tumblr posts, because that's where I came across them and my wheelhouse is definitely kids' books rather than adult ones. But I have read some of the books they list, and there are several more on my tbr pile!
- Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy Books by Authors of Color
- LGBT+ Books by Black Authors
- Anti-Racist Resource Roundup, including Starter Kit, Intermediate Kit, Topic Specifics, Biographies and Personal Narratives, Black Feminism, Black LGBTQ+, and a Resource Guide
- I would also like to add the book "Pushout: the criminalization of black girls in schools" by Monique Morris, as a general read but particularly for anyone who works with kids.
RECS FROM THE COMMENTS:
- Authors in general: Elizabeth Acevedo (I second this one!), Tanuja Desai Hidier, Isabel Quintero
- Rosemary Kirstein's "Steerswoman" fantasy series
- S. E. Robertson's "Balance Academy" fantasy series
Phew, that's a lot of linking! If anyone has more books or resources they'd like to add, please comment and tell me and I'll add them to the lists. Thanks to the lockdown I don't have access to a lot of my usual library resources, so I'm going mostly off memory for this post. As I come across more stuff I'll add it too!
First up: a plug for your local library (obvs) and, failing that, for bookshop.org, which is the indie bookstore response to Amazon. If you want to be more intentional in your book-buying, here is a list of BIPOC-owned indie bookstores you can order from.
With book sourcing out of the way, we can move on to our first topic: JKR. Unfortunately, this stands for J. K. Rowling and not 'Just Kidding, Right???'
What does 'death of the author' mean?
Death of the author does not mean go kill somebody, and it doesn't mean 'pretend the author of this book never existed so I can enjoy it in unproblematic peace'. What it means is to discard everything the author may say or do outside of the book and focus only on what happens in the work. It means ignoring "lol Dumbledore is gay - J. K. Rowling" and saying "there is no explicit queer representation in these books".
To quote from TV Tropes, which I thought put it very well: "Death of the Author is a concept from mid-20th Century literary criticism; it holds that an author's intentions and biographical facts (the author's politics, religion, etc) should hold no special weight in determining an interpretation of their writing. This is usually understood as meaning that a writer's views about their own work are no more or less valid than the interpretations of any given reader. Intentions are one thing. What was actually accomplished might be something very different."
One fan's reasoning behind continuing to read the Harry Potter books
Obviously, everyone should make their own decision here. For some people, JKR being a giant TERF dirtbag is a fatal blow to their enjoyment of the books, no matter how much solace and enjoyment they might have found there before. For me, and maybe for others, it isn't. Are there things about the books that could have been done better? Absolutely. No work is ever perfect, although some get closer than others.
For me personally, I think the series still has a lot of valuable things to say about kindness, skepticism, questioning authority, and the social pressures of growing up in a turbulent time. I like the way it shows power systems from the governmental to the educational being only as perfect as the people in them, and the way public opinion and the media can be influenced and used as a weapon.
I also find them to be a lot of fun and a good read, and that on its own is a perfectly good reason to read and enjoy something. I'm not going to discourage kids who come into the library looking for them (side note: no librarian should ever make you feel judged for what you're reading, that's against the rules. No, seriously - it violates the Second Law of Librarianship), nor am I going to discourage my nephews from reading them in my non-professional sphere. I will absolutely have candid conversations with any of them who ask for one, though.
And now we can get on to the fun part: book recs! People who read fiction develop more empathy and emotional intelligence, two things we could use a lot more of in this world.
So you don't want to read Harry Potter but you still want to read a fantasy series
- My first stop when kids ask me for something to read after Harry Potter is usually Rick Riordan's books. They're on a similar reading and comprehension level, there's about a million of them, and they're very popular. The author, while white and straight, has a commendable track record of intentional representation (in fact, that's why he started writing them in the first place). His books are heavy on the mythology side of fantasy, and while the main series centers around the white, straight, dyslexic-and-ADHD Percy Jackson, the Kane Chronicles series is about biracial siblings, the Trials of Apollo series has gay and bi main characters, and the Magnus Chase series has a genderfluid character.
- Rick Riordan, beautiful human that he is, also created the Rick Riordan Presents imprint, in which authors are given a platform from which to write series based on their own cultures' mythologies and traditions. There's a ton of awesome stuff there, not all of which I have been able to read yet, but I want to particularly call out "Dragon Pearl" (Korean mythology IN SPACE! Plus a nonbinary secondary character) and "Sal and Gabi Destroy the Universe" (Cuban-American brujeria plus multiverse theory shenanigans!) as being extra fun.
- Susan Cooper's "Dark is Rising" sequence is an older series but great for kids who like a bit of creepy horror thrown into their magical fantasy books.
- Tamora Pierce has a bunch of series that are fun, roughly grouped into the Tortall and Circle universes. Her 'Song of the Lioness' series was one of my childhood 'girl disguises herself as a boy and has adventures' staples and her stories tend to have fun female characters in particular. The Circle books have POC main characters. There are queer characters in several of her books, but they're often very subtly done.
RECS FROM THE COMMENTS:
- Diane Duane, who I can't believe I forgot! She has an absurd number of books, but the "Young Wizards" series (starting with the book "So You Want To Be A Wizard") is probably the best entry point for the purposes of this particular list.
Some good queer books for kids
These are basically all middle-grades books, because that's what I tend to read the most of, but there are a lot of good picturebooks out there too!
- "Alan Cole Is Not a Coward" by Eric Bell
- "Birdie And Me" by JMM Nuanez. Lovely siblings relationship book which includes a non-traditionally gender-presenting younger sibling who's still working out what's what
- "Don't Check Out This Book!" by Kate Klise. The queer rep is subtle, but there are very strong 'defy authority' overtones that I appreciate. Plus, a cool librarian character.
- "George" and "Rick" by Alex Gino. These get a little 'Gender and Sexuality 101', but they're sweet and a short read and some anvils do need to be dropped. Plus "Rick" has an ace main character, which is pretty rare!
- "Witch Boy", "The Hidden Witch", and "The Midwinter Witch" by Molly Knox Ostertag. These graphic novels are less about outright queer rep and more about deconstructing gender roles, but they're also an awesome fantasy romp with great worldbuilding and a black secondary lead character.
- "Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World" by Ashley Herring Blake
- "Lumberjanes" by Noelle Stevenson. Graphic novel series with more queer rep than you can shake a stick at. There's a novel series that goes along with it, too.
- "The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James" by Ashley Herring Blake
- "PS I Miss You" by Jen Petro-Roy
- "The Pants Project" by Cat Clarke
Kids' books with black main characters who get to have fun
Stories about slavery and racism and the civil rights movement are extremely important but also, shall we say, prevalent? It's getting progressively better, publishing-industry-wise, but it wasn't so long ago that a request for a book with a black main character would only net you "Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry" or maybe "Nightjohn". Which are good books! But sometimes you just want to read a book about a character like you who doesn't have 'escaping from slavery' or 'being discriminated against' as their only plotline.
Just like with the queer books list, these are almost entirely middle-grades books.
- "Sanity and Tallulah" and "Field Trip" by Molly Brooks. Hilarious graphic novel scifi adventure series WITH HIJINKS!
- "Ghost Squad" by Claribel Ortega. This book just came out and it was so much fun, plus I really want the cover art as a poster.
- "Gone Crazy in Alabama" by Rita Williams-Garcia. This one does take place during the Civil Rights era and those events do come into it, but it's primarily about sibling shenanigans.
- "Hurricane Child" by Kacen Callender (published before they changed their name, so may be listed under Kheryn Callender instead). Also has queer rep!
- "Just Jamie" by Terri Libenson
- "The Only Black Girls In Town" by Brandy Colbert. Mysterious clues found in attics! Middle school angst!
- "Vera Vance, Comics Star" by Claudia Mills
- "Zahrah the Windseeker" by Nnedi Okorafor-Mbachu. Afrofuturism solarpunk fairy tale!
- "Dactyl Hill Squad" by Daniel Jose Older. Granted, it does take place during the Civil War, but the main characters also ride dinosaurs, sooooo....
- "The Jumbies" by Tracey Baptiste
- "Jada Jones" series by Kelly Starling Lyons. This series and the next two are more in the 'early chapter book' reading range.
- "Zoey and Sassafras" series by Asia Citro
- "Miami Jackson" series by Patricia McKissack
So you also want to read grownup books for grownups
Most of these are links to tumblr posts, because that's where I came across them and my wheelhouse is definitely kids' books rather than adult ones. But I have read some of the books they list, and there are several more on my tbr pile!
- Queer Science Fiction and Fantasy Books by Authors of Color
- LGBT+ Books by Black Authors
- Anti-Racist Resource Roundup, including Starter Kit, Intermediate Kit, Topic Specifics, Biographies and Personal Narratives, Black Feminism, Black LGBTQ+, and a Resource Guide
- I would also like to add the book "Pushout: the criminalization of black girls in schools" by Monique Morris, as a general read but particularly for anyone who works with kids.
RECS FROM THE COMMENTS:
- Authors in general: Elizabeth Acevedo (I second this one!), Tanuja Desai Hidier, Isabel Quintero
- Rosemary Kirstein's "Steerswoman" fantasy series
- S. E. Robertson's "Balance Academy" fantasy series
Phew, that's a lot of linking! If anyone has more books or resources they'd like to add, please comment and tell me and I'll add them to the lists. Thanks to the lockdown I don't have access to a lot of my usual library resources, so I'm going mostly off memory for this post. As I come across more stuff I'll add it too!
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Date: 2020-06-19 01:28 am (UTC)Fantasy series that are not Harry Potter, all with queer representation of various kinds, and in which not everybody is default-white)
Diane Duane (Tale of the Five, Young Wizards, etc.)
Rosemary Kirstein (The Steerswoman)
S.E. Robertson (The Balance Academy)
Authors of color whose books I am especially fond of:
Elizabeth Acevedo, Tanuja Desai Hidier, Isabel Quintero, Joyce Lee Wong
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