Diversity Roll Call: On Gender and Misleading Covers

Gosh, where to even start? I had planned to address some gender issues that came up for me this week, but I don't want to overlook the important discussion that's been going on about cover art, specifically the cover art of an upcoming YA release. So, this will be a two-part Roll Call. With two weeks before the next topic, there's time to write a post for each part if you'd like (it's also fine not to). Just be sure to link to the exact post/s in the Mr. Linky so we don't miss one.

Topic A: The book cover that lies

Justine Larbaleister's upcoming release, Liar, is a psychological thriller set in New York City, told from the point of view of a compulsive liar. Larbaleister, the anglo-Australian author of How to Ditch Your Fairy and the Madness or Magic series, says that she makes it a point to feature non-white protagonists. The narrator of Liar, for example, "is black with nappy hair which she wears natural and short." Here's the U.S. cover:

Huh??

Publisher's Weekly addresses the mismatch between the character description and the cover art. So does Larbaleister herself. It's also well worth reading E. Lockhart's thoughts on the topic (she's the author of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, among others) .

Two choices, if you choose this topic.

1) Use this week's Roll Call to post about this controversy. If you've already posted about it, please link to your post here.
2) Kathy from The Brain Lair inspired me when she Tweeted that she might have her students do this: Design your own cover for Liar.
Hey, you never know--the paperback may come out with a redesign!
Have fun with this. If there's another cover that grates at you for similar reasons, feel free to do your redesign on it. At right is the Australian version for inspiration.

Topic B: What We Ask of Boys

Some of us live in fairly homogenous communities, and some kids aren't exposed to a lot of diversity in their day-to-day lives. (All the more reason to include it in the books they read! But I digress). The one kind of diversity that nearly everyone is exposed to on a daily basis, and often within their own families, is gender diversity.

Librarian Diantha McBride wrote an open letter to publishers in School Library Journal, detailing several things she'd like to see changed in children's books. The most controversial statement she made was this:

I need more books for boys—as do most librarians who work with young people. I've noticed that lots of books with female characters aren't really about being female. In fact, in many cases, the main characters could just as easily have been males—and that would make my job a lot easier.

Of the many reactions to this throughout the blogosphere, Renay's sarcastic rant stood out for me:

"Why yes! Girls should have to read about boys because you know, they’re used to it, but boys shouldn’t have to pick up a book with a female narrator, because they might get cooties. . . . Boys need books with male narrators because they can’t see themselves in a female perspective, because they’ve been trained not to by a society that is hostile to women and girls. The answer is not to cater to this hostility, it is to come up with creative ways to make the books appealing."

Meanwhile, Mr. Chompchomp of Guys Lit Wire issued an apology of his own, for the fact that his recommendations for books for boys tend to bypass books with female leads, regardless of whether the premise/writing/style might have boy appeal. He remedies this with a list of books with female protagonists and boy appeal which I'll certainly be making use of for my boys.

Three choices, for this topic:

1. Talk about a book (or offer a list of books) that you think has appeal to both genders. Or, books with a female lead that would appeal to guys, or vice versa. It doesn't have to be a kids' book--choose whatever genre you'd like.
2. For authors: talk about gender in your writing--For example, what's your experience been with crossing over to the other side? Do you shy away from it? What do you think of the suggestion of switching a protagonist's gender for the sake of sales/boy appeal/gender equity?
3. Take a book that you love and change the protagonist's gender. How does this change the book's meaning? Would it hold the same place in your heart if the males were female and vice versa?

Post your link or links in the Mr. Linky below.


The C.O.R.A. Diversity Roll Call is a biweekly meme hosted by myself and Susan at Color Online. All are welcome! Join us once, twice, or every time--all we ask is that you link back to the original post, and be open to conversation with other participants.

Mock Printz Report

On Saturday I attended the Mock Printz Award workshop at my library. I was the only person out of the 40 or so in attendance who was neither a teen or a librarian, but I tried to blend in. You know, by not shouting out "LOL!" every time somebody said something funny, and stuff like that.

Our task was to narrow eleven notable 2008 YA books down to one award winner and an honor book or two. After receiving instructions, we sequestered ourselves in groups of 6-7 for two hours of discussion. Our group had five adults and two bright and thoughtful teen girls. We had less than ten minutes to discuss each book and you wouldn't believe how much ground we covered in that time. We agreed on a lot, disagreed on a lot, and at the end of two hours we each cast our votes.

Then we reconvened in the large group, reported on our top three books, and then launched into a rather raucous discussion about the various contenders. There were very strong feelings on either side for MadApple and My Most Excellent Year, in particular. Where librarians got stereotyped as mild-mannered, I will never understand.

Librarian A: MadApple is a beautiful account of the descent into madness.
Librarian B: What's madness is that she didn't have an editor!
Teen A: Notice how all the people who loved this book are adults?
Teen B: I know, right?
Teen C: Can we talk about Little Brother now?

After the discussion we each got to vote on our top three again. I changed my #3 vote, but kept the first two the same.

The book that won was not everyone's favorite book by any stretch, but it had the distinction that nobody hated it. Even people who didn't love it acknowledged that it had an important and unique theme, a strong voice and setting, and characters that drew the reader in. Even those who loved it acknowledged that it wasn't perfect (unlike a couple of other books, which some had fallen for so hard that they seemed blind to their imperfections).

Our winner?

Yep, it's one of the two that I didn't get around to reviewing: Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow. This was my personal #3 in the final vote. I didn't expect to like this book and I did, mostly because the protagonist was a great narrator. Some people thought the large amounts of technical information were tucked in nicely, others thought there was too much explanation. Everyone who spoke felt that Doctorow made an imaginary situation very believable and made a strong statement about the very real anti-terrorism measures that have been happening in the U.S. since 9/11.

Here are the rest of the books, in order of the points they received.
2. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks This was my #2. This one sparked interesting discussions about feminism: what it is and isn't, and whether it's a useful concept to the up-and-coming generation. Most of the teens loved this, but those who didn't, felt that Frankie was hard to relate to and that there was too much emphasis on being accepted by the boys. One boy said, "I saw this as a feminist book, and our generation isn't about feminism, we're about equality."
3. My Most Excellent Year. Listening to people rave about this actually made me feel a little queasy. The teens said the characters (who I described in my review as "sit-com characters") were exactly like people they know at school; people loved the pop culture references and the fact that it was a happy book. Those of us who didn't love it agreed that we're looking forward to his next book. Just please don't make me ever read this one again.
4. Paper Towns. This was my #1. Nearly everyone loved this book and I'm surprised it didn't get more points. Some people said it was over-hyped because they and their friends had adored Green's other books so much. Others felt that his protagonists are too similar and he needs to branch out more (others vehemently disagreed).
5. Skim This graphic novel was popular among many, especially for its art work.
6. Black Box. This was my personal #3 in the initial vote. The main criticism others had was that the main character wasn't given enough emphasis. The focus was on her sister and then her boyfriend. I loved this book but found that when it came to discussing it, I couldn't remember precisely why, which in itself is telling, I think.
7. MadApple. The teens, who were intelligent and not at all frothy (one of the girls in our group said she prefers authors like Sinclair Lewis to YA books), were of one mind on this: not a teen book. The people who loved it were mostly over 50.
8. The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Some liked it, some didn't. Everyone hated the ending.
9. Last Exit to Normal. Most people liked this one a lot, but had criticisms of it. One of the male teens said it read like a Lifetime movie.
10. Missing Girl. I couldn't read this one, I put it down after page 50. The combination of creepiness with too many protagonists was more than I was willing to stomach, and I'd just put MadApple down at the time and needed to read something I could enjoy. Most people found it more palatable than I did.
11. Sunrise Over Fallujah. Everyone agreed this was good, and an important book--like historical fiction but contemporary. I think it was the lack of depth of the minor characters that kept it from rising to the top of people's lists.

This whole experience was great fun, and also there were cookies and fruit. My favorite part was talking to the teens about the books that were written for them. I hope I get to invite myself again next year!

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks--E. Lockhart (Book Review)

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banksis one of the titles I'm reading as part of the 2009 Mock Printz Awards. As I started reading, I was immediately struck by the narrative voice. This is not your usual YA style. Here, we have a third-person narrator who is sympathetic to Frankie, but decidedly not Frankie, and whose tone is far more adult than the usual oh-so-hip voice of the YA novel:

Though not, in hindsight, so startling as the misdeeds she would perpetrate when she returned to boarding school as a sophomore, what happened to Frankie Landau-Banks the summer after her freshman year was a shock….She grew into her angular face, filled out her figure, and transformed from a homely child into a loaded potato--all while sitting quietly in a suburban hammock, reading the short stories of Dorothy Parker and drinking lemonade.

I wondered whether this voice would resonate with teen readers. As I delved deeper into the tale of Frankie's sophomore year at boarding school, I decided I didn't care what the teen readers thought of the narrator--I was having too good of a time to worry about that. Lockheart was making me think, using the school's steeped-in-tradition secret club, the Loyal Order of the Bassett Hounds, as an allegory for the male-dominated social network that resounds in the adult world of business and politics. Frankie's father's continual bond with the powerful buddies he did pranks and smoked pot with in high school, is a prediction of the future waiting for Frankie's boyfriend Matthew--a future that's only available to Frankie if and when Matthew (or another member of the good-ole-boys club) chooses to include her. Frankie resolves not to accept this imbalance of power, and her investigation and eventual infiltration of the secret club makes for a delightful read with a real message for men and women, as well as teens.

So, did the story resonate with those teens? A quick survey shows that, at least among the avid readers who make up teen book bloggers, it did. Still, I can't help but wish this book had been marketed to an adult audience--not because it isn't appropriate for teens, but because it's a shame that many adults will miss out on this highly entertaining analysis of our culture's subtle undermining of women who dare to enter the world of men.

You can find E. Lockhart at E-lockhart.com or at her blog, entitled, oddly enough E. Lockhart's Blog.

The soundtrack: "Sisters are Doing it For Themselves," sung by Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics. I thought this song was sort of outdated when we were listening to it in the eighties. After reading this book, I'm not so sure that's true.