-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [CarlBrandon] Diversity in SF/Fantasy for Youth
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 2006 20:59:35 -0500
From: Nnedimma <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*I just found this article and book list (on Booklist's website):
Core Collection: Diversity in SF/Fantasy for Youth.*
Mattson, Jennifer (author).
FEATURE. First published May 15, 2006 (/Booklist/).
As Alma Flor Ada has said, "Children need windows and mirrors"—windows
that offer glimpses of other worlds, mirrors that reflect and validate
their own experience. For the child or young adult drawn to speculative
fiction, recommenders looking for stories that reach beyond European
traditions have long faced challenges. After all, much of classic youth
fantasy, from Lloyd Alexander’s Prydain Chronicles to Susan Cooper’s The
Dark Is Rising sequence, has obvious roots in Arthurian and
Tolkien-inspired mythologies. Recently, though, numerous authors have
offered welcome detours from thoroughfares teeming with wizards,
fairies, trolls, and goblins. One of these is Sophie Masson, whose
//Snow, Fire, Sword/ <default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1652234>/
(2006) roams the literal and spiritual landscapes of an alternate
Indonesia; for others, look to the list below, which includes titles
published for adults as well as youth, and encompasses both fantasy and sf.
Because of the list’s particular focus on tales set in recognizable
versions of our own world, or in invented worlds steeped in familiar
cultural traditions, readers will emerge aware of innumerable roads not
taken. One hopes, though, that even the list’s limited scope will help
perform what Hazel Rochman, Books for Youth Contributing Editor and
author of /Against Borders/ (1993), considers one of the key tasks of
multicultural literature: to "make a difference in dispelling prejudice
and building community: not with role models and literal recipes, not
with noble messages about the human family, but with enthralling stories
that make us imagine the lives of others."
*Alexander, Lloyd.* The Iron Ring.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=572122> 1997. Puffin, paper, $5.99
(0-14-130348-4).
Gr. 6–9. The struggle to be true to one’s dharma, or ethical code, and
the mythology of India are at the core of this adventure, in which a
young king journeys to fulfill a debt.
*Allende, Isabel.* City of the Beasts.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1658827> 2002. HarperCollins, $19.99
(0-06-050918-X).
Gr. 9-–12. The ancient spiritualities of South American native peoples,
as well as the lush, mystery-draped Amazonian setting, are at the crux
of Allende’s first novel for young adults.
*Blackman, Malorie.* Naughts and Crosses.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1180222> 2005. Simon & Schuster,
$15.95 (1-4169-0016-0).
Gr. 8–11. This intelligent work of speculative fiction sets a
star-crossed romance within an alternate English society, in which
persecuted "naughts," who are white, are segregated from privileged
"crosses," who are black.
*Butler, Octavia E.* Kindred. 1979. Beacon, $14 (0-8070-8369-0).
Originally published for adults, this classic time-slip novel mixes
fantasy with piercing history as it thrusts a modern-day African
American woman into an era where she must live as a slave.
*Cooper, Susan.* Green Boy. <default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=901035>
2002. Simon & Schuster, $16 (0-689-84751-3).
Gr. 4–7. In an action-packed ecological fable, 12-year-old Trey and his
younger brother slip into the Otherworld, where environmental oblivion
parallels threats their Caribbean community faces from developers.
*Corder, Zizou.* Lionboy. <default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1501333>
2004. Dial, $15.99 (0-8037-2982-0).
Gr. 4–7. Half-Ghanaian Charlie’s proud biracial ethnicity is a
matter-of-fact but important part of his quest to rescue his kidnapped
parents, which continues in two additional installments.
*Dalkey, Kara.* Little Sister.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1005133> 1996. Sagebrush, $13.99
(0-613-08265-6).
Gr. 5–8. Thirteen-year-old Little Puddle, daughter of a noble family in
twelfth-century Japan, journeys deep into the spirit world to reclaim
her sister’s wandering soul. Details of culture and history invigorate
this quest story, originally published by Harcourt.
*Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee.* The Conch Bearer.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1649736> 2003. Roaring Brook, $16.95
(0-7613-1935-2).
Gr. 5–8. Indian settings and spirituality infuse Divakaruni’s tale of an
impoverished Calcutta boy who becomes responsible for a magical conch
shell. Book 1 in the Brotherhood of the Conch series.
*Farmer, Nancy.* The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=451445> 1994. Scholastic, $19.99
(0-531-08679-8).
Gr. 7–10. In a dystopian Zimbabwe in the year 2194, the 13-year-old son
of the nation’s military ruler embarks on a series of perilous
adventures. A 1995 Newbery Honor Book.
*Gaiman, Neil.* Anansi Boys.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1490885> 2005. Morrow, $26.95
(0-06-051518-X).
This 2005 Alex Award Book, written for adults, dips into African
trickster lore and emerges with an impossible-to-categorize farce about
the two sons of the West Ghanaian spider deity.
*Hamilton, Virginia.* Justice and Her Brothers. 1978. Scholastic, paper,
$4.99 (0-590-36214-3).
Gr. 5–8. Book 1 in Hamilton’s Justice Cycle trilogy acquaints African
American siblings with their psi-powers, launching sf adventures that
continue in Dustland (1980) and The Gathering (1981).
*Hearn, Lian.* Across the Nightingale Floor.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1120355> 2002. Riverhead, $23.95
(1-57322-225-9).
Though published for adults, this first novel (and its successors) in
the Tales of the Otori trilogy will captivate YAs as much for its
archetypal quest plotline as for its roots in the same traditions
underlying many Japanese graphic novels.
*Lackey, Mercedes.* Sacred Ground.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=466910> 1994. Tor, paper, $5.99
(0-8125-1965-5).
Lackey typically writes for adults but has long been a favorite of
teens. Here, a private investigator representing the Lakota Sioux
divides her time between tracking down native artifacts and honing her
shamanistic powers.
*Mosley, Walter.* 47. <default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=482905> 2005.
Little, Brown, $16.99 (0-316-11035-3).
Gr. 7–10. In Mosley’s first novel for YAs, the popular writer of adult
mysteries shifts gears, referring to time travel and magic in an unusual
allegory about a slave known only by his number and marked for a
momentous destiny.
*Okorafor-Mbachu, Nnedi.* Zahrah the Windseeker.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1511056>2005. Houghton, $16
(0-618-34090-4).
Gr. 5–8. Set on a planet in which clear elements of African tribal
culture coexist with sf technology, this unusual quest story centers on
a teenage girl whose special gifts are signaled by her vine-entwined
dreadlocks.
*Yep, Laurence.* The Tiger’s Apprentice.
<default.aspx?page=show_product&pid=1139770> 2003. HarperCollins, $15.99
(0-06-001013-4).
Gr. 5–7. A vibrant Chinatown setting and a strong sense of personal
history mark this debut novel in Yep’s in-progress trilogy by the same
name, about a Chinese American boy who joins forces with mythological
beings.
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