Diversity in YA Lit: Three Great Titles

YA authors have really stepped up to the challenge of providing authentic novels with diversity in them for the teen reader.  This particular genre (if we can call it that) is a burgeoning one, and very desperately needed on library shelves.  Our populations are becoming more and more diverse, and having diverse titles in the library helps open up not only pages, but conversations about cultural differences and even dispelling stereotypes of people from different cultures.  With that said, I'd like to introduce three great YA novels that feature diversity in very different perspectives:

Backfield Boys by John Feinstein.  Farrar, Straus, Giroux 2017. 
Jason and Tom have been friends since they were kids.  It doesn't matter that Jason is Jewish and Tom is African-American.  They see beyond this to the foundation of their friendship and interests.  And their love of football is one of them. 
Both Jason and Tom are gifted athletes.  Jason is an amazingly quick wide receiver and Tom's arm is perfection for a quarterback.  Living in New York City, their school doesn't have a football team, but they are given a chance in a lifetime....to play for a prestigious private school that is known for their outstanding athletes who make it to the pros.
But when they arrive at school, something isn't right.  The coaches, who praised them during camp, are now different, treating both Tom and Jason brusquely.  One of the boys is at the tipping point of calling it quits, when the truth begins to slowly rear its ugly face...segregation.  Now they have a very different passion, one that could potentially expose the shining facade of football greatness.  Recommended 7-12 grades.

Bang! by Barry Lyga.  Little Brown, 2017. 
Sebastian killed his little sister.  When he was just four, he picked up a gun and now his sister isn't with them anymore.  His father left, and his mother is hollow, only leaving the house to go to work or her therapist.  Sebastian remembers the details, but wishes he didn't.  And he can't let it go...
Sebastian is fourteen and summer is nearly upon him.  His best friend, Ethan, will be gone all summer and to create a sense of normality, his mom tells him he must find a summer job, no excuses.  Sebastian doesn't even know where to start, until he meets Aneesa.
She's so much more different than any other person he has met.  Up front and honest, she makes him feel like there's more to life than the little voice who tells him otherwise.  What starts as an accident on a bike becomes a new friendship, with new ideas.  Pulling their ideas and expertise together, they decide to start a Youtube channel to create pizzas and some day, sell them.  Aneesa works in her Muslim heritage and Sebastian brings it on with his pizza skills. Slowly, but surely, the channel starts to take off.  First a 100 followers, then a 1,000...and the count keeps growing.
But when things in Sebastian's life begins to crumble again, the little voice starts talking, telling him it's time....go get the gun...  Recommended for grades 8-12.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds.  Atheneum, 2017.
No crying.  No snitching.  Revenge.  These are the Rules Will has been taught by his big brother Shawn.  Tough neighborhood, tough life, tough luck... and when things got tough, Shawn made sure he and his little brother stayed tough.  The Rules come into play the day Shawn sees his brother's body lying in the street.  His mourning may be silent, but he also knows what he has to do.  Going to his brother's side of the bedroom, Will takes the gun, tucks it behind him, and walks out the door onto the elevator.
Seven floors to the lobby.  Seven floors to revenge.
But on the ride down, Will meets the people coming on.  And what's so strange is that everyone who comes into the elevator cabin are people Will hasn't seen in a long time.  On floor six, Buck enters the cabin.  He's the one who gave Shawn the gun.  On floor five, a childhood friend.  On floor four, his father.....the only problem with this entire situation is that Will knows these people have died.  And each one brings a new perspective into what happened and what may happen.  Is it Will's imagination or are they truly there?  Will has to decide whether to play by the Rules or change them...and his life.  Recommended for grades 7-12.

Books to Give To Teens Who....

I tried my hand at making an infographic, and first of all, I must say KUDOS to those who create the "What To Read If You Like..." et al.  They are time-consuming!

So in the middle of that, I thought, "hey, why not make a website instead?"  So using Adobe Spark Page, that's what I did :)  Here is the result:

LitWeaver: Bringing Students, Teachers and Authors Together Virtually

It was during a #yalove Twitter chat one night that I happened to notice one tweet from author Will Weaver.  I always have an open invitation for authors to join, and we have had a few tweet with us, but to me, this man is a LEGEND!  He's been writing for well over twenty years.  He is also the author behind a new website entitled LitWeaver (http://www.litweaver.com)


I had the chance to do and online interview with Will Weaver to learn more about this site pairing e-books, authors, and reader's guides.  After reading the interview, please take a look at the website to get the full experience of the awesomeness of what these authors are doing.

 How did LitWeaver come to life virtually?

WW:  I do lots of school visits, and over the years have seen the increasing pressure on ELA teachers and school librarians. Budgets always seem in decline– especially for classroom sets of novels and new acquisitions for libraries. Some principals and superintendents believe “technology is the answer”, and find money for tablets—but none for staff support or even curriculum. The Learning Management Systems from big publishers look cumbersome and expensive—so it hit me that there has to be a better way.  A middle ground, you could say, as schools transition from print textbooks to digital learning

 Give a brief description of what LitWeaver does

WW:  LitWeaver is designed to be a bridge from your five pound lit anthology to iPad and tablet-style reading and learning. We’ve purposefully focused on shorter, contemporary young adult lit—short stories, essays, poems, and plays—that teachers can “weave”  (get it?) into their ongoing curriculum. Teachers need a break from the same readings every year!  LitWeaver also includes a short lesson plan with with discussion questions and reading prompts.

How did you get the authors on board with this idea?  

WW:  You mean Katherine Paterson?  Jerry Spinelli?  Ellen Hopkins? Rene Saldana?  Nikki Grimes?  Those kinds of authors? (Shameless name-dropping here, ha). Actually it was easy to get our 50+ authors on board. They (we) have had such amazing support over the years from teachers and librarians who have bought our books and invited us to their schools, and here was a chance to give back.

Teachers and students will have access to e-books.  Are these all free to read and download?

WW:  We believe in free stuff for schools, and we’ll always have a nice batch (about 20 titles to begin) of free reading. But our website has bills to pay, so we’ll eventually add a low-cost subscription option for “more”—that is, access to our whole library plus some other cool teaching and learning tools.  FYI, LitWeaver will never have a huge library—that’s exactly what we don’t want.  We are curating (buzzword nowadays) a select group of really good readings for grades 5-12 so you don’t have to spend time looking online or through huge, publishers’ catalogs.  Our editor, Don Gallo, and the authors themselves have picked pieces we know students will read—and maybe even like.

Each book comes with a reading guide.  Who created those?

WW:  Current classroom ELA teachers. We have a great, small team of lively teachers dedicated to keeping kids reading and thinking (a big focus on the latter)!

Currently LitWeaver is in beta stage.  When do you anticipate it becoming a full site?

WW: Within 5-6 months, that is, in time for the new school year.  Our beta release is to gauge support.  If we get a lot of teachers signing up (for free), we’ll get investor funding. If we get investor funding, we can build out LitWeaver to provide LOTS of free and low cost YA lit for schools. Nothing not to like about that.

The cost of becoming a LitWeaver user is free right now.  Will free users be able to keep this status after LitWeaver is fully functional?

WW:  Yes.  We’ll always have a rotating section of “free stuff” by top, contemporary authors. If you only want to use these free readings, that’s fine.  But we hope you’ll find enough value and excitement in LitWeaver to eventually subscribe as a paid user. As I mentioned, websites like our are expensive to build and maintain.  Looking ahead to new features, we’ll be adding a student writing component, which will be a fun complement to the reading side.  

Thank you so much Will!!  I've already gone to the site and demo'ed it out and it's really pretty intuitive.  I'm SO glad there are authors like you and the several others who contribute their time and energy to create passionate readers!!

WW: One last thing. LitWeaver doesn’t assume that all schools have 1:1 tablet technology.  If you don’t, no problem. You can select readings and print them out for distribution in class.  We believe in access first, technology second.  And please remember that our site is in open beta right now, which means we’re still working on it–so we’d love to hear your ideas. And very important: if you like where LitWeaver is headed, please sign up and help us get there.