these two books – both of them i’ve read awhile ago are really good too:
split image by mel glenn – chinese american main character, laura li – this is a verse novel.

black mirror by nancy werlin – main character is japanese american and jewish

African American:
by Beverely Jenkins
Belle
Josephine

A Picture of Freedom by Patricia McKissack
Look to the Hills by Patricia McKissack
I Thought my Soul Would Rise and Fly by Joyce Hanson
Silent Thunder by Andrea Pinkney
Second Daughter by Mildred Pitts Walter
Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson

Native American:
all Joseph Bruchac:
Children of the Longhouse
Pocahontas
Sacajawea
The Journal of Jesse Smoke

Indio by Sherry Garland
The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich

Asian-American:
by Laurence Yep
The Golden Mountain Chronicles series
The Journal of Wong Ming-Chung

I’ve spoken with Justine Larbalestier a few times, and we’ve talked about her doing a Cover Story. It’ll happen one day! But right now, while she’s in the middle of a cover crisis, I just wanted to point anyone who……

I’m with you and having read a few articles about Ms. Rinaldi and her comments, I am no fan. I read her Numbering The Bones. I was not happy.

In my mind Ms. Rinaldi is an example of why some of us are weary of white writers writing poc characters. When questioned by Native American writers and scholars about her work, Ms. Rinaldi refused to acknowledge there were any problems with her work.

I can’t believe I forgot Hilari Bell and her fabulous Farsala Saga – epic fantasy adventure in which the “Persians” meet the “Romans” (and win or (you’ll have to track these down via ILL but totally worth it: they have the most *excellent* horses this side of Robin McKinley) Joyce Ballou Gregorian’s The Broken Citadel (Tredana series) – ditto the arabic background/POC protags

Susan Beth Pfeffer’s The Dead and the Gone (New York Puerto Rican protag.s in an SFnal post-environmental apocalypse story)

Louise Spiegler’s The Amethyst Road (Romani-esque protag in a fantasy story about magic, family, responsibility and revolution. Touches on cross-racial forced adoptions ala the Amerindians and Aboriginal peoples of Australia)

Eon by Alison Goodman (Chinese protag in a medieval epic fantasy adventure. Has incredibly cool dragons!)

Stormwitch by Susan Vaught has a Haitian protag. in 1960 Mississippi, but the SF&Fness was seemed kind of “eh” to me YMMV. Mind the Gap. For my money give me the futuristic SF-mythopoeic fusion of Brown Girl in the Ring by Nalo Hopkinson (Similar Caribbean background, better magic, better cover. Not to be shallow or anything

Nation by Terry Pratchett (Pacific Islander protag in an alternate hist. Robinsoncrusoe-punk adventure)

My inner libertarian is cringing at this kind of reccy. (seriously, “having incredibly cool dragons” ought to be the selling point whether they’re Old English, Chinese, Napoleonic, or Pacific Islander* right?) but my inner librarian can’t stop with the book info. These are all seriously great books.

Especially with SF&F the protag’s could well be a POC with background and everything but that in itself won’t be a plot point – so you’ll forget that Kit from the Young Wizards series is Puerto Rican; Honor Harrington is Asian; etc. Or you’ll forget that the POC background is very important to the story being the source of the mythos and culture, but because, as in A Wizard of Earthsea the places are called “Roke” and not, say “Saipan” you think “no POC.”

*my four favorite literary dragons.

I’m glad to have discovered your blog through all this; I’ve been enjoying catching up with your posts. I’ve bookmarked Reading in Color and added you to my blogroll.

I just finished “Sometimes We’re Always Real Same-Same” by Mattox Roesch due this fall from Unbridled Books. This is the first book I’ve ever read about contemporary AK Native teens. It’s great – and will appeal especially to boys (the narrator is half Latino/half AK Native who moves from LA to the rural village of Unalakleet – which is a real place).

I also recommend Micol Ostow’s hysterical “So Punk Rock” about a group of Jewish kids who form their own band while trying to cope with the pressures of life at their Jewish Day School (and with very determined parents). It includes comics drawn by Micol’s brother. I can’t recall the last time I saw a book about Jewish teens that wasn’t historical so this was most welcome. (And in my July Bookslut column!)

However — please, PLEASE do not recommend Ann Rinaldi’s books. Not only are they historically inaccurate and pro-colonialist (racist) in their revisionist versions of history, one of them also possibly plagiarizes another author’s work.

See http://www.oyate.org/books-to-avoid/myHeart.html and http://www.oyate.org/books-to-avoid/myHeartMore.html

Oyate has good recommendations on books by and for Amerindians, specifically Native Americans.

We own Sorceress. Let me know when you want it.

You are an inspiration. I keep telling people on twitter @LatinoBookNews that we have to review and write about our own books. I can’t get any action out of the adults and here you are showing the world how it can be done. Fabs for you!!!!

Thank you for naming my first book in your list. I am thankful.
This is a funny odd on my second book The Throwaway Piece. I write about white people. I lived in Vermont for 23 years and watched them like all of us do. My attitude is that people are people and we all have the same feelings. Then when i’m feeling nasty I say if they can write about us, then we can write about them. lol The odd thing is that my publisher cut out all the parts that identify my main character as white. Even when it was the Latinos/as that befriended her and saved her.
That old adage “you can’t please everyone” that sure is true in the book industry. And with young people like you keep stirring up the pot and call these People in Power on their behavior things will change. Good for you!!!! Keep up the good work. You’re doing great things.
Jo Ann Hernandez
BronzeWord1 AT yahoo DOT com
BronzeWord Latino Authors
http://authorslatino.com/wordpress
p.s. please read my Sunday column and tell me what you think. It’s about Justine.

A great Native American YA book is Sorceress, by Celia Rees. It’s the sequel to Witch Child, which is wonderful historical fiction about the Salem Witch trials, but unfortunately doesn’t have and POC. I really loved these two, and I hope you get a chance to check them out.

Interesting cover tidbit about “Amor and Summer Secrets”–I had the exact opposite situation as Justine. My main character, Mariana Ruiz, doesn’t look like the stereotypical Latina (she’s got red hair, freckles, fair skin), but all of my covers feature a model who looks very much “Latina” with a tan complexion. I did get them to change the model’s hair color to red, so she’d look a bit more like Mariana. But ultimately, the pub has the final say.

-Diana