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Protagonists of Color in YA SFF

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One of my goals for this year in my blogging life is to highlight books featuring people of color, especially in science fiction and fantasy. I don’t need to rehash what a problem the whiteness of SFF is for the genre – if you’re reading Stacked, you’re probably aware of it already. I know a lot of our readers are on the lookout for titles with characters that reflect the diverse racial makeup of our world, and I haven’t always been great at mentioning this facet specifically in my past reviews, so I thought it might be helpful if I collected them all in one place here. These are all titles I’ve read since I started blogging. They’re also all titles I recommend (some more highly than others) and I hope if you haven’t already read them, your to be read pile grows a little.

I’ve summarized my reviews in a paragraph or two beneath each title, but if you’d like to read the full reviews, they’re linked as well.

While We Run by Karen Healey
This is the sequel to Healey’s “pre-dystopia” When We Wake, which is also fantastic. While We Run focuses on Abdi, a black teenager from Djibouti who moved to Australia to attend school and got caught up in Tegan’s story. Both he and Tegan begin this story in captivity, but they’re separated both by space and by experience.

From a thematic standpoint, this book rocks it. From a craft standpoint,
it’s terrific as well. Abdi’s narrative is heartbreaking at times. I
feel like sometimes writers of dystopias will have their characters go
through really horrible stuff and then gloss over any sort of lasting
effects it may have. Healey refuses to do this – it’s obvious Abdi is
traumatized by his time in captivity and Healey lets him go through it.
She makes us as readers feel it, too. And of course, the plot, which
features cryonics and lots of government secrets, is exciting and
well-paced, too.

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
Johnson’s beautiful writing tells the story of June Costa, who lives in a futuristic Brazil in a city called Palmares Tres. It’s a story about art and power and the many ways we love – and destroy – each other. The world-building is fascinating and its cast of characters is entirely people of color. I never reviewed this one in full at Stacked, but we did choose it as our winner for the Cybils last year. Read why here.

Prophecy by Ellen Oh
Kira is a demon fighter, blessed (or cursed) with the ability to see the
demons that have killed humans and overtaken their bodies for their own
evil ends. To everyone else, though, it just seems like Kira is
attacking innocent people, especially since the king, Kira’s uncle, has
commanded her to keep the presence of the demons secret.

The book is set in a version of Korea, which is interesting and makes it
pretty unique in this aspect. Unfortunately, it still seemed a bit too
much like the world of Graceling, a similarity that was enhanced
by the plot parallels (warrior girl with strange eyes and special
abilities must work for her uncle the king). I also felt the writing was a bit young for the intended audience, but that shouldn’t stop readers hungry for high fantasy from enjoying this one, even if it won’t be their favorite.

Vessel by Sarah Beth Durst
Liyana has trained her whole life to be the vessel for her tribe’s
goddess, Bayla. When Liyana dances and a magician speaks the correct
words, Bayla will be called and inhabit Liyana’s body, displacing
Liyana’s soul.
Liyana is prepared to sacrifice herself to save her tribe, but although
the ritual is performed flawlessly, Bayla doesn’t come. Her tribe
decides that Bayla decreed Liyana unworthy of her, and they abandon her
to the desert. Then a young man approaches her, claiming to be the trickster god Korbyn, and they set off on a quest that gives Liyana’s life purpose once more.

It’s clear from the gorgeous cover that Liyana is of Asian ancestry. The desert setting is one of the best parts of this book and is completely realized with beautiful descriptions that never bog down the forward momentum of the story. The magic system and religion are unique, Liyana is a fascinating and complex character, and the story never led me exactly where I expected. This is a well-executed, engrossing novel.

Shadows on the Moon by Zoe Marriott
Fairy tale re-tellings are a dime dozen, but this is a standout in a crowded field. The setting is feudal Japan – if feudal Japan were a place where a young
woman like Suzume, our protagonist, could transform her appearance with
a thought. The book is divided into three parts: the first is violent, where almost all of Suzume’s family is killed on the emperor’s orders, and her mother re-marries a man who will become the story’s evil stepfather. Parts two and three delve into Suzume’s newfound ability as a shadow weaver, which enables her to change her appearance. This ability comes in handy
when she’s on the run from those who mean to do her harm, and it paves the way for her plan for revenge.

There’s so much of interest here that sets it apart from a standard
re-telling. Marriott has created a unique culture in Suzume’s world as
well as that of Otieno, her love interest from Africa. It was lovely to read a story
that was not only NOT set in a Western locale, but that also featured
two non-Western leads.

Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry
Zombies are people, too. Or at least, they were. That’s the lesson Benny Imura learns the first time he goes out zombie
hunting with his older brother Tom. Tom’s a zombie bounty hunter (he
prefers to call himself a “closure specialist”) and has agreed to take
Benny on as an apprentice when Benny’s other attempts at holding down a
job fail. Benny’s just turned fifteen, and in the post-apocalyptic world
he inhabits, where zombies outnumber humans, all fifteen year olds must
work a part-time job or have their rations cut in half. Hunting zombies isn’t all this book is about, though – the real conflict is with other living, non-rotting humans. When Benny’s friend and possible love interest is abducted by a gang of bad guys, Benny and Tom set out to rescue her.

If a zombie book can be fun and terrifying at the same time, this one is it. It’s funny, too, and Benny – whose father was Japanese-American – has a terrific voice. This was another Cybils winner, though it was before my time as a judge.

Tankborn by Karen Sandler
Kayla and Mishalla are GENs, genetically engineered non-humans. Unlike
other people who were born to mothers naturally, Kayla and Mishalla were
gestated in a tank. Not even considered human by the trueborns, GENs are created for a specific Assignment, which they take at age 15 and from then on are treated as slaves. The book alternates between their perspectives, but most attention is given to Kayla, who is pictured on the cover.

Sandler has created a unique society (set on an entirely new planet
called Loka) ruled by a strict caste system: trueborns at the top,
lowborns at the bottom, and GENs beneath even them. The
trueborns themselves are divided into castes. The ideal skin color is
what most would consider medium-brown. The farther away from this color a
person’s skin deviates (darker AND lighter), the lower caste they hold. (Kayla’s skin is light brown and Mishalla’s is pale white,
so even if they were trueborn, they would both be low trueborns.) It’s a
unique take on the caste systems in our own past and present worlds,
and Sandler makes it believable. 

This is a science fiction story for readers who like science fiction. What I mean by that is it
most likely won’t hold the interest of casual science fiction readers.
Sandler’s world-building is complex, involving a string of new
vocabulary, complicated social structures, a completely new religion,
and a giant backstory that unfolds over the course of the book. It’s
necessary for the reader to understand all of this world-building to
comprehend the story, and it’s too easy for casual SF readers to give up
when they stumble across yet another unfamiliar element. Readers who
enjoy SF naturally, though, will relish this aspect.

The Shattering by Karen Healey
Keri’s beloved older brother Jake has just committed suicide. Jake had
always seemed like a happy young man, and the suicide is both unexpected
and traumatizing for Keri and her family. Because of Jake’s suicide,
Keri reconnects with her old friend Janna, whose brother had also
committed suicide some years ago. Only Janna doesn’t believe the deaths were suicides. She introduces Keri
to her friend Sione, whose brother had also committed suicide recently.
Janna and Sione have been researching the suicides that occurred in
their New Zealand town of Summerton, and they determined that there was
one suicide per year, always around the same time. They are also curious
about the fact that Summerton is always prosperous, always sunny at the
turn of the year, and no one ever really seems to leave. Janna believes there is magic at work; the other two aren’t so sure.

The book tells the story from all three characters’ alternating points of view, though only Keri’s is written in first person. Keri and Sione are both non-white: Keri is half-Maori and identifies as such, while Sione is Samoan visiting New Zealand for the summer. The story is mainly a mystery with some fantasy elements, and the ending – the big reveal of the whodunnit and why – was such a punch to my gut in the best possible way. Even after the main thrust of the book has been resolved, Healey has
more to say about life and love and death and grief. It’s moving, and
despite the fantasy elements of the novel, it’s also true.

Bonus Middle Grade: The True Meaning of Smekday by Adam Rex
If you haven’t read this book or listened to it on audio, please do yourself a favor and check it out from your local library as soon as possible. It’s so funny, so poignant, so good. It has an alien race called the Boov and one of them is named J. Lo. It has phrases like “pink squishable gaputty” and funny little drawings throughout. It features a brave black girl named Tip who has a huge sense of humor and an even huger heart. This may the best book about an alien invasion you’ll ever read. (Haven’t actually read any books about an alien invasion? Now is a good time to start.)

Doomed Cities of History and Legend

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I had a bit of an obsession with doomed cities when I was teen. Real places like Pompeii and Roanoke, plus more legendary or mythical places like Troy and Atlantis, provided me with endless hours of reading material. They were also the fodder for many of my childhood experiments in fiction writing. There was something so romantic about the tragedy of it all, of knowing going into the story that things would end badly for almost everyone.

I don’t know if this made me an especially morbid teenager, but I do know I wasn’t alone. Books like these continue to fascinate readers today – perhaps the mystery of the things we can never know causes our enduring interest. In a way, books like these provide answers for us, telling the stories of the people who died or disappeared all those years ago.

This booklist collects stories from these four places of history or legend. I tried to keep the list focused on the past ten years, though there are a few from the early 2000s as well. There seems to be a renewed interest in Atlantis lately, and more broadly the idea of underwater cities. Re-tellings of the Iliad and Odyssey from teenage points of view are perennially popular, though I restricted this particular list to those that take place – at least in part – in the city of Troy itself (which is why I left out Esther Friesner’s Nobody’s Princess). As always, chime in with other titles I’ve missed!

Atlantis 


Teardrop by Lauren Kate (2013)
Since Eureka’s mother drowned, she wishes she were dead too, but after
discovering that an ancient book is more than a story Eureka begins to
believe that Ander is right about her being involved in strange
things–and in grave danger.

Atlantis Rising by T. A. Barron (2013)
The young thief Promi and the forest girl Atlanta battle evil and in the process bring about the creation of Atlantis. [This is more of an upper middle grade novel, similar in age range to Barron’s Merlin books.]

Atlantia by Ally Condie (2014)
Rio has always dreamed of leaving the underwater city of Atlantia for
life in the Above; however, when her twin sister, Bay, makes an
unexpected decision, Rio is left stranded below where she must find a
way to unlock the secrets of the siren voice she has long hidden and
save Atlantia from destruction. [I’m actually unsure if this addresses Atlantis specifically or only alludes to it via the name of the city, but I’m putting it on here since I think it would definitely appeal to the same kind of readers.]

Pompeii

 

Curses and Smoke by Vicky Alvear Shecter (2014)
Tagus is a medical slave who wants be a gladiator, Lucia is the daughter
of Tag’s owner and betrothed to an older man, and the two teenagers are
in love with each other–but it is the year 79 and soon Vesuvius will
alter their lives forever.

The Last Girls of Pompeii by Kathryn Lasky (2007)
Twelve-year-old Julia knows that her physical deformity will keep her
from a normal life, but counts on the continuing friendship of her
life-long slave, Mitka, until they learn that both of their futures in
first-century Pompeii are about to change for the worse. [Like the Barron, this is more upper middle grade or lower YA.]

Troy

Troy by Adele Geras (2000)
Told from the point of view of the women of Troy, portrays the last
weeks of the Trojan War, when women are sick of tending the wounded, men
are tired of fighting, and bored gods and goddesses find ways to stir
things up.

The Moon Riders by Theresa Tomlinson (2003)
When thirteen-year-old Myrina of the Mazagardi tribe joins the Moon
Riders, a revered band of warrior women, she becomes caught up in the
life of the Trojan princess Cassandra and the epic, ten-year Trojan War.

Beauty’s Daughter: The Story of Hermione and Helen of Troy by Carolyn Meyer (2013)
When renowned beauty Helen runs off to Troy with Prince Paris, her
enraged husband, King Menelaus, starts the Trojan War, leaving their
plain daughter, Hermione, alone to witness the deaths of heroes on both
sides and longing to find her own love and place in the world.

Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney (2002)
Taken from her home on an Aegean island as a six-year-old girl,
Anaxandra calls on the protection of her goddess while she poses as two
different princesses over the next six years, before ending up as a
servant in the company of Helen and Paris as they make their way to
Troy.

Roanoke

Blackwood by Gwenda Bond (2012)
Teenagers Miranda and Phillips may be the only hope of discovering what
happened to 114 people who went missing on Roanoke Island in a
mysterious repeat of the disappearance of the islands lost colony
hundreds of years before.

Cate of the Lost Colony by Lisa Klein (2010)
When her dalliance with Sir Walter Ralegh is discovered by Queen
Elizabeth in 1587, lady-in-waiting Catherine Archer is banished to the
struggling colony of Roanoke, where she and the other English settlers
must rely on a Croatoan Indian for their survival.

Matriarchal Societies

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I’ve always been fascinated by depictions of matriarchal societies in books. They’re extremely rare in our own world (if they exist at all – please let me know if you know of any), meaning they’re most often explored in science fiction and fantasy, realms where the unusual, the unique, and the impossible are common occurrences.

By matriarchy, I mean a society ruled or governed by women in a simple sense, but also a society where women’s ideas, interests, and desires are valued above those of men. It’s different from a matrilineal society, where descent follows the female line (think of how cultural Judaism is inherited from the mother). It’s quite easy for one’s family name or identity to be derived from one’s mother while still existing in a culture that values men more. A matriarchy is more complex and more comprehensive.

In fiction, a matriarchal society is a deliberate choice. Sometimes the author intends to simply explore the idea, but usually it’s used as a way to critique our own patriarchal culture. Rather than presenting the matriarchy as a utopian ideal, though, most authors choose to present it as replete with its own problems and injustices. It’s not an antidote to patriarchies, but it is a response. And within the fantasy genre, where it seems like most authors like to write not just patriarchies, but patriarchies that strip women of most of the basic rights they now have in the 20th century western world, a book with a matriarchy stands out. It’s different, it’s interesting, and it’s always discussable.

On a pure story level, though, it’s a way for female characters to have the kind of power and influence that would be nearly impossible in a realistic novel, much the same way giving a girl magical abilities does. As a teen, that’s what drove me to these kinds of stories, and I wish there were more out there geared toward the 13-18 age range. I didn’t read many YA books in this vein as a teenager. Instead, I read adult books like Melanie Rawn’s Exiles series, which features a world where women hold power due to their ability to birth children, and Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels series, where powerful magical women rule over men in often terrible ways. Bishop’s series is particularly interesting to me, since it takes the commonly-accepted ideas about the differences between men and women and subverts them completely. (I like Rawn’s series, but I’m weary of books where people revere women because they can get pregnant. It’s too often used as method in our own world to reinforce the patriarchy.) Her characters exist in a necessarily violent world, as such power structures are only established and maintained through violence.

I’ve collected a few YA books featuring matriarchies below. In some of the books, the matriarchy exists as a smaller society within a larger patriarchal culture, though some of them do feature entirely matriarchal cultures. Are there any others you can think of? Even older titles are fine here, since there are so few of them. Descriptions are from Worldcat, and I’ve also provided a bit of my own commentary on some of the titles in italics.

Trial By Fire by Josephine Angelini
In her hometown of Salem, Lily Proctor endures not only life-threatening
allergies but humiliation at her first high school party with her best
friend and longtime crush, Tristan. But in a different Salem — one
overrun with horrifying creatures and ruled by powerful women called
Crucibles, she is Lillian, the strongest and cruelest Crucible …
Lily’s other self in an alternate universe where Lily suddenly finds herself. There she is torn between responsibilities she can’t hope to shoulder alone and a love she never expected. [This will be published September 2, and it should be on your radar. I’m currently reading it. It’s got a really intriguing hybrid science/magic system the likes of which I haven’t read before, and the matriarchy in the parallel world is equally unique.]

Sorrow’s Knot by Erin Bow
Otter is a girl of the Shadowed People, a tribe of women, and she is
born to be a binder, a woman whose power it is to tie the knots that
bind the dead–but she is also destined to remake her world.

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson
In a Brazil of the distant future, June Costa falls in love with Enki, a
fellow artist and rebel against the strict limits of the legendary
pyramid city of Palmares Três’ matriarchal government, knowing that,
like all Summer Kings before him, Enki is destined to die. [The matriarchy here is so detailed and so believable. Like the power dynamic in our own patriarchy, it’s simply taken for granted that the women rule and the boys die to make it so. I read this one for the Cybils (it was our winner) and it’s probably the best example I’ve read of a matriarchy where the purpose isn’t the matriarchy itself – the story still reigns. Bitch Magazine has a really interesting entry in their “Girls of Color in Dystopia” series about this book that explores the society and whether or not it can be considered dystopian.] 

Night Flying by Rita Murphy
As the time for her solo flight on the sixteenth birthday approaches,
Georgia begins to question the course of her life and her relationships
with the other women in her unusual family. [This addition is courtesy of Liz Burns, @LizB.]

Prized by Caragh O’Brien
Sixteen-year-old midwife Gaia Stone is in the wasteland with nothing but
her baby sister, a handful of supplies, and a rumor to guide her when
she is captured by the people of Sylum, a dystopian society where she
must follow a strict social code or never see her sister again. [I only have vague memories of reading this, but I do remember that Sylum is very matriarchal, not the world at large.]

Epitaph Road by David Patneaude
In 2097, men are a small and controlled minority in a utopian world
ruled by women, and fourteen-year-old Kellen must fight to save his
father from an outbreak of the virus that killed ninety-seven percent of
the male population thirty years earlier. [I haven’t read this one, but I’d be really interested to know just how utopian the world really is. I’m super wary of this kind of setup – has anyone read it who can weigh in?]

Sister Light, Sister Dark by Jane Yolen
Tells of the coming of the White Queen –of deception, and war, and the changing face of history. [This is clearly quite vague. I got this title from kind Twitter respondent Stephanie Appell, @noseinabookgirl. I haven’t read it, so I don’t know the specifics of the culture represented.]

I’ve also read that the House of Night series by P. C. and Kristin Cast feature matriarchal societies, but I’m not sure how. If you’ve read them, perhaps you can weigh in. I also feel like there might be some historical fantasy – or perhaps simply historical fiction – out there that’s Pagan-centric and features matriarchal societies, even if they’re small ones. No YA titles come to mind, though.

Hacking, Gaming & Virtual Reality

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I’ve noticed a bit of an uptick in YA books featuring virtual reality recently. The concept is certainly not new; ever since the idea of virtual reality has existed, writers have been speculating upon how it could go terribly, horribly wrong. In 1991, a year which pre-dates my own teenage years (also a time before most Americans had internet), Monica Hughes wrote Invitation to the Game, a dystopia about a group of teens who are coerced by the government into playing a supposedly innocuous virtual reality “game” that’s revealed to have nefarious purposes. Hughes’ book is certainly not the first to tackle this topic, nor are books the only medium. I remember an episode of Who’s Afraid of the Dark about a group of kids who got caught in a sort of virtual reality game, playing the same level over and over again, never able to escape. It also seems like most long-running science fiction tv shows will have a token virtual reality episode (I’m thinking specifically of a Stargate SG-1 episode called Gamekeeper, but I know I’ve seen similar episodes in other shows).

Virtual reality is tied up very closely with gaming in general. Both gaming and virtual reality deliberately blur the line between reality and fantasy, and books that focus on these topics force us to see how one can bleed into the other. Are we different people when we’re plugged in? How much control can we cede to a game – to a computer – before we cease to be ourselves? In some cases, can the game be preferable to our real lives – can the game be our real lives?

As technology becomes even more integrated into our daily tasks, this is a topic we return to over and over again. M. T. Anderson wrote his modern classic Feed in 2002, before smartphones had conquered teen communication. Recently, Lauren Miller’s Free to Fall explored how an app can consume our lives, dictating all of our decisions if we let it – and even when we try not to let it. These kinds of stories exist both as entertainment and as cautionary tales, a bit of irony in itself.

This booklist features titles that involve gaming or virtual reality in some way. I’ve also thrown in a few books about hacking, since there seems to be a lot of crossover, particularly in theme (think The Matrix movies, which depict a world where our brains are hacked by the machines we created, keeping us in a permanent virtual reality). All descriptions are from Worldcat (aside from the last one, which is Goodreads). Which recent titles have I missed?

Eye of Minds by James Dashner
Michael is a skilled internet gamer in a world of advanced technology.
When a cyber-terrorist begins to threaten players, Michael is called
upon to seek him and his secrets out. (The Worldcat synopsis doesn’t mention it, but the advanced technology referred to is a large-scale virtual reality world called the VirtNet that consumes most people’s lives.)

For the Win by Cory Doctorow
A group of teens from around the world find themselves drawn into an
online revolution arranged by a mysterious young woman known as Big
Sister Nor, who hopes to challenge the status quo and change the world
using her virtual connections.

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow
After being interrogated for days by the Department of Homeland Security
in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco,
California, seventeen-year-old Marcus, released into what is now a
police state, decides to use his expertise in computer hacking to set
things right. | Sequel: Homeland

Brain Jack by Brian Falkner
In a near-future New York City, fourteen-year-old computer genius Sam
Wilson manages to hack into the AT&T network and sets off a chain of
events that have a profound effect on human activity throughout the
world.

Elusion by Claudia Gabel & Cheryl Klam
Teens uncover the dangerous secrets of a virtual reality program that’s taking the country by storm. | Sequel: Etherworld

Don’t Turn Around by Michelle Gagnon
After waking up on an operating table with no memory of how she got
there, Noa must team up with computer hacker Peter to stop a corrupt
corporation with a deadly secret. | Sequels: Don’t Look Now, Don’t Let Go | Kimberly’s review

Evil Genius by Catherine Jinks
Child prodigy Cadel Piggot, an antisocial computer hacker, discovers his
true identity when he enrolls as a first-year student at an advanced
crime academy. (This also fits in well with the teenage criminals booklist.) | Sequels: Genius Squad, The Genius Wars

Insignia by S. J. Kincaid
Tom, a fourteen-year-old genius at virtual reality games, is recruited
by the United States Military to begin training at the Pentagon Spire as
a Combatant in World War III, controlling the mechanized drones that do
the actual fighting off-planet. | Sequels: Vortex, Catalyst | Kimberly’s review

Epic by Conor Kostick
On New Earth, a world based on a video role-playing game,
fourteen-year-old Erik persuades his friends to aid him in some unusual
gambits in order to save Erik’s father from exile and safeguard the
futures of each of their families. | Sequels: Saga, Edda

Rush by Eve Silver
Rochester, New York, high schooler Miki Jones is pulled into a sort of a
game in which she and other teens battle real-life aliens and the
consequences of each battle could be deadly. | Sequels: Push, Crash

Heir Apparent by Vivian Vande Velde (2002)
While playing a total immersion virtual reality game of kings and
intrigue, fourteen-year-old Giannine learns that demonstrators have
damaged the equipment to which she is connected, and she must win the
game quickly or be damaged herself.

Honorable Mention Adult Crossover: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline
It’s the year 2044, and the real world is an ugly place. Like
most of humanity, Wade Watts escapes his grim surroundings by spending
his waking hours jacked into the OASIS, a sprawling virtual utopia that
lets you be anything you want to be, a place where you can live and play
and fall in love on any of ten thousand planets.

Censorship, Challenges, and Other Forms of Protest: A Reading List

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If you haven’t kept tabs on recent book challenges popping up around America, one that’s drawn a lot of discussion recently comes out of the Cape Henlopen School District in Delaware. In early July, the school board made the decision to remove Emily Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post from a reading list for incoming freshmen. The board cited language as the issue, stating it was inappropriate for the age group for which the list was intended. 

Of course, this drew a lot of criticism not only because of the attempt to pull a book but also because it happened to be a book featuring a lesbian main character. It would be hard not to see that there was more to this story than meets the eye. A couple of worthwhile reads come from Jill Guccini, one over at Book Riot and one over at After Ellen.  

Last week, the board went to make a final decision on the book, and after choosing to put the book back on the reading list, the list was then pulled all together. The board chose to reinstate an old summer reading system, in an exercise of power that undermined the hard work of librarian who created the book list and the educators who know how to work with students reading from it. Of course, the real losers here are the students.

There’s a lot more going on than meets the eye, though, and close readers of the article will note that the ACLU became involved in this situation. It’s hard not to wonder if the board’s decision wasn’t exactly what they said. Instead, their decision was a way around a potentially bigger, messier situation. If the board really cared about the profanity issue, as they claim to, then some of the classics that are being taught to students this same age would certainly raise the same sorts of “concerns” that Cameron Post and any of the other YA titles on the list do. So, no, it’s not about the language concerns. In this instance, it isn’t ignorant to see the potential lawsuits that could have spun from this and by removing the entire list, the board absolves itself a bit from looking like the close-minded, fearful body they’ve shown themselves to be at this point. 

Every year around this time, book challenges seem to dominate the book news world. Leila’s done a great job rounding up recent ones and highlighting where they’re at at this point in time. I talked a little bit about why the summer and beginning of the school year tend to be favorite times for challenges last fall over at Book Riot, too. This isn’t surprising and that might be why it’s so disheartening and aggravating as a reader, as a librarian, and as someone who cares about teens. 

I applaud those who can keep writing about this topic — it’s something I tackled before but I don’t think I can keep talking about. My feelings are exactly the same, and every time a board makes a decision to take books away from kids, I can’t help but get upset about how little faith those adults have not just in the teens, but in the educators and librarians who are trained, competent, and eager to talk about these stories with those students. It’s a vote made out of fear. 

I kept a particularly close eye on the outcome of the vote on Looking for Alaska in Waukesha, Wisconsin last week because it’s not far from where I live. The book will remain in the curriculum, but it got me thinking about how issues like this impact the children of parents who are bringing them up. What must it be like to be the teenager who has a mother trying to get a book pulled from the classroom? What are they thinking? What will their experiences be like in the classroom now? How will their peers treat them? There are a million questions there that I think are far more interesting and insightful than the ones about why adults choose to pursue these challenges.  

So rather than continue to talk about the issues, I thought it could be interesting to create a book list of YA books that talk about censorship in education or that explore what happens when parents or a school make an effort to keep information and experiences out of the hands of students. In some of these titles, it’s the central issue. In others, it’s a secondary thread in the story. Not all of these center around book challenges, and many of the titles are older. 

If you can think of other YA books where censorship — in schools or in the community — or where parents (or students!) are challenging some aspect of curriculum, I’d love to know. Most of these titles were suggested to me via Twitter, so thanks to everyone who threw an idea at me. 

All descriptions are from WorldCat. 

The Day They Came to Arrest the Book by Nat Hentoff: Students and faculty at a high school become embroiled in a censorship case over “Huckleberry Finn.”

Smile Like a Plastic Daisy by Sonia Levitin: A high school senior, concerned about the fight for women’s rights, finds herself suspended from school and the focus of community debate following a confrontation at a swim meet during which she removed her shirt.

Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith: Austin Szerba narrates the end of humanity as he and his best friend Robby accidentally unleash an army of giant, unstoppable bugs and uncover the secrets of a decades-old experiment gone terribly wrong. 
* In this one, The Chocolate War is brought up as a book that’s causing problems in the school.

Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker: High school junior Lacey finds herself questioning the evangelical Christian values she has been raised with when a new boy arrives in her small town.

Evolution, Me, & Other Freaks of Nature by Robin Brande: Following her conscience leads high school freshman Mena to clash with her parents and former friends from their conservative Christian church, but might result in better things when she stands up for a teacher who refuses to include “Intelligent Design” in lessons on evolution.

Save Halloween! by Stephanie Tolan: Is Halloween really the devil’s holiday? Joanna’s family never celebrated Halloween – her father’s minister who doesn’t like kids dressing up as witches and devils. But nobody worries about Joanna’s deep involvement in a class Halloween pageant until Uncle T.T. comes to town with his fiery crusade to abolish Satan’s own holiday.

 
Americus by MK Reed and Jonathan Hill: Oklahoma teen Neal Barton stands up for his favorite fantasy series, The Chronicles of Apathea Ravenchilde, when conservative Christians try to bully the town of Americus into banning it from the public library.

Rapture Practice by Aaron Hartzler: Aaron Hartzler grew up in a home where he was taught that at any moment the Rapture could happen — that Jesus might come down in the twinkling of an eye and scoop Aaron and his whole family up to Heaven. As a kid, he was thrilled by the idea that every moment of every day might be his last one on Earth. But as Aaron turns sixteen, he finds himself more attached to his earthly life and curious about all the things his family forsakes for the Lord. He begins to realize he doesn’t want the Rapture to happen just yet — not before he sees his first movie, stars in the school play, or has his first kiss. Eventually Aaron makes the plunge from conflicted do-gooder to full-fledged teen rebel. Whether he’s sneaking out, making out, or playing hymns with a hangover, Aaron learns a few lessons that can’t be found in the Bible. He discovers that the best friends aren’t always the ones your mom and dad approve of, the girl of your dreams can just as easily be the boy of your dreams, and the tricky part about believing is that no one can do it for you. In this coming-of-age memoir, Hartzler recalls his teenage journey to become the person he wanted to be, without hurting the family that loved him. 

 
The Sledding Hill by Chris Crutcher: Billy, recently deceased, keeps an eye on his best friend, fourteen-year-old Eddie, who has added to his home and school problems by becoming mute, and helps him stand up to a conservative minister and English teacher who is orchestrating a censorship challenge.
Dancing in Red Shoes Will Kill You by Dorian Cirrone: Sixteen-year-old Kayla, a ballet dancer with very large breasts, and her sister Paterson, an artist, are both helped and hindered by classmates as they confront sexism, conformity, and censorship at their high school for the arts while still managing to maintain their sense of humor.

The Trouble With Mothers by Margery Facklam: What is a boy to do when his teacher-mother’s historical novel is given as an example of the kind of “pornography” that should be banned from schools and libraries?