Tag Archives: diversity in kid lit

Dec 8 2014

“A poet, América knows, belongs everywhere”: Healing & Latin@ Children’s Literature

By Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez

As a child what I desired most was to be rescued from the violence I experienced at home. I was undocumented and domestic violence was far too common. While I now know that these are real experiences for many Latino homes, these were secrets that I walked around with for fear that my family would be separated if I said anything. Retrospectively, what I probably needed, aside from the violence to stop, was to understand why the violence was happening in the first place. There was nothing or no one around to explain my feelings of anxiety, fear, and/or self-hate around the violence I witnessed and then internalized. At the time, shows like “Boy Meets World,” “Saved by the Bell,” and “Full House” only reaffirmed for me that my family was different, did not belong, or that there was something wrong us. I was reading a lot, too, but I only got more and more frustrated that the books I read did not speak to my reality. I was obsessed with Beverly Cleary’s Ramona because she was everything I wanted to be—free, adventurous, and happy. And while characters like Ramona fueled my imagination they explained nothing about the violence I endured.

My investment in Latina/o children’s and young adult literature stems from my desire to explain why violence is more prevalent in certain communities than it is in others. But it is also driven by what I have seen is the genre’s potential to provide paths toward healing for Latina/o children and young adults. Recent conversations about the need for diversity in children’s literature have discussed at length the impact that being or not being represented in books can have on a child’s self-esteem and where they see themselves positioned in society. These conversations have made visible the discrimination within publishing industries and the ways that children of color stand to lose the most. Diversity is important to my project simply because stories about children of color can save their lives.

696056I was first introduced to Luis J. Rodriguez’s América is Her Name as a graduate student and it was the first children’s book I read with a Latina protagonist. I was a taken aback that a kid’s book actually talked about immigration and included scenes of violence. Mainstream children’s literature is no stranger to violence, gruesomeness, monsters, and the like; however, it is out of the ordinary to see a story about immigration, gang violence, and abuse at home that does not depend on stereotypes or is read as ethnography. América Soliz, the protagonist, is a recent immigrant from Oaxaca, Mexico to Pilsen, Illinois— one of Chicago’s predominantly Mexican communities— who struggles to find a voice in a place that seeks to silence her. Throughout the text, the reader is privy to the discrimination she faces in the classroom, the violence in her community, and the patriarchal oppression in her home. What I found most powerful about the book was that América is given a tool to challenge the oppressions around her. Poetry becomes her outlet, and it allows her to process the violence she witnesses and experiences. In this way, the violence does not overwhelm her, but instead, she is able to find strength despite it. Rodriguez’s book opened a new world of children’s books for me, and it allowed me to see this genre as having the potential to create social change.

One of the biggest personal challenges that América faces is feeling like she does not belong. As an undocumented student in an ESL classroom, her fear is reaffirmed by her teachers:

Yesterday as [América] passed Miss Gable and Miss Williams in the hallway, she heard Miss Gable whisper, “She’s an illegal.” How can that be—how can anyone be illegal! She is Mixteco, an ancient tribe that was here before the Spanish, before the blue-eyed, even before this government that now calls her “illegal.” How can a girl called América not belong in America? (n.p)

América’s genuine question signals a history of systemic oppression demarcating who gets to belong and who is excluded from the American imaginary. By tracing her indigenous roots, América seeks to challenge who can lay claim to the land her teachers wish to erase her from. Upon first reading Rodríguez’s book, I found América’s question rather painful. Even though América is a child, her teachers have no qualms about criminalizing and excluding her. At nine years old, there is very little that América can do to challenge her teachers’ ignorance and discrimination; however, the tension in the classroom shifts when Mr. Aponte, a Puerto Rican poet, visits America’s class. Mr. Aponte encourages the class to write poetry about what they know and in whatever language they feel comfortable. América writes about Oaxaca and shares her poetry with her family. Eventually, her mother and younger siblings take part in writing. At the end of the book, Ms. Gable gives América a high mark on one of her poems, which brings great joy to América and her family.

While América remains undocumented at the end of the story, she finds that her poetry gives her a sense of belonging that she did not feel at the beginning. She says: “A real poet. That sounds good to the Mixteca girl, who some people say doesn’t belong here. A poet, América knows, belongs everywhere” (n.p.). Writing has given America a way to challenge and transform the oppressions around her. Her poetry serves as a voice and power that she lacked and has since shared with her family. When I teach this book, I am very careful about talking about the conclusion as the “happy ending.” Instead, I encourage my students to read this moment as part of América’s healing process. Leaving the book with the assumption that everything works out for América is a disservice to the book and those like it. The fears and perils of immigration do not go away because América learned to write poetry. Instead, what she has learned is a set of skills that will help her express how immigration impacts her identity and will help her challenge a system that seeks to exclude her. Reading the ending as a moment in a much larger healing process instead of a resolution further allows me to demonstrate how Latina/o kids lit can transform the lives of Latina/o children and young adults.

If a book like América is Her Name had been available to me as a child, I can imagine it having made a real difference. Feeling excluded or not belonging is a very common theme within traditional coming-of-age stories. However, those feelings become rationalized as “growing pains” or generalized as “everyone feels left out,” or they become a lesson on “not everyone is going to like you.” These motifs often learned in mainstream coming of age stories and in common (mis)understandings of American childhood do not capture América’s experience. América is excluded for specific political and historical reasons. If she were a real child, she will probably be excluded her entire life because she is an (im)migrant. Even if she were to gain legal citizenship, someone will someday ask her “where are you from?” and assume that she does not belong. When I talk about Latina/o children’s books as having the potential to heal, I mean it in reference to these specific moments of exclusion and violence that unfortunately are a reality for Latina/o children. How do we teach our children to answer questions like “where are you from?” or to respond to comments like “you don’t look American”? How do we make them feel like they belong when the world around them may be telling them otherwise? Latina/o children’s literature does not have all of the answers but it is creating conversations on the topics that still require much attention.

Other Latina/o children’s books with immigration as a theme:

52390  1006426  2235722  465967  8101398  1266138  580207  2195327

headshotSonia Alejandra Rodríguez has been an avid reader since childhood. Her literary world was first transformed when she read Rudolfo Anaya’s Bless me, Última as a high school student and then again as a college freshman when she was given a copy of Sandra Cisneros’s The House on Mango Street. Sonia’s academic life and activism are committed to making diverse literature available to children and youth of color. Sonia received her B.A. in English from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is currently a PhD candidate at the University of California, Riverside, where she focuses her dissertation on healing processes in Latina/o Children’s and Young Adult Literature.

Nov 17 2014

Rachel Manija Brown & Sherwood Smith on Collaborating & Bucking the ‘Received Wisdom’ of Publishing Diversity

By Eileen Fontenot

16034526This post-apocalyptic, western-tinged adventure is more character-driven than you may expect. A diverse group of teenagers in Las Anclas narrate the story in third-person point of view–Ross, the stranger in town, who has a valuable item coveted by several factions and experiences PTSD episodes after escaping death from a bounty hunter; Mia, the town engineer who helps Ross in his new life; Jennie, a Ranger that is “Changed,” that is, has some sort of superhuman powers; Yuki, a former prince that struggles with settling down in LA and with his boyfriend, Paco; and Felicite, a scheming climber, lusting after power but also hiding a secret of her own.

This narration style does not detract from the action scenes, which find the characters battling deadly–and extremely crafty–desert animals and a neighboring army, which has a bloody history with the city of Las Anclas. Co-authors Rachel Manija Brown and Sherwood Smith, however, portray most of the characters as well intentioned; even the least sympathetic main character did merit some empathy by the end of the novel. Nearly all of LA’s citizens are trying to make their town a better place to live in the way they feel is best – even if they can’t agree on what course that will take. But one thing they are not prejudiced against is non-traditional relationships. Same-sex and polyamorous relationships are accepted; Change powers have become the new issue that divides the community. The book’s dearth of white main characters is noteworthy as well.

Smith, who has authored more than forty books and been nominated for several awards, including the Nebula and the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and Manija Brown, TV, comic strip, urban fantasy and video game writer and PTSD/trauma therapist, were kind enough to answer a few questions about this and future writing they’ll share and getting diverse works published.

Eileen: I’ve really enjoyed reading Stranger, especially the five POV characters. Any particular reason why you decided to write the novel in this way? How do you feel this structure lends itself to this genre/setting, etc.?

Rachel: It has multiple points of view (POVs) because it’s about a community, not a lone individual. The post-apocalyptic town of Las Anclas is very community-oriented—for better and for worse—so we wanted the structure to reflect that.

We also thought it was fun, for both us and our readers. Different people notice different things, and speak in different voices. For instance, Yuki Nakamura, who loves animals, was born on a ship, and is very introverted, always notices the wildlife, thinks in nautical metaphors, and only focuses on the people he actually cares about. Felicite Wolfe is the mayor’s ambitious daughter, so she pays close attention to everyone around her in order to make a good impression on them, manipulate them, or gain some knowledge she might be able use later.

Sherwood: While Mia, the youngest town engineer in Las Anclas’s history, keeps getting locked inside her head, sometimes spinning around so much in questions that she doesn’t know how to act when it comes to socializing. Poor Mia! She was the most fun to write about.

Rachel: The POV characters rotate throughout the series. Ross, Mia, and Jennie have POVs in all four books, but the other POVs switch off, with old POV characters dropping out and new ones taking their place.

Eileen: You have a co-author, Sherwood Smith–how did you come to work with her? Did you experience any challenges/benefits working with a co-author? What was the process the two of you used to write the novel? Did you each take character(s) and only write their chapters?

20140830_154107

Rachel Manija Brown (l) and Sherwood Smith (r)

Rachel: We both used to write TV, and we met to collaborate on a TV series. It didn’t sell, but we enjoyed working together so much that we kept on writing together.

Both of us write all the characters. We outline the story in advance, then literally sit next to each other at the computer, one typing (usually Sherwood; she’s much faster than me) while we alternately dictate the story. Any given sentence may have been written by both of us.

Sherwood: I have done several collaborations, and enjoyed them all, though each is very different. The fun part of writing with Rachel is that we never get writer’s block, because as soon as one of us runs out of ideas, whether on a single sentence or in a scene, the other either picks up with it and zooms ahead, or we can talk it out. Sometimes act it out!

Eileen: I see that you are a PTSD/trauma therapist, and one of the characters appears to be experiencing PTSD. What are your thoughts on including a character struggling with a mental condition? For you, is it similar and as important as including many characters of diversity?

Rachel: I definitely think that mental conditions are an aspect of diversity. But that’s not all there is to it. Ross’s experiences with PTSD are largely autobiographical. I don’t mean that they’re based on my clients, I mean that they’re based on what I went through as a teenager. I wanted to show that you can go through a lot of trauma and have it affect you–even affect you a lot– and not have it ruin your life, or mean that you can never be happy or never find love.

Sherwood: I agree with Rachel. There are aspects of Ross that also come out of my own childhood experiences. Rachel and I discovered that though our lives were very different, we shared certain emotional responses to situations that can cause symptoms of PTSD. This, in turn, made me very aware of similar emotional responses in students during the years that I taught, and though I am not trained as Rachel is, experience caused me to read up on the subject, and to seek ways to help kids feel a sense of safety, and agency.

Eileen: Stranger is incredibly multi-racial and diverse in many ways. What are your thoughts on getting your book published? I know from reading you and Sherwood’s PW blog post that you had at least one agent request that this diversity be toned down somewhat. Can you tell our readers a bit how you overcame this? Any advice for other authors who are marketing their diverse book or trying to get it seen by agents/publishers?

Rachel: Yes, an agent had trouble with Yuki being gay. In general, we had difficulty with the fact that gay and lesbian romances are just as important as straight romances. It’s also extremely unusual for a YA dystopia to have all the POV characters be people of color. We really had to persist to make the book available to readers.

Sherwood: I think it’s important to note that we do not believe that any of the agents or editors who asked, or hinted, or expressed doubts, about the diversity of our characters are bigots or anti-gay. It’s just that there has been such a strong “received wisdom” in marketing that protagonists must be straight and white or the book won’t sell. And publishers are primarily in the business of selling books. This received wisdom was probably true in 1950, but we don’t believe it is true today.

Rachel: Persistence is the key. If you want to go the traditional publishing route, be incredibly persistent. If you choose to self-publish, hire someone skilled to do the cover, and research how keywords and other important self-publishing techniques work. And know that there are readers out there who will really, really want to read your book. Luckily, nowadays it’s much easier to get it to them.

Eileen: I have read that Stranger is Book One in a series. What’s the status of the series and can you give us any juicy tidbits about what’s to come? Are you working on anything other than this series?

Rachel: Stranger stands on its own, but it’s also the first of a four-book series.

Book two is Hostage, in which we spend time in Gold Point, the city ruled with an iron fist by King Voske, the villain of Stranger, and meet a surprising new point of view character. Book three is Rebel, in which Ross’s past comes back to haunt him. The new point of view character in this book is someone we met back in book one, but maybe not someone expected to get a point of view. Book four is Traitor, in which all the plot threads and characters from the first three books come together in a battle for the future of Las Anclas. The new point of view character is someone whose perspective you may have been waiting for.

I’m currently working on the third Werewolf Marines book, Partner. That’s urban fantasy for adults under the pen name Lia Silver. It’s also diverse and also involves PTSD, but contains too much sex to be suitable for younger readers.

Sherwood: I’m working on the sequel to Lhind the Thief, which is YA fantasy with a character not quite human. It’s called Lhind the Spy, and it explores questions like belonging, what love is, the consequences of power—but these are also meant to be fun, so there will be chases, and magical razzle-dazzle, and an elaborate dinner party for powerful people that goes very, very wrong. That will be published through Book View Café, a consortium of writers who have been publishing work that is difficult for New York publishing to categorize. For DAW, I have been writing A Sword Named Truth, which is the first of a series about teenage allies, many of them in positions of power, who have to try to overcome personal and cultural conditioning to work together against a very, very powerful enemy.

Rachel and I also have other projects planned, which we will write together.

Nov 12 2014

It’s Pitch Fiesta Time! 13 Writers Pitch Their Queries to 7 Agents, 1 Publisher

Welcome to our first Pitch Fiesta, an online event for manuscripts by or about Latin@s! We received 21 entries and narrowed those down to 15. Two writers have dropped out for the best reasons: one found an agent and the other had a novel acquired. Congratulations! The writers were matched with authors to polish their queries and first 10 pages. The four middle grade and nine young adult entries are below. We’ve included the query and an excerpt.

This is how it will work: the queries and excerpts will be posted today and tomorrow to give the agents and publisher enough time to check in and read them. Participating are: Adriana Dominguez, Sara Megibow, Adrienne Rosado, Laura Dail, Amy Boggs, Kathleen Ortiz, Ammi-Joan Paquette, and  Arte Público Press. The first ten pages will be sent to interested agents/editors, along with longer partials or full manuscripts. We will follow up Friday with news about requests and later, if there is any big news, like a new, beautiful agent-writer relationship!

GOOD LUCK to everyone! And thank you to everyone involved–the writers, mentors, agents/editors–for producing and supporting diverse children’s literature!!

 

MIDDLE GRADE:

 

THE WIND CALLED MY NAME by Mary Louise Sanchez

I’m excited that you are actively seeking Latino and Latina authors and our stories through the Latin@s in Kid Lit’s Pitch Fiesta. I am seeking representation for my 35,000 word middle grade historical fiction novel, THE WIND CALLED MY NAME. With your help, some readers will be able to see themselves through my novel and others will experience one Hispanic culture.

It’s 1936 and the strong dust storm winds of the Great Depression blow Margaríta and her family to join Papá and her older brother, who now have good railroad jobs, to a small Wyoming town. Ten-year-old Margaríta Sandoval has mixed feelings about leaving her ancestral New Mexico home because people in Wyoming might not accept Hispanics. But, the move will give her the opportunity to make a new friend who isn’t related to her.

The winds blow many problems Margaríta’s way, like her so-called new friend, Evangeline, who snubs her nose at Hispanic foods and steals Margaríta’s rights to an autographed Shirley Temple picture; a teacher who doesn’t know New Mexicans fought in the Civil War; and washing machines which are “For Greasers Only.”

When Margaríta learns Papá and her brother risk losing their jobs, she invokes the familiar saints and uses her English skills to ask a new Wyoming saint to intercede. She still wants Evangeline’s support and friendship, but now on Margaríta’s new terms.

I was an elementary school teacher/librarian and still read the best of children’s literature, so I can learn to be a better writer and work toward my goal of winning the Pura Belpré Award someday. The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators recognized THE WIND CALLED MY NAME by awarding me one of three grants for their inaugural 2012 On-the-Verge Emerging Voices Awards, which was given to encourage writers of diverse cultures. I participate in an online children’s writing critique group and am a member of the SCBWI. I attend many conferences and workshops, which have included a national Hispanic Writer’s Conference in New Mexico; and the Highlights Foundation Writers’ Workshop as a scholarship recipient.

Excerpt:

The church bells rang from Santa Gertrude’s in the village. I counted the peals. Uno, dos, tres. It reminded me that Beto was the third thing we lost this week. My older cousin and her husband signed the papers to buy our house this morning. And yesterday Alberto told us there was no parish church in Fort Steele, Wyoming. For many generations our family has always been connected to the church like beads on a rosary. In Wyoming, would we be connected to anyone else besides each other?

 

HAUTE MESS by Heather Harris-Brady

When thirteen-year-old NYC designer Valentina Villar unravels a small-town secret left by a Victorian suffragette, she finds a cult bent on turning back the clock. In HAUTE MESS (49K), a contemporary middle-grade mystery, she’s got to solve her first case or her next little black dress may be her last.

The daughter of a famous cover girl, Valentina is poised to take center stage at Fashion Week with her own line. But when her parents buy the rickety Fits mansion upstate, she drops from catwalk darling to suspected “illegal alien” in one weekend. Tiny White Birch Cove is postcard-pretty, yet behind the lace curtains the town is coming apart at the seams. Valentina will do anything to get her old life back, and a letter hinting at a hidden fortune becomes her hottest accessory.

Centuries collide as she stitches together a trail of Vuitton trunks, Worth gowns, and Tiffany silver left by the mansion’s last resident, May Fits. The small-minded society that May rejected 150 years ago hasn’t changed much—they’re still after the jewel of the lost Fits treasure: the Talisman du Lac, a rumored Arthurian source of power. Valentina now needs to get fearless off the runway or everything she wants—including her big break and her adorkable new partner/maybe-first-boyfriend—will vanish quicker than white shoes after Labor Day.

Freshly polished with Coleen Paratore through SCBWI’s Digital Mentor Program, this adventure unfolds through the alternating time periods/viewpoints of two fashionistas. A standalone book with diverse characters and series potential, HAUTE MESS will appeal to fans of The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Westing Game, and historically themed books like Capture the Flag. The first draft won the Pacific Northwest Literary Contest children’s category.

Courtesy of my career in journalism and marketing, I have a sample marketing plan for this book available upon request. It includes social media tie-ins with reader “shelfies,” augmented reality treasure hunts, red carpet book signings, and more.

Excerpt:

You don’t know me.

Yet.

But one day you’ll slide out of a limo, jewels sparkling and silk skirt swirling. The red carpet, first reserved only for gods and goddesses, is waiting. Plush and glam, it stretches away in front of you. Cameras start to flash even before you’re out of the car.

I’ll be there when you hit your turn-back or foot-pop, throwing the paparazzi into a frenzy. Over it all comes one question.

“Who are you wearing?”

“Valentina Villar,” you’ll say. If you’re feeling sassy, maybe you’ll only flash the double V sign: V for Valentina, V for victory as we land together on tomorrow’s best-dressed list.

It’s only a matter of time. There’s just a few XXL issues standing in our way: 1) I need to crush this fashion show and 2) I’ve got to find a way to stay in New York City. We both know being a nobody is not an option.

 

DROPPED by Chris Day

When thirteen-year-old Carson’s estranged father invites him on a road trip in search of the best waves in Mexico, he thinks he’s signing up for the most epic surf adventure ever. The eighth grader has always been too young, too scared, too whatever for his dad’s annual surf expedition down the Baja. But even if it means dropping into gnarlier waves than he’s ever imagined, there’s no way Carson is missing this trip.

On the thousand-mile trek to El Secreto, the skater from California gets the sneaking suspicion that his dad might be kidnapping him. And when his mom tries to convince him they might never be coming back from the country she grew up in, Carson gives his dad the benefit of the doubt because they’re connecting for the first time in forever.

While they’re shredding the secret surf break, the storm of the century slams straight into the beach. When his dad gets caught out in the double-overhead waves, Carson has to face his biggest fear and paddle out through a killer riptide.

DROPPED is complete at 51,000 words.

Excerpt:

“Just promise we won’t get arrested or killed.” Carson looked down at the half-filled backpack by his feet. “Then I’ll decide.”

“That’s not really a promise I can make,” Link said. “But I can totally guarantee you’ve never been on a trip like this one.”

“I don’t know about this, Dad.” Carson glanced back toward his house. His mom would be home from her night shift at the hospital any minute. “I’m supposed to be at school in half an hour.”

“Come on. It’ll be a blast.” Link tossed a nylon strap across the stack of surfboards on the roof of his Jeep Cherokee and stretched it tight. “Live a little.”

The jeep didn’t look like it could make it the hundred miles to San Diego, never mind the thousand miles to his dad’s favorite surf break in Mexico, but Link always bragged about how everything still worked besides the odometer, which had been stuck on 199,999 since 1999.

“You barely packed any stuff for me,” Carson said.

“Don’t worry about it. You won’t need anything else.” Link jumped down from the fender and wiped his hands on his jeans. “Besides, when was the last time you got out of this town?”

 

DON’T WALK BAREFOOT ON THE SIDEWALK by Venessa Ann Schwarz

Abby loves living on the prairie in her family’s country home surrounded by a vegetable garden and Texas bluebonnets. She wants to ride horseback through the tall grasses. But a voice inside her head, her mother’s voice, warns, “Life’s a basket of rotten apples. Be careful,” and that always stops her in her tracks.

When her Puerto Rican dad, who grew up in New York City, suddenly decides to trade their country home in Texas for a cold flat in Brooklyn, eleven-year-old Abby doesn’t understand why.

On the way to New York City, she faces a string of disasters, including a terrible car crash. Abby wonders if her mother is right. Maybe life is a basket of rotten apples. Feeling unsettled, she trudges cross country in a dilapidated Whistling Teakettle on Wheels. But when the barrage of rotten apples continues, Abby tries to control everyone around her. And when she loses everything, including the respect of her favorite cousin Louis, she slowly finds her way back to the girl with the pioneer spirit.

Don’t Walk Barefoot on the Sidewalk is a 30,000 word, realistic middle grade story about letting go and allowing life to happen, whatever it may choose to bring.

My published credits include articles in The Writer’s Journal, Hopscotch for Girls and Fun for Kidz children’s magazines. I attended Boise State University on a teaching scholarship. I am also an SCBWI member and have been participating in workshops and conferences for many years.

Excerpt:

Abby’s favorite book Little Town on the Prairie sat on her lap waiting to be read again. She turned to the first page and saw her name, Abigail Rose Calantro, sprawled across the title page in purple ink. Owen, a boy from her class, teased Abby that her last name, Calantro, sounded a whole lot like cilantro. But she didn’t care because she liked cilantro. It was her favorite herb.

She liked her middle name too. Mom said after Abby was born, she was so tired that she took a nap. She woke and saw a red rose. Abby was thankful that when her mom opened her eyes she saw the rose, and not a bedpan, or a barf bag, or something even worse.


YOUNG ADULT

 

JEWEL’S WISH by Tiffany Soriano

Seventeen-year-old Jewel Sevante doesn’t plan on going to college because partying has become the most important thing in her life. Her only wish is to graduate high school since her father never did. She wants to make him proud and keeps him alive with childhood memories. Jewel’s father is more than a memory, though. His ghost watches over her.

Each time Jewel drinks and gets high, he tries to guide her toward a better future with his words. When Jewel lands in the hospital after a near fatal overdose, she realizes the ghost is her father warning her not to die the way he did. Jewel must decide whether to fight for recovery and graduate high school or become the next in her family to be destroyed by addiction.

JEWEL’S WISH, a young adult novel complete at  55,000 words, would appeal to readers of Jay Asher and Ellen Hopkins.

I am an accountant for one of the oldest financial firms on Wall Street. I have been sober for ten years and help other young people in New York City to stay sober. In 2014, I was one of six writers chosen by Rebecca Stead to join her YA Master Class Workshop. Excerpts from JEWEL’S WISH won the 2012 Literary Fiction Award of Bronx Recognizes Its Own. The annual grant is awarded to Bronx artists based solely on artistic excellence, selected by a panel of arts professionals. In 2011, I was one of six writers chosen for Sapphire’s Master Class Workshop.

Excerpt:

My head is throbbing as I look over at Julio lying on a recliner across the room. It takes me a minute to put two and two together. I’m on someone else’s couch. Both of the vodka bottles from yesterday are empty. It looks like three packs of cigarette butts are smashed in the ash tray, mixed in with the guts of the blunt paper we used to smoke weed.

What the hell happened last night?

The last thing I remember was kissing Julio. How did we end up on opposite sides of the room? My skirt’s all twisted, but at least my clothes are on. That’s good. My panties are on the right way. Another good sign. We’re in the clear. Cross my fingers.

“Oh no!” I scream when I see the time on the cable box.

Julio jumps up out of his sleep. “What’s the matter?”

“I have to go.”

I look around to make sure I’m not forgetting anything. I reach for the little Puerto Rican flag clipped to my bracelet. Daddy gave it to me when I was eight years old, right before he died.  The bracelet it came with broke, but I never lost the charm. It’s probably not worth a lot of money, but it’s still the most valuable thing I have. The only thing, really.

 

DAYS WITHOUT RAIN by Richard Almaraz

Three months have passed since seventeen year old child soldier Drigo Martinez returned from the war that consumed a decade of his life. Unable to stomach living with a monster, his cousin Ofelia finally saves up enough money to escape her father’s stifling home.

Ofelia wants to go to space, but her father conspires to keep her cloistered. She hates the idea of staying home, and turns to theft to get the money she needs. When her father discovers her savings, he browbeats her into paying him instead.

In desperation, Ofelia turns to the Manifest Corporation for financial aid, but Drigo knows Manifest’s dark secret: they abduct and experiment on child soldiers like him. No matter how adamant he is, Ofelia refuses to heed the warnings of a murderer. Drigo must risk his life to find proof that she will believe: proof from Manifest’s records themselves.

DAYS WITHOUT RAIN is a YA near-future sci-fi novel at 77,000 words.

Excerpt:

“One hundred and three days without rain,” Drigo murmured under his breath as he hopped barefoot from tie to tie on the abandoned railbed. One hundred and three days since he broke his vow and renounced John Amend-all for a life of comfort and safety.

Amend-all had raised him, had ensured he survived every day on the battlefield, and didn’t even try to convince him to stay. He had encouraged Drigo to go into the city to find a better life, and Drigo knew he was wrong to betray him. He could have done them both a far greater service by remaining, and it would still rain from time to time as well.

“God doesn’t smile on those who break vows,” Rafa said as he balanced on the rail to Drigo’s left. “He’s holding the rain as ransom.”

“He wants me to repent. To give Him blood to quench His eternal thirst,” Drigo said as he shook the water jug. Only a few sips remained. He offered Rafa the jug, but Rafa shook his head and turned it down. Drigo turned around to offer water to Neto and Albert behind him, but they had their own bottles.

Drigo popped the top off of the plastic jug and drank deep, draining the last of the water. He coughed as he slipped the cap back on. “Fuck ‘im. Let him scorch everything in his childish vengeance.”

 

TWICE AFFECTED by Clarissa Hadge

Rebellious, sixteen–year old Lottie would rather be listening to Sonic Youth and the Desechables than putting her telepathy and ability to see sound as color to good use. A mysterious group from a world called Karnock gave Lottie these powers. Frustrated from ten years of hiding her abilities but with few answers as to why she was granted these powers, Lottie wonders if she’ll ever discover anyone else like her.

That is, until she meets Charlie.

Lottie catches Charlie, a quirky bookseller, manipulating light into tangible matter. Then, she coerces him to admit that he, too, is aware of Karnock’s existence. For the first time, Lottie doesn’t feel so alone, and maybe Charlie is the key to helping her understand more about this other world.

With help from the inhabitants of Karnock, Lottie and Charlie journey there via the Lightway, an intergalactic path, to determine the reason behind their powers. There they discover a world ravaged by Earth’s climate change. The two worlds are bound together through ecological destruction, and what happens on Earth is paralleled on Karnock.

A megalomaniac Karnockian enchantress named Theodora wants to reverse the ecological destruction on her planet, and sever Karnock’s ties to obliterate Earth. Lottie and Charlie must flee from a determined Theodora who wants Lottie dead so she can’t use her abilities to interfere with the plans.

Lottie knows that with her abilities, a good dose of stubbornness, and maybe some help from Charlie, she might be able to defeat Theodora on Karnock before Earth is destroyed.

TWICE AFFECTED is an 80,000 word YA light science fiction novel with an environmental twist. The manuscript has elements of A WRINKLE IN TIME and ULTRAVIOLET, with a dash of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH.

I have a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing for Children from Simmons College and I’m currently working as a bookseller at an independent bookstore in Boston.

Excerpt:

It was the fight at school with Jennifer Wilcox that landed me here, though it probably would have been something eventually to trigger Evelyn’s decision to send me away. Evelyn was always full of idle threats, but I never thought my mother would actually follow through and dump me off at my great aunt Gertrude’s in Dorset.

Why Jennifer decided to call me a bitch, I don’t know. All I know is that when I slammed my fist into her jaw, the noise resulted not in me seeing red, as the saying goes, but a dancing pattern of teal and lavender.

The Homecoming Queen doesn’t look very pretty any more.

 

SLINGS AND ARROWS by Alex Yuschik

You can’t gun for the Ivy League when revenge is your biggest extra-curricular.

On the first day of senior year, seventeen-year-old Dominic Guerrera’s locked out of his house—again—until a girl with a strange accent breaks him back in. Shelley Summers is from Boston, and her fast car and bad manners are nothing compared to her penchant for urban exploration. Leader of the Ghosts, her band of misfit friends, Shelley explores abandoned buildings for kicks and teaches Dominic how to pick locks. Soon, Dominic’s life splits into halves: by day he’s the frontrunner for valedictorian and yearbook’s editor-in-chief, by night he tools around Baton Rouge with the Ghosts. And he may just be falling for the most fearless girl he’s ever met.

But when Shelley’s pushed off a bridge and the person responsible for her “accidental” death takes over the Ghosts, Dominic’s got to make a choice: run away again like he did when Shelley died, or turn the Ghosts in and risk destroying his future.

SLINGS AND ARROWS is a YA Southern Gothic retelling of Hamlet with a twist: the murdered King is a girl and she’s dating Hamlet. The manuscript is complete at 90k words and is told in two alternating timelines, one before and one after Shelley’s death.

Excerpt:

He could spread his whole life out over this city like a second map, seventeen years of streets and landmarks that memory’s cut into him. He’s read when sailors get scurvy their old wounds re-open, that the human body catalogues its scars but never fully heals them.

His hand travels over his stomach and he lets it drop.

During the day, he fakes it, pretends that the local news reports—teen found dead, spine snapped, investigation ongoing—are all talking to someone else, some other version of himself. In that life, Dominic Guerrera is just another second-semester senior, remarkable only in that he’ll make honor roll, valedictorian, a star college if he dots all his i’s.

Shelley Summers was a city map he’d cut into himself, and if he ventures too far from shore the old lines slice open again.

Out here, there is no pretending. There’s just him and the space where Shelley used to be.

And it’s so cold.

 

ONE EMPTY GIRL by Alexandra Townsend

No one can know young, withdrawn Meredith without thinking of her as an eerie, empty child. She’s too quiet, too distant, and barely shows emotion thanks to the oppressive control her mother has over her life. Meredith tries to fit in, but she’s grown used to being the strangest person she knows. That perspective changes when a mysterious family moves to her simple town.

The Teufels are a family full of secrets. They can have visions of the future, manipulate minds, and curse their worst enemies. The children of the family are Enola and Feo, half-Mexican twins who have grown to dislike the world as much as it dislikes them. Enola scares others with her dark and deliberately mysterious nature. Feo revels in chaos and enjoys playing pranks, sometimes dangerous ones.

Circumstances push the three children together when they and other children of the town receive painful, even deadly curses. Meredith is completely cut off from her emotions. Feo can’t avoid blame for anything, whether he did it or not. Enola is doomed to be feared by everyone she meets. But the real danger comes from the kids who decide to use their curses for evil. Suddenly Enola, Meredith, and Feo find themselves with truly dangerous enemies. They must work together if they want to survive long enough to break the curse.

In One Empty Girl, a 115,000 word young adult fantasy, Feo, Enola, and Meredith wrestle with their own problems as well as the magical ones that bring them together. Feo feels frustrated about the suspicion everyone always has for him, even when he isn’t pulling pranks. Enola is caught between hating her boring classmates and feeling incredibly lonely. Meredith is desperate to please her overbearing mother, but has become so emotionally stunted that she can barely understand how friendship works. It’s an unusual friendship when the three come together, but they soon find that they all need one another to begin to heal and to grow.

I am a graduate of the University of Vermont and a life-long lover of young adult fantasy. I have published several book reviews for Edge magazine and short stories for the online magazines Plunge and Spellbound. My novel is a dark fantasy and will be enjoyed by fans of Coraline and Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. The full manuscript is available upon request. It can be a stand-alone book or the first of a series.

Excerpt:

She ran the brush through the doll’s perfect hair for ten more strokes, stopping at a round one hundred. Hair was supposed to look much nicer after one hundred strokes, but the doll didn’t look any better to Meredith. It never did.

The truth was that this particular doll had been custom-made just for her. It had long, straight blond hair that stopped in a perfect line just below its shoulders. There were equally straight bangs that formed a line across its forehead just above a pair of tiny, round glasses. It was wearing a schoolgirl uniform, complete with a plaid skirt and a striped green and grey tie. The entire doll was very detailed, but it was still just a doll. It never smiled, whether it stood or sat it was always stiff, and its eyes always had an eerie lifelessness to them.

It looked exactly like Meredith in every way.

 

THE BOND: GUARDIANS AWAKE by Marisol La Costa

As one of the fourteen writers chosen from the Fiesta Pitch hosted by LatinosinKidLit.com, I want to take part in the shared investment of increasing diversity in the world of young adult literature. My aspiration is that this magical realism novel, THE BOND: GUARDIANS AWAKE will be a good fit for your list. The limited number of magical realism books have made it challenging to parallel my novel to others in this category. THE BOND brings diverse characters to this YA category.

Jessy Vazquez is an average girl growing up in her grandparent’s full house in the suburbs of East Los Angeles during a time of economic hardship and drought. On her quinceañera, she receives an heirloom medallion from her grandparents. Once the medallion touches Jessy’s skin, the medallion knows that it has found its guardian. The medallion takes a life of its own as it reawakens an unseen battle between good and evil during Jessy’s high school field trip to the temple ruins at Teotihuacan, Mexico City. To overcome evil, the medallion reveals to Jessy the unanimous language used at the beginning of time. Embedded in the language are a series of recipes for optimum health. Jessy and her family take advantage of the recipes using ingredients found in nature, to promote their intelligence, strength, and agility. In the midst of the metaphysical struggle, the medallion gives Jessy the power to control the weather and end the drought. Will Jessy be able to face her fears? Will she and her family be able to equip themselves to escape the assassin hunting the medallion’s power to control the Earth? With help from her family, Jessy learns that power and knowledge, come from a bonded family that battles for the good of the world.

I wrote this book to tell the story of how much I love my grandparents and my family and to provide a story that attracts Hispanic readers. There were many late nights invested in the writing of this book in order to tell this story. During the last 18 months, I have received support from local university professors and their writing group. They guided me to strengthen the story line for the process of revision. THE BOND: GUARDIANS AWAKE is complete at 70,000 words. It is the first book of a five book series.

Excerpt:

With great anticipation, Jessy took the lid off, and saw it. The medallion. It was perfectly brilliant. The minerals in the stone looked like the ocean and earth whirled around inside of it. The very tiny glimmering speckled lines and dots twinkled as though they were saying hello. Gustav’s dormant skills enabled the stone and metal to reunite once again.

“I love it, Grandma!” said Jessy with the biggest grin. “Can you help me put it on?”

“Before I put it on, you need to read what it says on the back,” said Carmen as she flipped the medallion over. She adjusted her glasses and pointed, “Read it.”

It was inscribed, Our granddaughter, Jessica Maria Vazquez Rodriguez.

“Grandma, Grandpa, I really love it,” said Jessy with watery eyes. “It’s perfect.”

As soon as the medallion touched Jessy’s skin, it set off an invisible and metaphysical reaction. With all the excitement in the kitchen, no one noticed that the stone lit slightly or that an unusual gentle wind deliberately swirled outside of the kitchen window. Recycling bottles on the backyard porch tumbled over and rolled around. It blew by and frightened Mrs. Abbot’s annoying cat that always ended up in the Rodriguez’s yard. Yellow curtains that hung over the kitchen window swayed as it went through to touch Jessy’s skin, giving her a chill.

 

FINVARRA’S CIRCUS by Monica Sanz

Finvarra’s Circus is coming to town, and seventeen-year-old Leanna is determined to see it. Everyone knows once the circus leaves, the fairest girl in town is found dead, deformed, and heartless. Rumors say it’s the handsome ringmaster, Finvarra, who steals their beauty and their hearts, but this means little to Leanna. Her heart is damaged and failing her. Surely he won’t want it. She sneaks into the circus, but caught by Finvarra, he gives her a choice: become their tightrope walker or die.

Leanna accepts, and now a part of their strange family, she learns that Finvarra never meant to harm her. He needs her to stay. An ancient curse binds the troupe to their circus. They must perform forever or perish. To break the curse, Finvarra must die, and only the famed muse, the Leanan Sidhe, can kill him.

Finvarra believes he’s found his muse in Leanna, and Leanna can’t deny the growing attraction between them. But not everyone wants freedom from the circus and they’ll kill any girl suspected of being Finvarra’s inspiration.

With her life and the circus’s on the line, will Leanna’s heart fail her when she needs it the most?

Complete at 99,000 words, FINVARRA’S CIRCUS is inspired by the Irish folktales of King Finvarra, Ethna the Bride, and the Leanan Sidhe. Fans of The Night Circus and Howl’s Moving Castle will enjoy this magical tale of one girl’s fight to decide her own fate when it feels as if it has already been written.

I am an active writer on Wattpad.com where my works reached over 4 million reads, alongside a growing fan base of over 19K. I am also a part of the Wattpad4, a group of authors that hosts weekly Twitter chats and vlogs.

Excerpt:

That night, when only the low howls of the wind hushed through the trees, Leanna pushed away her blankets and climbed from her bed. Padding lightly to her wardrobe, she dressed quickly. Edith never bothered to check on her in the middle of the night, and so Leanna was confident, as she slipped on her black cloak, that her indiscretion would never be discovered.

Opening her door with a frightful ease, she peered out into the hall. Her father’s thunderous snoring resounded, but all else was quiet. She slipped out from her room, crept downstairs and into the kitchen. Lamp in hand, she pulled the door open. A frigid gust pushed her back as if to keep her from going, but clutching at her pendant, Leanna pulled the door closed behind her.

Darkness swallowed the forest, cut by streams of moonlight breaking through skeletal branches. Leanna looked to the blackness, gazed up to her window, and paused.

Fear, now a small voice in her mind, whispered that she should not go. What if she were to fall ill, alone, in the middle of the woods? What on earth would she do? It was foolish. Yet, steeling her spine, she hauled in a deep breath, adjusted her hood, and darted into the black. There was no way she would miss the circus, even if she lost her heart in the process— to the cold, or to Finvarra.

 

SOME KIND OF TROUBLE by Elizabeth Arroyo

Seventeen-year-old Ariana Lopez has been planning her future since her mother was diagnosed with cancer. Getting into college is a huge part of that future. Knowing little about her extended family, or the identity of her biological father, Ariana believes getting into college means having a future after her mom dies.

But her college plans are threatened by her inability to comprehend numbers. At the request of her mother, she accepts tutoring from Marcus Trent, who’s an A student, popular, and has “most likely to succeed” written all over his arrogant, brilliant smile.  Marcus gets on her nerves and not in an entirely bad way.

When he invites her to hang out with his friends, she decides to ignore common sense and agrees. The night ends with a car chase, leaving one of Marcus’s friends in the hospital with a gunshot wound and Ariana with a knot on her head. To make matters worse, she’s forced to call her ex-stepfather to pick her up since her mother is in the hospital again.

After her near death experience, her life plans get put on stasis due to her growing feelings for Marcus. But Ariana soon realizes that Marcus is carrying his own emotional baggage and is set on a path to self-destruction: he and his friends decide to find the shooter, no matter the consequences.

Set on stopping Marcus from making a dangerous mistake, Ariana decides to live somewhere between hope and fear, risking more than just her heart for a future she didn’t plan. And it may cost her everything.

SOME KIND OF TROUBLE is a YA Contemporary Romance novel, complete at 60,000 words. I am a hybrid author looking for an agent for my contemporary work.

Excerpt:

Offering up my soul to whatever god could turn on my seventeen-year-old jalopy without me freezing my ass off was a fair trade.

I turned the ignition for the fifth time, and the engine caught with a grudging screech just as my cell phone rang. I pried it out of my bag with shivering, numb fingers. At least I’d keep my soul.

“Don’t leave me!” Miranda yelled into the phone even before I set it up against my ear.

I watched her through the side mirror, my lips curled into a smile. Miranda never seemed bothered by anything, not even running in a cold Chicago morning, wearing stilettos and dragging her backpack on the ground beside her. Her hair swirled in the wind, her hips moved side to side as if she were dancing merengue to the beat of her stilettos.

“Hurry up, can’t be late,” I quipped.

Miranda and I have been friends since the third grade, although we pissed each other off enough times to have perfected the eye roll. Despite her failed attempts at trying to save me from me, whatever that meant, she added a different kind of chaos in my life. The type of chaos I didn’t plan, and it allowed me to forget who I was. I lived for those moments.

Pathetic.

 

I BURN BANNED BOOKS by Monica Zepeda

High school senior Keely McNeill never planned on being a book burner.

Keely’s only goal is to wait out the graduation clock and get the hell out her sucktastic Arizona town. But her journalism teacher, Mr. Stokes, calls her out on being chronically lazy. He challenges her to find something she cares about.

Then Mr. Stokes dies.

The death of Mr. Stokes prompts the school board to shutter the newspaper to save money. Keely hijacks the paper and writes an unauthorized editorial against the closure, but the principal destroys all the issues before it gets distributed. Keely’s attempt at organizing a grassroots protest ends in an epic fail, and even her boyfriend thinks she should give up the cause.

But when she gets unexpected support from the high school’s resident mean girl, Keely decides to protest the censorship of her article. She wants to do something headline worthy, and if burning one thousand books is the only way Keely can be heard, then burn, baby, burn.

I Burn Banned Books is a YA contemporary debut complete at 61,000 words.

In addition to being a member of SCBWI, I received a MFA in playwriting from Arizona State University. I am a former recipient of the Disney/ABC Writing Fellowship and an independent feature I wrote is in post-production. Currently, I am the Teen Services librarian at Beverly Hills Public Library.

Excerpt:

As I watch the books burn, a spray of wayward ashes blows into my face. My eyes start to water. I am not crying. I have residue from The Chocolate War in my eye.

I wipe away a not-tear, hoping no one will see. But Carole Reese-Kennedy does. Even though she is way on the other side of the fire pit. She nudges her camera guy.

Ariel spots them, too. She’s been waiting all night to be interviewed. She even got highlights for the occasion.

“Don’t forget to mention me,” she whispers.

Carole and her camera guy push their way through the crowd as the light attached to the top of the camera flashes into my eyes. I feel like a stupid deer that doesn’t realize that its fate is an oncoming Chevy Suburban.

 

Oct 13 2014

Shine a Bright Spotlight on Unsold Diverse Books: An Idea Inspired by Hollywood’s Black List

By Patrick Flores-Scott

I’m happy to have the opportunity to be blogging here at Latin@s in Kid Lit!

Once again, I’ve got the We Need Diverse Books movement on my mind.

If you’re reading this post, I’m sure you’re very aware that children’s literature does not reflect the true diversity of this land. And you’re very likely to agree that it must.  And you can explain the myriad reasons why it must. And you’ve most likely asked yourself, How do we fix this? And I bet you’ve got ideas.

It’s going to take many ideas from myriad sources and a lot of people working together in every phase of the publishing industry to make change happen.

I’d like to use this post to throw one possible idea into that mix. For many reasons, I’m not the guy to put this one into action, but I think it’s an idea worthy of consideration, and it would be very cool if someone ran with it.

The idea is stolen from Hollywood. It’s called the Black List. I’m not referring to the mid-last-century process of blacklisting supposed Hollywood communists and those who refused to name names, in an effort to keep them from ever working in this town again. And I’m not referring to NBC’s TV show, The Blacklist. I’m referring to the Black List, which is a list of the best unsold scripts for each calendar year. Simple as that.

The List was started by Franklin Leonard in an effort to bring attention to scripts that otherwise, may never have seen the light of day, and in an attempt to create a path to success for yet-to-be-produced screenwriters.

Check out this link to an interview with Franklin Leonard. It’s is a great introduction to the Black List.

In the interview, Franklin Leonard states that:

“…the more that we can do to shine a very bright spotlight on people doing ambitious and very high quality work, the more likely it is that those scripts get made. I think the role we play is to shine that bright spotlight and say, “Here’s a bunch of stuff that maybe you overlooked, that maybe you loved but you didn’t pull the trigger on for whatever reason; it might be worth taking a second look.”

He goes on to say that’s exactly what happens when the list comes out each year. There are meetings all over Hollywood where executives go over the list and reconsider scripts they’d previously passed on, or they find new scripts that they then request from writers and agents.

Since 2005, over two-hundred films that made it onto a Black List have been produced. Some of them include Argo, American Hustle, The Descendants, Juno, The Wolf of Wall Street, Slumdog Millionaire, The Social Network, and The Wrestler.

In an attempt to start a dialogue, here are some ideas about how the Black List could work in the world of kid lit:

The Kid List (or whatever it’s going to be called) committee would solicit manuscripts from writers from underrepresented backgrounds, or manuscripts with underrepresented main characters, regardless of the writer’s background.

The purpose of The Kid List would be to connect publishers with manuscripts that an esteemed committee would deem worthy of publication. It would also be a vehicle for connecting unrepresented writers with agents. Furthermore, the list could be used as a form of mentorship for writers of promising manuscripts that do not make the list. These writers would be given quality feedback and the opportunity to resubmit to the list the following year.

The manuscripts could be sent from agents or from individuals who do not yet have representation. I picture manuscripts coming from unpublished writers, but I think it’d also be appropriate for a published author to submit a manuscript that has gone through the traditional editorial submission process without garnering a deal.

At the end of the year, the committee would create a list made up of  (whatever number) of manuscripts that they feel are worthy of publication. I picture the list being unveiled by the committee during one of the major book conventions.

The make-up of the selection committee would be crucial to the success of The Kid List. In order to shine that spotlight that Franklin Leonard talks about, the folks on the committee would need to be bright lights in their own right. They should be influential librarians, well-regarded booksellers and big-name authors. It would be a major time commitment—maybe like being a member of the BFYA committee—but I think there are enough big-time players out there who value diversity in children’s literature and who would like to play a role in making that diversity happen.

Recruiting a selection committee, creating its rules and structures… all that, would be a big challenge for some dynamic, driven passionate individuals. Are you one of them?

My big fear would be that the list would come out… and nothing would happen. Editors and agents would greet it with a big whatever. I just don’t think that’d be the case. I truly believe that, for the most part, editors would like to publish more “diverse books.” But change is hard. People need a nudge. They need help. They need to be educated and they need someone they respect telling them it’s okay to go for it. But more than all that, The Kid List would create marketing buzz for books before they’re even sold. What publisher wouldn’t want a piece of that?

I could picture the first Kid List coming out and one book being published off that list. It might not seem like much, but editors and agents would know that a cool book from an unknown author was sold, at least in part, because of The Kid List. They’d check it out a little closer the next year and maybe then a few more books would be published because of The List. From there, it’s not hard seeing a time and place where The Kid List has done for diversity in kid lit what the Black List has done for Hollywood.

And it’s not hard to picture young writers from diverse backgrounds, inspired by the idea that there’s a path that I can take to get a book published. And the characters in that book can look like I do.

There it is. One idea. Let me know what you think. Or don’t, and just go for it.

PatrickFS1Patrick Flores-Scott was, until recently, a long-time public school teacher in Seattle, Washington. He’s now a stay-at-home dad and early morning writer in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Patrick’s first novel, Jumped In, has been named to a YALSA 2014 Best Fiction for Young Adults book, an NCSS/CBC Notable Book for the Social Studies and a Bank Street College Best Book of 2014. He is currently working on his second book, American Road Trip.

Sep 25 2014

Pig Park and the Cosmic Race: Diversity and Identity in My New YA Novel

By Claudia Guadalupe Martinez

As a kid, I assumed everyone around me was Mexican. I lived less than a mile from the Texas-Mexico border, so we pretty much were Mexican. This neighborhood inspired my first novel, The Smell of Old Lady Perfume–a world vastly different from the one that surrounds my protagonist, Masi Burciaga, in my new novel Pig Park. Masi’s cast of neighbors runs the gamut from the Nowaks to the Wongs.

2236319Nevertheless, Mexican identity is something I thought very much about as I wrote. Two-thirds of the Latino population in the U.S. was of Mexican descent in the last Census, and I can’t help asking myself what it means to be Mexican these days. I didn’t grow up purposefully Mexi-centric. I was a product of my environment. I’d never had the opportunity to truly interact with non-Mexicans, non-Mexican Latinos, or Mexicans with experiences significantly different from mine until I moved to California for college.

Even then, the diversity I experienced was a somewhat artificial one created by a college admissions team. California was still the Southwest, and my new community and I still shared many experiences. But seriously, since I barely knew how to drive, I can hardly say I experienced L.A.

Chicago would be different. One day, I cashed in my airline miles and set off to visit a friend there. I walked into a coffee shop and stumbled onto a flier for an apartment rental. So began my long-term relationship with the city and neighborhood that would inspire Pig Park.

My new Chicago landlady occasionally referred to my neighborhood as Mexican, but my neighbors included Mexicans, African Americans, Filipinos, Puerto Ricans, and miscellaneous white folks. Everyone just mixed it up.

18528311Mexicans have formed communities in Chicago since the 1850’s. And, while a 2012 Census study from the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research named Chicago the most segregated city in America, Chicagoland’s Mexican population is massive enough at 1.4 million that some neighborhood overflow is to be expected. This is how diversity develops naturally. Scholar José Vasconcelos talked about Mexicans as “the cosmic race;” behind it was the idea that we actually have a little bit of everything in us, that we like to mix it up, eventually transcending racial and ethnic categories.

Life happened, as it is wont to do. I eventually got married, moved into a house in a new neighborhood, and became a mom. My husband is of the sort who wouldn’t be caught dead putting ketchup on a hot dog and gladly plays tour guide to visiting family and friends, introducing them to the many surprises of our city. He is a Chicagoan through and through. He is also of Guatemalan and Salvadoran descent. As such, I don’t know if my two-year daughter and my son (who will be born this October) will consider themselves Mexican or not. After all, identity is a fluid thing, partially assumed and partially assigned. My husband and I hope they consider themselves whatever they want, and are never made to feel that they can’t.

I wrote Pig Park recognizing that the world my children will be a part of isn’t exactly one thing, and that this is the type of world many kids are increasingly growing up in.

CGMTZ_photoby neus raffols_color_CROPPEDClaudia Guadalupe Martinez is the author of The Smell of Old Lady Perfume (Cinco Puntos, 2008) and Pig Park (Cinco Puntos, 2014). She grew up in sunny El Paso, Texas, where she learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old westerns with her father. She now lives and writes in Chicago.

Sep 18 2014

Book Review: Lowriders in Space by Cathy Camper, illustrated by Raúl the Third

Lowriders in Space_FC_HiResBy Lila Quintero Weaver

This book talk is based on an advance review copy. Quotes and details may vary in the final version.

DESCRIPTION FROM THE BOOK JACKET: Lupe Impala, El Chavo Flapjack and Elirio Malaria love working with cars. You name it, they can fix it. But the team’s favorite cars of all are lowriders—cars that hip and hop, dip and drop, go low and slow, bajito y suavecito. The stars align when a contest for the best car around offers a prize of a trunkful of cash for the best car around—just what the team needs to open their own shop! ¡Ay chihuahua! What will it take to transform a junker into the best car in the universe? Striking, unparalleled art from debut illustrator Raúl the Third recalls ballpoint-pen-and-Sharpie desk-drawn doodles, while the story is sketched with Spanish, inked with science facts, and colored with true friendship. With a glossary at the back to provides definitions for Spanish and science terms, this delightful book will educate and entertain in equal measure.

MY TWO CENTS: Look in the children’s section for graphic novels from the Latino perspective and you’ll find precious few choices. Look there for books about lowriders and your choices will be still slimmer. Here is Lowriders in Space, ready to fill both spots with a joyous, celebratory tale. You don’t need deep knowledge of the lowrider culture to appreciate this middle-grade graphic novel, brought to you by the author-illustrator team of Cathy Camper and Raúl the Third.

Lowriders In Space_Int_3In the opening pages, we meet three animal characters with Spanish names, all of whom work for a car-repair shop. The shop is called Cartinflas, and this is just one of many playful allusions and verbal jokes in this book. (Cartinflas plays on the name of the famous Mexican comic actor, Cantinflas.) Lupe Impala, (a wolf) busts gender stereotypes as a female lead who knows her way around car engines. Her sidekicks, the octopus El Chavo Flapjack and the mosquito Elirio Malaria, each specialize in key aspects of automobile revamping in the lowrider style. Elirio’s fine-tip proboscis doubles as a paintbrush that turns out the sweetest racing stripes and airbrushed scenes you could imagine. El Chavo’s eight tentacles go to work washing, polishing and buffing cars to a high sheen.

The trio dream of going into business for themselves, but where will they find start-up money? A car competition with a hefty cash prize gives them hope, but there are tough challenges to meet. First, they must find a car to work their magic on. They settle for a rusty heap sitting on cinder blocks. Now for car parts. At an abandoned airplane factory, they pick up mini air compressors and a box of rocket equipment. After attaching the parts, they’re in for a surprise when Lupe cranks the engine and it launches the car into the stratosphere. High above the earth, the car gears down into bajito-y-suavecito mode, low and slow: this is the cruising speed that lets low riders see and be seen. While the transformed auto travels outer space, it takes on loads of flash and bling borrowed from stars, asteroids and others elements of the galactic realm.

There’s much to love in this kid-friendly graphic novel. The story arc follows a familiar trajectory: the protagonists meet every challenge successfully and win the sought-after prize. Kid readers will be cheering. But my hat’s off to Cathy Camper for elevating the storyline above the predictable. She does this through original settings and characters, including the lowrider car itself, and with the inventive twists of space travel and comical astronomy. Her text engages the ear with musical language that includes alliteration, onomatopoeia, and bursts of G-rated street slang in English, Spanish, and Spanglish.

Kids will eat up the comics-style art. Every page offers levels of visual puns and charming details that invite readers to study panels closely. The color scheme and the drawings give off a retro historieta vibe, fitting for a story about lowrider culture, which was born in the 1950s and is rooted in the Mexican American community. I’m not familiar with the ballpoint-pen doodle style that Raúl the Third credits as his inspiration, but I dig it!

TEACHING TIPS: The back of the book contains a glossary of Spanish phrases, factual information on the tongue-in-cheek astronomy that appears in the story, and a thumbnail summary of lowrider history.

One bonus of graphic novels is their appeal to devoted bookworms and reluctant readers. Kids seem to instinctively grasp the multiple levels of interaction offered through their blend of text and images. Teachers may want to approach Lowriders in Space—and any graphic novel—in two steps. Read through it once purely for the story. Revisit it at a slower pace to more fully absorb the images. Raúl the Third’s art is rich with details, charming secondary characters, and visual puns that sharp-eyed kids will relish hunting down. These may not be central to the story, but they sure contribute to the fun. For example, it’s one thing to read that there’s a fast-food joint called Sapo Bell in the background of one scene—it’s another to spy the goofy sapo sitting out front. Middle-grade readers are sure to love such hidden gems.

Lowriders in Space encourages kids to celebrate a fun aspect of Mexican American culture that should be respected, not ridiculed or stigmatized. Too often when lowriders appear in popular culture, they’re thrown in for kitsch points. This usually results in stereotyping and negative connotations. Teachers can use this text to combat the lazy disregard involved in stereotypical usage and replace it with the dignity that comes with cross-cultural appreciation.

If you’d like to learn more about lowrider history culture, here are some suggested resources:

“Lowriding: This Culture is About More Than Cars.”

“Low and Slow: The History of Lowriders.” 

Be sure to read Cathy’s guest post on Latin@s in Kid Lit!

Cathy Camper_headshot_photo (c) Jayson Colomby_smCathy Camper is a librarian focusing on outreach to schools and children in grades K-12. She lives in Portland, Oregon. Raúl the Third teaches classes on  drawing and comics for kids at the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art. He lives in Boston, Massachusetts.          

   Raul the Third (credit Elaine Bay)

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

And now for a big treat, the official book trailer for Lowriders in Space!