YA resource & books 2, 3, & 4

[littlebutfierce]

While looking for resources for POC-written YA books, I stumbled upon Paper Tigers, which focuses mainly, but not exclusively, on books about the Pacific Rim & South Asia. They've got a lot of reviews up. Not all the books are by POCs, but still, looks like a decent site to check out.

2. Voices of Resistance: Muslim Women on War, Faith, and Sexuality - Edited by Sarah Husain. This collection does a good job in breaking down the stereotype of there being only one type of Muslim woman, both in terms of topics discussed, & in terms of contributors: there are South Asians, Arabs, East Asians, there are queer folks, there are practicing & non-practicing Muslims, women who wear the hijab & women who don't, etc. Standouts for me: "The Politics of Hajj," in which Aisha Sattar talks about the racist, sexist, & classist separations enforced & encouraged in Mecca; "Our Memories of Islam: Pakistani, Malaysian, and Palestinian Women (Re)imagine "Muslim" and (Re)define Faith" (by Azza Basarudin, Maddy Mohammed, and Khanum Shaikh), which is a long, intimate e-mail conversation between the 3 authors; "War Stories," in which Jawahara K. Saidullah talks about growing up as a secret Muslim in India; "Infinite and Everywhere! My Kaleidoscopic Identity," in which Mansha Parven Mirza discusses her family heritage, which is both Muslim & Hindu; and Bushra Rehman's "If This Were My Family: Relearning Important Lessons of Organizing after the Earthquake," which details how her family's model of activism differs from what she usually considered activism, but is still activism nonetheless. This is a strong anthology & deserves a wide audience.

3. Growing Up Brown: Memoirs of a Filipino American - Peter Jamero. Jamero grew up in the '30s in a California farm labor camp, where he was surrounded by lots of Filipino workers that became an extended family. He grew up to do a lot of Filipino Firsts, as he calls them--first Filipino to take on various governmental roles, etc. etc. What I liked most was reading about farm worker life; as Jamero gets older, the memoir turns more into a listing of all the great things that he's accomplished. Which... that's good for him, but also left me feeling like he was trying really hard to entrench the Model Minority stereotype. Even tho' Jamero worked to combat racism & to advance the situation of Filipinos in the US, I felt like he was pretty conservative @ times. He didn't think the Marcos dictatorship was something that concerned Filipinos born in the US (!), & near the end of the book, he talks about how political correctness meant that he couldn't be as "spontaneous" w/his staff @ work, which makes me wonder if he wanted to go around pinching young girls' butts or something. Anyway--I appreciated this for a glimpse into Filipino American history, generally, altho' it made me kind of uncomfortable in parts.

4. Translations of Beauty - Mia Yun. Inah & Yunah are twentysomething twins, moved from Korea to Flushing as children w/their parents. Inah suffered a disfiguring facial accident as a child, for which Yunah & her mother feel perpetually guilty. Now Inah, studying in Oxford, has run off to Rome. Worried, Yunah goes to visit her. The story of their trip is interspersed w/scenes from their youth. It took me a while to be drawn into the book; I didn't sympathize w/either of the twins @ first, but as the book went on, I found myself more & more emotionally involved. I also found their father, an artist who left his art behind in Korea & who never really feels @ home in the US, to be a heartbreaking character. The ending of the book is a little twee, but still satisfying.

Comments

[oyceter]

Oh awesome, thanks for the link! I'll have to go check it out.

[littlebutfierce]

Yay! I hope you find some stuff you like there.

[decarnin.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the useful notes. It's so fascinating to see what people have to say about these books, not only their content but their effect on the reader. Also good to know if there are some that may *not* be the best book to read on a given topic.

[littlebutfierce]

Thank you! I'm glad they're useful; I sort of feel inferior when I write blurbs about books b/c I can never manage to make myself write long reports on the writing style & how the structure hung together & stuff. Hehehe.