Mitali Perkins's Blog, page 59

Mea Culpa in Writing Race

I've made plenty of missteps as I journey along with the rest of my author friends to include and describe characters of different races, but I featured a particular error in my article for School Library Journal:

Overexoticizing a nonwhite character to appeal to white readers can happen inside a story as well as on a cover. Take my book The Sunita Experiment (Little, Brown, 1993), the story of an eighth grader whose California home becomes much more traditional when her grandparents visit from I

Rock the Drop!

Where will you lose a book on April 16, 2009?

You've probably heard that rgz, GuysLitWire, YALSA and publishers are giving away 8,000 new young-adult novels, audio books, and graphic novels to hospitals for teens across the country on that day.

Now rgz is inviting readers and YA authors to leave a young adult book in any public place on April 16th. Here's what to do:

Download a bookplate and put it in a book.
Leave a comment about which title(s) you plan to drop in your community and where.Take a ph

Grandparents as Living Libraries

Ostensibly, my sons and I traveled from Boston to the San Francisco Bay Area this past weekend to celebrate Baba's birthday.

That's what I told people, anyway.

But the truth is that these regular trips to Didu and Dadu's house -- note the open door and my Dad waiting on the porch -- are a shortcut to keeping my heritage alive in the next generation.

The best part is that it's never forced. Bengali music constantly plays in the background. Ma lavishes them with her fresh-cooked specialties, and the

Authors, Cowboy Up

One of my goals in Straight Talk on Writing Race was to encourage and inspire writers -- some of the most creative people on the planet -- to come up with fresh ways of portraying race in stories for young people.

A twitter buddy responded to my article. "As a white author," she said. "I generally can't win when it comes to writing non-white characters."

"Fear of making mistakes is an honest answer," I told her. "Don't give up, it takes work, but that's true for those of us who aren't white, too."

You're So Oversensitive

"Why not let kids be color-blind for as long as they can? Let's just let them read a story and enjoy it, for goodness' sake."

I'm predicting this response -- spoken or unspoken -- to my article releasing tomorrow in School Library Journal. And when I blog about these issues on the Fire Escape, I often ask myself whether I'm being "over-sensitive." Who wants to have a chip on her shoulder -- or be accused of having one? Not me.

That's why I was encouraged by the always-brave Debbie Reese's post tod

I'm A Real Author Now

Who needs a Hollywood red carpet to feel like a celeb? Experience the heady buzz of being fêted at the Newton Free Library's Annual Spring Fling instead ...

You hardly recognize the library. The lobby is festooned with spring colors, flowers, and glittering lights. Caterers from Baker's Best weave through the crowd, holding trays of scallops, satay, and something that looks like spanakopita. The Jane Potter Jazz Trio is playing where the copy machine usually stands.

You're greeted with hugs and ki

YA Authors On Twitter

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Here's the list of published or about-to-be published authors who write for teens (in alphabetical order with apologies to my friend Sara Zarr) in case you want to follow any or all of us:
Laurie Halse Anderson @halseandersonR. J. Anderson @rj_andersonAndrew Auseon @andrewauseonKim Baccellia @ixtumeaCyn Balog @cynbalogJen Lynn Barnes @jenlynnbarnesLauren Barnholdt @laurenbarnholdtClare Bell @rathacatRobin Benway @robinbenwayHolly Black @hollyblackCoe Booth @coebooth
Robin Brande @Robin_BrandeHeath

Poetry Friday: An Original Lenten Poem

Engraved
by Mitali Perkins

Your head swam with him.
You opened your mouth for the depth of his kiss.
Face to face, side by side, knee to knee, eye to eye.

You passed the place with a shudder.
He tugged you inside.
Scratch it on your skin, he said.

You picked the script, a rose, the heart.
Offering ankle, lower hip, upper arm.
Places easier to hide.
Forever, he said, tapping the hollow of your neck.
You measured his gaze, but complied.

He lied, he left, you lose.
Rose wilts, heart fades.
Scrape the lines of him

One Small Yes At A Time

In the writing vocation, saying "yes" to stuff that's not initially exciting can lead to unexpected surprises. Let me give you a few examples from the last couple of years.

1. It's just one of those not-so-great book signings, right? But you meet Judy O'Malley, who picks up a copy of Monsoon Summer and asks about your future work. You tell her about a picture book work-in-progress set in Bangladesh that's got you stumped. "Send it," she says. You do, and she applies her mad editorial skills. Resu

Sites for the Statistically Savvy

Yesterday we noted that less than half of children's books featuring African American content and protagonists were created by African American authors and illustrators.

We also saw that less than a quarter of children's books featuring American Indian content and protagonists came from American Indian creators.

Given these startling statistics, I thought it would be timely to remind my Fire Escape visitors of four great sites to bookmark:
Debbie Reese's American Indians in Children's Literature: C