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Sarah Jamila Stevenson

Goodreads Author

Born

in The United States

Website

http://www.sarahjamilastevenson.com/

Twitter

aquafortis

Genre

Young Adult

Member Since

April 2007

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/aquafortis

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Sarah Jamila Stevenson is a writer, artist, graphic designer, introvert, closet geek, enthusiastic eater, struggling blogger, lapsed piano player, household-chore-ignorer and occasional world traveler. Her previous lives include spelling bee nerd, suburban Southern California teenager, Berkeley art student, underappreciated temp, and humor columnist for a video game website. Throughout said lives, she has acquired numerous skills of questionable usefulness, like intaglio printmaking and Welsh language. She lives in Northern California with her husband, who is also an artist, and two cats with astounding sleep-inducing powers.

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What books are on your summer reading list this year?

Sarah Jamila Stevenson THICK AS THIEVES by Megan Whalen Turner, AS BRAVE AS YOU by Jason Reynolds, THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY edited by Peter S. Beagle, THE LIE TREE by…moreTHICK AS THIEVES by Megan Whalen Turner, AS BRAVE AS YOU by Jason Reynolds, THE NEW VOICES OF FANTASY edited by Peter S. Beagle, THE LIE TREE by Frances Hardinge, DREAMER'S POOL by Juliet Marillier, JOURNEY ACROSS THE HIDDEN ISLANDS by Sarah Beth Durst, ASCENSION by Hannah Rials(less)

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What was your inspiration for The Latte Rebellion? Did you have any similar experiences? What do you want readers to take away from reading it?

Sarah Jamila Stevenson The Latte Rebellion started with just a title and a character! The phrase "latte rebellion" was rattling around in my head and I began to speculate on…moreThe Latte Rebellion started with just a title and a character! The phrase "latte rebellion" was rattling around in my head and I began to speculate on what that might be, and at the same time the character of Asha was taking shape, too. Asha is a bit like me; all three main characters have bits and pieces of me, but Asha is "the most me." She's a lot more socially aware and activist, though, than I was as a teenager!

I was also interested in the way food metaphors are often overused to describe skin tone in books—the word "latte" as a metaphor for mixed race made me smile, and the idea started to take off from there. As far as similar experiences go, when I was in high school in Southern California there was a violent incident just off campus that was gang-related, and the fighting spread onto school grounds throughout the morning. Police in riot gear showed up and things calmed down, but then the newspaper reported it as "exploding racial tensions." (This was less than a year after the LA riots.) So that incident was still in the back of my mind when I was thinking about how it feels to witness campus violence and how schools respond to incidents like that. A few images from my memories of that found their way into the book.

And, of course, like many people of ambiguous ethnicity, I was often asked "what are you?" as a kid, and had some surreal conversations as a result. One of the big takeaways I hope readers will get from the story is that there are a lot of people out there of mixed race and culture and they aren't alone in their experiences. It's something that's all around us, people with different mixtures of backgrounds and different, fascinating stories, but because we still often think about race or culture as all-or-nothing, "mixed" people sometimes get overlooked. I was interested in writing a story that dealt with race but also looked at the situation with some humor, something that will make people laugh with recognition. (less)

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Sarah Jamila Stevenson’s books

Average rating: 3.28 · 830 ratings · 194 reviews · 4 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Latte Rebellion 3.24 avg rating — 606 ratings — published 2011 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Underneath 3.44 avg rating — 165 ratings — published 2013 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Truth Against the World 3.21 avg rating — 52 ratings — published 2014 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Keeping Track: Fiction of Lists by Yelizaveta P. Renfro (editor), Steve Edwards , Kathie Giorgio (Goodreads Author) 3.29 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2012	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

* Note: these are all the books on Goodreads for this author. To add more, click here.

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Sarah Jamila Stevenson's Blog: Finding Wonderland

Monday Review: NEVERWORLD WAKE by Marisha Pessl

Synopsis : It's Groundhog Day. Well, sort of. It's a lot less funny and a lot more scary, even when your four ex-best-friends are in it with you.

It's been a year since graduation; a year since Beatrice's boyfriend Jim died under mysterious circumstances deemed a suicide, with his body found in a quarry near their exclusive Darrow-Harker School. It's been almost that long since Beatrice has se... Read more of this blog post »

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Sarah is Currently Reading

Sarah is currently reading

Why We Dream: The Transformative Power of Our Nightly Journey

by Alice Robb (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading, nonfiction, psychology, science

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Dec 05, 2018 11:24PM

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Yr Ynys (Yma:)

by Lleucu Roberts

bookshelves: currently-reading, dystopian, welsh-language, ya

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Sep 16, 2018 10:18AM

Sarah is currently reading

The Kite and the String: How to Write with Spontaneity and Control--and Live to Tell the Tale

by Alice Mattison (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

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Jan 09, 2018 10:55AM

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Sarah is currently reading Why We Dream: The Transformative Power of Our Nightly Journey by Alice Robb (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Sarah marked as set-aside-still-on-radar A Higher Loyalty: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee in Best Memoir & Autobiography	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Sarah joined the group Cybils Awards
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