We Need Diverse Books: Novels that Get Representation Right

Throughout October, we’ll be partnering with We Need Diverse Books to bring you a series of blog posts full of helpful advice, tips, and suggestions for writing diversity convincingly and respectfully in your fiction—from people who know what they’re talking about. Today, Aisha Saeed spotlights great diverse books, and what you can learn from them:

With all the important conversations about diversity happening among readers, writers, and the publishing industry, the number one question most authors have is: how can I write diversity—and do it right—without falling back on tired tropes and stereotypes?

While there are many ways to prepare before diving into writing diverse characters, one of the best methods is to read the works of authors who have written such books successfully. Below are five books that feature diverse characters. Some are written by diverse authors, some are by people writing from outside their experiences, but all are done fairly and respectfully:

Borderline by Allan Stratton

What It’s About: Stratton writes from outside of his experiences in this tale of an Iranian-American teen whose father is accused of being a terrorist, and does it exceptionally well.

How It Gets Representation Right: On its face, a story about Muslims and terrorism could be rife with stereotypes. Allan takes care to create characters who are not defined by one aspect of who they are, and so the story and the people contained within are written in a genuine and well-rounded manner.

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

What It’s About: A memoir in prose about the childhood of the iconic author Jacqueline Woodson. This book gives writers insight into how an author writes their personal experience of diversity onto the page.

How It Gets Representation Right: While the memoir does deal with matters of race and racism, Woodson creates a fully complete and complex world in which she is not reduced to the racist instances of her childhood but that instead reflects the fullness of her humanity.

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han

What It’s About: A coming-of-age story about a teen figuring out first love and her place in her family after her oldest sister goes away to college.

How It Gets Representation Right: While the main character is half Korean, and the author does highlight and honor her culture, Han also makes sure that nothing about this story exoticizes  the main character’s ethnic background.

Into the Beautiful North by Luis Alberto Urrea

What It’s About: The journey of a group of teens heading into the United States from Mexico.

How It Gets Representation Right: A book like this could have many problematic aspects, but because Urrea paints each character vividly and with nuance none of them could ever be seen as anything but as depictions of fully realized human beings.  

The Night Watch by Sarah Waters.

What It’s About: A gorgeous historical novel trailing the lives of four Londoners—three women and a young man with a past—whose lives change irreversibly in the shadow of a grand historical event.

How It Gets Representation Right: Waters writes this lovely story featuring LGBTQ characters in a manner that allows us to immediately connect with them through universal emotions that result from love and loss.

Aisha Saeed is VP of strategy for We Need Diverse Books™ and author of the upcoming Written In the Stars .

She wrote her very first novel thanks to the inspiration of NaNoWriMo. You can follow her on Twitter here.

We Need Diverse Books (WNDB) is a grassroots nonprofit organization created to address the lack of diverse, non-majority narratives in children’s literature.  WNDB is committed to the ideal that embracing diversity will lead to acceptance, empathy, and ultimately equality.

In October, the group will be launching its inaugural Indiegogo campaign to support its future initiatives, including a Diversity in the Classroom program, diverse author grants and awards, and the first ever Diversity Festival in 2016. Volunteer & sign up for its mailing list at diversebooks.org, or follow WNDB on Twitter, Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram!

Top image courtesy of Wikimedia and Rebecca King.