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melbsreads's review against another edition
3.5
Trigger warnings: mentions of bullying, family separation, mental health. That covers the essay sections. Also trigger warnings for basically anything you can think of in the descriptions of the 500 books this mentions.
I read this for work and I've come out the other side with a list of dozens of books I'd never heard of to chase down and read that sounded fantastic, so reading it was definitely a positive experience. I also appreciated that the vast majority of the books in here were published between 2013 and 2018, because so often books like this get hung up on recommending old school YA like Judy Blume or The Summer of My German Soldier. This was very current - I think the oldest book I saw mentioned was from 2009.
But I do have four criticisms of this book:
1. Almost every book in here is a contemporary story. And, like, sure, that's where you find the majority of diverse representation. But I'm not entirely sure why genre fiction was almost entirely excluded (I think there were half a dozen dystopian books mentioned and one fantasy book) when you're trying to do something as comprehensive as this was.
2. It's very VERY American. And I get it - the author is American, she's writing about what she knows. There were...three? Four??...Australian YA books that I noticed, but I don't think I saw any UK YA in here, let alone Canadian, New Zealand or translated from elsewhere in the world. And frankly, that's slightly disappointing to me because there are so many amazing YA books that can ignite empathy and self-acceptance in American teens, but they don't get the chance to do it because they're not given big marketing strategies.
3. There weren't a lot of joyful stories in here. I get that Hart was trying to round up as many diverse stories as she could, but I reached the point where if I read one more blurb about a kid escaping from abuse or whose parents were manufacturing meth or whose sister had died of a heroin overdose, I was going to scream. Diverse kids don't just need to see themselves represented in fiction, they need to see themselves in JOYFUL stories. And white, straight, able-bodied, neurotypical kids need to realise that diverse kids can be the protagonists of joyful stories too.
4.Own Voices. Hart mentions the Own Voices movement in one of the introductory essays, but there's no indication of which books are Own Voices and which aren't. And, like, I understand that that information isn't always easy to find. I understand that particularly in the chapters on, say, homelessness or religion, it's harder than usual to find out if it's an Own Voices story. But even if it had been mentioned which stories were Own Voices where she'd been able to find out that information, it would have been helpful.
So on the whole, I'm glad I read this and it's given me plenty of ideas. But it could have been even more useful than it currently is.
(Also, I would have loved to see Indigenous and First Nations stories as a separate chapter rather than mixed in with stories about race and ethnicity...)
I read this for work and I've come out the other side with a list of dozens of books I'd never heard of to chase down and read that sounded fantastic, so reading it was definitely a positive experience. I also appreciated that the vast majority of the books in here were published between 2013 and 2018, because so often books like this get hung up on recommending old school YA like Judy Blume or The Summer of My German Soldier. This was very current - I think the oldest book I saw mentioned was from 2009.
But I do have four criticisms of this book:
1. Almost every book in here is a contemporary story. And, like, sure, that's where you find the majority of diverse representation. But I'm not entirely sure why genre fiction was almost entirely excluded (I think there were half a dozen dystopian books mentioned and one fantasy book) when you're trying to do something as comprehensive as this was.
2. It's very VERY American. And I get it - the author is American, she's writing about what she knows. There were...three? Four??...Australian YA books that I noticed, but I don't think I saw any UK YA in here, let alone Canadian, New Zealand or translated from elsewhere in the world. And frankly, that's slightly disappointing to me because there are so many amazing YA books that can ignite empathy and self-acceptance in American teens, but they don't get the chance to do it because they're not given big marketing strategies.
3. There weren't a lot of joyful stories in here. I get that Hart was trying to round up as many diverse stories as she could, but I reached the point where if I read one more blurb about a kid escaping from abuse or whose parents were manufacturing meth or whose sister had died of a heroin overdose, I was going to scream. Diverse kids don't just need to see themselves represented in fiction, they need to see themselves in JOYFUL stories. And white, straight, able-bodied, neurotypical kids need to realise that diverse kids can be the protagonists of joyful stories too.
4.Own Voices. Hart mentions the Own Voices movement in one of the introductory essays, but there's no indication of which books are Own Voices and which aren't. And, like, I understand that that information isn't always easy to find. I understand that particularly in the chapters on, say, homelessness or religion, it's harder than usual to find out if it's an Own Voices story. But even if it had been mentioned which stories were Own Voices where she'd been able to find out that information, it would have been helpful.
So on the whole, I'm glad I read this and it's given me plenty of ideas. But it could have been even more useful than it currently is.
(Also, I would have loved to see Indigenous and First Nations stories as a separate chapter rather than mixed in with stories about race and ethnicity...)
rea_scott's review
3.0
A good resource. Nicely curated book lists by age and topic.
I'm going to keep this handy for those "do you have a book about..." questions.
I'm going to keep this handy for those "do you have a book about..." questions.
kmdegarmo's review against another edition
3.0
I enjoyed reading about the different books for each topic. I was disappointed by some of the books being included multiple times in different sections. While I get that, it was kind of annoying reading about the same books multiple times. Anyway, it’s a good resource for books for teens and preteens.
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