Sunday, January 23, 2011
Across the Universe
Apparently traveling 300 years in a ship still does nothing for racial tolerance. As The Interrobangs Blog has pointed out. Elder has been photo-shopped very badly in an attempt to make him seem less ethnic. You can see pictures and everything by clicking on over.
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
THE Winners!
We have four winners, each one gets a $25 book giftcard. I'm jealous :DChristina
Muse
The Dirigible Plum
Katy
Again, my heartfelt thanks to all those who participated and wrote wrap-up posts. I had a great time reading them all (and even got a little choked up, no lie) and I highly encourage everyone to read them. It's amazing to read about people who went from only reading 1-3 books about poc to 15!
Happy, happy Martin Luther King Day!
My favorite quote of his that ends up applying quite well to this challenge: "Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity."
Winners you can email me or wait till I contact you (which should be in about 36 hours). Congratulations!!
Saturday, January 15, 2011
2011 Prize List
Everybody loves prizes and just like last year, this year we have some fabulous ones. I'm still working on the grand prize.If you're new to the challenge, how it works is that each month I draw a winner using Random.org and then that winner picks one book from the prize list. To be in the drawing you must remember to link up your reviews. If the book you pick is not able to be shipped to you because of it being international, we will try and work something else out.
*Note: Some of these books star main characters who are not poc BUT there is a secondary character of color who plays a huge role in the book.
Latte Rebellion swagA Spy in the House by Y.S. Lee (UK edition, open to U.S. & Canda only)
The Trouble With Half a Moon by Danette Vigilante (signed!)
Fury of the Phoenix by Cindy Pon
The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Stevenson (thank you so much Debbie!)
Half World by Hiromi Goto (signed!)
The Water of Possibility by Hiromi Goto (signed!)
Jazz in Love by Neesha Meminger (ebook)
Orange Mint and Honey by Carleen Brice
Lightborn: Seeing is Believing by Tricia Sullivan
The Dark Goddess by Sarwat Chadda (signed!)
Secret Keeper by Mitali Perkins
Douglass' Women by Jewell Parker Rhodes
Citizens of Nowhere: From Refugee Camp to Canadian Campus by Debi Goodwin (thank you so much for the donation Brandy!)
The following were donated by Tricia, thank you so much!
T
Thank you so much everyone for your generosity! Your support means more than I could ever say.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Diversity in YA Fiction Tour has some news for you!
Head on over to the Diversity in YA blog and find out who they are taking on tour with them! Dates for this tour will be coming soon and I for one being local to Cindy Pon and Malinda Lo hope to get to a few of the signings. I just looked at their list and seriously guys I am fangirling over here. If you care about diversity then please visit this blog and support the authors on tour. Here is some info from the Diversity website:
Diversity in YA Fiction is a website and book tour founded by two young adult authors, Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon, to celebrate diverse stories in YA.
DIYA is a positive, friendly gathering of readers and writers who want to see diversity in their fiction. We come from all walks of life and backgrounds, and we hope that you do, too. We encourage an attitude of openness and curiosity, and we welcome questions and discussion. Most of all, we can’t wait to have fun sharing some great books with you!
Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, will be published in April 2011. Visit her website at CindyPon.com.
Malinda Lo is the author of Ash (Little, Brown, 2009), which was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, and named one of the Kirkus Best Young Adult Novels of 2009. A companion novel to Ash, titled Huntress, will be published in April 2011. Visit her website at MalindaLo.com.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Elle Whitewashes beautiful Bollywood Actress
It's not just book publishers who sometimes get it wrong. Elle recently white washed the beautiful Bollywood Actress Aishwarya Rai Bachchan who is best known for being Miss World.What can we do? Visit Change.Org and signe the petition. Thanks to April at Good Books and Wine for tweeting this.
Here is some info from Change:
It looks like Elle had quite the white Christmas.
Bollywood actor and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is featured on the cover of Elle Magazine looking far paler than she is in real life. Most fans are up in arms and an appalled Ms. Bachchan is considering a lawsuit against the magazine.
Consumers have long been inundated with ads that use prominent Bollywood actors to promote skin-lightening products. In a country that produces gorgeous women of color, it is sad that Ms. Rai-Bachchan, who is relatively light-skinned, is one of the very few with some cross-over appeal. To see magazines like Elle further enforce the color hierarchy of crossover appeal by making Aishwarya appear lighter-skinned is a slap in the face.
This is the second racial debacle surrounding Elle. The American version was criticized for its October 2010 issue, which featured actress Gabourey Sidibeon on one of its four celebrity covers with noticeably lighter skin than her natural complexion.
Lets tell Elle Magazine to make a commitment to moving away from using white as a standard for beauty, and demand a public statement and apology.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Diversify Your Reading blog
Just a quick blog note to bring some attention to a great site called Diversify Your Reading. It is a place to find "blog reviews of books by authors underrepresented in English-language publishing today." The site has a list of categories on the right side that includes "Indigenous Authors," "African Authors," "Asian Authors," and more.
I bring up this site because it is not only a great resource for participants in this challenge who are looking for some book recommendations, but also because it is another place where you can link up your reviews of books by authors of color that you have read for this challenge.
(And another quick reminder: if you participated in the 2010 POC Reading Challenge, you must write up a wrap-up post and link it up here by January 14th 11:59 PM CT to be eligible for the grand prize gift cards!).
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Spotlight: Illegal by Bettina Restrepo
A promise.Quinceañera.
A promise that we would be together on my fifteenth birthday . . .
Instead, Nora is on a desperate journey far away from home. When her father leaves their beloved Mexico in search of work, Nora stays behind. She fights to make sense of her loss while living in poverty—waiting for her father's return and a better day. When the letters and money stop coming, Nora decides that she and her mother must look for him in Texas. After a frightening experience crossing the border, the two are all alone in a strange place. Now, Nora must find the strength to survive while aching for small comforts: friends, a new school, and her precious quinceañera.
Bettina Restrepo's gripping, deeply hopeful debut novel captures the challenges of one girl's unique yet universal immigrant experience.
I am so excited for this book. As far as my limited knowledge goes there are no books for young people that detail or explain the crossing over from Mexico into America. This is a subject that I am dying to know more about and I think this book will be fabulous. It comes out in March and I hope to see it on the review link ups in March and April.
Bettina Restrepo received a BS from the University of Texas at Austin and is the author of a picture book, Moose and Magpie. She worked as an internal auditor in the Hispanic supermarket Fiesta Mart, which is portrayed in this book. There she examined firsthand the challenges in the nuances of life for illegal immigrants. Bettina lives with her family in Frisco, Texas, and is the daughter of Colombian and German immigrants. Author Website
Wednesday, January 5, 2011
December winner + Grand Prize Giftcards
Our December and last (but surely not least) winner for December isTarie!!
The review chosen was Tarie's Gay-Neck: The Story of a Pigeon by Dhan Gopal Mukerjii. I detest pigeons but Tarie claims the author makes birds fascinating....
Tarie, feel free to email me or you can wait for me to email you in about 48 hours. Everyone else, thank you so much for entering the poc reading challenge! It means a lot to me personally that so many people supported this challenge and I'm honored (and ecstatic) to be a part of it.
If you didn't win in 2010, cheer up not only could you win in 2011 by signing up to do the challenge again but you could 1 of our 4 grand prizes! Thanks to the amazing Carol at RiF (Reading is Fundamental) we have four giftcards. 2 for Borders and 2 for Barnes & Noble, each one is worth $25. I don't know how we are going to top that in 2011, but ah well :)
To win all you have to do is WRITE YOUR WRAP UP POST. And don't forget to link it up here. I really want to see if people met their goal, exceeded it or maybe need to do a bit better. So help me out. I'm giving everyone about a week (because I'm nice and I have finals next week haha) so please, please have your post written and linked up by January 14th 11:59 PM CT.
Oh and I love getting emails letting me know you received your prize (if you haven't emailed me already). Just sayin ;)
Sunday, January 2, 2011
January 2011 Review Link-Ups!
This is the POC Reading Challenge Review Link-Up for January. Enter the direct link to your reviews, not to the main page of your blog. We'd like to be able to find your review directly through the link and not have to look for it. Thanks for participating!
Happy New Year, and happy reading!
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