This month, Kate and Darran recommend great YA books by BAME authors, and chat about the politics behind why it’s important. It’s a bit of a political episode, as it goes, given recent events around the tragic deaths of Alton Sterling, Philandro Castile and the following protests in the US, and the rise in incidents of racist abuse in the UK following the EU referendum. We wanted to use the platform we have to champion BAME authors, and some books which have BAME characters as part of a realistic diverse cast. If you click ‘read more’, you can listen, click through to buy any of the books we mention, and there are some other positive actions you can take too.
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Some of the books we recommended this week are:
- Noughts and Crosses, and Chasing The Stars by Malorie Blackman
- Heart Shaped Bruise, and Follow Me Down by Tanya Byrne
- Remix by Non Pratt
- Cruel Summer, and All of the Above by Juno Dawson
- The Skyscraper Throne Trilogy (The City’s Son, The Glass Republic and Our Lady of the Streets) by Tom Pollock
- Gone by Michael Grant
- Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton
- Sorcerer To The Crown by Zen Cho – this is the one we couldn’t remember!
- The Iron Fey series, and the Talon series by Julie Kagawa
- The Legend series by Marie Lu
- The Elites by Natasha Ngan
- PS. I Still Love You, and To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han
- Orangeboy by Patrice Lawrence
- The Bone Sparrow by Zana Fraillon
- The Girl Who Beat ISIS by Farida Khalaf
- Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
If you feel like you want to *do* something, here are some ideas:
Pledge to The Good Immigrant
The Good Immigrant is a collection of pieces of writing on the theme of being an immigrant by BAME authors, published by Unbound. It’s been 100% funded but by pledging, you can preorder your copy and fund things like a schools and libraries tour to help raise awareness of the book and its message.
Preorder a copy of Here I Stand
Here I Stand is a ‘…thought-provoking collection of short stories and poems exploring the rights and freedoms we can enjoy in the twenty-first century … and those for which we still need to fight.
A selection of the world’s finest writers for young people – in conjunction with Amnesty International UK – explore the rights and freedoms still lacking in today’s society, covering issues such as gender equality, race hatred, surveillance, identity and freedom of speech. Contributors include: John Boyne, Sita Brahmachari, Sarah Crossan, Neil Gaiman, Frances Hardinge, Liz Kessler, Elizabeth Laird, Sabrina Mahfouz, Chelsea Manning, Chibundu Onuzo, Bali Rai, Chris Riddell, Mary and Brian Talbot, Christie Watson and Tim Wynne-Jones.’
All royalties from sales go to Amnesty International.
If you’re in the UK and concerned about the rise in incidents of racist abuse in the last few weeks, take a look at the Amnesty International #AgainstHate campaign, which allows you to email your local councillors to call their attention to the issue and ask them to take action.
You can find Darran on Twitter at @shinraalpha, and on YouTube by searching for the same thing, and you can find Kate on Twitter and Instagram @magic_kitten.
See you next month x
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Episode 17. Hosted by Kate Neilan and Darran Stobbart. An Adventures With Words production.