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Guest Post
Amber Hart
We Need Diverse Books
You know those books
that pull you under flash-flood fast? Out of nowhere you’re submerged, and
truth be told, you’re not even trying to come up for air. We all love books
like that. Hook. Line. Sinker. One page turns into two pages turns into a novel
that’s been devoured with a hungry heart because these books are MAGIC.
Part of the magic is due to the fact that we can see ourselves
there. No matter the genre, the book grabs hold with a vise grip and there is
no escaping the way it changes your life.
Now what if those books disappeared?
Would you be crushed? Lost? Dazed and confused? I know I would be.
Or better yet, what if those books—the ones you love with all your soul, the
ones you relate to on a personal level—weren’t available to
you? Or what if they never existed? Just what if you were a
part of the minority who isn’t a white lead character (and maybe you are), what
then? I cannot imagine not seeing myself in books, not being
able to relate to the characters, not feeling the powerful hold as I dive head
first into a world of words.
But it happens every day.
How many books feature white American MC’s? While that’s great in
some cases, I can’t help but ask:What about all the other people of the
world?
Where
is the diversity?
Figurative classroom. Roll call time. Who here is white American?
Who here is not? If you look closely, you’ll see that many people fit the “not”
category. Where are their books? Where is their
culture/background/ethnicity/skin tone/customs? I fear that the people who don’t see themselves in books will
become the people who don’t read books. And it’s not just them. What about the white Americans who
want to broaden their world knowledge? Or what about the people who want to
read combined cultures?
Fact: I like to read different things. Makes it fun. Keeps it
interesting. I get bored easily, so this is a must. I don’t always want to read
about Americans like me. I would like to read about someone like my son, who is
mixed race, or my husband, who is not American. I am not the only one who feels
like this. Do you feel it too? The itch in your fingertips to
turn pages that weave layers of diversity. I want to read more diverse
characters like Allison Sekemoto, an Asian vampire in Julie Kagawa’s Blood
of Eden series, or Shy Espinoza, a Mexican-American in Matt de la
Peña’s The Living, or Park, an Asian-American in Rainbow
Rowell’s Eleanor and Park, to name a few. But that’s just it. There
are only a few books like this in Young Adult literature.
We need diverse books, people.
As a writer, and as a mother of a mixed-race child, and as a wife
of a non-American, and as a human being, I feel a calling to shine my
flashlight on the need for diverse books. But I’m only one person. Won’t you
join me?
How you can make a difference:
Buy diverse books. Hashtag #WeNeedDiverseBooks in a campaign to
call more diverse novels to light. Help kick-start a movement. Because that guy
with a different skin tone than yours deserves to feel like a hero, too. So
does the girl with an accent, and the child who is growing up in a world where
they want to feel a sense of belonging. Or maybe even for the reader
who wants to see something different than the norm. As a
matter of fact, diversity should BE the norm. What a beautifully colorful
literary concept.
I want people who see themselves in books to become people
who write books and share books and spread the love of literature around the
world. We can do it. And by we, I mean me. And by we, I
mean you.
Post by
Amber Hart, author of diverse books.
You can read more about
her Before & After (Latino-American) young adult series, and her Until You
Find Me (African-American) new adult series below.
Before You (book 1): edgy contemporary YA romance set in Central
Florida, about the forbidden love between a "good girl" with a secret
past, and a Cuban boy on the run from his own demons.
Until You Find Me (book 1): new adult romantic thriller in which a young woman travels
to the exotic rainforest of Cameroon, Africa, following the death of her
father, a gorilla activist, and falls for a mysterious young man who turns out
to be the heir to a poaching empire.
Full Synopsis
Until You Find Me by Amber Hart
“Amber Hart pushes
contemporary romance to its wildest limits in this heart-pounding novel, the
story of a girl who travels to Africa to protect the legacy of one man . . .
and stays for the love of another.”
Raven Moore, a
twenty-year-old college student from Michigan, feels out of place in the beautiful,
treacherous jungles of Cameroon, staying in the habitat where her father gave
his life to help protect endangered gorillas. He left home years ago; now Raven
refuses to return home until she unravels the truth about his last days.
Raven certainly doesn’t
count on crossing paths with a handsome young African hunter—especially one as
charismatic and intense as Jospin Tondjii. Instantly, she’s hooked. But Jospin
is hiding a dark truth: He is the heir to a powerful poaching empire, part of a
ruthless black market that is responsible for the dwindling gorilla population.
Their fathers may have
been enemies, but Raven and Jospin forge a bond that goes beyond blood, a
relationship that is tested as Raven draws closer to the source of her father’s
death. Can she and Jospin bear the weight of the secrets of the wild—and the
secrets of their pasts? Or will the rain forest destroy them both?
