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March 27, 2005
Where The Boys At?
Note: Some of this discussion is from the comments on my last post about Mitali Perkins' The Not-So Star-Spangled Life of Sunita Sen, but I thought it'd make an interesting discussion, so I pulled it out to the main blog...
I've been putting together a annotated bibliography of South Asian/SA Diaspora children's books. In the YA category, I have compiled twenty-four (24) books. Of those, 10-11 are contemporary novels written by South Asian writers. Not many, eh? The rest are a mix: SA YA lit by non-South Asian writers (which is relevent, but these books are all historical fiction and frequently about forced arranged marriages), fantasy, chicklit (i.e. Bindi Babes) and series (i.e. Neela: Victory Song, Jahanara: Princess of Princesses).
What's even more interesting: I can't find any "boy" books! (The reason this is so relevent is because any teacher/librarian/parent will tell you that girls read books about boys, but boys don't read books about girls.)
Sure, we have great 'crossover' titles like Harun and the Sea of Stories and Funny Boy which work for both boys and girls. In my preliminary research, I could only find one (forthcoming) novel for young SA boys, Lowji Discovers America by Candace Fleming. Here's the flap copy:
Dear Jamshed,
America is not so different from what we thought. I told you I wouldn't see a single cowboy riding across the plain, and I haven't.
I have not even seen a plain.
Still, there are some silver linings. They are:
- Trapper and King, the cat and dog who live in the apartment building. They are cuddly and waggy. I am not allowed to play with them, though, becayse they are supposed to catch mice and keep burglars away.
- Ironman. He owns a pig and talks to me a lot. But he is a grown-up.
- Kids. I can hear them playing outside. Too bad they do not want to play with me.
I wish you were here. Do you wish I was in India? Write back soon.
Your friend, Lowji
If there's any one out there that's writing South Asian YA lit for boys, I'd love to hear about it.
Posted by Pooja Makhijani at March 27, 2005 02:07 PM
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Posted by: Anonymous at March 27, 2005 02:07 PM
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