From: Susan Van Metre <svanmetre>
Date: Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:11:46 -0400

Hi all,

Thanks so much for this great topic! In a recent post on her blog for PW, Elizabeth Bluemle asks where are the fun, contemporary stories about black children. The same question can be asked about fun, contemporary books with Asian-American characters. The novels of Grace Lin and Lisa Yee come to mind. How about picture books?

I got the chance to publish a book this year, OPERATION REDWOOD By S. Terrell French, that is one of those great, middle grade adventure stories, about a group of kids who manage to save an ancient redwood grove from logging. The main, pov character is a half-Chinese boy, Julian Carter-Li, and something I loved about the book from the get go was that his race was NOT the focus of the story. Julian lives in San Francisco; his best friend is Latino. The two live in an incredibly diverse and colorful community, and reflect that diversity.

Let's hope books like OPERATION REDWOOD are part of growing trend toward children's books that reflect the many colors of our country and have fun doing so!

Susan

Susan Van Metre Associate Publisher ABRAMS | Amulet Books & Abrams Books for Young Readers 115 West 18th Street 6th Floor | New York, NY 10011 svanmetre at abramsbooks.com | www.abramsbooks.com


On 9/3/09 12:25 PM, "Megan Schliesman" <schliesman at education.wisc.edu> wrote:

> Here's what we'll be talking about this month on CCBC-Net. We invite you
> to continue to share announcments for the next day or so.
>
> *First Half September: New Asian/Pacific and Asian/Pacific American
> Children?s and Young Adult Literature. *In the past few years there?s
> been a welcome increase in the number of books reflecting Asian/Pacific
> and Asian/Pacific American experiences published for children and teens.
> (You can see the CCBC?s annual statistics on this and other dimensions
> of multicultural publishing at
> http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/books/pcstats.asp ). As with all
> multicultural publishing, the numbers are always relative?it?s still a
> shockingly small percentage of publishing overall-- but it?s exciting to
> see newer writers and artists for children and teens, such as Naomi
> Hirahara, Cynthia Kadohata, Suzy Lee, Moying Li, Kashmira Sheth, Gene
> Luen Yang, Paula Yoo, and others joining veterans such as Sheila
> Hamanaka, Yumi Heo, Mitali Perkins, Allen Say, Laurence Yep. . . (the
> list goes on), in creating books that speak to some of the many and
> varied dimensions of Asian/Pacific heritage in our nation and the world.
> During the first half of September on CCBC-Net, we?ll talk about
> Asian/Pacific literature for children and teens, from individual books,
> authors and artists to the importance of having an ever-growing body of
> engaging, culturally authentic books available for children and teens.
>
> *Second Half of September: Crossover Books, Part II. *We first visited
> the topic of crossover books?titles that are marketed to both children
> and adult audiences, in June 1999. That discussion was inspired in part
> by the ever-growing popularity of ?Harry Potter ,? which was already
> having noticeable crossover appeal. Today, it seems we think about
> crossover less in terms of marketing and more in terms of how the lines
> between children?s/young adult and adult literature are not always
> easily defined, at least when it comes to appeal. From ?The Book Thief?
> to ?American Born Chinese? to ?Twilight? and beyond, we?ll revisit the
> topic of ?crossover books? in light of the past ten years of publishing
> during the second half of September.
>
>
> Megan
>
Received on Thu 03 Sep 2009 12:11:46 PM CDT