Books for African American Teens
Publishers are finally taking notice that not only white teens read. African American teens read, Asian teens read, Hispanic teens read. And, what is spectacular is that publishers are actually listening to authors.
This past August we hosted a giveaway from a publishing house called Just Us Books, an African American publisher that focuses on bringing AA culture to children. Last week, Publisher’s Weekly focused in on their dedication to cultural heritage.
“It’s important that young people have books to read that resonate and are age-appropriate,” says Selena James, who helped to launch Pocket Books’ YA African-American program in 2006 before landing her current job as executive editor at Kensington’s Dafina imprint. “So many young people are reading [adult authors] like Zane and Eric Jerome Dickey. We need to provide young people with stories that are toned down but still resemble them and their experiences.”
What is important for parents and teachers to know is that there are plenty of books available now. Walter Dean Myers, Jacqueline Woodson, Blair R. Poole, the Kimani Tru Series by different authors and L. Divine.
Yet, when I search sites like Amazon I still can not find a multitude of good YA literature in this genre. I still find nonfiction. So is Amazon simply not recognizing this genre?
Related posts:
