"Hmm, another Asian guy," he said.
In the interest of avoiding total capitalization and sounding like a nutcase, I'm just going to say: You guys, you know what this MEANS? It means that readers notice when a cover image is racially or ethnically accurate to the story, and that POC readers are intrigued by and perhaps even drawn to books featuring characters of their own race or ethnicity.
This is so COOL.
Hear that, publishers?
And you can see the two covers my brother paused on below. Kudos to the authors for writing books featuring Asian male protagonists, and the publishers for accurately depicting them on the cover:
(Now that my college semester is finished, and because I was unable to celebrate APIA Month very much, the rest of May is tentatively POC Review Month. I will be reading my review books that feature POC. I don't know whether I'll be posting reviews of them this month, as I'm pretty backed up on review-posting already, but I just wanted to let you know that's what this month's review theme is for me. Read on!)
Haha, I know it!
ReplyDeleteI'm, for the most part, Korean... :)
Love, Hannah
It's kind of hard looking for books that are racially different, I'm Indian and most books out there are not, so it's like, magical if I find one :D
ReplyDeleteThis is why I heart you, for raising awareness of things like this. You are amazing, thanks for using your influence in the blogosphere to mention PoC covers :-)
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ReplyDeleteLove this post :)
ReplyDeleteAnd looking forward to POC review month!
See? Publishers should see this. I actually find it a lot more engaging when I see a POC on a cover, because it promises that I am going to see something new.
ReplyDeleteAnd Kirthi, I didn't know you were Indian! Try Tiger Moon. That one is based in India. And Toads and Diamonds that just came out. There was one I saw at the library yesterday... and one my Lloyd Alexander... The Iron Ring, I think. :)
Glad this is a POC month for you! I should do another one soon.
AWESOME post. POC covers make me respect publishers more.
ReplyDeleteGreat post! As the mom of biracial kiddos I would LOVE to see more books with POC for both the YA and children genres. Listen up publishers!
ReplyDeleteI knew it! And as a teacher I want them accurate so my students can find books that show their lives!
ReplyDeleteI love you for posting about this and being so excited :)
ReplyDeleteI'm looking forward to reading Escaping the Tiger and Operation Redwood. I'm using May to catch up on all the books in my tbr pile that feature a protagonist who is Asian. I was just noticing the lack of male Asian YA books I own or have heard of so I hope to see more of those.
So anyway, hooray for this post!
You rock, Steph.
ReplyDeleteWord to that. A couple of years ago, this cover for Powers by Ursula LeGuin made me unspeakably happy. He's gorgeous! And so much more interesting than the bland white guy they had on it originally! I do not understand why publishers are so scared of diversity on covers, especially when (as in LeGuin's case) the books plainly describe their protagonists as being non-white.
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