Chimamanda Adichie's Ted Talk on the danger of a single story hit home in unexpected ways for me. Adichie talks about how her early experiences reading books about white people influenced the way she saw the world to such an extent, she realized that she didn't think that people of color like herself could exist in literature. As a child of mixed Asian heritage, Chinese and Thai, I remember reading entire series of Sweet Valley Twins and Sweet Valley High and dreamed of being 5'6'', blond and size 6. I loved that series and read it compulsively but it had an effect on me. I couldn't envision myself among Jessica and Elizabeth and their friends. I didn't see how I fit in. I remember my fourth grade teacher reading Yoshiko Uchida's Journey to Topaz aloud to our class. It was a book about a Japanese family first interned at the Tanforan race track and later out in the desert in Utah. I was moved by this text because my white, strict and stern teacher, Ms. Henry, cried inconsolably while reading it aloud. How could this mean woman who would throw your desk over if it was out of order be so moved by a girl who looked a little like me? I became obsessed with Yoshiko Uchida reading Journey Home and Picture Bride at an early age over and over. In 6th grade, I chose to do my research project on Japanese Internment. It had been two years and I was still addicted to studying Japanese Americans even though I wasn't Japanese. And in retrospect, I really think it was because the Japanese looked a little like me. I was still reading Sweet Valley books but Uchida opened my eyes.
When I read about Asians, I often times read about their struggles in history: Ruthanne Lum McCunn's Thousand Pieces of Gold and Laurence Yep's Golden Mountain Chronicle series. I appreciate learning about my Chinese American history through literature. I still am hoping to find a book about Thai American or a mixed Chinese-Thai American teen growing up in literature. (Maybe I need to write it.) But what I really crave is reading a book that isn't necessarily about my ancestors or my history but just someone who looks like me as the protagonist of a young adult book. I want to see myself normalized in literature. I want students to see themselves represented in many stories. And while some of the books may focus on their identity, for most, I just hope people of all colors are characters in there. I loved that Park of Eleanor and Park was Korean and the book wasn't about him being Korean and that DJ, Jam's roommate in Meg Wolitzer's newest Belzhar is multiracial and gay.
I also realize that as a middle school librarian, books with these characters need to be facing out on shelves and highly book talked. Kids don't need help finding the newest Rick Riordan, Sarah Dessen or Rachel Renée Russell, but they might need help finding Jewell Parker Rhodes, Sherman Alexie and Paolo Bacigalupi (almost all of his characters are people of color! Yes, children of color like to fight zombies too!). That is my job as a librarian to read these books and show them to students so that all students have the opportunity to find themselves in books that act as mirrors and learn about those who are different from them in books that act like windows. And in doing so, the result should be more compassionate and accepting young adults who appreciate themselves and are curious to learn about those around them.
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