Top Ten Tuesday: Celebrating Diversity

Top Ten Tuesday is a fantastic meme hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This is my first time participating, and I am really excited about it. 

Prompt: Ten Books That Celebrate Diversity/Diverse Characters

Books (and life) without diversity would be so boring. Diversity makes things fun and exciting and weird (in a good way), and when you're exposed to different things and characters and stories, you learn so much more about perspective and compassion. My favorite books to read are the ones told from the point of view of someone that's different than everyone else around them. Whether it be LGBTQ, mental illness, physical deformities, etc, etc, I love learning about it. It expands my view of the world around me, and I learn that my life is so small compared to thousands and thousands others out there with their own problems and their own lives. These books taught me things I never would've known about before and have helped me celebrate diversity.



1. Shabanu (Shabanu #1) by Suzanna Fisher Staples: I read this book about four years ago, but I still think about it. Told in the setting of Pakistan, Shabanu taught me about the Muslim culture, and what it would be like to grow up in world where I would have very little of the rights I have today.

Life is both sweet and cruel to strong-willed young Shabanu, whose home is the windswept Cholistan Desert of Pakistan. The second daughter in a family with no sons, she' s been allowed freedoms forbidden to most Muslim girls. But when a tragic encounter with a wealthy and powerful landowner ruins the marriage plans of her older sister, Shabanu is called upon to sacrifice everything she' s dreamed of. Should she do what is necessary to uphold her family' s honor-- or listen to the stirrings of her own heart?

2. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz: This was my first LGBT book, and I didn't even know it until about half-way through. I was surprised, but not in a bad way. It's sweet and hopeful, and the writing is beautiful. 

3. Say What You Will by Cammie McGovern: What book would be more perfect for Celebrating Diversity than a love story between a boy with crippling OCD and a girl with cerebral palsy? Unique in it's own right, this book will teach you the difficulties of living with both mental and physical disabilities.


4. I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson: Three words: 2015 Printz Winner. This book is so great, so pure, and so meaningful. I would recommend it to anyone.

Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways . . . until Jude meets a cocky, broken, beautiful boy, as well as someone else—an even more unpredictable new force in her life. The early years are Noah's story to tell. The later years are Jude's. What the twins don't realize is that they each have only half the story, and if they could just find their way back to one another, they’d have a chance to remake their world.

This radiant novel from the acclaimed, award-winning author of The Sky Is Everywhere will leave you breathless and teary and laughing—often all at once.My Review

5. Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson: A memoir written in verse, this thoughtful novel tells the personal story of growing up in the middle of the Civil Rights movement. Culture and acceptance play a major role in Woodson's intimate history.

Raised in South Carolina and New York, Woodson always felt halfway home in each place. In vivid poems, she shares what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement. Touching and powerful, each poem is both accessible and emotionally charged, each line a glimpse into a child’s soul as she searches for her place in the world. Woodson’s eloquent poetry also reflects the joy of finding her voice through writing stories, despite the fact that she struggled with reading as a child. Her love of stories inspired her and stayed with her, creating the first sparks of the gifted writer she was to become.

6. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie: A novel filled with growing pains and finding out who you are, The Absolute True Diary tells a story of both embracing and escaping your roots. It's told from the point of view of tender, innocent adolescence and can teach everyone a thing or two about growing up in one community and striving to succeed in another.

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author's own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character's art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

With a forward by Markus Zusak, interviews with Sherman Alexie and Ellen Forney, and four-color interior art throughout, this edition is perfect for fans and collectors alike.

7. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon: This book blew my mind. More than once. I've never read anything like it. The point of view is from a boy with autism, one of the most misunderstood mental disabilities. To be inside a mind as complex as this one was incredible.



8. All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven: Many have noticed the growing popularity of books about suicide and depression in the YA book world, and All the Bright Places was one of the first. I loved it, and I am so glad I got the opportunity to read it. Influenced by the author's own memories, I consider this story as one of the most brave and unapologetic I have ever read.



9. Caminar by Skila Brown: Few books in the middle grade and young adult levels ever talk about the events of the Guatemalan civil war, and even fewer do it with verse. This one is one of the very few.



10. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: One of the reason why I think so many people love this book is because everyone, on one level or another, is a wallflower. They relate to Charlie's unique voice, and therefore, relate to Chbosky's writing on a very deep level. This book deals with a myriad of characters with different backgrounds and personalities, which is why I feel is deserves a spot of a list meant to celebrate diversity.



Which books do you think celebrate diversity?

Caminar Review

Caminar by Skila Brown

Title: Caminar

Author: Skila Brown

Series: None

Publisher: Candlewick Press

Publication Date: March 25, 2014

Genre: Poetry; Historical Fiction; Young Adult

Pages: 208

Format: Hardback

goodreads

Carlos knows that when the soldiers arrive with warnings about the Communist rebels, it is time to be a man and defend the village, keep everyone safe. But Mama tells him not yet — he’s still her quiet moonfaced boy. The soldiers laugh at the villagers, and before they move on, a neighbor is found dangling from a tree, a sign on his neck: Communist. Mama tells Carlos to run and hide, then try to find her. . . . Numb and alone, he must join a band of guerillas as they trek to the top of the mountain where Carlos’s abuela lives. Will he be in time, and brave enough, to warn them about the soldiers? What will he do then? A novel in verse inspired by actual events during Guatemala’s civil war, Caminar is the moving story of a boy who loses nearly everything before discovering who he really is.

“Forest sounds/all around/but on the ground/ the sound/ of Me/ grew. Echoed, / I heard a path I could not see.”

I have wanted to read this book for a very long time. I was even more excited to read it when I opened the first page and found a poem staring at me. I hadn't known until that moment that this book was written entirely in free verse poetry. The only other book that I have ever read in free verse poetry is Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse about the Great Depression. And, just like Out of the Dust, I thought this book was fantastic.

Poetry, to me, is more than written words on a page telling a story. It is an art form, really. It weaves words into beautiful lyrical songs and forms intricate art with the placement of the black ink on the page. While sentences in story books are coherent and structured, a poem’s verses mostly resemble the thoughts that run through our minds. They are ambiguous and hard to understand and difficult to interpret. They mean different things to different people with different minds. They are a stream of consciousness that transports you not just into the world of the book but also into the minds of characters. Poetry done right is a beautiful, wonderful thing.

“I could not see/ up. Could not see/ down. I/ could only see/ what was right in front of me.”

Caminar, which mean “to walk” in Spanish, is about a young boy yearning to become a man, when disaster strikes in his village in Guatemala. This story is not only about the horrible war in Guatemala, but also about a boy struggling to walk the path into manhood. Brown uses intriguing styles of writing to ensnare the reader into a story both breathless and surreal.

This book inspired me on so many levels. I knew little about the civil war in Guatemala until I read this book. It was mind-opening to read about it from a young boy’s point of view. While I was reading Caminar, I was not just reading Carlos’s thoughts, I was thinking them, living them. In a way the book ended too soon. It left me wanting more.

I enjoyed this book immensely. Caminar is an excellent short read that taught me many things. I loved the poetry in it, and the way the words created art on the pages. I enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone willing to read a short poetic story about the horrible and terrific happenings in Guatemala. This book is officially being shelved as one of the greats.

“When you open the door to hate, you will find/ it swallows you whole/ and there is no/ life left inside.”