Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Things On Our Reading Wishlist
- Disabilities (other than Autism Spectrum)
There are so many titles with characters on the Autism Spectrum, which I think is valuable, but there are so many other disabilities that can be portrayed and these books are not always easy to find. - “Lighter” teen fiction
I was the “good kid” in high school and didn’t enjoy reading the really heavy and dark material in the young adult department, I’m still not a huge fan of books that deal with such heavy topics in YA lit, probably because the story is too real. At least in middle grade, heavy topics are dealt with and usually have an underlying sliver of hope (which I cling to with a very strong grip) I’ll take Sarah Dessen’s work any day – dealing with heavy topics, but still a little on the lighter side. - Biracial characters
My boyfriend is biracial and although I’ve asked him about whether or not he missed seeing characters that looked like him in literature when he was young, it’s hard enough to find characters that aren’t white, let alone characters who are Black & Hispanic, Asian & Black, etc. - Magical Realism
I absolutely adored A Snicker of Magic by Natalie Lloyd and loved the sprinkle of magic in a very realistic setting. Whenever I can get a little magic, it’s just the right amount! - Diversity in Fantasy & Science Fiction
Diversity in realistic fiction has its own difficulties, don’t even try to find diversity in Fantasy and Science Fiction, it’s even more difficult! Shadowshaper by Daniel José Older and a few characters in the popular Hunger Games trilogy are specifically described as not being white, but without it being stated in the text, many people will read characters as white. - Modern Fairy Tales
Can anyone say The Secret of Dreadwillow Carse by Brian Farrey or The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill? These are amazing modern fairytales, not retellings of a story we already know, but a brand-new story and I love them! - Sports stories with female protagonists
There are some solid sports middle grade fiction with male protagonists like Ghost by Jason Reynolds and Booked by Kwame Alexander and while I Loved (with a capital L) these books, I’d love to see strong female athletes as this is a group of kids who are sometimes reluctant readers and it can be difficult to find something they can relate to. - Individual stories that converge at the end
The easiest example of this concept is Echo by Pam Muñoz Ryan, where three seemingly separate stories are connected through the harmonica and in the end all the stories combine and get interwoven together. - Historical fiction for middle grade readers
I love historical fiction (always have), so things like The Great Trouble: A Mystery of London, the Blue Death, and a Boy Called Eel by Deborah Hopkinson, Stella by Starlight by Sharon M. Draper and The Marvels by Brian Selznick are some of my favorite reads! - Diversity without screaming “THIS IS A DIVERSE BOOK”
Always on the lookout for the books that are diverse without screaming “DIVERSITY, RIGHT HERE!” I really enjoyed Crenshaw by Katherine Applegate, One for the Murphys by Lynda Mullaly Hunt and All Rise for the Honorable Perry T. Cook by Leslie Connor have diversity at their core, but you don’t read them thinking, “Of course, I see the diversity staring me in the face.”
Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created by The Broke and the Book