Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.
February is Black History Month and it's also the month of Valentine's Day. So let's show some writerly love by answering the following question: Who is your favorite African American author or fictional character?
My Answer:
As far as fictional characters go it's got to be Rue from The Hunger Games! This was an easy answer because The Hunger Games series is still fresh in my mind and because I connected with Rue's beautiful, fragile character as soon as she was introduced. I realized though, I couldn't think of a single additional YA book I've read in the past year where one of the characters was African American. The next books to come to mind were "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Invisible Man" and I haven't read those since high school.
Visit YA Highway to see everyone else's answers too :)
Visit YA Highway to see everyone else's answers too :)
There's definitely a shortage of African American characters in "mainstream" YA, though there is a growing interest in book written by people of color and/or featuring characters of color so this should change. My next book (out next month) has a black protagonist, though I'm white myself.
ReplyDeleteI'm always impressed by white writers who manage to write a believable protagonist of color - I'll check for your book next month :)
DeleteAww.. poor Rue.
ReplyDeleteI know! I have to admit, I lost a few tears on that part of the book :(
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