Review: Farsighted by Emlyn Chand

October 14th, 2014

Farsighted by Emlyn Chand

Review: Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga

September 17th 2014

Blood of My Blood by Barry Lyga

This is officially our first review since starting the organization of our review page. I am so, so glad, Barry Lyga's "Blood of My Blood" could be that. This book is the conclusion to the "I Hunt Killers" trilogy, and I should first warn readers, that this book reveals some pretty off-screen sexually explicit themes, including sexual abuse. If that is something that makes you dry heave, this isn't the book for you.

Week Two for OUR favorites, Day Five: Blogs and Bloggers, Last but not least "Disability in Kidlit"+ Ellen Oh's Prophecy/Warrior & Sarwat Chadda's The Savage Fortress/The City of Death giveaway!

Some of the best book blog sites online by far are the ones who bring up subjects, topics and discussions most might never think to consider having. When you're marginalized, you have no choice but to have these conversations, as they are the only way to truly shed light and kick stereotypes about marginalizations in the butt.

The first YA fantasy series Libertad and I wanted to release features a main character, who with time becomes a character with a disability. But not having a disability ourselves, there are A LOT of wrong ways to go about making a character with a disability.

There are several book or entertainment blogs that bring up characters with disabilities, many of which we've highlighted in March during our Blogoversary.

But the one we find the most beneficial has to be...

*Disability in Kidlit*

A Confession and a Plea- Author Corinne Duyvis Guest Post

A Confession and a Plea

I’ve been thinking for weeks about what to write for this post.

Do I talk about my debut novel’s main characters? I have been saying for months that both my protagonists are disabled, that the primary romance is between two girls, that there are barely any white characters in the entire book. I’ve been saying that because I want people looking for characters like mine to be able to find them. At the same time, the book won’t be out until June 17th, and I doubt that anything else I have to say about these characters will terribly interesting to anyone who hasn’t read it yet.

Blogoversary Celebration Day 10: All the great places disabled characters can go with Kayla @ Disability in Kidlit!+15.00 Amazon Giveaway & bonus 10.00 Amazon Giveaway!!!

So We've decided to do a little something different for Day 10. 

Characters with disabilities always seems to be the last thing writers or readers seem to include in terms of diversity. We ourselves, don't get a WHOLE lot of requests to review books that include disabled protagonists and finding the few YA, Fantasy, MG, or Sci-Fi books that are out there and capture disabled people in a multi-faceted, 3-Dimensional, Flattering light is very few and far between. There are a ton of amazing blogs out there that are dedicated to dismantling the negative connotations that are usually associated with disabled people. Today we're happy to be sitting down with another one of them!!! 

We got in touch with Kayla @ "Disability in Kidlit", a diversity blog dedicated to exploring disabilities in books particularly YA, MG and Children's Lit. Not only was she was really interested in hopping onboard, she was very patient and understanding of what kind of message we were trying to get across with this particular post.

So much goes into what not to do with disabled characters in novels, that "Disability in Kidlit" could go on forever about the do-nots! Instead she's chosen to give us, and others where the future of disabled characters can and should go!

I can't say this isn't beneficial. I've learned so much about the stigma behind disabled characters just through these highlights alone. Some of the best and memorable characters in SF/F are disabled(check the best ones out!)

At Disability in Kidlit, we spend a lot of time dissecting disability tropes. We outline what they are and why they’re harmful, and there’s immense value in that. It’s important to acknowledge what NOT to do. But sometimes it’s fun (and helpful) to talk about what we would like to see in terms of disability and representation—what TO do. 

I’m going to forego including things like “more and better representation” because obviously I want that. (Go ahead and assume I only want what’s listed if it’s executed well.) Instead, I want to be more specific about what I’d love to see, what books I would LOVE to read. Of course, I speak for only myself. Everyone’s going to have a different list of wants, but here’s mine: