The powder acts as a magnet, pulling dirt and residue away from the fabric. Cultural whitewashing is a widespread problem in publishing, especially on young adult book covers. If a ya book features a white, female protagonist and this accounts for a not insignificant portion of ya released each year, it seems inevitable that the book cover will display an idealized and airbrushed masterpiece of her on the cover. All we can say is that poorly publicised books with black covers dont sell. Were betting about 2% of those covers depict a poc if that. Ok, so i realize that not everyone is as obsessed with food as i am, but you gotta admit, tasty business attracts people. Also, and more obviously her hair isnt black, the way its described in the book and the way it is on the first damn cover. Most of the time, i love young adult literature and am proud to be a ya librarian. If a ya book features a white, female protagonist and this accounts for a not insignificant portion of ya released each year. You may need to repeat this process more than once for heavily soiled covers. Blast from the past ya novels from the 80s twilight.
Author spoke out against book cover whitewashing attn. The 2010 ya novel liar had a black woman as its protagonist but. Rick riordan cheers end of book covers that whitewash his black. In her entry why the pretty white girl ya book cover trend needs to end, she. Whitewashing black characters on book covers is common. Russian editions of ya authors bestselling kane chronicles will now depict his african american character accurately. It is good that the article mentions earthsea, too one of the most egregious examples of whitewashing considering that the. The message a whitewashed cover sends is that poc are worthless, that we mean so little that even if a book is written about us, we cant be on the cover because the image of a poc wont sell. There are many inaccuracies in this article including stating that liar was. One thing i noticed is how often covers of yamg books about kids of color either dont show people at all see examples here and here, or show silhouettes instead of realistic art examples here and here.
Theres a long history within youngadult publishing of publishers whitewashing book covers, or putting lightskinned illustrations of characters on the covers of books about darkskinned. Rick riordan cheers end of book covers that whitewash his black hero. Larbalestiers cover was the first to gain significant attention for whitewashing, but it wasnt the first, and thanks to the enduring strength of the simplistic covers with people of color dont. How to judge a ya book by its cover forever young adult. Whitewashing is absolutely a problem, especially when book covers take a character of clearly represented race and put someone different on the cover as with liar, or when books about black girls get the ubiquitous silhouette cover. The whitewashing of ya literature i remember reading some articles a couple of years back about the blatant whitewashing that publishers inflict on the covers of books, most notably young adult titles. Rick riordan cheers end of book covers that whitewash his black hero this article is more than 4 years old russian editions of ya authors bestselling kane chronicles will now depict his. Using book covers as a starting point for discussion, we engaged in conversations about identity, race. And so, without further ado, here are my dos and donts for ya covers. Beloved ya author rick riordan has had a massive success this month in his campaign to stop publishers whitewashing the kane chronicles book covers. My reaction is sorta complicated, and since whitewashing ya covers continues to be discussed in the ya book community, i wanted to share some of my thoughts about this. Jacket whys looked at a total of 775 young adult novels, and found that.
Images on magazine and book covers not only reflect what we, as a society, think is beautiful, but they seep into our individual and collective consciousness. The most common dirty book problems are related to mildew that grows within the pages, due to. In which the latest instance of whitewashing book covers produces pondering. Hugowinning author nnedi okorafor on how whitewashing once. The bloomsbury whitewash and other book cover issues. Whitewashing covers, part eleventy, and elliots ethnicity. Representing diversity on 2014 ya book covers diversity in ya.
On march 14, 2014, publishers weekly released its annual accounting of childrens bestsellers for the previous year. Continuing diversity in yas efforts to analyze diversity in the book market, ive taken a look at the 20 figures to determine how characters of color, lgbt characters, disabled characters, and authors of color are represented in these bestselling titles. Its in books, on book covers, in video games, animation, advertising, and in the news. It was recorded at the the 42nd annual popular culture associationamerican culture association conference. Books with whitewashed covers often in the publishing industry books with main characters of color wont be portrayed accurately on the cover artwork. The following images are 2014 book covers that feature main characters of nonwhite descent, disabled characters, lgbt characters, and covers that suggest nonwestern cultures.
At which point the entire book, and all my hard work, crumbles. The issue extends from magazines to book covers as well. According to the article, according to the article, whitewashing happens when a publishing company represents a nonwhite character on the. One thing i noticed is how often covers of yamg books about kids of. Shes not as pale as the guy next to her, but she still looks like a white person. Go into the ya or sff section of your book store and take a look at the covers.
But larbalestier believes the issues of whitewashing of covers, ghettoising of books by people of colour, and low expectations for these books are industrywide. Here are a couple examples from ya literature, as well as a few potential candidates from childrens literature. We took it down because it seemed to be slowing down the site so let us know if. From january to april 2011, i counted 57 young adult fantasy novels being published by all the major american book publishers. It provides a comprehensive analysis of a very complex issue. Whitewashing covers, part eleventy, and elliots ethnicity on the yalsa blog, there is a discussion of white washing on the cover of ya novels, and one of the novels mentioned is for darkness shows the stars. By malinda lo representing nonwhite, nonstraight, disabled characters on a book cover is a complicated thing to do well. The disgusting whitewashing of ya books the billfold. Other young adult authors have also spoken out against whitewashing in the publishing industry. Continuing the hubs coverage of yalsas 2014 ya lit symposium, im here to give you a peek at two of the most thoughtprovoking sessions i attended talking book covers with young adults. By that age, i was already reading at a college level, and reading at the rate of a crazy personi would regularly check out the alloted amount of booksatatime from our local library if i remember correctly, it was 15, read through the whole pile in about. In a parallel argument to the no gays please attitude to most ya texts, this week the guardian discussed the whitewashing of book covers in order to prevent the cover harming the book sales.
This presentation explores the impact whitewashing on ya book covers has on the female asianamerican experience. But sometimes, things are misinterpreted or just dont appear the way they are intended. A full 25% of all book covers had white girls pictured on them, and 10% had white boys. I would rather there were no models gracing ya book covers.
Rumors about casting katniss, the oliveskinned, greyeyed heroine of the ya sensation the hunger games have been flying around the interwebs and. In a parallel argument to the no gays please attitude to most ya texts, this week the guardian discussed the whitewashing of book covers in order to prevent the cover harming the book sales but larbalestier believes the issues of whitewashing of covers, ghettoising of books by people of colour, and low expectations for these books are industrywide. Fans of justine larbalestiers liar were shocked when bloomsbury released the novel, whose female protagonist clearly describes herself as black with natural hair, with a cover featuring a longhaired white model. I can only comment on the greek series, as i havent read much of the others. Bloomsbury and the whitewashing of book covers exclusive. The act of whitewashing covers seems to mostly occur in the world of young adult literature, but there may be some evidence that its happening in the childrens world, as well. Bank street school librarian allie bruce found herself facing a complicated question from a sixth grader about the lack of minorities on ya book covers, starting with julia alvarezs return to sender. The question led bruce on a yearlong lesson on diversity in childrens literature with a sixth grade class andsome surprising results. Rick riordan cheers end of book covers that whitewash.
Obviously, sometimes images of nonwhite people have been whitewashed on book covers, and that is problematic. There is a wide range of representations of characters, from fullface. Whitewashed book covers score a book s total score is based on multiple factors, including the number of people who have voted for it and how highly those voters ranked the book. You will devour this amazing book like an incredibly delicious cookie. High school librarian and writer annie schutte has written a really damning post about young adult book covers and the publishing industry. The old phrase is that you shouldnt judge a book by its cover, but if that were true a significant chunk of the marketing industry wouldnt exist. School librarian talks to students about whitewashing. When you are finished scrubbing the book, dump the excess cleaning powder into the trash and use a clean rag to dust off the book. The blog the ya ya yas did extensive research over the past recent years, to end at one unnerving conclusion. Despain included on this weeks initial post describes the whitewashing of young adult book covers.
The whitewashing of covers has been an eye opener to many in the blogging community. Whitewashing covers, part eleventy, and elliots ethnicity dec 11 2012 posted by diana on the yalsa blog, there is a discussion of white washing on the cover of ya novels, and one of the novels mentioned is for darkness shows the stars. Whitewashing happens when a publishing company represents a nonwhite character on the cover of a book with a white representation. It got me thinking about book covers and representation, thats for sure. We have the coming soon picture catalog ready for viewing the author promo thread and reader open thread are up and running we brought back the recent comments feature. Dante and ethnic identity siue young adult literature. While the article didnt cover anything new for me, at least, it was heartening to see the conversation about racism in ya lit continuethe dialogue on which is clearly nowhere near being over as the problem is still, unfortunately, very much alive. She has spoken to many of the leading scientists in this field and references others. A book cover must represent the story told in the book, of course, but it also must speak to genre a science fiction cover looks quite different from a romance cover and work for both online booksellers and brickandmortar bookstores. Unfortunately, whitewashing book covers is still a rampant problem in the publishing industry but there are authors, designers, and. In 1980, i was 8 years old yes, thank you, im decrepit.
Jane publishing news bookcovers coverfail 80 comments. The online outcry over this books whitewashed cover led to the publisher redoing the image, replacing it with a black model, true to the books content. Every year at every publishing house, intentionally and unintentionally, there are whitewashed covers. Hardcover books are much easier to clean than leatherbound, clothbound or paperback books because the hard cover can withstand being rubbed down with alcohol. Cover matters is a new monthly feature in which we examine the medium that is first contact between a reader and a book. In 2009, justine larbalestier called out the original u. Unfortunately, whitewashing book covers is still a rampant problem in the publishing industry but there are authors, designers, and publishers working to change that. The book cover for the sequel fecking whitewashed her. This feature will dedicate more separate space to a topic that has always intrigued, irked, and befuddled us. This list is an effort to make note of when this happens and alert readers to representation that publishers feel they need to hide. This has been going on for decades probably centuries and seems to show no signs of letting up.
In which the latest instance of whitewashing book covers. Hugowinning author nnedi okorafor on how whitewashing. And when a ya book actually does have a protagonist of color, too often one of three things seems to happen. I dont even know how to begin to summarize this session. But then they get there and the majority of the book covers resemble the covers of our fashion magazines. In 2015, author rick riordan finally got dutch and russian publishers to stop whitewashing covers for his kane chronicles series, which stars a young biracial man. The industry is dominated by white people, and people tend to write about people like them, so theres a racial imbalance in ya fiction. Considering the fact that until just a few weeks ago, books with any kind of poc on the cover in the ya.
179 1458 1414 426 689 1333 1032 119 641 127 228 663 994 1302 1287 239 124 1318 210 1053 1177 1431 1066 271 35 1168 546