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merrilySo, the lovely and talented Justine Larbalestier (on lj as justinelavaworm, though she doesn't really post there) has written a new young adult novel, which is coming out in October. It's called Liar, and the main character is Micah, a black teenager who "will frequently admit that she's a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she'll ever tell you."
But you wouldn't know that it's about a black teenager from the proposed cover for the American edition, which is on the advanced copies and which looks like this:
(You also wouldn't know it from the cover copy, which doesn't mention it either. But that's neither here nor there.)
Justine's pretty unhappy about this turn of events (link to a post on her blog, which also has pictures of the non-racist Australian cover, and a picture of basketball player Alana Beard, which is who Justine was picturing Micah to look like), though she's tried hard to be diplomatic.
I think it's time we helped her out. On the back of the advanced reader's copy (one of which I was ecstatic to get on Friday), there's an email address to send comments to: deb DOT shapiro AT bloomsburyusa DOT com.
Please, if you can, take the time to read Justine's blog post, and then write Deb Shapiro a note. It's important that there's critical mass on this one, because Bloomsbury seems blithely unaware that they've done something wrong, and unaware that readers are going to call them on it. They're also under the impression that putting the face of a black person on the cover of a book dooms it, which is nonsense, but doesn't mean that they have to whitewash it instead.
justinelavaworm, though she doesn't really post there) has written a new young adult novel, which is coming out in October. It's called Liar, and the main character is Micah, a black teenager who "will frequently admit that she's a compulsive liar, but that may be the one honest thing she'll ever tell you." But you wouldn't know that it's about a black teenager from the proposed cover for the American edition, which is on the advanced copies and which looks like this:
(You also wouldn't know it from the cover copy, which doesn't mention it either. But that's neither here nor there.)
Justine's pretty unhappy about this turn of events (link to a post on her blog, which also has pictures of the non-racist Australian cover, and a picture of basketball player Alana Beard, which is who Justine was picturing Micah to look like), though she's tried hard to be diplomatic.
I think it's time we helped her out. On the back of the advanced reader's copy (one of which I was ecstatic to get on Friday), there's an email address to send comments to: deb DOT shapiro AT bloomsburyusa DOT com.
Please, if you can, take the time to read Justine's blog post, and then write Deb Shapiro a note. It's important that there's critical mass on this one, because Bloomsbury seems blithely unaware that they've done something wrong, and unaware that readers are going to call them on it. They're also under the impression that putting the face of a black person on the cover of a book dooms it, which is nonsense, but doesn't mean that they have to whitewash it instead.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-29 02:52 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-29 02:54 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 02:57 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-07-30 03:42 am (UTC)