Black Chick Lit

BCL Chat: Our Favorite Diverse Kid Lit Titles

Hey, readers! In this month’s episode we discuss the perilous world of shopping for diverse children’s books. We’re overwhelmed by how much there is to consider with presenting children with authentic representation of people of color: When was the first time we saw ourselves in literature? Does it matter who writes and/or illustrates the book? How well do books handle interracial families or inter-community topics like colorism? And is it cheating to just buy your kid a book about a bear? (Answer: yes.)

Listen in as we discuss these questions and promote a few of our favorite titles. Join us for our next episode when we read The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin. As always, thanks for listening! Be sure to follow us on Twitter at @blackchicklit or check us out on Instagram at @bclpodcast.

Links:

• Just in case you missed the memo,Black people have always been around, thanks.
• The Pew Research Center wants to know who’s not reading books?
• I don’t know how we missed this original story, but, yes, quality genre fiction is just as good as quality literary fiction.
• This chat was inspired by an article published by the School Library Journal that discussed the percentages of published children’s books featuring characters from diverse backgrounds. (A readable version of that graphic.)
• Data were collected by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Episode 32: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry

The kids are back in school and we revisit a childhood favorite: Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, by Mildred Taylor. And, whew, boy! Ms. Taylor aimed to teach the kids the truth about racism and she went above in beyond to do so. This book had lynch mobs, roving Klansmen and three men being burned alive.

The big question is, how were either of us able to read this as kids and not be traumatized? Also, why did Stacey remain friends with the shifty-ass T.J.? And why was Papa Logan so quick to threaten to blow shit up?

Be sure to listen in on our next episode when we discuss the issue surrounding diverse kid lit. Thanks for listening and be sure to rate, review and subscribe to us on iTunes. As always, thank you to Suite45 for our theme song, Jones’n.

BCL Chat: YouTube and Black Booktubers

We try to talk Booktube and get distracted by our general distrust of social media. Inspired by the HuffPost piece titled "Where Are All the Black Booktubers?," we decided to investigate the question ourselves.

What we found wasn't that surprising: Plain ol' racism is keeping many Black booktubers from thriving. Naya, of Naya Reads and Smiles (the largest channel lead by a black booktuber), also spoke on the issue in her own video. The disparity between White booktubers and Black booktubers is undeniable. “White BookTubers who garner at least 300,000 subscribers on their YouTube channels … and two out of three of them even have their own published novels. On the flip side, the most well-known African-American BookTuber to date is Naya Reads and Smiles, with only 58,000 subscribers, despite having been uploading videos for years.

In other news, we also discussed:

• • Toni Morrison passed away, and Roxane Gay wrote a great piece for The New York Times about her legacy. There were also great pieces in The Atlantic, The New Yorker and Sojourners.
  • Speaking of New York Times. An editor at there was demoted following multiple bad takes regarding race and his entitled behavior/harassment toward Roxane Gay.
  • This bold take claiming there's no point in reading anything if it's not a classic.
  • Whether this guy is an asshole for eating three feet of a six-foot sub.

Episode 31: They All Fall Down

Happy August, readers! This month, we wanted a light beach read to help us make it through these remaining dog days of summer. Instead, we got a wild And Then There Were None-inspired murder fest where a man gets boiled alive in a hot tub. Fun.

We read They All Fall Down, by Rachel Howzell Hall, and it's full to the brim of assholes. We read as an equally asshole-y lawyer lures them to a tropical paradise where they're cut down one by one. There are guns, cocaine, poisonous sushi and, deadliest of all, the world's longest silk scarf.

Listen in as we discuss this motley crew of murderers and bandits and decide who had the best (worst?) death.

No BCLChat question this time! In our next episode, we’re trying something new. Instead of asking you guys a question and sharing your answers, we’re going to pick a topic or issue to discuss and have more structured (read: researched lol) conversations about them. More episodes like our #RITASsoWhite discussion, for example. Next chat, we’re discussing black booktubers and discuss the issues they face on the platform.

Thanks for listening and be sure to rate, review and subscribe to us on iTunes. As always, thank you to Suite45 for our theme song, Jones’n.

BCL Chat: Your Most Anticipated 2019 Reads

Happy July! It's a chattier chat than usual as we dig into some book news from around Twitter and the business pages.

• Angie Thomas kicks off Twitter controversy by ... asking not to be tagged in reviews?
• Microsoft shut down its ebook service, meaning customers who bought books through that service lost them. This is a good reminder to us all that we don’t actually own our ebooks.
• Loud, ignorant people on the internet are mad that Halle Bailey got a job as Ariel in Disney's The Little Mermaid remake.

We also asked you all what upcoming releases you're most looking forward to. You gave us some great titles to add to our TBR. Thanks to @curvyblackgeek, @almost_esq, @IamTammiJ and @charelliam for sending us their picks!

As always, thanks for listening and be sure to check out our next episode when we read and discuss They All Fall Down by Rachel Howzell Hall.