What Do I Read Next? If You Come Softly

Last week we talked about how to recommend POC works to non-poc readers. Out of that discussion, we decided to make "What Do I Read Next?" a regular feature. Each week Doret and I will recommend a title or a list based on a particular genre or themes. But for this to really work, we need your requests. Tell us what kind of books you enjoy or what themes you'd like to explore written by or about POC.

This week's pick is If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson. This work is about first love. It also addresses race, tolerance and loss. A few Color Online readers have read this work for our Color Me Brown Challenge. I especially like Lu's review. And Jill cites the perfect passage that encapsulates the novel:

Miah: Let’s say it’s rain – the people who got problems with us being together – let’s call them and their problems rain.

Ellie nodded. “Okay, they’re rain.” She smiled. “So now what?”

Miah: “So it’s not always raining, is it? But when it’s not raining, we know the rain isn’t gone forever.”

Ellie sighed. “Well a drought would be a beautiful thing.”

Tags: teen romance, race, loss, interracial, coming-of-age, YA, African-American writers, multicultural lit.

You might also like: Skunk Girl by Sheba Karim, Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Fattah-Abdel.
The central theme in these works is not romance. Both novels however look at the conflict teens from different race/ethnic groups have to face when they are attracted to each other.