Colorful Hues of Brown Links

You already know the deal. Share your own Color Me Brown links in the comments section. And please visit the posts that we highlight and that readers share. We want to spread the link AND comment love to all those who write about literature/race.

Author Zetta Elliott asks Derrick Barnes a couple questions about his newest MG book, We Could Be Brothers.

More and more I’m realizing just how diverse boys are and because of this diversity, there really isn’t one solution for the problems boys face. Tell us about your decision to represent a range of black boys–and a range of responses to school violence/bullying.

I always start from two points of reference or points of motivation. I must: 1) attempt to tell stories and create characters that are not currently present, demographically or culturally, and 2) counter the negative or incomplete images that exist in children’s lit or popular culture. As an artist/author that feels extremely blessed to have this opportunity, I take my social responsibility very seriously; I have the ability to create the Robeson Battlefields and Pacino Claptons of the world that will debunk the one dimensional negative imagery of Black boys and present us as real-life sons, brothers, nephews, scholars, gentlemen, dreamers, doers, and compassionate difference-makers.

Time to start thinking about what challenges you will sign up for. Why not join the 2011 POC Reading Challenge? Sign up here

Please remember that this challenge is about diversifying your reading and showing the publishers we do care about PoC literature and we want to see more of it on the shelves of bookshelves. That we do not want to see the white washing of covers and we will not stand for it. We had 83 participants last year and I would love more than anything to reach 100 this year. Please do not forget about what an important issue this is and even though things have been going well for quite a while these issues are never going to be over and we have to be proactive.

Reads4Pleasure reviews The Other Sister by Cheri Paris Edwards

I was slightly thrown because I wasn't sure if this was supposed to be Christian lit, but there was a liberal dosage of Bible verses thrown in, so I suppose it is. Yes, I know there was a pastor in the story, but does that necessarily qualify a book as Christian lit? At any rate, it felt very much like a Tyler Perry play on paper. If Tyler Perry is your thing, then this is the book for you.

Smugglivus is occuring over at The Book Smugglers and Jodie from BookGazing had an awesome post. She listed not only her most anticpated reads of 2011 and favorite reads of 2010, but also the books she can't wait to see completed and her anticpated books-to-film adaptations.

Judah’s Tale – Zetta Elliott: The sequel to Zetta Elliott’s time travelling novel ‘A Wish After Midnight’. It’s being written right now and will follow the exploits of Judah, the boy Genna left behind when she returned to the twentieth century. When last we saw Judah he was determined to get to Africa to reconnect with his heritage, so there could be lots of travelling in this novel.

Book 3 of the Billi SanGreal series – Sarwat Chadda: Billi Sangreal, the gloriously conflicted heroine of Sarwat Chadda’s Knights Templar adventure series is set to return in a third book. There are possibly plans to allow Billi to investigate her family culture in this third book, possibly a chance to see some of the other important Templar artefacts. Wherever the book is set there will be demons dying in spectacular fights and perhaps some more gorgeous romance between two committed ghul slayers.

The Amazon book blog Omnivoracious is interviewing Rebecca Sklott, author of bestseller The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

Amazon.com: So much of the story of the book is how Henrietta's family was affected both by her obscurity and her limited fame. What has the past year been like for them, now that her story has become so much better known?

Skloot: The public response to the book has been incredible, and Henrietta's family has definitely been following it. They keep up with the media coverage and read the steady flow of comments people post on blogs and Twitter and on the Henrietta Lacks fan page on Facebook. Readers often send notes of thanks to the family either through their website, or through mine--they share incredible stories of how Henrietta's cells changed their own lives ... stories like, I was diagnosed with stage IV cancer ten years ago, but I’m still alive today thanks to drugs made using Henrietta's cells ... I did my PhD dissertation research on Henrietta's cells that allowed me to develop this important drug, or this important diagnostic test ... My mother was diagnosed with cancer when I was a young girl, and I didn't lose her because she was saved by a drug that HeLa cells helped developed. I'm sorry that you had to lose Henrietta in order for my family and so many others to benefit from her cells.

That's all for now. Link and comment away!