Posts in Features
The Woman Warrior and the complexity of Chinese American identity
The Woman Warrior and the complexity of Chinese American identity

During my junior year in high school, my favorite English teacher gave me a book to read because she thought I might identify with it. I am Chinese American; the book was The Woman Warrior by Maxine Hong Kingston, an autobiography subtitled "Memoirs of a Childhood Among Ghosts."

She meant well, but the book made me feel like a total foreigner. I hated it.

It made me wonder: Was this the way white Americans saw my family? Did they really think that I came from a family that believed in ghosts and treated their daughters like property?

Read More
FeaturesMalinda Lolife, Asian American
Why there's no HUNTRESS sequel
Why there's no HUNTRESS sequel

Lately I've been asked several times about the possibility of a Huntress sequel, and while I've answered that question before, I guess it's time for an update. So today, I present you with The Definitive Answer to the Question of Whether There Will Be a Sequel to Huntress: Probably not.

Read More
FeaturesMalinda LoFAQ, Huntress
Diversity in 2012 Young Adult Bestsellers

On March 17, Publishers Weekly posted its accounting of the bestselling children’s books of 2012, including young adult titles. PW does this every year, and I’ve always wondered what proportion of these bestselling titles include main characters of color and/or LGBT characters. I’ve always assumed that very few of the bestsellers would prominently feature diversity, but as a former economics major I also know that I really shouldn’t make those kinds of assumptions.

So over the past couple of weeks I sat down with the list, some spreadsheets, and crunched the numbers. The results both confirmed some of my assumptions and surprised me. (Note: This post collects all four parts originally posted at Diversity in YA in one master post.)

Read More
FeaturesMalinda Lodiversity, Diversity in YA, statistics