It's really good and you've obviously worked really hard at gathering a ton of anecdotal evidence to refute anyone who might want to argue about the amount of diversity (really liked that you had Zetta Elliot quoting statistics as well). You've really covered every angle very comprehensively and great that you mentioned double diversity, I want more books like this (hopefully will find some crackers as Ari starts reviewing some as part of her GLBT challenge participation) .

I'll be linking this on a few pages. Thanks.

You amaze me, Colleen. This doesn't feel banged out. It is full of fervor and passion, yes, but well reasoned, well researched, well structured. Hats off to you.

Thanks very much for this.

I love the quote from Bennett Madison because it is so true about people jumping all over an author and their book in terms of "ooh, you got it wrong." Much too long a rant on that one to eat up your comment space.

I also agree with a lot of what Mitali Perkins just posted, about no people on covers, period.

Bennett got completely slammed online a month or so ago about his latest book - he was accused of being homophobic of all things which is absurd. Anyway, he has been thinking about all of this for a while and nailed that aspect of diversity on the head.

Glad you guys liked the piece - I really wanted it to come out good and offer something new to the discussion.

Thanks for this, Colleen--for the time it took to get people's thoughts and for compiling them into a whole with your own take on things. I've sent it to the kid's/ya reader's advisory group at my library, hopefully it will spark some discussion! Very thought provoking.

Great piece Colleen. It touches on a little of everything.

One thing that I keep coming back to, trying to understand why a Black and an Asian author would both write a YA novel with featuring a White gay male.

There are a lot of coming out stories about White gay males. Its probably not enough though it seems like a lot because there are so few about anyone else.

I can understand a White author's fear of creating characters of color but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try.

Though as a reader I have the right to judge all characters and sometimes White authors get it wrong.

I've read enough books to know many White authors get it right.

I have no idea on that one Doret - we'd have to go to those authors directly and ask them. Part of me wonders though if they strongly wanted to write coming out stories and the threat of "double diversity" backlash was too strong so they went with the ethnicity that would allow them to tell the tales they most wanted.

I too admired the article, though I was a little bemused by your remark on the lack of consistency in publishing. . . . There's nothing consistent about this business from one publishing house to another, or even one editor to another, because it's so intensely personal: what individual authors write, who they or their agents submit the manuscript to, what editors respond to it and become advocates for it, how intensely they edit it and with what awareness or sensitivity to multicultural communities or issues, how other people in the publishing house respond to the book, and *their* relationship to those communities and issues, how readers respond to the final book. . . .

In matters not related to race, I think this inconsistency is a wonderful thing, because it means there's a wide range of editorial tastes connecting to a wide range of writers and manuscripts that then serve a wide range of readers. And in matters of race, it means we publishers get it right at least sometimes (with FLYGIRL and MILLICENT MIN, to name two books); and articles like this will hopefully help increase that level of accuracy and consistency across the board.

Cheryl - re my comment on consistency in publishing. That was based on the ongoing discussion that authors have no control over covers. I was surprised to learn so easily that this was not the case and basically, that there was no consistent relationship between author and publisher (regardless of author being debut or well known).

Whew. I hope that makes sense!