My friend Sarah Stevenson is the author of a YA title about multi-ethnic teens who decide to take on the world while making a few dollars. THE LATTE REBELLION is not the story you expect - it's certainly about finding your way and making a statement about who you are (and who you choose to be) but it's also about having a very typical teenage life in world that generally views itself through the lens of skin color and race. Sarah's characters ask the question of just what happens when you don't fit into the preordained set of ethnic rules and even more importantly, why we need those stupid rules anyway.

Oh, and it's also about selling many many t-shirts to fund a killer vacation.

Here's a bit of Liz had to say on LATTE REBELLION back in January:

The capitalist part of me adores that the Latte Rebellion starts as a way to raise money. AWESOME. And practically no one blinks an eye at Asha’s and Carey’s use of social awareness and concerns to make money for a vacation. They talk about marketing and budgets and how this can be spun for college applications and everyone agrees. It’s not just Asha; when she meets hot guy Thad, a college student who wants to help create community clinics in poor and rural areas, he says “I just think people really need this kind of thing, and Greg and I have some good ideas. We think we could manage to make a living off it.” I am dead serious when I say how much I love this combination of idealism and practicality, of wanting to do good but knowing one still has to pay the rent.

And be sure to check out Ari's thoughts after reading the novel on being bicultural, mixed race or multiracial and her frustration over having to choose just one box on those college applications.

Now onto Sarah's interview!

CM: You combine two major themes in LATTE REBELLION: that of mixed race teens struggling to fit into pre-existing race categories and also teen with a capitalist bent trying to find an unconventional way to make money. How long had both these ideas been playing around in your head and why did you decide to work both into the narrative? (The more conventional route would have been for Asha and Carey to try to take on the world, not make dollars for a trip.)

SS: Both ideas were pretty integral to my concept of the book from the very beginning. They sort of came into my head about the same time, really--I started off with this thought that Latte Rebellion would be a fun name for a mixed-race group (kind of like Sepia Mutiny, a site aimed at people of South Asian descent). Right after that, the character of Asha popped into my head and the ideas started to flow fast and furious!

From the beginning I wanted to make this a fun story with a healthy dose of humor, not just an "issue book." Not that the issues it covers aren't important to me, but I feel very strongly that there need to be more books that have race/ethnicity/culture as a theme but which are not pigeonholed into being "ethnic books" or even problem novels—identity is a valid theme in ANY genre, and especially in YA. Also, I wanted to make it clear that ethnic/racial identity can be a trait or a point of discussion without necessarily being problematic all the time. Asha is usually pretty comfortable about her identity; there might be the occasional awkward moment, but she's not spending every waking minute agonizing over being mixed race. And, as Asha points out in the book, we're all so much more than just our genetics or our ethnic origin.

Anyway, I really liked the idea of a moneymaking scheme gone horribly and hilariously awry as a premise for the plot, and the Latte Rebellion was a great vehicle for that. It got a bit more serious as I wrote it—one important thing I learned while I was writing and revising is that even with a "light" novel, the stakes need to be high enough to be interesting.

CM: Why do you think there has been less of a focus on mixed race teens in books? We could talk all day about diversity in YA (could we ever!) but when that subject comes up it usually is directed at single races, religions or sexuality. I haven't really seen too many titles come out with mixed race teens and yet it is a common reality for millions in this country (including everyone from Tiger Woods to Sasha and Malia Obama). I know you are mixed-race which makes the subject a personal one for you so I wondered how you felt as a teen looking for books with characters who mirrored you. How do you think mixed-race teen readers feel today?

SS: I'm not entirely sure why there aren't more titles with mixed-race teens, to be honest. Like you said, it's an increasingly common reality for millions, especially the generations younger than me. As a kid, I didn't feel like there were a lot of other mixed-race/mixed-ethnicity kids around, but as I grew older, I realized that some of that is simply the fact that we all blend in so well--either we look racially ambiguous or one side predominates in terms of phenotype. :) In high school, I had a handful of friends of mixed background. And it's much more common now, for sure, so I'm really hoping that we see more books in which kids of mixed race are either featured or simply included and acknowledged.

As a reader growing up, though, I have to admit I was all about the escapist fiction! I didn't necessarily feel like I "needed" protagonists who mirrored my identity or experience, although I probably didn't know what I was missing, either. In junior high, I was reading a lot of Sweet Valley High (yeah, yeah, I know) and I had already started reading a fair amount of adult sci-fi and fantasy.

But, having brought that up—the idea that a lot of teen (and adult) readers read for wish-fulfillment—there's a big hole there as far as mixed-race or even just ambiguously "brown" characters are concerned. We deserve to have our wish-fulfillment fantasies addressed, too, without feeling like that entails a negation of our identity. Whether we're reading about ourselves or looking for stories about someone different from ourselves, it's nice to feel like we COULD see ourselves in the story rather than the story placing its ideas and biases into US. (I hope that makes sense!)



CM: In a few reviews I've read it seems that some readers wanted the girls to be more committed to the Latte Rebellion ideal rather than the t-shirt money. Did you expect this push back and how realistic is it? Do you think real teens in this situation would feel this way?

SS: I honestly didn't expect that at all, since, in my mind, it's always been kind of a humorous story, and so certain aspects are exaggerated in the service of amusement and plot hijinks. I've been thinking about this a lot, though, since encountering those comments. And I've finally been able to articulate my thoughts about it, thanks in part to a recent blog post by David Elzey about the glut of "exceptional" protagonists in fiction (and increasingly in children's and YA books).

My personal feeling on it is that, while it might be nice to imagine that teens are entirely driven by idealism, idealism and selflessness are not quite the same thing. I don't think it's realistic to expect every teen, or every adult, to have selfless motivations. My book was very much about characters with flaws—and, to me, flaws are an opportunity for growth. Asha and Carey were idealistic from the beginning, but most definitely they were not selfless. Asha had to grow into a more selfless, activist role—she did not exactly earn her status as the figurehead of a movement, but rather fell into it somewhat by accident, and she had to work at it to merit that status.

Secret Writing Tidbit: In the first draft of LATTE, if you can believe it, they were even MORE selfish. :) I'm not sure what that says about me. It seemed amusing at the time...but I have a warped sense of humor.



CM: Do you think that taking on a story about race carries extra weight for the author? These books are generally considered "message" books and the message is pretty much always that we must all get along. While there is no shortage of conflict in your book, there is a lightheartedness to it as well (plus Asha's big problem is not so much her race as her grades). When we talk about diversity in teen books how much emphasis do you think it should have in a story - what's your idea of perfect balance?

SS: I'm not sure I can address the idea of perfect balance for any single book, because every story is going to be different, and what's appropriate for one story is not going to be the same for another. I honestly believe that a book with race as a theme does not necessarily have to be a "message" book. Novels that include race don't necessarily have to be "about" race. Or, to look at it another way, maybe an important message is the idea that race shouldn't always trump every other theme in a novel! I almost feel like it's a sign of our continuing discomfort with the discussion of race that it immediately becomes such a focus, regardless of what the author's aims might be.

That leads to my idea of perfect balance, though: I think perfect balance is having enough room and flexibility for there to be books with a message about race AND books about race in which it's simply one of many aspects of identity, as well as everything in between. We need ALL of those stories, not just one type of story.

See other Summer Blog Blast Tour interviews today at Bildungsoman, Hip Writer Mama and The Happy Nappy Bookseller. Be sure to check out the Master Schedule for quotes and direct links!