luv4blackbooks

[luv4blackbooks]

What happened after 2020?🧍🏽‍♀️

Does anyone remember during the year 2020 when a lot of companies started creating more black led projects and giving more black creatives opportunities that would finally help their work get recognized by the masses? Notice how you don't see as many of those projects being made today?

During 2020, people were trapped inside their houses due to COVID-19 and had to keep themselves entertained with spending time with their loved ones, watching television, spending way too much time on social media, and of course, reading books. I unfortunately wasn't one of those people because I didn't re-discover my love of reading for pleasure until after qurantine was lifted. But I do know a lot more people re-discovered their own love for reading during this time. When people were desparate to keep themselves entertained, authors took this as an opportunuty to finally get their stories published and introduce them to the world. A lot of great black books were written and published during this period and gained massive amounts of popularity. This showed that a lot of readers wanted to find more stories like this and that they were in demand, despite what other people might say. In addition to books, there was also a boom in black television shows, movies, production roles, job opportunities and more. But this wasn't just because of COVID. This was also because of the black lives matter movement.

During the latter half of 2020, the black lives matter movement became very relevant again. Due to everyone being stuck inside and having no choice but to watch the news and look on social media, everyone quickly became aware of what black people were going through and why the movement itself was so important. Along with people speaking out and making their voices heard came companies offering black people more opportunities. I could go on about everything that black people gained during this time but I'm gonna focus on books for this blog post. A lot of black authors were finding more publishers willing to help them get their books made to share them with the world. Many went on to become very successful and get themselves more recognition in the publishing and reader space. Both black readers and authors felt that things were finally changing for the better.

Then 2020 ended.

Little by little, a lot of the opportunities that black authors were given either weren't given out any more or were straight up being taken away from them. Movie or tv show deals that were initially made were put on "pause" out of nowhere and were never heard from again. Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs that helped benefit black authors and other authors of color that were suddenly taken away. But why did this happen? Well, due to people being unable to not see what was going on with the black lives matter movement, it became impossible for people, as well as companies, to ignore. In order for them to (publicly) show that they cared about what black people were going through, they provided them with tons of opportunities to help them make their dreams come true. Unfortuntalely, some of these companies never intended for these opportunities to last forever. Thankfully, some of these efforts to help black creatives out weren't all in vain. Some people's assistance came from a genuine place after they saw what was occuring during the BLM movement. To those who got the short end of the stick, they either decided to wait for when the time was right or they took matters into their own hands and did things themselves.

While many of the efforts that were being made four years ago aren't being made today, that didn't keep black authors from continuing to work hard to get their stories told. Some went on to create more books, some started working on screen adaptations for their published work themselves, and others even started their own publishing companies. It's still difficult for some to get the opportunities or find the resources they could have easily gotten years ago, but it still didn't stop them from creating and working hard to make their dreams come true.

The black book recommendation of the day is... Legendborn by Tracy Deonn (which was published in 2020)! The series will consist of four books with it's third coming out in March of 2025!

[luv4blackbooks]

Why the trauma? 🤨

I recently heard a few black authors online speak about how many publishing companies only seem to be interested in black stories if they incorporate themes about black trauma or the black struggle into them. Those who are just beginning to read diversely also try to read more stories like these. While it's not a bad thing that publishers and audiences are into diverse and authentic stories like this, it still puts black authors (and to an extent, black readers) at a disadvantage.

Believe it or not, not ALL black people face large amounts of race-related trauma or feel compelled to make art about it. Some authors simply want to write original stories that include black characters. When publishers and readers expect certain types of stories to come from black authors, it puts these authors in a box because they now feel like they HAVE to write about their struggles even if their stories don't need to have those types of themes included. When these themes get shoehorned into a story where it's not needed, it makes the work feel disengenuine. Unfortunately, these seem to be the types of stories that are in demand in the reading space. Let's talk about why.

Before more authors of color began getting more recognition and praise from publishers and readers, their stories unfortunately weren't as popular. There were always classic stories or a lucky handful of authors that would black-centered books, but there still weren't as many as there were today. Of these few stories that were out in the past, many of them took place during times where black people were facing a lot of trauma (for example slavery or segregation). Other stories would be more in the present day, but the characters would be living in a lower class neighborhood and struggling to make ends meet. There was nothing bad about these stories that were being told. While they may not have been authentic for certain readers, they were authentic to some. Stories depicting accurate black history are also important because black history is usually either minimzed or erased entirely from some people's cirriculumn. However, when these are the only types of stories you have available, you start to think that these are the only types of stories that CAN be created.

Moving back to the present day, more black authors begin to push the boundaries of what they can write about. Readers are finding more black fantasy novels, thrillers, mysteries, sci-fi stories, you name it. The rise in these types of stories over the years became extremely popular and in demand. However, while the stories were unique and different than what readers were used to, there always seemed to be common themes about racial trauma or the main characters facing obstacles solely due to their race. Like I said, there's nothing wrong with these types of stories being made because of how important they are. But it makes readers feel like that's all that there is. It doesn't help that certain publishers eat these types of stories up because of how "authentic" and "real" they are. It also doesn't help that because of this, these are the types of black stories that also seem to become super popular in reading spaces. Of course, stories that don't do this exist out there. They're just not as in demand as the others which unfortunately makes them very hard to find.

Creating authentic black stories doesn't mean that all of the characters problems, or even any of their problems, have to do with struggles about their race. Authors can create stories about black people riding dragons or being princesses or superheroes without there being some type of strong message about how bad racism is. Of course, this doesn't mean that their race should be ignored entirely. There are other ways to accurately represent it without attaching it to trauma. For example, cultural traditions, common black experiences, types of food, depicting natural black hair, etc. The reason some readers/publishers/authors think that trauma HAS to be included is because they can't separate blackness FROM trauma. Like I stated before, many people thought that the black trauma portrayed in older books were the only types of black stories that could be written. That's why it's so important for authors to go against the norm and write stories where "the black struggle" doesn't have to be checked off on a box for it to be considered authentic. We need more stories about black people doing magic just because they can or black heroes going up against just as black villians and not ones who are non-black and racist. We can create beautiful, fun, and authentic black stories without making trauma the main focus.

The black book recommendation the day is This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron! If you decide to pick this up and you enjoy it, be sure to check out the sequel (This Wicked Fate) as well as the authors other large catalogue of unique stories!

This Poison Heart https://a.co/d/iZRp6IO

[luv4blackbooks]

This book was banned because *checks notes* black people are the main characters 🤨

In recent years, banning books has become a really big issues in some states. It's not because these books have inappropriate themes for children or are too scary or traumatizing. They simply talk about experiences that minority groups face, and this makes some parents and educators (but mainly parents) uncomfortable. It's very upsetting that these books are getting banned because minority groups, whether they're black, muslim, LGTBQ+, disabled, etc., simply want to create stories where they are properly and positively represented. Some adults simply see this as leaving other people out, which is far from the case.

Today, I'm gonna focus on black books being banned in schools and why the reasonings for doing so are ridiculous. I've noticed when looking through lists of banned books that a lot of black books that were banned were either because A) racism is a main theme in the text and some people get uncomfortable discussing the topic or B) the main characters of the story are black and proud of their identity and this makes some people uncomfortable. One time, I came across a TikTok video of a women who dedicated her page to purchasing and reading banned picture books to children so they could get access to them. I thought the topic of the book was going to dive into some heavy topics about racism or something that some parents felt was too mature for their young kids. But nope. The story was simply about a little dark skin black girl going on a fantastical journey to discover why her dark skin makes her special and beautiful. Why in the world would someone want to ban this book??? It never said that people who didn't have dark skin WEREN'T beautiful. The book was created because dark skin girls are not represented as often as brown or light skin black girls are, and the author wanted to make sure these girls could see themselves represented positively.

"But Kayla, if the books are just banned in their schools and not the libraries or bookstores, can't kids just get access to them there?"

While this is true, there are other places kids can access these books, sometimes, school is the only place some kids can get access to books at all. Some parents aren't able to read to their kids before bed or afford to purchase books in stores. School can sometimes be the only option available. This is why it's important that all kinds of students are represented in the stories that they read, not just a select few.

It is extremely important that young kids are able to view themselves in a positive light in the stories they read or watch, especially when they're young. When they are in Pre-K and elementary school, they start to get a better understanding of how the world works, how to socialize with other kids, and how to see themselves. Black kids reading stories about loving their hair or growing up in a neighborhood similar to theirs or participating in similar cultural traditions makes them feel seen and appreciated. I grew up reading books like this throughout my childhood thanks to my parents. I'm extremely grateful that I was able to be exposed to stories like this, but unfortunately not every child has or will have the opportunity to do so.

Book banning doesn't only make it more difficult for black kids to find books that will reflect their own experiences. It also makes it harder for non-black kids to read authentic and diverse stories from perspectives different than their own. If white children simply continue to read stories that only reflect their own experiences, it will be harder for them to interact with a more diverse world as they grow up. Their parents may also unknowingly teach them to think in negative ways due to their own biases towards certain minority groups. These types of behaviors are almost always taught, no one is ever simply born having a mindset where they consider people of color or black people to be less-than. Having access to these types of stories helps children break away from these mindsets and hopefully encourages them to treat more of their peers with kindness and respect.

I also briefly want to mention that books in higher grades like middle school or high school are getting banned as well. Books like The Hate U Give or Their Eyes Were Watching God or The Color Purple were removed from certain reading lists in schools despite the relevance and importance of these types of stories. While it is much easier for older kids to gain access to books on their own, being able to learn about certain stories having to do with race or gender or LGTBQ+ themes are very important. Especially because students can benefit from discussing these themes with each other as well as their teachers in order to get a better understanding of them and apply them to the real world.

Luckily, book-banning isn't something that is occuring nation-wide. And some of the states or cities/towns that HAVE been banning books have been starting to receive some push-back. However, there is still much more work to be done to ensure that the banning doesn't continue or start to get worse. I would highly encourage students, parents, and educators alike to research lists of books that are being banned in states, look up why, and find ways to get access to them if they appeal to you. I would also encourage people to continue to push back against constant book banning and challenge the reasonings for why the stories were even banned in the first place.

The book recommendations for the day are Sulwe by Lupita Nyong'o and The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas. Both of these stories have been banned in certain schools and it is important that black kids (as well as non-black kids) are able to read stories with important messages like these.

[luv4blackbooks]

Why are so many black book adaptations not getting made or trapped in production-limbo? 🧐

After the movie adaptation of the popular novel The Hunger Games debuted in 2012, YA book to screen adaptations seemed to take Hollywood by storm. Soon after, we saw adaptations of Divergent, The Maze Runner, The 5th Wave, etc. Eventually, this era of adaptations began to fizzle out. Of course, there are still YA book adaptations being made, but a lot of them either try to poorly replicate the same feeling viewers got watching the previous films, or the books they adapted simply weren't as good. This doesn't mean that those types of books no longer exist. It's just that a lot of these books don't center straight, cisgender, and white protagonists. And it's no secret that certain people in Hollywood don't view these types of stories as profitable.

There are a ton of amazing stories that give the same energy that The Hunger Games or Divergent gave back in the day that have either already been made or are currently being made. The ones that center protagonists of color or, to be more specific, black protagonists, usually have central themes about race, blackness, how society often views and treats black people, and/or they simply have a black protagonist. While these two aren't YA stories, let's look at The Handmaids Tale vs The Parable of the Sower. Both stories are about a scarily probable dystopian future where the government seems to take a large step backwards and make it so minority groups in America are suffering even more than before, but the protagonist decides to take a stand and attempt to change things for the better. While the focus of The Handmaids Tale is the struggles women face and centers a white woman protagonist, The Parable of the Sower focuses on multiple minority groups (mostly focusing on race) and has a black woman protagonist. The Parable of the Sower is considered to be scarily more realistic by most readers but The Handmaids Tale is the novel that tends to get the most praise and recognition (and it got adapted first). Believe it or not, some studio execs don't want to risk putting stories focusing on ones race (or stories with black leads) in the spotlight because they either don't want to anger "certain people" or they don't want to make the average viewer "uncomfortable." However, the previous YA adaptations that have been made were bound to make viewers uncomfortable, the only difference is that the stories are being told through a white lens and instead of discussing themes about race, they discuss themes about class.

Let's dive deeper into why there's this strange belief that black protagonists in movies or films are considered unprofitable or not able to sell well. For the longest time in film and television, white main characters have been the standard. Ocassionally, there would be a side character of color or sometimes even a lead. Unfortunately, most of the time, their characters would either be heavily reliant on stereotypes of the time or their stories would revolve around racial-trauma. In recent years, studios have been attempting to improve upon this by adding more characters of color to their stories (ones that aren't heavily reliant on stereotypes) and/or making them the stars of the film without making the struggles they face with race a large factor. However, depending on the film/show getting made, the ratings of the project tend to become low because of the person or people of color staring in the project.

Now, this isn't because people don't like it when these stories are told, especially the people who are being represented. It's because racist fans often come across projects that star leads of color and spam the project with one star reviews regardless if they enjoyed the show/movie or if they even watched it at all. This often happened when it came to projects that were connected to previously existing IP's. For example, the live action remake of The Little Mermaid, The Marvels, almost all of the Star Wars reboot movies and tv shows where multiple black characters were leads or important side characters. Instead of studios realizing that a lot of this hate is coming from a very loud minority of people and that the general public actually likes seeing more positive diverse stories, they decide to listen to the "fans" and think that these types of stories aren't worth telling. This relates to black fantasy books not getting adapted because studios feel that creating projects based on existing IP's that star black characters in a positive light simply won't be profitable.

Even when black authors are given the chance to adapt their projects, they are often put into what some people call "production-limbo". The rights to the book would get purchased by a studio or a deal would be made and an announcement would be made online about a future adaptation. INext thing you know, years would pass and fans still hear nothing about the upcoming projects. It doesn't even matter how popular or well-known the story getting adapted is. For example, the popular book series Legendborn was announced to get an adaptation a few years ago. Now it's almost 2025 and we still have no updates about it. Meanwhile, adaptations of rather mediocre white stories will get greenlit, casted, and filmed in the blink of an eye. One can always say that not all book adaptations are bound to get made, which is true. However, black readers and fans of black stories in film/television have noticed a clear pattern when it comes to these adaptations getting (or not getting) made.

This isn't to say that there's ZERO progress getting made when it comes to black YA book adaptations. The very popular fantasy series Children of Blood and Bone is set to get a movie adaptation sometime in the future. While this project was also placed into "production limbo" for a while, about a year ago, it was announced that the project finally had a director! And a few months ago, it was also announced that they were working on casting for the film! This is more progress that has been made compared to recent adaptation announcements. There are tons of other similar stories by black authors that are just waiting to get adapted to screen. Maybe if studios finally take a chance on these stories, they'll see how much people want to see them and the YA book adaptation era will finally make a comeback!

For this blog post, I'm gonna switch it up and recommend two books today! 🥳🥳

Of course, I have to recommend Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. If you love Avatar the Last Airbender and African Mythology, you'll LOVE this!

Children of Blood and Bone https://a.co/d/6E9oJ3f

Second, I'm recommending Blood at the Root by LaDarrion Williams! This project began as a television pilot that the author was unfortunately unable to sell because studios did not believe his story would be profitable. However, LaDarrion still wanted his story to be told so he decided to do so in book form!

[luv4blackbooks]

The Problem with Booktok:

Where are all the Black Books at? 🧐

All readers love booktok! 🥳 (For people who don't know, that's a sub-section of TikTok that talks about books! 📚🤓) People are able to connect with other readers who share their same interest. Readers can discuss their favorite books in a fun and creative online space. Those who are just getting into reading can find great book recommendations from popular accounts. While this may be true for most users, the same thing doesn't apply for most black readers… 😗

As someone who recently got back into reading as a hobby about a year ago, I noticed right away how difficult it is for black readers to find a sense of community on Booktok. A lot of the most popular books on this sub-section of the app are written by white authors and have white main characters. Accounts that post videos discussing their favorite book written by a black author or highlighting a great story with a black main character barely get any views. When I try to find good sci-fi or fantasy or thriller book recommendations, I always have to put black in front of the search in order to find what I'm looking for 🤦🏽‍♀️ It's honestly a miracle I was able to get my TBR (to be read) list as big as I did 😭 Online spaces for readers are supposed to be safe spaces that can cater to everyone! Especially for readers who are enthusiastic about discovering new stories and discussing them with others. But this is unfortunately a hard thing for most black readers to do 🤧

Don't get me started on how hard it is for accounts to discuss this issue on Booktok itself! Either their videos will get little to no attention (it's still difficult to tell if it's the fault of the audience or the fault of the app 👀) or racist troll accounts will unfortunately discover their page and proceed to swarm their comment section to the point where they have to turn them off completely 🙄 I've come across multiple videos of black book content creators simply encouraging their followers to read more diversely and pay more attention to the races of the authors of the books they're reading. Almost every time a video like this is made, there will be someone in comment section complaining that they "race doesn't matter when it comes to books 🤦🏼‍♀️" or that they "should let people read what they want! 😡” What they fail to realize is no one is forcing them to read books they don't want to read or check out authors they don't have any interest in. They CAN do whatever they want. The creator was simply making a suggestion to their audience. There's no need to announce to everyone how upset you are and claim that these issues don't matter. Because these types of issues DO matter!

There are SO many great and unique stories that readers are missing out on when they don't read diversely. For example This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron or Legendborn by Tracy Deonn. It's not enough to try and find books with black main characters either. Looking at the authors is also EXTREMELY important. Imagine you pick up a book with a black mc and the as you start reading, you notice the language used in the story feels a little tone deaf 🧐 Then you reach the halfway mark and find something that's straight up racist 💀 Out of curiosity, you search the author up online and find out that they're not even black like you assumed they'd be— they're white. *insert shocked Pikachu meme* This fortunately has never happened to me but I've seen some people online experience this before. Other than this, it's also important to simply support black authors, whether they're traditionally or indie published. While there are probably more black books than ever in stores right now and ones that are gaining popularity, it's still VERY hard for them to gain their footing in such a majority white space. Showing black authors some love and supporting and promoting their work online can help make such a huge difference in their careers 🩷 It can also encourage other black authors to put in the effort to tell their own stories as well!

"But Kayla," you say, "it's just a social media app 🙄 Why should the books that get the most attention on there even matter when there's so many other websites for readers and authors out there? 🧐” This is why:

Despite being such a small subsection of the entire reading community, the discussions that are being held (or aren't being held) on BookTok matter a LOT! That little 💃🏽dance🕺🏾 app has a lot more influence than most people think. A lot of people (including myself) often look at Booktok for book recommendations. The app itself is already extremely popular. If book accounts on the app are prone to highlight and promote certain types of stories, those stories are bound to become popular in book-spaces. Imagine what could happen if black books were promoted the same way? 🤎

Since I started to find my place on booktok, I've been following a lot of popular black book content creators. A lot of them were not easy to find 😅 But the more time I spent looking up recommendations that specifically catered to me, I was able to find my place no problem! Now, most of the booktok posts I see are from black creators posting about new black sci-fi/fantasy indie authors or a list of book recommendations from a lesser known black author. Of course, I'd still occasionally come across a post or two from a booktok account recommending a giant stack of YA books where all of the authors and protagonists are white and one of books just so happens to be considered problematic for having racist undertones 💀 But that's why the block button exists 🥰 I'm glad that I was able to make it so I could find the types of stories and authors I like but just like me, there are probably new black readers out there who are still struggling to find their own place. This is why it's important to support and promote black books and authors whenever you can 🤎 You don't even have to make a giant post about it but it can't hurt to recommend a title you've read in a few comment sections or repost a video you might come across promoting something that seems interesting. If you think you're small action won't make any difference, it most definitely will 📚💕

The black book recommendation of the day is... 🥁🥁🥁🥁🥁

SING ME TO SLEEP by Gabi Burton! 🧜🏽‍♀️🧜🏽‍♀️🧜🏽‍♀️

https://a.co/d/aYv1Iso

She also has a TikTok account and Twitter which I highly recommend you follow! Thanks for staying and happy reading! 📖💕