#SummerSoLit Bingo Challenge:

My friend Akilah at the Englishist is co-hosting a summer reading challenge going from the Summer Solstice through the Fall Equinox.  I must admit that real life is being tough right now and I haven’t been out searching for books to meet the criteria… so right now I have read only book that fits any of the squares, though I have a couple others checked out that might work.

Beach on the cover: The Bell at Sealey Head by Patricia McKillip (not at all diverse)

I just today started a book with a One Word Title, Warcross by Marie Lu.

If you, dear reader, have any thoughts on good books, preferably diverse middle grade or teen, that would help me make a row or two – like a Collection of Stories by a POC, Fireworks on the Cover or Heat in the title, please let me know in the comments!

I’m also continuing with the Diversity Reading Challenge hosted by Pam at the Unconventional Librarian.  Here’s what I’ve read so far this year, with books read since my last update in May in bold.  Friends, if you’ve read Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman, would you count Tess as having a mental illness?  Let me know what you think!

Diversity Challenge Update

1. Written by or about a person of Hispanic origin:

• Shadowhouse Fall by Daniel Jose Older
• Stella Diaz Has Something to Say by Angela Dominguez
• A Dash of Trouble. Love Sugar Magic #1 by Anna Meriano
• The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora by Pablo Cartaya
• The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo
• The Inexplicable Logic of My Life by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

2. A book in which a character suffers from a mental illness:

• Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham

3. A book written by or about someone on the spectrum:

• All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater. Narrated by Thom Rivera
• Watchdog by Will McIntosh

4. A book with an African-American [or African] young woman as the main character:
5. 

   

   

• Sky Full of Stars by Linda Williams Jackson
• Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson
• Dragons and Marshmallows. Zooey and Sassafras Book 1 by Asia Citro
• Who Fears Death by Nnedi Okorafor
• Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi
• The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
• Upside-Down Magic by Sarah Mlynowski, Lauren Myracle, and Emily Jenkins
• The Parker Inheritance by Varian Johnson
• Binti: the Night Masquerade by Nnedi Okorafor
• Dread Nation: Rise Up by Justina Ireland

5. A book containing an Asian main character
6. 

   

   

   

   

• Jasmine Toguchi: Super Sleuth by Debbi Michiko Florence
• Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick
• Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
• Aru Shah and the End of Time by Roshani Chokshi
• The Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn
• Heroine Worship by Sarah Kuhn
• The Serpent’s Secret. Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond Book 1 by Sayantani DasGupta
• The Big Bed by Bunmi Laditan and Tom Knight

6. A book with an illustrator of color

• Crown: an Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James
• Whoosh: Lonnie Johnson’s Super-Soaking Stream of Inventions by Chris Barton and Don Tate
• Shining Star: The Anna May Wong Story by Paula Yoo and Lin Wang.

7. A book with an LGBT main character
   

• Spinning by Tillie Walden
• The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee. Read by Christian Coulson.
• Everfair by Nisi Shawl
• That Inevitable Victorian Thing by K. Johnston
• Girls Made of Snow and Glass by Melissa Bashardoust

8. A graphic novel
9. 

   

• Real Friends by Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham
• Pashmina by Nidhi Chanani
• The Dam Keeper by Robert Kondo and Dice Tsutsumi
• Where’s Halmoni? By Julie Kim
• Suee and the Shadow by Ginger Ly and Molly Park
• Monsters Beware! By Jorge Aguirre and Rafael Rosado
• Backstagers Vol 1: Rebels Without Applause by James Tynion IV, Rian Sygh, Walter Baiamonte

9. A book with a Muslim main character

• Amina’s Voice by Hena Khan
• Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali

10. A book written by or for African-American young men

• Crown: an Ode to the Fresh Cut by Derrick Barnes and Gordon C. James
• Juba! by Walter Dean Myers
• To Catch a Cheat by Varian Johnson

11. A book in which the author or narrator has a physical disability

• Hello Goodbye Dog by Maria Gianferrari and Patrice Barton
• You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner
• Macy McMillan and the Rainbow Goddess by Shari Green
• The Book of Boy by Catherine Gilbert Murdock

12. A book about children during the Holocaust.

• The Dollmaker of Krakow by M. Romero