Beyond Black and White: Bicultural Characters in Young Adult Realistic Novels

Running Head: BEYOND BLACK AND WHITE

Queens College of the City of New York

Beyond Black and White: Bicultural Characters in Young Adult Realistic Novels

A research Project submitted to Dr. Linda Cooper of

The Graduate School of Library and Information Studies As a requirement for completion of the degree of Master of Library Science

By Migiwa (Micki) Spiller

[email protected]

Flushing, Queens Fall 2015

BEYOND BLACK AND WHITE

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Abstract

With the steady increase of immigrant populations to the United States, there have come

many intermarriages between different races and cultures. The year 2000 was the first time

individuals were allowed to mark more than one race on the United States Census forms. The

desegregation of schools in the 1950s also created a diverse population in kindergarten through

high schools. This content analysis looks at current young adult literature to observe parallel

trends in books for teens. Earlier studies on multicultural subject matters have focused primarily

on monoracial, non-white characters. This study looks closely at the diverse individuals in

literature who are products of different racial and cultural backgrounds, and the issues of identity

surrounding them. The results of this study indicate that cultural identity does factor into many

Asian and Hispanic sides of biracial characters. However, the white and black halves of the

characters are not equally portrayed and relies on phenotype and racial characteristics rather than

culture.


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Table of Contents

Abstract 2

Table of Contents 3

Chapter I: The Problem 6

Introduction 6

Background of Problem 7

Importance of Study 8

Purpose of Study 10

Hypothesis 13

Research Questions 13

Chapter II: Survey of Related Literature 14

History of Mixed Race in Literature 15

Destructive Definitions of Race 18

Culture Versus Race 22

Issues of Mixed Race Youth 25

Importance of Parental Involvement 29

Urban vs. Rural: Importance of Setting and Location 33

Conclusion 35

Chapter III: Methodology 36

Restatement of Problem 36

Restatement of Purpose 37

Definition of Terms 37

Restatement of Hypothesis 41


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Restatement of Research Questions 41

Research Design and Instrument 42

Selection of Books 43

Limitations 45

Chapter IV: Findings 46

Question 1 47

Question 2 51

Question 3 52

Question 4 57

Question 5 61

Question 6 65

Question 7 73

Question 8 74

Question 9 76

Question 10 78

Question 11 81

Chapter V: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations 83

Summary 83

Limitations 84

Additional Findings and Need for Further Study 85

Conclusions 85

Appendix A: List of Young Adult Novels 87

Appendix B: Coding Sheet 89


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Appendix C: CIP (Cataloging in Publication) Data Block 92

Appendix D: List of Names and Their Cultural Significance 98

Appendix E: Other Teen Issues in YA Literature 100

References 103


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Chapter I: The Problem

Introduction:

The history of U.S. race relations is complex. With every decade, new improvements

have been made constitutionally as well as in the depiction of minorities in literature. Currently

we live in an age of “post-racialism”. Everyone is seen as equal and are color-blind within this

multicultural landscape. Sociologist Amy Ansell coins ‘post-racialism’ as the ‘new racism’ due

to “the shift from a focus on race and biological relations of inequity to a concern for cultural

differentiation and national identity, evident in the substitution of race with the seemingly

nonracial categories of culture and nation” (Okamura, 2011). In his post-racial speech at the

2004 Democratic National Convention, Barak Obama hoped to illustrate the unity of this country

when he said, “there is not a black America and a white America and Latino America and Asian

America – there’s the United States of America” (Transcript of Obama’s keynote speech, Boston,

July 27, 2004, as cited by Okamura).

Our current president is considered the first black president, though he is in fact a mixture

of his black Kenyan father and his white mother of German, Swiss, Scottish and other European

ancestry, with influences from his stepfather who was Javanese/Indonesian. Additionally

Hawaiians claim Obama is the first Asian-American president because of his Hawaiian

upbringing and cultural values. Obama goes beyond his phenotype and ancestry though, and

seems to transcend his racial boundary and typical categories. Our 44th president is a true

example of what it means to be biracial and multicultural, but are these qualities depicted in our

youth literature?


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Background of Problem

Multicultural books are often represented through the lens of non-white, mono-racial

minority groups. Historically multicultural literature tended to be problematic because it often

focused on different levels of conflict, accommodation, isolation, as experienced under

aggressions of a dominant culture (Trites, 2003). It focused on racial issues instead of individual

common experiences. Such “contemporary realistic fiction sometimes called the problem novel,

used plots, themes, settings and characters to reflect the world as we know it” (Bucher &

Manning, cited by Stetz, 2008). Most often, the discriminatory issues in “problem novels” take

precedence over the problems of the individual.

In 1954, the US outlawed segregated schools. Ten years later, a survey of 5,206

children’s trade books showed that only 6.7% of characters were black, and most were

stereotypes (Larrick 1965, cited by Sims, 1983). The educational system has come a long way

since that decision, and we have more materials that reflect these changes, and more biracial

characters appearing in literature. The ALA has created awards under different racial categories;

for example The Pura Belpre Award for books about Latino/Latina cultural experience, and the

Coretta Scott King Award for the appreciation of African American culture. Though the creation

of these awards is important, isn’t it another form of racial segregation? Fortunately, some

authors who have won these race related awards in the past, have broken out of the mold like

Jacqueline Woodson has, with her most recent book Brown Girl Dreaming, which won both the

Newbery and The National Book Award.

Historically, race within the United States was, and is still divided up into white, black

Latin and Asian. The 2000 Census was the first time that individuals were permitted to mark

more than one race on the forms. Still, the categories for biracial individuals were divided into


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three distinct mixtures: white/black, white/Asian and white/Latino or Hispanic mix. We see

these racial divides even within the award winning books. Where do the stellar works written by

and about mixed race authors and characters belong? What about the author or protagonist of a

novel who is half Chinese and African-American? Or one who is half white South African and

half Pakistani? Where do these characters fit? And do they have to fit at all?

In this age of fading borders, with immigration at a peak, the issue of what constitutes

being biracial and bi-cultural should go beyond the dated categorization and skin color. In our

“post-racial” world, where African-American is still the label for anyone with dark-skin

(hypodescent or the one drop rule), no matter if they or their ancestors have stepped foot on the

continent of Africa, should be questioned. Mono-cultural enclaves exist all across this country.

Chinatowns exist in almost every major city, where walking down the street can closely

resemble a stroll in Hong Kong. It has become commonplace to enter sections of a city that can

only be navigated by speaking and reading Spanish. New immigrants from China or Columbia

feel at home there, but what about the children of these two unions?

Importance of study:

The Racial Integrity Act of 1924 created the anti-miscegenation statute, which prohibited

marriage between a white person and a person of color. The Loving v. Virginia decision in 1967

was the key case that invalidated this law and began the demographic change in the U.S., which

also began the “biracial baby boom” (Kim & Leavitt 2012, Brunsma, 2005). Before this decision,

it was illegal to marry outside of one’s race.

According to Brunsma (2005), biracial marriages now come in all different combinations,

and these matches occur due to similarities in value systems, socioeconomic status, and even


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result from feelings of being discriminated against (p.137). Kim & Leavitt (2012), sometimes

found that religion might bring two disparate cultures to intermarry, such as in the cases of

Mexicans and Filipinos in southern California forming a union. The “Mexapinos” share

Catholicism, which reinforced each side of the marriage in the religious community (p. 138).

Even with these unique pairings, the biracial categories are small. Just as multicultural groups are

split into sets of Hispanics, Blacks and Asians, biracial categories are also divided into

white/Hispanic, black/white, and Asian/white.

With these new demographics, sociologists have conducted studies of how intermarriage

reflects identity struggles. Adolescence is the time for the biggest challenges, a period of great

identity formation occurring in the transition from child to adult. This is also the biggest time of

confusion, self-doubt and identity crisis. For biracial teens, the crisis may be amplified because

they may not have a definitive safe haven of one race. Phinney (1997) states that most studies of

self-esteem have been done on mono-racial groups. Each minority group with which one

belongs, may be a source of support, and thus shows that a black adolescent, for example will not

have lower self-esteem than a white adolescent even though the black teen may be considered of

minority status.

Historically studies of biracial teens have a higher rate of depression, low self-esteem,

and low likelihoods of finding social acceptance. Recent studies have shown that this is not the

case, and that biracial teens may have the same issues as mono-racial teens (Root, 1992). The

new literature should reflect this change. The Children’s Rights Council’s Bill of Rights states

that: Every child has a right to education that “foster(s) respect for (the) child’s parents, for the

children’s own cultural identity, language and values, as well as for the cultural background and


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values of others” (Mabry 2010, Lawrence de Bivort, taken from Children’s Bill of Rights

http://wwwnnew civ.org/ncn/cbor.html).

Within the classroom, racial stereotyping still persists. Minority students may feel

undermined because stereotypes influence the way they are treated, both by their peers as well as

their teachers (Guttman & Gar-Tal, 1982; Wineberg, 1987, cited in Chang & Demyan, 2007).

Knowing that people often judge others by the color of their skin, these stereotypes are not only

wrong, but also often misplaced when dealing with children of mixed race.

Beginning in early education, books are the one major source of instruction in the

classrooms. According to Singh (1975), books are believed to be absolutes by children that help

form both negative and positive attitudes. Books should aim to bring about awareness of

stereotyping and related problems and either attempt to avoid or cope with such issues. Realistic

fiction has also changed throughout the years. Krapp (2005) notes that realistic fiction of yore

was sentimental and family-oriented with neatly concluding happy endings. However, in today’s

novels, realism focuses on the struggles of growing up, most often by depicting complex parental

characters who do not provide stalwart support systems, adults who are also working through

their own problems. These novels hope to benefit teens and help them gain the courage and

resourcefulness needed to navigate the tumultuous adolescent years by making them feel that

they are not alone.

Purpose of study

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the many unclassifiable individuals that

make up the landscape of Young Adult (YA) literature. Books about biracial characters

previously highlighted the problems of being a minority teen. The Council on Interracial Books


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for Children praises the promotion of literature for African Americans, Asian Americans, Latino,

and Native American topics. Though equal in importance, these books still highlight the

segregated nature of awards.

Most criticism that arose under the topic of multicultural books according to Trites

(2003) was that this literature originated from a place of cultural dominance, assimilation,

didacticism, political correctness and pluralism. It addresses the warfare that was waged against

minorities, including aggression through forced labor and forced acculturation (MacCann, 2001,

cited by Trites 2003). MacCann feels that the very nature of the word multiculturalism comes

from a violent history, from the victimization of slavery and argues that if these policies had

never occurred, multiculturalism would not be such an important topic. Such theorizing assumes

that minority readers have all been targets of oppression, though in the current climate that may

not be the case. There are many minorities living in this country who chose to immigrate here,

who were not abducted into service.

It has been 15 years since the 2000 Census, and the new populace of current young adult

literature should have identity issues that are typical to any race, and not necessarily based on a

particular mixed-race heritage. Importance of realistic fiction for young adults is further

emphasized by John Stephens observation that the “most pervasive strategy for effecting the

illusion of realism in modern children’s literature is first-person narration” (Stetz 2008, p. 47).

Books can provide important role models for navigating the difficult times of adolescence and

also provide exposure to the different types of families that now exist. America is a nation of

immigrants, and most who reside here came from other countries whether last week or centuries

ago. Therefore, if every Americans’ ancestry were traced back, there would be a discovery that

all people are a mixture of cultures from every nation on earth.


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Yet even today, YA literature and classifications of people are still divided into three

categories according to shades of skin color. Children of any race can benefit from reading

books about someone whose background is different from their own. But there are logistical

problems about which cultures should be included. Thao (2012) is not sure if predominant

minority or secondary populations should be included, or if any other should culture be included

to show a sense of non-whiteness. The differences of all students, even those with white-

European backgrounds should be highlighted. Omitting or making little notice of the uniqueness

in a culture, no matter how interesting or not, is still putting students and their backgrounds into

the category of “other”. This study hopes to show that it is not necessarily the specifics of the

cultures but a high quality and diverse selection of literature that is important.

This paper analyzes 36 Young Adult realistic novels published between the years 2008-

2015 (the Obama years) which involve characters that are a product of two or more cultures. A

case is made for uniqueness and individuality beyond race and for the inclusion of diverse

cultural heritage and nationality of characters in the novels. In this instance, culture should not be

defined merely as race or the color of one’s skin, but in fact a mixture of one or more ancestors,

who have immigrated from foreign lands (at some point in the family history) and blended two

or more different social/cultural/religious customs onto their children. The researcher also hopes

to point out stereotypes and how current literature tries to solve the problem of racism. Stetz

(2008) claims that it is important for the young readers to recognize themselves within the

context of the novel and to be able to relate to the problems. Sims (1983) makes a case for

fiction in which culturally conscious books also touch on human universals that have meaning

for all readers, no matter the ethnic or racial backgrounds (p. 653).


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Hypothesis

The researcher hopes that within the current “post racial” climate, ethnicity and culture

play an important role in the identities of racially mixed teen characteristics in Young Adult

Literature. Labeling these teens should go beyond the three categories of a mixture of

black/white, Asian/white, and Latino/white, to show the specific nationality or culture of each

parent.

The terms, minority, biracial and mixed heritage have become commonplace in YA

literature. There are many more non-white characters, and a higher percentage of characters with

parents of different racial, cultural and religious backgrounds than 10 years ago. Though we

have come a long way in terms of racism and bias in YA literature, this researcher hypothesizes

that race still plays a larger part of the identity of characters than culture, resulting in the painting

of incomplete pictures of the bicultural make-up of the characters.

Research questions

Does current Young Adult literature go beyond race and highlight specific cultures to help

bicultural teens come to terms with their complex identities?

1. What different races, cultures and ethnicities make up the mixture of biracial characters

in YA literature?

2. What subject heading do these biracial and bicultural books fall under in the library

catalogues?

3. How are the unique and diverse parents’ cultural influences shown in the lives of racially

mixed characters in YA literature?


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4. How important are parents in helping to create the identity of adolescent characters in YA

literature?

5. How is setting relevant in terms of how mixed race characters are treated and portrayed

in YA literature?

6. How are racially mixed teen characters visually described?

7. When the biracial teen protagonist is half white, how is his or her culture or race

explained to the readers?

8. How do the biracial protagonists deal with mono-racial stereotypes and bullying?

9. How do the books shed light on stereotypes and how do they combat it?

10. Is identity a main issue in biracial YA literature?

11. What other problems or issues are faced by mixed race individuals in YA lit?

Chapter II: Survey of Related Literature

The purpose of children’s literature in the classroom has been to “serve as a tool for growth,

a significant factor in children’s identity formation” (Gee, 2001; Qian, 2004; Heath, 2011, as

cited in Chaudhri & Teale, 2013, p 360). Issues of identity may concern an individual’s values,

sexuality, community, and family as well as ethnic and racial background. The 2000 United

States census was the first time individuals were allowed to mark more than one race on the

forms. The 2010 Census saw an increase to nine million Americans under the multiracial

category. According to Byrd (2004), 42% of people who reported being more than one race are

under age 18. That year, more than 6.8 million people identified themselves as being multiracial.


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Unfortunately, according to Byrd, materials available for classroom teachers to show diversity do

not accurately reflect current school populations.

Books are especially important for the YA age group because characters in them can be

used to expose young adults to diverse families as role models. Chaudhri & Teale (2013) were

interested in the portrayals of mixed race characters in novels aimed at children between the ages

of 9-14 (middle grades). They read and analyzed 90 novels and were able to separate them into

three distinct categories:

• Mixed Race In/Visibility (MRI/V): biracial identity is a source of external or

internal conflict.

• Mixed Race Blending (MRB): biracial identity is marked but inconsequential to

story.

• Mixed Race Awareness (MRA): recognition of biracial heritage, complex

negotiation with credible resolutions. (p. 362)

First, before discussing the divisions of the works that exist, a clear definition of mixed race must

be made.

History of Mixed Race in Literature

Bader (2003) found that there was an African American resurgence of children’s books

decades after the brutal years of the Civil Rights movement. It may have come from black pride

stemming from the publication of Alex Haley’s Roots in 1974. Along the same time, beginning

in the 1980s there was an explosion of multicultural novels being published, exemplified by

Amy Tan’s Joy Luck Club and Sandra Cisneros’ House on Mango Street. The success of these

two novels alerted publishers to changes the racial climate. Many large tomes on multicultural


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books were published in that decade, a positive nod to diversity in literature. However, each of

these tomes focused on but one culture at a time. Reynolds (2009) claims that currently, in the

U.S., while black/white unions producing children are the smallest category within interracial

marriages, there are disproportionately more young adult novels written about this topic, albeit

by white authors. Therefore the history of ‘diverse’ literature should be looked at from a different

standpoint.

When the Supreme Court outlawed segregated schools in 1954, the outlook for diverse

literature was good but still the materials available to children portrayed blatant stereotypes and

laughable images of minorities (Broderick 1973, cited by Sims 1983). According to Reynolds

(2009), “few literary stereotypes have had such a long run as the fictional mulatto” (p.1). These

characters can be split into two categories: In the 18th century, white English novelists such as

Jane Austen featured exotic mulatto characters used in comic settings. These mulattos were not

written as tragic since most were West Indian heiresses of a higher social standing, who were not

depicted as slaves.

Additionally in the US, Harlem renaissance authors such as Zora Neale Hurston created

mulatto characters who were products of their society. Mulatto characters were used both by pre-

Civil War abolitionists to point out the evils of slavery and by racists to depict the wrongs of

desegregation. In these works, according to Reynolds (2009), mulatto characters often

represented social fears, longings, desperation, anger, lust and racism. At the same time they

were depicted in American works as intelligent, sensitive, and nonviolent. Stereotypically novels

emphasized female mulattas’ exotic beauty, represented them as forbidden fruit and seen as

tragic hero/heroines.


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As a result of slavery’s tumultuousness, the historical literature is populated by multicultural

or mixed race characters that show African-Americans negatively and at times according to

Chaudhri and Teale (2013), stereotypically tragic, as mixed race orphans, and other mentally

unstable characters (p. 371). These novels often fall into the Mixed Race In/Visibility (MRI/V)

category and can be damaging to a child’s self-esteem.

The second category of mixed race characters created by Chaudhri & Teale, Mixed Race

Blending (MRB), fairs better in their portrayals due to the authors and characters pride in mixed

race ancestry as well as blending seamlessly into settings. However it also tends to make race a

non-issue. Therefore, these novels may trivialize race and ignore the importance of the characters’

historical past.

The third category, MRA, may be the best category of children’s literature dealing with

biracial characters. The protagonists tend to be self aware of their biracial identity, and

experience conflicts that any adolescent might have. Chaudhri and Teale (2013) found that

sometimes the authors of such books might be too didactic in the storytelling and “heavy handed

in their positive representation of biracial identity, while others are more nuanced.” The

existence of a vast range of works is a good representation of the mixed race stories being told.

However Scanlon-McMath (2008) states that biracial children may feel invisible as individuals

when they get categorized by the dominant minority’s physical characteristics.

Elementary classrooms teachers have been known to view a biracial child as a

representative of a single race, the minority one. Recognizing biracial characters in young

picture books will place importance on all races that created the child, as will influencing the

mono-racial child’s view of them. This is important for educating their peers and classroom

teachers as well.


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Destructive Definitions of Race

According to Merriam Webster’s online dictionary (www.Merriam-Webster.com), race is

defined as:

1: a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical traits

2: a class or kind of people unified by shared interests, habits, or characteristics

3: a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock

4: an actually or potentially interbreeding group within a species; also: a taxonomic category

(as a subspecies) representing such a group

5: breed

The first few entries are neutral, seemingly benign. Yet the third definition hints at

animals by describing people as coming from the same “stock”. The last two entries are negative

when referring to humans, resembling how animals like cattle may be characterized, thus harking

back to slavery. In the same source, biracial is defined as: of, relating to, or involving members

of two races. But nothing is as simple as that when the source word has so many variables, thus

this researcher prefers to use other words to define those individuals made up of more than one

race.

Race is a socially constructed term according to Crawford (2008) lacking clear definition

(p. 82). Definitions and labels only serve one group of people, those who are dominating others

by marking them as different. Other times ethnicity is a term related to common factors like

religion and nationality (Pinderhughes 1995). Going beyond ‘race’, terms with more positive

connotations are used, such as culture and ethnicity. According to Phinney (2003), cultural

identity can be seen as ethnic identity: a related but distinct dimension of self-concept and an


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aspect of the acculturation process which refers to a sense of belonging to an ethnic group and

those thoughts and behaviors that are due in part to ethnic group membership.

Reynolds (2009) claims that the primary reason society created labels stems from

rationalizing slavery and the dominance of the white caste in the 19th century to justify Nazi

racialism and extermination camps in the 20th century. Fernandez (1992) states society even

went so far as to use skin color as an arbitrary way of sorting people scientifically (p.138).

When Europeans settled in the New World, there existed a three-tiered caste system

consisting of white, nonwhite and mixed-race peoples. As slavery became the norm, the three

categories were reduced to a binary system of pure whites and subordinate nonwhites. Thus

evolved the practice of hypodescent- also known as the “one drop rule”, (Bracey, Bamaca &

Umana-Taylor 2004, Crawford 2008, Khanna 2010) where even if a person has 1/8 black

ancestry, they are put into the nonwhite class, or black. Most of these births resulted from white

masters raping their black slaves. Thus, the biracial child was born out of a negatively perceived

union, and stigmatized for centuries in this country.

Though hypodescent theory is often used to classify blacks, it has been used for other

races as well, by the ruling white class when it was convenient for them to do so. Such was the

case during WWII when Japanese-American citizens were put in internment camps even if they

were 1/16th (having only one great-great-grandparent) Japanese. The labeling of any individual to

be of the minority, no matter how small a percentage is represented in their DNA, is an example

of our unfortunate and painful history of rape, rejection and exploitation.

The damage hypodescent rules have on a biracial adolescent can lead to negative issues

of self that invalidate a portion of their identity, while also negating the existence of one parent.


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Such mixed-race bicultural offspring are the fastest growing demographic in the United States

today, yet are culturally invisible, and mostly hidden within the mono-minority class.

Bruner (1988) states that in youth literature, more damage can occur when these

prejudiced thoughts of a character go beyond the confines of single character delineation into the

authoritative voice of the narrator. Therefore in stories where minority characters are depicted, it

is the author’s responsibility to be clear about differentiations between individuals and groups.

Culture is defined as the configuration of learned behavior and results of behavior whose

components and elements are shared and transmitted by members of a particular society (Wilson

& Stith, cited in Mabry, 2010). Just as Reynolds (2009) affirmed that society created labels,

Lentin (2005) says that culture is used to categorize the differences between groups of people.

“Culture” replaced the term “race” after WWII mainly due to the Holocaust. Lentin believes that

the term culture was meant to highlight the positives in different nationalities and individualistic

human difference, whereas race tended to diminish or discriminate different groups placing

individuals into a category of superiority and inferiority, and so, post WWII, UNESCO helped to

replace ‘race’ with ‘culture’. According to Ivan Hannaford (cited by Lentin, 2005):

All men belonged to the same species, Homo Sapiens, that national, cultural,

religious, geographical and linguistic groups had been falsely termed races;

that it would be better to drop the term and use ‘ethnic groups’ in its place. (p.

384)

The idea is to explain that all culture contributes equally ‘in its own way’ (according to

Claude Levi-Strauss as cited by Lentin, 2005), to humanity as a whole. There should be no

hierarchy when bringing this topic to discussion, especially in literature for children and young

adults.


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Schwartz (2010) claims biculturalism represents comfort and proficiency with both one’s

heritage and the culture of the country or region in which one has settled. In this case,

biculturalism can also apply to immigrants as well as 2nd generation individuals and children of

mixed ethnicity. This can be seen in the mixing of old cultures with newly settled American

cultures. A person who is bicultural may not be biracial, but nevertheless straddles two worlds.

Grosjean (2011) agrees with Schwartz that a bicultural person can speak their parents’

languages as well as English, have friends from both cultural backgrounds, and read, watch and

absorb popular culture items from both cultures. A true bicultural person will mix two cultures

to create a new hybrid culture. An example of this may be a Chinese-American who eats

hamburgers with a side of stir-fried snow pea leaves and speaks “Chinglish” (a combination of

Chinese and English). They will exist in a social group that mixes American friends and Chinese

friends. In the case of Spanish speaking teens, they may adapt Spanglish to bridge their parents’

mother tongue with their environment. Grosjean claims one can be bilingual and not be

bicultural. They do not always have to go together. For example many Europeans can speak a

multitude of languages but still adhere to one culture. There can also be monolingual English

speakers who come from different nations (Australia, England) who use English as a national

language but differ vastly in cultural heritage. Culture can be taught and learned just as language.

When one can embrace both the cultures one exists in them, and can exhibit positive

ways of thinking about oneself. Bicultural individuals are more likely to display advanced

reasoning they are more prone to seeing both sides of an argument, understanding multiple

perspectives on complex social issues. (Tadmor, Tetlock, & Peng, 2009 as cited by Schwartz &

Unger). This makes for a better outlook on society as a whole and makes the transition from

childhood to adulthood, less fraught with negative identity issues.


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Culture Versus Race

Cohen, a Professor of Anthropology SUNY (1998), points out the problems of categories

and stereotypes and makes a case for individuality, beyond race. He believes that teaching

biology (the color of the skin) and ignoring culture may perpetuate racism. Cohen (1998)

believes that ‘race’ as identified by society, tends to pigeonhole individuals into neat categories

and sometimes may force a person into fitting where they may not belong.

He further claims that skin color has many variables, even within a single individual,

where shades of skin tone may differ from season to season, fairer in winter and darker in

summer. “Skin color comes in a spectrum from dark to light, not just in black or white” (p. 30).

Nash (1995) also claims that there is no such thing as white skin. “People categorized as white

have skin tones ranging from light pink, or yellowish, to various hues of olive, beige, or dark tan”

(p. 45). Other physical stereotypes of African-Americans may be the broad nose, and black Afro

hairstyle, but in fact, many East Africans have narrow noses and black populations of Australia

and New Guinea may have blond hair. Geneticists believe that blacks and whites share 99.9%

similar genes, so the categories are as cleanly divided as a color wheel.

Skin color is also not necessarily an indication of who is related to whom. Especially

within one biracial family, two children born to the same parents may look completely different.

If you think about this in terms of two “white” parents of different European descent, one with

blond hair and the other with dark hair, their offspring cab vary widely in appearance.

Therefore variation in behavior deriving from an individual’s cultural values should

separate by culture not by skin color. Often we think of a person’s culture is displayed in

languages spoken, foods eaten and rituals followed. Cohen (1998) believes that “just as

language is more than vocabulary, culture is more than art and music” (p. 32). Culture structures


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behavior, thoughts, perceptions, values, goals, morals, and cognitive processes, usually without

conscious thought. Most often in YA literature these variables show through via the diverse

make-up of the parents ethnicities and the multicultural they live in.

In our current multicultural classrooms, educators wonder how to teach to cultural

differences. Cohen (1998) considers that teachers must first stop teaching World and American

History in ways that deny contributions of others. Educators must realize that there is more than

one way to think cognitively and routinely perceive problems from different cultural points of

view. America tends to teach within the framework of white middle-class culture. This needs to

be reevaluated as our classroom climate changes. Cohen also notes that cultural studies should be

built into the regular curriculum and not be taught as an elective.

Okamura (2011) discusses the new post-racial climate after the election of Barack Obama.

He notes that if race comes from culture, then according to Toni Morrison, Bill Clinton was our

first Black president. “After all, Clinton displays almost every trope of blackness: single-parent

household, born poor, working-class, saxophone-playing, McDonald’s and junk food loving boy

from Arkansas” (Morrison, T. New Yorker, 5 October 1998, as cited by Okamura).

Barak Obama can also be seen as our first Asian-American president due to his

upbringing interspersing his stepfather’s Asian heritage. He was born and raised in Hawaii, the

only US state that has a majority of Asian Americans, moved to Jakarta in his formative years

with his mother and Indonesian step-father and learned to speak Bahasa (Indonesian). The

cultural values with which he was raised can thus be construed as Asian to the point of being

able to claim the role of the ‘model minority’ rather than “black minority”. The term “model

minority” is often a stereotype given to Asian Americans which says that they are all

hardworking and high achieving citizens. The flip side of this seemingly positive stereotype of


24

Asians is that they are also less assertive, less expressive and less interpersonally effective

compared to other minorities (Chang & Demyan 2007, p. 93).

Stetz, (2008) cites the ridiculousness of making assumptions about different cultures

based on the color of one’s skin or eye shape as seen in Lendsy Namioka’s novel Yang the

Youngest and His Terrible Ear (1992). Written with humor, she shows how grouping all Asians

into one category is ludicrous, to whit, the following passage, in which a student who recently

immigrated from Shanghai is put at a table with Asian Americans.

During lunch she and I sat at a table with mostly Asian Americans. At first we

didn't’ understand what Asian Americans were. … “We have a number of Asian-

Americans at this school, so you’ll be able to make friends easily,” said the

secretary. She seated me next to a girl who was also Asian American. I greeted

her in Chinese, but she just shook her head. “I’m afraid I don't’ understand

Japanese,” she told me in English.

“I wasn’t speaking Japanese,” I told her. “I was speaking Chinese.”

“Sorry. I don't’ understand that, either. My family is from Korea.”

I didn’t know much about Korea, except that my country had once invaded her

country. I hoped she didn’t hold it against me. (p. 20)

The specific names and labels given to these bicultural/bi-ethnic characters within stories

are important. For example, a character should be described as Cherokee not American Indian,

or Japanese American not Asian. Defining individual heritage/culture trumps relying on skin

tone, physiognomy and other external traits and avoids individuals from being lumped into

generic minority groups.


25

Issues of Mixed Race Youth

Adolescence is by far the most difficult time in a young person’s life. It is the time when

they are forming their identity and dealing mostly with self-esteem issues. Self-esteem is an

individual’s subjective evaluation of the self or feelings of worth (Harter, 1993; Hattie, 1992,

cited in Rhea & Thatcher, 2013). According to Reynolds (2009), some identity issues in

adolescence stem from their race and ethnicity, as well as from gender, family status,

socioeconomic status, class, sexual orientation, physical ability or disability and changes in

physical appearance. Negative self-esteem issues may include hopelessness and depression.

(Phinney, Cantu & Kurtz 1997). Another factor Phinney (1997) believes may involve Social

Identity Theory, which “consists of those aspects of an individual’s self-image that derive from

the social categories to which he [sic] perceives himself as belonging” (p166). Issues of mixed

race youth may also include stigmatization, alienation from racial roots, racism and divided

loyalties (Kitch 1992, Root 1990 cited in Crawford 2013).

Additionally adolescents are forming a concept of themselves and how they exist in the

world. Self-concept may be defined as a multifaceted construct that refers to a person’s

perceptions of oneself which develops over time through various experiences within the

environment, through others’ perceptions of the individual and through internalizing attributions

for one’s own behavior (Ulash & Unger, 1995, cited in Rhea & Thatcher 2013). Crawford &

Alaggia (2008) have found that these teens tend to choose different models of self-identification.

They are:

• Pressure to choose one race over the other

• “Passing” as one race over the other

• Rejecting the oppressed side of their race. (p. 82)


26

Racial stereotypes run rampant during this time of development as teens try to figure out

where they fit in. According to Chang & Demyan (2007), the typical social stereotypes that tend

to exist in the literature and otherwise, largely correspond to three sets of positive and three sets

of negative traits associated with three ethnic groups. They are:

• For whites: industrious, intelligent, friendly, stubborn, materialistic, and selfish.

• For Asians: intelligent, industrious, gentle, selfish, nationalistic, and passive.

• For blacks: athletic, rhythmic, sociable, aggressive, lazy and unintelligent. (p. 98)

It is understood that stereotyping is an unfortunate but common occurrence, more so for biracial

teens who are not only rebelling against the mono-racial stereotypes but must do so under two or

more racial categories.

When dealing with a biracial or mixed race adolescents, determining where and how they

see themselves fitting in can also cause confusion. For example Latinos may identify themselves

as equally Spanish and/or of African descent. In fact Latino is not a racial category but rather an

ethnic group that includes people or different races, ranging from white, Mulatto, and black in

the Caribbean to white, Mestizo, and Amerindian in Mexico (Graham 1990 cited by Qian 2004).

However these individuals often get lumped into the same category as Hispanics. Uncertainty of

self may cause doubt but some say that biracial teens may even have higher self-esteem than

mono-racial adolescents due to having to develop coping skills in the face of mixed-heritage

problems (Gaskins 1999).

In 2011, Marks, Patton & Coll conducted interviews with several high school students to

see how they self-identified their mixed race status. Here are some of the responses:

Q: Do you ever consider yourself to be bicultural?

A: Yes, because I have one culture at school and a different culture at home.


27

Q: How would you describe your ethnicity?

A: Both my parents are from Haiti, so I am Haitian and African American

Second-generation 16-year-old boy.

Q: Do you ever consider yourself to be bicultural?

A: Yes. My grandmother is from China, so I’m sort of mixed in with

the Chinese culture. I haven’t actually been to China, but we have

Chinese gatherings and celebrate the Chinese New Years.

Q: How would you describe your ethnicity?

A: I normally just say I’m half Chinese, half Caucasian; my mom’s

Irish and Scottish. I just say I’m half and half”

Third-generation 15-year-old girl.

There are many different reasons these teens see themselves as bicultural or biracial.

Some derive from where they live, and others from how strong the immigrant experience is at

home. In the case of the Haitian boy, society has preempted how he sees himself. Even more

curious, he immediately identifies as part African, even though Haiti has historically enjoyed an

indigenous Caribbean population mixed with Spaniards as well as Africans.

Evidence supports the belief that bicultural individuals who are able to form strong,

positive multiethnic identities have better self-esteem (Phinney, Cantu, & Kurtz, 1997 cited in

Marks & Patton), fewer mental health problems, and higher academic achievement than their

peers with less developed or mono cultural ethnic identities. The study shows that ethnic identity

is considered important, in part, because of its relationship to the psychological well being of

ethnic minority group members. Ethnic minority students rate their ethnicity as a major concern


28

to their identity formation, equal to that of religion and political views. Strength of character and

identity therefore come from awareness as well as from embracing all parts of one’s culture and

racial heritage. Nash (1995) believes:

You have to experience the cultures that make up your unique racial heritage.

You can gain that experience in many ways. You can learn about your ancestors

by reading history books, by looking at old family photo albums, and by talking to

grandparents and great-grandparents, who often make the best oral historians. For

some biracial people, experiencing the cultures within them may mean learning to

speak other languages, learning and practicing a variety of customs and traditions,

and attending and participating in special events…that celebrate the uniqueness of

cultures. (p. 46)

Contrarily, Udry, Li & Henderickson-Smith (2003) and Bracey, Bamaca & Umana-

Taylor (2004) agree with one another in their assumption that biracial children may have low

self-esteem or negative image of the self in their identity formation. Stress may also be a

contributing factor to health risks in adolescents, though there are many other variables, such as

setting and parental involvement in the adolescent’s life. Not all races consider ethnicity equal in

importance. For example, black female adolescents claimed ethnicity was their most self-

defined marker, whereas other races in studies did not. Other influences of self-esteem are social

class and gender. For example the higher one’s social class, the less likely they are to relate to

their minority status. Also the gender of the minority parent was an important factor. Most

children tended to identify with their major caregiver, most often the mother. The physical

appearance was also a factor, their phenotype contributed as well to where they saw themselves


29

in the social hierarchy. Language also played a key role in class and identity, in that higher-class

parents tended to label their children as being multiracial vs. being a minority.

No matter what mixture of different races, all American born adolescents also tend to

have a national identity as Americans, which may be stronger in non-immigrant second

generation, biracial teens.

Importance of Parental Involvement

For well-adjusted adolescents to become well-adjusted adults, both parents have a

responsibility to share their racial identity (Brunsma 2005, Crawford 2008). In most cases, within

the home, a parent is the primary source of support for the child, therefore understanding and

awareness of racial issues is important, as is instilling a positive attitude of being of mixed race

heritage. Nash (1995) studied the subject of parent/child interaction of biracial families and

divided them into three categories. Some parents negated color and said their children are

humans above their race. Other parents taught their children to take on the identity of the

minority parent and tried teaching them surviving skills necessary to that race. Third, there were

parents who taught the importance of biculturalism and honoring the importance of both parents.

Chong (2013) studied interracially married middle class professional Asian

American/non-Asian couples in Chicago and found some interesting results. For the minority

parent, the child represented both attachment and assimilation to the mainstream culture. They

represented a reflection of the parent’s identities and cultural heritage, but physically represented

assimilation into the culture through their mixed race appearance. Most of the Asian parents

choose to selectively assimilate their heritage and culture onto the child. They passed down the

positive cultural aspects only to balance out the negative taunting the children may have been


30

receiving at school due to their “otherness”. The positive cultural aspects most passed down were

language skills that they saw as valuable later in life for work and for being a citizen in a global

society.

The children of mixed culture unions may be confused because the parents present an

inconsistent viewpoint stemming from their own upbringings. Chong (2013) notes that “parents

struggle with the contradiction between their own distancing from ethnic culture and racial

identity in their early years, and the powerfully renewed desire to instill ethnic identity/culture in

their biracial children as they struggle to come to terms with their own ethnicities” (p. 192).

Parents who had struggled during their own childhood, especially within suburban

America, grew up with a strong sense of not belonging to the white majority. They felt a sense

of embarrassment and were self-conscious of their racial/ethnic/cultural differences. Because of

this, they chose to ignore their cultural heritage.

The study uncovered some of the reasons for intermarriage between Asians and whites.

Some were going against their dislike of the cultural patriarchy (for Asian women) of their

parents’ generation, and others were running away from reminders of “overbearing and

possessive” females (for Asian men). There were racial stereotypes within each culture, making

generalizations of Asian women being accomplished, smart yet possessive and emasculating,

whereas white American women were deemed carefree and progressive.

Studies showed that the cultural aspects were pushed onto the children especially if the

children looked Asian. Some parents confessed that if they were from a second generation

European country, such as from Poland, they would not have forced Polish culture on their

children because they fit in visually with the society they live in.


31

Instances where a child has only one parent, due to divorce or separation, may lead to

anger and resentment. In a dysfunctional family set-up, where the parents are at odds with one

another, estranged or non-existent, the conflicts of identity for the teen are amplified. Reynolds

(2009) states that problems occur often due to the missing parent, the missing half of the biracial

teen’s identity. Crawford & Alaggia (2008) state that in single parent families, the child tends to

negate the whole race of the absentee parent due to feeling rejected by that parent. They blame

the hurt or the pain they feel toward the race of the parent, not necessarily the individual. This in

a sense is what psychologists call “color coding”. Color-coding is when a person assumes a

racial characteristic of everyone within a race, based on experiences with one person. For

example, a child of a Filipino mother who was distant and self-centered, will distance themselves

from all Filipino’s because they reminded them of the mother. Also if a child has similar

physical traits of the disliked parent such as the color of their skin or shade of their hair, they

may have self hate. Family dysfunctions may be color-coded and complicate issues within one

family, especially one where the siblings may look vastly different from one another and/or from

the parents.

Fortunately, where there are missing parents, grandparents may step in to become the ties

to culture. They represent the conduit to the “old country” and its views and customs, because

they are not ambivalent about their stance on culture/ethnicity. Grandparents, when they exist,

can be the missing link to the parent who cannot be there to share one half of the family history.

Most parents of minority/minority mixed families, such as in Black/Asian mixed couples

will choose the least negatively valued society in America upon which to base their racial

designation. This creates a hierarchy of races, and may not be a positive identifier of one of the

parents in the family. In a sense, this is telling the child that one parent is better than the other


32

due to skin color.

Psychologist Dr. Root (1998) conducted a biracial sibling project and found several

different identifiers for sibling differences as follows: hazing, family dysfunction, and integration,

among others. She used hypodescent theory for racial classification and found that markers of

self-identification differed between phenotype, gender, class and regional history of race. Also

inherited influences such as given name, languages spoken in the home, and cultural values were

factors. Dr. Root wrote, that individuals getting over a trauma tended to retreat to the safety of a

similar racial group but for biracial individuals, there is no guarantee of safety.

Well-meaning parents try to instill benefits of being biracial or bicultural. Their children

are raised to believe that they are special and unique, while blending into the Euro-American

mainstream. What is curious is that most white parents felt that their own mainstream race was

boring. White culture is often overlooked in current literature. It is thought of as being too

mainstream, and that it needs no further exploration. But what is American culture? Isn’t

culture in the New England states different than the rural South, or the Southwest? Our country

is so vast and expansive that it is difficult to pinpoint what represents current American culture.

In the introduction to the book Half and Half, Claudine Chiawei O’Hearn (1998)

describes America to be, “getting up to watch Scooby Doo and the rest of the Saturday morning

cartoons; eating Pop Rocks and macaroni and cheese; and best of all, shopping at the mall” (p.

ix). Comparing that to one white parent in Chong’s study (2013) who claimed that “her own

backgrounds and families as ‘lacking’ in culture and ethnic identity.” Another went so far as to

say that her own family was “cultureless”, “white-bread” and “boring,” and stated that she found

the prospect of marrying her Chinese-American husband exciting because he was “different” (p.

212). Perhaps this is why the “minority” side of each biracial couple is highlighted and the other


33

white European heritage, no matter how watered down, no longer exists within these blended

families.

Children need validation from parents even if the parents may not understand fully what

their biracial children are going through. Perhaps, this may make a case for the importance for

Young Adult novels to be read by parents as well their children, so the adults better understand

their importance as role models.

Urban vs. rural: Importance of Setting and Location

Two factors are in play for a successful bicultural existence: parental involvement from

both parents and the social context of the individual. When the environment of the person is

bicultural or multicultural - such as having a Chinatown in the midst of a large American city, it

is easier for the individual to claim their bicultural heritage. Biculturalism works best within

large urban areas where large populations of different cultures exist otherwise, the locals may

discriminate against the bicultural individual due to a sense of foreign-ness. In most of the

resources and novels consulted, this seemed more of an issue in the U.S. than other “white” parts

of the world. Bracey, Bamaca & Umana-Taylor’s study (2004) for example on ethnic identity

and self-esteem was conducted in several high schools in a large southwestern city. It is no

surprise that the diverse make up of that environment resulted in higher levels of self-esteem.

James McBride states in an essay titled What Color is Jesus, “some places are more

conducive to the survival of a black white man like me than others. Europe is okay, Philly works,

and in New York, you can at least run and hide and get lost in the sauce; but Washington is a

town split straight down the middle” (O’Hearn 1998, p.184). Location matters says Chong

(2013), “Luxuries of a color-blind environment can be expected only in diverse areas or in major


34

metropolitan cities where they all chose to live” (p. 206). Many in Chong’s study had

experienced racism in the past and purposely chose to live in urban neighborhoods for the sake

of their children.

Ironically, mixed race teens tend to find themselves in suburban settings because of their

parent’s choices. Their immigrant parents often look to the suburbs as a symbol of

socioeconomic success, yet it is in these isolated pockets of white suburbia where most mixed

race teens feel it an impossible task to try to fit in. Some bicultural couples chose to live in urban

areas precisely because they understand the racism that can occur. They have had to experience

it firsthand from their own parents and families who did not want them to marry outside their

own culture. In novels where biracial characters exist, Stetz (2008) claims that the author will

often choose urban settings (typically New York, New Jersey, California and other west coast

large cities) where a large mixed race population already exists, so the race issues seem less of a

problem.

Many studies have looked at the difference between the U.S. and other countries. For

internationally raised people, according to Paxton & Wade (2011), race is contextual, and stands

out in the United States. A Cameroonian-Dutch person relates it this way:

Race is a function of where you are and the people you’re around…it’s not really

about what you technically or biologically are racially…For example, in Africa,

someone like myself is considered mixed, but when I’m in America I’m a Black

woman…I think it’s a very big difference between the experiences of biracial

people in America and biracial people in Africa. I think that America is much

more polarized, racially, and in Africa there is a sense that, ‘yes, I know you must

be half something or anther but you are African. Whatever your father is, you are


35

that, you are Cameroonian’…Here in America, it’s really hard for biracial

people…It’s just very politicized. From what I’ve seen, if you identify as mixed,

it’s seen as a betrayal by the black community. (p. 328)

Conclusion

Many sociologists, psychologists and other public health advocates have proven the

importance of racial and cultural identity among bicultural teens, and how different outlooks can

foster positive or negative self esteem. According to Crawford & Alaggia (2008), the case for

books providing realistic role models and exposure to other types of families is also important.

Sims (1983) also states that literature is one of the important vehicles through which we socialize

children and transmit our cultural values to them (p. 650). In addition, “literature should

encourage and promote the ideal that every person should respect his or her ethno-cultural

identity and extend that same respect for cultures of others” (Willams & Carver, cited by Osa

1995, p.13). Overall there are still not enough books available to depict and tell the stories of

those individuals of mixed race heritage. And even if a character is bicultural, they may be

classified as a minority, without thoughts to what that may mean.

The importance of increasing good literature with mixed-race or bicultural characters is

undisputed. We can be sure that the number of children born to parents of two or more different

races, ethnicities or cultures will only multiply as we anticipate the results of the next U.S.

Census. The issues surrounding these children as they grow will also evolve and change.

Therefore, increasing the number of good literature about multicultural and multi-ethnic

characters will become more important as the population increases.


36

Chapter III: Methodology

This researcher chose the method of content analysis of 36 young adult (YA) books.

Specifically, YA realistic books published between the years of 2008 and 2015 were studied to

examine how racially mixed and bicultural teens were depicted in each novel. Each book was

considered a unique element within the population of Y.A. literature. With the use of a coding

sheet, the research looked at and identified cultural and ethnic characteristics, setting, identity

issues, and parental involvement of each mixed race teen, to answer the research questions stated

in the introduction.

Restatement of Problem:

We often think of a person of mixed race, or biracial origin to be a person with parents of

two different races. These offspring tend to be hyphenated, such as the Asian-American or

sometimes, new terms are made up for them, such as Blasian (for someone who has one Asian

parent and one black parent). Singling out all people of color to fit into a neat little box, is

cheating them of their rich background. A biracial person is more than the sum of two different

races, he or she is composed of different cultures, ethnicities and nationalities, all with their own

unique customs, observances, and sometimes languages. Therefore a content analysis of 36

realistic young adult novels will be conducted to find out if these trends have changed to reflect

this complex environment within contemporary Young Adult Literature.

Restatement of Purpose:

Through a study of books published beginning 2008 (chosen for being known as the

Obama years) through to the present, this paper examines how biracial teens are depicted as


37

more than the color of their parents skin. This researcher notes that the label of “biracial” does

not give justice to the unique individuals found in the literature and has renamed them to be

bicultural or multi-ethnic. It is hoped that books can be found which make a case for the

importance of culture over race, and the importance of embracing one’s cultural background,

which can create strong self-identity for teens reading about Young Adult literature protagonists

like themselves.

Definition of Terms

RACE: Though the Census 2000 reported that there are 63 race categories, (Allen &

Turner, 2001) race refers to the difference in physical appearance or phenotype of the character.

Historically race in this country has been subdivided into the following categories: white, black,

and Asian. Many people of Latin American origin find that they do not fit clearly into any race

category, since there may or may not be a clear difference in phenotype. This researcher finds

this term to be used with negative connotations and would prefer to use other definitions when

referring to characters in the study. However, it is used here because when doing searches in the

library catalogues, “race” is one of the primary terms used.

BIRACIAL: There are many terms and viewpoints of definitions when describing

biracial people. Therefore in this document the term biracial may be used interchangeably with

racially mixed people, interracial, mixed race, and multiracial. What is important to note, is that

when describing characters who are described as biracial in the literature covered, means

individuals whose parents did not come from the same heritage, culture, religion or race, though

rarely going beyond the color of their skin to include cultural importance.


38

ETHNICITY: having an identity with a particular racial, national, or cultural group and

observes that groups customs, beliefs and language.

CULTURE: can be thought of as the behaviors and beliefs which are characteristic of a

particular ethnic or religious group. In this paper, culture will replace the term race, in most cases

to show a positive way of showing unique individualistic human qualities (Lentin 2005). These

beliefs may also include excellence in the arts, a value of ancestry, manners, and scholarly

pursuits.

NATIONALITY: defined as the country of origin. Allen & Turner (2001) have analyzed

that people of mixed-Asian nationality combination (for example a person who is part Chinese

and part Korean) may be considered biracial due to being from different nationalities, even

though they are classified as being Asian.

BICULTURAL: a person who takes part in the life of two or more cultures, adapting

their attitudes, behaviors, and values of these cultures. They may also combine and blend

aspects of the cultures involved (Grosjean 2011).

MULTICULTURAL: of, relating to, reflecting, or adapted to diverse cultures. This

definition often applies to a group rather than an individual such as a multicultural society,

multicultural education or a multicultural restaurant menu.

MULTIETHNIC: made up of people of various ethnicities; most often applied to a group

rather than an individual as in a multiethnic country.

STEREOTYPE: a set of overgeneralized beliefs about a target group by individuals, or

group consensus regarding a set of traits that are thought to be characteristics of the target group

(Gardner, Lalonde, Nero, & Young, 1998; cited in Chang & Demyan 2007).


39

YOUNG ADULT (YA): refers to children aged 12-18 as defined by the Young Adult

Library Services Association (YALSA). This may seem like a large span, but this researcher

feels that identity formation can begin as early as during the middle grade or tween years and

continue throughout high school.

REALISTIC FICTION: Works that focus on today’s problems and the protagonist’s

struggle to overcome them (Krapp 2005). Even given the assumption that truth is stranger than

fiction, however, some of the narratives in current realistic fiction seem far-fetched and could

never happen. But due to the strangeness of the world at present, when we have candidates who

have never held office running for the presidency, and every few weeks a gunman opens fires

and kills handfuls of people in schools, the unreal has become real.

PHENOTYPE: the visible characteristics of a person that results from the combined

effects of the genes and the environment. In literature about race, most often phenotype is

defined by the color of skin, but may also involve color and type of hair, facial features, such as

the shape of the eyes or nose.

POST RACIAL: to be beyond racism, colorblind to race or to be truly multicultural. This

utopic notion is hard to witness, and may have been created, to make the majority feel better

about themselves.

WHITE: Being a member of a group of people characterized by light pigmentation of the

skin, most often people who are of European descent.

BLACK: Relating to any of various population groups having dark pigmentation of the

skin. Often used synonymously with African American, is a problematic definition, since not all

people living on the continent of Africa are dark skinned.


40

AFRICAN AMERICAN: An American of African and especially a person of black

African descent. Again, this term is problematic since a large population of Africa, primarily

South Africa are white and Indian. This negates the idea that African Americans are always

black.

HYPODESCENT: also known as the “one drop rule” (Bracey, Bamaca & Umana-Taylor

2004, Crawford 2008, Khanna 2010), where even if a person of mixed racial origins has 1/8 part

black ancestry, they are put into the nonwhite class, most notably classified as black or

“octaroon”.

ASIAN: of, originating from, or characteristic of the continent of Asia or its people.

Though in this country, it also refers usually to a person from the countries of eastern Asia,

namely China, Korea, and Japan.

LATINO: a person who was born or lives in South America, Central America, or Mexico,

or a person with family origin from those region of the world.

HISPANIC: of or relating to or being a person of Latin American descent living in the

United States, especially one of Cuban, Mexican or Puerto Rican origin. It can also refer to the

people, speech or culture of Spain or of Spain and Portugal (though in Portugal people mainly

speak Portuguese).

Restatement of Hypothesis:

Minority, biracial and mixed heritage teens have become more commonplace in YA

literature. There are also many more non-white characters, higher percentage of characters with

parents of different racial, cultural and religious backgrounds than there were 10 years ago.

Though we have come a long way in terms of counteracting racism and bias in YA literature, this


41

researcher hypothesizes that race still plays a larger part of the identity of characters over culture,

contributing to the painting of an incomplete picture of the bicultural make of the characters. The

categories of people as black, white or Asian are still used and the cultural uniqueness of these

characters is not delineated enough.

Restatement of Research Questions:

Again issues of identity within Young Adult Literature concerning bicultural teens are

questioned. Does current Young Adult literature go beyond race and highlight specific cultures

to help bicultural teens come to terms with their complex identities?

Along with the above stated main question, a few other questions will be explored with

regards to identity issues of racially mixed teens. They are:

1. What different races, cultures and ethnicities make up the mixture of biracial

characters in YA literature?

2. What subject heading do these biracial and bicultural books fall under in the library

catalogues?

3. How are the unique and diverse parents’ cultural influences shown in the lives of

racially mixed characters in YA literature?

4. How important are parents in helping to create the identity of adolescent characters in

YA lit?

5. How is setting relevant in terms of how mixed race characters are treated and

portrayed in YA literature?

6. How are racially mixed teen characters visually described?


42

7. When one half of the biracial teen protagonist is white, how is that culture or race


8. How do the biracial protagonists deal with mono-racial stereotypes and bullying?

9. How do the books shed light on stereotypes and how do they combat it

10. Is identity a main issue in biracial YA literature?

11. What other problems or issues are faced by mixed race individuals in YA lit?

Research Design and Instrument

Data was collected with the use of a coding sheet generated by the researcher and divided

according to the research questions (see Appendix B). The coding sheet is both qualitative and

quantitative in nature. Quantitative methods of nominal and ordinal measuring were used to

code the preliminary findings. In a sense, the quantitative questions asked simple yes/no or

multiple-choice questions to determine if qualitative questions were further required for each

book. These questions were also used to depict the landscape of diverse characters that exist in

the current literature, and not necessarily to provide a direct answer to any one research question.

For example the first set of quantitative questions represents the diverse pool of characters by

quantifying how many present, and their gender and age.

The qualitative analysis also examines the language used in each book; such as

descriptions of characters, metaphors, and over all, the specific language used to search for

stereotypes and unique thematic attributes. The qualitative data included lists and short excerpts

as examples from the various books where the answers to the research questions lay within each

text. “Just as a title represents and captures a book or film or poem’s primary content and essence,


43

so does a code represent and capture a datum’s primary content and essence” (Saldana 2003, p.

3).

The same coding sheet was used for all the books analyzed, though the reliability of the

results could have a small measure of inaccuracy dependent on the researcher’s thoroughness of

data collection. After collecting the data from the coding sheet, the findings were compared and

analyzed, and interpreted.

After compiling the short answers, some of the qualitative findings were compared with a

secondary list to see if they helped explain some of the social themes within the literature. Then

the researcher made comparisons of the findings and interpreted the information.

Selection of Books

The public libraries do not recognize the term “bicultural” for fictional works. Therefore

the initial method of gathering books was to do a keyword search under the term “biracial”,

“racially mixed people” + “Fiction” + “Adolescent” and “Juvenile” on the Queens, Brooklyn and

NYPL libraries’ electronic catalogues. Because the sample is meant to reflect current realistic

fiction, all of the Historical Fiction and Fantasy were weeded out from the list. The search

results were narrowed down to titles published during the target years of 2008-2015.

A call was also put out through social media asking writers and librarians to recommend

books that feature mixed race young adult literature. As expected, 50% of the suggestions had

mono-racial minority characters. At times, there were books that colleagues mentioned that did

not have specific reference to biracial or mixed race people listed on the cataloging in

publication record (CIP) page. When these titles were put forth, a quick Amazon.com “look

inside this book” search was conducted for the racial and ethnic characteristics of the


44

protagonists. Realizing that some relevant titles under the topic did not come up under the

previous search headings, a secondary search on the three public library databases was conducted

using the term “Identity” + “Fiction” + “Adolescent”.

Secondly, online trade publications were consulted. These included School Library

Journal, Booklistonline.com, Hyphen Magazine- an Asian American Journal, The Asian

American Literary Review (AALR), and Goodreads.com where this researcher selected book

suggestions from reviews under categories of diversity of characters. The Electronic Database

CLCD was used as well.

Literary blogs such as CCBlogC.com administered by the Cooperative Children’s Book

Center, DiversifYA, The Hub- Yalsa’s blog, were also cross-referenced. Other places considered

were websites of authors noted for writing about diversity such as Cynthia Leitich Smith and

interviews and guest posts from authors on DiversityinYA.com. Yalsa’s themed book lists from:

The Brown Bookshelf and Reforma: the National Association to Promote Library & Information

services to Latinos and the Spanish Speaking, were also of guidance.

Limitations

This research examines how bicultural teens are categorized within YA literature. One of

the targets was the importance of culture and race as a non-issue during the formation of

adolescent identity. Because of this, sometimes the protagonist’s race or culture was hidden

within the narrative, and was mentioned as an afterthought. Some books were found by chance

and only discovered that the characters were bicultural about 2/3rds of the way through the

narrative. Therefore, a lot of the books published between 2008-the present, were perhaps

missed due to not being characterized as a book focusing on “diverse” characters. This was a


45

positive finding, and one the researcher had anticipated, but made it difficult to locate the books

due to the cultural characteristics disappearing into the mainstream.

Other problems the researcher encountered was the quality of works that exist in the

sample pool. Because of the need to find a grouping of books large enough to show the diversity

of characters, some of the books selected were not of stellar quality, and may have been poorly

written and edited. Still they were included to increase the number of elements analyzed.

The 36 books chosen only had one book with characters of Native American mixed

origin. That is not to say that books with Native American/non-Native American bicultural

characters do not exist. However this researcher could not locate any books where racially

mixed characters of different nation/tribes in unions with others not of their nation/tribes

published in the years between 2008. In addition, there were many mixtures of ethnicities and

cultures covered, however, those titles did not fall into the YA categories. Therefore the sample

pool of 36 books covers a small population of diversity that is reflected in this country.

Most often, though a character may be bicultural, the classification system still

categorized them as being of one race. Some characters, are obviously biracial but because they

self identify with one race, the books may not have been classified under the racially mixed

category. Unless every book classified with characters of one (non-white) race or culture was

studied, to reveal the inconsistency, those books were overlooked, due to time constraints. This

is especially true of African Americans characters who under the hypodescent rule are not

categorized as being biracial. They are immediately considered black, though clearly they have

some cultural intermixing in their immediate past. This is unfortunate.

Time constraints and timing of when the research was conducted was the largest and

overarching limitation put on this project. The number of novels to be read that exist between


46

2008 and 2015 are many, and this researcher feels that there were only so many books that could

be read and analyzed. In addition, there are still books that will be published in the next two

months, which fit within the scope of this project, but unfortunately will not be part of this study.

Chapter IV: Findings

The primary research methodology used a coding sheet to analyze 36 Young Adult books.

Each question is presented separately to answer the sub-research questions, which help to focus

on the main question which is: Does current Young Adult literature go beyond race to highlight

specific cultures to help bicultural teens come to terms with their complex identities? Since the

individualities of the characters in each book are paramount, under some answers, a further

qualitative look was taken to understand each protagonist in depth. These findings are notated

through passages and quotations from the books themselves.

Question 1: What different races, cultures and ethnicities make up the mixture of biracial

characters in current YA literature?


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Table 1

Year of publication Year Quantity of Books Published.

2008 6

2009 2

2010 3

2011 5

2012 4

2013 8

2014 5

2015 3

Total 36

Table 1 shows that there is an even distribution of realistic novels published between

2008-2015. Two titles are books one and two in a series. Interestingly, though all of the books

are published in the last seven years, out of 36 books, three of them take place decades earlier.

The Girl Who Fell From the Sky takes place in 1982, Eleanor and Park takes place in 1987, and

All the Broken Pieces occurs in 1977. The authors of these books saw the relevance in exploring

the state of racism in past decades. In the case of All the Broken Pieces, the Vietnam War plays

a large part in the identity issues of the protagonist.


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Table 2

Age of Characters Age Quantity of Characters

12 9

13 4

14 4

15 2

16 8

17 11

18 2

Other 5

Total 44

Though 36 books are analyzed, some titles have more than one character worthy of this

study. Table 2 shows the two largest age categories to be twelve years old and seventeen years

old. This researcher believes that these two ages are symbolic of great changes of adolescence.

At twelve years, a child is on the verge of becoming a teenager, and in some religions such as

Judaism, one prepares for adulthood via training for the Bat or Bar Mitzvah. At seventeen,

adolescents are preparing to graduate high school and leave their parent’s home and enters

adulthood.

The ‘other’ category of characters counts siblings and secondary characters who are

biracial or bicultural but do not fall into the 12-18 years old category They are counted due to

their importance in the protagonist’s character development.


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Table 3

Gender of characters Gender Quantity of Characters

Male 16

Female 28

Total 44

Table 3 shows female characters outnumbering the males almost 2-1. Perhaps this is due

to the fact that females, on average, go through puberty earlier, a time where identity issues come

to the fore. Since most females during adolescence are dealing with body image issues, biracial

characters may be dealing with more self-identification and self-esteem issues as their bodies

change.

Many character’s race and cultures can be seen through their names (refer to Appendix

D). The etymology and history of names come from the following two sources, The Dictionary

of American Family Names and http://www.behindthename.com/. The bicultural make up of the

character’s names is most obvious in children whose parents are Western or European with one

Asian parent, either by a combination of Asian first names with a Western last name, or visa

versa as in the case of Kana Goldberg and Yumi Ruiz-Hirsch. The rest of the names, both first

and last, primarily derive from Europe. Some names such as Emi or Allie may be nicknames,

but the details are not clearly explained in the story. At first glance, Emi may be a Japanese

bicultural character, but since her parents are white and African-American, it is most likely that

Emi is short for Emily, though this is not explained. There seemed to be a correlation between

undeveloped bicultural characteristics and the ambiguousness of the names.


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Some authors are conscientious about the names they give to their characters. These

reflect the culture from which they come, such as Lyn Miller-Lachmann’s character Kiera

Thornton-Delgado, in Rogue. She combines the father's surname (Jeremy Thornton) and the

mother's (Yasmín Delgado) in the way consistent with Hispanic naming practices, with the

father's name first. Some names do not reflect the character’s ethnic heritage, but may have

popular culture references to show the character’s interests, such as the DJ wanna-be Marley

Diego-Dylan, who was named for musicians Bob Marley and Bob Dylan added to his father’s

last name.

Other authors did not research extensively the names of their characters and some are

completely inaccurate in terms of cultural designation. Such Allie Kim in What We Saw at Night,

who is supposed to be half Chinese but was given a Korean last name with no explanation.

Needless to say, What We Saw at Night has a lot of other problems besides the misnaming of the

characters; running the gamut from egregious typos to shallow character development.

The few Jewish surnames on the list, Goldberg, Feinstein, and Hirsch are combined with

Asian first names to form Jewish/Asian bicultural characters. The Indian/Jewish couple’s

children have Indian last names and chose Germanic Jewish first names to carry forth their

Jewish heritage, since the father is not Jewish and their culture deem the child carries the father’s

surname.

Though there is a large African American population within this study, there are no

names from African countries of origin. A little unfortunate historical background on slave

names is required here. Most names of characters of African American descent originally

acquired their surnames from their great-great-great-grandparents who were given names by

slave owners. Burnard (2000) states that despite the undeniable arrival of African cultural


51

practices in the New World, the evidence suggests that slave owners, rather than slaves, were the

originators of slave names (p. 326). Thus all of the names given to the black characters in the

books have European origins.

Question 2: What subject heading do these biracial and bicultural books fall under in the library

catalogues?

The classification of these books in public libraries is important for users to easily locate

titles that feature biracial and bicultural characters. Most cataloguers rely on the CIP data block

to sort titles into keyword and subject searches. Therefore it is important that the CIP data

reflects the unique characteristics of the protagonists of books. (Refer to Appendix C). However

the only term used is “racially-mixed people-Fiction”, without any mention of culture or

nationality. It is interesting to note that not all books with prominent biracial or bicultural

characters have “racially-mixed people” under subject headings. This is the case for Eleanor &

Park, Gadget Girl, and Swimming Through Clouds, even though the narrative centers around

problems that deal partially with their mixed-race, bicultural heritage. Other books list only one

culture under subject heading, most notably the minority one. Such is the case for All the Broken

Pieces, More Than Good Enough and My Basmati Bat Mitzvah, which lists Vietnamese

Americans, Mikasuki Indians and Ease Indian Americans, respectively.

The most telling two comparisons where this omission takes place are in My Basmati Bat

Mitzvah and The Whole Story of Half a Girl. Both of these books feature bicultural female

characters who are half Jewish and half Indian. Both girls are going through life changes that

involve problems of identity. Tara, in My Basmati Bat Mitzvah comes from an upper-middle

class family living in Manhattan. Sonia’s family is going through financial difficulties, and her


52

father is undergoing depression and mental illness. However, only The Whole Story of Half a

Girl is listed under the subject heading “racially mixed people—fiction.” The different tone and

outlook of these books may have had influence in the division of subject headings. This is

unfortunate because conclusions can be made that books dealing with racially mixed characters

tend to be undergoing poverty and come from unstable families.

Question 3: How are the unique and diverse parents’ cultural influences shown in the

lives of racially mixed characters in YA literature?

Table 4

Father’s Racial Category Racial category Number of Characters

Black 12

White 12

Asian 8

Hispanic 3

Native American 1

Biracial 5

Unknown 1

Total 42

Table 4 shows that out of 36 books, there are 42 fathers. Some included fathers of

secondary characters. As expected, the largest breakdown of race for the adult characters

in the books is black and white, with Asians close behind. When delving closer and

subdividing each of these categories into specific cultures or nationalities, the individual

nature of the characters are discovered.


53

Table 5 subdivides the culture of the fathers and again, the two largest racial groups,

black and white are the most homogenized and untraceable in terms of culture. This is most

likely, for blacks, due to circumstances of slavery and not knowing their full African past. For

whites, centuries of ancestors trying to quickly assimilate into the American melting pot erased

much of their rich European histories. In both cases, each race can be split into two stereotypical

Table 5

Father’s Racial Sub-Category by Nationality

Race Sub Category Number Per Nationality

Black Jamaican, 1

African/Caribbean/British 1

Unknown or unspecified 10

White Irish 1

Australian 1

Jewish 2


Asian Chinese 4

Japanese 2

Indian 1

Vietnamese 1

Hispanic Mexican 2

Puerto Rican 1

Native American Miccosukee 1

Biracial Japanese/Jewish 1

Irish/Mexican 1

English/Dutch 1

Dutch/South African 1

Unknown 1


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categories. White stereotypes tend to fall into the white-trash lower classes and the upper

echelon educated classes. For blacks, one main stereotype is fathers in urban ghettos. Another is

fathers in prisons. The second category is black fathers in the military, such as in The Girl Who

Fell From the Sky and Endangered. Only one black father’s culture is uniquely explained by his

daughter Tink in The Encyclopedia of Me.

Dad is British, and yes, he has an accent. He is African-American except not

American. In Britain they say “African-Caribbean.” Dad would never say

“African-Caribbean-American-Jamaican” or whatever. “Black” is an ok thing to

say, at least in our family. Other families feel differently, or so I hear. The worst

is “colored.” (p. 3)

In Table 5, Jewish is listed as a subcategory of white. Though being Jewish is technically

not a Nationality, there are clear cultural differences for it to be classified different from being

white. There is also a split between cultural Jews and religious Jews. The cultural Jews may not

go to temple, but they place importance on foods eaten, rituals, and on being Jewish by birth.

Every Asian character is accounted for in terms of specific country of origin, each with

their unique cultures, even if they may be second or third generation. This may be due to an

existence of small pockets within communities of each country, such as Chinatown or Little

India, and thus has retained their individuality. It is important to note that South Asians, from

India, Pakistan etc., are uniquely different from Pacific Islanders and Chinese in terms of

phenotypes, which may create clear visual divisions between the people of those countries as

well.

The ‘unknown’ category represents characters who are clearly mixed-race and mixed

culture, but is still unidentifiable. In The Latte Rebellion, there are many multicultural characters.


55

There are many characters that are made up of a multitude of nationalities and races, as though

the author is checking off a grocery list. For example, one character named Ayesha Jones is

black, Welsh, Cherokee, Irish, French, German, and Salvadorian, yet apart from her name, none

of the rich culture of each country is revealed to the readers.

Table 6

Mother’s Racial Category Racial Category Number of Characters

Black 5

White 16

Asian 11

Hispanic 7

Native American 0

Biracial 3

Unknown 0

Total 42

In Table 6, white mothers are the majority. Assumptions can be made that white women

overwhelmingly choose partners of a different race and are the largest group, with Asians

coming in a close second. Similar to the father’s racial backgrounds, Table 7 breaks down the

individual nationalities of the mothers to depict the subdivision of race.


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Table 7

Mother’s Racial Sub-Category by Nationality

Race Sub Category Number per Nationality

Black Unknown or unspecified 5

White Danish 1

Dutch 1

German 1

Jewish 1

Scottish 1


Asian Chinese 1

Japanese 5

Indian 3

Vietnamese 1

Hispanic Mexican 2

Puerto Rican 2

Cuban 1

Ecuadorian 1

Salvadorian 1

Biracial White/Mexican 1

English/Dutch 1

Unknown 1

Table 7 shows that compared to the fathers’ nationalities, the mother’s country of origin

is more pronounced. Perhaps this is due to single parent households consisting usually of a

mother. Out of 36 books, only three single fathers are caring for their children. Therefore the

specificity of the mother’s background is more important. Technically one of the biracial


57

characters (the English/Dutch bicultural mother) could be classified as being white but since she

comes from two specific countries, she has been put into the biracial category.

Question 4: How important are parents in helping to create the identity of adolescent characters

in YA lit?

Table 8

Family life

Home Situation Number of Characters

Two parents 12

Divorced or separated (living with one parent at a time) 6

One parent dead 5

Both parents dead or non-existent 3

Living with grandparents 2

Living with other 2

Total 30

Table 8 shows that out of the 44 characters, there are a total of 30 types of family living

situations. This is due to siblings sharing parents. In most cases, the two parent households

faired better for the emotional wellbeing of the teen character. Though in some households with

two parents, the parents are constantly fighting, or are emotionally unavailable, such as Jewel in

Bird. Jewel’s brother died when he was little, and the parents are emotionally unavailable due to

grief. This causes a negative effect on Jewel’s self-image. Therefore, coming from a two-parent

household does not guarantee that the adolescent has a stable childhood,

More than half of the characters come from unstable homes with divorced, separated or

missing parents. When one or both parents cannot be a source of emotional support, some rely


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on their grandparents. In the case of Jewel, her grandfather slowly comes out of his own grief

and begins sharing with her their strong cultural backdrop. Though he does not speak, he

provides comfort through music, foods and just his presence. Jewel takes comfort in his

existence with, “the smell of grandpa: coconut oil, cinnamon, and the scent of falling rain” (p.

23).

A grandparent can also provide family histories and a sense of belonging to something

larger than their current state of being. Popo, Julian Carter-Li’s Chinese grandmother, does this

for him when she tells him that his “great-great-great-grandfather actually worked in the logging

camps. There’s still a Chines temple in Mendocino from 1850s” (p. 192).

Even with their own issues, overall a two-parent household was a better indicator of a

teen’s strong self-identity, but other adults and peers are often a source of comfort as well.

Table 9

Importance Of Parents Support In Creating Positive Identity Level of Support Number of Parents or Adult Figures

Full support and understanding 11

Some support 5

Tries but misunderstands 13

No support 17

Not clear 6

Table 9 shows the division of parental rolls in the lives of the protagonists. Parents,

whether single or married play an important role in the positive and negative identity formation

for the young adults that populate the 36 novels. Ana’s father in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet tells her

that it’s “hard to be biracial but it’s not about taking sides. You are the best of both of us. ‘Our


59

cultural differences only enrich us and make us stronger’ ” (p.102). Tara Feinstein in My

Basmati Bat Mitzvah, realizes with the help of her strong family bonds that “now I know that

inspiration can come from many different sources, and that having multicultural experiences can

actually make you stronger and more accepting of different points of view” (p. 225). Sometimes,

when a parent cannot relate to their own child, another parental role model with similar biracial

upbringing step in. Such is the case for Nina’s best friend’s mother in Black, White, Other, who

informs her that “biracial kids signed up for a big life. You might feel fragmented now but in the

end, you’ll have access to two completely fascinating worlds” (p. 57). In Endangered, Lauren

explains how she got her nickname, Panda, from her mother:

When I was a kid, mean girls teased me because I’m mixed race. They said I

had weird skin, and hair and eyes. I came home crying one day, and mom sat me

down with this book we got from the San Diego zoo. She flipped to the pandas

and told me, “They’re black and white, just like you. They’re beautiful, just like

you. (p. 50)

When both parents are not available, sometimes a boyfriend of the mother acting as a

father figure can be a stand in. Such is the case for Jaz in, If I tell, “Simon was almost family.

Last year when some kid called me an Oreo, it was Simon I went to. He was the only person I

could talk to about things like that. ‘You’re strong, and beautiful…not a cookie” (p. 31).

Sometimes the need for both parents may be practical, someone who understands basic

things like hair. Jessie, in Drama Queens in the House, voices her need for someone with similar

hair, who she can relate to when she says, “Where is my dad, with a jar of grease when I need

him” (p. 101). Jaz in If I tell, who is also half-black and is been living with her white


60

grandmother tells her, “you didn’t teach me about being black. You didn’t even know how to do

my hair. I looked like Mickey Mouse for the first seven years of my life” (p. 74).

In Table 9, the largest category is the “no support” set of adults. This category is made

up of parents who are immersed in their own problems such as grief, mental instability, drugs,

alcohol and struggling to stay alive themselves, and cannot give any kind of support to their

children. These families also tend to be in the poor economic group and thus the children have

grown up identifying with the minority parent, rather than identifying with their unique cultural

background.

The ‘Tries and Misunderstands’ category of parents attempt to be supportive by

acknowledging their biracial children, but may be doing damage to their self-esteem because of

what’s known as color coding. According to Crawford & Alaggia (2008), color-coding is when a

person tends to ascribe characteristics of a whole race based on one family member of that race.

For example, the love that Rachel, who is half-black, in The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, has for

her white mother, the only parent she’s ever known, clouds her sense of self and she “believes

white women are prettier than black” (p. 69). The relationship Jace in the book Stringz has with

his mother is uncertain since his black mother did not have a good relationship with his white

father. He feels that she does not see him as an individual with his lighter skin, as he says,

“when mom saw me, maybe she was not seeing me at all, but someone else- like my old man” (p.

42).

In most cases, the mother figure acknowledges the father even though he may not be

around. The conflict in a dual identity comes about in part when these mothers project their

negative feelings about the fathers onto their biracial child.


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Question 5: How is setting relevant in terms of how mixed race characters are treated and

portrayed in YA literature?

Table 10

Relevance of Setting Setting of Novel Number of Books

Urban 11

Suburban 17

Rural/Small Town 4

Two different locations 2

In Table 10, the setting of the novels are shown to be divided, suburban being the largest

category. Historically suburbia focused on the community surrounding urban cities, populated

by enclaves of middle-class whites who left crime-ridden overcrowded cities to live in

comfortable upper-middle-class lives. They tended to be conservative and homogenized (white)

unless they existed on the two coasts with large left-wing populations. In some cases, especially

parts of California, the location may seem suburban but because of the open attitudes and

different races and cultures mixing freely, some pockets may feel more urban.

Current suburbia is less white, less affluent and may consist of multicultural pockets.

However, it is still more homogenized than the cities, and may still represent affluence, and thus,

most first and second-generation immigrants move to the suburbs because it still symbolizes

upward mobility. Suburbia tends to be the setting where most conflict in terms of race occurs.

Some parents and grandparents understand the biracial issues of their children. Jaz’s

white grandmother from If I Tell, says “maybe we should have moved to a place where there are

more kids like you. More mixed couples with kids” (p. 75).


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The setting is especially important and deeply felt for the teens who have moved around a

lot. They see the different racial makes up of the places they’ve lived, such as Talia in

Swimming Through Clouds, describes her new living situation:

Seems like this place is no different than the last place I lived. Benton Harbor, a

few hours east of Chicago in the Mitten State, was a sea of chocolate while Darien,

Illinois, my new home, is a loaf of white bread with a handful of ‘others’. When

you’re an ethnic cocktail like me, you never know where you belong. Or if you

belong at all. (p. 6)

Being in a metropolis like Los Angeles may lesson outsider feelings due to the different

cultures with which one can identify. When Ana went to the Chinese grocery store with her

parents in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, she speaks Mandarin to the pierced eyebrowed, bleached

auburn haired butcher boy (p. 37). But even though she can speak the language, she feels foreign.

It is her black American background emerging when she says, “going into the 99 Ranch Mart is

like stepping into a grocery store on the other side of the planet” (p. 34).

The sense of isolation is greater in rural areas, because where there are people of different

cultures, they tend to stick together in their own neighborhoods. Therefore someone such as

Jewel in Bird, who is Jamaican and Mexican, is left out of two different worlds when she

attempts to explore her rural surroundings in this excerpt.

Iowa doesn’t have the greatest Jamaican community. We have to drive fifty

minutes to get to a store that sells plantains, and since those are sold for the

Mexican Americans, that’s the only time that Mom speaks Spanish because the

workers don’t speak much English. Then we have to drive more than three hours

to get to Chicago, where we buy our Jamaican food: saltfish, tinned ackees, scotch


63

bonnet peppers, dried pimento, bammies and beef patties. After eating in our

favorite American restaurant, we drive back to the cornfields to the community

that thinks that Jamaica is some country in Africa, to a place where the white

people and the Latinos stay in their own little corners of town and where mixing

just doesn’t happen. Except for in my family. (p. 62)

Danny’s mother in the book Mexican Whiteboy explains it even more clearly when she tells him:

The problem with San Diego [the outskirts where they have been living] is that all

the races live in different pockets of the city. The blacks are in the southeast or in

Oceanside. The Mexicans are by the border. Or else they’re working in

somebody’s kitchen or yard. That always got me about San Diego. Mexicans are

treated as such second-class citizens. But not like in San Francisco. Everybody

lives tougher there. (p. 93)

In one instance, a rural local is used as a microcosm of a multicultural urban setting, in

Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting, where a Boy Scout troop from the city goes to the

wilderness. Though they are not in an urban setting, the composition of the group bears a similar

racial make-up to a city. In this instance, each boy represents a race or culture. This can be read

in their names alone:

Mr. Fuentes- scoutmaster

Dr. Gupta- parent volunteer

Derek Symonds- troop leader

Steven Washington- troop leader

Scouts: Peter Mallory, Doug Spezzano, Jorge Vargas, Horatio Fuentes, Ravi Gupta, Cam

Przybylowicz, Jack Kadleck, Manuel Ramierez, Christopher Imprezzi ant Oliver Truong.


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Table 11

Socio-economic status Status Number of Families

Wealthy 2

Upper middle class 10

Middle class 11

Poor 14

The class division of the families may be a source of identity, as seen in Table 11. Out of

the group, two families are wealthy. One being Sadie Su’s family, who owns a winery in

Delicate Monsters. The other is Julian Carter Li’s uncle Sibley in Operation Redwoods. Neither

book factors race relations as a primary narrative focus. The problematic situations in which the

characters find themselves, especially in Delicate Monsters, may have been due to the family’s

high economic status. Sadie’s parents are indifferent to one another, ignore their child and the

mother is an alcoholic. Therefore, in the selections of books analyzed, being wealthy comes with

a list of problems that go beyond race.

Economic status tends to be a factor of identity when families go through a change of

income. In The Whole Story of Half a Girl, Sonia, who is half Indian and half Jewish, transfers

from a posh private school to a public school because her father loses his job and can no longer

afford the tuition. In her new environment, race is definitely divided. Sonia explains:

At the new school lunchroom sitting at the black kids table: “no one noticed me,

but I noticed me. I was used to being darker-skinned than everyone at

Community except for Marshal, whose parents are from Trinidad, but everyone at


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this table made me stick out like a ghost. The kids who sat here were black, while

all the other tables were filled with white kids. …tried not to think of Community

(the private school). Or why the white kids and black kids didn’t sit together here.

Or where you were supposed to sit if you were too dark to be white and too light

to be black? (p. 43)

In Table 11, the largest category, ‘poor families’ is broken down into two types. One is

the down-and-out, struggling to survive often single parent households where the existing parent

is a drug addict, or in prison. The second category is the struggling single caring mother doing

her best to provide for her child.

Question 6: How are racially mixed teen characters visually described?

Table 12

Phenotype Type of Description Number of Times Mentioned

Color of skin 35

Color of hair 7

Type of hair 16

Color of eyes 10

Shape of facial features 4

Other 2

There are a number of different ways characters are described, as seen in Table 12. The

number one visual indicator of race is skin color. However, like a large box of crayons, there are

many artistic ways skin tone is described. Even if two characters may be a mix of the same two

races, for example Asian and Black, the individual nature the character is described with lovely


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and unique similes often to food. For example, the assortments of descriptions for various skin

tones in the 36 books include:

• Mocha

• Maple syrup

• Eggplant dark

• Nut brown

• Honey glazed face with chocolate freckle

chips

• Cocoa butter

• Smoky quartz skin

• Light brownish with a touch of honey

• Drawn with a brown crayon

• Oatmeal with grayish-blah undertones

• A vanilla milk shake with one pump of

chocolate syrup

• Muddy mix of black and white

• Copper skinned

• White chocolate peanut butter cup

• Fall- brown leaves under a darkening sky

The majority of these descriptions are food related. Perhaps this is due to the universal

appeal of food. Food also tends to be a bonding element between people and cultures. Food can

be used as singular as well as global metaphors. Every nationality eats, but all countries have

their own cuisines. The current fad of fusion foods can be seen as the example for bicultural

characters.

In Table 12, the combination of eye and hair color, with the type of hair a character has

also describes their unique biracial heritage. Whites or Caucasians are mixtures of many cultures

and races, assumed to have no preconceived specific physical traits. Caucasians can have a

myriad of hair colors mixed with eye colors. Asians tend to naturally have straight black hair and

brown eyes. Black Americans historically have darker skin and tightly curled hair. Hispanic

people also tend to be darker in hair and eye color. Therefore the biracial nature of the character

is made obvious when mixtures are created beyond those norms, such as an Asian person with


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dark hair and blue or green eyes. These mixtures seem to appear most commonly in romantic

partners. In The Latte Rebellion Thad “ had short, dark, spiky hair with the tips bleached, tan

skin, bright blue eyes, and a quick impish grin” (p. 68). Park from Eleanor & Park is described

as having “short black hair and green eyes” (p. 53). Liberty from The Brothers Torres has “the

best of both worlds. Straight black hair, creamy light brown skin, a kickin body, and eyes a deep

shade of blue” (p. 2).

The shapes of facial features have the least number of mentions. Noses and lips are

described, only when describing black characters, and are positive traits. Such as Rachel

describing a classmate “Anthony Miller is handsome and has a broad nose and thick lips, the

black things in a person” in The Girl Who Fell from the Sky (p. 52). Or as Ella describes the new

kid, “He’s black. Deep copper-skinned, big-lipped, flat-nosed black! And gorgeous” (p. 33), in

Camo Girl. Since this is YA lit, and not, say adult erotic novels, the shape of the lips is not as

prominent in any character, and only written about once or twice.

The “other” category describes unique physical traits of two biracial characters. The first

is Kana Goldberg’s zaftig physique in Orchards, who is half Japanese and half Brooklyn Jew.

She describes what has happened to her slim body after hitting puberty this way:

but then I was small,

then I didn’t have hips

then was before this bottom

inherited from my father’s

Russian Jewish mother. (p. 9)

Secondly, Ollie in the book Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting, who is half white

and half Vietnamese describes a genetic trait often found in Asians, when he says, “My ears


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burned. I hate it when I blush. Since I’m half Vietnamese, my face doesn’t get beet red like

Moxie’s or Jack’s but my ears turn bright pink instead” (p.62).

Table 13

Cultural Descriptions Type of Description Number of Books Where Used

Food 14

Language 14

Religion 3

Customs 4

Other 5

Table 13 subdivides the differences between the individual characters and shows that

culture goes beyond phenotype to depict the uniqueness of each nationality. Different languages

feature heavily in all of the novels that feature non-black characters. Most parents who are

bilingual tend to revert back to their mother tongue when angry or frustrated. In The Latte

Rebellion, “Grandma Bee yells ‘Ave Maria Purisima!’ rare occasions when she got so

exasperated she resorted to Spanish” (p. 119). Also, Kiara’s mother in Rogue, “sometimes when

mami got mad at dad, she’d yell at him in Spanish” (p. 89). Sometimes it’s just reverting back to

an accent, as in More Than Good Enough, Trent’s mother changed “the more booze she guzzled,

the more British she sounded” (p. 134).

At times, language can symbolize more than just words, in the case of Kiara in Rogue,

when her mother tells her “I want you to come home”.

Quiero que vuelvas a casa…The subjunctive. That’s what I like about Spanish.

It has rules to tell you about emotion. English doesn’t use the subjunctive nearly


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as much, so a person can lie and the words don’t tell you he’s lying. They don’t

tell you what a person is feeling and without the right words to tell me, I don’t

understand. (p. 118)

Not to say that all biracial characters are bilingual. Sometimes the lack of being able to

speak the language of one parent is a metaphor for troubles that exist in the character’s life,

whether they are estranged from the parent, or turned off by the whole culture of the parent. This

lack of being able to communicate with one half of their family identity causes friction within

their home life and results in low self-esteem.

Sometimes, parents deliberately neglect to teach their biracial children languages. In the

case for Danny in Mexican Whiteboy his father purposely did not teach him Spanish because it

was a source of embarrassment or shame. When this occurred in the books, it often came from

the minority, lower socio-economic mind at work. When Danny’s friend ponders why his father

never taught him Spanish, his comment is “Maybe he didn’t want you to be a Mexican. You

know he gots a big-ass chip on his shoulder ‘bout that, right? He gets pissed off about how

Mexicans get treated. Maybe he didn’t want it to happen” (p. 87).

With the case of Rachel from The Girl Who Fell From the Sky, who is half Danish and

half black, the labeling of cultures through language intermixes with her doubts of self-

identification. On not knowing why she is called African-American, she says, “I don’t know any

black people who have been to Africa. It’s like calling me Danish-American even though I’ve

never been to Denmark, but at least I speak Danish. I don’t know a single black person who

speaks Swahili or other African language” (p. 148).

Black culture is the most difficult to figure out, since the characters are so far removed

from their African roots. But cultural references appear in a few of the books through an


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academic source. A few of the parents are either African studies professors, like Emi and Toby’s

mother in Everything Leads to You, or in the case of Nina Armstrong, in Black, White, Other, her

friend’s fashion designer mother gathers inspirations for her designs from Africa. African

culture is subtly displayed with “dark wooden statues and carvings and beige woven baskets. A

strip of orange Kente cloth on the back of the couch” (p. 55). But this is problematic since

Africa is seen as one culture and not as the multitude of different nations it really is.

In Table 13, food and cuisine are the largest vehicle for representing the diverseness and

uniqueness of culture. Gustatory elements represent both the separation between two different

cultures in a family when they clash, as well as the joining of two cultures via fusion foods.


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Table 14

Unique Cultures Seen Through Food Foods Culture

Blachindas- those German pastries filled with pumpkin German

Everything bagel with cream cheese and lox Jewish

Dumplings, lubogao- turnip cakes, lion’s head, fried rice Chinese

Sushi and Miso Soup Japanese

Dal (lentils) Indian

Pumpkin Pie American

Pupusas thick tortillas filled with beans or cheese) Salvadorian

Curtido (pickled cabbage) Salvadorian

Rice and peas, plantains and chicken Jamaican

Saltfish, ackees, bammies and beef patties Jamaican

Tortillas and rice and beans with salsa Mexican

Arrachera and chicken mole Mexican

Chana jor garam (whole chickpeas mashed flat fried) Indian

Golgappas, crunchy bhel puri and samosas Indian

Savory aloo tikki patties Indian

Curries, pakoras, dal, naan Indian

Nut candy (cashew nuts w/ thin shaving of real silver on top) Indian

Challah bread, frozen brisket, chicken soup, stuffed cabbage Jewish

Chile Colorado Mexican

Fast food American

Gumbo & fried chicken American (Southern)

Mac and cheese, pizza and chicken nuggets American

Sofke with cornbread Miccosuk

Indian burgers with fry bread Miccosuk


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Table 14 names each food with the country of origin. These specifics are important when

identifying the many divisions of Hispanics; to show the difference between Salvadorian and

Mexicans, or Asians to show the difference between Chinese and Japanese.

Food also acts as a way of mixing cultures in several different ways:

Cubans and Americans mix in I Want to Be Your Shoebox, through a multiethnic Thanksgiving

dinner where “Cuban style garlic marinated Turkey is served with black beans and rice, fried

plantains, yucca and garlic sauce, avocado & onion salad” (p. 67). Chinese and black Southern

cooking mix during one celebratory dinner, in Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet, where dumplings,

lubogao- turnip cakes, gumbo, lion’s head, fried rice, fried chicken, and mango pudding is served.

Sometimes food represents a need for mixing and assimilation. Jamaican and Mexican

cuisine is mixed to create a whole new fusion, as seen in Bird.

Grandpa fried up the fish with some bacon and onions and hot peppers. Then he

opened up a can of ackees, a yellow, mellow-flavored fruit that looks like

scrambled eggs drained the liquid and threw the ackees in too. He made ackee

and saltfish without the saltfish. Used Mexican Serrano peppers instead of

Jamaican Scotch bonnet peppers. (p. 96)

Indian and American cultures mix in My Basmati Bat Mitzvah when Tara

made two bags of microwave popcorn. I covered mine with chaat masala, an

addictive mix of Indian dry spices made especially for snacks. India has the best

salty snacks in the world. Nothing we have in the west compares not potato chips

or pretzels or even nachos. (p. 3)


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Also for Hanukah, Tara’s, “Daddy did a trial run of his contribution- potato latkes with tamarind

chutney and yogurt sauce” (p. 192), “Or he makes a curry or naan pizza” (p. 27). These fusion

foods become a metaphor for cultural harmony within each family.

Food can also be an indication of class as much as it is of cultures, where a mix of diverse

cultures intermingling harmoniously through food represents the upper-class private school in

the book, Whole Story of Half a Girl.

After summer ceremonies, there is a huge potluck picnic. At the private school it

is mixed. Everyone brings the most incredible food. Sesame noodles, California

rolls, quesadillas, fried chicken, Greek salad, samosas (from us) veggie wraps,

mini quiches, etc.” (p. 19).

Question 7: When one half of the biracial teen protagonist is white, how is that culture or race


Since white culture is the most difficult to define due to centuries of assimilation by

Europeans, most of the references are not obvious unless the parent recently immigrated to the

United States. In most cases, we see European culture defined by language. We see it through

spoken Danish, in the book The Girl Who Fell From the Sky. Rachel has Danish inside her-

words such as Mor for mother and Hestehaler- for horsetails, and sings to herself in Danish

while at church. The mother in Endangered is from Germany, so she often communicates with

her daughter in this language.

In The Encyclopedia of Me, ballet represents white culture, as Tink’s white mother wants

her to pursue a white culture’s dance form. She is uncomfortable trying to conform to something


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she is not when she says, “I saw the row of tall white girls with immaculate buns and straight

backs and me, short, slightly square shaped, not white” (p. 205).

In All the Broken Pieces, white culture literally represents the happy life, as Matt Pin

contrasts his Vietnamese War-torn self, with his new white brother.

Tommy is summer- sunlight, peaches, wide, grinning sky. Even Tommy’s hair is

summer. Curls cling to his scalp like the yellow-and-white sweet corn. Only one

straight tuft sticks up, like a clump of sun-scorched hay. (p. 8)

In Swimming Through Clouds white culture is glamorous, as Kiera equates her white

father to “a Hollywood cutout, from head to toe” (p. 13).

In More Than Good Enough, white culture is synonymous with tourists who perpetuate

racial stereotypes and are ignorant of Native American heritage.

White culture created the old Western. The Indians were usually white people in

headbands. The director would record their lines and play it backward, just to

make it sound like another language. How dumb is that? (p. 5)

Other times, the excess and bland elements of white culture are shown through scenes

revolving around mall culture and fast food.

Question 8: How do the biracial protagonists deal with mono-racial stereotypes and bullying?


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Table 15 counts the number of racial slurs that occur in the novels. The most surprising

result is the prevalence of white stereotypes in the books analyzed, but after some consideration,

this made sense. These stereotypes came from the biracial non-white half of the characters’

families. When a biracial teen was not acting within their minority role, the non-white family

member criticized them. Other times a first generation immigrant family member voiced their

preconceived notions of white America and how they should not act that way. Some examples

of white stereotypes are: “They all eat chicken nuggets and M&M’s all the time” from A Whole

Story of Half a Girl, describing the difference between white American food and Indian food (p.

62). In Mexican Whiteboy Danny, not wanting to become the white nerdy stereotype realizes,

“he wore a pretty uniform and made the honor roll every semester. Could he really take it a step

further and don a pair of Coke-bottle glasses?” (p. 85). Kana’s grandmother wants her to eat less

American food in Orchards. “What does that mean? I tell her we never eat fries, we often eat

vegetarian. We eat Russian, Jewish, Italian, Mexican, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Middle

Eastern, Greek and even Ethiopian” (p. 143). In The Girl Who Fell From the Sky Aunt Loretta

Table 15

Racial Stereotypes Stereotypes Occurrence

White 11

Black 9

Asian 9

Hispanic 4

Native American 4

Jewish 2


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plays tennis which, “goes in the white category with classical music and golf” (p. 28). In Death

of Jayson Porter, Jayson resigns his hopes of rising above his bleak situation and getting out of

the ghettos because, “There’s the white section- the haves. And the black section-the never had

shit” (p. 21).

Racial stereotypes may be perpetrated by their own race, and happens because older

generations want to keep race separated into a nice tidy box. With most of the biracial characters,

this is not acceptable and they cannot live within one racial category, much less a stereotyped

version of it. Aunt Bernice in Stringz wants Jace to run track instead of surf. She says, you need

to try out for a sport…everybody knows black men don’t surf- just like everybody knows black

men don’t swim- at least not very well” (p. 68). But Jace will not be put into any one

stereotyped category, and insists on surfing, since he is half-white, and unique. Other

stereotypes exist for Jace in his school as “the orchestra teacher makes references to basketball

because ‘Orchestra is like a basketball team’ you people know something about basketball don’t

you?” (p. 37).

Question 9: How do the books shed light on stereotypes and how do they combat it?

In Mexican Whiteboy, Danny does not fit into the stereotype of the Mexican

neighborhood. His surroundings are “all dark chocolate-colored, hair sprayed up, dressed in pro

jerseys and Dickies, Timberlands. Gold and silver chains. Calligraphy-style tats. Danny’s skin

is too clean, too light, his clothes too soft” (p. 3), and his white side will not let him blend in.

Since most racial stereotypes come from a place of ignorance and fear, the characters

who standup for themselves often do so by educating the uninformed and uneducated bullies.


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Many characters are targets of racial slurs or jokes, but the ones who are confident with

themselves and their racial/cultural backgrounds often fight back. For example in Endangered,

when a bully is mocking Lauren’s background when she says, “Shouldn’t you be the Panda,

Horton? Aren’t those bears from your freakin’ continent?” Lauren’s comeback is, “China’s a

country, not a continent. And I’m from America thank you” (p.120). In If I Tell, Nathan, a boy at

a party tells Jaz, “check out that brown sugar, no matter what else, you black girls have the nicest

asses.” And Jaz replies, “Who said I was black? My mom’s white” (p. 144). In The Brothers

Torres, Begay, a Native American character uses sarcasm to mock out the ignorant kids

discussing homecoming dates, “But aren’t you supposed to only go out with other Indians?”

Begay replies, “Good one kemo sabe. Did you get that from the history channel?” (p. 56). In

Ollie and the Science of Treasure Hunting, Ollie, who is half-Vietnamese, sets some kids straight

that ask about origami:

How’d you learn to do that? Did your mom or dad teach you?” I shook my head.

Why do so many kids think all Asian people are the same? “I’m part Vietnamese,

not Japanese,” I explained. “My mom is white, and my parent’s don’t know how

to do origami. I watched a video online. (p. 96)

Jessie, in Drama Queens in the House confronts her teacher directly, “Are you asking me if I

think it’s ok to teach African dance to a bunch of white kids? I ask, I mean, I’m the only student

in the advanced movement class that isn’t white” (p. 312), confronting the teacher’s own

stereotypes. In The Latte Rebellion, the stereotypes fly fast and furious, when a classmate tells

Carey and Asha:

Carey, you look so cute in that white dress. Like a little Japanese cartoon

character. And your dress- wow. It takes some guts to wear something like that.


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I guess you have to have Mexican J.Lo curves to pull it off. I could tell her Carey

is NOT Japanese, and J.Lo is not from Mexico- she’s a Puerto Rican American.

That isn’t even close to the same thing. There are these things called maps; you

should look at one. And am I dreaming or did you just say my butt was big? (p. 8)

Another stereotypical conclusion comes from the bullies on the bus, in Eleanor & Park, is

described in this exchange:

What the fuck does Sheridan know about kung fu? Mikey said.

Are you retarded? Steve says

His mom’s Chinese”

Mikey looked at Park carefully.

Park smiled and narrowed his eyes.

Yeah I guess I see it, I always thought you were Mexican.

She’s not Chinese, she’s Korean. (p. 7)

When racism is spelled out in dialogue form, it is hard not to notice the absurdity and ignorance

of the bullies.

Question 10: Is identity a main issue in biracial YA literature?

Many teens have identity issues (refer to Appendix E), which show up most in the sense

of not belonging to one or the other race.

In All the Broken Pieces, Matt attends Saturday Vietnamese school. He notices:

the children in that class look at me strangely. My lashes are not flat and straight

like theirs. Their hair is not thick and brown like mine. Most of us have two


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names. A new name to welcome us, and an old name to remind us. Still, I am

different. My face is part American” (p. 24).

Sometimes, American culture tries to identify different races into neat boxes, as seen in I Wanna

be Your Shoebox, where

October is Hispanic heritage month so she (mother) has to go to readings and

lectures. She jokes she’s a seasonal item. Nigerian friend’s month is February. It’s

twisted that people get divided up like this. So where’s the month for people like

me? (p. 39)

In Black, White, Other, Nina does not know where she belongs within her own family,

when she says that Jimi, her brother looks like dad, “as if someone took a brown crayon and

crew a line around the two of them. Mom and me, we are complicated” (p. 25). Some people do

not think they are related. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Nina feels left out at school among her

peers when she says, “if Lavonn and Demetre are ghetto and Jessica & Claudette are Hills or

preppie, what am I? I’m not mixed, I’m scrambled- separate pieces all jumbled up sitting

between two homes with unrecognizable best friend (p. 42). In The Latte Rebellion, Asha’s

Indian grandmother, tells her:

It is your Indian culture. But it wasn’t that simple. Indian culture- well, it didn’t

feel like it was my culture, not any more or less than my dad’s Irish and Mexican

heritage. I was just me. Whatever that was. (p. 32)

When Asha has to define herself for her college application, she is more conflicted:

And who is to say what an underrepresented minority is? I mean, on most of

those applications I get to check one box and if I’m lucky it says ‘mixed ethnicity’

and if I’m unlucky it says ‘other.’ I shouldn’t have to play a guessing game to fit


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into their system. I shouldn’t have to worry that I didn’t pick the right check box,

and now they’ll reject me for being say, too Asian, or not Asian enough. Or the

wrong kind of Asian. Should I have joined the Asian American club? Or even the

Chicano Club? Neither of those had really seemed appropriate. Robert was in the

former, as for the other…well, I was only a quarter Mexican. I just hadn’t felt

like I belonged. Not anywhere. At the same time, I didn’t see why I had to

belong to any particular group. (p. 215)

Other adults try to categorize the characters in The Latte Rebellion and fail:

You’re free to join any club you want, Ms. Levin. I don’t see why you couldn’t

have just participated in whichever club was the most…relevant” If you’re mostly

Hispanic, for example, you could go to the Chicano Club, all three of us looked

up in outrage at that, even Carey. “I don’t subscribe to the drop on (race) rule.”

(276)

In The Death of Jayson Porter, Jayson feels like an outsider. He says:

Out here, in the ‘hood, they don’t know biracial exists. All they know is that I’m

a little too light to be black…and I don’t speak Spanish, either. So they check off

the “other” box in their head. ‘Other’ means you aint a brotha. So you aint’

down. (p. 21)

So he gives up on trying to define himself:

See, I know that I’m half white and half black, but I know for damn sure none of

these folks would ever think I was. When I tell people what I am, they always

just look at me with that same blank stare, like I’m speakin’ Greek or somethin’.

People think I’m anything else but what I am. And they always think whatever I


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am, it’s not as good as what they are. I know I’ll never belong, so I never even try.

(p. 83)

The importance of belonging to one’s own family is challenged for some of the teens, one

feature of the self that should be clear. This creates a weak self-image when they do not feel

they belong to their own family. In Bird Jewel says, “my body doesn’t shout out that I belong to

my parents, it only whispers” (p. 80). In Whole Story of Half a Girl, Sonia stares at her mother’s

hands “amazed that we’re even related. I wonder if she ever thinks that, or if mom ever did,

holding the hands of her Indian-looking children. Did anyone ever wonder if we really belonged

to her?” (p. 190). In Eleanor & Park, Park explains, “I’m half. Park knew he was different” (p.

203).

Even within one family, the siblings may not feel they belong together due to phenotype,

as Park says about his younger brother Josh. “He is a different kid from Park. Looked like a big

German or Polish kid” (p. 117) resembling their father. In If I Tell, Jaz says that within her

family, “no matter how white or black I was, it seemed neither was enough” (p. 75).

Question 11: What other problems or issues are faced by mixed race individuals in YA lit?

Out of 36 titles, ten books do not make bicultural or biracial identity a primary or

secondary issue. The characters in these books deal with other problems that overpower race and

family situations (refer to Appendix E).

The books can be divided into two major categories. One in which race and culture play

a large part in the problems and narratives of the protagonists. This array of problems as seen in

books # 1, 4, 8, 21, 26, and 34, may intensify or be caused by biracial or bicultural issues. Book


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# 16 is the stand-alone title, in which identity does not play a role at all in the horrific nature of

the characters.

The second set of books, have lesser, lighter problems such as dating, love and social

issues. These stories tend to work themselves out in the end with the help of parents, strong

adults. They mainly conclude with a strong self-aware teen.

The books where disabilities factor in the narrative are the most insensitive to biracial

characters, in that there is no narrative reason for the main character to be biracial or bicultural.

For example, in What We Saw at Night, and What We Lost In the Dark, the main characters have

a life-threatening allergy to sunlight called Xeroderma Pigmentosum. The character in

Everything, Everything is literally allergic to the outside world. As expected, these far-fetched

narratives create interesting plot lines but do not deal with race, culture or identity.

In summary, the diverse characters in Young Adult novels analyzed deal with many

external challenges beyond those created by their bicultural and biracial status. Some problems

occur due to irresponsible parenting, socioeconomic status, and setting. More than half of the

characteristics of protagonists go beyond racial categories and highlight specific cultures or

nationalities, giving the individual a rich, well rounded persona. However, the portrayals of

black fathers is the most disturbing. Do to our deplorable history of slavery, there were no

cultural African references where black fathers were concerned. However the most concerning

trait of the majority of these fathers tended to be that of a stereotyped down-and-out, missing

parent. Overall, white and black half of the families were not as clearly depicted in terms of

culture. These omissions made for asymmetrical treatments of family lives of bicultural

characters with a white or black parent.


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Chapter V: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations Summary

This researcher hoped to find ethnicity and culture playing an important role within the

identities of racially mixed teens in Young Adult Literature, beyond that of race. Since the terms

minority, biracial and mixed heritage have become commonplace in YA literature, there are

many more non-white characters, and a higher percentage of characters with parents of different

racial, cultural and religious backgrounds than in the previous decades. Though we have come a

long way in terms of counteracting racism and bias in YA literature, this study supports the

earlier hypothesis that race seen primarily through phenotype, still plays a larger part in

identifying characters than does culture.

The array of biracial characters found in this study were mainly black and white. This

researcher hoped to find the unique characteristics of each of these cultures beyond race and

phenotype, but in the end, more than half of the characters were defined by the color of their

skin. The mothers of biracial characters tended to fair better in terms of culture over the fathers

but still black and white cultures were not written in equal measure as Asian, Hispanic or Native

American cultures. Most of the time, white culture was assumed to be an American culture,

without further development beyond assuming they were entitled to the majority population

within a given locale.

Nonetheless, all characters were different in terms of their situation regarding race,

culture, family setting, living situation, and problems of identity. Some common themes as

hypothesized, were the needs for strong loving adults and a sense of self-confidence to help teens

cope with and conquer their adolescent problems. When biracial and bicultural problems arose,


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the adult influence, economic status, setting and family environment strongly impacted the

severity of problems.

Limitations

Young Adult literature can easily be broken down into two categories by age. This study

was done on books for children between the ages of twelve and eighteen. The issues and

problems of a middle grade teen were found to be different from those of a person about to

graduate high school, and this study could have easily been split into two groups. They could

have been one group with ages between 12-14 and another for ages between 15-18.

The three titles in which the narrative took place decades earlier, provided an interesting

contrast to the stories that took place today, especially vis-a-vis race relations dealing with

location and setting. Putting these books into the study underscored the need for looking at more

books that were published before 2008 to highlight the importance of events that happened

during the character’s life that may have steered the racial and cultural narratives, including wars,

the Civil Rights movements, and different waves of immigration.

This researcher realizes that more consideration needs to be given to African-American

or black characters in the study. Looking for the cultural aspects of black America can lead it’s

own lengthy research project. There are many reasons African Americans came to the United

States, not all those were unfortunate. Many have come for work and professional reasons,

creating pockets of rich cultures from many African nations. However, due to the deplorable

nature of black immigration in America, African-Americans have created a new culture within

this country, often without the backgrounds, languages and religions of another Nation. This

lends to urban stereotyping in literature.


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Additional Findings and Need for Further Study

While researching this topic, many different sub categories of race and culture were

discovered. There seemed to be a sub-category of bicultural characters combining Asians and

Jews, and leads this researcher to see further studies that could be conducted on these phenomena

alone. This would go beyond the culture of nationalities but the cultures of intermixing religions,

belief systems, and larger more diffused cultures, ethnicities and other identities.

Significant further studies can be done to explain and define current black culture. This

would also show that not all black characters have a direct link to an African country, just as not

all white characters can be traced to a European nation. However, this is another research project

for another time.

And lastly, looking at the scope of the research, a more in depth study could have been

done on one specific pairing of races, such as focusing only on Asian/white biracial characters,

subdividing them into different ethnicities such as Japanese/Australian, Koran/white American,

and Chinese/Danish. However, this researcher wanted to get an overall climate of biracial

characters that exist in the current YA literature, not just one third of the patchwork population.

Conclusion

The novels were selected with the intention of shedding some light on the diverse

characters that exist in current young adult literature, which parallel the many biracial and

bicultural teenagers documented in the U.S. census. The authors and publishers hope that teens

undergoing adolescent transformations may refer to the characters in novels as role models,

heroes, and anti-heroes; and as a way to understand how they fit into society; to see that they are

not alone, that others undergo similar changes and challenges; and as a way to find reassurance


86

and comfort. It is for these compassionate reasons, therefore, that it is important for libraries to

carry high-quality books that reflect the real life joys, trials and tribulations of our ever-

diversifying population of teenagers.

The classification systems in libraries need to be updated to include terms that go beyond

“racially mixed people”. Terms such as bi-cultural, bi-ethnic, and multi-ethnic need to be used

regularly, especially when cataloguing these titles in our libraries. Books reach more young

readers if they are true-to-life and address the specific make-up of the cultures of

individuals. Therefore, it would be helpful to go beyond the current cataloging labels like Asian

American and African American, to include cataloging labels that more precisely define the

panoply of specific nationalities and cultures, such as Korean-American or French-Senegalese-

American in catalogue subject headings.


87

Appendix A

List of Young Adult Novels

Adoff, J. (2008). The death of Jayson Porter. New York, NY: Hyperion Books.

Burg, A. E. (2009). All the broken pieces. New York, NY: Scholastic Books.

Chan, C. (2014). Bird. New York, NY: Athenaeum Books for Young Readers.

Chappell, C. (2014). More than good enough. Woodbury, MN: Flux.

de la Pena, M. (2008). Mexican whiteboy. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

Dionne, E. (2013). Moxie and the art of Rule Breaking. A 14 day mystery. New York, NY: Dial

Books.

Dionne, E. (2014). Ollie and the science of treasure hunting. A 14 day mystery. New York, NY:

Dial Books.

Durrow, H. W. (2010). The girl who fell from the sky. New York, NY: Workman Publishing.

Freeman, P. J. (2013). My basmati bat mitzvah. New York, NY: Amulet Books.

French, S. T. (2009). Operation Redwood. New York, NY: Amulet Books.

Garcia, C. (2008). I want to be your shoebox. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.

Giles, L. (2015). Endangered. New York, NY: Harper Teen.

Gurtler, J. (2011). If I tell. Chicago, IL: Sourcebooks Fire.

Hiranandani, V. (2012). Whole story of half a girl. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

Kamata, S. (2013). Gadget Girl. Boston, MA: Gemma.

Kuehn, S. (2015). Delicate monsters. New York, NY: St. Martins Griffin.

LaCour, N. (2014). Everything leads to you. New York, NY: Dutton Book.

Magoon, K. (2011). Camo girl. New York, NY: Aladdin.

Maia, L. (2012). DJ rising. New York, NY: Hachette.


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Maldonado, T. (2010). Secret Saturdays. New York, NY: Penguin Group.

Miller-Lachmann, L. (2013). Rogue. New York, NY: Nancy Paulson Books.

Mitchard, J. (2013). What we saw at night. New York, NY: Soho Teen.

Mitchard, J. (2013). What we lost in the dark. New York, NY: Soho Teen.

Paulus, R. (2013) Swimming through clouds. Portland, OR: Birch House Press.

Rivers, K. (2012). The encyclopedia of me. New York, NY: Arthur A. Levine Books.

Rowell, R. (2013). Eleanor and Park. New York, NY: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Rushby, A. (2012). Shooting stars. New York, NY: Walker & Company.

Smith, S. L. (2008). Hot, sour, salty, sweet. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.

Steinau Lester, Joan (2011). Black, white, other. In search of Nina Armstrong. Grand Rapids,

MI: Zondervan.

Stevenson, J. (2011). The latte rebellion. New York, NY: Flux.

Tamaki, M. (2008). Skim. Toronto, ON: Groundwood Books.

Thompson, H. (2011). Orchards. New York, NY: Delacourt.

Voorhees, C. (2008). The Brothers Torres. New York, NY: Hyperion Books.

Wenberg, M. (2010). Stringz. Lodi, NJ: Westside Books.

Williams, J. (2014). Drama queens in the house. New York, NY: Roaring Book Press.

Yoon, N. (2015). Everything, everything. New York, NY: Delacorte Press.


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Appendix B

Coding Sheet:

Title of Work:

Author:

Race identity of author:

Biracial Mono-racial Unknown/or not important*

*Not important refers to when an author does not designate race on their bio.

Date of Publication:

2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Gender of characters

Male Female Though there are 36 books analyzed, some titles had more than one biracial character.

Age of Characters:

12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Character’s Mother’s race:

Black White Asian Hispanic Native American biracial What is the mother’s nationality or ethnicity? And which category does she fall into above?

Character’s Father’s race:

Black White Asian Hispanic Native American Biracial


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Qualitative question: What is the father’s nationality or ethnicity? And which category does he

fall into above?

Family life:

Two parents

Divorced Unmarried Missing parent

Dead parent

Living with grandparents

Living with other

How important are the parents in helping to create a positive identity of adolescent characters?

Not important Somewhat important

Important Very important

Most important

Not clear.

Setting:

Urban Suburban Rural Unknown

Socioeconomic status:

Wealthy Middle class Lower middle class Poor

Description of culture through what elements:

Food Language Religion Holidays Customs Other

Phenotype description

Color of skin Color of hair Description of hair

Color of eyes Shape of facial features

Other

What type of bullying do the protagonists encounter?

Monoracial stereotypes

Biracial stereotypes

Physical abuse

None


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Have identity issues based on race

Yes No

What are other issues that determine the protagonist’s identity?

Do the bicultural characters combat or go against racial stereotypes?

Yes No n/a

How do the protagonists identify themselves in terms of race

Biracial One race Conflicted

Would this book be helpful in a YA collection depicting the importance of culture over race?

Yes Yes with reservations No

What are some of the limitations of the text?


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Appendix C

CIP (Cataloging in Publication) Data Block

Subject Heading of Racially mixed people is highlighted in yellow.

Subject Heading of individual cultures is highlighted in blue.

Title CIP data or Subject Heading

The Death Of Jayson Porter. Child abuse--Fiction. Substance abuse--Fiction. Emotional problems--Fiction. Suicide--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. Novels in verse.

All The Broken Pieces. Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Psychological aspects--Juvenile fiction. Novels in verse. Vietnam War, 1961-1975--Psychological aspects--Fiction. Vietnamese Americans--Fiction. Adoption--Fiction.

Bird Superstition--Fiction. Grief--Fiction. Family problems--Fiction. Selective mutism--Fiction. Racially-mixed people--Fiction. Iowa--Fiction.

More Than Good Enough Mikasuki Indians--Juvenile fiction. Indians of North America--Florida--Fiction. Indian reservations--Fiction. Identity--Fiction. Friendship--Fiction. Florida--Fiction.

Mexican Whiteboy Identity (Philosophical concept)--Juvenile fiction. Self-acceptance--Juvenile fiction. Racially mixed people--Juvenile fiction. Baseball stories. Fathers and sons--Juvenile fiction. Cousins--Juvenile fiction. National City (Calif.)--Juvenile fiction.


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Moxie And The Art Of Rule Breaking

Grandfathers--Fiction. Art thefts--Fiction. Gangsters--Fiction. Mystery and detective stories. Boston (Mass.)--Fiction.

Ollie and The Science Of Treasure Hunting Camps--Fiction. Buried treasure--Fiction. Vietnamese Americans--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. Mystery and detective stories. Boston Harbor Islands (Mass.)--Fiction.

The Girl Who Fell From The Sky Racially mixed children--Fiction. Identity (Psychology)--Fiction. Intergenerational relations--Fiction.

My Basmati Bat Mitzvah Bat mitzvah--Fiction. Judaism--Fiction. Jews--United States--Fiction. East Indian Americans--Fiction.

Operation Redwood Environmental protection--Fiction. Redwoods--Fiction. Trees--Fiction. Friendship--Fiction. Grandmothers--Fiction. California, Northern--Fiction.

I Want To Be Your Shoebox Identity--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. Grandfathers--Fiction. Families--Fiction. California, Southern--Fiction.

Endangered Mystery and detective stories. Photography--Fiction. High schools--Fiction. Schools--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction.

If I Tell Secrets--Fiction. Conduct of life--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. Interpersonal relations--Fiction. Grandparents--Fiction. Washington (State)--Fiction.

Whole Story Of Half A Girl Coming of age--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. Depression, Mental--Fiction. Middle schools--Fiction. Schools--Fiction. East Indian Americans--Fiction.


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Gadget Girl Coming Of Age--Fiction. Artists--Fiction. Mothers And Daughters--Fiction. Single-Parent Families--Fiction. Cerebral Palsy--Fiction. People With Disabilities--Fiction. Cartoons And Comics--Fiction. Paris (France)--Fiction. Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues / Special Needs.

Delicate Monsters Secrets--Fiction. Mental illness--Fiction. Psychopaths--Fiction. Sexual abuse--Fiction.

Everything Leads To You Motion Picture Industry--Fiction. Set Designers--Fiction. Love--Fiction. Lesbians--Fiction. Secrets--Fiction. Families--Fiction. Juvenile Fiction / Love & Romance. Juvenile Fiction / Performing Arts / Film.

Camo Girl Friendship--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. African Americans--Fiction. Junior high schools--Fiction. Schools--Fiction. Las Vegas (Nev.)--Fiction.

DJ Rising Disc jockeys--Fiction. Success--Fiction. Mothers and sons--Fiction. Drug abuse--Fiction. Death--Fiction. Racially-mixed people--Fiction.

Secret Saturdays Inner cities--Fiction. Single-parent families--Fiction. Interpersonal relations--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. African Americans--Fiction. Schools--Fiction. Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)--Fiction.

Rogue Asperger's syndrome--Fiction. Autism--Fiction. Interpersonal relations--Fiction. Friendship--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction.


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What We Saw At Night Xeroderma pigmentosum--Fiction. Serial murderers--Fiction. Survival--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction

What We Lost In The Dark Xeroderma Pigmentosum--Fiction. Serial Murderers--Fiction. Survival--Fiction. Racially Mixed People--Fiction Family Life--Minnesota--Fiction. Scuba Diving--Fiction. Juvenile Fiction / Social Issues / Death & Dying. Juvenile Fiction / Action & Adventure / General. Juvenile Fiction / Love & Romance. Superior, Lake--Fiction. Minnesota--Fiction.

Swimming Through Clouds Abused teenagers-- Brothers and sisters— High school students-- (no CIP data. Book does not exist in LOC catalogue, New York Public Library or Brooklyn Public Library.)

The Encyclopedia Of Me Interpersonal relations – Racially mixed people Racially mixed people-Juvenile fiction Interpersonal relations-Juvenile fiction Teenage girls-Juvenile literature (no CIP. Taken from subject heading of Queens and Brooklyn Public Libraries)

Eleanor & Park Love--Fiction. Dating (Social customs)--Fiction. High schools--Fiction. Schools--Fiction. JUVENILE FICTION / Love & Romance. Omaha (Neb.)--History--20th century--Fiction.

Shooting Stars Paparazzi--Fiction. Photography--Fiction. Celebrities--Fiction. Single-parent families--Fiction. Brothers--Fiction. Emotional problems--Fiction. Racially-mixed people--Fiction.

Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet Interpersonal relations--Fiction. Family life--California--Los Angeles--Fiction. Cooking--Fiction. Graduation (School)--Fiction. Parties--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction.


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Los Angeles (Calif.)--Fiction. Black, White, Other Identity--Fiction.

Racially mixed people--Fiction. Divorce--Fiction. Family life--California--Fiction. Great-grandmothers--Fiction. Fugitive slaves--Fiction. California--Fiction.

The Latte Rebellion Clubs--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. Racism--Fiction. High schools--Fiction. Schools--Fiction. East Indian Americans--Fiction. Family life--California--Fiction. California--Fiction.

Skim Goth culture (Subculture) Comic books, strips, etc. Juvenile fiction Girls' schools Comic books, strips, etc. Juvenile fiction Suicide Comic books, strips, etc. Juvenile fiction (no CIP data. Subject headings retrieved from Brooklyn Public Library catalogue)

Orchards Novels in verse. Suicide--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. Japan--Fiction.

The Brothers Torres Dating (Social customs)--Juvenile fiction. Interpersonal relations--Juvenile fiction. Fighting (Psychology)--Juvenile fiction. High schools--Juvenile fiction. Schools--Juvenile fiction. Racially-mixed people--Juvenile fiction. Family life--New Mexico--Fiction. New Mexico--Juvenile fiction.

Stringz Interpersonal relations--Fiction. Moving, Household--Fiction. Cello--Fiction. Musicians--Fiction. High schools--Fiction. Schools--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. Family life--Washington (State)--Fiction. Seattle (Wash.)--Fiction.


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Drama Queens In The House Family life--Fiction. Gifted children--Fiction. Theater--Fiction. Gays--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction. African Americans--Fiction.

Everything, Everything Friendship--Fiction. Love--Fiction. Allergy--Fiction. Racially mixed people--Fiction.


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Appendix D

List of Names and Their Cultural Significance

First Name Last name First name etymology last name etymology hyphenated name

Isadora (Tink) Aaron-Martin Greek- Jewish English/French

Sebastian Aaron-Martin Latin: Jewish English/French

Alexander Aaron-Martin Greek, Persian Jewish English, French

Jace Adams American, Greek English, Jewish

Nina Armstrong Spanish, Hebrew: Scottish

Jewel Campbell Old French Scottish

Julian Carter Li Latin, English English Chinese

Ella Cartwright Old German English

Aiko Cassidy Japanese, Irish

Lauren "Panda" Daniels Latin, French English

Marley Diego-Dylan English Spanish Welsh, English

Jasmine (Jaz) Evans Persian, French Welsh

Tara Feinstein Celtic, Hindi Hebrew/German

Josephine (ZoJo) Foster Hebrew English

Madeline Furukawa-Whittier Greek, Hebrew Japanese English

Kana Goldberg Hawaiian Jewish (Ashkenazi)

Asha Jamison African English

Jessie Jasper Lewis Hebrew English, Dutch English, Welsh

Ayesha Jones Arabic, native American English, Welsh

Kimberly Keiko Cameron English, Japanese Scottish


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Allie Kim Korean

Danny Lopez Latin, Hebrew Spanish

Rachel Morse Hebrew: English

Natasha Nadhamuni Greek, Latin Hindi

Sonia Nadhamuni Russian Hindi

Trent Osceola English Native American

Matt Pin Hebrew, German French, Cambodian

Jayson Porter Greek- English

Emi Price Welsh

Toby Price Hebrew Welsh

Yumi Ruiz-Hirsch Japanese Mexican/Spanish Germanic, Jewish

Ana Shen Chinese Chinese

Park Sheridan Korean (last name) Irish

Sadie Su English Chinese

Kiara Thorton Delgado Irish English Spanish, Portuguese

Frankie Towers French Torres- Spanish French

Ollie Truong Old Norse, Latin, French Vietnamese

Carey Wong Irish: Spanish Chinese (Cantonese)

Justin Old French

Sean Irish, Hebrew

Uno Spanish for first.


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Appendix E

Other Teen Issues in YA Literature

1= Child Abuse

2= Substance Abuse

3= Suicide

4= Death of family or friends

5= Gay/Lesbian/Coming out.

6= Difficult/dysfunctional family life

7= Mental illness

8= Psychopath behavior

9= Sexual abuse

10= Racism

11= Divorce/separation

12= Love/dating/social life

13= Disability

14= Grief

15= Coming of age

15= Crime: Serial murders/mystery/thefts

16= Secrets

17= Bullying

18= Environmental protection

19=War

12= Poverty


Title Identity Issues Other Issues

1. The Death Of Jayson Porter. yes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 20

2. All The Broken Pieces. yes 4, 14, 17, 19

3. Bird yes 4, 6, 14

4. More Than Good Enough yes 1, 2, 10, 11, 15, 20

5. Mexican Whiteboy yes 10, 11

6. Moxie And The Art Of Rule Breaking no 15

7. Ollie and The Science Of Treasure Hunting no 15

8. The Girl Who Fell From The Sky yes 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 10, 11, 14, 16

9. My Basmati Bat Mitzvah yes 12, 15

10. Operation Redwood no 6, 14, 18

11. I Want To Be Your Shoebox yes 6, 11, 12,

12. Endangered yes 12, 15

13. If I Tell yes 6, 11, 12, 16

14. Whole Story Of Half A Girl yes 7, 15

15. Gadget Girl yes 11,12, 13,

16. Delicate Monsters no 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 16, 17

17. Everything Leads To You no 5, 12,

18. Camo Girl yes 10, 11, 12, 13,

19. DJ Rising yes 1, 2, 6, 11, 20

20. Secret Saturdays yes 16, 20, 20

21. Rogue yes 1, 2, 4, 6, 11, 13, 20


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22. What We Saw At Night no 13, 15

23. What We Lost In The Dark no 13, 15

24. Swimming Through Clouds yes 1, 3, 6, 8, 12, 16

25. The Encyclopedia Of Me yes 12, 13

26. Eleanor And Park yes 1, 2, 6, 10, 12, 16, 17

27. Shooting Stars no 2, 12,16

28. Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet yes 12

29. Black, White, Other yes 6, 10, 11

30. The Latte Rebellion yes 10, 17

31. Skim no 3, 5, 11, 12

32. Orchards yes 3, 17

33. The Brothers Torres yes 6, 10, 17

34. Stringz yes 6, 10, 11, 12, 17, 20

35. Drama Queens In The House yes 5, 6, 11, 16

36. Everything, Everything no 1, 4, 12, 13


103

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Documents

Beyond Black and White: Bicultural Characters in Young Adult Realistic Novels