In April, the British YA author Zoe Marriott was widely accused of cultural appropriation for writing a Chinese-inspired fantasy novel called The Hand, the Eye and the Heart. In autumn 2015, Kirkus began a policy of noting the skin colour of major characters in children’s and YA books, and assigning own-voices reviewers to them. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The GuardianMany of the battles around YA books display the worst features of what is sometimes called “cancel culture”. Some messages came through Goodreads, although Chris does not know if they were linked to the main YA community. “The YA community used to be a safe place where bloggers and writers could communicate and share book news.

Source: The Guardian June 15, 2019 07:52 UTC