Zombies Vs. Unicorns: A Short Story Anthology with Gay and Lesbian Characters!

Zombies Vs. Unicorns, Edited by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

I found out about "Zombies Vs. Unicorns" when I interviewed Scott Westerfeld at KidLitCon 2011:




Reading this anthology was remarkably fun.

The stories are intercut with the ongoing argument between Justine and Holly, about which are better, Zombies or Unicorns.  And, perhaps more important, which are better to write about?

The anthology includes twelve alternating skin-shedding and spiral-horned adventures, three of which have main queer characters:


The Highest Justice by Garth Nix

A Princess' journey to her father, with her recently dead and now Zombie mother/Queen, wouldn't be possible without the help of Elibet.  A Unicorn. Who has his own view of justice.


Love Will Tear Us Apart by Alaya Dawn Johnson

A romantic gay teen Zombie story, it's a new twist on the I-love-you-but-our-love-is-impossible theme.  You're a gay kid, you get some disease that turns you into a Zombie, and Jack, the incredibly hot guy you're crushing on smells like the most delicious macaroni and cheese ever.


Purity Test by Naomi Novik

Down on her luck, wearing a thrift-store Marine jacket and sleeping on a bench in Central Park, Alison's roped into helping a majestic - and rather sarcastic - Unicorn who needs a virgin to free five baby Unicorns from an evil wizard's brownstone in Gramercy Park.  Alison's not actually a... but the Unicorn's not hearing any of it - he wants a little more competence in his heroine.  Will Alison be the one?


Bougainvillea by Carrie Ryan

On a pirate Island, they survive in a world where the dead return as fast-moving Lihemorto.  Surviving means you have to be ruthless.  Iza's father rules their island with a fist, keeping them all safe - but at such a cost.  Iza's mother is dead, and now Iza's faced with a dashing pirate, a dream of how the world was and might be again, and Zombies.


A Thousand Flowers by Margo Lanagan

A drunk man follows a Unicorn to an unconscious Princess by a forest stream.  She's exposed, and he tries to cover up her modesty.  In doing so, he's caught by the palace guards.  What will be his fate?  And what of the Princess?


The Children of the Revolution by Maureen Johnson

Sophie follows her boyfriend to work an organic farm in England for the summer.  It's hideous and more like slave labor.  After two weeks he abandons her, and she's desperate for a job to save her summer.  An American celebrity who lives nearby is desperate for some child-care help.  But there are special rules Sophie must follow...


The Care and Feeding of Your Baby Killer Unicorn by Diana Peterfreund

The Unicorn Killers tried to recruit Wen to come to Italy and learn from them after she survived a Unicorn attack that killed her cousins, but her parents won't hear of it - the magic is not Christian, and they certainly are.  But Wen has a special affinity for the killer beasts, or maybe they have for her.  And when she stumbles upon a  chained and dying unicorn at a traveling circus, somehow she ends up caring for its baby... a charming baby unicorn.  She even names it 'Flower."  But as she falls in love with it, she knows she'll have to kill it eventually.  After all, it's deadly to everyone around her.


Inoculata by Scott Westerfeld

Six billion Zombies.  And only a few small pockets of humans left.  Ally's trapped with a small group of other humans on an old pot farm, with hundreds of Zombies pushing up against the chain link fence all around them.  For the last four years.  But, what if there was a way to be innoculated against the Zombies?  To escape into the Zombie-infested world without being eaten?  To finally learn to drive, and go somewhere?  When the girl Ally's been crushing on tells her there may be a way, is it worth the risk? 


Princess Prettypants by Meg Cabot

It's Liz's 17th birthday, and it's the worst day of her life.  The day goes from creepy popular boy making fun of her breasts to her parent's 'surprise' party for her featuring High School Musical decorations.  And no one's really showed up at her party anyway, since uber-popular Kate has the same birthday and is doing a blow-out party at her nowhere-around-parents' place.  But then Liz gets a birthday present she doesn't expect: A real-live rainbow-farting lavender-eyed Unicorn.  What is she, seven?


Cold Hands by Cassandra Clare

James is Adele's boyfriend.  And he's due, when he turns 18, to become The Duke of Lychgate, or Zombietown, as their cursed town is known to the rest of the world.  Because Lychgate's dead come back and walk among them.  When James is murdered in front of her, Adele suspects his Uncle, the current man who rules as Duke until James turns 18.  Now James will never turn 18.  But Adele still loves him.  And justice must be done.


The Third Virgin by Kathleen Duey

A first person tale, told from the point of view of a Unicorn who's lived 500 years, and can't stop his hunger for healing humans... and stealing years of their lives in that moment of healing.  Only a Virgin, pure of heart and desperate of need, can hear the Unicorn's thoughts, and there's only been two in 500 years.  But now, the Unicorn is determined to find one last Virgin, to help him end his immortal life and end the terrible hunger...


Prom Night by Libba Bray

Jeff was student body Treasurer.  Tahmina was President.  Now they're the law - after all, the adults are gone, dead or undead, and their town is a fenced-off prison keeping the infection out and the surviving students in.  But it's Prom night, and much as they'd like to celebrate, they're busy.  Their shift starts out with Jeff having to kill a Zombie - a guy that he used to think was so hot.  Not so much anymore.  And Prom night just gets stranger from there.


So which is it - are you Team Zombie, or Team Unicorn?

You'll have to read them all to decide!

Namaste,
Lee

Oops, Bloomsbury does it again! A Book With A Black Main Character Gets A White Person On The Cover! And It's Not "Liar" - It's "Magic Under Glass!"

So when Justine Larbalestier's "Liar" came out, this was the cover:



There was a BIG stink made, and rightly so, over the fact that, um... the main character WASN'T a white girl. She was black. Even the author voiced her respectful disappointment with the cover misrepresenting her book, and something amazing happened: The cover was changed. Here's the new cover.



So, moving on. You'd think the lesson would have been learned, wouldn't you?

You'd be wrong.

So the same publishers (Bloomsbury) come out with Jaclyn Dolamore's "Magic Under Glass."

Here's the cover:



So does that young woman match, as it says on page 96, a main character who would say "[The dress] dipped low in back and front...exposing what seemed like far too much of my brown skin."

Um, NO.

Once again, a YA book starring a person of color is being made to look - by the cover - as a YA book about a white person.

And that's really a disservice to the story, and to the readers.

As Ari from Reading In Color put it so heart-wrenchingly in her "Open Letter to Bloomsbury Kids USA,"

Do you know how sad I feel when my middle school age sister tells me she would rather read a book about a white teen than a person of color because "we aren't as pretty or interesting." She doesn't know the few books that do exist out there about people of color because publishing houses like yourself, don't put people of color on the covers.

The upside? This publisher responded to the public pressure and shame of what they did once, by changing the cover for "Liar." We should raise our voices along with Ari and many others, and express how important it is (to all publishers) to not white-wash the ethnicity of the characters when they design their covers.

Now here's the breaking news: Bloomsbury just announced "Bloomsbury is ceasing to supply copies of the US edition of Magic Under Glass. The jacket design has caused offense and we apologize for our mistake. Copies of the book with a new jacket design will be available shortly."


I'm glad they're gonna change this one, too, but shouldn't the lesson have been learned by now?

Wanna contact Bloomsbury and share your thoughts?

You can e-mail Bloomsbury editorial here: bloomsbury.kids@bloomsburyusa.com

And of course, you can share what you write them here in comments!

Interestingly, this is an issue that's popping up all over the place:

Bookshelves of doom has a great piece about "The Mysterious Benedict Society" books, where the character of Sticky is brown-skinned in the inside illustrations and um, white on the covers of book #2 and #3!

And there's a new fantasy anthology by Chinese writers where they've made the cover image of the dragon a Western (read: white) dragon rather than an Asian (read: ethnic) dragon. Seriously.

Here's one more thing you can do: The lovely Nathalie Mvondo has created a petition to All Publishing Houses, letting them know that as readers, we'll still buy the books if the covers accurately represent the characters within! It's elegant and very polite, and you can sign it here.

Namaste,
Lee


Thanks to Ari for getting the word out and being so amazing, and Charlotte, for pulling so many great quotes from "Magic Under Glass" where the character of Nimira refers to how she looks! My appreciation to EVERYONE who joined in the protest, and also thanks to Nathalie, for letting me know about Bloomsbury's change of heart on the cover for "Magic Under Glass!"