Recently, I read “Long Way Down” by Jason Reynolds. It was a fiction novel about a young black boy who lives in a rough neighborhood. His older brother is killed in gang violence, and he turns to the rules for comfort. The rules are one: no crying, two: no snitching, three: revenge. The novel is written in verse style and I could not put it down. It was a fast-paced hard-hitting novel. The last couple of years, books involving diverse characters have been getting more attention. Novels like “The Hate You Give” and “Simon Verse the Homo-Sapiens Agenda” have been getting raving reviews.

Books with more diverse characters have only recently started becoming a thing. A lot of the main characters in popular young adult books have been white and straight. Now readers are calling for characters that are more like them. They want to read about characters that go through different struggles then they do, they want to learn more about cultures they are not a part of. Readers and Authors want to call attention the lack of diversity in the media. It is an important discussion that readers all over are having.

On the Youtube platform, there is a little community called Booktube. This is where people can post all sorts of videos involving books. There are several videos that discuss this topic at length and why it is so important. They all agree that it is necessary to read about others to try and understand them. More diverse characters create more loving and non-judgemental people. I couldn’t agree with this more. Not only is it important that people of different races, religions, sexualities can see themselves represented in these novels, they can also see themselves overcoming things and being a hero. I think it is great that more and more authors are writing about all types of different characters. I would highly recommend “Long Way Down” and reading any books about characters that are different from you.