The novel American Dirt by Jeanine Cummins has sparked controversy. The story of an Mexican mother and her son fleeing a drug cartel and heading for the border to try and cross into the USA has been criticised for being ‘appropriative’and the writer criticised for ‘brownfacing’

The controversy is well explored in this article on Vulture.com

Many writers, readers and activists use the hashtag #ownvoices to advocate for better representation and to ask …Who gave you the right to tell that story?

I was reminded of Saint Death by Marcus Sedgwick an excellent YA author. This is the story of a Mexican boy who gets in trouble with the cartel. I bought this book for our collection as we have students with a Mexican background. Many children’s and YA authors write stories about children from other cultures and in dire circumstances. I am working on compiling a book list of African books and authors for our students but am so aware that while we have African authors in our Senior Fiction collection most of our stories for younger readers about Africa and with African protaganists are not written by African authors.

Sedgewick uses a quote from Charles Bowden an American reporter who covered the US/Mexican border beat at the beginning of his novel.

“This book is about other stories that occur over there, across the river.

The comfortable way to deal with these stories is to say they are about them

The way to understand these stories is to say they are about us.”