Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios is a crowd-funded anthology that does what it says in the tag line.It's an incredibly strong anthology, filled with thoughtful and creative stories. The stories cover a wide range of diverse characters, with diveristy stemming from race, gender, chronic/mental illness and disability. I was pleasantly surprised to see several stories deal with characters who fit into more than one of those labe...

This review duplicates what I wrote on LJI’ve just finished Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories. This excellent collection succeeds in every possible way: not only does it fulfill its mission to deliver fantasy stories with diverse protagonists (along many axes of diversity: ethnic, geographical, physical and mental status, sexual orientation, and gender,** written by equally diverse authors, but it also delivers diversity of mood, tone, and style. The stories are all ex...

...The art of editing a good anthology is to select the stories and present them in such a way that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. Krasnostein and Rios would probably have been able to achieve that effect if they had chosen to narrow the theme down just a little bit. Kaleidoscope is so diverse, that apart from showing what is possible in Young Adult fiction, it does not quite achieve that synergy. What I do very much appreciate in this anthology is the fact that the authors do not

Listened via LeVar Burton Reads podcast. (#14)This one did not draw me into the world as #13 did, perhaps from something missing in the presentation of the story. Then beyond that, the end felt rushed making it seem like an incomplete story. Most of LeVar's picks do an impressive job of being a contained short, but this one seemed to want to be not necessarily a full novel, but at least a short chapter book.

Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories seeks to fill an underrepresented niche, specified right there in the title. When I was a young adult, I read some anthologies of short stories, but as far as I can remember, they were about cis, straight, white, able-bodied, neurotypical people. Every story in Kaleidoscope features characters who break from that "default" type, and, more importantly, the protagonist falls in the spectrum of diversity. One thing that sets Kaleidoscope

Kaleidoscope is one of the best anthologies I have read for a very long time. It's not just the concept, which is both necessary and overdue; it's not just the stories, which are engaging and beautiful and thoughtful and brilliant; it's not just the way the authors explore science fiction and fantasy from perspectives all too frequently unseen in fiction; it's all of these things, and that it seems so natural. In this anthology, every story takes a character (or two or three) who is often "other...

In the story "The Truth About Owls", school-age Anisa is an immigrant from Lebanon whose family now lives in Glasgow, who is fascinated by owls. She processes her anxiety about her father who still travels to his family's war-torn region and the memories she has of home by studying predatory owls. While she briefly rejects her family's background and Arabic language, by the end she is starting to accept her heritage and becomes more comfortable with herself. This was an engaging short story abou...

Another Levar Burton Reads Podcast offering. I didn’t quite get or enjoy this one. I am 100% with the character who said “Bullsh*t!” re: the Power.3 stars.

I started reading this anthology waaaaaay back (so far back I can't even remember when) and then in the middle of reading I totally forgot that I owned it and so I took a good few months 'off' before rediscovering it and continuing with the stories. What I enjoyed most about this was that the title is explicit and the content follows the title really well, this DOES have diverse characters and SFF stories in YA and I really, really enjoyed seeing them and seeing such a range of people, character...

Not only does this anthology meet its goal of presenting stories with diverse settings, cultural backgrounds, and sexuality/gender/identities but it’s entertaining, and furthermore, I think that the teens it’s aimed at would enjoy it—which is not always the case with “issues” books marketed to teens. I’ve begun a lot of anthologies that make similar claims, to be bludgeoned by Message fiction, earnest but grim, often depressing in its cautionary finger-shaking. Unfortunately, no doubt because I

I can’t remember at which point I forgot that this collection was diverse YA and just plain enjoyed the read. I’d backed this particular project out of a belief in the publishing team, the writers they managed to bring on board and the idea that a diverse world is a better world.So I am biased, but bias can only get you so far if the product is lacking. Thankfully (though I can’t say I honestly doubted the editorial team) Kaleidoscope, is not lacking, far from it. Sure there were stories that we...

One of the most buzzed about anthologies of 2014 was Twelfth Planet Press’ kickstarted title Kaleidoscope. Edited by Alisa Krasnostein and Julia Rios, Kaleidoscope collects twenty YA stories around the theme of diversity. Diversity of gender, of sexuality, of origin, ability, and race; it’s all present in Kaleidoscope. The result is a wonderful book filled with wonderful stories, some of them funny, some scary, some heart-breaking, but all of them engaging and emotionally touching. None of the s...

4.0 ⭐ “الحقيقة حول البوم معقدة” * Spoilers* ---On Season 2, Episode 14 of Sticher podcast's LeVar Burton Reads, we’re gifted with The Truth About Owls by Amal El-Mohtar.My last few reviews have been lengthy, but I’m going to keep this one short for two reasons. One, because I think that’d be more in style with this author, who speaks in short, brisk prose. And two, because this story is incredibly self explanatory.I don’t like the flavor-description presented by Goodreads for this story, bec

I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. It greatly exceeded my expectations. I look forward to reading more by this author.

“Cookie Cutter Superhero” by Tansy Rayner Roberts and it was wonderful. I really would love to read more in that universe. I want more of our main character! She is wonderful. Read my full review: http://www.mackat.dk/book/2014/08/coo...“Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon” by aka Ken Liu which was really touching. It actually somehow took me by surprise when the fantastical element showed up because I was enjoying the story so much by that point"“The Legend Trap” by Sean Williams: I am not a partic...

Cookie Cutter Superhero by Tansy Rayner Roberts: 5/5This felt like the opening chapter to a long excellent superhero book that I would like to read.The Seventh Day of the Seventh Moon by Ken Liu: 5/5I haven't heard the "fairy tale" at the heart of this story before so I'm not sure if it's "real" or made up for this story. But it feels like a reimagining/retelling/subversion of a fairy tale I haven't heard before, and it's very well done at making the ordinary feel magical.The Legend Trap by Sean...

Full disclosure: I have a story in this, and finished reading the book on the last train leaving Gretna Green after witnessing the elopement of one of its editors. I am in no way impartial. But I have excellent taste.I haven't the time just now to review this as I'd like, but it's SO AMAZING. I laughed, I cried, I furrowed my brow, I recoiled in horror. It's been fascinating to read reviews of the book and see which stories that worked for me didn't work for others and vice versa, which I think

Cookie Cutter Superhero— Tansy Rayner Roberts— 5/5A teenage girl is chosen by the lottery to be a new superhero. She's worried about what this means. Will she be disliked because her presence removes the popular Astra? Because of course, there can only be one girl on the team at a time. Will she miss too much school? What will her teammates treat her like? And will the superhero machine "fix" her handless arm? This one is fabulous. I read it and then went around shoving the book at people. "Read...

Review Copy: From PublisherScience-fiction and fantasy are my favorite genres, but I’ve been painfully aware of how few people like me survived an apocalypse, let alone got to be the main character. So it comes as no surprise that I did a mental fist pump when I came across “A Note From the Editors” in Kaleidoscope:“…in some ways this is a purely selfish drive: we want to see ourselves reflected in the stories we read. But it’s not limited to that; we also want everyone else to have the chance t...