Divya Manian reviewed Harvest House by Cynthia Leitich Smith
Enjoyable feel good paranormal murder mystery
5 stars
This is a YA novel and it kinda shows on how tidy everything is but also does not shy away from talking about racism & general bigotry. One of the plot lines is about an "ignorant" white teacher who tries to use stereotypes of Indigenous people in her play and somehow miraculously she understands she was doing racism. I didn't quite understand how that leap happened and I wish the author didn't try to pretend that ever happens that easily because it leads children to believe pursuing the teaching of the racist would lead to a better world which is completely opposite to how racism actually gets eradicated (seeing the world as abundant, working with people of other races, having others who correct them when they do racist things, being praised when they do non-racist acts, incentivizing their non-racist acts).
I definitely enjoyed reading it despite that plot line above. …
This is a YA novel and it kinda shows on how tidy everything is but also does not shy away from talking about racism & general bigotry. One of the plot lines is about an "ignorant" white teacher who tries to use stereotypes of Indigenous people in her play and somehow miraculously she understands she was doing racism. I didn't quite understand how that leap happened and I wish the author didn't try to pretend that ever happens that easily because it leads children to believe pursuing the teaching of the racist would lead to a better world which is completely opposite to how racism actually gets eradicated (seeing the world as abundant, working with people of other races, having others who correct them when they do racist things, being praised when they do non-racist acts, incentivizing their non-racist acts).
I definitely enjoyed reading it despite that plot line above. Has protagonists who are bisexual as well which was really nice to read.