Responding to the online uproar, Dolamore wrote on her blog that 'Nimira is from a fictional land which is not meant to be a parallel to a specific country in our world'. 'It gave her an immediate sense of character to me, and made the story world feel more global, even though it takes place mostly in one large house,' she said. She told the Guardian that she had 'originally considered making Nimira herself an ordinary sort of maid or governess', but decided that 'it would be fascinating for her character to be a far-flung land with its own sense of customs and history'. The author said she did 'truly understand' why some people were upset by her cover, but asked readers to 'give Nimira and her story a chance'. This is not merely about book covers.'įellow bloggers said they would be boycotting Bloomsbury over the move others have been writing to the publisher to register their anger, not wishing to damage the career of debut novelist Dolamore. pervasive racism in every aspect of our world so that young kids grow up thinking they are inferior because they see so few reflections of themselves. It happens within a context of racism,' she said. 'Publishers don't randomly pick white models. Do you know how much that hurts? Are we so worthless that the few books that do feature people of colour don't have covers with people of colour?'Īustralian author Larbalestier, who following a concerted online campaign last summer saw the cover of her novel Liar changed to reflect the ethnicity of its heroine, said that 'sticking a white girl on the cover of a book about a brown girl is not merely inaccurate, it is part of a long history of marginalisaton and misrepresentation'. 'I'm sure you can't imagine what it's like to wander through the teen section of a bookstore and only see one or two books with people of colour on them. 'It makes me angry and it makes me sad,' she wrote in an open letter to Bloomsbury, posted on her website. One teen reader and blogger, who calls herself Ari, said the cover of Magic Under Glass was 'upsetting'. The choice has provoked outrage from bloggers and commentators, particularly following the publisher's decision (later reversed) last year to feature a white girl on the cover of Justine Larbalestier's novel Liar, about a black girl. Although Dolamore's heroine is described in the book as black-haired and brown-skinned – and the official trailer for the novel shows her as such – the cover chosen by Bloomsbury USA Children's Books shows a white, brown-haired girl.

But she finds that a fairy has been trapped inside the clockwork automaton, and the two fall in love. Magic Under Glass, a young adult novel, is the story of a 'foreign' music hall girl, Nimira, hired by a sorcerer to sing with a piano-playing automaton.

Magic under glass by jaclyn dolamore