Hey YA Readers: It’s News O’Clock!
“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Big Lie by Julie Mayhew
Nazi England, 2014. Jessika Keller is a good girl — a champion ice skater, model student of the Bund Deutscher Mädel, and dutiful daughter of the Greater German Reich. Her best friend, Clementine, is not so submissive. Passionately different, Clem is outspoken, dangerous, and radical. And the regime has noticed. Jess cannot keep both her perfect life and her dearest friend, her first love. But which can she live without? Haunting, intricate, and unforgettable, The Big Lie unflinchingly interrogates perceptions of revolution, feminism, sexuality, and protest. Back matter includes historical notes from the author discussing her reasons for writing an “alt-history” story and the power of speculative fiction.
Tons of interesting news to share this week from the world of YA.
- Daniel José Older is writing a Star Wars book!
- I’ve not watched the Carmella web series, but I have seen so much about it on Tumblr that it’s been on my radar. If you don’t know anything about this lesbian vampire story, read this piece and then get excited there’s a YA book coming.
- How YA lit is leading the queer disabled media revolution. Yes!
- Someday, I swear, I am going to write a piece about all of the YA tie-in novels that came out in the 80s and 90s because there are some great ones. How about the Halloween franchise in YA form? It happened.
- I haven’t read The Breadwinner by Deborah Ellis (a nonfiction giant!) but the animation based on the book just won a huge honor.
- “Lois Duncan’s Down a Dark Hall is an expertly executed parable of the terror of teenage girlhood, when adults simply don’t understand and refuse to listen and the most valuable thing about you is your unspoiled youth and your easily influenced mind.”
- The CILIP Carnegie Medal finalists have been nominated. I love seeing what gets a nice nod across the pond.
- Then here are some of the nominees for one of Ireland’s biggest young adult prizes.
- And let’s round award talk out with this year’s Governor General’s Literary Award titles from Canada.
- Did you see the teaser trailer for the adaptation of Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda (now Love, Simon)?
- This is a small note in a larger piece but Diane Guerrero is writing a YA book! Her memoir was such a fabulous crossover read that this can only be good.
- How about some magical romance?
- Nutmeg is a comic described as the Breaking Bad YA comic you didn’t know you needed. Never heard of it, but I suspect it’ll be something up so many reader alleys!
- What do you think about the YA titles which made the list Goodreads put together of favorite horror reads? NGL: that there’s no Daniel Kraus is a surprise and disappointment.
- Survive The Night is getting an adaptation by…Pharrell and Tracy Oliver.
- Jenni Konner and Lena Dunham are teaming up to bring E. Lockhart’s recent Genuine Fraud to the big screen (I’ll be over here continuing to rally for an adaptation of Frankie Landau Banks).
- A fabulous profile of badass 12-year-old Marley Dias. Don’t know Dias and her killer work bringing awareness to black girl books? Fix that.
- And finally, bookmark this! Emily XR Pan and Nova Ren Suma are bringing a serial YA anthology to an internet screen near you. I’m so stoked for more YA short fiction and in a way that’s super accessible.
Y’all, did you see the amazing giveaway we have going on right now? If you’ve ever wanted to drop $500 at your favorite bookstore, then you need to enter.
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Cheap Reads…
Build up your YA collections with these inexpensive, but fabulous, reads.
Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst is $2 and I’ve heard nothing but great things about this queer fantasy romance.
Heidi Heilig’s The Girl From Everywhere sails in at $2. Time travel!
And one of my all! time! favorite! YA! reads! is $3 this month. Pick up Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero.
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Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you back here next week for even more YA talk. Itching for more YA talk before then? Make sure you tune in to Hey YA, our biweekly YA podcast, hosted by me and Eric Smith.
–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars