Hey YA readers: Let’s catch up on the latest in the YA world!
“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Tor Teen.
When Araceli Flores Harper is sent to live with her great-aunt in a ramshackle Victorian home, the plan is simple. She’ll buckle down and get ready for college. Life won’t be exciting, but she’ll cope, right?
Wrong. From the moment she gets off the train, she sees missing person posters everywhere. When she starts receiving mysterious letters that seem to be coming from the past, she suspects someone is pranking her or trying to drive her out of her mind. But it starts to seem like everything strange in town is connected, and there are secrets fighting to stay buried.
Deep into summer now — at least by publishing and school related calendars — the news has slowed down. Here’s a peek at some of the stories hitting the world of YA.
- The Enola Holmes adaptation has some casting news.
- I’m pretty strongly in the camp that After is not a YA book, but it’s one that many YA readers dig. It’ll hit Netflix soon…as in, well, this weekend!
- Though this list of books that the Canadian Broadcast Corporation isn’t entirely YA, their compilation of what to read this summer includes some excellent YA books.
- The Fence comics are being novelized for teen readers. Fun note in there, too, about YA author Lilliam Rivera writing the middle grade adaptation of Goldie Vance.
- Did you know that the new Ophelia film is based on a YA novel? It is! The novel is by Lisa Klein, conveniently titled Ophelia.
I mentioned this was a short news roundup, right? Let’s look at some recent cover reveals, too. This is such a great way to get new and upcoming books on your radar.
- Loveboat, Taipei looks like the perfect inclusive rom-com.
- Love the body diversity and the bold color choices for Sarah Gailey’s When We Were Magic.Â
- Need more Akemi Dawn Bowman? Harley In The Sky looks fabulous.
- I’m so ready for a new novel in verse from Juleah del Rosario. Turtle Under Ice is at the top of my TBR.
- The Degenerates sounds fantastic.
- A bisexual teen boy story? Sign me up for We Are Totally Normal by Rahul Kanakia.
- When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk is about friendship, which is a topic in YA I cannot get enough of.
- A whole bunch of incredible book covers are up at Epic Reads, too, including the memoir in comics by Noelle Stevenson, the new Lamar Giles, an illustrated memoir by Robin Ha, and more. Oh, and there’s the cover for the second book in Tehlor Kay Meija’s “We Set The Dark on Fire” duology.
To round out today’s news and cover reveals, how about some links from Book Riot you may have forgotten about or didn’t know about at all!
All summer long, I’ve dropped a short-form edition of the YA podcast into the feed as I’ve read my way through the work of early YA writer Norma Klein. Tune into the Hey YA: Extra Credit podcast and feel free to read along — or reminisce about reading those books in your own youth.
- The YA podcast is nearing its 50th episode, which will be a really special one. Catch up on the latest in our biweekly “shout about YA books” podcast before then.
- Did you know Book Riot is on Pinterest? Give us a follow over there, and dig into the board chock full of YA book lists.
- If you love kid lit of the younger than YA sort, make sure you’re listening to KidLit These Days, our kid lit podcast, as well as that you’re subscribed to “The Kids Are All Right” newsletter. A reader of that newsletter just asked why YA books aren’t covered there and it made me think about those of you wanting to know about picture books, middle grade books, and other great reads for the younger set. These are the tickets!
- Last, but certainly not least, Tirzah has been putting together some awesome weekly YA posts, carrying on the “3 On A YA Theme” column every Wednesday.
Thanks for hanging out, y’all. We’ll see you on Saturday with a nice, meaty roundup of cheap YA ebooks!
— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Instagram and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.