Hey, YA Readers,
I’ve got a packed newsletter for you today between a big release week and a nice lengthy book list. Let’s dive right on in.
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Bookish Goods
Never Too Old for YA Bookmark by TheBookishDot
Need any more be said? I love that this bookmark is dark and features the kinds of flora and fauna motifs common on YA book covers. $3.
New Releases
When it comes to new releases, there tends to be a pattern of more books hitting shelves the first week or two of a month than in subsequent weeks. Certainly, by the fifth Tuesday of any month, the number of new books is much lower than the first one—but April seems to be different in YA this time. We have so many great books hitting shelves today.
As always, you can hit the full list here, but I’m going to highlight three below.
I’ll Be Waiting For You by Mariko Turk
Natalie and Imogen are best friends and are about as different as they can be. Natalie is a brave adventurer while Imogen is far more quiet and reserved. One thing the two of them have in common is their love of everything supernatural. The two of them spend every summer at the Harlow Hotel, one of the most famously haunted hotels around, and they enjoy the ride. Imogen believes it’s truly haunted while Natalie believes it’s all fun and games.
Then Imogen dies suddenly. It rips apart Natalie’s life, but she’s determined to still spend the summer at Harlow and use it as an opportunity to work on her senior project of creating a teen ghost hunting show. Annoyingly, Leander is also working on his senior project at the hotel, and Natalie cannot stand him.
But as much as she’s annoyed by Leander, he’s not only not hard on the eyes, but Natalie realizes he could be helpful for her project. She asks him to team up to help and he’s game.
The problem? The hotel ghosts might not be figments of either of their imaginations. The Harlow Hotel has secrets that it wants to share with Natalie and Leander—and it might help Natalie work through some of the grief related to losing Imogen.
The Vanishing Station by Ana Ellickson
Ruby Santos is an 18-year-old Filipina American living in San Francisco. Her mother just died, and she’s been grieving—and not just grieving, she and her father are deeply behind on their bills and in debt from mom’s medical treatment. They’ve had to move out of the top floor of their home and into the basement in order to rent out the top floor and bring in some money.
Then Ruby discovers a secret about her father and a secret about her city. Dad has been working as a delivery person for the underworld. He “jumps” train lines and gets packages to a wealthy family of the underworld. But because of his grief and increased alcohol use, he’s fallen behind, and if he doesn’t catch up, the family house might be taken from them.
So Ruby does what any good daughter would do. She offers to help. But it’s not a fun place of magic and romance in the underworld. That exists, sure. But the underground is a world of rivalry, of trafficking illegal goods, and where she realizes she might be creating more trouble for her family than she could have ever imagined.
Magical San Francisco underground? Let’s go!
What’s Eating Jackie Oh? by Patricia Park
I really need to do a roundup of YA books featuring teen chefs/teen cooking competitions. This one would fit right in perfectly—and they are not only abundant, but they are so expansive in the types of cuisine featured (which is good for reading but less good when you want to sample that cuisine as you’re reading).
Jackie Oh is tired of being the perfect Korean American daughter. There is so much pressure on her to live up to her parents’ exacting standards. All she wants to do is be a chef, but she knows that expressing that would be rough on Mom and Dad.
But still, Jackie manages to work at her grandparents’ deli after school and at night, she practices her French cooking. She knows she should be studying, but being in the kitchen is a balm to the stress of school, studying, rising anti-Asian violence in New York, and more.
So when Jackie is given the shocking opportunity to compete on one of her favorite teen television cooking competitions, Burn Off!, she takes it. She thinks escaping into the world of privileged kids will be fun and more, she’ll get to hone and show off her skills in the kitchen. Yeah, the gimmicky challenges are just that, but this is her time to shine.
This book dives into identity and culture with both humor and heart.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
History in Verse
It’s the end of April and by now, you likely know April is National Poetry Month. I don’t necessarily like to always lean into the themes of the month with newsletters—or, at least, I try not to do it at the top of the month because, by the end, we forget about it or don’t necessarily prioritize it going forward.
I was thinking about some of my favorite verse novels this month, and I realized something I love is when they’re not contemporary reads. I like something a little unexpected, and I think that verse is such a unique and compelling way to tell a historical story especially.
Let’s round out poetry month by diving into some YA historical verse novels. Grab ’em this week to read them during poetry month or pop them on your TBR for reading all year long. Note that I’m going deep here. These might not be titles or authors you immediately think of, either because they’re pretty deep in the backlist or did not catch as much attention as they should have when they released (I love Joy McCullough, but I suspect she’s one of the first authors you went to thinking “historical verse,” right alongside Margarita Engle).
African Town by Irene Latham and Charles Waters
Told in 14 distinct voices, Africa Town is the story of the last Africans brought illegally to the United States on the Clotilda. It’s the story of their treacherous travel, the way each was sent off to various plantations, and how, at the end of the Civil War, they reunited and created a community called Africa Town (and it still exists today!).
Angel & Hannah by Ishle Yi Park
Although published through an adult imprint, this book has tons of YA crossover. Set in 1993, Korean American Hannah and Puerto Rican Angel meet at a spring quinceañera and begin to fall deeply in love. The story follows them through several seasons, and Park uses the sonnet format to explore their interracial relationship. It’s set during the AIDS panic of the early ’90s in New York City, grounding it in that historical moment.
Audacity by Melanie Crowder
At the turn of the 20th century, workers’ rights were not a thing. One of the most influential forces to change the working conditions in New York City—and ultimately, the country—was Clara Lemlich. Crowder’s novel in verse is a fictional account of a real teen girl who immigrated from Russia to the US with her family and helped organize labor strikes.
The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin by Kip Wilson
Set in 1930s Berlin, this novel follows Hilde, who, at 18, is trying to find a job. She takes one at a cabaret as a dancer, where she meets Rosa, another waitress and performer. It’s not a safe time to be queer, but even amid burgeoning war and protest, Hilde wrestles with owning who she is and who she truly loves.
Three Rivers Rising by Jame Richards
Celstia loves spending her summers at the elite resort in Lake Conemaugh. It’s a time to get away from it all, and she’s really enjoying her time with Peter, a boy who works for the hotel. He’s of a different class, so Celstia cannot be caught spending time with him.
Then tragedy strikes: Johnstown is flooding. It’s just down in the valley from where Celstia and her family are. It’s where Peter is from.
What emerges is both a story of star-crossed lovers and an unraveling of one of the greatest weather disasters in American history.
To Stay Alive: Mary Ann Graves and the Tragic Journey of the Donner Party by Skila Brown
Even though 19-year-old Mary Ann Graves knows the trip to California will be long and arduous for her parents and eight siblings, she is looking forward to a brighter future out west. Unfortunately, an early winter in the Sierra Nevadas means Mary Ann’s family is right alongside the Donner and Reed parties and now, not only must she figure out how to survive, she has to grieve at the unbelievable loss before her eyes.
If you want a YA verse novel about the Donner Party, this isn’t the only option you’ve got. You can also pick up Allan Wolf’s The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep.
As always, thanks for hanging out. We’ll see you later this week with your paperback releases and YA book news.
Until then, happy reading!
–Kelly Jensen, currently reading Pretty Furious by E. K. Johnston