Hey YA Readers!
When is the last time you read a book and saw yourself reflected back at you? Or maybe better stated, saw your younger self that you wish you could talk to reflected back at you? I’m currently elbow deep in a book hitting shelves this fall that is giving me all of those feelings in the best way. I don’t remember the last time I had this experience.
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Let’s dive into this week’s YA paperbacks and YA book news, with what I hope will offer you some of those windows or mirrors.
Bookish Goods
Library Lover Sticker by ShadeandPaper
This Kindle sticker would also look great on your water bottle, laptop cover, or notebook. Simple and to the point. $4.50 and up, depending on size.
New Releases
May has been a great new release month for YA, and this week’s paperback titles have a little bit of everything. I’ve pulled out two very different genres to highlight, but you can grab the entire list of new YA paperbacks over here.
Note, as always, you might need to toggle at the link to get to the paperback edition.
Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee
This is a paperback original, and if you love romcoms and food, you’re in for a treat.
Dylan Tang has a dream of helping save his aunt’s struggling Chinese restaurant and honoring his departed mom. He’ll do it by winning the Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake making contest for teens.
Too bad he’s got a distraction by the name of Theo Sommers. Theo is everything Dylan is not, but when Theo suggests Dylan be his fake date at a family wedding, he can’t say no. Even if it’s well outside his social bracket. Even if it’s really keeping him away from preparing for the competition.
Dylan is falling hard, even amid a rich, glitzy world he cannot imagine himself in. Will his heart win or will be return his focus to the festival and his to-be-award-winning mooncakes?
The Dream Runners by Shveta Thakrar
Nagalok’s subterranean realm is where Tanvi has been for the last seven years, working as a dream runner. Dream runners are human children, but they’ve had their memories and emotions wiped and instead, they collect dreams from mortals to entertain the immortal naga court.
Tanvi has a bad harvest though, and she begins to remember her own life. She’s worried and scared, and so she turns to Venkat, who takes the dreams collected and turns them into entertainment.
But what Tanvi is experiencing isn’t a fluke. It might be the rupture of the entire world.
Thakrar’s writing is beautiful and magical, and this story weaves a romance into a revisioning of nagas and garudas from Hindu mythology.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
YA Book News
- Katie Contugno’s 99 Days is getting a movie adaptation, and the leads have been cast.
- Here is this year’s winner of the YA translatesd book prize.
- The winner of Barnes & Noble’s 2023 YA book award.
- Hmmm. I don’t know if I believe a Hunger Games TV adaptation is inevitable.
As always, thanks for hanging out. We’ll see you on Saturday with your YA book deals.
— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on ye olde Twitter.