Hey YA Readers!
I’ll let you insert a boring introduction here about the weather (it’s been brutal everywhere). Let’s get right into what you’re actually here for, though: the books.
2024 is the tenth year of the Read Harder Challenge! Join us as we make our way through 24 tasks meant to expand our reading horizons and diversify our TBRs. To get book recommendations for each task, sign up for the Read Harder newsletter. We’ll also keep you informed about other cool reading challenges, readathons, and more across the bookish internet. If you become a paid subscriber, you get even more recommendations plus community features, where you can connect with a community of passionate, like-minded readers in a cozy and supportive corner of the internet. Sign up today!
Bookish Goods
From the Library of Rubber Stamp by GetStampedUK
I wish sometimes I were the kind of person who marked my books as my own with stamps or bookplates because there are so many cute options. If you are someone who loves a good Ex-Libris stamp, this one is a winner. It’s customizable and features a fun bookshelf. $30 and up.
New Releases
There are a lot of great paperbacks hitting shelves this week. I’ve pulled two very different ones to highlight–the first of which has been in hardcover for a long time by publishing standards and is getting its paperback release just in time for a sequel.
You can grab the entire list of new YA paperbacks over here.
The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe
What happens when the daughter of the Queen of Grift is held hostage during a bank heist? The answer is she knows how to get her and everyone else out safely while scaring the ever-living shit out of the two hostage-takers.
Old primarily in a single day, the story begins as Nora, ex-boyfriend Wes, and current girlfriend Iris are in line at the bank when two men begin a robbery and take everyone inside hostage. They want keys to the vaults downstairs, and they can only get those through the manager. The manager, though, has been in a car accident on his way to the bank and won’t be able to make it. From there, we see Nora start to figure out how she can use her knowledge of deceit to get everyone out safely.
A twisty, super satisfying thriller/heist story with a side of grifting.
The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa
Mar, a nonbinary transmasc Latinx pirate, can manipulate fire and ice. Unfortunately, as magical as that power is, they’re not strong enough to reverse a bargain made by their father. El Diablo is out for revenge, hoping to collect Mar’s father’s soul and the rest of those on the ship.
By miracle, there’s hope. But not for long: now El Diablo wants to make a bargain with Mar.
For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.
YA Book News
- Here are all of the winners and honorees for this year’s ALA Youth Media Awards.
- And the winners of We Need Diverse Books’s Walter Awards.
- A preview of the YA graphic novels and comics hitting shelves this spring.
- The idea of an illustrated edition of The Hunger Games is wild to me, but to each their own.
As always, thanks for hanging out. We’ll see you on Saturday with some great YA book deals.
Until then, happy reading!
–Kelly Jensen, currently reading Rising from the Ashes: Los Angeles, 1992. Edward Jae Song Lee, Latasha Harlins, Rodney King, and a City on Fire by Paula Yoo (out 5/7)