Author: Kelly Jensen

Hey YA Readers! Let’s catch up on the latest happs in the world of YA.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Epic Reads.

Robyn Schneider, author of The Beginning of Everything, delivers a sharply funny, romantic girl-meets-boy novel with a twist: boy-also-meets-girl’s-ghost-brother. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon.

Rose believes in ghosts. She should, since she has one for a best friend: Logan – her brother who is forever stuck at fifteen. But when Rose’s old friend Jamie moves back, things get complicated.

Jamie’s charming, confident, and a reminder of the life she’s been missing out on since her brother’s death. Rose finds herself drawn to Jamie, but how can she choose between the boy who makes her feel alive and the brother she isn’t ready to lose?

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Settle in and catch up on the recent news from the world of YA. Like usual, this one is heavy on adaptation news (which is never a bad thing!):

• We have our Daniel in the adaptation of Nicola Yoon’s The Sun Is Also a Star.
• There’s a trailer for the adaptation of Lois Duncan’s Down a Dark Hall. 
• The winners of this year’s Boston Globe-Horn Book awards are in. Yay for Isabel Quintero and Elizabeth Acevedo on the YA side for nonficiton and fiction.
• If you haven’t read Rebecca Podos’s Like Water, maybe you will now that it’s won a Lambda Literary Award.
• Check out the amazing new cover for the 20th (!!!) anniversary edition of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak.
• Clear your calendar on October 19: you’ll be going to the theater to see the adaptation of The Hate U Give. 
• Here are excerpts from the YA Star Wars novels penned by Daniel José Older and Rae Carson.
• Whether or not you were at Book Expo America recently, you will want to know what the big editor buzz titles were — here are all five, along with what inspired those books.
• Why aren’t there more breakout YA science fiction books? Author Fonda Lee makes the case for more and why the time is now.
• A super popular Wattpad YA story is hitting Hulu.
• Freeform has canceled Shadowhunters.
• The Hate U Give won this year’s Audio award in the young adult category.
• Add a bunch of new queer YA to your to-read stack.
• In “it’s been optioned now” news: The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue. 
• Don’t revoke my YA cred here because I’m going to highlight a middle grade book….but it’s a forthcoming middle grade book by YA superstar Julie Murphy!
• Dig this deleted scene from Love, Simon, which involves a gay bar.
• A wonderful interview with Jason Reynolds about how he used his own adolescent experiences and feelings to fuel his award-winning books.
• The Indigenous Voices Awards — given in Canada — named their YA winner this year. Another book for your TBR.
• Here are some of the first images from the adaptation of The Mortal Engines, directed by Peter Jackson. Oh, and if you’d like, here’s the trailer, too.
• There’s a new Rainbow Rowell book coming in 2020.

 

Cheap Reads

Grab some great ebooks without spending a ton of dough.

Jennifer Brown’s powerhouse debut novel Hate List is $2. It’s unfortunate this book is still timely and relevant, but if you haven’t read it, here you go.

Pick up Andrew McCarthy’s (yes, that one!) YA novel Just Fly Away for $1.20.

Two great LGBTQ+ reads to scoop up on the cheap: David Levithan and Nina LaCour’s You Know Me Well and Julie Andrew Peters’s Keeping You a Secret. They’re $3 and $2 respectively.

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Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you back here in one week!

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Happy Monday, YA Fans! Let’s talk queer reads.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by City of Bastards from Disney Publishing Worldwide.

“Jon Snow won’t be the only ‘bastard’ whose name readers will remember.”  —Entertainment Weekly

In this action-packed sequel to YA fantasy Royal Bastards, Tilla explores the magnificent royal city of Lightspire where she uncovers a sinister conspiracy to take down the kingdom from within. Nothing is as it seems in the glorious capital, and Tilla’s presence might just be the spark that sets the Kingdom aflame.

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June is Pride Month, an annual global celebration of the LGBTGIA+ community and their contributions to culture, art, history, and more. To honor Pride month and to highlight the growth of queer YA lit, let’s take a look at some of the amazing LGBTQIA+ YA book lists and resources available to readers. Grab your TBR and ready your bookmarking fingers!

LGBTQIA+ YA Reading Lists

There’s literally something for every kind of reader itching for a good queer book or ten.

• 10 must-read bisexual YA books from 2018.
• Queer girls of color in YA lit, as written by women of color.
• 10 books to read if you can’t get enough “Love, Simon.”
• The burning and banning of Annie On My Mind.
• Where to start with bi and lesbian YA lit.
• A newbie’s guide to great coming out YA books.
• 13 YA books about bisexual boys.
• Asexual YA books to buy, borrow, or bypass.
• 100 must-read inclusive science fiction and fantasy YA reads.
• Queer superheroes in YA books.
• LGBTQA science fiction and fantasy by #OwnVoices writers.
• Amazing Pride book displays from around the world.
• 100 must-read LGBTQIA+ YA books.

LGBTQIA+ YA Resources

Looking for more book lists, news, and information about queer YA lit? Dig into these excellent websites.

• QueerYA: book lists and resources on diversity in gender and sexuality in youth culture. Based on Scotland, this has a lot of UK-angled content.
• Gay YA: A long-running blog highlighting queer YA. This blog was started by two teenagers who are still active in the YA world and passionate about representation.
• LGBTQ Reads: Although this isn’t strictly YA, this resource is one to know because it features a plethora of YA, as well as books across various categories, genres, and formats.
• Queer Books for Teens: A resource to all of (!!) the queer YA books out there.
• The Rainbow List: Great queer reads, picture books through YA titles, as selected by librarians. This is a vetted list with a wide variety of titles. If you’re looking for even more award-winning queer titles for YA readers, check out the Stonewall Awards.

LGBTQIA+ YA Nonfiction Titles

Just to round this newsletter out nicely, here are a few YA nonfiction titles perfect for Pride month. Descriptions are from Amazon, since I’ve read only most, but not all, of these (yet, anyway!).

The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater

One teenager in a skirt.
One teenager with a lighter.
One moment that changes both of their lives forever.

If it weren’t for the 57 bus, Sasha and Richard never would have met. Both were high school students from Oakland, California, one of the most diverse cities in the country, but they inhabited different worlds. Sasha, a white teen, lived in the middle-class foothills and attended a small private school. Richard, a black teen, lived in the crime-plagued flatlands and attended a large public one. Each day, their paths overlapped for a mere eight minutes. But one afternoon on the bus ride home from school, a single reckless act left Sasha severely burned, and Richard charged with two hate crimes and facing life imprisonment.

The ABCs of LGBTQ+ by Ashley Mardell

The ABCs of LGBT+ is a #1 Bestselling LGBT book and is essential reading for questioning teens, teachers or parents looking for advice, or anyone who wants to learn how to talk about gender identity and sexual identity. In The ABCs of LGBT+, Ashley Mardell, a beloved blogger and YouTube star, answers many of your questions about:

• lgbt and lgbt+
• gender identity
• sexual identity
• teens in a binary world
• the LGBT family
• and more

Being Jazz: My Life As A (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings

Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. At the age of five, Jazz transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents. A year later, her parents allowed her to share her incredible journey in her first Barbara Walters interview, aired at a time when the public was much less knowledgeable or accepting of the transgender community. This groundbreaking interview was followed over the years by other high-profile interviews, a documentary, the launch of her YouTube channel, a picture book, and her own reality TV series—I Am Jazz—making her one of the most recognizable activists for transgender teens, children, and adults.

In her remarkable memoir, Jazz reflects on these very public experiences and how they have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community. But it hasn’t all been easy. Jazz has faced many challenges, bullying, discrimination, and rejection, yet she perseveres as she educates others about her life as a transgender teen. Through it all, her family has been beside her on this journey, standing together against those who don’t understand the true meaning of tolerance and unconditional love. Now Jazz must learn to navigate the physical, social, and emotional upheavals of adolescence—particularly high school—complicated by the unique challenges of being a transgender teen. Making the journey from girl to woman is never easy—especially when you began your life in a boy’s body.

Breakthrough: How One Teen Innovator Is Changing The World by Jack Andraka

For the first time, teen innovator and scientist Jack Andraka tells the story behind his revolutionary discovery. When a dear family friend passed away from pancreatic cancer, Jack was inspired to create a better method of early detection. At the age of fifteen, he garnered international attention for his breakthrough: a four-cent strip of paper capable of detecting pancreatic, ovarian, and lung cancers four hundred times more effectively than the previous standard.

Jack’s story is not just a story of dizzying international success; it is a story of overcoming depression and homophobic bullying and finding the resilience to persevere and come out. His account inspires young people, who he argues are the most innovative, to fight for the right to be taken seriously and to pursue our own dreams. Do-it-yourself science experiments are included in each chapter, making Breakthrough perfect for STEM curriculum. But above all, Jack’s memoir empowers his generation with the knowledge that we can each change the world if we only have the courage to try.

Pride: Celebrating Diversity and Community by Robin Stevenson

For LGBTQ people and their supporters, Pride events are an opportunity to honor the past, protest injustice, and celebrate a diverse and vibrant community. The high point of Pride, the Pride Parade, is spectacular and colorful. But there is a whole lot more to Pride than rainbow flags and amazing outfits. How did Pride come to be? And what does Pride mean to the people who celebrate it?

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Thanks for hanging out this week and we’ll see you again soon!

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Hey YA Fans: Let’s catch up on the last month of bookish talk and upgrade our TBRs even more.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Anger Is A Gift by Mark Oshiro from Tor Books.

Moss Jeffries is many things—considerate student, devoted son, loyal friend and affectionate boyfriend, enthusiastic nerd.

But sometimes Moss still wishes he could be someone else—someone without panic attacks, someone whose father was still alive, someone who hadn’t become a rallying point for a community because of one horrible night.

And most of all, he wishes he didn’t feel so stuck.

When tensions hit a fever pitch and tragedy strikes again, Moss must face a difficult choice: give in to fear and hate or realize that anger can actually be a gift.

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(I heartily endorse today’s sponsor title — perfect for readers who love The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon, or All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely).

Onto the book talk!

• YA adjacent, but of interest to many readers: 50 awesome school libraries to follow on Instagram.
• Just gulped down Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson? Try these books next.
• 5 YA audiobooks featuring multiple narrators.
• Inhale these backlist YA books.
• Itching for some YA book giveaways? These websites are worth keeping an eye on.
• May’s end is close, but that doesn’t mean you can’t put these new YA releases on your library holds list.
• Want some Canadian YA in your life? Here are 50 must-read titles (includes some children’s titles, too!).
• Powerful and authentic depictions of depression in YA books.
• 50 must-read YA mysteries.
• Check out this interview with Nisha Sharma, author of the recently released YA book My So-Called Bollywood Life (which is worth a read!).
• YA books featuring characters who change the world.
• And finally, a round-up of YA books about queer girls of color, as written by women of color.

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Cheap Reads!

Snap up some YA without dropping a whole lot of pennies with these ebook deals.

If you love the show and have never read the book inspiring it, you can pick up Cecily von Ziegesar’s Gossip Girl for $3.

Burn for Burn, the first book in the trilogy written by power duo and besties Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian is $5 (and it’s a big book!).

Karen Hattrup’s Frannie and Tru is $3.

Haven’t read anything by Shaun David Hutchinson OR are looking to read more of his backlist? Snag The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley for $5.

$3 can get you The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee.

Lauren DeStefano’s The Glass Spare is $2.

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And finally, if you don’t already know, now you do: we’re giving away $500 to one winner in the US to your favorite bookstore. For real. Want to enter? Do so by June 21 for the chance to win your ultimate summer reading shopping spree here.

Thanks for hanging out this week & we’ll be back in your inbox in 7 days!

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Hey YA Fans: Time to talk mind stuff.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by All Of This Is True by Lygia Day Penaflor from Epic Reads.

“Devious, delicious, and gasp-worthy.”

– Kathleen Glasgow, New York Times bestselling author of Girl in Pieces

In this genre-defying page-turner from Lygia Day Peñaflor, four teens befriend their favorite YA novelist, only to find their deepest, darkest secrets in the pages of her next book—with devastating consequences. Perfect for fans of One of Us Is Lying—and told as a series of interviews, journal entries, and even pages from the book within the book—this gripping story of a fictional scandal will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.

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May is Mental Health Awareness Month, which serves to raise consciousness about the importance of mental health, whether or not you struggle with illness. Mental health has been a passion of mine for many years, particularly when it comes to adolescents. As someone also struggling with a pair of disorders, it’s not just an interest; it’s a personal experience.

Find below a small selection of recent YA books — pubbed in the last year or so — that take on mental health and do so in thoughtful and moving ways. Please not that no every depiction of mental health in any medium will ever perfectly capture an individual’s experience. Mental illnesses present in myriad ways, so what rings true for one person may not ring true for another. There is no single way to “get it right.” But it’s by reading and seeing the wide array of depictions that we’re better able to empathize and understand their challenges.

I’ve copied descriptions from Goodreads and included my own notes below each title.

The Art of Starving by Samuel J. Miller

Matt hasn’t eaten in days.

His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal. But Matt won’t give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp—and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he’s going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away.

Matt’s hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, but Matt can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies because he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to have . . . powers. The ability to see things he shouldn’t be able to see. The knack of tuning in to thoughts right out of people’s heads. Maybe even the authority to bend time and space.

So what is lunch, really, compared to the secrets of the universe?

Matt decides to infiltrate Tariq’s life, then use his powers to uncover what happened to Maya. All he needs to do is keep the hunger and longing at bay. No problem. But Matt doesn’t realize there are many kinds of hunger… and he isn’t in control of all of them.

This book would do extremely well with fans of Shaun David Hutchinson. Intense, challenging, and a powerful look at the way an eating disorder can cause havoc on thinking. 

The Astonishing Color of After by Emily X. R. Pan

Leigh Chen Sanders is absolutely certain about one thing: When her mother died by suicide, she turned into a bird.

Leigh, who is half Asian and half white, travels to Taiwan to meet her maternal grandparents for the first time. There, she is determined to find her mother, the bird. In her search, she winds up chasing after ghosts, uncovering family secrets, and forging a new relationship with her grandparents. And as she grieves, she must try to reconcile the fact that on the same day she kissed her best friend and longtime secret crush, Axel, her mother was taking her own life.

Pan’s debut explores grief in depth, though it also taps into what it is like to live knowing one of your closest loved ones died because of their mental illness. Leigh’s exploration of her mother’s past is never a means of figuring out why she died; rather, it’s a way for Leigh to find meaning in the life her mother led and find a way to work with her grief, rather than against. 

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

Anxiety! More specifically, this book explores social anxiety in a way that really understands the conflicts one can feel when they have an online life that looks one way and an offline life which they don’t feel looks the same. This one will appeal to readers who loved — or were frustrated by! — Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl. 

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart.

If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.

A deeply moving look at life with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder — and a reminder than OCD is a serious illness, not just a personality quirk. 

 

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert

When Suzette comes home to Los Angeles from her boarding school in New England, she isn’t sure if she’ll ever want to go back. L.A. is where her friends and family are (along with her crush, Emil). And her stepbrother, Lionel, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, needs her emotional support.

But as she settles into her old life, Suzette finds herself falling for someone new…the same girl her brother is in love with. When Lionel’s disorder spirals out of control, Suzette is forced to confront her past mistakes and find a way to help her brother before he hurts himself–or worse.

How do you live with and love someone who struggles with bipolar disorder? Colbert explores this question with realistic characters and an excellent look at what it means to love someone who struggles. 

 

This Impossible Light by Lily Myers

Fifteen-year-old Ivy’s world is in flux. Her dad has moved out, her mother is withdrawn, her brother is off at college, and her best friend, Anna, has grown distant. Worst of all, Ivy’s body won’t stop expanding. She’s getting taller and curvier, with no end in sight. Even her beloved math class offers no clear solution to the imbalanced equation that has become Ivy’s life.

Everything feels off-kilter until a decision to change the way she eats gives her a boost in confidence and reminds Ivy that her life is her own. If she can just limit what she eats—the way her mother seems to—she can stop herself from growing, focus on the upcoming math competition, and reclaim control of her life. But when her disordered eating gives way to missed opportunities and a devastating health scare, Ivy realizes that she must weigh her mother’s issues against her own, and discover what it means to be a part of—and apart from—her family.

Readers who love Laurie Halse Anderson’s moving Wintergirls will appreciate this verse novel about a girl struggling with an eating disorder. 

Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

At seventeen, Norah has accepted that the four walls of her house delineate her life. She knows that fearing everything from inland tsunamis to odd numbers is irrational, but her mind insists the world outside is too big, too dangerous. So she stays safe inside, watching others’ lives through her windows and social media feed.

But when Luke arrives on her doorstep, he doesn’t see a girl defined by medical terms and mental health. Instead, he sees a girl who is funny, smart, and brave. And Norah likes what he sees.

Their friendship turns deeper, but Norah knows Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can walk beneath the open sky. One who is unafraid of kissing. One who isn’t so screwed up. Can she let him go for his own good—or can Norah learn to see herself through Luke’s eyes?

Great for readers who love Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything, Gornall explores agoraphobia, anxiety, and compulsive disorder in this gut-punch of a read. 

 

Looking for more resources for YA and mental health? I put together a guide to great YA books about depression, and fellow Book Rioter Lucas has created a list of YA books to get the conversation about mental health rolling.

I’d be remiss not to mention my forthcoming YA nonfiction anthology, (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start The Conversation About Mental Health, takes on the subject as well. It hits shelves October 2, where it’ll be available in time for Mental Health Awareness Week.

 

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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again back here next week!

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Hey YA Readers: Let’s catch up with the latest haps from the YA world.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by by The Unblemished Trilogy by Sara Ella.

Sara Ella masterfully takes readers to new worlds in the jaw-dropping finale to the Unblemished trilogy, as Eliyana fights to save everything—and everyone—she loves.

With the fate of the Reflections at stake, Eliyana must destroy the void… but at what cost?  Traversing the realms of fantasy and reality through a labyrinth of plot twists, Unbreakable delivers a thrilling conclusion to Sara Ella’s Unblemished Trilogy.  Sara Ella continues to examine real world issues young women face every day regarding their own self-worth, strength, and confidence to define themselves in a complicated, mixed-up world that doesn’t always make sense.

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Get ready to learn about a lot of adaptations, updates on adaptations, and more!

• In honor of the 20th anniversary of Harry Potter, we’ll be getting new jackets for the series. Check ’em out here individually and in their full set glory.
• New covers and bonus content is coming in honor of the 10th anniversary of The Hunger Games.
• Scott Westerfeld is revisiting his 10+ year old series “Uglies” with a new spinoff series.
• Peep the first photo from the movie The Hate U Give and mark down on your calendars to see the film this fall (!!).
• Robert Muchamore’s “Cherub” series will become a television series and we should see more YA hitting screens with this deal in place.
• Epic Reads offers up YA books you should read based on your favorite Marvel Cinematic Universe movies.
• Some Canadian YA adaptation news: Cherie Dimaline’s book The Marrow Thieves has been optioned for television.
• A good number of YA authors are on this roundup of Latinx authors to be reading right now.
• It feels silly to preview movies coming in 2019, but, here are some adaptations coming in 2019, including YA.
• Dana L. Davis’s Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now is in development as a TV series, and this would be fabulous on-screen.
• Jennifer Wang’s delightful The Prince and the Dressmaker has been optioned. It’s weird to me it’s described as a graphic novel with “crossover YA appeal,” as if a graphic novel cannot be YA. This one is!
• Nicola Yoon’s husband David just scored one of the biggest YA deals this year.
• And finally, a fabulous piece about the growth of east Asian YA.

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Cheap Reads…

Grab ’em while they’re cheap!

For $4, you can get the Twin Peaks-esque thriller Take The Fall by Emily Hainsworth.

Calling My Name by Liara Tamani, a wonderful coming-of-age story about a black girl in Houston, is $2.

$2 will get you the witchy How To Hang a Witch by Adriana Mather (that Mather, indeed).

Pick up Julie Murphy’s Ramona Blue for $2.

Love sports and romance? These Miranda Kenneally’s books are $2-$2.50 each: Coming Up for Air, Defending Taylor, Jesse’s Girl, Things I Can’t Forget. 

Finally, you can snag the first book in Heidi Heilig’s duology, The Girl From Everywhere, for $2.

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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again next week!

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Hey YA Lovers: This week’s interview is a total treat I cannot wait to share.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by 9 Days and 9 Nights by Katie Cotugno from Epic Reads.

In this sequel to the New York Times bestseller 99 Days, Molly finds herself in Europe on her summer vacation with her new boyfriend Ian, desperately trying to forget everything that happened a year ago. But there on a London tube platform, the past catches up to her in the form of Gabe, her ex, traveling on his own parallel vacation with his girlfriend. And Molly and Gabe can’t bring themselves to tell the truth about who they once were to each other to their new significant others. Now Molly has to spend 9 days and 9 nights with the boy she once loved, the boy whose heart she shredded, without Ian knowing. Will she make it through, or will everything that happened between her and Gabe come rushing back?

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If you have listened to the “Hey YA” podcast at all, you know Eric and I are huge fans of author Bryan Bliss. If you aren’t a listener, here’s that said another way: I’m a huge fan of Bryan Bliss, as are many other YA readers.

One of the most frequent questions I get from readers, both here and in other venues, is about “books for boys” or “authors for boys.” I always answer the same thing: books don’t have gender, and all books are for all genders. It’s the attitude of “for boys” that holds those books back from connecting with a reader who truly needs it.

I still 100% believe that. I also knew that after reading We’ll Fly Away, which comes out tomorrow, I wanted to angle this interview a bit to answer some of those gender-related questions in a way that makes clear there are aspects of the patriarchy that absolutely harm male-identifying people (the belief in books being gendered is one of them). Bryan was kind enough to talk with me about his new book, about what we do and don’t see when it comes to male platonic relationships, and so much more.

You’re in for a treat.

 

Kelly Jensen: Give us the pitch for We’ll Fly Away.

Bryan Bliss: Best friends since childhood, Luke and Toby have dreamed of one thing: getting out of their dead-end town. Soon they finally will, riding the tails of Luke’s wrestling scholarship, never looking back. If they don’t drift apart first. If Toby’s abusive dad, or Luke’s unreliable mom, or anything else their complicated lives throw at them doesn’t get in the way. We’ll Fly Away weaves together Luke and Toby’s senior year of high school with letters Luke writes to Toby later—from death row.

 

KJ: Your book explores the inner workings — and the circumstances leading to — a teen boy sitting on death row. What inspired this setting and story?

BB: I used to work as a newspaper reporter and I was assigned as a press witness to an execution. I saw a man put to death. This isn’t something I particularly enjoy talking about for a variety of reasons, but ever since it occurred I’ve been searching for a way to process it. I tried a number of different things – from graduate education to activism to writing letters with men on death row. All of those, individually, were deeply rewarding experiences. But I still felt an itch. I had something to say and, after close to 15 years of ignoring this story, I wrote a few pages. Honestly, I didn’t think anybody would want to publish it. A death row book for teenagers? Thankfully, my agent and editor disagreed. Now that’s it’s out there, I hope it can inspire teenagers to think about capital punishment. I hope it can break their hearts to the injustice and inhumanity and barbarism involved. If nothing else, that’s a win.

 

KJ: One of the things that stands out in this book is its exploration of friendship and more specifically, male friendship. What drew you to this? Why do you think we rarely see male friendship at the heart of YA novels?  

BB: Friendship, for me, is the most interesting topic to write and read about in a novel. I love the shared history. I love the potential for betrayal and, naturally, the hard-won forgiveness that is baked-in when you’ve invested the time and energy into that sort of relationship. That’s all gold for a writer, especially a writer like myself who may or may not (ahem) be good at constructing epic, high concept plots. So, friendship allows me to really dive deeply into character, into the backstories—which, I think, is something I’m good at. As far as male friendship is concerned, I like having the opportunity to portray young men who are in platonic relationships. I like showing deep level of intimacy. Friendships that are self-effacing and genuine. And if I’m being honest, I like being able to write characters who float between low-brow humor and intense discussions about their fears. As to why we don’t see it? I’m not sure! But I hope there’s more of it out there, because giving young men an opportunity to see themselves as something outside of how society typically teaches them to be would probably be good for everybody involved.

 

KJ: Faith plays a role in this story, as well as in your other books. Can you talk a bit about the role in plays and why it’s important in We’ll Fly Away?

BB: This is going to sound strange, seeing as my first novel was literally about religion, but We’ll Fly Away is probably my most thematically religious novel. At the heart of We’ll Fly Away is the idea that nobody is beyond redemption. Nobody, no matter what they do, is a lost cause. This is core theology for me, perhaps the only thing that allows me to still play in the world of religion and faith. From the very beginning of the novel you know that Luke is guilty. That’s something that I wanted to struggle with as a writer, but also something I hope the reader will also think about as well. By the end, you know who Luke is. You know why he’s on death row. And he is 100% guilty. But does that make him a “bad” person? Does that mean we should throw him away? The epigraph from the book comes from Sister Helen Prejean and, I’m paraphrasing here, says that’s it’s easy to forgive the innocent. It’s how we treat the guilty that tests our morality. How you answer that question also determines your theology.

KJ: Another powerful aspect of We’ll Fly Away is the way both boys are growing up in tremendously difficult home lives. This book specifically looks at poverty in a way we rarely see. Can you talk a bit to this and maybe talk a bit about where you’ve seen it in your own reading of YA?

I read a newspaper article once that had the headline: “Death Row Isn’t a High-Income Neighborhood” and that, again and again, is backed up by even the most cursory glance at capital punishment. Poverty is a common denominator for those sentenced to death. This, plus my own experience growing up poor, made for an obvious connection when I started writing the book. There’s a tenuousness to living in poverty that isn’t shown in young adult literature enough. It’s a balancing act that, if disturbed, sets in motion a chain reaction of events that is nearly impossible to stop. Your entire life becomes a reaction. That’s what happens in We’ll Fly Away, but I think it’s the reality of many, many teenagers and I wanted to portray it as authentically as I could. That said, Tyrell by Coe Booth and Gem & Dixie by Sara Zarr immediately come to mind.

 

KJ: What have been some of the most influential YA reads in your life as a reader and/or as a writer?

BB: As a reader, one of the first great books I remember reading was Hoops by Walter Dean Myers. That kicked off a love of Walter Dean Myers that is still present to me as a reader and a writer. I’ve read most of his books, with the major exception being Monster, only because I know it will be great and could’ve taken over my own vision for We’ll Fly Away. That said, I’m literally reading it right now. From there, I love everything Nina LaCour writes, but most recently We Are Okay absolutely killed me both as a reader and a writer. I just finished an ARC of Dream Country by Shannon Gibney and – holy crap! – it’s very, very good. Fingerprints of You by Kristen-Paige Madonia is amazing, underrated, and one of my favorites. Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert is another one that has stuck with me. I’m probably missing some obvious ones and it kind of stresses me out.

KJ: Your book is told in a bit of an alternative format — it’s both narrative and includes letters. What do you think makes books told in these alt formats appealing to readers and what are some of your favorites that you’d recommend to YA readers?

BB: I love it when a book plays around with structure. The letters in We’ll Fly Away came out of a short story I wrote during my MFA program. But it wasn’t two, three years later until I realized that story was actually the start of this novel I’d been trying to write forever. As a writer, alternate structures allow me to move around the story in a way that isn’t possible if you’re stuck in one point of view. And I think the same is true of readers, maybe? As far as other books go, I point to Steve Brezenoff’s Brooklyn, Burning and how it uses (or, actually, doesn’t use) pronouns. Jason Reynold’s Long Way Down surprised me when I first opened it, because it feels like poetry—like the form is just as important as the words. Lips Touch Three Times by Laini Taylor is unique in that it connects three short stories to a powerful overall effect. Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero was one that blew me away in both how she structured the story as well as how she used poetry. Again, stress. There’s just so many.

 

KJ: If you could go back in time to your 12 or 13 year old self and pass along one YA book, which would it be and why?

BB: I’m suddenly wishing I held back some of my previous answers, because it could easily be any of the other books I’ve mentioned. So, I’ll go with another book that I love: This One Summer by Mariko Tamaki. When I was 12-13, I was trying to figure out who I was. Trying to fight against a demeaning identity assigned to me by teachers, other kids my age. I love that graphic novel because it shows growth and transformation. It shows a kid who is changing, but still okay. And because we’re playing make believe, I’d drop a note into the book that says, “You’re not stupid, no matter what that English teacher says. But seriously. Turn in your homework, bro.”

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Thanks for hanging out this week, and we’ll be back next with a round-up of recent YA news!

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Happy Monday, YA Readers!

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Summer Constellations by Alisha Sevigny from KCP Loft.

When Julia’s mother announces that she might be selling the family’s campground to a real estate developer, Julia is crushed. How could she stand to leave her childhood home? Then Julia finds an unlikely ally — the developer’s son, Nick — who wants to help her family raise the money they need to keep the campground running. Can Julia trust him to conspire against his own father? And could she ever trust him with her heart? This tender story reminds readers of summer’s possibilities … and how sometimes love is written in the stars.

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April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month in the US, and one of the things about months like this is that there’s often a big push for awareness when the month begins, but the enthusiasm and support peter out near the end of the month. It’s natural, given how much our attention is diverted daily — not to mention the things that push for our attention over the course of a month.

I thought it’d be worth putting together a short booklist to offer up recent (within the last year) and forthcoming YA titles which explore aspects of rape, sexual assault, and rape culture. These are books that will provide even more depth and nuance to the books available now or which have become touchstones in the YA category on these topics. Both fiction and nonfiction are included.

Since I’ve not had the chance to read each of these, I’ve pulled descriptions from Goodreads, along with publication dates. It’s worth mentioning: be aware that the content in some of these books may be triggering for some readers.

The Fall of Innocence by Jenny Torres Sanchez (June 12)

For the past eight years, sixteen-year-old Emilia DeJesus has done her best to move on from the traumatic attack she suffered in the woods behind her elementary school. She’s forced down the memories–the feeling of the twigs cracking beneath her, choking on her own blood, unable to scream. Most of all, she’s tried to forget about Jeremy Lance, the boy responsible, the boy who caused her such pain. Emilia believes that the crows who watched over her that day, who helped her survive, are still on her side, encouraging her to live fully. And with the love and support of her mother, brother, and her caring boyfriend, Emilia is doing just that.

But when a startling discovery about her attacker’s identity comes to light, and the memories of that day break through the mental box in which she’d shut them away, Emilia is forced to confront her new reality and make sense of shifting truths about her past, her family, and herself.

Honor Code by Kiersi Burkhart (Available now)

Sam knows how lucky she is to be part of the elite Edwards Academy. As she dreams of getting into Harvard one day, she’s willing to do anything to fit in and excel at the private high school. Even if that means enduring hazing, signing up for a sport she hates, and attending the school dance with an upperclassman she barely knows.

But when she learns the high cost of entry, will Sam be willing to bury the worst night of her life in order to “keep the community sacred”? As the line between truth and justice blurs, Sam must find out for herself what honor really means.

I Have The Right To: A High School Survivor’s Story of Sexual Assault, Justice, and Hope by Chessy Prout (Available now)

The numbers are staggering: nearly one in five girls ages fourteen to seventeen have been the victim of a sexual assault or attempted sexual assault. This is the true story of one of those girls.

In 2014, Chessy Prout was a freshman at St. Paul’s school, a prestigious boarding school in New Hampshire when a senior boy sexually assaulted her as part of a ritualized game of conquest. Chessy bravely reported her assault to the police and testified against her attacker in court. Then, in the face of unfathomable backlash from her once trusted school community, she shed her anonymity to help other survivors find their voice.

This memoir is more than an account of a horrific event; it takes a magnifying glass to the institutions that turn a blind eye to such behavior and a society that blames victims rather than attackers, while offering real, powerful solutions to upending rape culture as we know it today.

Prepare to be inspired by this remarkable young woman and her story of survival, advocacy, and hope in the face of unspeakable trauma.

The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed (Available now)

Three misfits come together to avenge the rape of a fellow classmate and in the process trigger a change in the misogynist culture at their high school transforming the lives of everyone around them in this searing and timely story.

Who are the Nowhere Girls?

They’re everygirl. But they start with just three:

Grace Salter is the new girl in town, whose family was run out of their former community after her southern Baptist preacher mom turned into a radical liberal after falling off a horse and bumping her head.

Rosina Suarez is the queer punk girl in a conservative Mexican immigrant family, who dreams of a life playing music instead of babysitting her gaggle of cousins and waitressing at her uncle’s restaurant.

Erin Delillo is obsessed with two things: marine biology and Star Trek: The Next Generation, but they aren’t enough to distract her from her suspicion that she may in fact be an android.

When Grace learns that Lucy Moynihan, the former occupant of her new home, was run out of town for having accused the popular guys at school of gang rape, she’s incensed that Lucy never had justice. For their own personal reasons, Rosina and Erin feel equally deeply about Lucy’s tragedy, so they form an anonymous group of girls at Prescott High to resist the sexist culture at their school, which includes boycotting sex of any kind with the male students.

Told in alternating perspectives, this groundbreaking novel is an indictment of rape culture and explores with bold honesty the deepest questions about teen girls and sexuality.

Saints and Misfits by S.K. Ali (Available now)

How much can you tell about a person just by looking at them?

Janna Yusuf knows a lot of people can’t figure out what to make of her…an Arab Indian-American hijabi teenager who is a Flannery O’Connor obsessed book nerd, aspiring photographer, and sometime graphic novelist is not exactly easy to put into a box.

And Janna suddenly finds herself caring what people think. Or at least what a certain boy named Jeremy thinks. Not that she would ever date him—Muslim girls don’t date. Or they shouldn’t date. Or won’t? Janna is still working all this out.

While her heart might be leading her in one direction, her mind is spinning in others. She is trying to decide what kind of person she wants to be, and what it means to be a saint, a misfit, or a monster. Except she knows a monster…one who happens to be parading around as a saint…Will she be the one to call him out on it? What will people in her tightknit Muslim community think of her then?

Things We Haven’t Said edited by Erin E. Moulton (Available now)

Things We Haven’t Said is a powerful collection of poems, essays, letters, vignettes and interviews written by a diverse group of impressive adults who survived sexual violence as children and adolescents. Structured to incorporate creative writing to engage the reader and informative interviews to dig for context, this anthology is a valuable resource of hope, grit and honest conversation that will help teens tackle the topic of sexual violence, upend stigma and maintain hope for a better future.

Tradition by Brendan Kiely (May 1)

Prestigious. Powerful. Privileged. This is Fullbrook Academy, an elite prep school where history looms in the leafy branches over its brick walkways. But some traditions upheld in its hallowed halls are profoundly dangerous.

Jules Devereux just wants to keep her head down, avoid distractions, and get into the right college, so she can leave Fullbrook and its old-boy social codes behind. She wants freedom, but ex-boyfriends and ex-best friends are determined to keep her in place.

Jamie Baxter feels like an imposter at Fullbrook, but the hockey scholarship that got him in has given him a chance to escape his past and fulfill the dreams of his parents and coaches, whose mantra rings in his ears: Don’t disappoint us.

When Jamie and Jules meet, they recognize in each other a similar instinct for survival, but at a school where girls in the student handbook are rated by their looks, athletes stack hockey pucks in dorm room windows like notches on a bedpost, and school-sponsored dances push first year girls out into the night with senior boys, the stakes for safe sex, real love, and true friendship couldn’t be higher.

As Jules and Jamie’s lives intertwine, and the pressures to play by the rules and remain silent about the school’s secrets intensify, they see Fullbrook for what it really is. That tradition, a word Fullbrook hides behind, can be ugly, even violent. Ultimately, Jules and Jamie are faced with the difficult question: can they stand together against classmates—and an institution—who believe they can do no wrong?

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Cheap Reads…

Grab these books for under $3 in ebook format before the calendar flips over to May (aka: do it today).

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina

The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye

The Evaporation of Sofi Snow by Mary Weber

Exo by Fonda Lee

Get It Together, Delilah by Erin Gough

If I Ever Get Out of Here by Eric Gansworth

A Spy In The House by YS Lee

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood

Wonder Woman: Warbringer by Leigh Bardugo

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Grab a good read or ten, and we’ll see you again next week with a very special interview.

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Currently reading Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi

 

Happy Monday, YA Readers: Let’s dig into all of the book talk we can.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig.

Rufus Holt is having the worst night of his life. It begins with the reappearance of his ex-boyfriend, Sebastian. Just as Rufus is getting ready to move on, Sebastian turns up out of the blue, saying they need to “talk.”

Then Rufus gets a call from his sister April, begging for help. He and Sebastian find her, drenched in blood and holding a knife beside the dead body of her boyfriend, Fox Whitney.

April swears she didn’t kill Fox, but Rufus knows her too well to believe she’s telling him the whole truth. April has something he needs, though, and her price is his help. Rufus has one night to prove his sister’s innocence . . . or die trying.

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Do you ever feel like your to-read list will literally never end? Because 1. so does mine and 2. this won’t help out the situation much.

• A look at YA books about divorced parents.
• What are essential pulp YA reads for the not-so-young adults? We’ve got 5 recommendations from the hosts behind the podcast “Teen Creeps.”
• DC-based YA authors one reader discovered at Awesome Con (with book recs for where to begin with their titles).
• Interracial couples featured on YA book covers.
• Christian reads for teens (& for tweens, too). During my time working as a teen librarian, this was one of the most common requests I got.
• Speaking of that, why recommending books to young readers is important. Though the piece focuses on the very young readers, the thoughts here absolutely apply to teen readers.
• It’s debatable whether Madeleine L’Engle is YA or much more situated in the middle grade arena, but regardless of where you land in that debate (or care), a reading pathway to her work.
• Love READY PLAYER ONE? These 4 YA books will be up your alley.
• This list isn’t entire YA titles, but it’s one that YA readers will appreciate regardless: 50 must-read coming of age books.
• Have you picked up these must-read April YA books yet?
• And if you’re already thinking about the books hitting shelves over the next couple of months, then this guide to 170+ you can read between April and June will help you tremendously.
• Big fan of LOVE, SIMON? Here are some more YA titles to read.
• Grief in YA is a huge topic, but this list of 10 titles can help you wade in and try reading some of the best.
• Readers who want more books like This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp will do well to try these out.

 

Cheap Reads!

Because a good deal on YA is a good deal. Try one of these ebook steals:

Tiffany Schmidt’s Break Me Like A Promise is $2. You can read this without reading the first in the duology, and if you love romantic suspense, get on it.

A Tyranny of Petticoats, an anthology of short stories about “belles, bank robbers, and other badass girls” through history edited by Jessica Spotswood is $2.

Jeff Zentner’s The Serpent King is $2. This is for the YA readers who want their feelings punched.

 

Reading Recs!

A few quick picks from my recent reading worth mentioning. I’ve admittedly read a lot of female-led books lately, but I promise for readers itching to hear about boys in YA, there’s a special newsletter coming for you soon. In the mean time, let’s hear it for the girls (/rimshot).

First, I’ve just begun From Twinkle, With Love by Sandhya Menon, which comes out May 22, and I’m smitten. It’s a romantic comedy, and it’s told in a really compelling form: through letters from Twinkle to her favorite female filmmakers (her dream is to become like one of them). This is for those seeking some snort laughter and a lot of heart.

 

 

Devils Unto Dust by Emma Berquist might be one of my favorites of 2018 so far. This standalone is part Western, part zombie novel, and fully about one badass teen girl who has to find her father, as there’s a bounty out on him that could impact her and her siblings if not settled. The pitch for this is True Grit meets 28 Days Later and tbh, it’s a perfect pitch.

 

 

If you love a book about enterprising girls, then Siobhan Vivian’s Stay Sweet is out this week and absolutely worth picking up. What happens when a girl who is super likable is put into the position to be in charge of the legendary ice cream stand in her town? How does she keep the place afloat? How does she instill order? This book is sweet, it’s smart, and will appeal to readers who love Morgan Matson or Jenny Han.

 

Tiffany Sly Lives Here Now by Dana L. Davis is out May 1, and it follows a girl who just lost her mother as she’s sent to live with a father she’s never met. And that father, who lives with his four other daughters and a new wife in southern California…is an adjustment from her life in Chicago. This book digs into race, colorism, into family, and it’s also a story about Tiffany’s decision to break some of the rules in her new family that allow her to build a powerful friendship with a “weird” boy who is an outcast at her new school. The pacing on this isn’t perfect, but the voice is pitch-perfect and the story so enjoyable that it’s easy to let go.

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Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you back here next week!

–Kelly Jensen, on Twitter and Instagram as @veronikellymars.