Author: Kelly Jensen

Hey YA Readers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by All The Wind In The World by Samantha Mabry.

Sarah Jac Crow and James Holt have fallen in love working in the endless fields that span a bone-dry Southwest. To protect themselves, they’ve learned to keep their love hidden from the people who might use it against them. When a horrible accident forces them to start over on a new, possibly cursed ranch, the delicate balance of their lives begins to give way. April Genevieve Tucholke, author of Wink Poppy Midnight, says, “Mabry’s lyrical writing sizzles with the same heat as the relentless desert sun.” Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, All the Wind in the World is a breathtaking tale.

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I’m really excited to share an interview with Erika L. Sánchez today, author of the forthcoming YA book I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter, which hits shelves next Tuesday. The book has been short listed for the National Book Award and is one you absolutely need on your TBR ASAP.

Let’s dig in!

Give us the pitch for I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter.

It’s a coming of age story that takes place in Chicago about a Mexican American girl named Julia who loses her sister.

What inspired this story? What made you want to write a YA book?

As Toni Morrison advised, I wrote the book I needed. I never read stories about people like me when I was growing up, so I thought I should write a novel that young women of color could connect to.

 

The title of your book is also a pretty apt pitch for it, and one of the things that we’ve seen over and over in the world of YA is how critical readers can be toward imperfect, flawed female characters who don’t make great decisions through the course of the story. How does Julia’s experience growing up as the daughter of Mexican immigrants, as well as the “imperfect” daughter, play into or against the assumptions or feelings readers may have about the flawed female character?

It’s such a frustrating conversation! As you point out, the title is really straightforward, so I don’t understand why reviewers are surprised Julia is so flawed. I resent that men are never criticized for this kind of characterization. Women are always expected to be pleasing, but that’s so boring. (Like when men on the street tell me to smile. Hey, maybe I don’t want to! Also, mind your business!) Julia is definitely cantankerous, but she has reasons for being so angry and unhappy. Her life is difficult—her parents come from a very different world and she’s trying to figure herself out while grieving the loss of her sister.

 

In what ways did your own experiences growing up as the daughter of undocumented Mexican immigrants influence your writing?

My parents arrived in the US in 1978 and got amnesty during the Reagan administration. They eventually became citizens. Throughout my childhood, I watched them struggle to provide for us with their factory wages, and I felt so guilty about that. They are incredibly resilient and hardworking. I wanted to honor their experiences by telling a nuanced story about an immigrant family.

 

You grew up in Cicero, Illinois, which is a south suburb of Chicago and it’s roughly 90% Hispanic/Latino. Can you talk a bit about growing up here, about the sorts of books and reading you may or may not have been exposed to, and, maybe, talk a bit about the experience you had with the local public library?

In terms of YA or children’s lit, I read a lot of Judy Blume, which I loved, but man, I had trouble relating to those white kids at times. Their worlds were so foreign to me because everyone around me was brown and broke. I read everything I could get my hands on because I was such an inquisitive kid. I remember once checking out a book titled “Coping with Satanism,” just out of curiosity. (Lol) Also, books about spies, chemistry, and the “discovery” of America. I was all over the place. Unfortunately, the local library wasn’t a very welcoming place, so I would just check the books out and go home. I didn’t interact much with the librarians. Recently, I learned that they required government issued IDs for library cards.. I explained to them that this policy was discriminatory toward undocumented people and they agreed to change it!

 

Beyond YA, you write many other things. Tell us a little about your writing life and what you’re working on now.

I’m often working on a bunch of things at once, probably because I have a short attention span. I write poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. My poetry collection just  came out in July and I’m almost finished with a collection of personal essays. Also, I’m teaching creative writing  at Princeton, which I love. It’s all amazing, but I’m a little bit tired!

 

What books were you reading as a teenager? What books were resonating most with you?

I loved reading books about misfits. Catcher in the Rye was really important to me. Holden Caulfield cracked me up; his cynicism felt so familiar.  I also loved The Awakening, The Bell Jar, and other books about women struggling to find their place in the world.

What YA books have you read recently and want to make sure every YA reader picks up?

The Hate U Give was fantastic. It’s a bestseller for a reason. I loved the way she creates complex characters that push against the stereotypes society imposes upon them. A drug dealer isn’t necessarily a horrible person, for instance. Also, speaking of flawed brown girls, The Education of Margot Sanchez was so fun. I love the voice of the protagonist.

 

If you could go back in time and hand your teenage self any one YA book, what would it be and why? 

Damn, this is a tough one. I think Girl in Pieces by Katherine Glasgow would have been so comforting because like the protagonist, I struggled with depression. I need to know I wasn’t alone.

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Snap up some cheap YA reads…

Dig into Emery Lord’s The Start of You and Me for $1.99 if you’re itching for some romance.

$1.99 for Megan Miranda’s Fracture will satisfy your need for a mystery/thriller.

And if you’re looking for horror, $1.99 will get that for you in Madeleine Roux’s Asylum.

 

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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you back here next week with a round-up of YA news and happenings. If you’re itching for a little more YA in your life, don’t miss the latest episode of Hey YA, wherein Eric and I talk about YA authors who cross genres, celebrity YA authors, and so much more.

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Currently reading One Of Us Is Lying by Karen McManus

 

Hey YA Readers:

It’s time to bulk up your TBR and your brain about all things young adult lit.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Madness by Zac Brewer from Epic Reads.

Brooke has gotten so good at pretending to be fine that they’re letting her leave inpatient therapy. Now this time, when she’s ready to end her life, there won’t be anyone around to stop her. Then Brooke meets Derek, the only person who really gets what Brooke is going through, because he’s going through it too. But when Derek’s feelings for her intensify, Brooke must accept that the relationship bringing out the best in her might be bringing out the worst in Derek—and Derek at his worst could be capable of real darkness.

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Happy October! Let’s catch up on the last month of YA book talk around Book Riot.

• A look at what the epilogue to Harry Potter taught one reader about happiness.
• 40 paperback YA titles hitting shelves this fall (perfect for toting around with you to read while you’re killing time!).
• Need some YA nonfiction in your life? Here are 10 great picks.
• Itching for the new John Green book? Here he is reading the first chapter.
• Teens who have odd, strange, and super unique part-time jobs in YA lit.
• Those poor misunderstood villains in YA.
• If you’re a librarian or teacher, here’s a handy guide to getting a great teen book club going in your school library.
• Dig into some of this year’s YA books in translation.
• Though the weekend of YA adaptations on Lifetime has passed, many of these are available to stream or purchase on the cheap. Get your YA lit on the small screen.
• Contemporary YA books that feature interracial couples.
• Excellent debut novels from this year you may have missed as the world goes down in flames. Read ’em, friends!
• Love your YA with some doom and gloom? This book list is for you!
• Hi, you can decorate your entire house in Harry Potter decor. See you at the Pottery Barn!
• Eight questions with British YA author Beth Garrod.
• If you love Gossip Girl, you might want to check out these books, too.
• Why is there a lack of discussion about female reproductive issues in YA lit? A look at the ways we need to see PCOS, endometriosis, and other uterine-related illnesses in fiction for teens.
• Love the K-Pop band BTS? Have a book list!
• Kick it old school with this reading guide to classic YA author Paula Danziger’s books.

 

If you didn’t know, now you will: we have launched a YA podcast, Hey YA! It’s hosted by me, Kelly Jensen, as well as YA experthusiast Eric Smith. The first episode is live and full of discussion about what, exactly, YA books are, our hot takes on the all-female remake of Lord of the Flies, and tons of books you’ll want for your fall TBR. Hey YA is biweekly, and episode two will drop Wednesday, October 4. Subscribe through your favorite podcast listening service, and feel free to hit us up with things you’d love to hear us talk about at heyya@bookriot.com.

Thanks for reading this week, and we’ll see you back here next week with a fun interview with a rising star of YA lit (and someone who has a book that you’ll want to be reading as soon as humanly possible!).

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Hey YA Readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Neighborhood Girls by Jessie Ann Foley.

A powerful coming-of-age story from Printz Honor winner and Morris Award Finalist Jessie Ann Foley.

When Wendy’s father, a Chicago cop, gets a years-long jail sentence, her family falls on hard times. And when she gets jumped walking home from a party one night, she realizes that in order to survive her father’s reputation, she’ll have to make one for herself.

So Wendy joins the Academy of the Sacred Heart’s most feared and revered clique. But now, Wendy faces a toxic friendship, the exhaustion of keeping up appearances, and a shattering loss—one that could hurt more than losing herself.

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September 15 marks the start of Hispanic Heritage Month. It seems only appropriate, of course, to highlight some excellent back list YA titles by Latinx authors to read this month.

What is “back list” exactly? It’s any book that’s not new, and it’s generally seen as books which came out a year or more ago. But for the sake of really digging into the back list of YA, I’ve looked more than a year out (because by that measure, books like Shadowshaper would be back list and while technically it is, there’s something to be said about those titles from even further in the past).

Grab your TBR because it’s about to grow longer. If after you check these out you’re itching for even more Latinx YA, you will want to poke around Latinx in Kid Lit’s fabulous website.

Amigas series (beginning with Fifteen Candles) by Veronica Chambers

Quinceaeras are the fantastic parties thrown for Latina girls turning 15 years old and are a staple of the Miami social scene. But for Alicia Cruz and her three best friends, Carmen, Jamie, and Gaz, they were also just part of the background–until now.

 

Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos

He didn’t say good-bye. He didn’t leave a phone number. And he didn’t plan on coming back – ever.

In Wisconsin, Rico could blend in. His light hair and lighter skin wouldn’t make him the “dark dude” or the punching bag for the whole neighborhood. The Midwest is the land of milk and honey, but for Rico Fuentes, it’s really a last resort. Trading Harlem for Wisconsin, though, means giving up on a big part of his identity. And when Rico no longer has to prove that he’s Latino, he almost stops being one. Except he can never have an ordinary white kid’s life, because there are some things that can’t be left behind, that can’t be cut loose or forgotten. These are the things that will be with you forever…. These are the things that will follow you a thousand miles away.

 

Down To The Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole

What if you don’t follow the rules and it radically alters the course of your life?

What if you get kicked out of the house and lose all your friends and everyone you love?

Will you turn the corner into a world filled with unusual friends and create a new kind of family or self-destruct?

 

The Girl Who Could Silence The Wind by Meg Medina

Sixteen-year-old Sonia Ocampo was born on the night of the worst storm Tres Montes had ever seen. And when the winds mercifully stopped, an unshakable belief in the girl’s protective powers began. All her life, Sonia has been asked to pray for sick mothers or missing sons, as worried parents and friends press silver milagros in her hands. Sonia knows she has no special powers, but how can she disappoint those who look to her for solace?

Still, her conscience is heavy, so when she gets a chance to travel to the city and work in the home of a wealthy woman, she seizes it. At first, Sonia feels freedom in being treated like all the other girls. But when news arrives that her beloved brother has disappeared while looking for work, she learns to her sorrow that she can never truly leave the past or her family behind.

Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Pena

Danny’s tall and skinny. Even though he’s not built, his arms are long enough to give his pitch a power so fierce any college scout would sign him on the spot. Ninety-five mile an hour fastball, but the boy’s not even on a team. Every time he gets up on the mound he loses it.

But at his private school, they don’t expect much else from him. Danny’ s brown. Half-Mexican brown. And growing up in San Diego that close to the border means everyone else knows exactly who he is before he even opens his mouth. Before they find out he can’t speak Spanish, and before they realize his mom has blond hair and blue eyes, they’ve got him pegged. But it works the other way too. And Danny’s convinced it’s his whiteness that sent his father back to Mexico.

That’s why he’s spending the summer with his dad’s family. Only, to find himself, he may just have to face the demons he refuses to see–the demons that are right in front of his face. And open up to a friendship he never saw coming.

 

Parrot In The Oven: Mi Vida by Victor Martinez

Dad believed people were like money. You could be a thousand-dollar person or a hundred-dollar person – even a ten-, five-, or one-dollar person. Below that, everybody was just nickels and dimes. To my dad, we were pennies.

Fourteen-year old Manny Hernandez wants to be more than just a penny. He wants to be a vato firme, the kind of guy people respect. But that’s not easy when your father is abusive, your brother can’t hold a job, and your mother scrubs the house as if she can wash her troubles away.

In Manny’s neighborhood, the way to get respect is to be in a gang. But Manny’s not sure that joining a gang is the solution. Because, after all, it’s his life – and he wants to be the one to decide what happens to it.

Rogelia’s House of Magic by Jamie Martinez Wood

When Rogelia becomes a maid at Marina Peralta’s home, it’s obvious to Marina and her friend Fern that they have a real mystic on their hands. Soon Rogelia agrees to teach the girls the magic of their ancestors, much as she taught her granddaughters, Xochitl and Gracielia. Even though Marina and Fern are thrilled to have this chance to understand and use their powers, Xochitl isn’t happy about sharing such a sacred thing with anyone but her sister, who perished in a car accident. Besides, magic has let Xochitl down before. Why wouldn’t it now? But, as the girls will eventually discover, at Rogelia’s House of Magic anything is possible.

 

The Vicious Deep (series) by Zoraida Cordova

For Tristan Hart, everything changes with one crashing wave.

He was gone for three days. Sucked out to sea in a tidal wave and spit back ashore at Coney Island with no memory of what happened. Now his dreams are haunted by a terrifying silver mermaid with razor-sharp teeth.

His best friend Layla is convinced something is wrong. But how can he explain he can sense emotion like never before? How can he explain he’s heir to a kingdom he never knew existed? That he’s suddenly a pawn in a battle as ancient as the gods.

Something happened to him in those three days. He was claimed by the sea…and now it wants him back.

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Need some great books for a great price? Here are a few you’ll want to pick up on the cheap:

Shallow Graves by Kaci Wallace is $1.99 and looks like a nice slightly-scary read.

Kate Cotugno’s 99 Days is a mere $1.99. If you want something with a romantic flair, this might serve you well.

For readers who want to know more about the characters who aren’t “the chosen one,” then you’ll want to pick up Patrick Ness’s The Rest of Us Just Live Here for $1.99.

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Last, but definitely not least, we’ve launched Hey YA, a podcast all about YA books. Tune in to episode one right here, where Eric Smith and I talk about upcoming fall YA releases we’re itching for, what the heck “YA” means, and what we’d rather see than an all-female remake of Lord of the Flies.

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

 

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Currently reading Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds

 

Hey YA Readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Rakuten Kobo Inc.

Calling all listeners—audiobooks are now available from Kobo. Find all your eBooks and audiobooks together in the FREE Kobo App for iOS and Android. Save with a subscription for the best deal on audiobooks—your first 30 days are FREE.

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I’ve got a really exciting guest post today from Amber J. Keyser, an author and editor of YA fiction and nonfiction. Keyser recently wrapped up a book tour with fellow YA author and newly-crowned National Book Award long list author Elana K. Arnold. This is the story of what happened when they dared to talk about their books which feature fierce, honest depictions of teen girls and why those stories matter so much.

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Elana K. Arnold and I write angry, uncomfortable, sexual books about teenage girls. We’ve been asked, “When we are going to write a real book?” which means when will we write for adult readers. We’ve been asked, “Why do you mention unsavory
things?” which means menstruation and female masturbation.

And yet Elana and I keep writing “those damn feminist books.”

Recently we toured together to promote What Girls Are Made Of, which was recently long-listed for the National Book Award, and Pointe, Claw. We connected through our shared editor, Alix Reid at Carolrhoda Lab, who describes working on these books like this:

Although entirely different in content, the themes of each book touched on one another and made me ever more aware of how important it is to speak UP and speak OUT about ways in which girls are put in boxes, are silenced, and are made to feel less than.

We asked some of the smartest women working in YA today to join us, and in every city, we engaged with audience members on the importance of feminist literature for young adults and on the way books can be a form of resistance. Stephanie Kuehn,
author of When I Am Through With You, joined us at A Great Good Place for Books in Oakland, and she said this:

One thing that I loved that came up at our discussion was this idea of how, as an adult, having had a childhood defined by feeling alienated or on the fringes of society can leave you without a sense of responsibility for activism and change. But the political atmosphere we are currently living in has made it abundantly clear that it is our responsibility to try and bring about positive change. And continuing to hold onto that outsider identity we may have felt as adolescents and using it as an excuse not to not take ownership of the world we live in, is often an expression of privilege. If we have the means, it’s
our duty to fight for human rights.

Our conversation at Secret Garden Bookshop in Seattle with Martha Brockenbrough, author of Alexander Hamilton, Revolutionary, also turned to the relevance of these books in today’s political climate. She said:

This tour felt like a relief after the bizarre and punishing post-inaugural season. Intelligence, ferocity, and provocative art are what women and girls especially need.

During one of our stops in the Bay Area, a man interrupted. Elana had just finished reading a scene from What Girls Are Made Of in which the main character, Nina, is getting a pap smear. It’s explicit, detailed and clinical. Familiar territory for women, but deeply uncomfortable for this guy.

“Why,” he asked, leaning back in his chair, “would a fifty-year- old man want to read a book about a sixteen-year- old girl?”

I stiffened. There was an audible gasp from several people in the audience. Before I could respond, Elana’s arm swept toward me the way a mother driving a car will slam on the brakes and try to hold her daughter back from impact.

“I’ve got this,” Elana said. To the man in the audience, she said, “Let me ask you, why do we expect sixteen-year- old girls to read books about fifty-year- old men?”

This was the crux of our feminist book tour. No one asks why a girl should care about Holden Caulfield, Captain Ahab, or Hamlet.

The man doubled down and said, “If someone knew I was reading about a girl getting an exam, they’d call me a pedophile.”

This guy was every obstacle that we were writing about. He took the experience of a teenage girl in a doctor’s office and made it sexual. He made her, and us as the authors of these books, consumable.

After we had finished signing, he was one of the last to go. He came up to the table and held a twenty-dollar bill above our books. “I’ll buy the one if falls on,” he said, before releasing the bill, the way he might have dropped it on a stage before a
couple of erotic dancers.

The money drifted down to rest on What Girls Are Made Of.
He slid the twenty to Elana and picked up the book. “I won’t read it,” he said. “I’ll give it to a woman I know.”

And this is why Elana and I write the books we do.

We believe that stories about teenage girls matter deeply, and they should matter to all of readers, regardless of gender. The experiences of young women are rich and compelling in their own right—not simply as ingredients added to stories about men and boys. And in this time of political upheaval, we believe that young women, especially young women of color, are the ones we need leading us into the future.

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Wow. I love this story and love how it highlights just why we keep talking about the importance of girls and their stories.

Thanks for hanging out this week, and we’ll see you again next week right here. We’ll talk YA backlist for Hispanic Heritage Month and get your TBR toppling over.

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

 

PS: I’ll talk more about the brand new YA podcast launching this week in the next newsletter, but for now, make sure you check out Get Recommended, our other newly-launched podcast featuring interesting people recommending interesting books. Tune in here!

Hey YA Fans!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Nothing by Annie Barrows from Epic Reads.

#1 New York Times bestselling author Annie Barrows’s teen debut tells the story of Charlotte and Frankie, two high school students and best friends whose lives are nothing like the lives of the girls they read about in their YA novels. But when Charlotte decides to write down everything that happens during their sophomore year, to prove that nothing happens in real life, she’s surprised to find that being fifteen isn’t as boring as she thought. It’s weird, heartbreaking, silly, and complicated. This funny flip on archetypal YA is a great read for fans of Becky Albertalli and Louise Rennison

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It’s really hard for me to believe, but the leaves are starting to change here in ye old upper midwest. As the trees begin their beautiful transformations, it seems only right to use today’s newsletter to catch up on what we’ve been talking about in the YA world at Book Riot this last month.

• Did you see the news about a Sweet Valley High movie? Now you have.
• Excellent Harry Potter enamel pins worth shelling out your Sickles for.
• Reviews of some historical YA fiction and which titles are worth your dollars, your library borrow, or skipping all together.
• YA novels that actually earn their comps to Veronica Mars (see my TBR growing longer!).
• When you’ve finished your Veronica Mars read alikes, how about some Nancy Drew read alikes?
• On pioneering YA writer Robin McKinley.
• A big ole round-up of nonfiction YA titles highlighting social justice.
• How one badass school librarian gets teens into his library.
• 100 must-read inclusive SFF YA books. #SorryNotSorry about your TBR.
• By reader request: YA soccer books.
• YA books titles that will ruin your day. (If you click that, you’ll know that’s a big JK).
• Instead of more Twilight films, how about about adapting these rad books?
• A look at the talk of the Flame Con event in NYC last month, with a special exploration of queer YA.
• Great YA books for your adult book club discussion.
• Mythology-inspired YA books you’ll want to pick up.
• The most banana-pants story you’ll read about a fake New York Times bestseller, YA Twitter, Blues Traveler, N*Sync, and more. Really.
• Leigh Bardugo talks about writing a Wonder Woman YA novel.
• Excellent bookish gifts for YA lovers.
• One reader on how Megan Whalen Turner’s “The Queen’s Thief” series rekindled her love of YA fantasy.

Snap up some cheap YA reads…

These ebooks are super cheap and you’re going to want to drop your pennies on them. If the ebook doesn’t pop up with the link, you can simply toggle over.

Walk on Earth a Stranger by Rae Carson is the first book in a series which will end soon, so no better time to jump in, especially for $1.99.

Adam Silvera’s History is All You Left Me is more than worth this $1.99 price point. A moving, aching story. One of my favorite reads from this year.

Shallow Graves by Kali Wallace is pitched as being great for fans of Holly Black and Nova Ren Suma and looks like the deliciously creepy type of read perfect for this time of year. Pick it up for $1.99.

 

Thanks for hanging out. Next week’s newsletter will be written by colleague and YA experthusiast Eric Smith (expert + enthusiast extraordinaire!). The following week we’ll highlight backlist Hispanic YA authors in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month. September is shaping up to be a great one!

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Currently reading Vincent and Theo by Deborah Hopkinson

 

 

Hey YA Readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Body Parts by Jessica Kapp, from Diversion Books.

While kids wait for their ideal adoptive parents at an elite foster center, they believe their trainers’ refrain, that being in top physical condition will lead to their being matched with the perfect forever family. But Tabitha learns the terrifying reality when she’s told she’s been paired with a family, but wakes immobile in a hospital bed, about to be sliced open to have her organs harvested. Rescued by a group of renegade teens, we follow Jessica and her friends through their race to uncover the secrets of the center and the shocking truths behind the foster program.

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As August — and summer — roll to a close, let’s catch up on the latest in YA news from the last month or so.

Let’s start with a host of adaptation news first:

• Nick Jonas is hopping on board the adaptation of Chaos Walking.
• Check out the incredible casting news for Dumplin’. Also? I love that it’s being described as a comedy, which gives me a lot of hope that it’ll be a really fabulous adaptation.
• Common is joining the adaptation of The Hate U Give.
• Lauren Kate’s Fallen hit theaters overseas already, but there’s now been a date set for its US debut. It’s not that far away.
• And news about a CW adaptation of Lesley Livingston’s The Valiant.
• How about Ridley Scott being attached to a YA project for Amazon? I’ve seen The Beast Is An Animal floating around but haven’t picked it up yet.
• Can’t say that Twilight nor Hunger Games theme parks are high on my must-see places, and yet, they’re going to exist.
• Here’s a really great piece about the sorts of hard-hitting, timely, realistic YA that’s being picked up for adaptation and what that might say about the future of YA and YA on the big/small screen.

For some non-adaptation related YA links of note. Seems like the big news at this time of the year is always centered around adaptations, as the summer season is slow in the publishing world:

• Jen Lancaster, who might be best known for her adult memoirs, has a YA novel hitting shelves this fall.
• An excellent round-up of 42 diverse YA titles all libraries should have. This would be a wonderful reading list, for sure.
• The sneak peek of the graphic novel take on Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak is making me so excited.
• The New York Times rounds up some recent and forthcoming children’s and YA books about Muslim refugees.
• I love a book list from outside the US, since it can often highlight titles that wouldn’t see much attention in the states. This one from the Toronto Star has some good-sounding YA picks for the fall (I’ve read the Reed book and it’s *fire emoji here*).
• And let’s round this out with a look at some excellent YA reads for those who are politically engaged.

Great Ebook deals for you this week…

As always, you might need to toggle over to the Kindle edition from these links.

Jenna Evans Welch’s debut Love & Gelato is $1.99. A summer road trip across Tuscany? Sounds like an excellent read for the dwindling days of beach season.

If you’e looking for something a little heavier, Patty Blount’s Some Boys is $1.25 and explores rape culture.

Genius: The Game by Leopoldo Gout is $2.99. I haven’t read this, but know the sequel just came out, so you could start the series on the cheap.

Thanks for hanging out & we’ll see you again here next week.

-Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

 

PS: There should be some exciting news coming soon about, oh, Book Riot and YA and a project that’ll be underway in less than a month. Get excited!

Hey YA Readers!

What’s Up in YA? is sponsored by In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan

Elliot is smart, just a tiny bit obnoxious (he is thirteen years old), and perhaps not the best person to cross into the Borderlands where there are elves, harpies, and — best of all as far as he’s concerned — mermaids. In Other Lands is an exhilarating a novel about surviving four years in the most unusual of schools, about friendship, falling in love, diplomacy, and finding your own place in the world — even if it means giving up your phone.

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Happy Eclipse Day to those who are able to see this once-in-a-lifetime-but-maybe-twice-in-OUR-lifetime-because-it’ll-happen-again-in-2024 event. Your newsletter scribe is in southern Illinois at a massive party for the occasion.

Last week’s newsletter teased the topic of microtrends. What is a microtrend? Unlike a full-scale trend — think something like the rise in dystopia following The Hunger Games or the mermaid reads trend from years gone by — a microtrend is something that’s not a huge trend but a series of common threads that run among a number of books in any given time. They’re almost like weird coincidences, odd little moments of “huh” that arise when you see book descriptions or read a number of books in a row that all feature a specific thing within them.

Microtrends are fun to look at and think about, particularly because it’s impossible to ever predict what they might be. It takes looking at tons and tons of books to see the commonalities because the things they have in common aren’t necessarily the sorts of things you’d think would have a surge around them.

Let’s take a peek at some of the interesting microtrends that have and continue to emerge in YA lit over the last year. Since not all of the book descriptions highlight the microtrend, I left them off; you can click the links to see them. 

 

Hurricane Katrina

This particular microtrend is interesting in part because it’s been a couple of years since the big anniversary of the storm, so seeing it appear more than once since stands out.

Between Two Skies by Joanne O’Sullivan

Drowned City: Hurricane Katrina and New Orleans by Don Brown

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy

 

 

Superstorm Sandy

This one makes some more sense to me, as the giant superstorm is coming up on its fifth anniversary.

A Hundred Hours of Night by Anna Woltz

The Summer After You and Me by Jennifer Salvato Doktorski

 

Drug Cartels in Mexico

There’s actually a pretty sizable trend relating to books set in Mexico or along the border this year, but this specific trend is worth noting. These are all books that explore some aspect of the dangerous drug cartels throughout various parts of the country.

Disappeared by Francisco X Stork (September 26)

Juan Pablo and The Butterflies by JJ Flowers

Saint Death by Marcus Sedgwick

 

Compared to Thelma and Louise

Do you pay attention to the comps books get? I do, if only because I’m curious what the flavor of the season is when it comes to them. This year? We’re seeing quite a bit of Thelma and Louise read alikes. I’m not sure how much of a comp this is for teens; it feels like one meant more for adults and those who serve teen readers.

Done Dirt Cheap by Sarah Nicole Lemon

Looking for Group by Rory Harrison

 

Alien Contact

I teased this in a “3 on a YA theme” post earlier this summer. Aliens have always been around in YA lit, but it seems we’re seeing an influx of alien-human encounter titles this year.

Of Jenny and The Aliens by Ryan Gebhart (this cover makes knowing the title near impossible, doesn’t it?)

Landscape With Invisible Hand by MT Anderson (September 12)

What Goes Up by Kate Kennedy

 

Their Fathers Are Shop Owners

This was a commonality between two books I read nearly back-to-back and it’s one that I really love. Both of the girls in these stories have fathers who own stores. . . and those stores and their fathers happen to play good-sized roles in the story.

The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera 

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Fan Cons

There are a boatload of books about fandom, about fan fiction, about geekery, and more. They’ve been having a moment for a few years now. More recently, though, it’s been the fan convention as backdrop to stories about teen geeks and nerds.

Don’t Cosplay With My Heart by Cecil Castellucci (January 2)

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash

The Pros of Cons by Alison Cherry, Lindsay Ribar, and Michelle Schusterman (March 27)

Queens of Geek by Jen Wilde

 

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Score Sweet Cheap YA Reads!

If you want a few good reads for few dollars, you might be interested in these.

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson ($1.99) is a long-standing YA classic.

Suicide Notes from Beautiful Girls by Lynn Weingarten ($1.99) will scratch your itch for a solid thriller.

Tell The Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan ($1.99) is about magic, romance, and revolution.

 

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Thanks for hanging out this week. We’ll see you again next Monday.

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Currently reading When I Am Through With You by Stephanie Kuehn.

 

Hey YA readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by PageHabit — use code “RIOT” for 10% off your first box. 

PageHabit is offers a monthly YA book box curated and annotated by authors for the most diehard bookworms. Each box comes with an exclusive, author-annotated new release, a written letter from the author, a bonus short story, fun bookish goods and membership into an active online book community of over 18,000 members. For every box purchased, PageHabit makes a donation to support children’s literacy around the world, so you can read well and do good. Readers can choose from seven genres including Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Horror and more. Get 10% off your first box with code “RIOT”.

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Let’s take this lazy, hazy mid-late summer day to catch up on the latest YA talk from Book Riot over the last month. Grab your TBR or pop open your favorite bookish app and get ready to scribble down a ton of titles you’ll want to read.

• A request for YA books about soccer led to a round-up of all things YA soccer books.
• Dig into these 100 must-read inclusive science fiction and fantasy YA reads.
• Time for a little social justice in YA lit, with some nonfiction reads as well as some fiction titles.
• Robin McKinley: an ode to a pioneer of YA lit.
• Historical YA fiction gets the Buy, Borrow, Bypass treatment. Which of these titles are worth your time and which should you leave on the shelf?
• Some of the Book Rioters are enjoying a read along of Tamora Pierce’s Tortall series. Here’s one of the posts to go along with the read along, which links back to the starting post for anyone itching to take part.
• How being a parent led one reader to YA books.
• Chances are if you like Meg Cabot, you’ll also like Jenny Carroll. Or if you like Eva Darrows, you might like Hillary Monahan. Because they’re the same people.
• Yes! Here for as much info as possible about the adaptation of Jenny Han’s To All The Boys. 
• I love this round-up of books for readers in that odd “in-between” stage of middle grade and YA. This is actually something worth thinking about more broadly and, perhaps, digging into in a future newsletter. Why is that 12-14 age group so underserved? Or is it that they have so many options because they fall between middle grad and YA reading that it can be hard to find that right segment of books for them?
• If you love Sansa Stark, then these books should be up your alley.
• Lift your spirits with these YA rom coms.
• A huge and awesome round-up of Asian American protagonists in YA lit.
• Amazon let me have at some of their data (!) and from it, I pulled together a list of the most popular books in each state and US territory that was published last year. It was kind of surprising to see what came out on top again and again and again.
• 5 contemporary Jane Austen YA retellings.
• And finally, a guest post on the topic of political resistance in teen lit.

 

Want a good YA book deal? I dug through Kindle’s monthly deals to find a few worth picking up.

Note that you may need to toggle your format to “ebook” when you click the links below.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is a whopping $1.99.

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown is $1.99. This has had so many tremendous positive reviews that if it weren’t already sitting on my shelf, I’d one click so fast.

Entwined by Heather Dixon is $1.99 and a retelling of “Twelve Dancing Princesses.”

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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again next week. Perhaps we’ll even talk about one of my favorite things: microtrends. AKA, the weird coincidences that keep popping up in books that aren’t enough to constitute a full-on trend but that are too odd not to talk about.

 

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

currently reading The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed and just finished (and adored!) Like Water by Rebecca Podos.

 

 

We’ve got something special this week, YA lovers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Textrovert by Lindsey Summers from KCP Loft. 

It’s bad enough when high-school senior Keeley mistakenly swaps cell phones with a stranger. It’s even worse when the stranger turns out to be an obnoxious boy named Talon … who’s just left for football camp with her phone. Reluctantly, the two agree to forward messages for a week. As Keeley gets to know Talon through their texts, she finds out he’s more than just an egocentric jock. In fact, the two fall for each other, hard. But Talon has been keeping a secret. One that makes their relationship all but impossible. Will Keeley ever be able to trust him?

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I’m really excited to share a guest post for this week’s newsletter. Knowing how wildly popular the recent crop of Star Wars YA novels has been, I had an idea it was something worth talking about with some more depth.

This week’s newsletter is a guest post from author Beth Revis. You might know her from her books Across the Universe (her first trilogy), A World Without You, and the recent Star Wars: Rebel Rising.

Beth Revis is a NY Times bestselling author with books available in more than 20 languages. Her latest title, Star Wars: Rebel Rising, tells the story of Jyn Erso before the movie Rogue One takes place. A World Without You is a semi-autobiographical story blending the supernatural with mental illness. Beth is also the author of the Across the Universe series, The Body Electric, numerous short stories, and the nonfiction Paper Hearts series, which aids aspiring writers. A native of North Carolina, Beth is currently working on a new novel for teens. She lives in rural NC with her boys: one husband, one small son, and two massive dogs.

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I was not expecting a call from my agent that day. I was in a bit of a downtime in terms of projects—one thing turned in, another thing too new to turn in—so when her name flashed up on my iPhone, I had no idea what it was about.

It was about Star Wars.

I still remember the way my heart started pounding, a tight thrumming of excitement. Before she could even finish telling me about the project Star Wars was pitching me, I was saying yes. I didn’t care about any of the details: I wanted in.

I honestly had no idea what to expect, but within about a week of initially hearing about the offer, I was on a plane to San Francisco, where I and other authors who were writing works linked to Rogue One would find out details about the movie and start the process of writing. It was incredibly fast timing, but I was so eager to dive in, all I could think about was how grateful I was that I could start immediately.

I was given directions to the offices, nestled in the Presidio National Park of San Francisco, and told to look out for the Yoda Fountain—which, frankly, “turn left at Yoda” is so serendipitously awesome that I still can’t get over how cool even directions to this dream job was. My eyes drank in everything—the lobby with Boba Fett and Darth Vader costumes on display, the halls lined with movie posters from around the world throughout history, the alcoves with shining display cases that highlighted the Holy Grail of Indiana Jones’s fame alongside awards and knickknacks, the windows that all seemed to perfectly frame the Golden Gate Bridge.

The very first thing I and the other authors did was read the script for Rogue One. This project was for Star Wars, so I knew it was going to be special. But I cannot describe the moment when I read the end (that ending!) to the movie. I could picture Scarif so vividly, and as the final moments for the main characters ticked down, I kept thinking, Will they do it? Will that actually happen? It was so beautiful and perfect for that story—and for me. Rogue One is the kind of Star Wars story that I love not just because it’s Star Wars, but because it has everything in a story that I adore. Complex characters who aren’t black-and-white, conflicting goals even among friends, and a jaw-droppingly perfect ending to a story I never saw coming.

My novel—Rebel Rising—gives the background of the main character, Jyn Erso, from the moment she’s orphaned as a child to when the movie starts with her as a young woman in an Imperial prison.  From the moment I read the script, I knew I had to do whatever it took to showcase this character to the best of my abilities. I threw myself into the project, writing quicker than I’d ever written before, but also reading, reading, reading. I was able to get my hands on early copies of other novels coming that dealt with Jyn or her time period. And I scoured the comics and novels that had already been published, looking for details that I could add to my story to make it more real.

Weirdly, in many ways, writing Rebel Rising was similar to writing a historical biography—except it’s fiction and takes place in the future (or at least in a galaxy far, far away). The details I researched are the same sort of details I’d research for history. People are people, across time and space, but how they do things, the tools they use, the histories they react to—that’s what changes, and that’s what I had to research. And, like in a biography, the character’s life was already established. There are books that are set before my own—most notably Catalyst—that already defined some of her past. And the movie itself encompassed what happened to Jyn after. So while I had total freedom to do with her what I wanted, there was a definite Point A where she started and a Point B where I had to get her.

Some people ask me about the work that goes into this sort of novel, but to me, it never felt like work. In the same way I’d research NASA or Russian cosmonaut articles while writing the Across the Universe trilogy, I’d throw myself at Star Wars comics and novels and shows. It was never work because it was always fun and interesting.

For example, I’d seen The Clone Wars cartoon when it was released when I was in high school. But I rewatched it in anticipation of Rebel Rising, paying close attention to Saw Gerrera. While my novel was about Jyn, she spends a significant part of her life with this veteran of the Clone Wars. He had such a lasting impact in the show, but relatively few episodes focused on him. When I watched it the first time as a kid, I didn’t spend hours scrutinizing his face, parsing out everything he said, considering what happened to him after. His appearance in that show and the way he became in Rogue One forced me to be a detective, following the tiny breadcrumb trails to figure out not just who he was, but why he was.

This is exactly the kind of thing I love about writing—any writing, not just in Star Wars. Digging deep into the characters, discovering their stories that shaped their lives…that’s the kind of thing I love to write about and read about and watch in the theater.

As I said before, this was definitely a dream job. Star Wars was one of the major constants of my childhood, a rare movie that my brother and I could agree on, and a story that, to this day, fills me with wonder. Being able to be a part of that galaxy, even a small one, is an honor I will never forget. I couldn’t have been prouder than if Princess Leia herself had placed a medal around my neck on Yavin 4.

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Thanks for hanging out, YA Riot fans, and we’ll see you next Monday.

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Hey YA Friends!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Sovereign by April Daniels, from Diversion Books.

Pick up Sovereign, the highly anticipated sequel to Dreadnought, featuring “the most exciting new superheroes in decades.” (Kirkus, starred review).  

Danielle Tozer is a scarred but enthusiastic veteran cape protecting the city of New Port all on her own.  When she crosses a new supervillain with unexpected methods to destroy capes like her, she’ll be forced to confront parts of herself she never wanted to acknowledge.

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July has been a long, hot, and very wet month in my part of the world. But despite the feeling of a never-ending month, it has been peppered with some great YA news. Let’s take this week to catch up on the haps around the YA world.

• “A game I like to play is to find any story with a male lead, flip the genders, and try to pitch it to friends. 9/10 times they’ll say that it’s unbelievable or that the “main female character” would never act like that. I mean. Just imagine a genderswapped Wolf of Wall Street or The Great Gatsby (Both with men that we wouldn’t necessarily call “heroes” but we would certainly call protagonists). As awesome as I think both of those would be, I do have to say, they probably wouldn’t be smash hits.” I love this interview with author and creator of Brooding YA Hero Carrie DiRisio on YA tropes and why we should take the category more seriously. If you’ve never played this swap-the-genders game on YA titles, give it a shot.
• This book looks amazing, got a great advance, will see tons of publicity, and I really, really hope it’s outstanding.
• Rainbow Rowell on writing The Runaways.
• I was never super into Sweet Valley High as a young reader, but I know so many people in my generation (and before!) loved the series. Here are 14 things you may not have known about the books.
• A Spanish-influenced fantasy duology from Zoraida Cordova? Sign me up.
• “From the very beginning. She’s one of the few characters who came to me fully formed, from her appearance to personality to sexual identity. And that initial inspiration didn’t change throughout my drafting [process]. Tash’s character remained implacably true to herself — which was so very like her. Tash’s asexuality didn’t come out of a vacuum, either. Throughout high school, I wasn’t interested in sex, and that was an oftentimes isolating experience — especially when there were no popular books or television shows that normalized the way I felt. Though I don’t personally identify like Tash does, I needed a story like hers when I was a teen, and I think there are teen readers who need her story now.” A nice interview with author Kathryn Ormsbee on her latest book and the asexual lead character of the story.
• Chaos Walking has a star cast attached to the adaptation…and a release date of March 2019.
• “The purpose of young-adult fiction is “not to teach,” she said. “It’s to show you you’re not alone.”” And even more than that, the purpose is to tell a story, however the story is meant to be told. But yes, all of the yes, to this article about whether or not YA has an obligation to teach lessons. I think there’s a whole dissertation’s worth of thought to give to pieces like this and the pieces we see about how adults are the largest consumers of YA lit.
• A thought-provoking piece about what YA characters of color are not allowed to do in YA lit.
• “Essentially, I wrote the book I needed when I was young: about a complex girl of color with goals and dreams. The publishing industry has really caught on in recent years that, one, we read and, two, we buy things. When I was trying to get this book published, people were like, “Why don’t you try a small indie press?” Absolutely not. I insist that we become part of the big mainstream American publishing houses.” Another solid interview to share, this time with debut author Erika L. Sanchez. If you haven’t put her forthcoming book I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter on your TBR for the fall, this should convince you.
• There’s a TV adaptation of The Raven Boys underway. 
• I could not be more excited by the news that we’re getting an adaptation of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and that it’ll feature Asian leads. And a little more about who’ll be in the adaptation.
• Peep the cover for Marie Lu’s Batman YA novel.
• We’re getting 3 RL Stine Fear Street films.
• Ruta Sepetys won the Carnegie — an incredibly high honor for children’s literature — for her recent YA Salt To The Sea.
• And finally, since I don’t have television, I didn’t get a chance to watch this one, but if you have Lifetime, keep your eyes peeled for reruns of the adaptation of Sara Zarr’s The Story of a Girl. It’s an excellent example of a YA book that was cutting edge in terms of topic 10 years ago that still holds up.

 

Thanks for hanging out this week. We’ll be back in your inbox next Monday, with a guest newsletter writer who (!) you (!) will (!) be (!) so (!) excited (!) to (!) hear (!) from (!). Think: fandom, YA books, science fiction, and more.

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars