Author: Kelly Jensen

Hello, YA Fans!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Unbound Worlds and Cage Match.

Cage Match is back! Unbound Worlds is pitting science fiction characters against fantasy characters in a battle-to-the-death tournament, and you can win a collection of all 32 books featured in the competition. Enter now for your chance to win this library of sci-fi and fantasy titles!

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This week, in honor of March being Women’s History Month, I wanted to talk with an author/illustrator who started her book career last year with a title that highlights remarkable achievements of women through history.

Rachel Ignotofsky’s Women in Science is a collective biography featuring women from all eras of history and the work they did. Laid out in an appealing, graphic-heavy style, the book distills the scientific progress women of all backgrounds achieved.

Aside from what the book does in the inside,Ignotofsky’s work presents an opportunity to talk not only about nonfiction, but also a chance to talk about what categorizing books as “YA” does or does not mean. Women in Science is the kind of book that is perfect for YA readers, as much as it’s perfectly suitable for middle grade readers, as well as adult readers.

Without further ado, get to know Ignotofsky, her work, the work of rad lady scientists, and what she’s working on next (spoiler alert: we need this, too!).

 

Tell us a bit about your background and why you wrote and illustrated Women in Science.

I am an illustrator with a passion for science and history. Women in Science is my first book and I could not be more excited to share it with the world. I graduated from Tyler School of Art in 2011. When you go to school for Graphic Design you learn how to organize images text to make information instantly impactful. I wanted to use my skill set to make topics I think are interesting and important easy and fun to learn about.

I have a lot of friends in education and I was thinking a lot about why science and engineering is still considered such a “boys club”. There is still such a massive gender gap in STEM fields even though girls test just as well as boys do in math and science. I wanted to do what I could to encourage girls to follow their passions. I truly believe that one of the best ways to fight against this kind of bias is by introducing young adults to strong female role models. There are so many female scientists who have changed our world with their discoveries, but many have landed in obscurity. So I decided to use my own skill set –illustration and design to help celebrate women and their accomplishments. illustration is a powerful tool when it comes to telling stories, and I wanted this book to not only be educational but also feel fun. My hope for my book is to help make these women household names and inspire a whole generation of girls!

 

Can you give us a peek into your creative process? What’s a day in the life like?

All of my projects, whether it is a book or a poster starts with the research. It is the information that determines how I lay out a page. For this book I read some great books like Headstrong by Rachel Swaby and  Nobel Prize Women in Science: Their Lives, Struggles, and Momentous Discoveries by Sharon Bertsch McGrayne. I also used documentaries, obituaries, the Nobel Prize website and interviews with the women I found online. I write around one or two stories a day and then it is time to draw.

I want to make the information as accessible as possible so I first figure out what I am saying visually versus what is actually written in words and how to weave the information into the illustration. Once it is all planned out, it is time to have fun. I usually listen to fun audio books or trashy TV while drawing each spread.

How did you choose which women to include in your book?

I wanted there to be a story for everyone. I wanted a diverse group of scientist in all different fields. Astronomers, paleontologists, marine biologist, computer programmers, volcanologist, and mathematicians are only a few of the types of scientists and fields of study in this book. I also wanted a breath of history and women who came from different cultural backgrounds and economic classes. This way you don’t just learn about science you also learn history. This book is also about suffrage the civil rights movement, world war two and the space race. The women in this book used their unique perspective to change the world.

 

What women were most fascinating and/or surprising to you to write and illustrate?

It’s wasn’t really a surprise, but it was the fact that although the women in the book had very different backgrounds and challenges passion for their work was very similar. No matter what stood in their way, sexism, Jim Crow laws, segregation, persecution during the holocaust, being unpaid or fired due to their gender — it did not matter. Each challenge was met with this unyielding love of science. They would work in their childhood bedroom, a dusty attic or in a small shack, with no respect. I did not matter as long as it got them closer to their discovery. You read their stories and you think that is a pioneer, that is someone who changes the world.

Do you consider yourself a Young Adult writer? How do you categorize your work and why?

I went into writing the book for everyone – from adults to seven year olds. I wanted there to be something to learn for everyone. I am excited that my book is so accessible to young adults. High school and Middle School are a powerful time in a person’s life. They are trying out new things, trying to figure out who they are and their place in the world. If my book helps them discover their passion in life and introduces them to their career path, that is all I could hope for!

Who is your dream reader? The one that, if you were to stumble upon them on a bus or subway reading your book, you’d melt?

 My dream reader is a young girl who is being introduced to these stories for the first time and they gain a new role model. If my book inspires someone to go into science, or want to change the world that would be the dream. But if I saw one of the women in my book reading my book, like Maryam Mirzakhani, Mae Jemison or Sylvia Earle — that would be the ultimate.

Let’s dig into your own reading life a bit now. What writers and what illustrators are some of your influences? What are some of your favorite young adult books now? What were some of your favorite books as a teenager? 

What inspires and informs my work is science and history. It is my passion to take dense information and organize it in a way that is beautiful and fun to read. I want my art work to have a positive impact on the world, empowering young people to follow their dreams and to learn more about the world around them.  I truly believe that illustration is one of the most powerful tool there are when it comes to learning and storytelling.  As a kid I struggled a lot with reading, you can begin to feel insecure about your abilities to be “a smart kid”. But books and television shows like Magic School Bus, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Amelia’s Notebook, and the Classics Illustrated comics series were filled with whimsy and illustration. They made me feel like I could approach any topic without fear and inspired a lifelong love of learning in me.

Scientific Literacy and understanding history could not be more important. We need to grab the attention of children and adults to learn more about the world around them so that they have the tools to make informed decisions.  But sometimes dense information like learning about particle physics or Hyperbolic geometry can feel scary. I hope my books can introduce people to complicated topics and ideas so they experience the joy of learning and gleefully want to bust down the doors to learn more. 

The graphic novels I’ll stay up all night reading are very different then the work I make and is my escape. A lot of my favorite books and authors I loved as a teenager are still inspiring me today. Graphic novels like Sandman (Neil Gaimen), Maus (Art Spiegelman), Persepolis (Marjane Satrapi) really had an impact on me growing up.  My recent favorites would be Black Hole by Charles Burns, Ghost World by Daniel Clowes (I am about to read his book Patience that came out last year)

 

In honor of Women’s History Month, tell us about some of your lady-identifying heroines, fiction or real? Is there a woman from history you’d love to see a book written about?

Lise Meitner, Sylvia Earle, Katherine Johnson, and Mae Jemison are just a few women from my book who have completely inspired me.  Please read their stories, watch their documentaries and listen to their interviews and just be humbled by their genius.

Shirley Chisholm is someone I think needs to have a movie made about her. She is the first African American Woman elected to congress and her story is amazing. Go out and read about her autobiography Unbought and Unbossed.

  

What’s next for you? Can you tease us with what it is that’s lighting you up about this project?

I have a bunch of new projects being released this year that I am super jazzed about. First off, March 7, a guided journal I made called I Love Science will be in stores. It is filled with a bunch of resource pages like html coding vocab, geometry equations, which I think is good for everyone to have handy. But it also has prompts to inspire exploration and critical thinking about our universe and empowering quotes from female scientist throughout history.

The other big project I have been working on that is coming out this July is Women in Sports: 50 Fearless Athletes Who Played to Win. The most basic stereotypes that women have to fight is that our bodies are inherently weaker than men. For many, strength is associated, independence and an ability to lead, So how can we fight this stereotype? Well, with stories of women throughout history who have perused their passions in sports– who have broken records, climbed the tallest mountains in the world and have bench pressed over 300lb. Women in Sports is filled with stories of women who could not be stopped from earning their victories.

Welcome back, YA Fans!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Gilded Cage, Book One in the Dark Gifts series.

The world belongs to the Equals—aristocrats with magical gifts—and all commoners must serve them for ten years.

But behind the gates of England’s grandest estate lies a power that could break the world.

Our heroes are a brother and sister who are brought to serve Britain’s most powerful family. It’s upstairs-downstairs drama; beautiful and wicked aristocrats romancing rebellious commoners; and an epic of politics, passion, and revolution.

Not all are free. Not all are equal. Not all will be saved. 

Let’s try something a little different with this week’s newsletter. Rather than a round-up of links to YA news — there hasn’t been much since last week — and rather than a book list or discussion, I thought it might be interesting to take a dive into YA/Book Riot history. Since Book Riot has been going for over five years, we’ve amassed a lot of writing, and it’s fascinating to peek back each year and see not only what we were talking about here, but what the bigger, broader YA world was talking about or interested in at the time.

It’s interesting to see when YA coverage on Book Riot became a big part of what we do. In the early years, it was here and there. But as the YA world itself grew, so did our coverage and interest in books for young adults. I’ve gone through our archives and pulled out a collection of interesting, provocative, and otherwise amusing pieces that highlight YA lit…and some kid lit more broadly. For each year, I’ve pulled 3-5 posts that were among the most popular that month; this means in some cases, those posts might not have been published that particular month, but they had some good interest that month (I believe that was only the case a couple of times — most of the high interest centered around posts written February of that particular year).

2012

 

You may think I am joking, but Dahl has plenty of useful lessons for kids. For instance, he taught me early on that families are unhinged carnivals that dance alongside our lives – places where magical and terrible things can happen within the same heartbeat. There is more where that came from.

I am not sure how deeply engrained Dahl’s books are in the average childhood beyond the UK – the paltry showing in the US-based Parent & Child poll suggests they are not – so for your delectation, here are a few life lessons gleaned from Dahl’s books.

From A Roald Dahl Survival Guide for Kids

 

Those Degrassi Talks books were pretty amazing things. They were partnered with a television series with the same title (which I think I only ever saw in health classes) where the cast of Degrassi would talk about serious issues involving teenagers. They were important books not just because they could stand in for difficult conversations parents didn’t want to have with their kids, but more importantly they predicted the questions before I even knew what my questions were. I remember so clearly the copy of Degrassi Talks: Sex because it was comically, hilariously dog-eared and spine-cracked, but according to the card in the pocket it had never been checked out once. These books existed in the library to be surreptitiously consulted (and occasionally giggled over) as needed.

From Wheels, Degrassi, and Why Tough YA Books and Libraries Are So Important

 

Sometimes, when faced with difficult real life situations, I find myself wondering how my favourite young adult heroines would feel and act in a similar context. I mean, the fact is that lots of them don’t really have to deal with these sorts of problems very often, which got my brain a-clickin’. How would our heroines deal with banal, everyday things like an annoying coworker or a website that won’t align properly or a car alarm going off? Or, in the flowcharts that follow, how would they cope with having to pay the rent?

From What Would *Insert YA Heroine Here* Do?

2013

 

In the latest round of Riot Recommendation, we asked you to shout out the YA series (or series you read as a young adult) that had real staying power, the ones you still think about and re-read today. There were a TON of responses from all over the genre board. Here’s a collection of all your recommendations from Facebook, Twitter, and the comments.

From Young Adult Series You Still Think About Today: A Reading List

 

 

From New Posters for Catching Fire

 

I understand that Stephen Chbosky (author of the novel, writer/director of the film) needed to reinvent Charlie as a more active character in adapting the story for film, because we can’t have ninety minutes of straight voiceover where we’re trapped behind Charlie’s eyeballs. We need to see a character in film making bold choices for himself, otherwise we are on the floor of the movie theater sleeping on top of spilled soda and popcorn. Still, I wanted a slower build and more of an arc from wallflower to almost-normal kid rocking the dance floor. Whatever, I’ll go re-read the book. This will be my answer every time I have a problem with this film.

From Thoughts on “The Perks of Being A Wallflower” Adaptation

 

2014

 

The uncomfortable truth is this: At Bella’s age, I was a lot like her. A whole lot. The things about her that weren’t like me, I realize now, I envied when I read the series. That lightens my load a little bit, but putting it out there after the things I’ve said about Bella feels raw: Now the folks who have heard me say those things will know that, mostly, I was berating the traits I found annoying in myself at fifteen, sixteen, even twenty. Even thirty, sometimes.

It’s amazing how much capacity we have for change when we face the truth, though, and that can hurt when the truth about you is that you would have envied Bella Swan.

From An Apology to Bella Swan

 

I was working in a fairly well-known children’s bookstore in New York last summer, one that is especially known for its employee recommendations and vast knowledge of books. One afternoon, a well-heeled Upper West Side mom asked me for book suggestions for her 10-year old daughter. I immediately thought of Judy Blume, and at my suggestion of one of her titles, the mother looked at me with disdain, saying, “Don’t you think that’s a bit…dated?” I almost fainted on the spot. Blasphemy! Here are some classic children’s/YA books that will never carry that dreaded description.

From 10 Classic Children’s and YA Books That Will Never Be Dated

 

It’s black history month, and rather than offer up a straightforward book list of young adult titles that highlight aspects of black history in the United States, I wanted to do something different — and something that would be much more visually arresting.

I pooled together as many YA books that were historical fiction (meaning no magical/fantastical elements) and featured black main characters or stories. The pickings were so meager, I also looked at middle grade novels which could appeal to young adult readers. But even with those titles included, I hope that this time line is not only illuminating in terms of what is out there, but I hope it’s even more illuminated about what books are not out there.

From Black History in YA Fiction: A Time Line

 

3. You make eye contact with a handsome stranger on the train. If he gets off at your stop, he is totes your future boyfriend. Duh.

From 20 Signs You’re Reading Too Much YA

 

2015

 

2. A story about four female best friends growing up in the early 1970s, a la Now & Then

Now & Then is maybe my favorite movie. I watched it all the time growing up, and it’s still one I love to pop in. The opportunities to explore some of the themes and the time period it’s set in feel endless.

This is the story of four women who are reflecting back on the summer of 1970, when they were young teens in a small Indiana town. The girls go through many huge things in one summer, which makes it ripe for a YA novel since those life-changing summers are part and parcel of the teen experience. More, this time period of change in social culture feels like it has so much opportunity to dive in.

From YA Novels (Based On Movies) That Should Exist

 

Kody Keplinger wrote The DUFF (recently made into a movie starring Mae Whitman and Robbie Amell – it’s amazing and you should see it!) and her other YA books with a musical muse. She rearranges the songs to fit a specific emotion or scene in her books, and her playlists are posted on her website here.

From YA Novels With Soundtracks

 

Theory: there is something about YA and the letter K. Call it koincidence or konspiracy (I know, I know. I’ll show myself out), but even beyond the obvious example of Katniss Everdeen, some of the coolest, most interesting heroines in YA sci-fi/fantasy seem to have K names. In case you don’t already know them, allow me to introduce Kami, Karou, and Katsa: each awesome, each with her own YA universe.

From Awesome YA Heroines Whose Names Start With “K”

 

2016

 

It’s hard to put a number down for what average sales for a book are, since a lot of factors come into play: whether the book is by a new author, one who is seasoned, whether it’s of current interest, where it’s placed in the bookstores, and so forth. I’ve read average sales ranging from 500 copies to 10,000.

So what do best selling books look like? Imagine a book selling tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of copies.

Thanks to the magic of Wikipedia, there’s a nice breakdown of books throughout time and their recorded/reported sales numbers. This accounts for books across all countries, ages, and genres. Being my interest is in young adult novels, I thought it’d be interesting to break out the numbers for those books.

From The Best Selling YA Books of All Time

 

So what makes a book a good crossover? For me, it’s having a certain voice, a focus on a young main character, or themes and plot elements that are relatable across a broad spectrum of readers. For an adult book to have YA crossover, that can mean the stories are focused on teenagers or feature teenagers at the core and the writing is mature, thoughtful, and characters aren’t focused on achieving certain adult markers (marriage, children, and so forth). That doesn’t mean they aren’t doing adult things like leaving home or going to college or becoming involved in a serious relationship; it just means the way those things are included in the story feels like something YA readers would relate to or “get” in some capacity.

From 3 On A YA Theme: Adult Novels for YA Fans and Vice Versa

 

That MORE includes the Amelia Bloomer List, which is an annual list that honors “youth books with strong feminist themes” for ages birth to eighteen. The Amelia Bloomer Project started in 2002, and is—as you have probably already guessed—named for women’s rights advocate Amelia Bloomer.

This year’s list includes lots of books that I’ve already read and loved—volumes 1 and 2 of Lumberjanes (Friendship to the MAX!), Interstellar Cinderella (space mechanic!), Infandous (fairy tales and mythology and art and sex and mother-daughter relationships!), Kissing in America (love letter to female friendship in road trip form!), All the Rage (this decade’s Speak!), We Should All Be Feminists (so tiny! so necessary!), Audacity (fictional biography of social justice pioneer! in verse form!)—but as with any booklist, the titles that interest me even more are the ones I haven’t read yet.

 

From Inspiring Young Feminists: The Amelia Bloomer List

 

Here at Book Riot we’ve had a lot of questions come in about this very topic, especially among kids ages twelve to thirteen. Here is a list of recommended books with high interest plots (special thanks to Ms. Pryor and Ms. Millman, librarians extraordinaire, for their help in compiling this list!), plus some more tips for keeping your reluctant readers turning those pages throughout the summer.

From The Ultimate Guide To Books for Reluctant Readers Ages 12 to 13

 

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And may you be so inspired to pick up and read or revisit a book published from years gone by in the next week or two!

We’ll see you next Monday with a really fun, inspiring interview to kick off Women’s History Month.

Good Monday, YA Readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Impossible Fortress by Jason Rekulak.

Until May 1987, fourteen-year-old Billy Marvin of Wetbridge, New Jersey, is a decidedly happy nerd.

Afternoons are spent with his buddies, watching copious amounts of television, gorging on Pop-Tarts, and programming video games on his Commodore 64. Then Playboy publishes photos of Wheel of Fortune hostess Vanna White, Billy meets expert programmer Mary Zelinsky, and everything changes.

A love letter to the 1980s, to the dawn of the computer age, and to adolescence, The Impossible Fortress will make you laugh, cry, and remember in exquisite detail what it feels like to love something—or someone—for the very first time.

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Let’s take a moment or two to catch up with the latest happenings around ye old YA land. There is a lot of adaptation news, for sure.

• The first trailer for the Everything, Everything adaptation with Amandla Stenberg is out and it looks great.

• Speaking of trailers, Netflix just released one for 13 Reasons Why and shared the date the show will hit streaming screens.

• Philip Pullman is writing more books in his “Dark Materials” series.

• The comic Lumberjanes is getting written as a book by Mariko Tamaki (This One Summer, Saving Montgomery Sole, and more). Awesome.

• Start your Fall TBR with this handy list of titles coming out.

 

• Yaqui Delgado Wants To Kick Your Ass coming to Hulu with Gina Rodriguez attached to the project.

• Have you heard of the Dead Girls Detective Agency? I haven’t, but I suspect I will since it’s being adapted, too. It looks like it might be one of those multi-platform projects. Huh.

• YA series that ended in 2016, which means you can pick them up now and enjoy the entire story in one big gulp.

• A look at the rise of sensitivity readers for YA books. What does that mean? What do they do? How do they help make books as good as those books can be?

• The Carnegie long list — a UK honor — is out, and there are plenty of familiar YA titles among them. Though let’s take a moment to point out that the long lists are all white. Umm…

• Speaking of awards, the CYBILS winners were announced last week. Check out the winners in the YA categories. I was a first-round judge for the middle grade and YA non-fiction category and think both of the winners are outstanding picks.

• There’s a new Maggie Stiefvater novel coming.

• Wrapping my head around this is tough. Iggy Azalea optioned the adaptation of Temple Mathews’ forthcoming Bad Girl Gone.

• Also, here’s an announcement for an adaptation of a YA book called Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet which…heard of it? I haven’t!

• An excellent interview with YA author Isabel Quintero (Gabi, A Girl In Pieces) on how writing is her activism.

 

A round-up of what we’ve been talking about when it comes to YA on Book Riot:

• LGBTQ+ scifi and fantasy from #OwnVoices writers.

• A look at well-developed older and elderly adults in YA fiction.

• 10 excellent, under-the-radar YA fantasy reads.

• A digital version of “blind date with a book” with YA reads. Try it!

• 3 YA books about struggles that have plausible, positive endings.

• Three recent posts on mental-health related YA: on starting to talk, agoraphobia and other mental illnesses that are well-rendered, and YA about bipolar disorder.

• And finally, a guide to get you started reading the work of award-winning author Sarah Dessen. My only note on this pathway would be that I think Dreamland is an essential Dessen read and shows how powerfully she can take on hard, heavy issues like relationship violence.

 

Thanks for hanging out! We’ll see you again next week. In the meantime, hope you’re reading something excellent. 

Hey YA Lovers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Clairvoyants by Karen Brown. 

The Clairvoyants is a modern gothic ghost tale filled with psychological thrills that follows the life of an unusual young woman. Ever since she was a child, Martha May could see ghost around her family home on the sea. Now a young woman, she desperately hopes to escape her past by fleeing inland to a small college town. Martha is swept up in a new life—young love, distance from a dysfunctional family, and unobservant of news of a disappeared woman. Until the missing woman appears outside of Martha’s apartment, in a down coat, her hair coated with ice.

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This week’s newsletter is inspired by a wonderful piece recently published at Teen Vogue, the best source of news around (do not read that with sarcasm). The opening of the article:

“More than 3.3 million girls played high school sports last year, according to the National Federation of State High School Sports Associations, and Willa Smith, an 18-year-old swimmer from Austin, Texas, is one of them. So if there are so many girls playing sports, and we know that representation is so important and valuable, why aren’t there more YA books about athletic girls?”

The piece goes on to talk with a number of publishing industry folks, including editors and writers, about why there isn’t more representation of girls in sports. It’s excellent, well-written, and thought-provoking.

In honor of that piece, and in honor of talking about the importance of seeing girls involved in sports in YA fiction, I thought it’d be worth pulling together a pile of recent (the last 2-3 years) and forthcoming titles featuring girls who are athletic. Some of these were mentioned in the original article, and they range from girls who run to girls who race horses to girls who love a great game of foot/base/basket ball and more.

This isn’t comprehensive, nor is it meant to disprove the article. It’s simply meant to add some more titles onto the still-too-small list of girls who sport. Worth noting: something that will be immediately obvious to those scanning through these titles is that there are even fewer girls of color represented in sports. I’ve marked those with an * in cases where I feel confident doing so, either via description or having read the book, as a means of highlighting the paucity of those titles. I’ve also stuck to fiction, but it’s worth pointing out that those YA nonfiction titles featuring athletes — the Simone Biles memoir, the Michaela DePrince memoir, and others — have sold well and are well-loved by readers looking up to those sporty girls.

Descriptions from Goodreads.

The Art of Lainey by Paula Stokes

Soccer star Lainey Mitchell is gearing up to spend an epic summer with her amazing boyfriend, Jason, when he suddenly breaks up with her—no reasons, no warning, and in public no less! Lainey is more than crushed, but with help from her friend Bianca, she resolves to do whatever it takes to get Jason back.

And that’s when the girls stumble across a copy of The Art of War. With just one glance, they’re sure they can use the book to lure Jason back into Lainey’s arms. So Lainey channels her inner warlord, recruiting spies to gather intel and persuading her coworker Micah to pose as her new boyfriend to make Jason jealous. After a few “dates”, it looks like her plan is going to work! But now her relationship with Micah is starting to feel like more than just a game.

What’s a girl to do when what she wants is totally different from what she needs? How do you figure out the person you’re meant to be with if you’re still figuring out the person you’re meant to be?

 

Ask Me How I Got Here by Christine Heppermann

Addie has always known what she was running toward. In cross-country, in life, in love. Until she and her boyfriend—her sensitive, good-guy boyfriend—are careless one night and she ends up pregnant. Addie makes the difficult choice to have an abortion. And after that—even though she knows it was the right decision for her—nothing is the same anymore. She doesn’t want anyone besides her parents and her boyfriend to know what happened; she doesn’t want to run cross-country; she can’t bring herself to be excited about anything. Until she reconnects with Juliana, a former teammate who’s going through her own dark places.

 

Being Sloane Jacobs by Lauren Morrill

Meet Sloane Emily Jacobs: a seriously stressed-out figure-skater from Washington, D.C., who choked during junior nationals and isn’t sure she’s ready for a comeback. What she does know is that she’d give anything to escape the mass of misery that is her life.

Now meet Sloane Devon Jacobs, a spunky ice hockey player from Philly who’s been suspended from her team for too many aggressive hip checks. Her punishment? Hockey camp, now, when she’s playing the worst she’s ever played. If she messes up? Her life will be over.

When the two Sloanes meet by chance in Montreal and decide to trade places for the summer, each girl thinks she’s the lucky one: no strangers to judge or laugh at Sloane Emily, no scouts expecting Sloane Devon to be a hero. But it didn’t occur to Sloane E. that while avoiding sequins and axels she might meet a hockey hottie—and Sloane D. never expected to run into a familiar (and very good-looking) face from home. It’s not long before the Sloanes discover that convincing people you’re someone else might be more difficult than being yourself.

 

The Boy Next Door by Katie Van Ark

Maddy Spier has been in love with the boy next door forever. As his figure skating partner she spends time in his arms every day. But she’s also seen his arms around other girls—lots of other girls.

Gabe can’t imagine skating with anyone but Maddy, and together they have a real chance at winning some serious gold medals. So, he’s determined to keep thinking of her like a sister. After all, he’s never had a romantic relationship that lasted for more than two weeks.

But when their coach assigns a new romantic skating program, everything changes. Will this be the big break that Maddy’s been hoping for or the big breakup that Gabe has always feared?

 

Coming Up for Air by Miranda Kenneally (July 1; all of her books fit here!)

Swim. Eat. Shower. School. Snack. Swim. Swim. Swim. Dinner. Homework. Bed. Repeat.

All of Maggie’s focus and free time is spent swimming. She’s not only striving to earn scholarships—she’s training to qualify for the Olympics. It helps that her best friend, Levi, is also on the team and cheers her on. But Levi’s already earned an Olympic try out, so she feels even more pressure to succeed. And it’s not until Maggie’s away on a college visit that she realizes how much of the “typical” high school experience she’s missed by being in the pool.

Not one to shy away from a challenge, Maggie decides to squeeze the most out of her senior year. First up? Making out with a guy. And Levi could be the perfect candidate. After all, they already spend a lot of time together. But as Maggie slowly starts to uncover new feelings for Levi, how much is she willing to lose to win?

 

Defender by Graham McNamee

They call her Tiny, but Tyne Greer is six foot six, a high school basketball star who is hoping the game will be her ticket out of the slum. She lives in a run-down building called The Zoo, where her father is the superintendent. One day she discovers a crack in the wall of an abandoned basement room. And sealed up in the wall is a girl’s body. Horrified, she runs to get her dad. But after he goes to take a look, he comes back and tells Tyne that nothing’s there. No girl. No body. He tells her she must be seeing things in the dark.

Tyne is sure it was real, though, and when she finds evidence that the body was moved from the hole in the wall, she knows the only one who could have done it is her father. But why? What is he hiding?

Tyne’s search for answers uncovers a conspiracy of secrets and lies in her family. The closer she gets to the truth, the more dangerous it becomes for her. Because some will do anything to bury the past…and keep her silent.

 

Exit, Pursued By A Bear by EK Johnston

Hermione Winters is captain of her cheerleading team, and in tiny Palermo Heights, this doesn’t mean what you think it means. At PHHS, the cheerleaders don’t cheer for the sports teams; they are the sports team—the pride and joy of a tiny town. The team’s summer training camp is Hermione’s last and marks the beginning of the end of…she’s not sure what. She does know this season could make her a legend. But during a camp party, someone slips something in her drink. And it all goes black.

In every class, there’s a star cheerleader and a pariah pregnant girl. They’re never supposed to be the same person. Hermione struggles to regain the control she’s always had and faces a wrenching decision about how to move on. The assault wasn’t the beginning of Hermione Winter’s story and she’s not going to let it be the end. She won’t be anyone’s cautionary tale.

 

*The Heartbeats of Wing Jones by Katherine Webber (March 14)

Wing Jones, like everyone else in her town, has worshipped her older brother, Marcus, for as long as she can remember. Good-looking, popular, and the star of the football team, Marcus is everything his sister is not.

Until the night everything changes when Marcus, drunk at the wheel after a party, kills two people and barely survives himself. With Marcus now in a coma, Wing is crushed, confused, and angry. She is tormented at school for Marcus’s mistake, haunted at home by her mother and grandmothers’ grief. In addition to all this, Wing is scared that the bank is going to repossess her home because her family can’t afford Marcus’s mounting medical bills.

Every night, unable to sleep, Wing finds herself sneaking out to go to the school’s empty track. When Aaron, Marcus’s best friend, sees her running one night, he recognizes that her speed, skill, and agility could get her spot on the track team. And better still, an opportunity at a coveted sponsorship from a major athletic gear company. Wing can’t pass up the opportunity to train with her longtime crush and to help her struggling family, but can she handle being thrust out of Marcus’s shadow and into the spotlight?

 

Lessons in Falling by Diana Gallagher

When Savannah Gregory blows out her knee –and her shot at a gymnastics scholarship – she decides she’s done with the sport forever. Without gymnastics, she has more time for her best friend, Cassie. She’s content to let her fun, impulsive best friend plan a memorable senior year.

That is, until Cassie tries to kill herself.

Savannah wants to understand what happened, but Cassie refuses to talk about it and for the first time, Savannah has to find her own way. The only person she can turn to is Marcos, the boy who saved Cassie’s life. Being with him makes her see who she could be and what she really wants: gymnastics.

But Cassie doesn’t approve of Marcos or of Savannah going back to gymnastics, and the tighter she tries to hold onto Savannah, the farther it pulls them apart. Without Cassie to call the shots, Savannah discovers how capable she is on her own—and that maybe her best friend’s been holding her back all along.

 

A Matter of Heart by Amy Fellner Dominy

Readers will happily sink into this emotionally grounded, contemporary young adult novel about the sudden end of one girl’s Olympic swimming dreams and the struggles she endures before realizing there are many things that define who we are.

Sixteen-year-old Abby Lipman is on track to win the state swim championships and qualify for the Olympic trials when a fainting incident at a swim meet leads to the diagnosis of a deadly heart condition. Now Abby is forced to discover who she is without the one thing that’s defined her entire life.

 

On The Road to Find Out by Rachel Toor

On New Year’s Day, Alice Davis goes for a run. Her first ever. It’s painful and embarrassing, but so was getting denied by the only college she cares about. Alice knows she has to stop sitting around and complaining to her best friend, Jenni, and her pet rat, Walter, about what a loser she is. But what doesn’t know is that by taking those first steps out the door, she is setting off down a road filled with new challenges—including vicious side stitches, chafing in unmentionable places, and race-paced first love—and strengthening herself to endure when the going suddenly gets tougher than she ever imagined.

 

The One Thing by Marci Lyn Curtis

Maggie Sanders might be blind, but she won’t invite anyone to her pity party. Ever since losing her sight six months ago, Maggie’s rebellious streak has taken on a life of its own, culminating with an elaborate school prank. Maggie called it genius. The judge called it illegal.

Now Maggie has a probation officer. But she isn’t interested in rehabilitation, not when she’s still mourning the loss of her professional-soccer dreams, and furious at her so-called friends, who lost interest in her as soon as she could no longer lead the team to victory.

Then Maggie’s whole world is turned upside down. Somehow, incredibly, she can see again. But only one person: Ben, a precocious ten-year-old unlike anyone she’s ever met.Ben’s life isn’t easy, but he doesn’t see limits, only possibilities. After awhile, Maggie starts to realize that losing her sight doesn’t have to mean losing everything she dreamed of. Even if what she’s currently dreaming of is Mason Milton, the infuriatingly attractive lead singer of Maggie’s new favorite band, who just happens to be Ben’s brother.

But when she learns the real reason she can see Ben, Maggie must find the courage to face a once-unimaginable future… before she loses everything she has grown to love.

 

Other Broken Things by Christa Desir (not mentioned in the description, but this one features boxing)

Nat’s not an alcoholic. She doesn’t have a problem. Everybody parties, everybody does stupid things, like get in their car when they can barely see. Still, with six months of court-ordered AA meetings required, her days of vodka-filled water bottles are over.

Unfortunately her old friends want the party girl or nothing. Even her up-for-anything ex seems more interested in rehashing the past than actually helping Nat.

But then a recovering alcoholic named Joe inserts himself into Nat’s life and things start looking up. Joe is funny, smart, and calls her out in a way no one ever has.

He’s also older. A lot older.

Nat’s connection to Joe is overwhelming but so are her attempts to fit back into her old world, all while battling the constant urge to crack a bottle and blur that one thing she’s been desperate to forget.

Now in order to make a different kind of life, Natalie must pull together her broken parts and learn to fight for herself.

 

*Pointe by Brandy Colbert

Theo is better now.

She’s eating again, dating guys who are almost appropriate, and well on her way to becoming an elite ballet dancer. But when her oldest friend, Donovan, returns home after spending four long years with his kidnapper, Theo starts reliving memories about his abduction—and his abductor.

Donovan isn’t talking about what happened, and even though Theo knows she didn’t do anything wrong, telling the truth would put everything she’s been living for at risk. But keeping quiet might be worse.

 

A Season of Daring Greatly by Ellen Emerson White (2/14)

Eighteen-year-old Jill Cafferty just made history. Her high school’s star pitcher, she is now the first woman drafted by a major league baseball team. Only days after her high school graduation, she’ll join the Pittsburgh Pirates’ Class A Short Season team . . . but not everyone is happy to have her there.

On top of the pressure heaped on every pitcher, Jill must deal with defying conventions and living up to impossible expectations, all while living away from home for the first time. She’ll go head-to-head against those who are determined to keep baseball an all-male sport. Despite the reassurance of coaches and managers alike, a few of her teammates are giving her trouble. The media presence following her at each game is inescapable. And to top it all off, Jill is struggling with the responsibilities of being a national hero and a role model for young women everywhere. How can she be a role model when she’s not even sure she made the right choice for herself? Didn’t baseball used to be fun?

 

*See No Color by Shannon Gibney

For as long as she can remember, sixteen-year-old Alex Kirtridge has known two things:

1. She has always been Little Kirtridge, a stellar baseball player, just like her father.

2. She’s adopted.

These facts have always been part of Alex’s life. Despite some teasing, being a biracial girl in a white family didn’t make much of a difference as long as she was a star on the diamond where her father—her baseball coach and a former pro player—counted on her. But now, things are changing: she meets Reggie, the first black guy who’s wanted to get to know her; she discovers the letters from her biological father that her adoptive parents have kept from her; and her body starts to grow into a woman’s, affecting her game.

Alex begins to question who she really is. She’s always dreamed of playing pro baseball just like her father, but can she really do it? Does she truly fit in with her white family? Who were her biological parents? What does it mean to be black? If she’s going to find answers, Alex has to come to terms with her adoption, her race, and the dreams she thought would always guide her.

 

The Sky Between You And Me by Catherine Alene

Lighter. Leaner. Faster.

Raesha will do whatever it takes to win Nationals. For her, competing isn’t just about the speed of her horse or the thrill of the win. It’s about honoring her mother’s memory and holding on to a dream they once shared.

Lighter. Leaner. Faster.

For an athlete. Every second counts. Raesha knows minus five on the scale will let her sit deeper in the saddle, make her horse lighter on her feet. And lighter, leaner, faster gives her the edge she needs over the new girl on the team, a girl who keeps flirting with Raesha’s boyfriend and making plans with her best friend.

So Raesha focuses on minus five. But if she isn’t careful, she will lose more than just the people she loves. She will lose herself to Lighter. Leaner. Faster.

 

*A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman

Veda, a classical dance prodigy in India, lives and breathes dance—so when an accident leaves her a below-knee amputee, her dreams are shattered. For a girl who’s grown used to receiving applause for her dance prowess and flexibility, adjusting to a prosthetic leg is painful and humbling. But Veda refuses to let her disability rob her of her dreams, and she starts all over again, taking beginner classes with the youngest dancers. Then Veda meets Govinda, a young man who approaches dance as a spiritual pursuit. As their relationship deepens, Veda reconnects with the world around her, and begins to discover who she is and what dance truly means to her.

 

Tumbling by Caela Carter (there is at least one girl of color in the story)

Five gymnasts. One goal.

Grace lives and breathes gymnastics—but no matter how hard she pushes herself, she can never be perfect enough.

Leigh, Grace’s best friend, has it all: a gymnastics career, a normal high-school life…and a secret that could ruin everything.

Camille wants to please her mom, wants to please her boyfriend, and most of all, wants to walk away.

Wilhelmina was denied her Olympic dream four years ago, and she won’t let anything stop her again. No matter what.

Monica is terrified. Nobody believes in her—and why should they?

By the end of the two days of the U.S. Olympic Gymnastics Trials, some of these girls will be stars. Some will be going home with nothing. And all will have their lives changed forever.

 

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Something interesting worth noting and thinking about: while compiling this list, more than one of these books was described as being like Friday Night Lights. None of the books with that description were about football.

We have so few well-known comparisons to make wherein the stars are female athletes, and that’s just sad. Now to make shows like Pitch be the comp. . .

We’ll see you next week, YA fans. Until then, grab a great book and sink in.

 

 

Get excited, YA readers. We made you wait a whole extra day for this newsletter because it’s an exciting one.

But first . . .

What’s Up in YA? is sponsored this week by A Tragic Kind of Wonderful by Eric Lindstrom.

For Mel Hannigan, bipolar disorder makes life unpredictable. Her latest struggle is balancing her growing feelings in a new relationship with her instinct to conceal her diagnosis by keeping everyone at arm’s length. But when a former friend confronts Mel with the truth about the way their relationship ended, deeply buried secrets threaten to upend her shaky equilibrium.

As the walls of Mel’s compartmentalized world crumble, she fears that no one will accept her if they discover what she’s been hiding. But would her friends really abandon her if they learned the truth? More importantly, can Mel risk everything to find out?

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Today, I’m thrilled to bring an interview with Angie Thomas, a debut YA writer whose book is going to do so much for YA readers.

The Hate U Give hits shelves this month, but it’s been earning tremendous, well-deserved buzz since the book deal was announced last year. It’s been optioned for the big screen, with rising star Amandla Stenberg attached to the project. The Hate U Give is inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement, but more than being inspired by today’s social justice movements, it’s a story about a girl coming of age in a world where being a girl — being a black girl — is in and of itself the story. It’s a moving read and one that will resonate tremendously with readers. I hesitate to use the word “important” to describe a novel, in part because it feels like it ascribes a certain value to some books over others, but this is a book that is important, is vital, and is going to do tremendous good for the YA world.

I wanted to reach out to Thomas and talk with her about her book, about the importance of engaging with dialog that can be uncomfortable, and to talk about her thoughts on black literature and inclusive YA books.

 

KJ: Give us the pitch for The Hate U Give and share a little bit about what inspired Starr’s story.

AT: The Hate U Give is about a sixteen-year-old girl, Starr, who navigates between the poor neighborhood she has grown up in and the upper-class suburban prep school she attends. Her two worlds collide when she is the sole witness to a police officer shooting her childhood best friend, Khalil, who turns out to have been unarmed during the confrontation – but may or may not have been a drug dealer. As Starr finds herself even more torn between the two different worlds she inhabits, she also has to find a way to speak her truth and, in the process, try to stay alive herself.

I first wrote The Hate U Give as a short story when I was a senior in college. It was 2010/2011 after the death of Oscar Grant, a young black man in Oakland, California who was killed by police. Although the college I attended was only minutes away from my school, they were two very different worlds – my school was very white and upper class, while I came from a mostly black community that was known as “the hood.” Being in those two worlds allowed me to hear two kinds of conversations about Oscar – at school he deserved it, and at home he was one of us. My own anger, frustration, fear, and sadness led me to write the story that would become The Hate U Give.

Who do you envision as your dream reader, as in the person you spy reading it on the subway or in an airport and your heart goes wild knowing it’s in their hands? (Imagine if you psychically knew everything about that person, since some things would be impossible to know through simple observation).

The young black girl who finds herself in two different worlds where she has to be two different people, and she’s still not sure which one is her just yet. The one who has learned to code switch just so people won’t consider her a stereotype; the one who hears microaggressions daily and sometimes she doesn’t say anything but internally she’s screaming. That’s my ideal reader.

If you had to describe yourself as a mixture of any fictional characters — in books or other media — who would it be? And who would it have been when you yourself were a teenager?

I would say that I’m a mix of Hermione from Harry Potter and Monica from Love and Basketball. That applies to when I was younger too.

What were some of your favorite books as a teenager, whether they were “for teenagers” or not?

One of my favorite books as a teen was Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody. I’m from Mississippi, and although I grew up in an entirely different era than Ms. Moody, I connected with her story in so many ways.

Who are some of the authors of color in YA who are knocking it out of the park and we should know?

Nic Stone

Tiffany D. Jackson

Dhonielle Clayton

Imani Josey

Coe Booth

Justina Ireland

LL McKinney (debut out in 2018)

If you had to name 5 essential YA titles by black authors for all readers to read and know, what would they be?  

Monster by Walter Dean Myers

The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

X: A Novel by Ilyash Shabazz and Kekla Magoon

All American Boys by Jason Reynolds and Brenden Kiely

How It Went Down by Kekla Magoon

And on that note, this is your debut year — it’s your first novel, period. Can you recommend three other debut novels out this year that you’re madly championing and want others to read?

Dear Martin by Nic Stone

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Midnight Without a Moon by Linda Williams-Jackson

City of Saints & Thieves by Natalie C. Anderson

Wintersong by S. Jae-Jones

The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera

The Heartbeat of Wing Jones by Katherine Webber

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

 

Black History Month is when we begin seeing an even greater emphasis on the works by and about black people being promoted on a grand scale — there are displays in bookstores and libraries, promotions from publishers, and more. As important as it is to see these pushes, it so often becomes limited to just one month. In what ways can readers, as well as advocates for readers (teachers, librarians, writers, and others) keep the spirit of promoting and highlighting works by and about black people alive all year long?

Keep seeking out books by black authors, keep reading books by black authors, keep promoting books by black authors. Make a conscious effort to find those books—don’t just search for them in February.

 

One of the biggest takeaways from The Hate U Give is that when you see something, when you’re feeling the need to speak up and act, that you should do what’s right. If you could share one piece of advice with teens who are reading this newsletter and/or your book, what would it be?

Always remember that empathy is more powerful than sympathy. It is one of our greatest weapons. When we understand why someone feels a certain way and we share those feelings, we’re more likely to speak up and act. In our current political climate, many of us are afraid and sometimes that makes speaking up even more intimidating. But please know that you are not alone—many of us in the YA community are fighting for you and with you.

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Thank you, Angie, for taking the time to talk about your book, as well as a pile of other titles YA readers should get their hands on.

If it’s not already, make sure The Hate U Give is on your radar. It hits shelves on the 28th.

Hopefully your to-read just exploded again. So! Many! Great! Books!

We’ll see you again next week.

Happy end-of-January, YA Lovers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” newsletter is sponsored by Wires & Nerve by Marissa Meyer.

In her first graphic novel, bestselling author Marissa Meyer extends the world of the Lunar Chronicles with a brand-new,action-packed story about Iko, the android with a heart of (mechanized) gold.When rogue packs of wolf-hybrid soldiers threaten the tenuous peace alliance between Earth and Luna, Iko takes it upon herself to hunt down the soldiers’ leader. She is soon working with a handsome royal guard who forces her to question everything she knows about love, loyalty, and her own humanity. With appearances by Cinder, Cress, Scarlet, Winter, and the rest of the Rampion crew, this is a must-have for fans of the bestselling series.

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Let’s take the opportunity to get caught up on a whole lot of YA news and pieces of interest from the last few weeks. Ready? Ready!

• Some of the biggest news in YA happened last week, when the winners of this year’s Youth Media Awards (YMAs) were announced at the American Library Association’s Midwinter meeting in Atlanta. Check out the winners here and get your to-read list ready because it’s going to grow.

• John Lewis’s March: Book 3 took home *four* prestigious honors from the YMAs. This piece at School Library Journal talks a bit more about the historic wins, as well as talks with the winners of some of the other awards this year.

• Keeping on with the awards talk, here are this year’s winners of the Sidney Taylor Award, which are the national awards for Jewish children’s literature.

• And here are the best feminist books from 2016 for young readers, courtesy of the Amelia Bloomer Project. Keep an eye on their site for the full list of great feminist reads (it might be posted by the time this newsletter hits your inbox).

• This year’s Edgar nominees — which go to the best mysteries — in YA span a nice range of topics. I’m a little embarrassed I’ve not read any of them….yet!

• A round-up of Disney Channel movies that were based on YA books (“YA” loosely defined here, but interesting anyway!).

• E. Lockhart, who wrote The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau Banks and We Were Liars, among other titles, has a new book coming out this fall.

• Rick Riordan’s The Lightning Thief is being made into a play. How frequently do middle grade books get made into stage productions? This one’s got some wide appeal, especially for YA readers.

• Speaking of adaptations, Brandon Sanderson’s YA series “The Reckoners” is going to hit the big screen.

• Casting alert for the adaptation of Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda.

• And some casting news for the adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds.

• Amy Poehler’s production company has scooped up rights to Moxie by Jennifer Mathieu, a YA book slated to hit shelves in the fall. I’m…so curious about this book, if for no reason than hoping that these teens who are moved by the zines of a parent have heard of a thing called Tumblr.

• Over on Bustle, a nice piece about YA books that challenge outdated stereotypes about virginity. I could add a bunch more, but this is a great starter list.

• Have you read Juliet Takes A Breath? It’s an adult book with mega YA crossover appeal (and many would argue it is YA). Here’s a nice list of what to read next if you’re eager for more Latinx feminist books.

• SELF-PROMOTION ALERT: the book I edited, Here We Are: Feminism For The Real World came out last Tuesday and got some really nice coverage on Teen Vogue, The Huffington Post, and on Barnes & Noble’s Teen Blog (written by one of the contributors!). I feel okay sharing this not because it’s *my* book but because this is a YA book that belongs squarely to YA readers. Also, Book Riot has a giveaway going for US residents on that ends tomorrow, Tuesday, January 31.

 

Now to take a peek at some of the YA posts that hit Book Riot in the last few weeks:

• We’ve taken a peek at teen spy stories, stand alone fantasy reads, and misfit teens in the “3 On A YA Theme” series.  

• On The Outsiders, Ponyboy, and SE Hinton’s reluctance to accept queer interpretations of her classic.

• Eric talked about Under Rose-Tainted Skies and other great kid lit representations of mental illness.

• Some British YA to smuggle overseas (legally, of course!).

• And finally, some YA books to help keep you motivated and goal-driven this year.

 

Keep on keepin’ on, YA friends. Pick up a good book and settle in. We’ll be back next week with a really exciting interview with a debut YA author whose book is going to knock your socks off.

Good Monday, YA Lovers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up In YA?” is sponsored SwoonReads, the crowd-sourced imprint from Macmillan and publishers of You Don’t Know My Name by Kristen Orlando.

Reagan is used to changing identities overnight, lying to every friend she’s ever had, and pushing away anyone who gets too close. Trained in mortal combat and weaponry her entire life, Reagan is expected to follow in her parents’ footsteps and join the ranks of the most powerful top-secret agency in the world, the Black Angels. But she’s fallen in love and now has to decide: Will she use her incredible talents and lead the dangerous life she was born into, or throw it all away to follow her heart and embrace the normal life she’s always wanted? Does she even have a choice at all? Read more at SwoonReads.com

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Let’s take today to look back into the history of YA lit. Or rather, a look back into some of the back list titles from YA, as the “beginning” of the history of YA lit is debatable (likely somewhere in the 1940s, with Maureen Daly’s Seventeenth Summer, about the time that teenagers themselves were considered an entire generation of people, but note further below another potential starting point). I’ve put together lists of books from the past in the weekly “3 On A YA Theme” column over the last year and thought it would be fun to look back to begin this one. 

From each year past, I’m pulling out 5 titles. It will be hard to know how well some of the older titles stand up, but because of the popularity they received when they published — or because of the author who wrote them — these should be worth tracking down and revisiting. I’ve limited picks to stand alone titles or the first in a really popular series for the sake of simplicity. There are repeat authors across the decades, in part to highlight how long their career in writing for teens spanned. Descriptions are from Goodreads.

Ready? Keep track and see how many authors or titles are familiar to you.

 

2007 — Ten Years Ago

It’s interesting to see how many of these have been adapted to the big or small screens!

 

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers thirteen cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker, his classmate and crush who committed suicide two weeks earlier.

On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he’ll find out how he made the list.

Through Hannah and Clay’s dual narratives, debut author Jay Asher weaves an intricate and heartrending story of confusion and desperation that will deeply affect teen readers.

 

City of Bones by Cassandra Clare (first in The Mortal Instruments series)

When fifteen-year-old Clary Fray heads out to the Pandemonium Club in New York City, she hardly expects to witness a murder― much less a murder committed by three teenagers covered with strange tattoos and brandishing bizarre weapons. Then the body disappears into thin air. It’s hard to call the police when the murderers are invisible to everyone else and when there is nothing―not even a smear of blood―to show that a boy has died. Or was he a boy?

This is Clary’s first meeting with the Shadowhunters, warriors dedicated to ridding the earth of demons. It’s also her first encounter with Jace, a Shadowhunter who looks a little like an angel and acts a lot like a jerk. Within twenty-four hours Clary is pulled into Jace’s world with a vengeance, when her mother disappears and Clary herself is attacked by a demon. But why would demons be interested in ordinary mundanes like Clary and her mother? And how did Clary suddenly get the Sight? The Shadowhunters would like to know…

 

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

Tessa has just months to live. Fighting back against hospital visits, endless tests, and drugs with excruciating side effects, Tessa compiles a list. It’s her To Do Before I Die list. And number one is Sex. Released from the constraints of “normal” life, Tessa tastes new experiences to make her feel alive while her failing body struggles to keep up. Tessa’s feelings, her relationships with her father and brother, her estranged mother, her best friend, and her new boyfriend, are all painfully crystallized in the precious weeks before Tessa’s time runs out.

 

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

Bestselling author Sherman Alexie tells the story of Junior, a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation. Determined to take his future into his own hands, Junior leaves his troubled school on the rez to attend an all-white farm town high school where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Heartbreaking, funny, and beautifully written, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which is based on the author’s own experiences, coupled with poignant drawings by Ellen Forney that reflect the character’s art, chronicles the contemporary adolescence of one Native American boy as he attempts to break away from the life he was destined to live.

 

Unwind by Neal Shusterman

Connor, Risa, and Lev are running for their lives.

The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child “unwound,” whereby all of the child’s organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn’t technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

 

1997 — Twenty years ago

 

Tenderness by Robert Cormier

Eighteen-year-old Eric has just been released from juvenile detention for murdering his parents. Now he’s looking for tenderness–tenderness he finds in killing girls. Fifteen-year-old Lori has run away from home again. Emotionally naive and sexually precocious, she is also looking for tenderness–tenderness that she finds in Eric. Will Lori and Eric be each other’s salvation or destruction?

 

Sons of Liberty by Adele Griffin

Nobody knows the American Revolution better than Rock Kindle. Rock takes pride in his patriotic forefathers. His belief that he, too, could brave any combat helps him through the bad times, when Rock’s father wages small wars on the rest of the family. But when he helps his best friend run away from home, Rock begins to question the bonds that hold his own family together. He knows that he would never be a traitor to his father and would never desert the family. So why is his wish to escape his own home so powerful?

 

Habibi by Naomi Shihab Nye

The day after Liyana got her first real kiss, her life changed forever. Not because of the kiss, but because it was the day her father announced that the family was moving from St. Louis all the way to Palestine. Though her father grew up there, Liyana knows very little about her family’s Arab heritage. Her grandmother and the rest of her relatives who live in the West Bank are strangers, and speak a language she can’t understand. It isn’t until she meets Omer that her homesickness fades. But Omer is Jewish, and their friendship is silently forbidden in this land. How can they make their families understand? And how can Liyana ever learn to call this place home?

 

Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause

Vivian Gandillon relishes the change, the sweet, fierce ache that carries her from girl to wolf. At sixteen, she is beautiful and strong, and all the young wolves are on her tail. But Vivian still grieves for her dead father; her pack remains leaderless and in disarray, and she feels lost in the suburbs of Maryland. She longs for a normal life. But what is normal for a werewolf?

Then Vivian falls in love with a human, a meat-boy. Aiden is kind and gentle, a welcome relief from the squabbling pack. He’s fascinated by magic, and Vivian longs to reveal herself to him. Surely he would understand her and delight in the wonder of her dual nature, not fear her as an ordinary human would.

Vivian’s divided loyalties are strained further when a brutal murder threatens to expose the pack. Moving between two worlds, she does not seem to belong in either. What is she really—human or beast? Which tastes sweeter—blood or chocolate?

 

The Woman in the Wall by Patrice Kindl

Anna is more than shy. She is nearly invisible. At seven, terrified of school, Anna retreats within the walls of her family’s enormous house, and builds a world of passageways and hidden rooms. As the years go by, people forget she ever existed. Then a mysterious note is thrust through a crack in the wall, and Anna must decide whether or not to come out of hiding. Patrice Kindl’s astounding, inventive novel blends fantasy and reality — and readers will not forget it.

 

1987 — 30 years ago

 

The Boy Who Reversed Himself by William Sleator

When Laura finds her homework in her locker with its writing reversed, she’s baffled, until she learns an unbelievable secret: her weird neighbor, Omar, has the ability to travel to the fourth dimension. Laura forces him to take her there, and then, a novice in “four-space”, she goes there on her own. There’s only one problem: she doesn’t know how to get back.

 

The Crossing by Gary Paulsen

Manny Bustos is an orphan, scrabbling for survival on the streets of Juáurez, Mexico. He sleeps in a cardboard box and fights with boys bigger and older than him for the coins American tourists through off the bridge between El Paso, Texas, and his town.

Across the border, Sergeant Robert S. Locke, Vietnam vet and Army prefect, searches for a way to drown the cries for help of his dead friends, and finds it in Cutty Sark whiskey. On the night Manny dares the crossing, through the muddy shallows of the Rio Grande, past searchlights and border patrol, in the hopes of a better life, the two meet in an explosive encounter that fills the night with tension and endless possibilities.

 

Remember Me To Harold Square by Paula Danziger

When Frank spends the summer with Kendra and her family in their New York City apartment, a friendship develops as the two teenagers set off on a scavenger hunt exploring the city’s museums, restaurants, and other landmarks.

 

 

The Return by Sonia Levitin

Fifteen-year-old Desta belongs to a small, isolated mountain community of Ethiopian Jews. She and her brother and sister leave their aunt and uncle and set out on the long and dangerous trip to freedom — an airlift from the Sudan to Israel, the Promised Land. They travel barefoot, facing hunger, thirst and bandits.

 

The Goats by Brock Cole

The boy and the girl are stripped and marooned on a small island for the night. They are the “goats.” The kids at camp think it is a great joke; it’s an old tradition. No harm is intended, but the goats don’t see it that way. They want to disappear. To disappear completely. And they do, much to everyone’s surprise.

 

 

1977 — Forty Years Ago

 

I Am The Cheese by Robert Cormier

Adam Farmer is on a journey – he has to get to Rutterburg with a parcel for his father. But as he travels, he starts to remember the events leading up to this point, memories which are also being prised out in gruelling psychiatric interviews. What is the secret of Adam Farmer? And what will happen when he finds out?

 

One Fat Summer by Robert Lipsyte

No summer vacation could be less promising than Bobby Marks’s.

Bobby Marks hates hot weather. It’s the time when most people are happy to take off their heavy jackets and long pants. But for Bobby, who can’t even button the waist of his jeans or reach over his belly to touch his toes, spending the summer at Rumson Lake is pure torture.

This particular summer promises to be worse than usual. His mom and dad can’t stop fighting. His best friend, Joanie, goes home to New York City unexpectedly and won’t tell him why. Dr. Kahn, the rich, stingy estate owner who hires him to manage the lawn, is trying to work Bobby to death before he can earn a single dime. And the local guy who worked for Dr. Kahn last summer is lurking around every corner, itching for a chance to catch Bobby alone, to pay him back for stealing the job.

But there’s more to Bobby Marks than his 200 pounds. He’s about to find out just how terrifying and exhilarating, how dangerous and wonderful, one fat summer can be.

 

The Solid Gold Kid by Norma Fox Mazer & Harry Mazer

What he’s dreaded most has finally  happened….

Kidnapped. It’s a word that  sixteen-year-old Derek Chapman is afraid to even think,  but the reality of it is beginning to sink in. He’d  been standing at the bus stop in the rain with  four other kids-strangers-when the van came along,  and they’d hitched a ride to escape the  storm.

Derek knows he is the only one the kidnappers  really care about–he’s the son of a self-made  millionaire, and now he has a price on his head. The  others, two guys and two girls, just had the bad  luck to follow him into the van. Although Derek is  the target of the kidnappers, the danger is real  for all of them. Even if the criminals get the  ransom money, will all the victims be set free?

 

Charmed Life by Diana Wynne Jones

Cat doesn’t mind living in the shadow of his sister, Gwendolen, the most promising young witch ever seen on Coven Street. But trouble starts brewing the moment the two orphans are summoned to live in Chrestomanci Castle. Frustrated that the witches of the castle refuse to acknowledge her talents, Gwendolen conjures up a scheme that could throw whole worlds out of whack.

 

A Summer To Die by Lois Lowry

Meg isn’t thrilled when she gets stuck sharing a bedroom with her older sister Molly. The two of them couldn’t be more different, and it’s hard for Meg to hide her resentment of Molly’s beauty and easy popularity. But now that the family has moved to a small house in the country, Meg has a lot to accept.Just as the sisters begin to adjust to their new home, Meg feels that Molly is starting up again by being a real nuisance. But Molly’s constant grouchiness, changing appearance, and other complaints are not just part of a new mood. And the day Molly is rushed to the hospital, Meg has to accept that there is something terribly wrong with her sister. That’s the day Meg’s world changes forever. Is it too late for Meg to show what she really feels?

 

1967 — Fifty Years Ago

Worth noting at this point: many name Hinton’s book below to be the first official YA book published. That remains up for debate, but it certainly is a landmark, foundational YA book. 

Also worth noting: 1967 is the year of many familiar classic YA titles, even beyond what’s noted here. For even more into the importance of 1967 in YA lit, keep an eye on Booklist’s celebration of 50 years of YA this year.

 

The Outsiders by SE Hinton

According to Ponyboy, there are two kinds of people in the world: greasers and socs. A soc (short for “social”) has money, can get away with just about anything, and has an attitude longer than a limousine. A greaser, on the other hand, always lives on the outside and needs to watch his back. Ponyboy is a greaser, and he’s always been proud of it, even willing to rumble against a gang of socs for the sake of his fellow greasers–until one terrible night when his friend Johnny kills a soc. The murder gets under Ponyboy’s skin, causing his bifurcated world to crumble and teaching him that pain feels the same whether a soc or a greaser.

 

The Chosen by Chaim Potok

It is the now-classic story of two fathers and two sons and the pressures on all of them to pursue the religion they share in the way that is best suited to each. And as the boys grow into young men, they discover in the other a lost spiritual brother, and a link to an unexplored world that neither had ever considered before. In effect, they exchange places, and find the peace that neither will ever retreat from again.

 

The Contender by Robert Lipsyte

A Harlem high school dropout escapes from a gang of punks into a boxing gym, where he learns that being a contender is hard and often discouraging work, but that you do not know anything until you try.

 

 

 

Are You In The House Alone? by Richard Peck

Sixteen-year-old Gail is living the upper-class suburban life when she begins receiving terrifying phone calls and notes in her locker. And the calls keep coming. When she’s attacked by the town’s golden boy everyone refuses to take action against him and his powerful family. A frightening drama that deals with heavy teen issues and the idea of justice (or lack thereof) from bestselling author Richard Peck.

 

Flambards by KM Peyton

An absorbing novel about twelve-year-old orphaned Christina who is sent to live with her fierce uncle and his two sons in their decaying mansion, Flambards. Christina discovers a passion for horses and riding but finds herself part of a strange household, divided by emotional undercurrents and cruelty.

 

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Thanks for hanging out again. We’ll be back next week with a big link round-up of everything of note going on in the YA world.

Howdy, YA Readers!

This Week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Elly Blake’s Frostblood.

They say that frost and flame were once friends. That world is long gone.

Vivid and compelling, Frostblood is the first in an exhilarating new series about a world where flame and ice are mortal enemies…but together create a power that could change everything.

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I spent a long time this last week digging around, trying to pull together a comprehensive list of YA books being adapted for the big screen this year. It wasn’t easy — there’s a lot of half-way information about production schedules, release dates, release territories and so forth. Hollywood operates much differently from the book world that trying to get answers as an outsider, even with a paid subscription to a tool like IMDB Pro, is challenging.

Which is to say, if the information I did find is accurate, it seems to me that there are fewer YA adaptations this year than in years past. Perhaps more than 2016, where we saw more flops than we saw hits, but it’s still a rather small number for what seems like were an endless number of deals and rights acquisitions for adaptation in the last few years. A lot of those deals, though, are still marked as being pre-production or in some other similar status, so we might see them pop up later in the year or in future years.

To make this list a little bit longer, I’m including the adaptations going to the smaller screen. Think Netflix series and made-for-TV productions. Again, this isn’t comprehensive but what I could verify through more than one source.

Descriptions come from IMDB, since those offer the most interesting and succinct look at how the book is being reimagined for film, and I’ve included the book cover from which the adaptation is coming, with the title linked through to the book’s Amazon listing. 

Please note that release dates can change and some titles don’t yet have a final release date. If you know of other adaptations, especially those hitting smaller screens, I’d love to know the titles and release dates. As the year progresses and we learn more about what to expect in the summer and fall, I’ll pull together another similar round-up.

 

On The Big Screen

I’ll start with my cheat title.

 

Hidden Figures (release date: currently playing)

Based on a true story. A team of African-American women provide NASA with important mathematical data needed to launch the program’s first successful space missions.

*I consider this one a cheat title, if only because the adaptation is from the adult version of the book, rather than the Young Reader Edition. But since there’s a Young Reader Edition, it’s counting.

 

A Monster Calls (release date: currently playing)

A boy seeks the help of a tree monster to cope with his single mum’s terminal illness.

 

Before I Fall (release date: March 3)

February 12 is just another day in Sam’s charmed life until it turns out to be her last. Stuck reliving her last day over one inexplicable week, Sam untangles the mystery around her death and discovers everything she’s in danger of losing.

 

Break My Heart 1,000 Timess (release date: May 4)

Set nine years after an apocalyptic event that killed millions and left the world inhabited by ghosts.

 

 

Everything, Everything (release date: May 19)

A teenager who’s lived a sheltered life because she’s allergic to everything, falls for the boy who moves in next door.

 

 

Let It Snow (release date: November 22)

In a small town on Christmas Eve, a snowstorm brings together a group of young people.

 

 

Ashes In The Snow (release date: unannounced)

In 1941, an aspiring artist and her family are deported to Siberia amidst Stalin’s brutal dismantling of the Baltic region. In a seemingly hopeless place, love is the only means of survival.

*The change in title on this one makes sense, as it would be far too easy to get Between Shades of Gray confused with another ‘Grey’ franchise.

 

 

Fallen (release date: unannounced)

A young girl finds herself in a reform school after therapy since she was blamed for the death of a young boy. At the school she finds herself drawn to a fellow student, unaware that he is an angel, and has loved her for thousands of years.

*This one’s been released in some countries already, but there’s been no date set for a US release. Last year, the director had mentioned something about waiting to see what the interest was in the States before a date would be given, but so far, there’s still no date for either a theatrical or DVD release.

 

 

My Friend Dahmer (release date: unannounced)

Based on the acclaimed graphic novel by John Backderf, Jeffrey Dahmer struggles with a difficult family life as a young boy- and during his teenage years he slowly transforms, edging closer to the serial killer he becomes.

*This Alex Award winning graphic novel has massive appeal for YA readers, so I’m including it on the list since I didn’t know it was going to be adapted.

 

On The Small Screen

 

 

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Netflix, current)

After the loss of their parents in a mysterious fire, the three Baudelaire children face trials and tribulations attempting to uncover dark family secrets.

*Probably technically more along the middle grade lines, but it has such great YA appeal, I’m including it.

 

 

Trollhunters (Netflix, current)

Based on a book by del Toro, Trollhunters tells the story of friends who unearth a mystery underneath their hometown.

 

 

Famous in Love (Freeform, April 18)

An ordinary college student gets her big break in a Hollywood blockbuster and must navigate through an undeniable chemistry with her two co-leads, while uncovering the truth about a missing popstar.

 

 

The Divergent Series: Ascendant (no network listed, June 17)

Tris and Four fight to end the Bureau of Genetic Welfare’s authoritarian reign over the United States.

*This one has so much information and so little at the same time. There’s a release date but I couldn’t find the network it would be released on. We don’t know who Tris is, either.

 

 

13 Reasons Why (Netflix, no date listed)

Thirteen Reasons Why, based on the best-selling series by Jay Asher, follows teenager Clay Jensen in his quest to uncover the story behind his classmate and crush Hannah’s decision to end her own life.

*No release date yet but we know it’ll be this year. It feels like this one has been talked about for years and years (it might have even been the first YA acquired for Netflix).

 

And there you have it! Anything that you’re looking forward to seeing? Anything you’re surprised will be making the leap to the big/small screen?

We’ll be back next week with more YA talk. Until then, snuggle in with a good YA book — or a good YA adaptation!

Hello, YA Readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett. 

Hawthorn Creely doesn’t fit in, and that was before she inserted herself into a missing persons investigation. She doesn’t mean to interfere, but Lizzie Lovett’s disappearance is the most fascinating mystery their town has ever had—which means the time for speculation is now.

So Hawthorn comes up with a theory way too absurd to take seriously…at first. The more Hawthorn talks, the more she believes. And what better way to collect evidence than to immerse herself in Lizzie’s life? It might just be the push Hawthorn needs to find her own place in the world.

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Let’s get caught up on some of the latest in YA news and talk from around the web, link-fest style.

• Two big roles in the adaptation of Gretchen McNeil’s Ten have been cast. Check ’em out.

 

• Speaking of horror and YA, Stephanie Perkins revealed the title of her fall novel. I know Perkins is a huge horror fan, so this should be good. What a departure from her other series!

 

• There’s been a lead cast for the adaptation of Becky Albertalli’s Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda.

 

• And speaking of adaptations, we’re going to get one for Nicola Yoon’s latest, The Sun is Also a Star. This should be excellent.

 

• Admittedly, I don’t understand this article’s title at all. But the piece itself, on the growth of the Japanese “Light Novel” in America, is fascinating. I remember seeing these periodically pop up when I used to order manga for the libraries I worked at and being confused by them (I was lucky enough to have teens who could explain and help me pick out the manga they wanted!).

 

• For those who love knowing what was popular, here’s Publishers Weekly’s roundup of the most popular middle grade and young adult reviews from 2016.

 

• Annoying slideshow format aside, here’s a list of most-anticipated YA books of 2017 from Pop Crush. I love looking at these sorts of lists and comparing them to lists that are written by librarians, by those with a foot in the publishing world, and by those who are themselves writers. What I found worth noting in this one is how many of the titles were by authors of color — and how many of those titles are likely going to be big this year.

 

• Speaking of most-anticipated lists, here’s one from Paste Magazine. Some crossover, but not entirely.

 

• Are you familiar with The Cybils? If you’re not, it’s an awesome annual book award which recognizes various categories of children’s lit with an eye to not only literary merit, but also to appeal to the target audience, as judged by children’s lit bloggers. This year’s short lists were just announced. Check out them out (& how great is it that there are so many titles that differ from other “best of” lists?).

 

And that’s a wrap. It’s been a quiet few weeks with the holidays and end-of-year fun, so it’s likely we’ll begin seeing more and more YA news popping up as the month progresses.

We’ll be back next week with a look at what adaptations are in the works for 2017 so you can plan your time — reading and viewing! — accordingly.