Category: What’s Up in YA

This series follows a young man growing up in a volatile Taiwan, and it’s inspired by the author’s own experiences. In this volume, Kun-lin is finally released from being imprisoned at Green Island for 10 years and he’s hoping to rebuild his life. He hopes to become an editor and moves around several institutions before seeing how censorship is impacting the lives of friends and colleagues. He decides to start his own children’s magazine and hire his friends. It seems good and well.

Fast-forward 40 years, and Kun-lin meets Yu Pei-Yun while working at White Terror Memorial Park, where he provides education about human rights. Kun-lin has been working with fellow survivors following the end of martial law, but the meeting with Yu gives him an opportunity to understand, revisit, and try to work through the trauma, pain, and tumultuous life he has lived.

If you haven’t read the first title in this series, you can grab The Boy From Clearwater, Book One for $2 (I can’t guarantee by the time you read this it’ll be on sale, but give it a shot!).

Also shared in the roundup of YA nonfiction for May, this collection contains 25 different stories of trans and nonbinary folks who’ve elected to bind in an act of gender affirmation. In addition to the personal stories, Kobabe and Dr. Peitzmeier include research and resources to make this an accessible—and necessary—guide for young people.

This is the sequel to Welcome to St. Hell and it follows what happens after Lew comes to understand he is a guy and wants to live life as a guy. It’s about all of the changes that happen after making such a powerful and affirming discovery, not only in terms of bodily and cognitive perspectives but also in the relationships throughout his life.

There are so few books written from the perspective of animals once you’re no longer reading picture books or early readers. This comic, however, brings the world of animals into the hands of teen readers.

A dog named Simon, along with his best friends a raccoon and a deer, live in a barren and ransacked backyard, fighting to find any scrap of food they can. They’re living in hope of garbage night, but it never comes. So when they hear of another town where humans have all relocated, the trio is off to find it.

They meet several other animals on their journey but something feels off. What is happening in the world around them with fellow animals…and with the humans upon which they’ve come to depend?

The Hotelitor is exactly as advertised in the title: a luxury-class spacecraft for visitors. But when it’s brutally attacked by aliens, its entry-level staff (aka many teenagers!) are stranded in space. Anna Greene is 18 and takes charge, hoping to find resolution and safety for herself and fellow low-level employees. She and her crew are far from prepared to handle what’s happening not only in space outside the Hotelitor, but also what’s happening inside with greedy VIPs and more.

Don is the best fighter at Benjamin Harrison High School. But then he’s put in the ring with Sam Steadman from Lincoln High. The two fall for one another and fast.

The problem? They both have terrifying ex-partners. The two of them will have to fight through a pile of scary opponents in order to be with one another.

This sounds a little like a fun take on Scott Pilgrim.

Maelstrom is the demon prince of an evil tyrant. Twigs has been prophesized to fight Maelstrom in order to truly earn his title as Hero of Virtue.

Unfortunately for Twigs, Maelstrom’s mother is a necromancer and does not want to give up the throne she believes is hers. Maelstrom decides he isn’t standing for it and teams up with Twigs in an unexpected twist to take down his mother.

Except…can or should Twigs trust Maelstrom? Should Maelstrom trust his own instincts?

This one is being pitched for fans of Nimona and The Adventure Zone.

For readers who feel alone in their fandom and/or experiences coming into themselves, this comic is going to resonate strongly. It follows Rotem, who is a huge fan of the Sunrise books and movies. She’s especially obsessed with the love interest Edmund in the series (y’all are laughing, too, right? Sunrise/Edmund like Twilight/Edward). She feels like no one else gets it because, well, no one else seems to understand her obsession.

Enter Ayala, a quiet girl in Rotem’s class who loves books and is equally obsessed with Sunrise and Edmund. But as the two of them become closer to one another, bonding over the series, Rotem begins to wonder if there’s something else drawing them together…and if it’s the Sunrise series at all.

Chihiro is a 16-year-old samurai and it’s not easy. Her father has built a reputation as a samurai but Chihiro has built one instead on being obsessed with Tatsuo Nakano, the first female samurai to be accepted into an elite school.

Then Chihiro’s father is conscripted and she is given the opportunity to work alongside Tatsuo because her father no longer can, Chihiro sees it as a chance to learn from the best and secure her own spot in the elite samurai school.

But as they say, never meet your heroes (who says that anyway?). Tatsuo is not like Chihiro has built her up to be. She’s foul-mouthed with a quick temper and more, she’s turned her back on the samurai way, working instead as a ronin for hire. The two of them could not be more different but because they have to work together, it might be that they find far more common ground–and an opportunity to work through challenges, including grief–than difference.

This is getting compared to Nimona as well, and it’s also been compared to Attack on Titan.

Despite its storied history of magic and knights at the Round Table, Britain is now home only to three witches: Young Hag, her mother, and her grandmother, Ancient Crone. Grandmother has told Young Hag stories of the legends of yore, and Young Hag has grown up believing in curses, in spells, and in her own magic. But when something tragic happens to her grandmother, Young Hag decides to give up magic altogether. It hasn’t actually helped her yet.

When a changeling baby is found in the woods, Young Hag is confronted with magic yet again. Maybe she can’t ignore it or turn her back on it. Maybe she’s meant to set out on a quest to bring it back to Britain more broadly.

So now she’s going to do just that. But can she face the challenges of bringing lore and legend back to a whole country? She’ll have to work hard to believe in herself and in magic itself.

Get to know the real world of Black aviation that grew between World War I and World War II. This follows the hard work of several Black folks on the south side of Chicago who worked to make their dreams of flying come true.

While this book came out in 2023, the sequel, Blood & Fury, hits shelves this week.

Darling Seabreak lost her family to House Dragon, but she’s forever grateful to Chaos Boon and House Kraken who saved her from a life in the sewers. But now her Kraken father has been captured in battle, and she vows to take down everyone in House Dragon to save him.

War prince Talon Goldhoard has been a brave secondhand to his brother, helping House Dragon continue to be vicious, feared leaders. But Talon’s brother has gotten off course, and parts of House Dragon want Talon to take over. But when a fierce girl attacks Talon, and it’s the same girl who looks like the one that Talon’s brother has been obsessing over in art, Talon recognizes his opportunity.

Talon and Darling are unlikely allies…or are they?

Said is away at boarding school, but he’s coming back to New Crosshaven following the death of a favorite librarian. He’s there for the funeral and throughout the summer. His goal is to avoid running into his ex-best friend Tiwa and to put off telling his Bangladeshi parents that he wants to become an artist.

Tiwa doesn’t want to see Said all summer, in part because she thinks he’s gotten a little snobby from boarding school and because, well, she doesn’t understand why he began to ignore her at all. She’s got a lot to keep her occupied, fortunately, including helping her mom with the Eid celebration at her beloved Islamic Center.

When a fire breaks out at the Islamic Center and unravels the mayor’s plans to get rid of the Center altogether, Said and Tiwa have to talk. They have to work together to save their beloved Islamic Center and ensure a successful Eid, and…well, you know sparks might just be flying.

Looking for a race-themed queer YA romance? You’re going to be burning rubber over this one (ha).

Jojo is ready for a successful racing career, but it’s been sidelined following the tragic death of her NASCAR legendary mother in a racing accident. Now, she’s back in the tiny town of Dell’s Hollow, working at her grandma’s auto repair shop.

In walks Eliana “El” Blum. El is tough and she loves her motorcycle. El grew up idolizing Maxine, the older sister of a friend who tore it up on the motocross scene. But Maxine suddenly disappeared and El is determined to find out what happened.

With adventure boiling in both of their blood, Jojo and El team up to find out what happened to Maxine. Of course, they’re going to develop a Lot Of Feelings…and enjoy a lot of time in cars and on bikes.

This contemporary fantasy is a reimagining of Aztec legend and is being billed as perfect for fans of These Violent Delights. The story follows Blanca Montes, who wants to make a difference in the world but is being held back by her family, who doesn’t believe in her. Greg Chen is the new kid at her Nevada school, and as soon as Blanca sets her eyes on him, something cracks open.

That’s because their fates entwined centuries ago. Greg was Captain Popoc and Blanca, Princess Iztac. The Princess took her own life upon hearing that her love was killed in battle, and now, as Greg, Captain Popoc might finally reconnect with his long-lost love again.

Jordyn Jones is new to Edgewood High School and is eager to have a fresh start where her reputation does not precede her. No one here knows what she and her friends did at her old school.

She quickly starts to make friends despite Jordyn’s feeling that people all seem to know her story. She even gets close with Izaiah, a school soccer star who shares a deep love of art with her.

But an anonymous podcaster called Tomcat Tea plans to spill the secrets of people at Edgewood High School. Jordyn is scared everything she’s found here will fall apart so now, she’s teaming up with classmates to take down the podcast before it can damage anyone else.

Lucy is ready for college since she’ll finally be able to introduce herself as Lucy without the transphobic comments rife at her high school. She’ll get to be roommates with her best friend Callie and be close enough to a prestigious theater program to follow her dreams.

But when she goes for a campus tour and runs into two high school classmates who continue to hurl insults at Lucy, she begins to wonder if she needs to go elsewhere. She can’t relive her small-town life at what she thought was her dream college.

Lucy finds a new school on the list of most LGBTQ+-friendly colleges and realizes this is her chance. THIS might be the dream school. The problem? It’s so far from home…and it’s a woman’s college that, as far as she can tell, has never admitted a trans student.

Naya Morgan and Yana Bunpraserit are ex-best friends and outsiders in their small town. But they’ve been invited to be part of their high school’s exclusive society for recent graduates. It promises fun, connection, and more, starting with a yacht trip to Bermuda.

Naya and Yana are not excited to deal with [waves hands at their high school experience], and they’re skeptical of spending time together, but…it’s an epic trip. They’re going to take it.

Then on the trip, a classmate is killed. The body count is rising, and it’s clear there’s a murderer aboard. Yana and Naya don’t want to be friends again but they might need to do it in order to save their lives.

If you like stories set over a short period of time and/or with limits placed on them that raise the stakes, this’ll be your jam. Set at Sunrise Night, a sleep-away art camp; it follows photography-loving Jude and dancer Florence as they spend three magic nights together with one rule: no contact for a year after these nights.

Each is struggling with their place in the world and their lives—Jude and his anxiety and parents’ divorce and Florence and the degenerative eye disease that will end her dancing life before she’s ready—but perhaps these three nights will let them become their truest selves..and experience true love, too.

This collection contains 25 different stories of trans and nonbinary folks who’ve elected to bind in an act of gender affirmation. In addition to the personal stories, Kobabe and Dr. Peitzmeier include research and resources to make this an accessible—and necessary—guide for young people.

This young reader adaptation of Salt In My Soul is a collection of diary entries from Smith about her life living with cystic fibrosis. It’s raw and challenging as it chronicles the disease but it’s also resonant with all teen readers who are simply trying to figure out who they are during a complicated time in their lives.

If you pick up just one book from this entire newsletter today, let it be this one. Yoo has done it again by telling a story from modern history about racial tension and making connections between that moment and our contemporary world.

This time, we go to 1992 Los Angeles in the moments before the Rodney King verdict. It’s a nuanced and layered look at that moment, its impact on the Black community, the ways in which the Korean American community was impacted, and about the associated uprisings and fires set about the city during those five long days.

This is the third and last entry in a trio of memoirs from Ogle that are an unfiltered look into his challenging young life. In Road Home, we follow as he is kicked out of his house after telling his dad that he is gay. He was told after he graduated high school by dad he could stay at home and find a steady girlfriend, go to church twice a week, OR be gay—and it’s that last one that left him navigating abuse and survival on the streets of New Orleans.

Written in a mix of vignettes and poetry, this is a work of nonfiction celebrating—and being honest about—Black girlhood. This sounds like the kind of book that would pair so nicely with Black Girl, You Are Atlas.

Why do people make murals on walls? It’s not a new thing, and it has happened across time and across the globe. Fraser explores the history of wall murals, offering colorful art throughout. There’s a nice section in this book, too, about preserving such art.

One of the trickiest things about YA nonfiction is that sometimes, the age range for them is 10-14, meaning that yes, they’re perfectly appropriate for younger teens but they might appeal more to middle grade readers. This book is shorter than the average YA nonfiction but I suspect it’s one that will have a lot of appeal to teen readers on all ends of the age range.

Told in 14 distinct voices, Africa Town is the story of the last Africans brought illegally to the United States on the Clotilda. It’s the story of their treacherous travel, the way each was sent off to various plantations, and how, at the end of the Civil War, they reunited and created a community called Africa Town (and it still exists today!).

Although published through an adult imprint, this book has tons of YA crossover. Set in 1993, Korean American Hannah and Puerto Rican Angel meet at a spring quinceañera and begin to fall deeply in love. The story follows them through several seasons, and Park uses the sonnet format to explore their interracial relationship. It’s set during the AIDS panic of the early ’90s in New York City, grounding it in that historical moment.

At the turn of the 20th century, workers’ rights were not a thing. One of the most influential forces to change the working conditions in New York City—and ultimately, the country—was Clara Lemlich. Crowder’s novel in verse is a fictional account of a real teen girl who immigrated from Russia to the US with her family and helped organize labor strikes.

Set in 1930s Berlin, this novel follows Hilde, who, at 18, is trying to find a job. She takes one at a cabaret as a dancer, where she meets Rosa, another waitress and performer. It’s not a safe time to be queer, but even amid burgeoning war and protest, Hilde wrestles with owning who she is and who she truly loves.

Celstia loves spending her summers at the elite resort in Lake Conemaugh. It’s a time to get away from it all, and she’s really enjoying her time with Peter, a boy who works for the hotel. He’s of a different class, so Celstia cannot be caught spending time with him.

Then tragedy strikes: Johnstown is flooding. It’s just down in the valley from where Celstia and her family are. It’s where Peter is from.

What emerges is both a story of star-crossed lovers and an unraveling of one of the greatest weather disasters in American history.

Even though 19-year-old Mary Ann Graves knows the trip to California will be long and arduous for her parents and eight siblings, she is looking forward to a brighter future out west. Unfortunately, an early winter in the Sierra Nevadas means Mary Ann’s family is right alongside the Donner and Reed parties and now, not only must she figure out how to survive, she has to grieve at the unbelievable loss before her eyes.

If you want a YA verse novel about the Donner Party, this isn’t the only option you’ve got. You can also pick up Allan Wolf’s The Snow Fell Three Graves Deep.

We know that climate change is real. The research is there, the science is there, and the facts are there. Rusch’s book is about the Juliana vs. United States, which came to a conclusion just a couple of months after the release of the book. The case—which the plaintiffs won—was brought to court by 21 young people who claimed that because of the US’s support of the fossil fuel industry, the environment has been and continues to be damaged as a result.

The 21 is an environmental justice thriller, so this won’t read like a blow-by-blow of the court case. Instead, it’s a compelling nonfiction work about the young people engaged in climate justice and the ways they’re working to have their voices heard.

Ash doesn’t believe anyone cares about the world around her like she does. Grown-ups seem oblivious to the climate crisis, and people her own age are way too into celebrities to worry about the future of the planet. Grandpa Edwin felt different, though. He often told Ash that he planned to build a secret cabin deep in the woods.

Now Ash needs to know: did he build it? As they venture into the wilderness to find out, Ash must learn whether or not they are prepared for the self-discovery journey upon which they’ll begin to embark.

Eliza’s life was upended by Hurricane Harvey. Now that she’s in a new high school, she’s putting her energy into environmental activism. This isn’t popular in Houston, where the oil industry is a huge part of the economy.

Then Eliza meets Javi, who is grappling with his own environmental trauma. Together, the two find comfort and connection in their mental health over the personal impacts of climate change on their lives.

When Thea’s father has a premonition, he moves their family to southern Colorado’s Bloodless Valley. The plan is to unschool Thea and her sister, but it quickly becomes apparent that living on a remote farm takes far more time than they have, so Thea and her sister are left to educate themselves. Except the girls are forbidden from going to the library, as they might become “poisoned” by the internet or books.

But the real poison isn’t in knowledge. The farm where they’ve moved and how it won’t grow anything because of the climate.

So when Thea is allowed to take a job at a local café and meets Ray—a partially Deaf teen just like her—she begins to put together the pieces of the world she’s just entered. It’s declining, and quick.

Eco-anxiety is real, and it impacts not only adults, but teens, too. This book is a look at what eco-anxiety is and it offers ten actionable steps that young people—or adults, let’s be real—can take to manage that anxiety and help protect the Earth.

Isa’s life finally feels like it is settling down. That is why she’s dreading her senior year and leaving for college—she wants to just be still. But her community is being ravaged by wildfires and a gas pipeline in town is threatening her dad’s job. She’s decided getting involved in the environmental action club at school is one thing she can do to make herself and her world a little bit better.

Too bad her club’s copresident Darius is so annoying. He’s a good guy, the valedictorian, angling to get every point on his growing resume possible. Darius wants a political career and the environmental club is but one more thing he can do to get experience. It’s not that he doesn’t care about the issues. It’s that he has goals for taking the club to the next level to help gather experience in putting on a policy summit and more.

Then there’s Isa, the new co-president of the club, who is going to make Darius’s job as co-president a bit harder than it needs to be. He can’t focus entirely on what the club brings to his resume but, instead, what he can bring to the club…and, well, no doubt some ~feelings~ will emerge between Isa and Darius.

The Cuban government has outlawed art that doesn’t meet their approval, but Soleida and her family have elected to create a secret sculpture garden anyway. When a storm ravages the area and their installment is found, Soleida’s parents are arrested.

Soleida escapes and makes her way to Central America. There she meets a huge contingent of Cuban refugees, including Dariel. Dariel makes incredible music enchanting both to animals and to Soleida, and before long, the two of them begin to work together to bring awareness to protecting the environment—and to the injustices artists are experiencing in Cuba.