Category: What’s Up in YA

Hey YA Readers!

Your weekend needs some new, cheap ebooks. Here’s a roundup of some of the best YA ebook deals going now. Prices are current as of Friday morning.

Grab Nic Stone’s vital Dear Martin for $2.

• Emily Lloyd-Jones’s The Bone Houses, which looks excellently creepy, is $3.
• If you’re looking for something perfect for the spooky season, grab Kiersten White’s The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein for $2.
• Roshani Chokski’s first book The Star-Touched Queen is $3. Perfect if you love lush fantasy and romance.
• Want a take on the serial killer story? Barry Lyga’s I Hunt Killers would be a great pick. $2.
• Neal Shusterman’s Bruiser is $3.
• Brigadoon, but for YA readers? You can have it in Doon by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon for $2.
• “Black Swan meets Paranormal Activity” is the pitch for The Dark Beneath Ice by Amelinda Bérubé. $2.
• Amish horror? Indeed. Pick up Laura Bickle’s The Hallowed Ones for $3.

Nova Ren Suma’s deliciously creepy The Walls Around Us is $2.

• Jason Segel and Kirsten Miller’s Otherworld is comped to Ready Player One. Snag it for $2.
• Teens competing to go to Jupiter? That sounds awesome. Alexandra Monir’s The Final Six is $2.
• Bree Barton’s Heart of Thorns is $2.
• If you need a vampire fix, Vampire Academy‘s first book is $3.
• Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Hearts Unbroken, which is a fabulous #OwnVoices novel, is about bigotry, cultural heritage, and acts of resistance. $3.

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Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you again Monday!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

Hey YA Readers!

Let’s catch up with the latest book talk over on Book Riot the last few weeks.

• Here are the 2020 YA books to movies to read before you see.
• Take this fun Harry Potter Enneagram quiz.
• Speaking of Enneagram, here’s how the Baby-Sitters Club members shake out.
• These YA books about basketball are a slam dunk.
• Find your kindred spirit in these YA books about book lovers.
• It’s a Clue-style quiz, but based on your favorite YA books.
• There’s a Nancy Drew game for every kind of mood.
• Do you agree/disagree/have no dog in the fight over this (non-definitive) list of best YA authors?
• Curious about the work of Meg Cabot but don’t know where to begin? We’ve got a reading guide for you.
• A collection of cowritten YA books. Want more? We’ve got more!
• Did you see the cast photo release for the adaptation of Shadow and Bone?
• Over 90 (!) YA books hitting shelves this fall.
• Then go ahead and add these YA comics and graphic novels to your fall TBR, too.
• Just because Hispanic Heritage Month is over doesn’t mean great books by Latinx writers don’t deserve your attention. Here are some excellent YA books by Latinx authors.
• New bisexual and lesbian YA books for your TBR.
• Want some writing advice? These YA authors can help you out!
• Let these YA books get you in the fall mood.
• Last, but not least, add some YA books by authors of color to your reading life.

Do you need a Tahereh Mafi vinyl sticker in your life? You can grab one for $5.

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Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you on Saturday with some great ebook deals!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

Hey YA Readers!

Let’s not slice this the wrong way. I’ve come across a YA book cover mystery that I cannot understand. I’ve reached out to fellow Book Rioters but it turns out, this is a big piece of surprise.

On YA book covers, we’re not surprised to see any of the following:

Coffee/Tea/Other Caffeinated Beverages

Coffeehouse Angel by Suzanne Selfors, The Latte Rebellion by Sarah Jamila Stevenson, and When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon are, of course, just three out of many books with caffeinated drinks on YA covers.

Ice Cream

Ice cream is a YA book cover staple. For your sampling purposes, Love and Gelato by Jenna Evans Welch, Stay Sweet by Siobhan Vivian, and The Summer of Firsts and Lasts by Terra Elan McVoy.

Baked Goods

There are so many YA books featuring backed goods on their covers and every year, we see this pop up more. The selection here includes donuts on Donut Days by Lara Zielin, The Art of French Kissing by Brianna Schaum and macarons, and a sugar cookie on Sara Zarr’s Sweethearts.

Fruit

We’ve got fruit on YA book covers, include on Orchards by Holly Thomas, With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo, and Small Damages by Beth Kephart.

Fruit Sub Category: Apples

Thank Twilight for the fact we have a subcategory of fruit on YA book covers with apples.

This selection includes Bad Apple by Laura Ruby, Tear You Apart by Sarah Cross, and Winter by Marissa Meyer.

(I could easily subcategory peaches here, too!)

More YA Food Covers

This is, of course, far from comprehensive when it comes to food on YA book covers, but a few more worth chewing on (heh) are the animal crackers on All That I Can Fix by Crystal Chan, the pho on Hungry Hearts, and the toast on Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry.

October is National Pizza Month, and I was all excited to do a roundup of awesome YA book covers featuring pizza.

Except….

There is not a single YA book published with a traditional publisher featuring pizza on the cover.

For what is a staple food — something near universally loved and able to be adapted for so many dietary requirements — it’s sure strange to see none of it on a YA book cover.

Stranger still is that the two YA books with “Pizza” in the title also do not have pizza on the cover.

Is there pizza grease on the cover of Greg Taylor’s Killer Pizza? Sure. Is it a pizza box? Also sure. But no actual pizza is on the cover. Same goes for Kathryn Williams’s Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous.

Where’s the pizza? Where’s the sauce? The argument-inducing pineapple-topped pizza (which, for the record, can be delicious!).

This is a YA mystery I cannot solve, though it’s one that leaves me wondering.

Until next time, YA readers — grab yourself a slice of your favorite pie and question everything you thought you knew about YA book covers.

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— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

Hey YA Readers!

Let’s talk about all things spooky. Or, more specifically, let’s talk about why it is teen readers seem to love scary books.

I’m always fascinated by the passion teen readers have for all things scary. I was one of those teens, and I worked with those teens in libraries — and I’ve heard from them time and time again in my author life, too. Why is that? What is it that makes horror so appealing to teen readers?

To get an answer, I reached out to a handful of incredible YA authors who are writing horror to see if they had any insight. Of course they did!

The authors who responded are but a small fraction of the diverse range of voices writing horror in YA, which continues to offer incredible titles year after year. All of the authors below have penned multiple horror titles themselves.

So: why do teens love horror?

Amelinda Bérubé, author of Here There Are Monsters

Daniel Kraus, author of Bent Heavens (February 2020)

The two most powerful, primeval emotions, especially for teens, are lust and fear. Teens seek out more of both and want to experiment. My tiny role in that ritual is to provide inroads into fear that are intelligent and complex, and are going to make readers grapple with their feelings in more sophisticated way.

There’s room for all levels of horror. I tend to work at the extreme end. I want a teen to pick up a book of mine and feel like it’s a dangerous object. I want them to read it and know the author isn’t trying to “protect” them. Look, it’s a book — if it burns, they’ll drop it. Otherwise, they’re going to find me pushing, and they might have to push back, and in the process they’re going to learn something about themselves. You get the right reader, this pushing match can make them stronger. It can change lives. I’m not fucking around.

Micol Ostow, author of The Devil and Winnie Flynn

If horror as a genre is about an externalized, socially-approved manifestation of our innermost fears, then how could it not particularly appeal to teens? Young adult fiction is so resonant precisely because of the passionate, unique emotional moment of being a teenager, and specifically dealing with the horrors of societal expectations and pressures, the mortal flaws of our most formative authority figures, and even the betrayal of our own bodies in unexplainable, uncontrollable ways.

The terrifying truth is: if horror is discomfiting, it is no more discomfiting than life itself, and perhaps at no point in time more so than during young adulthood. For me, at least, the visceral but wholly metaphorical traumas depicted in horror have always been infinitely more compelling than my own teenaged nightmares.

Rebecca Schaeffer, author of Not Even Bones

I think horror has a number of different facets that appeal to readers. Horror as a genre, especially in YA, is incredibly character driven. There’s nothing quite like edge of your seat life-threatening terror to force characters to face their own inner demons. The best horror uses the ‘monster’ as a dark reflection of the main character’s personal flaws and failures, and overcoming it helps them also come to critical realizations about themselves. There’s something very powerful about having a physical manifestation of a character’s flaws that they have to fight, as is typical in the horror genre.

The other reason I think it appeals to readers how viscerally engaging fast-paced books are. You see a similar atmosphere in thrillers, a feeling that you have to keep going, you need to find out what happens next. They’re both genres that keep you on the edge of your seat the whole read, paced so that you can’t put them down for fear something terrible is waiting just around the corner for the character. This kind of style creates highly addictive reads.

In horror, the combination of the fast pacing, terrifying monsters, and vivid character arcs combine to make an extremely appealing genre.

Amy Lukavics, author of Nightingale

I can only speak to my own experiences, but as a teen I found horror weirdly comforting in the fact that it focused on darker aspects of humanity that were otherwise ignored (but not forgotten.) I appreciated the heavy themes and dark, morbid descriptions, which I didn’t view as gratuitous, but rather brave in their willingness to speak the grisly truth, societal norms be damned. Horror can provide a safe haven to sort through the tangle of questions and concerns we have about each other and ourselves, and additionally, it always felt nice to get lost in stories of pretend suffering in order to forget about my own. My favorite YA horror novel would probably have to be Bleeding Earth by Kaitlin Ward, followed by Through the Woods by Emily Carroll, This Is Not a Test by Courtney Summers, and In the Shadow of Blackbirds by Cat Winters. And while it hasn’t released yet, I am so excited for and intrigued by the upcoming Jennifer Strange by Cat Scully.

Kate Alice Marshall, author of Rules for Vanishing

Horror is a genre that thrives in liminal spaces—the in-between places. Doorways, dusk, roads, the edges where wilderness and civilization intersect. Ghosts, zombies, and vampires all occupy the in-between space between life and death. It’s in these gaps that uncertainty and change thrive—and what stage of life is more full of uncertainty and change than adolescence? Teens occupy the ultimate liminal space. The youngest teens are leaving childhood behind; the oldest teens are entering adulthood, ready or not. Teens are leaving one world and entering another, but there’s no clear boundary between them. And horror is all about taking muddled boundaries, confusion, and transformation, and delving into the darkest possibilities it holds.

I think that horror and its relatives hold a special thrill for teens because the themes of uncertainty, rules, and transgression speak so strongly to the teen experience. And because there’s a whole adult world waiting for them, full of very real danger, uncertainty and fear—but within the pages of a book, the fear is knowable. It can be conquered—or it can conquer you—but at the end of the story, you get to close the book and move on. It gives you a chance to engage with the uncertainty of the world waiting for you without the danger of getting lost in it.

Jimmy Cajoleas, author of Minor Prophets

First off, horror novels are really, really, really fun to read. I mean, who doesn’t love being scared, at least a little bit? Some of the happiest moments of my childhood were lying in my bedroom late into the night, reading Stephen King or Lois Duncan, daring myself to turn the next page.

But if I can take it a step further. The great horror film director Stuart Gordon once said, “When you look at most horror movies, they’re about an impossible dream.” I think horror novels are the same. They’re about the dreams of the storyteller, the mysteries of the heart laid bare in all of their terror and wonder. In this way, horror for me has always been a way to look inward, to confront the parts of ourselves and the world that we fear the most. That’s why I find horror to be so comforting. More than anything, even the bleakest of horror novels carry a kind of hope with them, a recognition that we live in a mysterious, unknowable world full of secrets, surrounded by people who are just as mysterious and unknowable. The world really isn’t as it seems. And that means anything is possible, anything at all.

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I don’t know about you, but just reading this makes me want to pick up every YA horror book right now. May I recommend some YA witch stories or YA ghost books?

Thank you to the authors above for such fabulous insight.

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

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

Hey YA Fans!

Let’s catch up on the fast-and-furiously coming YA book news. There has been some big stuff in such a short period of time since the last news round-up.

• This is exciting! Author/artist Mariko Tamaki is heading up a new imprint that will focus on LGBTQIA+ graphic novels for young readers (including teens). Check out some of the first books to hit.
• Rena Barron — who wrote a newsletter here last month — had her debut novel acquired for potential film by Michael B. Jordan.
• Julie Murphy writing a novelization of the Faith comic is the best news. Fat heroines by fat authors = win win win win win.
• Peep the cast of the upcoming Shadow and Bone adaptation.
• Wil Wheton is performing a new edition of John Green’s Looking for Alaska.
• More casting news for the Tiny Pretty Things Netflix adaptation.
• Speaking of casting news, here’s some for the adaptation of Unpregnant.
• There’s a producer attached to the adaptation of Aurora Rising. 
• I did not know that Snapchat had their own video platform (like Facebook does) but it does, and the adaptation of the YA book The Dead Girl’s Detective Agency was renewed for a fourth season.
• Speaking of Snapchat adaptations, here’s a neat piece going behind the scenes with Lance Rubin, who is seeing one of his novels adapted for the platform.
• A Little Women adaptation for today’s teens?
• There’s a spring 2021YA book by a 19-year-old author coming that’s already been optioned for film.
• Some news about the pilot of the adaptation for One Of Us Is Lying. 
• A song from Dear Evan Hansen — a show which was made into a YA book this year — will be made into a gift book angled for teen readers.
• There won’t be a second season of Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists.
• Archie comics — which have had novelizations made from them (via Riverdale) — will be coming out with YA graphic novels now.
• This whole “comic –> book –> comic” thing is fascinating me, as it’s a trend in YA. We’ll see it happen with Batman and Wonder Woman, which were made into novels recently and will be made into YA comics now.
• Tom Ryan’s Keep This To Yourself might hit a television near you. (Remember when he chatted Norma Klein with me this summer on Hey YA?)
• Nancy Drew on the CW hits this week. Nancy is played by the daughter of YA author Lisa McMann.
• Remember The House of Night series? It’s being adapted.

 

For Caraval fans, you’ll want these great enamel pins. $11 and up.

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Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you later this week, where we’ll talk with several YA authors who write horror about why it is teen readers love to be scared.

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

Hey YA readers!

Let’s sink our reading teeth into some delicious ebook deals this weekend. Deals are active as of Friday morning.

Since it’s October, there will be a nice collection of spook-tacular reads in this round-up.

Kiersten White’s The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein is $2. Best believe I’m grabbing this one!

Joelle Charbonneau, who is prolific, wrote the standalone Time Bomb in 2018. You can grab it for $3.

The Star-Touched Queen, Roshani Chokshi’s debut, is $3.

Want a YA version of Agatha Christie’s And Then There Were None? You’ll love Gretchen McNeill’s Ten. $2.

This is going to look like a pricey pick for ebook deals but roll with me. The entire first volume of Julie Kagawa’s The Iron Fey series — five books! — are $15.

Looking for a serial-killer tinged thriller? I Hunt Killers by Barry Lyga will serve you well. $3.

Want another thriller option? Caleb Rohrig’s White Rabbit is $3.

Nic Stone’s Odd One Out is $2.

Kekla Magoon’s fantastic How It Went Down — which has a companion title coming out soon — is $3.

I loved Winifred Conkling’s Radioactive, a nonfiction title about Iréne Curie and Lise Meitner, and you can pick it up for $3.

I haven’t read this one, but the cover always catches my eye. True Letters From A Fictional Life by Kenneth Logan is $4.

Hearts Unbroken by Cynthia Leitich Smith is $3. An #OwnVoices Native story about race, about love, and about standing up for what you believe in.

Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust is $3.

Last, but not least, Reneé Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn is $3.50.

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Enjoy your weekend with a new book or two, and we’ll see you again on Monday!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

Hey YA Readers!

Gotta love all of those sweet little acronyms. The best part is that as YA readers — and readers more broadly — we know what they all mean.

Let’s take a peek at some rad-sounding YA books that’ll hit shelves next year to get on your TBR now. Since I haven’t read them — I’m a reader who doesn’t like to go more than a month out or so — I’m using Goodreads descriptions. But you better believe I’m super eager to get my 2020 reading on.

I’ve included a mix of all genres, so there’s something here for every kind of reader. We Are seeing an interesting title theme in 2020 as well.

Camp by LC Rosen (May 26)

Sixteen-year-old Randy Kapplehoff loves spending the summer at Camp Outland, a camp for queer teens. It’s where he met his best friends. It’s where he takes to the stage in the big musical. And it’s where he fell for Hudson Aaronson-Lim – who’s only into straight-acting guys and barely knows not-at-all-straight-acting Randy even exists.

This year, though, it’s going to be different. Randy has reinvented himself as ‘Del’ – buff, masculine, and on the market. Even if it means giving up show tunes, nail polish, and his unicorn bedsheets, he’s determined to get Hudson to fall for him.

But as he and Hudson grow closer, Randy has to ask himself how much is he willing to change for love. And is it really love anyway, if Hudson doesn’t know who he truly is?

Dear Universe by Florence Gonsalves (May 12)

Dear Universe,
Sorry for interrupting you with my presence, but I’m wondering if you could have my back for once. I recently had a massive chin zit and a period stain you could see from space and my boyfriend kissed someone else and also my dad is dying faster than usual. If you could show up during my last English class so I can graduate and like achieve my potential or something, I’d appreciate it.

It’s senior year, and Chamomile Myles has whiplash from traveling between her two universes: school (the relentless countdown to prom, torturous college applications, and the mindless march toward an uncertain future) and home, where she wrestles a slow, bitter battle with her father’s terminal illness. Enter Brendan, a man-bun- and tutu-wearing hospital volunteer with a penchant for absurdity, who strides boldly between her worlds—and helps her open up a new road between them.

Mermaid Moon by Susan Cokal (March 3)

This is just a children’s tale; would you wreck your ship for it? 
Would you drown for a mere mother’s story?

Sanna is a mermaid — except her mother was landish, not seavish. The undersea witch who delivered her cast a spell that made her people, and her mother, forget her birth. Sanna longs to find her mother so much that she apprentices herself to the witch, learns the magic of making and unmaking, and fashions herself a pair of legs to go ashore on the Thirty-Seven Dark Islands, the nearest anyone can remember to where they left her mother. There, Sanna stumbles into a wall of white roses and a community desperate for a miracle — and into a baroness who would do anything to live forever. From the author of the Michael L. Printz Honor Book The Kingdom of Little Wounds comes an original fairy tale of belonging, sacrifice, choice, hope, magic, and mortality.

Spindle and Dagger by J. Anderson Coats (March 10)

This rich literary novel follows Elen, who must live a precarious lie in order to survive among the medieval Welsh warband that killed her family.

Wales, 1109. Three years ago, a warband raided Elen’s home. Her baby sister could not escape the flames. Her older sister fought back and almost killed the warband’s leader, Owain ap Cadwgan, before being killed herself. Despite Elen’s own sexual assault at the hands of the raiders, she saw a chance to live and took it. She healed Owain’s wound and spun a lie: Owain ap Cadwgan, son of the king of Powys, cannot be killed, not by blade nor blow nor poison. Owain ap Cadwgan has the protection of Saint Elen, as long as he keeps her namesake safe from harm and near him always.

For three years, Elen has had plenty of food, clothes to wear, and a bed to sleep in that she shares with the man who brought that warband to her door. Then Owain abducts Nest, the wife of a Norman lord, and her three children, triggering full-out war. As war rages, and her careful lies threaten to unravel, Elen begins to look to Nest and see a different life — if she can decide, once and for all, where her loyalties lie. J. Anderson Coats’s evocative prose immerses the reader in a dark but ultimately affirming tale of power and survival.

We Are Not Free by Traci Chee (June 9)

From New York Times best-selling and acclaimed author Traci Chee comes We Are Not Free, the collective account of a tight-knit group of young Nisei,  second-generation Japanese American citizens, whose lives are irrevocably changed by the mass U.S. incarcerations of World War II.

Fourteen teens who have grown up together in Japantown, San Francisco.

Fourteen teens who form a community and a family, as interconnected as they are conflicted.

Fourteen teens whose lives are turned upside down when over 100,000 people of Japanese ancestry are removed from their homes and forced into desolate incarceration camps.

In a world that seems determined to hate them, these young Nisei must rally together as racism and injustice threaten to pull them apart.

We Are The Wildcats by Siobhan Vivian (March 31)

A toxic coach finds himself outplayed by the high school girls on his team in this deeply suspenseful novel, which unspools over twenty-four hours through six diverse perspectives.

Tomorrow, the Wildcat varsity field hockey squad will play the first game of their new season. But at tonight’s team sleepover, the girls are all about forging the bonds of trust, loyalty, and friendship necessary to win.

Everything hinges on the midnight initiation ceremony—a beloved tradition and the only facet of being a Wildcat that the girls control. Until now.

Coach—a handsome former college player revered and feared in equal measure—changes the plan and spins his team on a new adventure. One where they take a rival team’s mascot for a joyride, crash a party in their pajamas, break into the high school for the perfect picture.

But as the girls slip out of their comfort zone, so do some long-held secrets. And just how far they’re willing to go for their team takes them all—especially Coach—by surprise.

A testament to the strength and resilience of modern teenage girls, We Are the Wildcats will have readers cheering.

We Didn’t Ask For This by Adi Alsaid (April 7)

Central International School’s annual lock-in is legendary. Bonds are made. Contests are fought. Stories are forged that will be passed down from student to student for years to come.

This year’s lock-in begins normally enough. Then a group of students led by Marisa Cuevas stage an ecoprotest and chain themselves to the doors, vowing to keep everyone trapped inside until their list of demands is met.

Some students rally to their cause…but others are aggrieved to watch their own plans fall apart.

Amira has trained all year to compete in the school decathlon on her own terms. Peejay intended to honor his brother by throwing the greatest party CIS has ever seen. Kenji was looking forward to making a splash at his improv showcase. Omar wanted to spend a little time with the boy he’s been crushing on. Celeste, adrift in a new country, was hoping to connect with someone—anyone. And Marisa, once so certain of her goals, must now decide how far she’ll go to attain them.

Every year, lock-in night changes lives. This year, it might just change the world.

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Thanks for hanging out, y’all. We’ll see you on Saturday with some rad ebook deals.

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

Hi YA fans! I’m filling in for Kelly today which I’m very excited about. I write the Unusual Suspects mystery newsletter so my YA reading is generally in the criminal world and it’s nice to take a break and shout about other genres in YA. Here are some recent books I’ve loved, with the added bonus that they’re all also excellent audiobooks. —Jamie Canavés

Don’t Date Rosa Santos by Nina Moreno: Caught between “mothers” and countries Rosa Santos has a lot to figure out. For starters she’s made a big decision on where to go to college, but she’s been keeping it to herself because she’s certain her abuela isn’t going to like it. And her abuela raised her, as her mom is more of the traveling free-spirited type. Why won’t her abuela like the decision? Because it hinges on Rosa traveling to Cuba and her abuela is from el exilio (Cuban exile) and doesn’t believe in setting foot back in Cuba until everyone is free. Now, with Rosa’s mom returning, the town she lives in needing saving, her having to face her family curse, fear of water, and her abuela, Rosa is going to have to make a lot of difficult decisions. Add in Spanglish, a dash of Santeria, a budding romance subplot and there’s a lot to love in this book, starting with the great characters.

Calvin by Martine Leavitt: This book had my heart feeling every emotion through this clever and heartfelt journey. Thanks to a series of coincidences–beginning with the date of his birth–Calvin has always felt connected to the comic Calvin & Hobbes. Now, struggling with a school incident that led to a diagnoses of schizophrenia, he turns all his focus on the comic’s creator Bill Watterson, a man who has gone to lengths to avoid public attention. Calvin decides to write him a letter asking him to come out of retirement for one more comic, hoping it will be the key to saving him–and making the Hobbes he is hallucinating go away. All of this requires a trip across a very frozen Lake Erie joined by his childhood friend Susie. I inhaled this book which takes you through the roller coaster of diagnosis, adolescences, friendship, acceptance, and love. Hug your heart with this book! (TW suicidal thoughts, talk of suicide)

Birthday by Meredith Russo: As a huge fan of Russo’s first novel, If I Was Your Girl, I had high hopes for this one and it certainly delivered. Not only did it squeeze the daylights out of my heart, but I loved the format of how it was written. Morgan and Eric were born on the same day so their parents bonded and made it a point for the two to always celebrate their birthdays together, something the two have continued as teenagers. But as they each try to navigate hard life moments–death, divorce, family, gender, sexual orientation–their friendship is also put to the test. We get to watch Morgan and Eric through their high school birthdays and let me tell you how hard I rooted for these two. This is ultimately a beautiful story about friendship, love, and acceptance. (TW suicidal thoughts, attempted suicide on page/ homophobia, transphobia/ terminally ill parent)

Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay: Okay, it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t give you at least one crime book so here is one of the year’s best, which is also a coming-of-age story about identity, culture, diaspora, and family. When Jay Reguero learns that his cousin Jun was murdered in the Philippines, related to the war on drugs, he decides to spend his spring break visiting his Filipino relatives in hopes of learning who killed Jun and why. This book tackles a lot–from addiction to finding your place when you feel torn between cultures–with thoughtfulness, great writing, and excellent characters. I highly anticipate more from Ribay! And if you went with the audiobook for Red, White & Royal Blue (not YA) and loved the narrator, Ramón de Ocampo, he also narrates this one! (TW addiction/ discussions of sex trafficking/ past rape, not detailed)

Hope you find your next favorite read!

Hey YA Fans!

I’ve talked before about how Harry Potter is the perfect series for helping define the difference between “middle grade” and “YA” books. The first three books are in the middle grade category, while the following books nudge into the YA category.

Which is why I’m highlighting the series today, but in a different way.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there have been so many recent announcements about Harry Potter goods you can buy this season. It makes sense: not only is it back-to-school time, but the holidays are coming and people are making their wish lists.

Let’s take a peek at some of the awesome Harry Potter lines hitting stores now or in the very near future. I’ve pulled a single image from each collection, then linked to either the announcement or the storefront.

This is in no way comprehensive, but a way to do a little drooling (or shopping or wish list making).

Blackmilk School’s Out Collection

This collection is stunning. If you’re in the market for outerwear or athletic wear (or athleisure), the Australian-based Blackmilk collection for Harry Potter is just [chef’s kiss].

Funko Harry Potter Strategy Game

It’s Funko Harry Potter, but in the style of a strategy game. This one comes out next week, but you can preorder it now. It looks really neat.

 

Harry Potter x Danielle Nicole

It is impossible to pick just one of the incredible purses and totes in the Harry Potter x Danielle Nicole line. But get a load of the Howler one above! So, so many options here, including bags in every Hogwarts House color scheme (especially great if you want to have Potter pride but in a way that doesn’t scream that you have a Harry Potter themed bag).

Hallmark

True story: my first ever job was at Hallmark during ornament season which at the time was three specific drop times — July, September, and November (and not to date myself, but I did that job before Harry Potter was popular, so there were no HP goods). Harry Potter ornaments have been part of their line for a while though, and each year they add new ones to the collection.

 

Hot Topic

Hot Topic has always been a mainstay for Harry Potter goods and their current line up is fabulous and cozy. The thing most noteworthy about Hot Topic’s collection is that it’s one of the most size-inclusive, so those of us who are outside straight sizing can also share our love of all things HP.

 

Jujube x Flying Keys

Whether you need a tote, a backpack, or a fanny pack, this Flying Keys collection from Jujubee has got you covered. The inside material is also highly designed.

LEGO Advent Calendar

Do you need a LEGO Harry Potter advent calendar? I bet you do.

 

Mini Boden x Harry Potter

If you wear kid sizes or know someone who does, then I am exceptionally envious of the fact this Mini Boden collection of Harry Potter clothing can be in your life. This is so cute I had to include a photo of multiple kids wearing the items.

Pandora x Harry Potter

There’s not an image of any items from the collection yet, but fans of Pandora jewelry rejoice: there is a Harry Potter x Pandora collection dropping in November.

 

Pottery Barn Teen

This velvet Slytherin robe is just one of the awesome finds in the Pottery Barn Teen Harry Potter collection. There are all kinds of bedroom goods here, from Daily Prophet themed sheets to Golden Snitch bean bag chairs.

Vans

Need some new kicks? You can select from so many options in the Harry Potter x Vans collection.

Vera Bradley

Since this collection doesn’t release until mid-2020, there aren’t yet images to share. But if you love Vera Bradley or various kinds of bags (totes, purses, duffle, etc.), keep your eyes peeled.

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I’ll just mention here that my birthday was yesterday, and I wouldn’t mind seeing that Slytherin velvet robe mysteriously showing up at my house. . .

Thanks for hanging out, y’all, and Monday you’ll be treated to a newsletter from a guest writer.

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.

Hey YA Readers!

As you’re enjoying today’s edition of the newsletter, I’m spending the week soaking in as many books as possible on vacation. Vacation as in, time off on my couch with a pile of books. AKA, the best thing in the world.

And how am I deciding what to read this week? I’m pulling titles from some of the awesome YA book talk that’s gone down on site over the last month.

Let’s catch up together.

• ‘Tis the season for YA ghost stories!
• This piece on white bias in literature, rooted in discussion of Harry Potter and The Hunger Games, is just fantastic.
• Great campuses in high school manga.
• Dig into some YA books about music.
• Plop some of these Fall YA books to your TBR.
• Excellent YA science fiction series.
• This is a ridiculously fun piece: Five Sweet Valley High characters meet their counterpart in Saved By The Bell.
• Five great books about mental health.
• If you like Edgar Allen Poe’s poetry, here are some YA book recommendations.
• Speaking of Poe, have some neo-gothic YA novels.
• 50 excellent YA books that will hit shelves in paperback this fall.
• Check out the cover and excerpt for The Perfect Escape, a rom-com hitting shelves next year.
• Maybe you need some epic YA fantasy.
• Or maybe you’re looking for some YA books about teens embedded in technology.
• Love The Baby-Sitters Club? I took a deep dive into why the series endures, both in a long-form piece, as well as in an episode of our podcast Annotated.
• Pair those two pieces with this definitive ranking of parents of The Baby-Sitters Club.
• Enjoy some books about teens with big secrets.
• How well did you do on this hardest YA quiz?
• The perfect YA nonfiction books about social activism for you or the young readers in your life.
• A principal tied to classroom book censorship is arrested for child pornography.
• Norma Klein’s YA books highlighted the messiness of adulthood.
• And last, but not least, six YA couples to ship from this summer.

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Thanks for hanging out, y’all, and we’ll see you later this week!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram (note the new name!) and editor of (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Here We Are.