Category: What’s Up in YA

Hey YA readers: I’m so excited to share this interview with you all to start your week!

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by #murdertrending by Gretchen McNeil from Freeform Books.

When seventeen-year-old Dee Guerrera wakes up, in a haze, on the ground of a dimly lit warehouse, she realizes she’s about to be the next victim of the app. Knowing hardened criminals are getting a taste of their own medicine in this place is one thing, but Dee refuses to roll over and die for a heinous crime she didn’t commit. Can Dee and her newly formed posse, the Death Row Breakfast Club, prove she’s innocent before she ends up wrongfully murdered for the world to see? Or will The Postman’s cast of executioners kill them off one by one?

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With the release of a new series of Fear Street books and the enduring love for horror, it felt only appropriate to talk to the king of scary books for young readers: R.L. Stine. The first installment in the new Fear Street line, You May Now Kill The Bride is the campy, fun, and creepy horror you have come to know from his teen books, with a package that looks straight out of the 90s. His next entry into the new series, The Wrong Girl, will hit shelves September 25, and a third, Drop Dead Gorgeous, will come out in early February 2019.

In addition to the series, though, Stine has offered up even more excellent horror this year. Scream and Scream Again hit shelves in late July, and it’s an anthology featuring the voices of some of the scariest writers today. It includes many well-known YA authors, including Robin Wasserman, Emmy Laybourne, and Tonia Hurley, alongside authors like Megan Abbott, known for her immense YA crossover appeal.

One of the things about interviewing someone as well-known and loved as Stine is this: how do you ask a good question? I had some ideas for what I knew you all might want to know, but because I found myself wondering what else might be interesting to know that I couldn’t come up with myself, I opened up the opportunity for some of Book Riot’s Insiders to ask a question. What they added to this interview was awesome.

Without further ado, a few minutes with R.L. Stine!

What made you interested in revisiting your Fear Street series with the recent Return to Fear Street series? This is the series second reboot in recent years: what makes it still exciting to write?

The world of the Fear Family is hard to leave. I don’t get to write about that kind of dark evil in Goosebumps. A lot of my original Fear Street readers from the 90’s are nostalgic for Fear Street. They keep asking me to do new ones. And I’ll do anything for my 90’s readers!

Can you talk about some of the new projects on the horizon for you, including your upcoming graphic novels?

There are two more new Return to Fear Street novels coming. And I’m doing four graphic novels for middle-grade kids for BOOM! Studios. The series title is JUST BEYOND, and they are scary Goosebumps-type stories only in comics form. Fun!

Also, I’m really looking forward to the release of our movie sequel, Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, on October 12.

 

What are your thoughts on the new Goosebumps movie coming soon and what, if any, parts of the process have you been involved with? 

The movie features a whole new cast and tells a brand-new Halloween story. Of course, the evil dummy Slappy is the star villain. I don’t get too involved in the process. I made some comments on the script. And I MAY have another cameo. I’m not allowed to say.

 

Of all the books for young readers you’ve written, what has been your favorite and why?

I compiled a book for HarperCollins called BEWARE! It’s an anthology of all of MY favorite authors and poets and illustrators. I’m very proud of that book.

 

Why do you enjoy writing books that scare kids and teens? What makes it continue to be fulfilling this many years and books on? 

I just like scaring kids.

 

Imagine for a moment you don’t write fear. What genre would you be writing? Why?

That’s an easy one. I wrote about a hundred joke books and I was editor of a humor magazine called BANANAS for ten year before I got scary. I never planned to write horror. I always wanted to be funny.

(Editor’s note: you can find those funny books under the author Jovial Bob Stine)

 

What has been your all-time favorite interaction with a young reader, be it in person, via mail, via email?

My all-time favorite letter, from a boy:

Dear R.L. Stine,

I’ve read 40 of your books, and I think they’re really boring.

 

What were some of your favorite horror writers or books growing up?

I LOVED the EC horror comics, Tales from the Crypt and The Vault of Horror. They were very influential on my writing later on. Also, I was nuts about MAD Magazine.

 

If you were to recommend adult books for fans who grew up with your books and are now adults, what would be your top picks for them?

 

First of all, I always recommend my favorite Ray Bradbury book: Something Wicked This Way Comes. And I recommend what I think is the scariest Stephen King book ever: Pet Semetary.

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Big thanks to R.L. Stine for chatting & a big thank you to all of you who are reading this now.

See you again later this week!

 

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram

Hey YA readers! Let’s catch up on the latest in news.

We’re giving away 16 of the books featured on Recommended! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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Grab a snack and a glass of water. There’s a lot of great reading this week!

• First: do you know of any teen/YA festivals that are open to the public and happen between July and December? I’d love to hear about them for a round-up in this newsletter. All of the details on how to submit your information is here.
• Lauren Oliver’s Panic has had a pilot picked up for Amazon.
• Diversify your reading with these YA titles from micropresses.
• A couple of nice pieces on the adaptation of The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Here’s an interview with the director and how she reconsidered the YA adaptation format, and here’s an interview with author emily m. danforth on the adaptation.
• You can catch all of the Harry Potter films in theaters this fall.
• Fall’s most anticipated children’s and YA books.
• Awesome news: Foreshadow YA met its fundraising goal. You can still donate to the campaign, and you should read the first issue, containing three wholly original YA short stories. All free, all online.
• Have you heard of the Always Fits subscription box that sends you vintage middle grade and YA titles? It sounds so fun.
• Speaking of vintage YA, this piece in the Washington Post about Lurlene McDaniel — who is still writing! — is worth a read.
• The traits that YA heroines in dystopian novels have in common.
• Enjoy this interview with Jenny Han about the forthcoming adaptation of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (available THIS weekend on Netflix!).
• Here are the most popular YA books of 2018 so far, according to Goodreads.
• The Hummingbird Dagger sounds fascinating!
• YA author Nic Stone wrote a fiery, must-read piece on why being black and woke means being angry all the time.
• Have you read Lita Judge’s recent YA graphic verse biography of Mary Shelley, Mary’s Monster? If not, you should, and then no matter what, enjoy this interview with the author/illustrator.
• Filming for the His Dark Materials television show is underway.
• Everything that’s known so far about the adaptation of The Sun Is Also A Star.
• 7 YA authors talk about how the political landscape has impacted their work.
• Why more people aren’t screaming about this is beyond me: Idris Elba will be taking on G. Neri’s Ghetto Cowboy next. 
• Lamar Giles has shared some secret adaptation news!
• Check out the cover and synopsis for Sona Charaipotra’s upcoming book Symptoms of a Heartbreak. It’s her first solo-author book, and I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait.
• Hulu has ordered a series based on a WattPad YA sensation, based on “Light as a feather, stiff as a board.” The book will come out from Simon Pulse. Both should hit in fall.

 

For Your TBR

I Am Still Alive by Kate Alice Marshall

I’m about half-way through this, but I feel confident enough to say it’s a book worth adding to that massive TBR I know you’ve got going on. This is an adventure book, about a girl named Jess who has recently lost her mother in a car accident. The accident caused her some physical impairments, too, and the story begins when she’s sent to live with her father in what she believes will be remote Alaska (it…is not).

Traversing “Before” and “After,” the book looks at what caused the shack she and her dad were living in to burn down and left her alone, with nothing but her dad’s dog, and how it is she does — or maybe doesn’t — survive.

Know going in that it might not end well for the dog, and that because it’s a novel set in the wilderness, there are times when animals do not make it out alive. But if you or the readers you know are okay with this, it’s an excellent “girl vs. wild” story and a debut novel to boot.

 

Cheap Reads

Grab these in ebook format while they’re on sale. Prices are current as of August 14:

Want something post-apocalyptic? Grab Maureen McGowan’s Deviants, which is the first in a series, for $1.

If you would like some dragons, you might like Jodi Meadows’s Before She Ignites, currently only $2.

Marcus Zusak’s I Am The Messenger is a whole $2.

One of my favorite mental health themed YA reads — and a National Book Award winner — Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman is $2.

Contemporary queen Emery Lord’s The Names They Gave Us can be yours for $2.

Kody Keplinger’s fabulous debut The DUFF is $3.

Start Kate Elliott’s high fantasy YA series Court of Fives with the first book for $3.

Want a science fiction adventure about super criminals? $3 will snag you Emily Lloyd-Jones’s Illusive.

Maybe you want to try one of Lurlene McDaniels’s newer books? You can pick up Somebody’s Baby for $2.

 

Recent YA Book Mail

Here’s what hit my inbox this week!

From top to bottom:

Here To Stay by Sara Farizan (It’s fantastic, as you’d expect from Farizan. She’ll be stopping by the newsletter in a few weeks to talk more about this surprisingly funny book about racism, Islamophobia, and basketball).

That’s Not What Happened by Kody Keplinger (I loved this story of what happens to the survivors of a school shooting when they’re the last ones to know the truth…as opposed to the truth people believe about the incident).

White Stag by Kara Barbieri (“WattPad sensation”)

Imprison The Sky by A. C. Gaughen

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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again next week. Get excited: it’s a really, really thrilling interview with a legendary author of books for kids and teens.

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

 

Hey YA Readers: Let’s build up our 2019 YA TBRs!

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Other Side of Lost by Jessi Kirby from Epic Reads.

Girl Online meets Wild in this breathtaking journey of empowerment, friendship and self-discovery.

Internet starlet Mari’s life is perfect—or seems that way to her thousands of followers. But when she breaks down and posts a video confessing she’s been living a lie, it goes viral and, she receives a major backlash.

To get away from it all, she decides to hike the John Muir Trail, a hike she had planned with her cousin Bri before the two drifted apart—and before Bri’s tragic death. Now, Mari will hike the trail alone, searching for the way back to the girl she fears may be too lost to find: herself.

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It might not be close to the end of 2018 yet, but there are so many awesome-sounding titles hitting shelves in 2019 that it seems only right to highlight a few for your TBR.

Descriptions are from Goodreads, since I haven’t read any of these yet. I’ve included books by well-loved YA authors, as well as some titles catching my eye by authors who are new. Get ready to get excited:

Brawler by Neil Connelly (March 26)

Eddie MacIntyre–Mac to a handful of friends–is Pennsylvania’s most promising wrestler. His future is bright with scholarship offers and the dream of helping his struggling mom. But then comes a fateful match at the state championship, when his famous rage consumes him and he assaults a referee. In an instant, Mac loses all he and his mom have worked to build since his abusive father was locked up years ago.

Facing arrest, Mac runs away to another town, where he is taken in by a shady promoter who has followed his career. He recruits Mac into Brawlers, an illegal underground fighting ring run by a gangland boss. This is a bloodsport that has no rules . . . but offers plenty of reward.

Mac teams up with Khajee, a girl with the fighting skills he’ll need to learn to survive . . . and her own dark past tying her to the head of the ring. Together the two must figure out their place in a world that hasn’t been kind to them . . . and forge a future that could be.

Comics Will Break Your Heart by Faith Erin Hicks (February 12)

Miriam’s family should be rich. After all, her grandfather was the co-creator of smash-hit comics series The TomorrowMen. But he sold his rights to the series to his co-creator in the 1960s for practically nothing, and now that’s what Miriam has: practically nothing. And practically nothing to look forward to either-how can she afford college when her family can barely keep a roof above their heads? As if she didn’t have enough to worry about, Miriam’s life gets much more complicated when a cute boy shows up in town . . . and turns out to be the grandson of the man who defrauded Miriam’s grandfather, and heir to the TomorrowMen fortune.

Dig by A.S. King (March 26)

The Shoveler, the Freak, CanIHelpYou?, Loretta the Flea-Circus Ring Mistress, and First-Class Malcolm. These are the five teenagers lost in the Hemmings family’s maze of tangled secrets. Only a generation removed from being simple Pennsylvania potato farmers, Gottfried and Marla Hemmings managed to trade digging spuds for developing subdivisions and now sit atop a seven-figure bank account, wealth they’ve declined to pass on to their adult children or their teenage grand children. “Because we want them to thrive,” Marla always says. What does thriving look like? Like carrying a snow shovel everywhere. Like selling pot at the Arby’s drive-thru window. Like a first class ticket to Jamiaca between cancer treatments. Like a flea-circus in a doublewide. Like the GPS coordinates to a mound of dirt in a New Jersey forest. As the rot just beneath the surface of the Hemmings precious white suburban respectability begins to spread, the far flung grand children gradually find their ways back to each other, just in time to uncover the terrible cost of maintaining the family name.

A Match Made in Mehendi by Nandini Bajpai (November 5)

Fifteen-year-old Simran “Simi” Sangha comes from a long line of Indian vichole -matchmakers- with a rich history for helping parents find good matches for their grown children. When Simi accidentally sets up her cousin and a soon-to-be lawyer, her family is thrilled that she has the “gift.”

But Simi is an artist, and she doesn’t want to have anything to do with relationships, helicopter parents, and family drama. That is, until she realizes this might be just the thing to improve her and her best friend Noah’s social status. Armed with her family’s ancient guide to finding love, Simi starts a matchmaking service-via an app, of course.

But when she helps connect a wallflower of a girl with the star of the boys’ soccer team, she turns the high school hierarchy topsy-turvy, soon making herself public enemy number one.

The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried by Shaun David Hutchinson (February 19)

A good friend will bury your body, a best friend will dig you back up.

Dino doesn’t mind spending time with the dead. His parents own a funeral home, and death is literally the family business. He’s just not used to them talking back. Until Dino’s ex-best friend July dies suddenly—and then comes back to life. Except not exactly. Somehow July is not quite alive, and not quite dead.

As Dino and July attempt to figure out what’s happening, they must also confront why and how their friendship ended so badly, and what they have left to understand about themselves, each other, and all those grand mysteries of life.

A Place for Wolves by Kosoko Jackson (April 2)

James Mills isn’t sure he can forgive his parents for dragging him away from his life, not to mention his best friend and sister, Anna. He’s never felt so alone.

Enter Tomas. Falling for Tomas is unexpected, but sometimes the best things in life are.

Then their world splits apart. A war that has been brewing finally bursts forward, filled with violence, pain, and cruelty. James and Tomas can only rely on each other as they decide how far they are willing to go―and who they are willing to become―in order to make it back to their families.

Tell Me Everything by Sarah Enni (February 26)

Ivy is the shy artist type and keeps a low profile—so low that she’s practically invisible to everyone at Belfry High School except for her best friend, Harold. As sophomore year begins, Harold takes up a hundred activities, leaving Ivy on her own. Luckily she’s found a distraction: the new anonymous art-sharing app, VEIL.

Soon Ivy realizes that one of her classmates is the VEIL user who needs new paintbrushes … and another is the one visiting the hospital every week … and another is the one dealing with their parents’ messy divorce. While she’s too scared to put her own creations on the app, Ivy thinks of an even better way to contribute—by making gifts for the artists she’s discovered. The acts of kindness give her such a rush that, when Ivy suspects Harold is keeping a secret, she decides to go all in. Forget gifts—Ivy wants to throw Harold a major party.

But when all those good intentions thrust her into the spotlight, Ivy’s carefully curated world is thrown into chaos. Now she has to find the courage to come out of the shadows—about her art, her secrets, and her mistakes—or risk losing everything and everyone she loves the most.

We Hunt The Flame by Hafsah Faizal (May 14)

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways.

Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.

War is brewing in Arawiya, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the king on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact and kill the Hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds—and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine.

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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again on Thursday!

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Instagram and Twitter

It’s YA news time, YA fans!

 

“What’s Up in YA” is sponsored by The Crescent Stone by Matt Mikalatos from Tyndale House Publishers.

A girl with a deadly lung disease . . .

A boy with a tragic past . . .

A land where the sun never sets but darkness still creeps in . . .

A bargain that brings life, but may cost more than anyone can imagine . . .

When a mysterious stranger appears to Madeline Oliver and offers to heal her in exchange for one year of service to his people, Madeline and her friend Jason Wu are swept into a strange land where they don’t understand the rules or the far-reaching consequences of their decisions.

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Here’s what’s hit the YA world in news over the last week:

• Nerdist rounds up everything that we know about the His Dark Materials adaptation so far.
• This New York Times piece about the growth of BookTube is totally worth reading.
• Have you tuned into the fictional “true crime” podcast The Girls, which comes from the upcoming YA novel Sadie by Courtney Summers? What a clever marketing strategy (& it fits so well with the book).
• A really interesting piece from the designer of The Hate U Give‘s cover and what she wished the actress playing Starr had looked like.
• A sneak peek at season two of The Runaways.
• On October 26, all of the episodes of The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina will hit Netflix.
• I really love learning about the books that are popular around the world, so this round-up of popular Filipino YA reads totally scratched that itch.
• Famous people on YA book covers.
• To be fair, the American Girl series is not YA, but this piece is so good it’s worth sharing: What Connie Porter — author of “Meet Addy” — meant to me.
• The hit anime series RWBY is getting the YA adaptation treatment (as in, it’ll go from screen to print).
• I wish we could just get mass market paperbacks for all YA books, rather than this.
• How do bilingual authors choose to tell their stories?
• The book Trell by Dick Lehr has been picked up for potential adaptation.

 

For Your TBR

Finding Yvonne by Brandy Colbert

Out this week, Colbert’s third novel looks at what happens when the plans you always thought were going to happen do not. Yvonne has been playing violin since she was seven, and it always seemed as though attending the conservatory would be what comes naturally after graduating from high school. But when senior year comes around, Yvonne realizes she simply might not be good enough for that. So what’s she to do?

But just as things begin to shake out a bit and Yvonne finds herself finding an interest and strong talent in baking and she begins toying with the idea of music therapy as a career, she finds out she’s pregnant. She’s not sure who the father is, and she’s certainly not sure what to do.

Yvonne is forced now to make not one decision, but many, and Colbert explores where and how those decisions may impact Yvonne’s future. The book also digs into race and class, particularly when it comes to the fear always linger at the back of Yvonne’s mind about how her choices and decisions look because she’s black. A smart, complex read, especially good for fans of Nina LaCour.

 

Cheap Reads

Grab ’em in ebook format while they’re on sale:

Speaking of Brandy Colbert, grab her award-winning book Little & Lion for $3.

Start Kendare Blake’s Three Dark Crowns series with the first book for $2.

Marissa Meyer’s Renegades is $3.

Want a comic novelization to read? Marie Lu’s take on Batman: Nightwalker is $2.

Prefer Wonder Woman? Leigh Bardugo’s Wonder Woman: Warbringer is also $2.

 

Recent Book Mail

Here’s what YA has hit my mailbox lately:

High: Everything You Want to Know About Drugs, Alcohol, and Addiction by Nic Sheff and David Sheff (this is out in January, to coincide with the movie)

The Looking Glass by Janet McNally

The Brilliant Death by Amy Rose Capetta

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi (I cannot wait to read this!)

The Good Demon by Jimmy Cajoleas (I’m about half way through this book about a girl who is exorcised and wants to be reunited with her demon and while a little paint-by-numbers in terms of execution, the premise and voice are totally hooking me).

99 Lies by Rachel Vincent

Neverwake by Amy Plum

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

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram

Hey YA Readers: Let’s talk nonfiction!

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Heart of Thorns by Bree Barton from Epic Reads.

Seventeen-year-old Mia Rose has pledged her life to hunting Gwyrach: women who can manipulate flesh, bones, breath, and blood. The same women who killed her mother without a single scratch.

But when Mia’s father suddenly announces her marriage to the prince, she is forced to trade in her knives and trousers for a sumptuous silk gown. Only, the wedding goes disastrously wrong, and Mia discovers she has dark, forbidden magic—the very magic she has sworn to destroy. Now, as she untangles the secrets of her past, Mia must learn to trust her heart…even if it kills her.

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YA nonfiction has become stronger and stronger in the last decade. I’m a huge fan, and I find it sad we don’t talk about it quite enough when we talk about YA more broadly. Sure, it’s often not as flashy or sexy, but it’s still damn good.

Here’s a peek at seven upcoming YA nonfiction books to pop onto your TBR. I’ve read a couple, but not all of them, so I’ve pulled the descriptions from Goodreads.

1968: Today’s Authors Explore A Year of Rebellion, Revolution, and Change edited by Marc Aronson and Susan Bartoletti (Sept 11)

Nineteen sixty-eight was a pivotal year that grew more intense with each day. As thousands of Vietnamese and Americans were killed in war, students across four continents took over colleges and city streets. Assassins murdered Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy. Demonstrators turned out in Prague and Chicago, and in Mexico City, young people and Olympic athletes protested. In those intense months, generations battled and the world wobbled on the edge of some vast change that was exhilarating one day and terrifying the next. To capture that extraordinary year, editors Marc Aronson and Susan Campbell Bartoletti created an anthology that showcases many genres of nonfiction. Some contributors use a broad canvas, others take a close look at a moment, and matched essays examine the same experience from different points of view. As we face our own moments of crisis and division, 1968 reminds us that we’ve clashed before and found a way forward — and that looking back can help map a way ahead.

Attucks!: Oscar Robertson and The Basketball Team That Awakened a City by Philip Hoose (Oct 23)

By winning the state high school basketball championship in 1955, ten teens from an Indianapolis school meant to be the centerpiece of racially segregated education in the state shattered the myth of their inferiority. Their brilliant coach had fashioned an unbeatable team from a group of boys born in the South and raised in poverty. Anchored by the astonishing Oscar Robertson, a future college and NBA star, the Crispus Attucks Tigers went down in history as the first state champions from Indianapolis and the first all-black team in U.S. history to win a racially open championship tournament—an integration they had forced with their on-court prowess.

Blacklisted: Hollywood, The Cold War, and The First Amendment by Larry Dane Brimner (Oct 9)

World War II is over, but tensions between the communist Soviet Union and the US are at an all-time high. In America, communist threats are seen everywhere and a committee is formed in the nation’s capital to investigate those threats. Larry Dane Brimner follows the story of 19 men–all from the film industry–who are summoned to appear before the House of Representatives Committee on Un-American Activities. All 19 believe that the committee’s investigations into their political views and personal associations are a violation of their First Amendment rights. When the first 10 of these men refuse to give the committee the simple answers it wants, they are cited for contempt of Congress and blacklisted.

Bonnie and Clyde: The Making of a Legend by Karen Blumenthal (Just released)

Bonnie and Clyde: we’ve been on a first name basis with them for almost a hundred years. Immortalized in movies, songs, and pop culture references, they are remembered mostly for their storied romance and tragic deaths. But what was life really like for Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker in the early 1930s? How did two dirt-poor teens from west Texas morph from vicious outlaws to legendary couple? And why?

Hey, Kiddo by Jarrett J. Krosoczka (Oct 9)

Hey, Kiddo is the graphic memoir of author-illustrator Jarrett J. Krosoczka. Raised by his colorful grandparents, who adopted him because his mother was an incarcerated heroin addict, Krosoczka didn’t know his father’s name until he saw his birth certificate when registering for a school ski trip. Hey, Kiddotraces Krosoczka’s search for his father, his difficult interactions with his mother, his day-to-day life with his grandparents, and his path to becoming an artist.

Proud: Young Readers Edition by Ibtihaj Muhammad (Just released)

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Ibtihaj Muhammad smashed barriers as the first American to compete wearing hijab, and made history as the first Muslim-American woman to medal. But it wasn’t an easy road–in a sport most popular among wealthy white people, Ibtihaj often felt out of place. Ibtihaj was fast, hardworking, and devoted to her faith, but rivals and teammates (as well as coaches and officials) pointed out her differences, insisting she would never succeed. Yet Ibtihaj powered on. Her inspiring journey from a young outsider to an Olympic hero is a relatable, memorable, and uniquely American tale of hard work, determination, and self-reliance.

Someone Like Me by Julissa Arce (Sept. 4)

Born in the picturesque town of Taxco, Mexico, Julissa Arce was left behind for months at a time with her two sisters, a nanny, and her grandma while her parents worked tirelessly in America in hopes of building a home and providing a better life for their children. That is, until her parents brought Julissa to Texas to live with them. From then on, Julissa secretly lived as an undocumented immigrant, went on to become a scholarship winner and an honors college graduate, and climbed the ladder to become a vice president at Goldman Sachs.

This moving, at times heartbreaking, but always inspiring story will show young readers that anything is possible. Julissa’s story provides a deep look into the little-understood world of a new generation of undocumented immigrants in the United States today-kids who live next door, sit next to you in class, or may even be one of your best friends.

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And, if you want more recommendation of upcoming nonfiction, may I not-so-humbly suggest my forthcoming anthology (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start The Conversation About Mental Health? This collection of essays and art is meant to be an approachable guide to thinking and talking about mental health in all its myriad forms. Out October 2.

 

Thanks for hanging & we’ll see you later this week!

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram

Hey YA Readers: It’s time for all the news you can use.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored this week by Recommended.

We’re giving away 16 of the books featured on Recommended! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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I didn’t round up YA news last week in the Thursday newsletter, but that didn’t mean the news stopped. It’s been a busy two weeks in the world of YA!

• The first issue of Foreshadow YA is up! Read short YA stories by Dhonielle Clayton, Samantha Mabry, and new writer Nora Elghazzawi. This literary anthology dedicated to YA is the project of authors Emily XR Pan and Nova Ren Suma and they’ve also launched their Indiegogo campaign to pay all of their writers.
• Here are this year’s Eisner winners, including great YA comics and comics for teen readers.
• There’s been casting news for the adaptation of Jennifer Niven’s All The Bright Places.
• The Alex Rider series will be hitting television.
• The full trailer for To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before is out and I cannot with how great this is going to be.
• Speaking of the Jenny Han adaptation, if you wanted to throw the perfect party for watching To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, here are some ideas.
• Tomi Adeyemi on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon — where her book was the inaugural book club selection — is excellent indeed.
• Curious about spring 2019’s upcoming books? This guide to children’s and YA titles will get you excited.
• Marie Lu’s Legend has a new film company, meaning we might see this one hit screens in the future.
• Veronica Roth has a new book deal — for an adult book! I’m going to put together a newsletter soon of YA authors who have recently plunged into the adult fiction world, since there are a few.
• The official movie poster for The Hate U Give is [fire emoji].
• The highest honor given to a YA book by teachers, the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award, went to Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give.
• YA fiction in the UK is becoming less diverse. This shouldn’t be happening.
• The Giver is becoming a graphic novel.
• If you ever dreamed of seeing The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants as a stage musical, your chance might be here soon.
• I did not know Ned Vizzini’s Be More Chill was a stage musical, and it’s apparently been wildly successful, too.
• Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds hits theaters this week. Here’s a short interview with the author about the book and the adaptation.

Impressive emoji take on Harry Potter.

 

This Week’s Book Mail

I will win no awards for the photo itself, but do enjoy learning more about these titles (starting at the left pile and going down).

Scream All Night by Derek Milman

You May Now Kill The Bride by RL Stine (This was totally delightful if you love campy horror AND I SO DO).

The Universe Is Expanding and So Am I by Caroline Mackler

The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things by Caroline Mackler (the two Mackler books showed up after Eric and I had talked about the delayed sequel phenomenon on Hey YA last week)

More Than We Can Tell by Brigid Kemmerer

We Regret To Inform You by Arial Kaplan

This Is What It Feels Like by Rebecca Barrow

The Resolutions by Mia Garcia

This Splintered Silence by Kayla Olson

Four Three Two One by Courtney Stevens

Your Own Worst Enemy by Gordon Jack

Seafire by Natalie Parker

Heretics Anonymous by Katie Henry

These Rebel Waves by Sarah Raasch

The Girl You Thought I Was by Rebecca Phillips

The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth (I read this back when it came out, but the movie tie-in edition cover — despite usually being The Worst — is actually pretty great!)

Now You See Her by Lisa Leighton and Laura Stropki

How We Learned To Lie by Meredith Miller

Proud: Young Reader Edition by Ibtihaj Muhammad (This’ll be my next YA read).

First Generation: 36 Trailblazing Immigrants and Refugees Who Make America Great by Sandra Neil Wallace, Rich Wallace, and illustrated by Agata Nowicka

Crash: The Great Depression and the Fall and Rise of America in The 1930s by Marc Favreau (Quite good! This is a comprehensive, but totally approachable, read about the Great Depression. It does a good job of highlighting racial inequalities in a way often overlooked in the history of this time. My only quibble is that the end doesn’t then tie into recent economic recessions and how much they mirror what happened in the 30s — but perhaps that’s because it’s so easy to see right there in the text itself).

 

A Blast From The Past

A few posts from the Book Riot YA archives from Augusts past worth a revisit:

• 100 must-read inclusive YA science fiction and fantasy books.
• YA books for fans of Stranger Things
• Why we need more teens who are quitters in YA fiction.
• Fran Wilde’s Updraft and other YA fantasy flight books.

 

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

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Hey YA Readers: Time to share YOUR picks for 2018 favorites!

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Meet Me in the Strange by Leander Watts, from Meerkat Press.

Davi tries to help a new friend, Anna Z, escape a cruel and controlling brother, and the teens end up running away to follow the tour of their rock idol, the otherworldly Django Conn. The story is set in a weird and wonderful retro-futuristic city of glam-girls and glister-boys and a strange phenomenon that Anna Z calls the “Alien Drift.”

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Get excited: here are the results of the survey asking you to share your favorite books of 2018 so far, as well as the books you wish saw some more love.

Grab your TBR and get ready to add to it.

Your Top 15 Favorite Books of 2018 (So Far!)

My original plan was to draft a top 10 from your favorite books, but when I hit 9, I found that six books all tied for that tenth spot. So why not make it 15 and highlight all of them? Here are your top 15 of 2018 so far. What a delightful mix of books.

 

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

The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

Blood Water Paint by Joy McCullough

Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi

Cruel Prince by Holly Black

Dread Nation by Justina Ireland

Emergency Contact by Mary H. K. Choi

Girl Made of Stars by Ashley Herring Blake

The Hazel Wood by Melissa Albert

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli

Obsidio (The Illuminae Files #3) by Aimee Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding

Thunderhead by Neal Shusterman

The Way You Make Me Feel by Maurene Goo

 

10 YA Books That Deserve More Love from 2018

To pull this list from your responses, I used a couple basic pieces of criteria: if it’s a book that made the best books list — determined by sheer number of those who named it — then it doesn’t need another shout out here. It was kind of neat to see how much crossover there was, though: at least half the titles on the list above saw a few votes for this list. I also didn’t include books which hit the New York Times Bestseller list. Otherwise, here’s a look at 10 books you all wanted to see get a little more love.

The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza by Shaun David Hutchinson

I Felt a Funeral, In My Brain by Will Walton

Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann

A Land of Permanent Goodbyes by Atia Abawi

Life Inside by Mind edited by Jessica Burkhart

Monday’s Not Coming by Tiffany D. Jackson

Neverworld Wake by Marisha Pessl

Pitch Dark by Courtney Alameda

Tess of the Road by Rachel Hartman

Undead Girl Gang by Lily Anderson

 

Any surprises on either list? I have to say: I think both are pretty awesome and packed with some stellar reads. If the first half of 2018 is any indication, we’re in for a powerful, bookalicious second half.

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Thanks for hanging out and for sharing your picks for 2018. We’ll see you back later this week with more YA book news!

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Instagram and Twitter

Hey YA Fans: Let’s catch up on book talk from July.

We’re giving away $500 of the year’s best YA! Click here, or on the image below to enter:

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If you haven’t yet, go and enter to win that bounty of YA books noted above. I picked them all out and it’s a heck of a library.

Since we’re reaching the end of July, let’s take a peek at this month’s YA book talk from Book Riot. Grab your TBR list because it’s going to get longer:

• Five excellent fantasy YA series to inhale by the pool (or, you know, indoors if you don’t do outside stuff).
• I love this round-up of recent fat positive YA books. Things are improving on the fat main characters front since I wrote about the lack of fat teens in YA a few years ago.
• Because who doesn’t need some good YA horror reads?
• Same goes for great summer YA reads.
• Here are some solid adult books for YA readers.
• Hello from outer space YA reads.
• 10 of the best quotes from Blood Water Paint that feel like a gut punch. I loved this book and hope for readers who haven’t picked it up, the quotes encourage you to do just that.
• Must-read young adult romances. It might be cool for those who work in libraries or classrooms to do a display featuring these books, alongside a display featuring YA books with no romance (or very little).
• YA books featuring queer people of color.
• Have you added these July YA titles to your library holds list?
• These issue-driven YA books would make awesome limited television series.
• 8 YA authors talk about the myths and fairytales they’d like to see adapted.
• Adrienne Kisner, author of the debut novel Dear Rachel Maddow, talks about her book.
• How a school librarian used Jason Reynolds’s Long Way Down to get some of his boys to read. 
• Here are over 150 YA books hitting shelves between July and September (whoa!).
• And finally, here are some awesome award-winning YA books to up your reading game.

 

For Your Reading Radar…

Two books I’ve consumed lately I want to get on your reading radars!

I’ve never read a book in YA quite like Shannon Gibney’s forthcoming Dream Country. Out September 11, the book follows five different members of the same family through the generations, doing so both as a means of documenting their history but also as a means of highlighting the African diaspora. The book begins with a Liberian refugee teenager in modern Minneapolis, then transports readers back in time to Liberia, then back to slavery in America, then forward in time in Liberia. Each of the characters tells a part of history.

This book is remarkable in what it highlights, and Gibney includes a stellar author’s note at the end, talking about the immense research and work she put into it. Liberia, many may not know, became a place that many slaves who were freed returned to; those newly freed slaves used the same horrific tools of colonization and slavery used against them to the native people. Gibney weaves this painful history masterfully.

Reminiscent of Yaa Gyasi’s Homegoing but for the YA reading crowd, this has some awesome crossover appeal (and readers who love Gibney’s book or Gyasi’s book will do well reading the other).

The second book is Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female In America edited by Amy Reed and out August 14. This anthology highlights an incredible range of voices and experiences, all focused on growing up in a divided, challenged country.

I’m about half-way through at the time of writing, but these short, punchy essays are about action, about history, and about how these female-identifying writers have challenged themselves to be and to do better in their worlds. Standouts so far include an essay by Julie Murphy talking about why being fat made her political, Brandy Colbert writing about growing up one of the few black people in her Missouri town and why the town’s history played a part in that, and Maurene Goo talking about why she is an angry woman.

The only criticism of this collection is the lack of trans women included; trans women are acknowledged throughout the essays, but this hole is one worth nothing (especially as the essays have been by women of a myriad of backgrounds and experiences acknowledging their lanes and the lanes of others). That said, this collection will inspire today’s politically savvy and change hungry teen readers.

Cheap YA Reads

Grab ’em while they’re super affordable in e-format:

Internet Famous by Danika Stone will appeal to readers who love stories of life in the fandom. $3.

Isle of Blood and Stone by Makiia Lucier features an older teen and promises fantastical adventure. $3.

If you want something with a bit of a creepy edge, Dreamfall by Amy Plum is $2.

Romance + Roadtrip + Friendship = Margo Rabb’s delightful Kissing in America. $2.

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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you back here on Monday, where I’ll reveal your picks for best of 2018 so far (& shout out books you’d like to see more love for).

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Instagram and Twitter

Hey YA Readers: Let’s talk Frankenstein.

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Nyxia and Nyxia Unleashed by Scott Reintgen from Penguin Random House Books.

Emmett Atwater isn’t just leaving Detroit; he’s leaving Earth. Why the Babel Corporation recruited him is a mystery, but the number of zeroes on their contract has him boarding their lightship and hoping to return to Earth with enough money to take care of his family. Forever. Before long, Emmett discovers that he is one of ten recruits, all of whom have troubled pasts and are a long way from home. Now each recruit must earn the right to travel down to the planet of Eden—a planet that Babel has kept hidden—where they will mine a substance called Nyxia that has quietly become the most valuable material in the universe. But Babel’s ship is full of secrets. And Emmett will face the ultimate choice: win the fortune at any cost, or find a way to fight that won’t forever compromise what it means to be human.

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This year marks the 200th anniversary of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. A perennial classic of high school classrooms, the anniversary has meant that the book — and Shelley herself — have become topics of interest in the YA world.

Here’s a look at some of the books that have hit shelves for YA readers or will hit shelves for YA readers before the year is out that all play homage to Mary and/or her monster.

By virtue of the narrowly focused topic, it should be noted that this list is very white. There is Frankenstein in Baghdad by Iraqi writer Ahmed Saadawi, which came out in January this year for adult readers that would likely be perfect for YA readers who want a more inclusive take on the tale.

Descriptions are from Amazon.

The Dark Descent of Elizabeth Frankenstein by Kiersten White

Elizabeth Lavenza hasn’t had a proper meal in weeks. Her thin arms are covered with bruises from her “caregiver,” and she is on the verge of being thrown into the streets . . . until she is brought to the home of Victor Frankenstein, an unsmiling, solitary boy who has everything–except a friend.

Victor is her escape from misery. Elizabeth does everything she can to make herself indispensable–and it works. She is taken in by the Frankenstein family and rewarded with a warm bed, delicious food, and dresses of the finest silk. Soon she and Victor are inseparable.

But her new life comes at a price. As the years pass, Elizabeth’s survival depends on managing Victor’s dangerous temper and entertaining his every whim, no matter how depraved. Behind her blue eyes and sweet smile lies the calculating heart of a girl determined to stay alive no matter the cost . . . as the world she knows is consumed by darkness.

Frankenstein by Junji Ito

Junji Ito meets Mary Shelley! The master of horror manga bends all his skill into bringing the anguished and solitary monster and the fouler beast who created him with the brilliantly detailed chiaroscuro he is known for.

 

 

Mary’s Monster: Love, Madness, and How Mary Shelley Created Frankenstein by Lita Judge

Pairing free verse with over three hundred pages of black-and-white watercolor illustrations, Mary’s Monster is a unique and stunning biography of Mary Shelley, the pregnant teenage runaway who became one of the greatest authors of all time.

Legend is correct that Mary Shelley began penning Frankenstein in answer to a dare to write a ghost story. What most people don’t know, however, is that the seeds of her novel had been planted long before that night. By age nineteen, she had been disowned by her family, was living in scandal with a married man, and had lost her baby daughter just days after her birth. Mary poured her grief, pain, and passion into the powerful book still revered two hundred years later, and in Mary’s Monster, author/illustrator Lita Judge has poured her own passion into a gorgeous book that pays tribute to the life of this incredible author.

The Strange True Tale of Frankenstein’s Creator: Mary Shelley by Catherine Reef

The story of Frankenstein’s creator is a strange, romantic, and tragic one, as deeply compelling as the novel itself. Mary ran away to Lake Geneva with the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley when she was just sixteen. It was there, during a cold and wet summer, that she first imagined her story about a mad scientist who brought a corpse back to life. Success soon followed for Mary, but also great tragedy and misfortune.

Catherine Reef brings this passionate woman, brilliant writer, and forgotten feminist into crisp focus, detailing a life that was remarkable both before and after the publication of her iconic masterpiece. Includes index.

 

And if you’d like more takes on the Frankenstein tale, some other YA titles you’ll want to know about include:

Boy Robot by Simon Curtis

Cadaver and Queen by Alisa Kwitney

A Cold Legacy by Megan Shepherd

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel (series)

Dr. Frankenstein’s Daughters by Suzanne Weyn

Henry Franks by Peter Adam Saloman

Hideous Love: The Story of the Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by Stephanie Hemphill

Man Made Boy by Jon Skovron

Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin

Steampunk: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein by Zdenko Basic

Teen Frankenstein: High School Horror by Chandler Baker

This Monstrous Thing by Mackenzi Lee

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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again on Thursday. In the mean time, make sure you nominate your favorite 2018 YA books so far and the ones you wish had seen more attention. I’ll round those up for next Monday’s newsletter.

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram.

Hey YA Readers: It’s YA news-o’clock!

What’s Up in YA? is sponsored by Campfire from Shawn Sarles from JIMMY Patterson Books.

Be careful what stories you tell around the campfire… they just might come true.

While camping in a remote location, Maddie Davenport gathers around the fire with her friends and family to tell scary stories. Caleb, the handsome young guide, shares the local legend of the ferocious Mountain Men who hunt unsuspecting campers and leave their mark by carving grisly antlers into their victims’ foreheads.

The next day, the story comes true.

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Let’s take a look at the latest in YA news from around the web:

• There’s a new trailer for The Darkest Minds adaptation, out August 3.
• Check out the cover for Megan Whalen Turner’s Return of the Thief. 
• The trailer for Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly looks so freaking good.
• Apparently Kobe Bryant is writing a YA book and claims it’ll be like Harry Potter? So there’s that.
• I’ve never heard of Sage Alexander: Dark Realm, but there’s apparently an adaptation and it’s had some casting news.
• The first poster for the reboot of Sabrina the Teenage Witch looks awesome.
• Did you know there’s a Weetzie Bat adaptation coming?
• And here’s your trailer for the miseducation of cameron post, which will hit theaters soon.
• A really nice piece on Native YA writers and their recent and forthcoming Native YA books.
• Looking for a subscription YA book box? I wrote about 7 cool ones over on School Library Journal.
• I’m always dubious of any prepub buzz for a book that calls it the next big thing, but it’s likely worth knowing that buzz is coming for Crystal Smith’s Bloodleaf.
• Where are all the YA authors of color? Riding high on the bestseller list.
• Europa Publishing is branching out into YA. We are always in need of more international YA lit, so this is awesome.
• A look at some new children’s and YA books about the refugee crisis.
• And finally, over on my personal book blog, I rounded up all of the 2019 YA books featuring teens of color on the cover which have been revealed so far. Your TBR is going to explore, y’all.

Cheap Reads

Grab these delicious YA ebook deals while they’re hot:

And I Darken and Now I Rise by Kiersten White are each $2, and what a deal to find when the third book Bright We Burn just hit shelves.

Heroine Complex by Sarah Kuhn has had so many rave reviews. Grab it for $2.

Vengeance Road by Erin Bowman is a YA western! $2.

Little Monsters by Kara Thomas is a twisty, dark thriller and worth picking up for $2.

Radioactive by Winifred Conkling is the story of Irene Curie and Lise Meitner, radioactivity, and how these two women totally revolutionized science (it’s excellent YA nonfiction!). $2.

Blast From The Past

Some Book Riot YA themed posts from this month in years past that you might want to revisit — or visit for the first time:

• 5 YA romantic comedies to lift your spirits.
• 8 YA heroines you’ll love as much as Wonder Woman.
• 16 tips for surviving in a dystopian society.

Recent Book Mail

Here’s what has hit my mailbox in the last week, for your TBR considerations:

Apple in the Middle by Dawn Quigley (with awesome Native rep and totally fine for middle grade and younger YA readers)

Giant Days by Non Pratt (A novel based on the comics)

Blood Will Out by Jo Treggiari (I was underwhelmed with this thriller, but others have disagreed, especially because the twist is pretty fresh and unexpected)

The Agony House by Cherie Priest

Come November by Katrin van Dam

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

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars on Twitter and Instagram