Category: What’s Up in YA

Happy Monday-or-whenever-you’re-reading-this YA readers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Pin It from Chronicle Books.

Brightly colored pins styled into fun patterns and designs are the hottest new hairstyling trend. Pin It! gives short- and long-haired fashionistas tips and tricks to create 20 colorful bobby pin hairstyles for any occasion. Step-by-step photos make it easy to follow along, and five DIY projects for personalizing bright and sparkly pins make the looks even more fun and unique.

____________________

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. This annual awareness campaign has been around since 1949 (!) and seeks to educate Americans about mental health, signs of illness, and more.

Rather than share a whole host of YA books that explore mental illness, I wanted to take this issue of the newsletter to highlight some of the pieces others have written about YA and mental health. At the end, I’ll note some of the more recent titles that have explored mental health, as well. This is meant to be a robust, though not comprehensive, look at what’s out there for readers to better understand mental health and how it plays a big role in YA fiction.

One thing worth noting before going on: not all mental health angled YA books are going to be “good.” But it would be challenging to note which ones are “good” and which are “bad,” since mental illness itself manifests so differently for every single person. Suggesting there’s a single experience is dangerous, though there are absolutely places to tread lightly for those who might be triggered by raw or graphic depictions of illness. This is one reason, among many others, that bibliotherapy shouldn’t be practiced by anyone who isn’t also certified in psychiatry or other mental health focused related medical fields. The wrong book in the wrong hands could end up being far more dangerous than intended. What can be criticized more clearly and thoughtfully on the “good” or “bad” scale when it comes to mental health depiction, though, are the tropes that emerge with them. Tropes such as romance “curing” the mental illness of a character or tropes wherein the mental illness is simply a ruse can be quite dangerous not just for those who struggle with mental illness but for those who haven’t quite grasped how severe and debilitating mental illness can be. It’s not a mystery to be solved or a hole to be filled with love; mental health is a real, complex thing that requires real, compassionate consideration and care.

That said, let’s get to the resources for books, books, and more books.

• Disability in KidLit is one of my favorite resources out there, period. The work they’ve done in talking about mental illness is especially excellent, and you can access both a wealth of reviews of specific YA titles, as well as guest posts and discussions on various aspects of mental health here.

 

• There’s an excellent round-up of mental health focused YA from YA Highway, organized by disorder represented. Stephanie Kuehn, a YA author herself, compiled the list in 2014 and it remains one of the best out there.

 

• Patrice Caldwell wrote a fabulous piece in late 2016 about the representation of mental illness for teens of color over on STACKED (my personal book blog). Not only does she talk about what she’s seen and not seen, but she highlights some of the excellent POC-focused mental health titles in YA.

 

• s.e. smith talked about mental health representation in YA lit back in 2011 at Bitch Media, and their discussion of 13 Reasons Why is particularly interesting, given recent dialog about the book and its adaptation.

 

• Author Rachel Wilson, who wrote Don’t Touch, talked with author Kody Keplinger about the challenges of the “should” and “should not” dynamics that emerge when writers take on mental illness in their fiction.

 

• Though there are some issues to be considered when it comes to the discussion of bibliotherapy in this piece, the round-up of YA mental illness titles in this SLJ article is great.

 

• A round-up of YA books about mental illness that “get it” on BuzzFeed has some good titles on it (and some I’d take with a grain of salt because of poorly rendered tropes but YMMV).

 

And here’s a round-up of some of the recent and forthcoming YA books that have hit shelves which depict some aspect of mental illness. This isn’t comprehensive, but rather, rounds out some of the lists linked above.

 

100 Days of Cake by Shari Goldhagen

There are only three things that can get seventeen-year-old Molly Byrne out of bed these days: her job at FishTopia, the promise of endless episodes of Golden Girls, and some delicious lo mien. You see, for the past two years, Molly’s been struggling with something more than your usual teenage angst. Her shrink, Dr. Brooks isn’t helping much, and neither is her mom who is convinced that baking the perfect cake will cure Molly of her depression—as if cake can magically make her rejoin the swim team, get along with her promiscuous sister, or care about the SATs.

Um, no. Never going to happen.

But Molly plays along, stomaching her mother’s failed culinary experiments, because, whatever—as long as it makes someone happy, right? Besides, as far as Molly’s concerned, hanging out with Alex at the rundown exotic fish store makes life tolerable enough. Even if he does ask her out every…single…day. But—sarcastic drum roll, please—nothing can stay the same forever. When Molly finds out FishTopia is turning into a bleak country diner, her whole life seems to fall apart at once. Soon she has to figure out what—if anything—is worth fighting for.

 

The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller (July 11)

Matt hasn’t eaten in days.

His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal. But Matt won’t give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp—and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he’s going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away.

Matt’s hardworking mom keeps the kitchen crammed with food, but Matt can resist the siren call of casseroles and cookies because he has discovered something: the less he eats the more he seems to have . . . powers. The ability to see things he shouldn’t be able to see. The knack of tuning in to thoughts right out of people’s heads. Maybe even the authority to bend time and space.

So what is lunch, really, compared to the secrets of the universe?

Matt decides to infiltrate Tariq’s life, then use his powers to uncover what happened to Maya. All he needs to do is keep the hunger and longing at bay. No problem. But Matt doesn’t realize there are many kinds of hunger… and he isn’t in control of all of them.

 

Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios (July 13)

Grace wants out. Out of her house, where her stepfather wields fear like a weapon and her mother makes her scrub imaginary dirt off the floors. Out of her California town, too small to contain her big city dreams. Out of her life, and into the role of Parisian artist, New York director—anything but scared and alone.

Enter Gavin: charming, talented, adored. Controlling. Dangerous. When Grace and Gavin fall in love, Grace is sure it’s too good to be true. She has no idea their relationship will become a prison she’s unable to escape.

Deeply affecting and unflinchingly honest, this is a story about spiraling into darkness—and emerging into the light again.

 

Eliza and her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Eighteen-year-old Eliza Mirk is the anonymous creator of Monstrous Sea, a wildly popular webcomic, but when a new boy at school tempts her to live a life offline, everything she’s worked for begins to crumble.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, smart, and friendless. Online, Eliza is LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of a popular webcomic called Monstrous Sea. With millions of followers and fans throughout the world, Eliza’s persona is popular. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves her digital community. Then Wallace Warland transfers to her school, and Eliza begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart. With pages from Eliza’s webcomic, as well as screenshots from Eliza’s online forums, this uniquely formatted book will appeal to fans of Noelle Stevenson’s Nimona and Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl.

 

Everything All At Once by Katrina Leno (June 6)

Lottie Reeves has always struggled with anxiety, and when her beloved Aunt Helen dies, Lottie begins to fear that her own unexpected death might be waiting around every corner.

Aunt Helen wasn’t a typical aunt. She was the author of the best–selling Alvin Hatter series, about siblings who discover the elixir of immortality. Her writing inspired a generation of readers.

In her will, she leaves one last writing project—just for Lottie. It’s a series of letters, each containing mysterious instructions designed to push Lottie out of her comfort zone. Soon, Lottie’s trying some writing of her own, leaping off cliffs, and even falling for a boy she’s only just met. Then the letters reveal an extraordinary secret about the inspiration for the Alvin Hatter series. Lottie finds herself faced with an impossible choice, one that will force her to confront her greatest fear once and for all.

 

History Is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart.

If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.

 

Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert (August 8)

When Suzette comes home to Los Angeles from her boarding school in New England, she isn’t sure if she’ll ever want to go back. L.A. is where her friends and family are (along with her crush, Emil). And her stepbrother, Lionel, who has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, needs her emotional support.

But as she settles into her old life, Suzette finds herself falling for someone new…the same girl her brother is in love with. When Lionel’s disorder spirals out of control, Suzette is forced to confront her past mistakes and find a way to help her brother before he hurts himself–or worse.

 

Madness by Zac Brewer (September 18)

Brooke Danvers is pretending to be fine. She’s gotten so good at pretending that they’re letting her leave inpatient therapy. Now she just has to fake it long enough for her parents and teachers to let their guard down. This time, when she’s ready to end her life, there won’t be anyone around to stop her.

Then Brooke meets Derek. Derek is the only person who really gets what Brooke is going through, because he’s going through it too. As they start spending more time together, Brooke suddenly finds herself having something to look forward to every day and maybe even happiness.

But when Derek’s feelings for her intensify, Brooke is forced to accept that the same relationship that is bringing out the best in her might be bringing out the worst in Derek—and that Derek at his worst could be capable of real darkness.

 

Obsessed: A Memoir of My Life With OCD by Allison Britz (September 18)

Until sophomore year of high school, fifteen-year-old Allison Britz lived a comfortable life in an idyllic town. She was a dedicated student with tons of extracurricular activities, friends, and loving parents at home.

But after awakening from a vivid nightmare in which she was diagnosed with brain cancer, she was convinced the dream had been a warning. Allison believed that she must do something to stop the cancer in her dream from becoming a reality.

It started with avoiding sidewalk cracks and quickly grew to counting steps as loudly as possible. Over the following weeks, her brain listed more dangers and fixes. She had to avoid hair dryers, calculators, cell phones, computers, anything green, bananas, oatmeal, and most of her own clothing.

Unable to act “normal,” the once-popular Allison became an outcast. Her parents questioned her behavior, leading to explosive fights. When notebook paper, pencils, and most schoolbooks were declared dangerous to her health, her GPA imploded, along with her plans for the future.

Finally, she allowed herself to ask for help and was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder. This brave memoir tracks Allison’s descent and ultimately hopeful climb out of the depths.

 

Optimists Die First by Susin Neilsen

Life ahead: Proceed with caution.

Sixteen-year-old Petula De Wilde is anything but wild. A family tragedy has made her shut herself off from the world. Once a crafting fiend with a happy life, Petula now sees danger in everything, from airplanes to ground beef.

The worst part of her week is her comically lame mandatory art therapy class. She has nothing in common with this small band of teenage misfits, except that they all carry their own burden of guilt.

When Jacob joins their ranks, he seems so normal and confident. Petula wants nothing to do with him, or his prosthetic arm. But when they’re forced to collaborate on a unique school project, she slowly opens up, and he inspires her to face her fears.

Until a hidden truth threatens to derail everything.

 

 

Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

At seventeen, Norah has accepted that the four walls of her house delineate her life. She knows that fearing everything from inland tsunamis to odd numbers is irrational, but her mind insists the world outside is too big, too dangerous. So she stays safe inside, watching others’ lives through her windows and social media feed.

But when Luke arrives on her doorstep, he doesn’t see a girl defined by medical terms and mental health. Instead, he sees a girl who is funny, smart, and brave. And Norah likes what he sees.

Their friendship turns deeper, but Norah knows Luke deserves a normal girl. One who can walk beneath the open sky. One who is unafraid of kissing. One who isn’t so screwed up. Can she let him go for his own good—or can Norah learn to see herself through Luke’s eyes?

 

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.

There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

 

What I Lost by Alexandra Ballard

What sixteen-year-old Elizabeth has lost so far: forty pounds, four jean sizes, a boyfriend, and her peace of mind. As a result, she’s finally a size zero. She’s also the newest resident at Wallingfield, a treatment center for girls like her—girls with eating disorders. Elizabeth is determined to endure the program so she can go back home, where she plans to start restricting her food intake again.She’s pretty sure her mom, who has her own size-zero obsession, needs treatment as much as she does. Maybe even more. Then Elizabeth begins receiving mysterious packages. Are they from her ex-boyfriend, a secret admirer, or someone playing a cruel trick?

 

Thanks for hanging out, YA friends. Until next week.

– Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Heyyy YA!!!!! 

(Imagine that in a Goonies voice)

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Carry On by Rainbow Rowell from St. Martin’s Press.

A #1 New York Times bestseller

Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.

His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend dumped him, and there’s a monster running around wearing Simon’s face. Baz, his roommate and nemesis, would be having a field day with all this, if he were here—it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and he hasn’t shown up.

Carry On is a ghost story, a love story, and a mystery. It has as much kissing and talking as you’d expect from a Rainbow Rowell story—but far more monsters.

____________________

Let’s take this week to catch up on a wealth of YA news and pieces of interest floating around. It might be more accurate, though, to call this a big round-up of recent adaptation news because there’s been a lot of it. Grab yourself a snack and settle in!

 

• Willow Smith will be taking part in the adaptation of Rebel in the Sands and also is starring in what sounds like a potential YA title of the future — it’s a film for now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it ends up being more.

 

• There’s an adaptation in the works for Neal Schusterman’s Scythe.

 

• Amy Plum’s upcoming book Dreamfall is heading to small screens.

 

• And keep your eyes peeled for a manga adaptation of the YA Star Wars book Lost Stars. Say that ten times fast.

 

• There will be a second season of 13 Reasons Why for Netflix.

 

• This piece is out of Australia but it was so interesting I had to share it — A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas is one of the fastest selling books in their chain bookstore Dymock’s this year. I know the book hit the New York Times list in the US and now I’m curious how fast it’s selling over here.

 

• New trailer for Everything Everything is up. Do you plan on seeing this? I’m so curious about it, but it might be one I wait to Netflix down the road. I liked the book with some reservation and am curious how it’ll be done on the big screen. Plus, Amandla.

 

• A nice interview with author Veronica Chambers on her new book The Go Between and about Mexican immigrant stereotypes in literature. Her books were always popular in my libraries, especially in the community where I served a large Mexican immigrant population.

 

• There’s adaptation news for The Season. I haven’t read it and don’t know a whole lot about it.

 

• Yes, yes, yes please to a Shadowshaper adaptation. This book screams color and vibrancy and will look so great on screen.

 

• Were you as cool as Aisha Esbhani at age 12 or 13? Because this girl is making it a goal to “read the world.”

 

Time to ask a very serious question now. If you’ve been listening to book news lately outside of the YA world, you likely have heard about the Bill Clinton/James Patterson book news. This begs the question: which politicians and YA authors would you love to see paired up? Hit reply and send your wildest and best pair ups. Feel free to ignore things like time and history; as far as I care, there’s a magical time machine that would allow Abe Lincoln to sit alongside Nicola Yoon for a romantic YA novel, okay? Maybe we can connect Norma Klein and Wendy Davis, who’d have a lot to say together about adults and teens and maturity and sex and growing up.

Send me your picks and I might include them in a future edition of the newsletter. Let’s have fun and let imagination run wild. 

See you back here next week.

 

– Kelly Jensen @veronikellymars

Hey YA Readers!

“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored this week by Rachel Bateman’s Someone Else’s Summer from Running Press Kids. 

Anna’s always idolized her older sister, Storm. So when Storm dies in a tragic car accident on the night of her high school graduation, Anna is completely lost. That is, until she finds Storm’s summer bucket list and decides to honor her sister by having the best summer ever—which includes taking an epic road trip along with her sister’s best friend Cameron. Who knew that Storm’s dream summer would eventually lead to Anna’s own self-discovery?

____________________

As a head’s up, there are mild 13 Reasons Why spoilers in here, but little in this discussion goes beyond what someone might have seen in a preview. Likewise, while this newsletter centers around the adaptation, the takeaways are applicable on a broader level, so no need to worry about knowing this specific story or book. It’s instead an example of a phenomenon in YA adaptations and in media for teens more broadly.

I think it goes without saying, but just to be safe: trigger warnings abound for discussion of suicide, mental illness, and sexual assault/rape. This newsletter is also quite lengthy, so take it in chunks as you need to — I’ve included at the end the commentary readers have sent in, making this a really wonderful and meaty discussion.

*

The longer that I’m away from watching of 13 Reasons Why, the more a lot of it leaves a bad taste in my mouth message-wise. There’ve been a number of great pieces written about this, of course, so I’m adding nothing to the discussion by saying there’s a huge gulf not explored in the story between mental illness and we should all be kind to one another. Where Clay’s big “ah ha” moment at the end is that we should be kinder to one another (at the expense, it seems, of listening to someone insist that they are okay and don’t want to be talked to), the viewer walks away knowing that there was something much more deeply troubling with Hannah. She was absolutely a victim of sexual violence and bullying, but knowing her deep desire was for someone to come rescue her, even after she pushed everyone away over and over, it’s frustrating and hugely disappointing that mental illness is not brought up or explored with depth. That the show ends with Alex at the hospital following an attempted suicide suggests that there might be a season two, and if that happens, this is an area that demands exploration.

That said, the biggest thing that bothered me with the show was a simple one: how old all of the characters looked.

It’s a well-known phenomenon that YA adaptations — most any teen-centered shows, really — generally cast actors who are outside of the target demographic. It’s part experience and part of who is available to do the work. It’s also a matter of legality. But with 13 Reasons Why, there’s a disturbing lack of trying to make these teens look like teens.

Case in point: if you’ve watched the show, have you noticed the tattoos? We’re not talking the kind of tattoos that an 18-year-old might get upon their birthday or the kinds of tattoos that a parent might let their teens get in high school. We’re talking large chest pieces, arm pieces, and other tattoos that are not only massive, but well-healed and aged.

Then there are the moments where the characters are nearly nude. Not the sex scenes, mind you, which, while a little beyond realistic for teen sex, aren’t unrealistic for teen sex on screen. The scenes in locker rooms or bedrooms where the bulk of the character’s body is undressed. There are clear signs of adult maturity, spots where body hair is too well groomed or muscles too defined for awkward teen bodies. Where faces are chiseled in ways that say “20-something who works out” rather than “17-year-old teen boy who plays football.”

Lest this sound like nitpicking, remember: from the beginning of the show, we know that Clay and Hannah are sophomores in high school. That means they’re 15 or 16, in later episodes, maybe 17. In many ways, those two are the most realistic looking to their ages, Hannah more so than Clay. But their friends and classmates are in the same age range, with, perhaps, an 18-year-old senior or two in the fray.

And yet, here are some of the teenagers as they appear on screen:

 

neck tattoos

 

 

If you aren’t familiar with the “Actual teen vs adult teen” Tumblr, I highly recommend digging into it a bit. Liz Burns wrote about it a few years back, interviewing the creator Ann Foster. Foster has kept the Tumblr going, and I love how it puts this visual difference into perspective. She’s not yet done 13 Reasons Why but I suspect it’ll provide a lot of interesting visual comparisons.

It sounds nitpicky to find this representation of teens to be a problem, but by not even attempting to make these teenagers look like teenagers, imagine how easy it is to write off the problems they’re experiencing as things they’re equipped to deal with. The dude covered in tats? He’s old enough to make wise decisions, since he clearly had the capacity to make the decision to be inked. Those sexually active teens with super mature adult bodies? Obviously, they know how to handle dealing with grief and shame and the trauma surrounding the loss of a classmate (or a car accident that kills a classmate or a party that got out of hand or the consequences of repeat sexual violence or, or, or). Likewise, these teens might fall into that ever-loved category of “too stupid to live” that gets slapped unfairly on many YA characters who, remember, are teenagers. 

Because the “teens” look like adults, the cognitive dissonance a viewer experiences — especially an adult viewer with little direct exposure or interactions with teens — is pretty significant. It would be easy to write off the deep problems these characters experience and more, easy to call some of what they do whining or childish, because they look like they’re big enough and wise enough to do something about it. But the truth is, that’s the point of the story: these teens are not wise or smart enough to do it.

There’s a big gap between the visual we’re presented and the depth of the story, and it’s there that much of the show falls apart.

It’s been said for quite a while that many don’t believe YA is for teens anymore or that it ever has been. That, thanks to the growth of the category via books like Twilight and The Hunger Games which brought to their franchises legions of adult fans, there’s no longer a space for teens to call their own in the book world. I’m not sure I entirely buy this argument as a whole; I believe we conflate some of the statistics about who is buying YA books with who is reading them (and ignoring things like the fact a new YA hardcover can cost $20 — a sizable chunk of change for a teenager but less so for a full-time working adult). I also think that we’re easily led into believing it because of marketing and how much YA marketing for big books (or books that are going to be made big) is geared toward adults, rather than teens. Again, probably in part due to who is buying the books, which ties back to where the money is. Not to mention it’s adults in the online world who tend to be writing blogs or newsletters or long form pieces about YA lit and it’s adults who are most likely consuming those same pieces. 

And then we have adaptations like 13 Reasons Why which have at their core real, troubling issues teens may be dealing with personally. In cases like this, it’s easy to let our adult sensibilities take over because those teenagers look really. damn. mature. It’s also easy for us as adults to prescribe what we think are solutions to those situations from the outside. See, for example, the think pieces that have popped up about how troubling it is there weren’t more discussions in school about how suicide is a bad thing and not to do it. Aside from that not being true, in my own experience as a teenager in high school and in working with teens in various high schools, when suicides have occurred, the school’s response is often silence. There are many reasons for this that are boring and not story-worthy. They don’t heighten the drama, though in many cases, they certainly heighten the frustrations that students have, making their teen minds even more confused and hurt.

Teenagers are hormonal monsters made of whine and awkwardness, anger and rage, stupid decision making and obnoxiousness. This is what they are because this is what they’re biologically meant to be, as well as what they’re psychologically and socially molded to be. But they’re made this way for a reason. They are not mature enough to make great decisions because they don’t have the experience necessary to do so and their brains are literally not yet wired to think through the implications of their actions. 

This is, perhaps, one of the reasons they make such interesting characters. It’s also why those who work with teens absolutely love working with them.

So when we turn a story like 13 Reasons Why into an adaptation and fill it with characters who don’t look even close to teen age, we take away those really tricky, sticky, tough pieces of being that age and instead, want to prescribe and dictate what we think reasonable adults should be doing. We’re not being primed by seeing them as greasy, smelly, messy teenagers with gangly, awkward bodies and minds. We’re seeing them as fully functioning, mature adults. We aren’t even being given the chance to empathize.

It might not sound like a problem when applied to a show — it is, but certainly not in the same capacity that it is a problem when those same mentalities are then applied to the real world. Because the truth is, they are and they will be applied. Again, the “too stupid to live” label comes to mind, as do the reviews and think pieces which prattle on about how whiny and dramatic teen characters in YA books can be. (They’re that way in real life, though, because they’re built to be that way). 

But we can at least hope that those adult sensibilities might also include having a good, meaningful series of discussions about the show, about its faults, about its strengths, and about how powerful it is to share a conversation between adults and teens about the confusing, painful, and downright shitty parts of growing up.

____________________

Last week I asked readers to share some of their input on the show or links they’ve read that really got their attention. I’m copy/pasting them below, keeping them anonymous. I love that y’all responded and love that we can make this a place of discussion.

I’m a high school English teacher/reading specialist. I’ve read and taught the book in class, and students loved it.

My students love the show as well–I don’t know that they are catching *all* of the things that I catch–Clay masturbating to the picture of Hannah and Courtney, for instance, wasn’t caught by them. They are confused why I haven’t binged the show like they did. I’m ready for episode 6. 

It’s a hard watch for me. The book was hard as well, but the show seems harder. And, I know what’s coming. I don’t know why it’s different, but it is. 

Ultimately, I think it’s a show that raises important issues, but it does much of why the book does; leaves items open for interpretation. My students don’t see Hannah as manipulative or blaming others, but they see how she wants them to know. Yes, they know suicide is a choice, but we talk about bullying and sexual assault to our students so much they also know that there are factors that lead up to it. If it weren’t controversial, it probably wouldn’t be doing it’s job. 

Though I don’t know him personally, I am friends with Jay Asher, the author of the novel, on Facebook. He played an integral part of the production of the series, and is aware of much of the issues that are playing out. 

*

I’ve seen the interviews where Selena Gomez and other producers say that they showed the gratuitous violence because they wanted to show people that “suicide should never be an option” but, to me, it felt like they were making a show for people who have never gone through these things. People who have never self harmed, people who have never been suicidal, people who have never been sexually assaulted. Sadly, people who have been through all these things are the ones that the book really resonated with and the ones that were most looking forward to the show. My biggest problem with the show itself is that infamous suicide scene. I’m upset that they showed suicide in such a graphic way when there are plenty of suggested guidelines for what to do and what not to do when portraying a suicide on film, but that’s not all of it. They completely ignored a big part of Hannah’s character and her wants when they changed her method of suicide. Hannah wanted to use pills so that she wouldn’t feel the pain of dying, so that she’d be asleep when she died because she was still afraid of it. She wanted to use pills so that her parents could pretend it was an accident if they wanted to. She didn’t want a grisly scene for her parents to walk in on. If Jay Asher had just randomly chosen a way for Hannah to die and hadn’t given her specific reasons for the way she wanted to kill herself, I wouldn’t be nearly as angry about the show. To me, it feels like the show ignored Hannah’s character and changed the way she died because a death by pills wouldn’t be shocking enough. It wouldn’t be as action packed as slitting her wrists. There wouldn’t be enough intense drama to film. They chose to change her method of suicide purely for the shock value.

You mentioned the hype that Thirteen Reasons Why has been getting and you compared it to that of The Hunger Games, and I have some feelings on that too. So much of the media attention about the show horrifies me. There are quizzes about “which 13 reasons why character are you” and “which guy from 13 reasons why should you date.” There are memes, like the “welcome to your tape” meme, which is where if someone says something to upset you, you tell them “welcome to your tape.” One that’s particularly horrifying is a facebook copy and paste game? thing that I saw one of my facebook friends post. It said “let’s play 13 reasons why. drop your name in the comments and i’ll reply back tape or no tape. if i comment tape, you’d be one of my reasons. if i comment no tape, we’re cool.” She had 50+ comments! I’m not sure if people wanted validation that they haven’t done something to make them be a reason or what, but I was disgusted. When The Hunger Games came out, the media behind it was frightening. People immediately went for the starcrossed lovers trope and did the whole Team Peeta/Team Gale thing. There were countless blog posts about “how to look like you’re from the Capitol” and makeup campaigns to give you looks from the Capitol. The whole point of the books was missed. It wasn’t entirely the media’s fault, the movies messed it up pretty badly too, focusing on the love triangle and leaving out the worst parts of the Games. They pretty much completely left out the Avoxes, Peeta’s need of a prosthetic leg, Katniss’ hearing loss, their PTSD, the list goes on. The media for Thirteen Reasons Why is doing the same thing. They’re focusing on the love story between Clay and Hannah and making jokes about some of the most serious things.

*

Full Disclosure: I have not yet watched 13 Reasons Why, but I have read the book. 

I am on the side of many people who see the story as a revenge fantasy. I don’t know if I’d say that it glamorizes suicide, but I don’t think it shows how PERMANENT this choice is. I would assume that, because Hannah is so present throughout the show, that it’d be easy to forget that she is no longer living even if “justice has been served”.  Sharing the message that we must be kind and realize our actions affects others is such an important one. But where’s the talk about mental health? I’ve seen articles telling 13 Reasons Why fans that they’d probably enjoy Pretty Little Liars, which is so far from helpful in the mental health department. 

I haven’t watched the show because I know it will upset me. I’m sensitive, I have depression, and I know I’m not personally strong enough. This article made me feel better about that: http://twloha.com/blog/in-response-to-13-reasons-why/

*

When I first heard about 13 Reasons Why being made into a TV series for Netflix, I was hesitantly excited simply because while it is a rather hard subject matter, it is also one that I believe should be discussed. However, having read what I have about it, I don’t believe I can watch the series.

Most of what I’ve read has come from this post at Teen Librarian Toolbox: http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2017/04/thinking-about-13-reasons-why-teens-mental-health-and-media/#comment-554439

I believe Karen Jensen explains her view quite well and brings up valid points against watching the TV series.

*

I am the grandmother of three 13 year old girls, a 12 year old Haitian girl, and a precocious 11 year old girl. These girls are voracious YA readers. Just for fun I have been reading along. Oh, my! They all loved The Outsiders. It is the gospel to them. So affected by the story. All the Bright Places dissed school counselors. Ugh! Speak offended me. The author dismissed all cheerleaders as slutty, cruel people. And as I said,  the kids really buy it. Thirteen Reasons Why scares me. Suicide is so final. Not romantic. The girls have read these books but I am discouraging the show. We read Aristotle and Dante, better. Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda was a good book to read but all of us wish it had been written by a Homo sapiens who had actually lived it. The Perks of Being a Wallflower at least gave us some hope. 

I could go on and on. But I wish for more responsible writers. I want a protagonist who is strong and smart and survives. 

Well, in parting the girls are also are reading Austen and Dickens. Classics and comics. 

My concern, I guess, is how the books teens read affect their world view. It is not easy in school society.

*

People have been attacking 13 Reasons Why for many reasons. Yes, I agree Hannah was manipulative in her making of the tapes (i.e. using them to cast blame on others for her problems–justifiably or not)–and I definitely think she could’ve handled some things that happened to her better than she did.

I don’t think they romanticized the suicide scene like some do. She clearly was terrified (as evidenced by her heavy breathing) and the scene has haunted me since. How is slashing your wrists that deeply and bleeding to death romantic?

What bothered me the most was that she had to be driven by a rape and bullying to kill herself. Not every depressed teenager has been assaulted and raped and deemed the class slut. Non-sexually active teenagers (even those who’d want to have sex) get depressed. Teenagers who aren’t bullied try to commit suicide (and some succeed, unfortunately). I guess my main pet peeve was that sex, in whatever form–without or with consent, pinching an ass or rape–was a driving force behind Hannah’s suicide. Why does it have to be girl + depressed is because of some issue with sex. There are many other reasons why a teenage girl would be that depressed. It’s a case of, yet again, making a story about girl be all about sex and, thus, objectifying girls as sexual objects rather than as showing them as regular people.  Yes, sex is on the minds of teenagers quite a lot. I’m not naive about that. I’m just wondering if the series put so much emphasis on that aspect just for the titillation factor. If they did it for that reason in the hope of getting more viewers, then I’m not so thrilled with it.

I think they could’ve ended each episode with a list of warning signals to watch out for and give people tips about what to do if they think someone might be thinking about killing themselves. It could save someone’s life, you never know. Isn’t it more important to stress suicide prevention versus dwelling on why someone chose to do it!?!?

*

I haven’t seen the show version of TRW, and I’m honestly not really planning on it as I’ve heard that it’s pretty graphic.  But I did want to write in and express the frustration I’ve been feeling with people throwing the book under the bus with the show.  Say what you will about it, that book has saved lives, and I don’t think that should be ignored.  If even one teenager felt heard and validated by reading a story, that is important, and with this book, it’s way more than one.  I feel like a significant part of the problem was the translation from book to screen, where reading about suicide is one thing, actually seeing it happen on screen is another (and also a pretty unnecessary decision on the part of the producers).  I worry that in our (rightful) outrage, we are ignoring the good in the story, and there is some good!  There are definitely problems and things are overly simplified, but for me, TRW was the first book that I read that had the guts to acknowledge that hey, teens can be brutally bullying and go through HARD STUFF and that I wasn’t the only suicidal teenager out there.  That was a powerful truth for me as a person of intersecting marginalized identities who had pretty much no social support as a teen.  My two cents, for what they’re worth.  

*

I think it romanticizes suicide, which is extremely dangerous when it comes to teens and young adults who are struggling with depression and suicide. It has been seen in the past that doing this usually triggers a rise in young suicides. I’ve encountered numerous people in the last few weeks who suffer from depression that say this show brought on a depressive episode, and they wished they hadn’t watched it. I don’t want to say a show is to blame for a rise in suicidal tendencies, but that if a show wants to start a dialogue about suicide awareness, romanticizing it is entirely the wrong way to do it.

____________________

Thanks for being part of this community, friends. We’ll see you back here next week for a big link roundup.

-Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Hey YA fans!

This Week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Pearl Thief by Elizabeth Wein, from Disney-Hyperion Books.

Before Verity . . . there was Julie.

In this prequel to the bestselling Elizabeth Wein novel, Code Name Verity, fifteen-year-old Julia Beaufort-Stuart wakes up in the hospital, she knows the lazy summer break she’d imagined won’t be exactly what she anticipated.  Her memory of that day returns to her in pieces, and when a body is discovered, her new friends are caught in the crosshairs of long-held biases about Travellers. Julie must get to the bottom of the mystery in order to keep them from being framed for the crime.

____________________

During a vacation last week, I mainlined all 13 episodes of 13 Reasons Why on Netflix. I’m still grappling with some thoughts about the show, and while it’s been many years since I read the book, I don’t know that I remember disliking all of the characters as much as I did. I knew Hannah was manipulative going in, but I’d forgotten how annoying Clay was, too. Many have written thoughtful pieces about how it’s a problematic cliche that Hannah serves as a boy’s tool of growth, but that wasn’t what bothered me most about the show. It’s a simple, very very simple, thing that annoyed me.

I haven’t pulled my words together coherently on it, but as soon as I do, I suspect this might be the right space to share them. I preface the newsletter with this because I’d love to hear what reactions you’ve had to the adaptation or see what pieces you’ve read analyzing it that you’ve found interesting. I’m not worried about agreeing or disagreeing with the takes. I want to see what’s being sad because I don’t think I’ve seen so much mainstream attention for a YA adaptation in a long time (maybe The Hunger Games was the last big one with the sort of exposure I’m seeing). Hit reply with your thoughts and links and next week, I’ll come back with both what I want to say bothered me and what some of the biggest YA fans have been thinking about it.

Let’s take the space today, though, and look back at the variety of great Book Riot posts about YA that have hit in the last few weeks. I know how easily it is for me to miss the pieces sometimes, and I read the site for work.

 

• A quick update about Taherah Mafi’s return to the “Shatter Me” series.

• Girls in YA fiction who create graffiti/street art.

• An interview with SE Hinton on the 50th anniversary of her classic YA title The Outsiders and the growth of YA lit as a category of work.

• One Rioter on searching for Taiwan in YA lit.

• Wherein YA characters are performing in a Shakespeare play.

• 5 #OwnVoices stories about the Asian immigrant experience.

• YA love stories set at comic cons. Sweet.

• A look at some solid YA books that explore grief and mourning.

• How about some YA books with dandelions on the cover?

• Treat yourself to some Harry Potter/cocktail pairings if you’re of age. Make ‘em virgin style if you’re not.

• An interview with the ever-lovely Laini Taylor on her new book Strange The Dreamer, YA lit, and more.

• A love for YA books that showcase strong sibling relationships.

• IndiYA: YA/crossover titles from India. Global reading is excellent reading.

• And here’s a round-up of over 175 YA books hitting shelves between April and the end of June.

 

The pieces below aren’t from Book Riot, but they hit my radar in the last couple of weeks and seemed worth sharing:

 

• Hannah Gomez elucidates the difference between YA literature and middle grade literature, and this is the kind of thing to have handy for all of those people who continue to conflate and/or confuse the two.

• Hannah also shared a great piece about #OwnVoices at School Library Journal with six titles that are excellent examples of what those stories are.

• A regular reminder that you can snag two free audiobooks per week — a YA title and a classic read — all summer long.

• Why The Outsiders still matters 50 years later.

• A nice list of Latinx YA novels.

 

See you next week, and don’t forget to hit reply with your thoughts and/or interesting reads on the 13 Reasons Why adaptation. If you do share your own opinion, I won’t use your real name if I chose to include it in the next newsletter, so feel free to be totally honest.

 

-Kelly Jensen @veronikellymars

Hello again, YA fans!

 

What’s Up in YA? is sponsored by The Takedown by Connie Wang from Freeform.

Who would you rely on if your tech turned against you? Kyla Cheng—president of her community club, a debate team champ, dating the yummy Mackenzie Rodriguez and the most popular student at her Brooklyn high school—gets taken down a peg when a fake video goes viral.

____________________

A couple of weeks ago, we tackled the topic of debut novels — those books which helped launch the careers of some of your favorite writers. Along with talking about a handful of titles, I asked if you’d hit reply and share some of your favorites.

And, of course, you did.

This week, let’s take a look at the titles you named as some of your favorite debut YA books. This isn’t a complete list of every title sent, nor does it account for how many of these were repeat picks among responses (yay!). I went for as wide a swath of titles as possible, so you’ll see a little of everything ranging from classic YA titles to much newer titles by authors who are just at the beginning of a wildly successful career.

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver

For popular high school senior Samantha Kingston, February 12—”Cupid Day”—should be one big party, a day of valentines and roses and the privileges that come with being at the top of the social pyramid. And it is…until she dies in a terrible accident that night.

However, she still wakes up the next morning. In fact, Sam lives the last day of her life seven times, until she realizes that by making even the slightest changes, she may hold more power than she ever imagined.

 

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear.

It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy.

There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

 

Everything Everything by Nicola Yoon

My disease is as rare as it is famous. Basically, I’m allergic to the world. I don’t leave my house, have not left my house in seventeen years. The only people I ever see are my mom and my nurse, Carla.

But then one day, a moving truck arrives next door. I look out my window, and I see him. He’s tall, lean and wearing all black—black T-shirt, black jeans, black sneakers, and a black knit cap that covers his hair completely. He catches me looking and stares at me. I stare right back. His name is Olly.

Maybe we can’t predict the future, but we can predict some things. For example, I am certainly going to fall in love with Olly. It’s almost certainly going to be a disaster.

Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce

And so young Alanna of Trebond begins the journey to knighthood. Though a girl, Alanna has always craved the adventure and daring allowed only for boys; her twin brother, Thom, yearns to learn the art of magic. So one day they decide to switch places: Thom heads for the convent to learn magic; Alanna, pretending to be a boy, is on her way to the castle of King Roald to begin her training as a page.

But the road to knighthood is not an easy one. As Alanna masters the skills necessary for battle, she must also learn to control her heart and to discern her enemies from her allies.

Filled with swords and sorcery, adventure and intrigue, good and evil, Alanna’s first adventure begins – one that will lead to the fulfillment of her dreams and the magical destiny that will make her a legend in her land.

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Before. Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event, and his obsession with famous last words has only made him crave “the Great Perhaps” even more (Francois Rabelais, poet). He heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then. . . .

After. Nothing is ever the same.

 

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

In the months after his father’s suicide, it’s been tough for 16-year-old Aaron Soto to find happiness again–but he’s still gunning for it. With the support of his girlfriend Genevieve and his overworked mom, he’s slowly remembering what that might feel like. But grief and the smile-shaped scar on his wrist prevent him from forgetting completely.

When Genevieve leaves for a couple of weeks, Aaron spends all his time hanging out with this new guy, Thomas. Aaron’s crew notices, and they’re not exactly thrilled. But Aaron can’t deny the happiness Thomas brings or how Thomas makes him feel safe from himself, despite the tensions their friendship is stirring with his girlfriend and friends. Since Aaron can’t stay away from Thomas or turn off his newfound feelings for him, he considers turning to the Leteo Institute’s revolutionary memory-alteration procedure to straighten himself out, even if it means forgetting who he truly is.

Why does happiness have to be so hard?

The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton (psst: if you head over to Book Riot today, you’ll see an interview with Hinton!)

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

Over Sea, Under Stone by Susan Cooper

Throughout time, the forces of good and evil have battled continuously, maintaining the balance. Whenever evil forces grow too powerful, a champion of good is called to drive them back. Now, with evil’s power rising and a champion yet to be found, three siblings find themselves at the center of a mystical war.

Jane, Simon, and Barney Drew have discovered an ancient text that reads of a legendary grail lost centuries ago. The grail is an object of great power, buried with a vital secret. As the Drews race against the forces of evil, they must piece together the text’s clues to find the grail — and keep its secret safe until a new champion rises.

 

Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

She’s more gunpowder than girl—and the fate of the desert lies in her hands.

Mortals rule the desert nation of Miraji, but mystical beasts still roam the wild and barren wastes, and rumor has it that somewhere, djinni still practice their magic. But there’s nothing mystical or magical about Dustwalk, the dead-end town that Amani can’t wait to escape from.

Destined to wind up “wed or dead,” Amani’s counting on her sharpshooting skills to get her out of Dustwalk. When she meets Jin, a mysterious and devastatingly handsome foreigner, in a shooting contest, she figures he’s the perfect escape route. But in all her years spent dreaming of leaving home, she never imagined she’d gallop away on a mythical horse, fleeing the murderous Sultan’s army, with a fugitive who’s wanted for treason. And she’d never have predicted she’d fall in love with him… or that he’d help her unlock the powerful truth of who she really is.

The Serpent King by Jeff Zentner

Dill has had to wrestle with vipers his whole life at home, as the only son of a Pentecostal minister who urges him to handle poisonous rattlesnakes, and at school, where he faces down bullies who target him for his father’s extreme faith and very public fall from grace.

The only antidote to all this venom is his friendship with fellow outcasts Travis and Lydia. But as they are starting their senior year, Dill feels the coils of his future tightening around him. Dill’s only escapes are his music and his secret feelings for Lydia, neither of which he is brave enough to share. Graduation feels more like an ending to Dill than a beginning. But even before then, he must cope with another ending- one that will rock his life to the core.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Surrounded by enemies, the once-great nation of Ravka has been torn in two by the Shadow Fold, a swath of near impenetrable darkness crawling with monsters who feast on human flesh. Now its fate may rest on the shoulders of one lonely refugee.

Alina Starkov has never been good at anything. But when her regiment is attacked on the Fold and her best friend is brutally injured, Alina reveals a dormant power that saves his life—a power that could be the key to setting her war-ravaged country free. Wrenched from everything she knows, Alina is whisked away to the royal court to be trained as a member of the Grisha, the magical elite led by the mysterious Darkling.

Yet nothing in this lavish world is what it seems. With darkness looming and an entire kingdom depending on her untamed power, Alina will have to confront the secrets of the Grisha . . . and the secrets of her heart.

 

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Juliette hasn’t touched anyone in exactly 264 days.

The last time she did, it was an accident, but The Reestablishment locked her up for murder. No one knows why Juliette’s touch is fatal. As long as she doesn’t hurt anyone else, no one really cares. The world is too busy crumbling to pieces to pay attention to a 17-year-old girl. Diseases are destroying the population, food is hard to find, birds don’t fly anymore, and the clouds are the wrong color.

The Reestablishment said their way was the only way to fix things, so they threw Juliette in a cell. Now so many people are dead that the survivors are whispering war – and The Reestablishment has changed its mind. Maybe Juliette is more than a tortured soul stuffed into a poisonous body. Maybe she’s exactly what they need right now.

Juliette has to make a choice: Be a weapon. Or be a warrior.

 

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised.

With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out—without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met.

The Sky Is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery older sister, Bailey. But when Bailey dies abruptly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life – and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, suddenly finds herself struggling to balance two. Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent. For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.

A Swift Pure Cry by Siobhan Dowd

Ireland 1984.

After Shell’s mother dies, her obsessively religious father descends into alcoholic mourning and Shell is left to care for her younger brother and sister. Her only release from the harshness of everyday life comes from her budding spiritual friendship with a naive young priest, and most importantly, her developing relationship with childhood friend, Declan, who is charming, eloquent, and persuasive. But when Declan suddenly leaves Ireland to seek his fortune in America, Shell finds herself pregnant and the center of a scandal that rocks the small community in which she lives, with repercussions across the whole country. The lives of those immediately around her will never be the same again.

This is a story of love and loss, religious belief and spirituality—it will move the hearts of any who read it.

 

The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

NEW YORK CITY AS YOU’VE NEVER SEEN IT BEFORE.

A thousand-story tower stretching into the sky. A glittering vision of the future where anything is possible—if you want it enough.

WELCOME TO MANHATTAN, 2118.

A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. Everyone there wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

LEDA COLE’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched.

ERIS DODD-RADSON’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart.

RYLIN MYERS’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will this new life cost Rylin her old one?

WATT BAKRADI is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy for an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is AVERY FULLER, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

Amid breathtaking advancement and high-tech luxury, five teenagers struggle to find their place at the top of the world. But when you’re this high up, there’s nowhere to go but down….

____________________

Thanks for hanging out again this week. We’ll see you back in your inbox next Monday.

 

-Kelly Jensen

Currently reading In A Perfect World by Trish Doller

Hey YA fans!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Defy The Stars by Claudia Gray.

She’s a soldier.
He’s a machine.
Enemies in an interstellar war, they are forced to work together as they embark on a daring journey through the stars. Their efforts would end the fighting for good, but they’re not without sacrifice. The stakes are even higher than either of them first realized, and the more time they spend together, the more they’re forced to question everything they’d been taught was true.

____________________

Let’s take today and catch up with the world of YA news. Find packed in here some of the recent film announcements, book lists, and more happening in the world of young adult lit.

Before settling in though, I wanted to mention that we launched our rad new Book Riot Insiders program last week. Insiders gives you exclusive content and access to rad book-related news, features, and more. (& for those who go Epic, you’ll get access to an exclusive monthly YA-related book chat session with me via the Insiders forum!). Check it out!

Onward with news!

 

• The New York Times highlights recent YA books that explore Black Lives Matter. Nice to see books like The Hate U Give getting such high profile coverage.

 

• This list at Bustle of 11 YA books you likely haven’t read is not only terribly white but so weird I had to share it here. Most of these are either award-winning books (!) or they’re books that have been adapted. I’m not sure this is where I’d start with “books you likely haven’t read in YA.”

 

• Cara Delevigne apparently wrote a YA novel. With another author. No word on whether it’ll get a US publication.

 

• And I’ll say this is an ambitious undertaking to rank the top YA novels of all time, especially when maybe fewer than half of these titles are actually YA titles. Also, super white.

 

• I do quite like looking at book lists like this one: contemporary Canadian YA books that Anne Shirley would love.

 

• Film rights for Labyrinth Lost have been acquired. Good.

 

• There will be a Buffy YA series coming, written by Kiersten White.

 

• Jennifer Aniston + Dumplin’…now to ensure we see a fat girl — like a real-world fat girl and not a Hollywood-sized fat girl — as the main character.

 

• The cover for the sequel to Shadowshaper is everything you could want in a YA book cover.

 

• Did you know that the movie Mean Girls is being adapted into a YA novel? It makes sense, and more, that Micol Ostow is the author makes me pretty optimistic.

 

• More casting news for the adaptation of The Darkest Minds.

 

• The YA novel Zac & Mia is going to become a scripted series. This announcement is a little confusing to parse, but I believe this will be a streaming-based adaptation.

 

• More casting news relating to the adaptation of Daniel Waters’s Break My Heart 1000 Times.

 

• A look at the books — across all age categories — being released this year by former Printz honorees and winners. I love this.

 

• Willow Smith wrote a YA book…and also wants to produce Rebel in the Sands. This is one heck of an announcement.

 

• In the mood for a YA novel in verse? I rounded up a pile of recent and forthcoming titles at STACKED.

 

• A major movie and YA book announcement/deal — it’s a West African fantasy.

 

• While this list isn’t 100% YA, it’s a nice list of books that lift up immigrant voices.

 

• And, to round out this list of YA links of interest, a look at YA books for activists-in-training. It’s not all YA books, but I’m letting that slide because it’s a solid list.

 

Thanks for hanging again this week. We’ll be back in your inbox next Monday with even more great YA talk.

— Kelly Jensen

currently reading Done Dirt Cheap by Sarah Lemon

Helllllooooooo YA Lovers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Noble Servant by Melanie Dickerson.

New York Times bestselling author Melanie Dickerson returns with The Noble Servant, a retelling of the fairytale classic, The Goose Girl. In this medieval tale, Lady Magdalen is on her way to join the Duke of Wolfberg in marriage when her maidservant betrays her, takes her identity, and sends her down to the lowliest household position—tending the geese. But while out in the field, Magdalen encounters a mysterious shepherd who reveals that not all is as it seems in the castle, and it is up to them—the lowest of the low—to regain all that is lost.

____________________

Rather than the news round-up I’d intended to write this week, I had a different idea spring into my mind. Which doesn’t mean there won’t be a news roundup; it just means that’ll come next week or the following week.

This week, we’re going to talk a little bit about debut novels. But not necessarily in the sense you might be familiar.

Debut novels are, in the purest sense of the description, an author’s very first book. It’s been a label that’s become a marketing tool and bastardized the meaning. I see more and more books being called an author’s “debut YA psychological thriller” and other such nonsense. And sure, it may be the author’s first time writing a debut YA psychological thriller, but it doesn’t mean that it’s their first time writing a book. They’re just expanding their writing chops. It’s a normal part of an authorial career; it’s not necessarily a selling point in the same way that highlighting an author’s very first book might be.

There was an interesting and fairly controversial post on Book Riot a few weeks back about having frontlist fatigue. Danika Ellis noted that she doesn’t want to preorder the books of authors she doesn’t know, in part because the race to the frontlist (& reading it to be “the first”) can be exhausting. I get that completely from the reader side because taking a chance on an unknown is not only a risk, but it’s also a financial hit ($20 for a YA book is not cheap, and even if you go the route of cheapest online retailer, it’s still a pretty penny you plunk down without knowing). But from the author side of things, I make note that preorders are pretty important; they show interest in a book or author and that helps said author’s career down the road, as those early sales are monumentally important.

In thinking about that piece — both sides of the discussion — I thought it might be worthwhile to do a round-up of some of the debut novels by authors who have new books hitting shelves soon. Some of these authors will be serving up only their second or third title, while others are staples in the YA world. I always find it interesting to see what book launched an author’s career and what their writing looks like in more recent books.

All descriptions are from Goodreads, and the authors below are those who will have new books out (or have already published books) in the first half of this year.

In addition to highlighting these books, I leave a request for you, fair readers. I’d love to know what your favorite debut YA novel is. It can be something brand new, or it could be something from years gone by (like, say, Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson — it is mind-boggling to think that was her debut novel). If I get a good collection of responses, I’ll pull them into another round-up for newsletter readers.

 

Since You Asked by Maurene Goo

No, no one asked, but Holly Kim will tell you what she thinks anyway.

Fifteen-year-old Holly Kim is the copyeditor for her high school’s newspaper. When she accidentally submits an article that rips everyone to shreds, she gets her own column and rants her way through the school year. Can she survive homecoming, mean-girl cliques, jocks, secret admirers, Valentine’s Day, and other high school embarrassments, all while struggling to balance her family’s traditional Korean values?

 

That Summer by Sarah Dessen

For fifteen-year-old Haven, life is changing too quickly. She’s nearly six feet tall, her father is getting remarried, and her sister—the always perfect Ashley—is planning a wedding of her own. Haven wishes things could just go back to the way they were. Then an old boyfriend of Ashley’s reenters the picture, and through him, Haven sees the past for what it really was, and comes to grips with the future.

 

The Deathday Letter by Shaun David Hutchinson

The clock is ticking…

Ollie can’t be bothered to care about anything but girls until he gets his Deathday Letter and learns he’s going to die in twenty-four hours. Bummer.

Ollie does what he does best: nothing. Then his best friend convinces him to live a little, and go after Ronnie, the girl who recently trampled his about-to-expire heart. Ollie turns to carloads of pudding and over-the-top declarations, but even playing the death card doesn’t work. All he wants is to set things right with the girl of his dreams. It’s now or never.

 

Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz (note: this isn’t his official debut, but because of how much his career has bloomed in the last few years, I thought it was worth pulling his debut YA novel into this list!)

The Hollywood where Sammy Santos lives is not one of glitz and glitter, but a barrio at the edge of a small New Mexico town. In the summer before his senior year, Sammy falls in love with the beautiful, independent, and intensely vulnerable Juliana. Sammy’s chronicle of his senior year is both a love story and a litany of loss, the tale of his love not only for Juliana but for their friends, a generation from a barrio: tough, innocent, humorous, and determined to survive.

 

Blackbringer by Laini Taylor (note: she did a graphic novel with her husband previous to her first YA novel)

When the ancient evil of the Blackbringer rises to unmake the world, only one determined faerie stands in its way. However, Magpie Windwitch, granddaughter of the West Wind, is not like other faeries. While her kind live in seclusion deep in the forests of Dreamdark, she’s devoted her life to tracking down and recapturing devils escaped from their ancient bottles, just as her hero, the legendary Bellatrix, did 25,000 years ago. With her faithful gang of crows, she travels the world fighting where others would choose to flee. But when a devil escapes from a bottle sealed by the ancient Djinn King himself, the creator of the world, she may be in over her head. How can a single faerie, even with the help of her friends, hope to defeat the impenetrable darkness of the Blackbringer?

 

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

When she is caught in the backseat of a car with her older brother’s best friend—Deanna Lambert’s teenage life is changed forever. Struggling to overcome the lasting repercussions and the stifling role of “school slut,” she longs to escape a life defined by her past. With subtle grace, complicated wisdom and striking emotion, Story of a Girl reminds us of our human capacity for resilience, epiphany and redemption.

 

The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl by Barry Lyga

Fanboy has never had it good, but lately his sophomore year is turning out to be its own special hell. The bullies have made him their favorite target, his best (and only) friend seems headed for the dark side (sports and popularity), and his pregnant mother and the step-fascist are eagerly awaiting the birth of the alien life form known as Fanboy’s new little brother or sister.

Fanboy, though, has a secret: a graphic novel he’s been working on without telling anyone, a graphic novel that he is convinced will lead to publication, fame, and—most important of all—a way out of the crappy little town he lives in and all the people that make it hell for him.

When Fanboy meets Kyra, a.k.a. Goth Girl, he finds an outrageous, cynical girl who shares his love of comics as well as his hatred for jocks and bullies. Fanboy can’t resist someone who actually seems to understand him, and soon he finds himself willing to heed her advice—to ignore or crush anyone who stands in his way.

 

Shug by Jenny Han (middle grade with good young YA crossover and to editorialize, I’ll add it’s excellent on audio!)

SHUG

is clever and brave and true (on the inside, anyway). And she’s about to become your new best friend.

Annemarie Wilcox, or Shug as her family calls her, is beginning to think there’s nothing worse than being twelve. She’s too tall, too freckled, and way too flat-chested. Shug is sure that there’s not one good or amazing thing about her. And now she has to start junior high, where the friends she counts most dear aren’t acting so dear anymore — especially Mark, the boy she’s known her whole life through. Life is growing up all around her, and all Shug wants is for things to be like they used to be. How is a person supposed to prepare for what happens tomorrow when there’s just no figuring out today?

 

The Winter Prince by Elizabeth Wein

Medraut is the eldest son of Artos, high king of Britain; and, but for an accident of birth, would-be heir to the throne. Instead, his younger half-brother, Lleu, is chosen to be prince of Britain. Lleu is fragile, often ill, unskilled in weaponry and statesmanship, and childishly afraid of the dark. Even Lleu’s twin sister, Goewin, seems more suited to rule the kingdom.

Medraut cannot bear to be commanded and contradicted by this weakling brother who he feels has usurped his birthright and his father’s favor. Torn and bitter, haunted by jealousy, self-doubt, and thwarted ambition, he joins Morgause, the high king’s treacherous sister, in a plot to force Artos to forfeit his power and kingdom in exchange for Lleu’s life. But this plot soon proves to be much more – a battlefield on which Medraut is forced to decide, for good or evil, where his own allegiance truly lies..

 

Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah

Sixteen-year-old Amal makes the decision to start wearing the hijab full-time and everyone has a reaction. Her parents, her teachers, her friends, people on the street. But she stands by her decision to embrace her faith and all that it is, even if it does make her a little different from everyone else.

Can she handle the taunts of “towel head,” the prejudice of her classmates, and still attract the cutest boy in school?

 

Girl by Blake Nelson

Welcome to the world of Portland teenager Andrea Marr, the bold, sexy, shy, often confused but always resilient heroine of Girl. Told in a voice that reads like the intimate diary of a young woman about to take life on full throttle, this wonderful debut novel chronicles Andrea’s jittery journey from suburban mall to Portland’s thriving underground rock scene – and back again, as she discovers sex, betrayal, and even love. A Catcher in the Rye for the “Grunge” generation, this instant classic will speak to anyone who has ever had to choose between the suffocation of conformity and the perils of rebellion.

 

The Near Witch by Victoria Schwab

The Near Witch is only an old story told to frighten children.

If the wind calls at night, you must not listen. The wind is lonely, and always looking for company.

And there are no strangers in the town of Near.

These are the truths that Lexi has heard all her life.

But when an actual stranger-a boy who seems to fade like smoke-appears outside her home on the moor at night, she knows that at least one of these sayings is no longer true.

The next night, the children of Near start disappearing from their beds, and the mysterious boy falls under suspicion. Still, he insists on helping Lexi search for them. Something tells her she can trust him.

As the hunt for the children intensifies, so does Lexi’s need to know-about the witch that just might be more than a bedtime story, about the wind that seems to speak through the walls at night, and about the history of this nameless boy.

 

Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon

No one wanted Ai Ling. And deep down she is relieved—despite the dishonor she has brought upon her family—to be unbetrothed and free, not some stranger’s subservient bride banished to the inner quarters.

But now, something is after her. Something terrifying—a force she cannot comprehend. And as pieces of the puzzle start to fit together, Ai Ling begins to understand that her journey to the Palace of Fragrant Dreams isn’t only a quest to find her beloved father but a venture with stakes larger than she could have imagined.

Bravery, intelligence, the will to fight and fight hard . . . she will need all of these things. Just as she will need the new and mysterious power growing within her. She will also need help.

It is Chen Yong who finds her partly submerged and barely breathing at the edge of a deep lake. There is something of unspeakable evil trying to drag her under. On a quest of his own, Chen Yong offers that help . . . and perhaps more.

 

____________________

Thanks for hanging out again, and don’t forget — hit “reply” with your favorite debut YA novel.

– Kelly Jensen aka @veronikellymars

Good Monday, YA Readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Just Fly Away by Andrew McCarthy.

A debut novel about family secrets, first love, forgiveness, and finding one’s way in the world from award-winning writer, actor, and director Andrew McCarthy. When fifteen-year-old Lucy Willows discovers that her father has a child from a brief affair, she begins to question everything she thinks she knows about her life. Worse, Lucy’s father’s secret is now her own, one that isolates her from her friends, family—even her boyfriend, Simon. When Lucy runs away to Maine to visit her mysteriously estranged grandfather, she finally begins to get to the bottom of her family’s secrets and lies.

____________________

First, a big thank you goes out to Karina Glaser for covering last week’s edition of the “What’s Up in YA?” newsletter with an array of excellent crossover middle grade novels that YA readers would love. I know my TBR got a little bit longer — I keep wanting to read more middle grade, and I’m so glad to have some great entry points.

You may or may not be aware that April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, a topic that’s near and dear to my heart. I try to approach it every year to not just highlight the YA books out there that explore the aspects of sexual assault and rape (and the cultures surrounding each) but to also go a little bit deeper, highlighting the real and true first-person experiences of these issues. Last year, I pulled together a rich reading list for this newsletter, but this year, I decided it was time to talk with a writer who recently released her debut novel that tackles sexual assault, among many other tough topics.

Kate Hart has been someone I’ve long admired in the YA world. Aside from being a novelist, she’s been part of the long-running blog YA Highway, and she’s take on numerous awesome side projects highlighting the achievements and accomplishments of women, including Badass Ladies You Should Know. Her first novel, After The Fall, hit shelves in January this year and it’s one I had the honor of reading during her revisited revision process (see below). It’s remained one in the forefront of my mind in the years since, and it’s one I hope is on the radar of YA readers because it packs a punch.

I’ve invited Kate to talk about her book, about some of her side projects, about how she’s teaching her sons about consent, and about the books she’s loved and those she’s looking forward to. I’m telling you now: grab your to-read list because it’s going to get longer.

Without further ado, here’s Kate Hart.

After studying Spanish and history at a small liberal arts school, Kate Hart taught young people their ABCs, wrote grants for grownups with disabilities, and now builds treehouses for people of all ages. Her debut YA novel, AFTER THE FALL, was published January 2017 by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. She also contributes to YA Highway, hosts the Badass Ladies You Should Know series, and sells jewelry, woodworking, and inappropriate embroidery at The Badasserie. A citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, she lives with her family in Northwest Arkansas. 

(Ed note: bold are my questions, unbold are Kate’s answers.)

 

First: give us the pitch for AFTER THE FALL.

AFTER THE FALL is about Raychel, a low income girl in a college town, and the ripple effect that sexual assault has on her life. Her best friend Matt wants to help but keeps making things worse, and their friendship is put to the test when his mistaken beliefs about her life lead to a tragic accident.  

Tell us a little about when you began writing and your journey from aspiring to published YA author.

I wrote a lot of poetry in high school, but turned to history in college and didn’t start writing fiction until I was 29. My first novel was the ubiquitous Twilight knock off, and when I realized it wasn’t going to get me an agent, I made a list of things I actually wanted to write about. “Hiking,” “feminism,” and “the Ozarks” got me reminiscing about high school, and remembering a particularly embarrassing rock climbing trip, I wrote the first line of a new project: “It’s entirely possible Matt can see up my shorts.” It’s still the first line of AFTER THE FALL.

It was a long process to get published, though. I wrote that line in April of 2010, and by July the manuscript had seven agent offers. But it took another seven years for the book to hit shelves. The original version got a lot of revision suggestions but no offers; I went on to write a different book that didn’t sell, then came back to AFTER THE FALL in 2014 for a major rewrite. It got an offer that summer, but the publishing process was rough — my first agent left the business, and I ended up with three different editors, which consequently moved my release date back a year. Now that it’s finally published, I’ve been at a sort of loss, trying to figure out how to write any other book. 

  

You are a girl of projects, and one of the long-running ones that many YA readers may be familiar with is YA Highway. Can you talk a little bit about how YA Highway started, what it looks like now, and what your role has been throughout?

YA Highway started in May 2009, when five aspiring writers (Kirsten Hubbard, Kristin Halbrook, Kaitlin Ward, Michelle Schusterman, and Amanda Hannah) met on the Absolute Write boards and decided to blog about their publishing journeys. They eventually added 13 more members, including me in 2010, and my job was Field Trip Friday, a weekly roundup of writing tips, publishing news, and whatever funny things I’d seen that week. I wrote the feature for five years, and it really kept me going when the rest of my publishing career seemed impossible. I also redesigned the site a few times and created the Publishing Road Map resource. 

Being part of YA Highway taught me a lot about working with a group, managing expectations, and dealing with public perception. Watching other members’ publishing paths meant I had no false illusions going into my own career. The staff became some of my very best friends, and we met a lot of other people in the YA community and helped them connect with each other, which felt like worthwhile work (and it’s how you and I met!)

But we were all just volunteers — no one at YA Highway has ever gotten paid, and we’ve always footed the bill for all costs ourselves. For a long time it was worth it just to be a resource to the community, but as each contributor progressed in her career, there came a point when time management meant backing away from the site’s huge demands. It wound down from multiple posts per week to a few recurring features, and today it’s basically just an archive of resources with the occasional news announcement. For now we’re still signal boosting on social media, especially Twitter and Tumblr, but when Sarah Enni and I get too busy for those duties, the site will probably close officially. I’m sad to see it go and still have a lot of ideas for it that I’d love to explore, but sometimes you have to make hard choices, and for now that means letting YA Highway go.

In addition to blogging about YA and writing your own YA, you host a series of interviews with rad women called Badass Ladies You Should Know. Can you tell us a bit about what inspired this project and what have been some of your proudest interviews and moments from it?

As the conversations about diversity in YA started coming to the forefront, and the community was beginning to grapple with the idea of signal boosting vs talking over people, I made a mistake and tried to publicly defend a friend of color when she was perfectly capable of doing it herself. She was very understanding, but it made me realize that my hot takes on those topics are very rarely needed. But I did have a growing platform to share, as well as a desire to reach outside of YA, which even then felt like an echo chamber. Giving a spotlight to inspiring women seemed like a useful contribution that accomplished both in a positive manner.

Everyone I’ve profiled has of course been amazing in some way, but the first interview to make me cry was with Sharon Bishop-Baldwin and Mary Baldwin-Bishop, newspaper editors and plaintiffs in the case that brought marriage equality to Oklahoma. Their dedication to their cause, and to each other, is so inspiring and encouraging. I also loved the interview with Fayette Mong, a lawyer and old friend from high school, whose honesty about growing up Chinese in Arkansas and the challenges she faces on the job in Boston just blew me away. More recently, I loved sharing an interview Jen Baquial, the president of Sirens Motorcycle Club of NYT, which leads the pride parade and delivers donor breastmilk in its spare time, and an interview with literary agent Saba Sulaiman, who gave stellar advice on supporting other women.

This is your debut year. What has the experience been like for you as a newly-published author? Has being close to others who’ve been published via your own work in the YA world made it more or less intimidating?

I came into the debut experience feeling like an old crone. It’s a right of passage to freak out about things like Goodreads ratings, and here I was like “you should have seen the YA Mafia kerfuffle of 2011, you kids get off my lawn.” Avoiding those issues was a plus, but I’d already watched so many careers from behind the scenes that I felt very wizened and cynical about a lot of things that should have been exciting. 

But of course I didn’t and couldn’t know everything, and some things still took me off guard. I never really had an “omg it’s a book” moment where I burst into tears or it all became capital R Real, but seeing my cover comp for the first time and immediately loving was made more amazing because I knew how many authors get covers they don’t like. And the fact that so many published author friends came together to fundraise for RAINN on my release day was a humbling and moving experience for which I’ll always be grateful.

AFTER THE FALL is a story about survival. More specifically, it’s a story about surviving sexual assault. What made you want to write about it?

To be honest, I never intended to write about sexual assault. I was just exploring my teenage feelings of inadequacy and having tried to keep up with my guy friends, both academically and on the trail. But it soon became obvious that I couldn’t address those issues without also addressing my own assault in high school, and how that affected my self esteem, my desire to prove myself, and the ways I treated myself and those around me. So I gave that backstory to Raychel and then explored how it would affect or change the story I’d already sketched out. 

What draws you to telling stories like this one, especially from the perspective of a girl who is imperfect, who makes unpopular choices, and has tough consequences with which to wrestle?

Teenage girls are so demonized in our society. I didn’t realize how complicit I was in those judgments until I started reading YA and found myself reevaluating things I’d always believed about my own teenage years. I know this is where I’m supposed to say, “I write for those girls to see themselves on the page,” but the truth is that I just try to write honestly *about* those girls, not for them. I try to realistically portray what teenage girls deal with, and how ridiculous and unfair their communities’ expectations are. Teenage girls do need to see themselves in stories, so that they know they’re not alone, but others need to see these narratives just as much, so they can stop alienating those girls.

Since April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, care to share some of your must-read YA titles that take on the issue of sexual assault/rape/abuse and why those titles stand out to you?

While I was writing AFTER THE FALL, I tried to avoid books with similar topics, but Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak, Sara Zarr’s Story of a Girl, and Courtney Summers’s Cracked Up To Be made me realize early on that these topics could be tackled in YA. Later, Courtney’s All the Rage made me pace around my house for half an hour after I finished it. I also thought Stephanie Kuehn’s Charm and Strange was a very nuanced take on abuse; Brandy Colbert’s Pointe fearlessly tackled some tough topics, and I liked how Where The Stars Still Shine by Trish Doller gave sexual agency back to the main character. 

Going a little further, and perhaps a bit more personal, you have two young sons. What sorts of books and discussions do you plan on having with them about sexual assault, rape, and consent when they’re ready for them?

We’ve been talking about basic concepts of consent since they were born. “Keep your hands to yourself” is an important lesson from… well, not day one, but at least the day you realize you’re the one controlling your hands. Simple things like “that girl asked you not to hug her so don’t” are a chance to lay the groundwork. Certain family members have tried the “boys will be boys” excuse for misbehavior, and we’ve made clear that, as the Tumblr post says, boys will be held accountable for their actions like everyone else.

My kids are now 9 and 11, and we’re very honest with them. As high profile trials hit the news, and celebrities and politicians and entire sports teams are exposed as abusers, we may not go into details but we definitely make sure they understand what happened and why it’s wrong. At the moment they self-censor and don’t want to read anything sex-related, but they’re allowed to read anything they want and I’ll certainly be putting important titles like the ones above on their shelves. 

What kinds of books were you reading as a teenager? What book or books available now do you wish you could hand your younger self?

Much to my mother’s horror, my grandma handed me Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean Auel when I was in fourth grade, and I was obsessed with that series for years — I was the weird kid banging gravel together in the backyard, pretending to flint knap like Ayla. As an actual teen, I also loved Stephen King’s The Stand, Anne Rice’s The Feast of All Saints, Watchers by Dean Koontz, Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, The House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende, and A Gift Upon The Shore by M. K. Wren (which I picked up at Walmart based solely on the Jean Auel blurb). Later in high school I was also really affected by Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, which made its way into AFTER THE FALL.

I think younger me would have benefited from the rape culture books listed above, but I would also feed my teenage love for salty ladies written in lyrical language. I would have adored Laini Taylor’s Lips Touch Three Times, the Metamorphoses series by Sarah McCarry, Nova Ren Suma’s The Walls Around Us, Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Certain Dark Things, Bone Gap by Laura Ruby, Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour, The Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacob, The Fever by Megan Abbott, or White Is For Witching by Helen Oyeyemi. Poetry-wise, I’d love to hand teenage-me Poisoned Apples by Christine Heppermann, Spiral Bound by Dessa, or When My Brother Was an Aztec by Natalie Diaz. (Luckily I have four nieces that I can inundate with books instead.)

Who is your ideal reader? Who would you want to bump into in public reading your book or reading one of your Badass Ladies interviews?

I’m still new enough to this part of the game that meeting anyone who was affected by the book is a treat. While I’m writing, however, my ideal reader is always my best friend Catherine, who started critiquing my poetry when we were twelve and still beta reads for me twenty-something years later.

As for Badass Ladies, I would love to bump into an editor who wants to make it a book project. Unfortunately I do not often wander the streets of New York but hope springs eternal…

Let’s wrap this up by looking ahead! What books are you most looking forward to reading soon?

I’ve found reading really challenging for the last few months because it’s felt like work, but the further I get from release day, the more it sounds appealing again. I’m very much looking forward to Maurene Goo’s I Believe In a Thing Called Love, Laini Taylor’s Strange the Dreamer, Somaiya Daud’s Mirage, Lilliam Rivera’s The Education of Margot Sanchez, Sarah Nicole Lemon’s Done Dirt Cheap, Little and Lion by Brandy Colbert, American Street by Ibi Zoboi, Zan Romanoff’s Grace and the Fever, and You Don’t Know Me But I Know You by Rebecca Barrow. 

____________________

A big thank you to Kate Hart for stopping by to talk.

Stay reading, YA fans, and we’ll see you again next Monday with a look at some of the latest YA news.

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Hey there, YA Readers!

Kelly is off on a well-deserved vacation this week, so she asked me to come on to host her YA newsletter to talk about some great middle grade/YA crossover reads! If you’ve read my stuff on Book Riot, you know that I love middle grade books (books geared for eight to twelve year olds). But I read lots of YA too, and it’s always fun to find “bridge books” that are fun for older middle grade readers who are looking for something new but who might not be into the more mature themes of typical YA.

The following books have just been released or are very-soon-to-be-published books that would appeal to older MG readers but would still be interesting for YA lovers. So many awesome titles out there this year, and I look forward to hearing what you think about them!

First, let’s look at some fantasy books. My first pick is Momotaro: Xander and the Lost Island of Monsters by Margaret Dilloway. This Japanese retelling of the Momotaro Peach Boy story is fresh, modern, and funny. Sixth grader Xander Miyamoto finds everything boring: school, annoying Lovey from school, and his no-adventure spring break. When his father gives him a comic book about a samurai warrior who pops out of a peach pit, Xander also finds that boring… until it leads to an adventure for him and his best friend Peyton to save Xander’s father. Spring break turns out to be not so boring after all. For those who love this book (as I’m sure you will), look out for the sequel. Momotaro: Xander and the Dream Thief comes out on April 18th.

Another new fantasy read, The Gauntlet by Karuna Riazi, will be released by Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers on March 28th. An exciting, Middle Eastern spin on Jumanji, The Gauntlet is a great read for readers who love adventure and games. When twelve-year-old Farah discovers a wrapped package on her birthday, she assumes it’s a gift from her aunt. Upon opening it and beginning to play it with her two best friends, they discover that the rules of the game are life and death, and when Farah’s brother gets sucked into the game and disappears Farah and her friends have no other choice but to follow him. But no one told them that the only way to escape the game is to win it…

One of my favorite books of the year is Prisoner of Ice and Snow by Ruth Lauren, published by Bloomsbury USA on April 4th. I couldn’t put this book down! The book begins with thirteen-year-old Valor purposefully getting herself sent to Tyur’ma, an ice-cold children’s prison. She does this to follow her twin sister Sasha, who was accused of stealing a priceless item from the royal family. Author Ruth Lauren builds her story with skill and exquisite detail. A perfect read for upper middle grade and above who want a story filled with adventure and suspense.

One more fantasy pick: Murder, Magic, and What We Wore by Kelly Jones, coming out from Alfred A. Knopf on September 19th. I know this book doesn’t come out for a while, but I had to add it because it’s such a fresh take on Regency-era mysteries and would be a lot of fun for many readers, especially advanced upper middle grade readers. The story is set in 1818 and begins with 16-year-old Annis Whitworth discovering that her father is dead and that all his money is missing. Oh, and that he might have been a spy. That leaves her with no choice but to become a spy too, of course. Unfortunately, no one takes her seriously so she takes matters into her own hand, using her rare magical ability to sew glamours, garments that can disguise the wearer completely. Then she takes on a double life and disguises herself as Madame Martine. Can she find out who killed her father and save her inheritance?

My favorite genre is realistic fiction, and there are some great books coming out for older middle grade and younger YA that you should keep an eye out for. My first pick: Braced by Alyson Gerber, published by Arthur A. Levine Books and coming out on March 28th. This is an amazing book about scoliosis and how to persevere amidst the many plot twists of adolescence. Rachel Brooks is thrilled about a new school year, the possibility of playing forward on her soccer team, and being done with appointments with her scoliosis doctor. But just when things start to look up, Rachel gets bad news: the sideways curve on her spine has worsened and Rachel needs to wear a restrictive brace twenty-three hours a day. I loved this book, and it’s definitely a great one for tween and teen readers!

Speed of Life by Carol Weston is coming out on April 4th from Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, and I cannot wait. It’s the story about fourteen-year-old Sofia, whose mother died eight months ago. While her friends and community have been super supportive, with the new school year everyone is moving on while Sofia is still struggling. She comes across advice columnist Dear Kate, and finds herself writing to her… a lot. Suddenly, she finds herself opening up to Kate and sharing about her grief and even asking some embarrassing growing up questions. Which is great until Sofia discovers a secret about Kate that changes everything. I loved this funny, multicultural cast of characters and the realistic portrayal of grief.

The fabulous cover of Well, That Was Awkward by Rachel Vail sucked me in immediately. This modern-day take of Cyrano de Bergerac is so funny and enjoyable with a quick, quirky humor. It begins when Gracie starts noticing A.J. – like, noticing, noticing. But A.J. likes Gracie’s friend Sienna, and Sienna wants Gracie to write texts to him from her because she’s too nervous to do it herself. A.J. has surprisingly witty replies to her texts, really unlike how he is in person, and Gracie finds she’s enjoying talking to him. But wait – if she’s writing on behalf of Sienna, is someone writing on behalf of A.J.? A perfect adventure in mistaken identities, this book kept my interest from first page to last.

Lucky Broken Girl by Ruth Behar (Nancy Paulsen Books, 4/11/2017), is another one of my favorite reads from this year. This compelling story is based on the author’s childhood in the 1960s as the daughter of Cuban-Jewish immigrants adjusting to life in New York City. It’s told from the point of view of Ruthie Mizrahi, hopscotch queen and proud owner of a brand-new pair of go-go boots. But when a devastating car accident leaves Ruthie in a body cast and confined to bed for month after month, Ruthie has to find peace as her body heals. A beautifully written, compelling read. (And the cover! So gorgeous!)

For non-fiction, Lion: A Long Way Home Young Reader’s Edition by Saroo Brierley, is a great foray into young reader’s editions. Adapted from Saroo Brierley’s memoir about being separated from his family on a train in India when he was five, this story tells a riveting tale of memory and what it means to feel connected to family and a culture. A great bridge book for readers getting interested in narrative non-fiction.

Well, that’s it for me! Thanks for letting me share some of the great crossover MG/YA books coming out. Next week, Kelly is back with more YA awesomeness. Happy reading!

-Karina Glaser

@KarinaYanGlaser

Happy Monday, YA Readers!

 

Let’s take this week’s newsletter as an opportunity to explore what we’ve been talking about YA over on Book Riot’s website over the last month or so. There’s something for every one here, so enjoy!

 

• A look at fiction and nonfiction YA highlighting girls involved in the Labor Movement.

• The young adult books that one reader wish she could have had as a young adult. Are there any titles you feel similarly about? (Yes, you can totally hit ‘reply’ to this email and answer that — perhaps they’ll be rounded up in a later newsletter!).

• One reader on unabiding love for Garth Nix’s Sabriel series.

• Seven YA books set across the 7 continents with rad female lead characters. Yes, even Antarctica.

• 40 paperback YA titles hitting shelves this spring. Bulk up that TBR with more portable and affordable reads.

• Nostalgia time! YA books from back in the day featuring heroines who kick some literal butt.

• YA girls, fiction and real, who love and excel at STEM (that’s Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math for the non-acronym savvy!).

• A look at 100 (plus a couple more) YA books that are excellent reads for feminists and young feminists-in-training.

• While you’re waiting for Whitney Gardner’s You’re Welcome, Universe to hit shelves (though I know I’ve seen it in some places already!), some excellent YA books about art, life, and love.

• 15 YA books that are great fits for Black Sabbath’s hits. We Book Riot hard, y’all.

• YA books that explore money, class, and power (seriously, though, these books are not only outstanding but tackle some big stuff I haven’t seen much before!).

• Which of these YA novels about nerds are worth your bucks and which are worth a checkout at the library? The verdicts are in.

• Excellent YA LGBTQ #OwnVoices science fiction and fantasy reads. Wheee!!!

 

That’s a wrap this week! I’ll be handing over control of the YA Newsletter next week to middle grade queen Karina Glaser, as I’ll be traveling. I’m eager to see what she talks about and hope you are, too!

Until later, keep fighting the good fight and reading great YA books.

-Kelly Jensen

@veronikellymars