Blackout Poetry, Mixed Media Translations, and More YA Book Talk: April 17, 2023

Bookish Goods

Book Dragon Gold Holographic Stickers by thegrantgirl

I got sucked into this Etsy page from a different bookish set of stickers for which there was only one sheet remaining. These remind me of the Mrs. Grossman stickers of my youth and y’all — BOOK DRAGONS! $3.30.

New Releases

This is an interesting week for new releases. Several titles I had in my notes to be published this week either published earlier or won’t publish for another couple of weeks. Pub dates are still shifting, so sometimes what you see here is not 100% accurate — it is more than a full-time job keeping up with the changes.

That’s all a preamble to say that while I try to offer genre diversity in new releses, today’s is realistic heavy. The good news is you’ll see the opposite on Thursday with paperback releases, as there are several more genre titles from which to choose.

That said, these two realistic books could not be more different from one another and both look so dang good.

You can grab the full roundup of this week’s releases (with pub dates guessed as best as possible via publisher catalogs) over here.

I Kick and I Fly by Ruchira Gupta

Fourteen-year-old Heera is about to be sold into the sex trade. Her father needed money and it’s been a common fate for girls in her community on the outskirts of the Red Light District in Bihar, India. At the final hour, though, her fate changes, thanks to a hostel owner who brings money to her family’s home. In exchange, Heera will begin learning the art of kung fu with other girls.

Heera will begin her next adventure and along the way learn how to use her body as a powerful tool for herself and hat she is not just a tool for others.

Pardalita by Joana Estrela, Lyn Miller-Lachmann (Translated by)

A mixed media YA book in verse? I am so here for this one and cannot wait to get my hands on it.

Raquel, who is 16, lives in a small Portugal town where she’s been kicked out of school. Why? She cussed out a school aid for being nosy about her father’s new marriage. Everyone knows everyone’s business, but it’s still not everyone’s business.

Then she meets Pardalita. Pardalita is an artist planning to move to Lisbon after graduation, but in the interim, she and Racquel get to know one another…and Racquel starts to catch some serious feelings.

This is told through prose, verse, and art, and it’s being described as This One Summer meets Very Far Away from Anywhere Else.

For a more comprehensive list of new releases, check out our New Books newsletter.

Riot Recommendations

April is National Poetry Month in the U.S. Something you may not know about me is that my entry into the world of writing began with poetry. I focused on it throughout elementary, middle, and high school, and in college, I published several pieces across various journals. I fell out of practice of writing it as I moved into adulthood, but it is something I consider foundational in my writing life. I love the format, and I love how much poetry allows young people to share their voices.

YA verse novels have really hit a golden age over the last few yers, thanks to authors like Elizabeth Acevedo and Candice Iloh, as well as so many authors of color utilizing the format. I’m going to talk about verse novels in a future YA newsletter, but this week, I wanted to highlight a couple of poetry collections FOR teens since I think these books are sorely overlooked and yet, would be (and are!) popular with their intended teen readers.

These are books published between 2019 and today, as I put together an extensive roundup of poetry books for teens in 2018 that highlights more backlist titles.

Dark Testament by Crystal Simone Smith

This is the most recent book on this list and it might be the most unconventional poetry collection among them. Created as black out poems from George Saunders’s book Lincoln in the Bardo, Smith tells the story of those lost to racial violence and gives voices to those engaged in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Ink Knows No Borders edited by Patrice Vecchione and Alyssa Raymond

There are some familiar names in this poetry collection, including Acevedo, Samira Ahmed, Ocean Vuong, and dozens more. This collection highlights first and second generation immigrant voices from across the globe in poetry.

When The World Didn’t End by Caroline Kaufman

Kaufman is a beloved Instagram poet, and this is her second print collection. Topics in this one include love, self discovery, and the power of overcoming depression.

This collection published pre-pandemic, so it would be especially interesting to revisit it, as one of the themes is the wonder in an uncertain future.

You Don’t Have To Be Everything edited by Diana Whitney

Sixty-eight poets from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences, including Amanda Gorman, Sharon Olds, Kate Baer, and Naomi Shihab Nye explode the idea of stereotypical femininity. The collection is aimed at young female-identifying individuals, encouraging them to be who they are and not what others expect them to be.

I hope your month is treating you well. We’ll see you later this week for your paperback releases and YA book news.

In the meantime, happy reading!

–Kelly Jensen, currently devouring No Boy Summer by Amy Spalding.