Sponsored by Tor Teen
Raider, protector. Bloodwitch…Aeduan. Every story has two sides.
Fans of Susan Dennard’s New York Times bestselling The Witchlands series have fallen in love with the Bloodwitch Aeduan. And now, finally, comes his story. Aeduan has teamed up with the Threadwitch Iseult and the magical girl Owl to stop the coming destruction. But to do so, he must confront his own father, and his past.
Bloodwitch, Book 3 in The Witchlands series, is now available in paperback wherever books are sold. This special paperback edition features a bonus scene, plus an exclusive sneak peek of Witchshadow—the next Witchlands novel coming February 2021!
Hey YA Readers!
I love a good crossover read. That is, a book that’s marketed for adults but is perfect to scratch my YA reading interests. Typically, those books feature younger protagonists in situations that feel very teen — as opposed to books where a teen is reflecting through the lens of an adult.
Let’s take a peek at 5 great crossover reads for YA fans. I’ve got some fiction and nonfiction here. I’ve adapted this newsletter from an earlier on-site post, which I’ll link to at the bottom.
Grab your TBR!
Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation by Michael Powell
In this book, we get to watch a Navajo Nation basketball team seek glory on the court during a tough season. The story follows the individuals on the team, focusing on what it means to grow up in this part of Arizona at this time in history, particularly as it comes to the challenges of modern Native life. There is a lot of pain and hurt, as well as a lot of hope—and it’s through basketball, so many can rally around and cheer for something outside of personal challenges. Like good sports nonfiction, this is about the way a team can make a community come together, despite the challenges it faces.
How Much of These Hills Is Gold by C. Pam Zhang
This debut novel, set during the American Gold Rush, the follows Lucy and Sam, siblings who are newly orphaned children of immigrants. With their father’s death, they set off to leave the mining town which isn’t safe for them. Their goal is to bury their father in the only way that will allow them the freedom to build their own lives. Zhang’s book marries Chinese symbolism and a reimagined American history. This sounds like the kind of book fans of Stacey Lee would absolutely eat up.
A Prayer for Travelers by Ruchika Tomar
This is a mystery, told out of order, about a brown girl named Cale who is raised by her grandfather. She becomes entwined with a brown girl named Penny who goes missing. They’re close friends—though we only kind of believe this to be true, as the friendship seems one sided—so Cale wants to know what happened to Penny and why it is she disappeared.
Set in the west, in the desert, this well-paced, cleverly crafted, and gorgeously written story offers up a slice of American narrative we don’t see enough in that setting. Readers who adore Courtney Summers’s Sadie will want to pick this one up post-haste (let that be your content warning as well).
We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry
Witchcraft + high school girls’ field hockey + Emilio Estavez = this book is a win, even without saying anything more than that. This book is a romp in all of the best possible ways, following the 1989 Danvers High School field hockey team discover their powers as a witchy coven. They go from the worst team in the state to real contenders for state championship when they take a vow with the image of Emilio Estavez. Each of the main characters tells one of the chapters from a third person POV, and it all rounds back to the team revisiting one another on their hallowed ground 30 years later.
Inclusive, soaked in late ’80s pop culture references, and downright hilarious at times, this is also a surprisingly thoughtful story of the power of being a teen girl, the ways our society has shifted in the last 30 years, and what it means to make your own type of power. It reminded me a lot of the film Now and Then, in the best ways.
Wild Life: Dispatches From a Childhood of Baboons and Button Downs by Keena Roberts
This memoir follows Keena, her sister, and her parents—who are research primatologists—as they spend half of their year working in Botswana in “Baboon Camp” and the rest of the year off the Main Line in the Philly suburbs at a private school. It’s a really fascinating story of falling in love with Africa and growing up understanding what it is to be privileged enough to live such a life, as well as what it is to have a really wild and free—yet at times downright terrifying—childhood. The ability to interweave her less-than-happy American experience really made this one stand out, and without question, this book has loads of crossover appeal to teen readers. It’s told in anecdotes, with a number of pictures, as well as entries from Keena’s diaries.
Want more? You can find 15 additional crossover recommendations on the initial post, 20 must-read crossover books!
Stay well, and we’ll see you later this week for more great book talk.
— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram and editor of Body Talk, (Don’t) Call Me Crazy, and Here We Are.