Hey YA Readers!
Let’s start a new week in a new month with a round-up of YA news…and a couple of book recommendations.
“What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi from Penguin Teen.
Scott Ferdowsi has a track record of quitting. His best friends know exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives, but Scott can hardly commit to a breakfast cereal, let alone a passion.
He never expects an adventure to unfold. But that’s what Scott gets when he meets Fiora Buchanan, a ballsy college student whose life ambition is to write crossword puzzles. When the bicycle she lends him gets Scott into a high-speed chase, he knows he’s in for the ride of his life.
As has been the trend recently, there’s a lot of adaptation news, a late-night interview with a beloved YA author, and more.
- Curious about the forthcoming Gayle Forman YA novel? Here’s an excerpt to whet your appetite.
- A really lovely piece about Samira Ahmed, author of the recently-released and New York Times bestselling Love, Hate, and Other Filters.
- Check this out: Kwame Alexander is getting his own imprint and he’ll be publishing some great books for children and YA readers.
- Peep some photos from the set of The Hate U Give‘s adaptation.
- Add these most-anticipated spring 2018 YA books to your to-read list.
- The YA comic I Kill Giants is being adapted for the big screen, and you can watch the trailer here.
- Kathy Burnett’s project to build a children’s bookstore in northern Indiana is up on IndieGoGo. Consider dropping a few bucks or sharing her project? This would be a tremendous boon to the area, with easier access to diverse reads for children and teens.
- Jason Reynolds on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah. We don’t see enough YA authors hit the late night circuit, and this is a real treat.
- Heard of the “Ferryman” trilogy by Claire McFall? You will likely soon, as film and graphic novels rights have been snapped up, with the goal of creating a franchise.
- Here’s one to get super stoked about: Stephanie Oakes’s The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly has been ordered for a 10-episode drama series. Small screen, ahoy — this is one that would be so good done this way.
- Erika L. Sanchez’s I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter has had film rights optioned.
- A nice read about the influence of A Wrinkle in Time. Whether you see it as middle grade or very young YA, you can’t escape that it’s having a cultural moment, in addition to being a classic book for young readers.
- The “Enola Holmes” series is being made into a series of movies, and Millie Bobby Brown will be starring.
- Even though Ready Player One is not a YA novel, the rest of this list of forthcoming YA adaptations this year is one of better/more accurate ones.
Quick Picks…
Two YA nonfiction reads worth picking up that I plowed through recently:
#NotYourPrincess: Voices of Native American Women by Lisa Charleyboy and Mary Beth Leatherdale
This book being one of the shortlisted titles for this year’s Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults, it’s likely already on many radars. But here’s why you should pick it up to read ASAP: this gorgeous collection, rendered like a scrapbook, offers a multitude of Native women’s voices throughout the USA and Canada. There’s spectacular art and photography, poetry, interviews, and more, all of which center around the variety of stories, experiences, and perspectives Native women have. It’s a short book and — perhaps the downside — looks a little bit more like a picture book than a YA read. Upside? Full color art really stands out.
Americanized: Rebel Without a Green Card by Sara Saedi (out tomorrow, February 6)
Saedi’s hilarious memoir is reminiscent of reading Funny in Farsi and Mindy Kaling in terms of voice and perspective. The book focuses on Saedi’s experience as an illegal immigrant, how her family came to the US from Iran and lived without documentation, and the sort of hoops they needed to jump through to become citizens. In a world where immigration continues to be a topic of discourse — and more, an experience so many young people are living — Saedi’s book is a necessary read. Bonus points to this one for sharing great family stories, providing insight into Iranian traditions, and for a really appealing format.
Read ’em Cheap…
There are so many great YA deals this month. I’m going to have to be careful not to drop too many at once.
Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the classic YA read about sexual assault, is $3.
The queer romance which had a ton of really positive buzz, Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown is $2.
Adventure air-ship fantasy Airborn by Kenneth Oppel is $2.
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Thanks for hanging out this week, and we’ll see you again next Monday.
–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars