Author: Kelly Jensen

Hey YA Readers!

One of the most enjoyable trends I’ve seen this year is how creative YA readers are getting with their bookish goods and specifically, I’ve been lusting over so many of the YA books with painted and decorated edges being offered across Etsy.

In putting together this gift guide, I have really had to hold back from not doing an entire roundup of gorgeous decorated books. I included some, but I do encourage you to seek out some of your favorite titles and see what folks have made from them.

Included in this roundup are title-specific finds, as well as broader book lover goods. There’s a little of everything, ranging from stickers to tees, keychains to DIY cross stitch patterns and more. These make perfect gifts for YA lovers you know, and, of course, your own damn self (I’ve really come to appreciate as an adult that no one will throw you a parade, so you have to do it yourself–the humor of Parks and Rec’s “Treat Yo Self” hits a little different when you’re in your 30s, as you realize you have to do it because no one will do it for you).

Let’s begin with some of these luscious book edge paintings.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

This edition of Legendborn is beautiful and perfectly mimics the color palette of the cover. $37.

I especially love that this creepy book’s juxtaposition with the brightly colored edges. $26.

Although this edition of All These Bodies is labeled “imperfect,” it looks pretty dang good to me. I love the blood red and the weapon on it. $17.

I began with swooning over this sprayed edge edition of Six Crimson Cranes and then read the description closer — you can have this creator make such art on any book. The examples in the reviews are just stunning. $27.

If you want to splurge, maybe the Aurora Rising trilogy with three different galaxy-inspired edges is where you do so. I’m in AWE of how gorgeous these are. $120.

For fans of the enemies to lovers trope in fantasy, an awesome enamel pin. $15, with a trio of color choices.

Talk about a sticker with some real main character energy. $3.50.

Forever reminder that YA isn’t a genre but a category, but because this genre YA candle is so fun and smells of Rose Gelato, Grapefruit, Mint, Hibiscus, Palm, Raspberry Sangria, I’ll let it go. $8.50.

Every single thing about this Raybearer-inspired holographic sticker is perfection. Roar! $5.

Whether you’re a long-time Adam Silvera fan or new to the fold (big thanks to TikTok!), this tee inspired from They Both Die at The End will make for a great reading uniform. $30, S-2XL, with some color options.

Read with pride and this LGBTQ+ book stack bookmark. I love the rainbow tassel on top. $6.50.

Grab one of these two cross stitch patterns for fans of the Grishaverse! They’re $3.50 each and instant downloads. Make it yourself to gift or give the pattern with some thread to a recipient for their own creation.

This bookmark with a quote from Instructions for Dancing is for all of the readers who just love feeling feelings. $3.

Short and sweet: a pretty read more books keychain. This will be weird to say but I cannot be alone in being able to taste the style of this keychain, right? $8.

I’ve shared this before but it’s worth sharing again. Get yourself or another YA book lover this YA reader mug. $19 and up.

Twilight is back, whether we like it or not, and this Edward Cullen sticker feels way too appropriate for this renaissance. $3.50.

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I hope you found something for yourself or someone else here. We’re taking Thursday off for American Thanksgiving, so you’ll get the next edition of What’s Up in YA in your inbox on Saturday with deals and again on Monday with some great YA nonfiction talk.

Until then, happy reading!

— Kelly Jensen,  @heykellyjensen on Instagram.

Hey YA Readers!

The last week has sure been a mixed bag. For those of us who were young in the early 00s have seen some of the most shamed young women get freedom and find love (see: the end of conservatorship for Britney Spears, a marriage for Paris Hilton, and Jessica Simpson getting ownership of her name and brand again–it’s impossible, of course, not to see that the positive stories are cis, presumed-heterosexual white women.). But now, we’re seeing a war on young people, as right-wing groups attack their rights to access queer, Black, and Brown literature, as well as push back against mental health discussions and help in schools. It’s unbearably frustrating to see change happen at a glacial pace — change that will hopefully help the most vulnerable among us find their own autonomy — while seeing more and more efforts to stifle the rights of young people TO that autonomy.

I know I’ve shared this before and will continue to share, but there are things you can do to help support intellectual freedom and the rights of young people. This toolkit gives you action items, whether you have time and energy to invest or you are passionate, but have limited resources to utilize.

I’ll link to last week’s censorship news below, but I urge anyone who can to speak up and take action. You’re here because you love young adult literature, and as such, you’re a believer in the rights of teenagers. It’s impossible to divorce the two.

That all in mind and charge offered, let’s dig into this week’s YA book news and new books.

YA Book News

• George M. Johnson addresses the challenges to their book All Boys Aren’t Blue in Florida.
• This was a really interesting look at how Chloe Gong found success on TikTok with her book These Violent Delights.
• I do like the ways we’ve shifted from trilogies being the gold standard for book series in YA and moved toward more duologies.
• A prequel to We Were Liars by E. Lockhart is coming next spring.
• Some casting news for the adaptation of Loveboat, Taipei.
• A nice piece about YA author Ayana Gray (Beasts of Prey) from her local Little Rock news station.
• Uglies will hit screens next year.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

YA Books Out This Week

Please note that with supply chain issues, paper supply challenges, and the pandemic more broadly, publication dates are changing at a pace I can’t keep up with. Some release dates may be pushed back. If a book catches your attention, the smartest thing to do right now is to preorder it or request it from your library. It’ll be a fun surprise when it arrives.

Hardcover

The Diamond Keeper by Jeannie Mobley

Game Changer by Abbi Glines (series)

The Nobleman’s Guide to Scandal and Shipwrecks by Mackenzi Lee (series)

Our Violet Ends by Chloe Gong (series)

Paperback

Dangerous Alliance by Jennieke Cohen

Hearts, Strings, and Other Breakable Things by Jacqueline Firkins

Making a Play by Abbi Glines (series)

This Week at Book Riot

• Danika’s anti-censorship manifesto about queer books is essential reading. This is a reminder of how much queer literature has grown just over the last half-decade. I helped with one of Malinda Lo’s queer book count projects and remember when she stopped doing them because it’d become hard to quantify any longer.
• A Rioter talked about how YA horror inspired a love of reading.
• Why do so many young readers love VC Andrews? (I dug these books so much).
• Dark novels in verse, including a number of great YA titles.
• Given the perennial popularity of vampires and werewolves in YA, this deep dive into the history of those creatures in the UK and Ireland is definitely worth a read.
• Great new YA books about cheerleading.
• PEN America’s new report on the state of educational gag orders is eye-opening.
• Finally, here’s a look at (…some of) last week’s book censorship news.

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Thanks for hanging out, y’all. Because next week is a holiday week here in the US, I’m going to take a week off nonfiction discussion for a roundup of some great YA gift ideas for the gifting season. I’ll come back to nonfiction the following Monday, since I don’t want to shortchange highlighting these excellent reads.

Happy reading!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.

Hey YA Readers!

On the latest episode of Hey YA, Erica and I talked about recent and upcoming YA nonfiction titles and during the discussion, I talked about Brandy Colbert’s recent release Black Birds in the Sky. It’s an incredible read about the Tulsa Massacre of 1921, highlighting Tulsa’s Black Wall Street and the thriving Black communities there and in other parts of Oklahoma. This book is packaged in an extremely appealing way for both young adult readers who may not usually gravitate toward nonfiction, as well as those who do, and the book being available on shelves at Target gives it both big visibility for the category of YA nonfiction but also for its look at a topic that’s been under-explored in classrooms (and likely will continue to be, thanks to anti-“Critical Race Theory” legislation). Black Birds In The Sky a riveting and vital read — and it’s one of a number of excellent YA releases on the topic this year. Across The Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Massacre by Alverne Ball and Stacey Robinson explores this history in their graphic novel released in May, while Hilary Beard adapted the work of Tim Madigan’s The Burning: Black Wall Street and the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 for young adults earlier this year, too.

When I finished Colbert’s book, I fell down a number of research rabbit holes, which is one of the things that makes nonfiction so great. I’m someone who is fascinated by stories we don’t get to hear, and usually, those stories are from and by marginalized communities. Wherever you live, especially in the United States, you’ll find these histories around you. For me, finishing the book reminded me of my endless fascination with Cairo, Illinois (pronounced Kay-roe), a community at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. It’s a town that’s dealt with a significant loss of population over the last half century or more, and it’s one that’s been rattled by its racist history. Equally fascinating, though, is the discrimination within the town led Black residents to choose to develop their own suburb outside Cairo called Future City. There’s very little information about that town’s history, though thanks to its geography, it, like Cairo, has struggled to withstand flooding. It’s not flourished nor grown and though a handful of residents still live there, it’s essentially a ghost town.

Ron Powers discusses Cairo, Future City, and other Illinois communities that have a notable racist past in his 1991 adult nonfiction book Far From Home: Life and Loss in Two American Towns, but it’s one of the only titles out there exploring communities like it. James W. Loewen, another white author who did earlier this year, dug into communities across the country that were — and some which still are — sundown towns in his adult title Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism. This book, as well as Powers, talk a bit about Anna, Illinois, which ProPublica took a deep dive into in 2018, specifically looking at its racist history and the acronym associated with its name.

It’s not hard to understand why, then, tools like The Green Book were vital resources for Black Americans in the 20th century. Candacy Taylor’s forthcoming adaptation for young readers of her own adult book, Overground Railroad: The Green Book and the Roots of Black Travel in America (January) offers a look at not just the essential role the Green Book played for Black people who wanted to travel, but that it also served as a tool of resistance — those who had their businesses listed as places where racial segregation wasn’t de facto or de jure took a courageous stand.

Some Black people believe a modern adaption of The Green Book wouldn’t be a radical idea today.

As racial violence continues, finding places that are safer to rest in, to dine in, and to patronize is crucial. Places like Cairo and Anna were among the communities unsafe for Black people to pass through, let alone rest in, and as Colbert and others explained in their books on the Tulsa Massacre, even in communities where Black life flourished, the undercurrent and indeed, the retaliation against Black excellence, remained.

A not-small number of these communities still exist today.

Young adult nonfiction is flourishing right now, and it’s not hard to understand why. Not only are the titles timely, but they’re timeless, and as the above-mentioned explore, they offer a window from the past into the whys and hows of modern society. We haven’t moved much from what allowed The Tulsa Massacre to happen, and certainly, we haven’t made travel across the country safer for marginalized people — the reality is, so many have forgotten the real and grave dangers that Black people especially encounter going about daily life in a white supremacist driven America. So many of us don’t recognize or think about the fact communities like Cairo and Anna, as well as Tulsa and countless others that can be named and those which can’t, not only have a charged history but that history remains part of the fabric which makes them what they are today.

And indeed, even where there was and is hope for utopian communities for people of the global majority in America, those stories haven’t been told, haven’t been recorded, and remain under explored in literature, in research, and in the public view.

This is where books like Colbert’s do tremendous service, especially for young readers. They offer a look at under-told stories of the past, encouraging exploration into one’s own backyard, and, as the case is in America, a reminder that this country has been colonized, and even groups which are marginalized now have a tangled and complicated relationship with the Native and Indigenous communities from whom this land was stolen and settled.

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Thanks for hanging out today and I hope you’ll find the time to dig into the stories of your own community between picking up the incredible books above.

We’ll see you on Thursday for your YA news and new books.

Until then, happy reading!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

Hey YA Readers!

Somehow, we’re almost half-way through another month. The end of the year sure does seem to fly by.

With that, it won’t be a huge surprise that the next couple of months will be lighter on news and new book releases as the publishing world begins to wrap up their years and prepare for the new one ahead.

Let’s dive into what’s going on this week.

YA Book News

• The YA science fiction and fantasy titles hitting shelves this month.
• I really loved this post about the books that made YA author Garth Nix.
• A roundup of must-read school romance manhwa.
• Parade named their best YA books of 2021, which includes some books that aren’t YA, at least one not published this year, and a handful of titles that haven’t gotten attention (which is why it’s worth linking to despite the first two notes!).
• I wasn’t a reader of “Royal Diaries” as a tween, but I know so many who were, so this news about the books being adapted will be exciting.

New YA Books

Please note that with supply chain issues, paper supply challenges, and the pandemic more broadly, publication dates are changing at a pace I can’t keep up with. Some release dates may be pushed back. If a book catches your attention, the smartest thing to do right now is to preorder it or request it from your library. It’ll be a fun surprise when it arrives. This goes, too, for any books you might be planning to purchase for the holidays — the sooner you pick up the hard copies, if that’s your preference, the better.

Hardcover

Aurora’s End by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff (series)

Ballad of Dinah Caldwell by Kate Brauning

Catch the Light by Kate Sweeney

Court by Tracy Wolff (series)

Forgotten Memories of Vera Glass by Anna Priemaza

I’ll Keep You Close by Jeska Verstegen and translated by Bill Nagelkerke

Roxy by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

A Snake Falls to Earth by Darcie Little Badger

Starling by Isabel Strychacz

The Year I Stopped Trying by Katie Heaney

Year of the Reaper by Makiia Lucier

Paperback

Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro

The Ever-Cruel Kingdom by Rin Chupeco (series)

Heiress Apparently by Diana Ma (series)

Lies Like Poison by Chelsea Pitcher

The Nemesis by S. J. Kincaid (series)

Rent a Boyfriend by Gloria Chao

Sasha Masha by Agnes Borinsky

Stormbreak by Natalie C. Parker (series)

YA Book Talk at Book Riot

• A wide range of new and upcoming YA retellings for your TBR.
• Though it’s not a list of entirely YA books, there are some solid entries on this list of books like Squid Game.
• YA comics hitting shelves through the end of 2021.
• And speaking of YA comics, some you may have missed this year.
• Again, this isn’t entirely YA but there are a lot of YA books on this look at stories about the rural queer experience.
• Finally, a look at what’s actually on the list of 850 books that Texas lawmakers want pulled from school libraries.

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Thanks for hanging out, y’all, and we’ll see you again on Saturday for some YA ebook deals, then on Monday with some more YA nonfiction talk.

Until then, happy reading!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

Hey YA Readers!

November is all about nonfiction, and as someone who loves nonfiction — and young adult nonfiction specifically — it’s the perfect opportunity to explore the depth and breadth of titles out there. Let’s begin by getting to know some recent young adult nonfiction in comic form.

Many of the nonfiction comics in YA are memoirs, but not all of them are. Some of them are biographies, while others take a look at any number of topics and dive in, pairing information with art.

I’m sticking with YA nonfiction comics from the last year or two, and they range from stories of migrants to stories of groundbreaking reporters and more. In many cases, I’ve also included even more great nonfiction for further reading (and that’s one of the things I love so much about nonfiction: once you find a topic that interests you, the number of books out there to take you further in your reading journey is almost limitless!).

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I hope you added some great nonfiction comics to your TBR, and prepare to add even more excellent YA nonfiction to your wish list through the rest of the month.

We’ll see you again on Thursday for all of your YA book news and new book releases.

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.

Hey YA Readers!

It’s been a quieter week in terms of YA book news, and chances are, we’ll see a quieter few weeks as we roll out of 2021 (but maybe we won’t — it’s been a weird year, so who knows?). The good news is this means you’ve got time to catch up on the latest YA book releases, as well as those books that’ve been teetering on your TBR.

Let’s dive in.

YA Book News

Note: I’ve not included book challenges, as you can follow those weekly on Book Riot. I round ’em up on Fridays, and the previous week’s are linked later in the newsletter.

• Buried in this piece is news of the adaptation of Peter Bognanni’s YA novel Things I’m Seeing Without You.
• I dug this interview with a YA book cover artist, whose work you likely know from the Aristotle and Dante duology.
• A fun look at the most popular Judy Blume books, according to Goodreads users. Her YA titles seem to land somewhere in the middle.
• Have you heard of the Big Library Read from Libby/Overdrive? This program, running through November 15, will let everyone download Five Total Strangers by Natalie D. Richards from their library platforms. Full details and how to take part.

New YA Book Releases

Please note that with supply chain issues, paper supply challenges, and the pandemic more broadly, publication dates are changing at a pace I can’t keep up with. Some release dates may be pushed back. If a book catches your attention, the smartest thing to do right now is to preorder it or request it from your library. It’ll be a fun surprise when it arrives. This goes, too, for any books you might be planning to purchase for the holidays — the sooner you pick up the hard copies, if that’s your preference, the better.

Hardcover

Briar Girls by Rebecca Kim Wells

Dreams Lie Beneath by Rebecca Ross

Every Line of You by Naomi Gibson

A Face for Picasso by Ariel Henley (nonfiction)

Faith: Greater Heights by Julie Murphy (series)

Fat Angie: Homecoming by e.E. Charlton-Trujillo (series)

Freedom Swimmer by Wai Chim

Gilded by Marissa Meyer

Girls of Fate and Fury by Natasha Ngan (series)

A Hot Mess by Jeff Fleischer (nonfiction)

In The Ballroom with a Candlestick by Diana Peterfreund

Into The Bloodred Woods by Martha Brockenbrough

Margot Mertz Takes It Down by Carrie McCrossen and Ian McWethy

The Reckless Kind by Carly Heath

A Rush of Wings by Laura E. Weymouth

Skin of the Sea by Natasha Bowen (series)

Spin Me Right Round by David Valdes

The Story of More: Young Reader Edition by Hope Jahren (nonfiction)

Sway With Me by Syed M. Masood

Terciel and Elinor by Garth Nix (series)

When We Were Them by Laura Taylor Namey

You Can Go Your Own Way by Eric Smith

You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

Paperback

Archenemies by Marissa Meyer (series)

Beautiful Wild by Anna Godbersen

Blame It On The Mistletoe by Beth Garrod

The Camelot Betrayal by Kiersten White (series)

Come On In by Adi Alsaid

A Cuban Girl’s Guide to Tea and Tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey

The Enigma Game by Elizabeth Wein

Finding My Voice by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

Food-Related Stories by Gaby Melian (nonfiction)

Going Viral by Katie Cicatelli-Kuc

The Grimrose Girls by Laura Pohl (series)

Lost Roads by Jonathan Maberry (series)

Seven Dirty Secrets by Natalie D. Richards

Storm The Earth by Rebecca Kim Wells (series)

Supernova by Marissa Meyer (series)

Those Who Prey by Jennifer Moffett

Warriors of Wing and Flame by Sara B. Larson (series)

This Week at Book Riot

• A look at the rise of Black horror in YA and middle grade.
• This look at Jewish YA books is fantastic.
• Did “The Girl With The Green Ribbon” scare you as a kid? Here’s a history of the story and some of its modern iterations — including in YA.
• Sink your teeth into some new YA vampire stories.
• How much do you recall about Twilight? Take this quiz to see if you’re (still?) a Twi-hard.
• A roundup of book challenges across the country from the past week or so.

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As always, thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you again on Saturday with some YA ebook deals. Monday will launch a series of newsletters focused on YA nonfiction in honor of my favorite bookish celebration, Nonfiction November.

Until then, happy reading!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.

Hey YA Readers!

As we’re running full-speed into the end of another year — somehow it is November already! — let’s take a moment to peep some of the new books hitting shelves in 2022. There’s not a unifying theme to these other than they’ve hit my radar and look like excellent reads to preorder and/or TBR ASAP.

Some of these are by names you’ll know, while others are by newer authors. It sure looks like we’re in for some outstanding books in our future to pair with the piles and piles of other books we’re going to sink into as soon as we can.

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This is but the tip of the iceberg for exciting forthcoming YA, y’all. Picking seven to highlight was so hard — and I hope you’re eager for these, too.

As always, thanks for hanging out. I’ll see you again on Thursday with a look at this week’s YA news and new books. Until then, happy reading!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.

Hey YA Readers!

Let’s catch up on the latest in YA book news and new YA books. I hope you’ve got your favorite treats ready to celebrate Halloween this weekend and some excellent reads, too.

YA Book News

• Here are Publishers Weekly’s best of 2021 YA books. It’s a pretty solid list! The only big one missing (IMO, of course) is A Sitting in St. James.
• The YA novel which inspired Hayao Miyazaki is being translated and published in the United States.
• Angie Thomas teases some of the adaptation of On The Come Up.
• The director and studio behind the adaptation of LC Rosen’s Camp are no joke!
• A sneak peak at The Midnight Society, an upcoming adaptation of Christopher Pike’s work.
• And a look at the Uglies adaptation.
• I’m here for Britney Spears reading a YA book because of Reese Witherspoon.

New YA Books

Please note that with supply chain issues, paper supply challenges, and the pandemic more broadly, publication dates are changing at a pace I can’t keep up with. Some release dates may be pushed back. If a book catches your attention, the smartest thing to do right now is to preorder it or request it from your library. It’ll be a fun surprise when it arrives. This goes, too, for any books you might be planning to purchase for the holidays — the sooner you pick up the hard copies, if that’s your preference, the better.

Hardcover

Daughter of a Dead Empire by Carolyn Tara O’Neil

Disability Visibility edited by Alice Wong (nonfiction, young reader edition!)

I’m Dreaming of a Wyatt Christmas by Tiffany Schmidt

Journey to the Heart of the Abyss by London Shah (series)

The Other Side of the Sky by Amie Kaufman and Meagan Spooner

Rest Easy by Warona Jolomba

Paperback

A Golden Fury by Samantha Cohoe

Magic Dark and Strange by Kelly Powell

This Week at Book Riot

• The most underrated YA books of the pandemic.
• A history of Fear Street.
• Read your way into some YA cozy mysteries.
• Take this quiz to get a YA pirate book recommendation.
• A collection of new dark witchy books.
• This roundup of books about coming of age in the 90s isn’t entirely YA, but there are a number of great YA books on this list.
• Take this Twilight quiz and see what you do — or don’t — remember about the series.

‘Tis the season to burn a delicious candle while you’re reading, and this YA Reader candle — orange, sandalwood, coconut scented — is perfectly fitting. $10.

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Thanks for hanging out, and we’ll see you on Saturday with some ebook deals!

— Kelly Jensen,

@heykellyjensen on Instagram.

(psst: did you know both (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Body Talk, my two most recent anthologies, are on sale for the low price of $2 this month in ebook format? Now you do!).

Hey YA Readers!

We’re only a few days out from the best holiday of the year, and though horror is perfect for reading all year long, this time of the year makes it especially appealing.

Over the last handful of years, YA anthologies have been abundant, covering so many great topics both in fiction and in nonfiction. Horror short stories have always been part of YA, and they’ve been anthologized for a long time. It’s been nice to see more and more of these collections recognized for their strengths and see new ones popping onto shelves.

These collections are perfect for when you want to read your scares in bite size portions. Maybe you read a couple of stories between trick-or-treaters knocking at your door or you light a candle, put on some atmospheric music, and allow yourself a night of doing nothing but reading a collection start to finish.

Maybe, too, you’ll want to pop on one of Book Riot’s anniversary celebration tees or sweatshirts to really vibe out.

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I hope your week is full of more treats than tricks, and I’ll see you again on Thursday with your YA book news and new books.

Until then, happy reading!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.

(psst: did you know both (Don’t) Call Me Crazy and Body Talk, my two most recent anthologies, are on sale for the low price of $2 this month in ebook format? Now you do!).

Hey YA Readers!

I hope you’re having the best kind of October available to you and you’re able to find a good book or two. Let’s catch up on the latest in YA book news and new YA books this week.

A note, too: in Monday’s newsletter, I mentioned the main character in Baby and Solo being gay. He is not — his brother, however, was a member of the LGBTQ community during his life. I wanted to clarify that, since it matters pretty heavily to what Joel, the main character, wrestles with. (So many books, so many details, and so many distractions in life!).

YA Book News

There’s a lot of interesting horror-themed news and features this week!

• First, though: we’re getting a spin-off from To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before! Get ready for Kitty’s story in XO, Kitty, written by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian for Netflix.
• Here’s Reese Witherspoon’s latest YA Book Club pick.
• A look at the rise and fall of YA dystopian franchises.
• RL Stine talks about making horror work for young readers, as well as the success of the adaptation of his Fear Street series.
• The YA horror anthology A Banquet for Hungry Ghosts has been optioned for adaptation.
• A fun look at the Halloween franchise novels for young adults and how they foretold where the story went decades later.
• I’m not sure there’s anything new or revolutionary here, but it’s a good read regardless: how negative reviews on Goodreads impact authors (the writer is a YA author, as are many of those interviewed).

New YA Books This Week

Please note that with supply chain issues, paper supply challenges, and the pandemic more broadly, publication dates are changing at a pace I can’t keep up with. Some release dates may be pushed back. If a book catches your attention, the smartest thing to do right now is to preorder it or request it from your library. It’ll be a fun surprise when it arrives. This goes, too, for any books you might be planning to purchase for the holidays — the sooner you pick up the hard copies, if that’s your preference, the better.

Hardcover

Bad Girls Never Say Die by Jennifer Mathieu

Hunting By Stars by Cherie Dimaline (series)

Lies My Memory Told Me by Sacha Wunsch

Little Thieves by Margaret Owen

On Top of Glass by Karina Manta (nonfiction)

Out of the Fire by Andrea Contos

A Rebel in Auschwitz by Jack Fairweather (nonfiction)

That Dark Infinity by Kate Pentecost

Where Echoes Lie by Shannon Schuren

Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood

The Woman All Spies Fear by Amy Butler Greenfield (nonfiction)

Paperback

City of Shattered Light by Claire Winn

Girl Crushed by Katie Heaney

Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore

YA Book Talk on Book Riot

• YA books that explore addiction.
• New Indigenous YA books for your TBR.
• Last week’s book challenges across the US involved a whole lot of YA books.
• And a school district in Texas tells teachers they need to balance “both sides” of the Holocaust and more in classroom libraries.

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As always, thanks for hanging out, y’all. We’ll see you on Saturday for some ebook deals and on Monday for more YA book talk.

Until then, happy reading!

— Kelly Jensen, @heykellyjensen on Instagram.