Author: Kelly Jensen

So there are actually two books focused on mental health hitting shelves this week for YA readers. The other one is Where To Start by Mental Health America and Gemma Correll and that work of nonfiction would pair so nicely with this anthology (and my own nonfiction anthology, (Don’t) Call Me Crazy!).

Carpenter and Callen have pulled together a wide array of YA writers, all of whom are sharing fictional stories of people living with mental health challenges. The stories cross genres and experiences, offering everything from a vampire with social anxiety to a teen girl coming to understand her challenges with PMDD. There’s hard stuff here, but there’s also plenty of hope for those who will relate to these experiences.

This book takes readers back into the world of Hearts Unbroken, though they can be read independently of one another.

Hughie is excited to be volunteering this Halloween season at Harvest House, a rural attraction for horror lovers. That is, he’s excited until he learns that an actor playing the role of a vengeful “Indian maiden” will be the star of the show. It’s a local legend to the Native community, and that, paired with a series of weird happenings around Harvest House, have Hughie wondering where or how he should speak up. Does he point out the problem of such a legend — one wrapped in problems — being used to sell an attraction? And how does he do that while also investigating the strange goings on?

This one is for readers who love horror and realism, with a cast of Native lead characters at its heart. I’m itching to read this one, as I loved Hearts Unbroken and bonus, for those who keep talking about a lack of YA with younger protagonists, here’s a reminder you’re sleeping on Cynthia Leitich Smith who does this masterfully.

Kids have been disappearing in the Bronx, and it seems like only the missing white kids are getting any attention. Raquel, who is 16, does, too. That is, until her crush disappears and her mom comes down with a mysterious illness.

Teaming up with Charlize, the cousin of her missing crush, Raquel soon learns that the missing are all tied to an urban legend called the Echo Game. The rules of the game are related to a dark part of New York City’s history and those who play find themselves trapped in the underground.

To save themselves and find those who have gone missing, Raquel and Charlize will need to try their hand at the Echo Game themselves.

If you like horror with social commentary, you’re going to love this one. It’s sapphic to boot!

Friendship breakups are the pits, and Spaldiing’s novel about the slow disintegration of the friendship between Jamie and Kat is one that will resonate with so many readers.

James’s narrative moves backwards from her leaving for college after the summer post-senior year, while Kat’s moves forward from the first month of senior year and as readers, we see all of the things that add up as they come, but we’re left moving forward in the story because we’re looking for that one thing. But there is no single thing. It’s a lot of things, on both sides.

Kat discovers she’s bisexual, while James’s parents are breaking up because her mom has found a new partner, and those are two big revelations in the story, connected because of how they define each of the girls to themselves and one another. Kat becomes close with her girlfriend, whiles James finds herself needing to spend more time better understanding herself and what it is she really wants in her life.

This book has humor, heart, and heartbreak, and it pairs so nicely with Ashley Woodfolk’s When You Were Everything.

Bribri American brothers Max and Jay have grown up in a house with an abusive father and they stick together to protect themselves and their mother. So when they discover a classmate in trouble, they react on instinct, enacting violence on the soccer star at their high school.

Now the boys are in trouble…and they know what they did does not truly represent who they are or their ambitions for the future. The way they’ll get to the truth of what happened and who they are is by revisiting that day and everything that led up to their decision to turn to violence.

This one is told in vignettes and verse and tells the story of Indigenous Costa Rican American brothers — voices we rarely get to hear in YA.

I’m bummed I did not get to this one yet but it’s on my spring break reading list. If you like Greek mythology, this is right in your wheelhouse.

Arachne has been outcast, except for her family and best friend Celandine. By learning how to weave, Arachne is able to find herself, her talents, and even her voice. When her family is tragically lost, and she and Celandine leave for the city of Colophon, wherein Arachne is challenged by Athena. Arachne refuses to give in to Athena, so the two of them will engage in a weaving contest that will alter both of their fates.

Bonus: it’s in verse.

Sisters Samira and Rima are living in a small town in Michigan with their mother. It’s a dilapidated trailer where they live and mother is in and out, struggling with a gambling problem. Dad has never been in the picture.

So it’s a surprise when Samira’s grandfather wills her a family fortune. She plans to take the Lebanese antiques to a pawn shop to help her and Rima before her mom can gamble away the money.

Unfortunately, one of the treasures is a coin cursed by a god. By disturbing the treasure, Sam and her sister are expelled to the Phoenician underworld. The sisters must learn how to outshine tricksters, outwit dangerous lands, and lean on one another in order to protect their lives and escape the dangerous terrain.

Although I have not watched The Last Of Us, I know enough about it to suspect this book will appeal to fans of that franchise.

Wren and her family live in a small town that’s always attracted tourists eager to indulge in quintessential Americana. Tourists love to see the wheat, the community, even Wren’s family’s farm. But that all ended five months ago when the blight of Quicksilver began.

Quicksilver consumes the crops. Then the livestock. Then…it comes for the neighbors. The poison is ready to come for Wren and she has to turn to someone she would rather not in order to save her town – and her life. Derek, her ex-boyfriend.

Together, they’ll have to answer for the lives and histories of their ancestors and the community of Hollow’s End in order to save everything they live from being completely taken by Quicksilver.

It’s the queer Repunzel retelling you didn’t know you needed, featuring a vampire and a witch.

Kaye and Ava were always best friends. But after vampires broke down the barriers protecting their community two years ago, Kaye lost her mother and Ava was turned into a vampire. The thing is, despite being stuck in her house, Ava still does have some of her witch powers and her mother needs to take them. Because her mother is also a vampire and taking her daughter’s remaining powers will keep this a secret. Ava does not want to give her powers up and she certainly does not want her mother to destroy their town, so she needs to escape.

Meanwhile, Kaye has been training to be a Flame witch and she’s just about ready to put her skills protecting her town to the test. She’ll be able to vanquish vampires, including her former best friend, to ensure peace. So when Ava escapes her confinement and Kaye finds her, they make an agreement: they’ll travel together through the forest for safety. Ava doesn’t know Kaye’s secret plan is to turn her in, though. And Kaye doesn’t know Ava hopes to reignite their friendship and the feelings that may have been more than friendship between them.

As they travel deeper into the dangerous forest, both of their motivations and desires are put to question…and to the test. Do they destroy each other because they have to? Do they put their differences aside for safety and protection…or more?

You might recognize the author from her work in the capital-R romance genre, and now she’s taking her skills to YA (with, of course, plenty of romance, too!).

Sonia Patil hopes she’ll be able to catch the attention of her crush at the local comic-con. But in a weird twist of fate, Sonia ends up saving her crush after he faints into a canal. No one knows it was her though, since she was dressed up, and now, everyone wants to know who the masked heroine was.

Problem? Sonia’s sister is undocumented and her mother was deported; they’ve been trying to stay under the radar. So as people work to uncover the do-gooder, Sonia worries that all of the positive attention might lend to some very negative consequences for her, for her family, and for her future with her crush.

Can I share that I don’t think I’ve ever read Little Women? I may have when I was really young but I don’t recall anything of it. That said, I DO know the general themes of it, and I know there is fierce debate over which March sister is best.

This book takes that story and gives it an update. Set in 1942, the four authors give voice to March sisters on the precipice of World War II as they work to unravel their grief over the death of sister Beth. The three living sisters are each going their separate ways — some to the war effort and some to the effort at home – as they begin to unpack the loss they’ve suffered.

Great Or Nothing is told in both verse and prose, weaving together the story of sisters sharing a loss and coming to understand what is about to be a very different world with the looming war.

Technically, this work of graphic nonfiction is a simultaneous release, so you can purchase either the hardcover or paperback today.

If you love science, you’re going to love this look at how things work. We get internet and electricity and water to our homes and offices…but how? How do these systems work? This comic will take you beneath and behind the scenes, showcasing how some of the most incredible systems we use every day work.

The art is compelling and includes plenty of diagrams…and this is a book with a lot of humor, too, so you’re not getting any boring science lecture. Nerd the heck out here, y’all.

Alicia is 16, and she’s subject to nonstop judgment from her classmates. It comes because she has sex, so she’s, of course, seen as easy. A slut. Every other name you can imagine for a girl like her.

Except: Alicia was sexually abused by a teacher. She’s a survivor. And of course, it’s a popular teacher who did that to her.

As Alicia begins to drop out of everything that brings her joy, she finds a series of letters from someone else at school. Someone who claims they’ve been a victim, too. Now, she wants to get to the truth of that story and her own.

This verse novel is one for readers who are itching for a compelling and powerful story of redemption, race, power, and maybe even love.

One part I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter and one part Furia, Shukairy’s debut follows Khadija and Leene, two teens at a suburban Detroit high school. Khadija is determined, and she sets her sights on traveling the world to leave behind her sheltered life. So when she collides with Leene, a girl who is a Syrian refugee and struggling with anxiety and nonstop pressure from her family, things are rocky, fast. Both girls see each other as the opposite of who they should be as Syrians in America.

Khadija, though, finds a secret in Leene’s past and it brings the girls together in a way neither expect…but in a way that will ultimately help them understand themselves, each other, and their realities as Syrian immigrants.

Tania de Batz is disabled, and she feels wholly herself, fierce and powerful, while she has a sword in her hand. She wants to be like her father, who was a Musketeer and who has always been supportive of Tania, despite her near-constant dizziness.

When her father is murdered, his final wish is for her to attend a finishing school. But it’s not any finishing school. It’s where young women are trained to be proper on the outside but fiery Musketeers beneath the surface.

Now connected with a collection of fellow female fighters, Tania is ready to exact revenge for her father’s death.

If you want a gender bent retelling of The Three Musketeers with a disabled main character, you can do no better.

This is the first book in a duology about a culture full of Dreamers whose traditions and ways of life are threatened by a greedy, evil new King.

Indir has the ability of Dreaming truth, but with the arrival of the new king, she might need to make the ultimate choice between allowing her community to end OR fighting to survive and keep in tact two secrets no one else can know.

Although Saya is a seer, she’s not a Dreamer. At least, that’s the story her mother has told; her mother who has used Saya’s gifts, claiming they are her own. But when Saya learns that she might have actual powers her mother has kept secret from her, she’s ready to get to the truth.

Indir and Saya’s lives are about to intertwine as both struggle to determine what should remain secret and what needs to be shared in order to save themselves and their community.

The art for this graphic memoir looks incredible, and I’m so eager to get my hands on it.

Jung-Jin Lee — Deborah’s Korean name — has grown up in between cultures. She’s in New Jersey but never fits in, and things only get harder in high school. Her mental health challenges her to the point where she attempts to die by suicide. In her recovery, Deb finds solace in art and self-care. Not only does it help her mental health but it also helps her understand her Korean heritage and who she truly is.

A diverse twist on Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde? Yes, please!

Last spring, Gabriel and Henry were kicked out of their London Medical School due to a scandal…and the beliefs about the true nature of their relationship. Gabriel is back in London now and is not ready to start over again without Henry. But Henry has become distant, and Gabriel is desperate to find out what happened.

So Gabriel keeps an eye on the Jekyll house, hoping for any signs of Henry. Instead, he meets Hyde, who claims to be close to Henry. But what unravels opens more questions than answers.

Set in the 1880s in London, readers will fall into this strange, dark world.

It feels like this book has been out for a long time, and it has — at least in book life years. The first volume hit shelves in September 2021, and this week, the paperback is finally here.

Aliens plague the world outside the Great Wall of China. Chrysalises are giant transforming robots which can take down the aliens, and the boys of Huaxia long to find girls to copilot those machines with them, even (especially?) if it means those girls will die from it.

Zetian is going to play into the game, and she is eager to to become a “concubine-pilot,” in order to get revenge against the pilot who killed her sister.

Except things don’t go according to plan. She is an Iron Widow, bestowed with the rare power of being able to sacrifice males in order to keep Chrysalises moving. So when she’s paired with the strongest male pilot in Huaxia, she’ll have to both learn to understand him…and her own strength.

Stewart’s novel won this year’s Schneider Family Book Award for teens (a personal favorite of mine!).

Three months ago, Lily walked in on her sister Alice harming herself. Lily’s been trying to keep the peace around home while her sister is in treatment, but now that Alice is returning home, Lily can no longer tamp it down.

Micah is a new student and happened to attend the same treatment program as Alice. Now that he and Lily are paired up for an art project at school, Lily begins to open up about her own compulsions and the realities of both living with her own — and her sister’s — mental health challenges.