Category: What’s Up in YA

Nikki is a budding photographer and is looking forward to spending five days with her father in Dubai to celebrate Diwali. However, she soon discovers that her neighbor and rival, Yash is also on the flight to Dubai.

Nikki’s family doesn’t know about the tension between the two and, with their sights on matchmaking, encourage Nikki to get cozy with Yash. But can they? Is their history too heavy?

Perhaps the celebration of light will change everything in this enemies-to-lovers rom-com.

If you’re looking for an anthology of stories by and from adoptees, look no further. The stories represent a wide range of experiences being adopted, and the author list is a knockout: Kelley Baker, Nicole Chung, Shannon Gibney, Mark Oshiro, MeMe Collier, Susan Harness, Meredith Ireland, Mariama J. Lockington, Lisa Nopachai, Stefany Valentine, Matthew Salesses, Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, Eric Smith, Jenny Heijun Wills, and Sun Yung Shin.

If you’re into magical stories in line with Holly Black’s style, look no further for your next read.

Croi is what is known as a brownie, made up and invisible to humans. She lives in the Wilde Forest, and even though she has magic powers, they are weak. When her guardian gives her a book of magick from the Otherworld of Higher Fae, Croi realizes she’s been put under a spell that begs her to come to the Otherworld.

As she leaves on her adventure, though, it’s not just the movement that will change Croi. She will discover she’s no brownie at all, but may be something else entirely. How can she learn the truth, especially as it seems she continues to fall under spells?

This remix of the classic Wuthering Heights is set in Yorkshire in 1786. Heathcliff is the abandoned son of a sailor from India, and Catherine is the youngest daughter of an estate owner who is preparing her for a life in high society. They connect with one another as they escape to the moors, working to build not only their budding romance but their connection to their cultural heritage. If you like broody, reclaimed classics with Gothic undertones, you’ll be into this one.

Sora lost her mother to a powerful earthquake, and the strength of that quake changed the way time works in her Japanese community. Time can speed up or slow down in these zones without any rhyme or reason.

Sora’s father is a researcher trying to understand what is happening in these zones. But the longer he is gone from home doing work, the lonelier Sora becomes. She has begun her own research into the phenomenon as well, and through that work and travel to Tokyo, she finds herself meeting Maya. They bond quickly over both being hafu, and that friendship starts to feel like something more.

Then, Sora’s father disappears. Now she must go back to her town to find out what happened and where he is. Maya is joining her, and together, they might solve the mystery not only of her father but of time itself.

Irinya began feeling the need to become a flower hunter after her mother disappeared into the mist encapsulating the Rann flats one night. She uses her knowledge to keep everyone safe in the desert, and now, one of her partners has discovered a princess silver spider lily. This flower has the power to ruin kingdoms and take down armies–now Irinya sees a way for everyone to have a better life.

That’s when a smooth impostor manages to trick Irinya, and the flower is gone. Now, she must do everything she can to recover it in order to save herself, her community, and the boy she cannot stop thinking about.

There have been a number of excellent YA books that explore plant magic over the last few years, and this sounds like one worthy of sitting on that shelf, too.

Adele did not grow up in the spotlight but rather behind it. Her mom worked in Paris dance halls, and her father owned a lavish manor. When she’s forced to move to London for boarding school, Adele isn’t sad–now is the time for her own adventure.

The men in London, though, are dangerous, and their attempts to seduce Adele and her new friends are not welcome. In a bid to protect herself and others, Adele teams up with a young con woman, and the two of them become vigilantes for justice across the city.

Not only does this sound like a fun historical thriller, but it’s got queer romance, too.

This book should be required reading for all, as it delves deep into where and how we identify information and decode mis-, dis-, and mal- information that pervades all of our lives.

Dr. Yasmin’s book is a guide to information, digital, and media literacy, and breaks down how to differentiate fact from fiction in what you read. The history of how newspapers shifted between being sensational to “objective”—if objectivity is even the goal—grounds the book, and Dr. Yasmin does a stellar job exploring how we become media savvy in a culture that makes it as challenging as possible to do just that.

Dr. Yasmin won’t tell you what to think or how to think. That line, which she delivers repeatedly, is what will cause many of the purveyors of fake and misleading news to absolutely hate this book.

But really and truly, she doesn’t.

I remember discussing the prequel to this book, Huda F Are You?, during a Hey YA episode months ago, and I also remember saying how much I’d love a sequel. Well, here we are! Seriously, the first book was so funny I read it in one sitting. Huda F Cares? looks like it follows the same formula as the first book: it’s a graphic novel with a charming art style that follows Huda as she figures things out. In this one, Huda and her sisters are shocked that their parents are actually taking them on a vacation. And to Disney World, no less! But the road trip from Michigan to Florida is a mess — Huda’s sisters are Annoying, and Huda isn’t sure how she feels about public praying because of all the attention her family is getting for it.

This one is so unique! In terms of setting, form, and subject matter, it serves. In 1418, in Pre-Columbian Mexico, 15-year-old crown prince Acolmiztli is a poet and singer with philosophical leanings who has many ideas that will help his people. But the kingdom isn’t exactly at peace, and his father ends up dead, with his mother and siblings in exile. He himself escapes to the wilderness, where he meets a coyote that helps him (and leads to him taking on the new name Nezahualcoyotl, or “fasting coyote”). Neza falls in love with a commoner girl and bides his time, hoping that the new alliances he made will lead him back to his family and to saving his kingdom. One thing that absolutely gagged me about this book is that it includes translated poems written by Nezahualcoyotl himself. How dope is that?

Meg is so close to graduating high school and getting out of Huntersville. She’s even class president! But her plans are complicated when her high school is merged with their rival school. Now, she has to work with Davies High’s class president, Chris, as their two schools have an escalating prank war. To make things even more complicated, she might have a reluctant crush on him.

This webcomic turned graphic novel has a simultaneous hardcover and paperback release. It follows Dr. Henry Jekyll as he tries to rehabilitate the image of arcane scientists after that unfortunate Frankenstein incident by founding the Society for Arcane Sciences. But some members want to push science in a radical, dangerous direction — and they’re willing to expose Jekyll’s secrets in the process.

When a video queer teen Soma posted of her performing her spoken-word poetry goes viral, she’s a little surprised. Thing is, she hadn’t super-thought the video through — she just expressed her most urgent feelings. Feelings surrounding her father’s deportation back to Cambodia, her mother’s leaving to help him, and her older sister’s newly acquired authoritarian demeanor. An annual poetry contest might provide Soma with an opportunity to channel and express all the mixed-up emotions that have come from her family life — if she can summon the courage to perform.

The latest by the author of Everybody Looking is a novel-in-verse about Black nonbinary high school senior Cerulean Gene. They were raised in a free-spirited household, which is partially why their school environment feels especially oppressive. Society at large feels oppressive, to be honest, and Cerulean plans to live off the grid with some friends after graduating from high school. Except they get into it with a problematic teacher and impulsively decide to drop out. A family emergency means they’ll have to use the money they saved up to live with their friends, and we see how easily dreams can be deferred and what it means when they do.

You might recognize Jennifer Mathieu from her book-turned-movie Moxie. In this novel, she reimagines The Outsiders with female main characters. Set in Houston in 1964, Evie and her group of friends are “bad girls” who are too loud and wear too much makeup. They’re fiercely loyal to each other. But when Evie is saved from disaster by a “good girl,” she has to reevaluate what she thought she knew about friendship.

Book two in this duology, Foul Heart Huntsman, is out today, and so is the paperback version of book one! In a fantasy version of 1930s Shanghai, Rosalind has healing powers as a result of a strange experiment, and she’s using them to be a spy. Now, to keep her cover, she has to pose as the wife of another spy, Orion. What could go wrong?

Are you looking for a diverse collection of mermaid stories? Look no further. The editor duo of Córdova and Parker, who brought you Vampires Never Get Old are back with a host of fresh tales about all things mermaid. The contributor list is out of this world, too: Darcie Little Badger, Kalynn Bayron, Preeti Chhibber, Rebecca Coffindaffer, Julie C. Dao, Maggie Tokuda-Hall, Adriana Herrera, June Hur, Katherine Locke, Kerri Maniscalco, Julie Murphy, Gretchen Schreiber, and Julian Winters.

Omid feels like he can’t form the words he needs, either when it comes to talking to the girl he has feelings for, the grandfather he’s just met, his Iranian heritage, and even to explain that he does belong in Tucson, Arizona, the only place he has ever called home. All of this, despite the fact he knows Farsi, knows Shakespearean English, knows how to write those words.

It’s not until he discovers rap music that he truly finds his voice–but that voice will be rattled when a terrorist attack changes his entire world.

This one is being compared to The Poet X and A Very Large Expanse of Sea, and it’s written in verse.

Ross is 17…and she’s a master thief. She’s really good at escape plans in particular. At least she was until she tried to escape her family of thieves, and her mom’s life is at stake.

Desperate to save her mother, she decides to enter the Thieves’ Gambit, which requires her to undertake a series of international heists. She could die, and her competition is stiff. But winning the Thieves’ Gambit means getting any wish she wants granted, and she wants to save her mom’s life.

How can she win when she’s also fighting off feelings she might be developing for one of her competitors?

This is a high-stakes heist adventure being compared to Oceans Eleven and The Inheritance Games.

This is a book of 11 interconnected, cross-generational stories about the Beléns family. They are a part of the Dominican diaspora, and the stories explore topics like mental health, identity, family, and more. The book won a Pura Belpré Honor and has been compared to Elizabeth Acevedo and Sandra Cisneros, among others.

If you’re looking for a book that’s a bit thriller, a horror, and a whole lot of apocalyptic, this one’s for you.

When Joel wakes up, he finds that a massive power outage has completely changed the world around him. There’s a siren that will not stop blaring, and it seems to be changing everyone who hears it. Desperate to find his mom and sister, as well as save himself, Joel needs to figure out how to protect themselves from the sirens.