Category: What’s Up in YA

Hey YA readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by PageHabit — use code “RIOT” for 10% off your first box. 

PageHabit is offers a monthly YA book box curated and annotated by authors for the most diehard bookworms. Each box comes with an exclusive, author-annotated new release, a written letter from the author, a bonus short story, fun bookish goods and membership into an active online book community of over 18,000 members. For every box purchased, PageHabit makes a donation to support children’s literacy around the world, so you can read well and do good. Readers can choose from seven genres including Young Adult, Romance, Fantasy, Horror and more. Get 10% off your first box with code “RIOT”.

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Let’s take this lazy, hazy mid-late summer day to catch up on the latest YA talk from Book Riot over the last month. Grab your TBR or pop open your favorite bookish app and get ready to scribble down a ton of titles you’ll want to read.

• A request for YA books about soccer led to a round-up of all things YA soccer books.
• Dig into these 100 must-read inclusive science fiction and fantasy YA reads.
• Time for a little social justice in YA lit, with some nonfiction reads as well as some fiction titles.
• Robin McKinley: an ode to a pioneer of YA lit.
• Historical YA fiction gets the Buy, Borrow, Bypass treatment. Which of these titles are worth your time and which should you leave on the shelf?
• Some of the Book Rioters are enjoying a read along of Tamora Pierce’s Tortall series. Here’s one of the posts to go along with the read along, which links back to the starting post for anyone itching to take part.
• How being a parent led one reader to YA books.
• Chances are if you like Meg Cabot, you’ll also like Jenny Carroll. Or if you like Eva Darrows, you might like Hillary Monahan. Because they’re the same people.
• Yes! Here for as much info as possible about the adaptation of Jenny Han’s To All The Boys. 
• I love this round-up of books for readers in that odd “in-between” stage of middle grade and YA. This is actually something worth thinking about more broadly and, perhaps, digging into in a future newsletter. Why is that 12-14 age group so underserved? Or is it that they have so many options because they fall between middle grad and YA reading that it can be hard to find that right segment of books for them?
• If you love Sansa Stark, then these books should be up your alley.
• Lift your spirits with these YA rom coms.
• A huge and awesome round-up of Asian American protagonists in YA lit.
• Amazon let me have at some of their data (!) and from it, I pulled together a list of the most popular books in each state and US territory that was published last year. It was kind of surprising to see what came out on top again and again and again.
• 5 contemporary Jane Austen YA retellings.
• And finally, a guest post on the topic of political resistance in teen lit.

 

Want a good YA book deal? I dug through Kindle’s monthly deals to find a few worth picking up.

Note that you may need to toggle your format to “ebook” when you click the links below.

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo is a whopping $1.99.

Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown is $1.99. This has had so many tremendous positive reviews that if it weren’t already sitting on my shelf, I’d one click so fast.

Entwined by Heather Dixon is $1.99 and a retelling of “Twelve Dancing Princesses.”

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Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you again next week. Perhaps we’ll even talk about one of my favorite things: microtrends. AKA, the weird coincidences that keep popping up in books that aren’t enough to constitute a full-on trend but that are too odd not to talk about.

 

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

currently reading The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed and just finished (and adored!) Like Water by Rebecca Podos.

 

 

We’ve got something special this week, YA lovers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Textrovert by Lindsey Summers from KCP Loft. 

It’s bad enough when high-school senior Keeley mistakenly swaps cell phones with a stranger. It’s even worse when the stranger turns out to be an obnoxious boy named Talon … who’s just left for football camp with her phone. Reluctantly, the two agree to forward messages for a week. As Keeley gets to know Talon through their texts, she finds out he’s more than just an egocentric jock. In fact, the two fall for each other, hard. But Talon has been keeping a secret. One that makes their relationship all but impossible. Will Keeley ever be able to trust him?

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I’m really excited to share a guest post for this week’s newsletter. Knowing how wildly popular the recent crop of Star Wars YA novels has been, I had an idea it was something worth talking about with some more depth.

This week’s newsletter is a guest post from author Beth Revis. You might know her from her books Across the Universe (her first trilogy), A World Without You, and the recent Star Wars: Rebel Rising.

Beth Revis is a NY Times bestselling author with books available in more than 20 languages. Her latest title, Star Wars: Rebel Rising, tells the story of Jyn Erso before the movie Rogue One takes place. A World Without You is a semi-autobiographical story blending the supernatural with mental illness. Beth is also the author of the Across the Universe series, The Body Electric, numerous short stories, and the nonfiction Paper Hearts series, which aids aspiring writers. A native of North Carolina, Beth is currently working on a new novel for teens. She lives in rural NC with her boys: one husband, one small son, and two massive dogs.

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I was not expecting a call from my agent that day. I was in a bit of a downtime in terms of projects—one thing turned in, another thing too new to turn in—so when her name flashed up on my iPhone, I had no idea what it was about.

It was about Star Wars.

I still remember the way my heart started pounding, a tight thrumming of excitement. Before she could even finish telling me about the project Star Wars was pitching me, I was saying yes. I didn’t care about any of the details: I wanted in.

I honestly had no idea what to expect, but within about a week of initially hearing about the offer, I was on a plane to San Francisco, where I and other authors who were writing works linked to Rogue One would find out details about the movie and start the process of writing. It was incredibly fast timing, but I was so eager to dive in, all I could think about was how grateful I was that I could start immediately.

I was given directions to the offices, nestled in the Presidio National Park of San Francisco, and told to look out for the Yoda Fountain—which, frankly, “turn left at Yoda” is so serendipitously awesome that I still can’t get over how cool even directions to this dream job was. My eyes drank in everything—the lobby with Boba Fett and Darth Vader costumes on display, the halls lined with movie posters from around the world throughout history, the alcoves with shining display cases that highlighted the Holy Grail of Indiana Jones’s fame alongside awards and knickknacks, the windows that all seemed to perfectly frame the Golden Gate Bridge.

The very first thing I and the other authors did was read the script for Rogue One. This project was for Star Wars, so I knew it was going to be special. But I cannot describe the moment when I read the end (that ending!) to the movie. I could picture Scarif so vividly, and as the final moments for the main characters ticked down, I kept thinking, Will they do it? Will that actually happen? It was so beautiful and perfect for that story—and for me. Rogue One is the kind of Star Wars story that I love not just because it’s Star Wars, but because it has everything in a story that I adore. Complex characters who aren’t black-and-white, conflicting goals even among friends, and a jaw-droppingly perfect ending to a story I never saw coming.

My novel—Rebel Rising—gives the background of the main character, Jyn Erso, from the moment she’s orphaned as a child to when the movie starts with her as a young woman in an Imperial prison.  From the moment I read the script, I knew I had to do whatever it took to showcase this character to the best of my abilities. I threw myself into the project, writing quicker than I’d ever written before, but also reading, reading, reading. I was able to get my hands on early copies of other novels coming that dealt with Jyn or her time period. And I scoured the comics and novels that had already been published, looking for details that I could add to my story to make it more real.

Weirdly, in many ways, writing Rebel Rising was similar to writing a historical biography—except it’s fiction and takes place in the future (or at least in a galaxy far, far away). The details I researched are the same sort of details I’d research for history. People are people, across time and space, but how they do things, the tools they use, the histories they react to—that’s what changes, and that’s what I had to research. And, like in a biography, the character’s life was already established. There are books that are set before my own—most notably Catalyst—that already defined some of her past. And the movie itself encompassed what happened to Jyn after. So while I had total freedom to do with her what I wanted, there was a definite Point A where she started and a Point B where I had to get her.

Some people ask me about the work that goes into this sort of novel, but to me, it never felt like work. In the same way I’d research NASA or Russian cosmonaut articles while writing the Across the Universe trilogy, I’d throw myself at Star Wars comics and novels and shows. It was never work because it was always fun and interesting.

For example, I’d seen The Clone Wars cartoon when it was released when I was in high school. But I rewatched it in anticipation of Rebel Rising, paying close attention to Saw Gerrera. While my novel was about Jyn, she spends a significant part of her life with this veteran of the Clone Wars. He had such a lasting impact in the show, but relatively few episodes focused on him. When I watched it the first time as a kid, I didn’t spend hours scrutinizing his face, parsing out everything he said, considering what happened to him after. His appearance in that show and the way he became in Rogue One forced me to be a detective, following the tiny breadcrumb trails to figure out not just who he was, but why he was.

This is exactly the kind of thing I love about writing—any writing, not just in Star Wars. Digging deep into the characters, discovering their stories that shaped their lives…that’s the kind of thing I love to write about and read about and watch in the theater.

As I said before, this was definitely a dream job. Star Wars was one of the major constants of my childhood, a rare movie that my brother and I could agree on, and a story that, to this day, fills me with wonder. Being able to be a part of that galaxy, even a small one, is an honor I will never forget. I couldn’t have been prouder than if Princess Leia herself had placed a medal around my neck on Yavin 4.

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Thanks for hanging out, YA Riot fans, and we’ll see you next Monday.

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Hey YA Friends!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Sovereign by April Daniels, from Diversion Books.

Pick up Sovereign, the highly anticipated sequel to Dreadnought, featuring “the most exciting new superheroes in decades.” (Kirkus, starred review).  

Danielle Tozer is a scarred but enthusiastic veteran cape protecting the city of New Port all on her own.  When she crosses a new supervillain with unexpected methods to destroy capes like her, she’ll be forced to confront parts of herself she never wanted to acknowledge.

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July has been a long, hot, and very wet month in my part of the world. But despite the feeling of a never-ending month, it has been peppered with some great YA news. Let’s take this week to catch up on the haps around the YA world.

• “A game I like to play is to find any story with a male lead, flip the genders, and try to pitch it to friends. 9/10 times they’ll say that it’s unbelievable or that the “main female character” would never act like that. I mean. Just imagine a genderswapped Wolf of Wall Street or The Great Gatsby (Both with men that we wouldn’t necessarily call “heroes” but we would certainly call protagonists). As awesome as I think both of those would be, I do have to say, they probably wouldn’t be smash hits.” I love this interview with author and creator of Brooding YA Hero Carrie DiRisio on YA tropes and why we should take the category more seriously. If you’ve never played this swap-the-genders game on YA titles, give it a shot.
• This book looks amazing, got a great advance, will see tons of publicity, and I really, really hope it’s outstanding.
• Rainbow Rowell on writing The Runaways.
• I was never super into Sweet Valley High as a young reader, but I know so many people in my generation (and before!) loved the series. Here are 14 things you may not have known about the books.
• A Spanish-influenced fantasy duology from Zoraida Cordova? Sign me up.
• “From the very beginning. She’s one of the few characters who came to me fully formed, from her appearance to personality to sexual identity. And that initial inspiration didn’t change throughout my drafting [process]. Tash’s character remained implacably true to herself — which was so very like her. Tash’s asexuality didn’t come out of a vacuum, either. Throughout high school, I wasn’t interested in sex, and that was an oftentimes isolating experience — especially when there were no popular books or television shows that normalized the way I felt. Though I don’t personally identify like Tash does, I needed a story like hers when I was a teen, and I think there are teen readers who need her story now.” A nice interview with author Kathryn Ormsbee on her latest book and the asexual lead character of the story.
• Chaos Walking has a star cast attached to the adaptation…and a release date of March 2019.
• “The purpose of young-adult fiction is “not to teach,” she said. “It’s to show you you’re not alone.”” And even more than that, the purpose is to tell a story, however the story is meant to be told. But yes, all of the yes, to this article about whether or not YA has an obligation to teach lessons. I think there’s a whole dissertation’s worth of thought to give to pieces like this and the pieces we see about how adults are the largest consumers of YA lit.
• A thought-provoking piece about what YA characters of color are not allowed to do in YA lit.
• “Essentially, I wrote the book I needed when I was young: about a complex girl of color with goals and dreams. The publishing industry has really caught on in recent years that, one, we read and, two, we buy things. When I was trying to get this book published, people were like, “Why don’t you try a small indie press?” Absolutely not. I insist that we become part of the big mainstream American publishing houses.” Another solid interview to share, this time with debut author Erika L. Sanchez. If you haven’t put her forthcoming book I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter on your TBR for the fall, this should convince you.
• There’s a TV adaptation of The Raven Boys underway. 
• I could not be more excited by the news that we’re getting an adaptation of To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and that it’ll feature Asian leads. And a little more about who’ll be in the adaptation.
• Peep the cover for Marie Lu’s Batman YA novel.
• We’re getting 3 RL Stine Fear Street films.
• Ruta Sepetys won the Carnegie — an incredibly high honor for children’s literature — for her recent YA Salt To The Sea.
• And finally, since I don’t have television, I didn’t get a chance to watch this one, but if you have Lifetime, keep your eyes peeled for reruns of the adaptation of Sara Zarr’s The Story of a Girl. It’s an excellent example of a YA book that was cutting edge in terms of topic 10 years ago that still holds up.

 

Thanks for hanging out this week. We’ll be back in your inbox next Monday, with a guest newsletter writer who (!) you (!) will (!) be (!) so (!) excited (!) to (!) hear (!) from (!). Think: fandom, YA books, science fiction, and more.

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Heyyyy YA Readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Annotated.

Annotated, presented by Hachette Book Group, is Book Riot’s new audio documentary series about books, reading, and language. Check out the latest episode, “Why Aren’t Bookstores Extinct?”: In 1995, there were more than 7000 independent bookstores in the U.S. By 2008, there were just over 1400. Everyone was proclaiming the death of bookstores, and independent bookstores. But then something strange happened. Over the last nine years, the number of indie bookstores has risen 64%. This episode of Annotated looks at how independent bookstores first survived, then figured out how to thrive, in the age of Amazon.

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I mentioned in last week’s newsletter that I wanted to do more with YA backlist titles. A number of readers emailed with some of their favorite titles — many of which, I think, are fairly well-known, either because of the awards they’ve won or because they had strong sales. That doesn’t mean they’re not worth talking about, of course, but I’m hoping we can go even deeper, into those small gems that maybe were overlooked at the time of their publication and yet still resonate today. Or, perhaps, they resonate even more today than they did upon original release.

Let’s start with something that doesn’t get the attention it deserves: black authors of YA fiction from the backlist. While we’ve been seeing more titles by black authors earning much-deserved accolades lately — including The Hate U Give still sitting on the New York Times Bestsellers list (as it should) and books like March earning huge YA prizes and honors — there is a back list of black YA authors more than worth digging into. Some of these will be obvious ones, while others might be new titles to many readers.

And that is part of the fun.

Some of the authors here have published far and wide and will have more than the title list as one worth picking up. Others have maybe only published one YA novel among other books or have only published one single novel in their careers. Still other authors here are publishing still, meaning you might find something by them on your local new releases shelf.

Backlist, if you’re curious, is defined as books that hit shelves a year or more ago. But for me personally, I find backlist to be something that goes even further back. All of the titles listed below were published five or more years ago. So without further ado, let’s get our black authors of backlist reading on.

 

The Death of Jayson Porter by Jaime Adoff

Sixteen-year-old Jayson Porter wants to believe things will get better. But the harsh realities of his life never seem to change. Living in the inland-Florida projects with his abusive mother, he tries unsuccessfully to fit in at his predominately white school, while struggling to maintain even a thread of a relationship with his drug-addicted father. As the pressure mounts, there’s only one thing Jayson feels he has control over—the choice of whether to live or die.

 

Tyrell (series) by Coe Booth

Tyrell is a young, African American teen who can’t get a break. He’s living (for now) with his spaced-out mother and little brother in a homeless shelter. His father’s in jail. His girlfriend supports him, but he doesn’t feel good enough for her – and seems to be always on the verge of doing the wrong thing around her. There’s another girl at the homeless shelter who is also after him, although the desires there are complicated. Tyrell feels he needs to score some money to make things better. Will he end up following in his father’s footsteps?

 

So Not The Drama (series) by Paula Chase

In exactly one hour, eighteen minutes, and thirty-five seconds, Mina Mooney will be dipping her pink Nellie timbs into the infamous frosh pit. . .

Hoping Del Rio Bay High will live up to her greatest expectations, Mina has big plans for infiltrating the school’s social glitterati. After all, she’s been mad popular for as long as she can remember–and she isn’t about to go from Middle School Royalty to High School Ambiguity. But Del Rio Bay is a big school, so it’ll take some plotting to avoid getting lost in the crowd. Good thing she isn’t afraid of a little hard work and that her playground peeps–Lizzie, Michael, and JZ–have got her back.

But it isn’t long before Mina’s big plans for securing her social status take a back seat to some drama that was so not expected. Lizzie’s scored an invite from the beautiful people that Mina can only dream about, and not only is Michael tripping about being back in school, but now he’s beefing with JZ. Worst of all, Mina’s sociology class experiment to rid the world–or at least Del Rio Bay High–of prejudice is about to backfire. . .because it might just mean she’ll have to rid herself of her very best friend.

Bucking The Sarge by Christopher Paul Curtis

Luther T. Farrell has got to get out of Flint, Michigan.

As his best friend Sparky says, “Flint’s nothing but the Titanic.”

And his mother, a.k.a. the Sarge, says, “Take my advice and stay off the sucker path.”

The Sarge milked the system to build an empire of slum housing and group homes. Luther’s just one of the many people trapped in the Sarge’s Evil Empire—but he’s about to bust out.

If Luther wins the science fair this year, he’ll be on track for college and a future as America’s best-known and best-loved philosopher. All he’s got to do is beat his arch rival Shayla Patrick, the beautiful daughter of Flint’s finest undertaker—and the love of Luther’s life.

Sparky’s escape plans involve a pit bull named Poofy and the world’s scariest rat. Oh, and Luther. Add to the mix Chester X., Luther’s mysterious roommate; Dontay Gaddy, a lawyer whose phone number is 1-800-SUE’M ALL; and Darnell Dixon, the Sarge’s go-to guy who knows how to break all the rules.

 

A La Carte by Tanita S. Davis

SEVENTEEN-YEAR-OLD LAINEY DREAMS of becoming a world famous chef one day and maybe even having her own cooking show. (Do you know how many African American female chefs there aren’t? And how many vegetarian chefs have their own shows? The field is wide open for stardom!) But when her best friend—and secret crush—suddenly leaves town, Lainey finds herself alone in the kitchen. With a little help from Saint Julia (Child, of course), Lainey finds solace in her cooking as she comes to terms with the past and begins a new recipe for the future.

Peppered with recipes from Lainey’s notebooks, this delicious debut novel finishes the same way one feels finishing a good meal—satiated, content, and hopeful.

The Skin I’m In by Sharon Flake

Miss Saunders, whose skin is blotched with a rare skin condition, serves as a mirror to Maleeka Madison’s struggle against the burden of low self-esteem that many black girls face when they’re darker skinned. Miss Saunders is tough and through this, Maleeka learns to stand up to tough-talking Charlese.

 

Heaven (series) by Angela Johnson

Marley has lived in Heaven since she was two years old, when her mother found a postcard postmarked HEAVEN, OH on a park bench and decided that was where she wanted to raise her family.

And for twelve years, Marley’s hometown has lived up to its name. She lives in a house by the river, has loving parents, a funny younger brother, good friends, and receives frequent letters from her mysterious Uncle Jack. Then one day a letter arrives form Alabama, and Marley’s life is turned upside down. Marley doesn’t even know who she is anymore — but where can she go for answers, when she’s been deceived by the very people she should be able to trust the most?

 

His Own Where by June Jordan

Nominated for a National Book Award in 1971, His Own Where is the story of Buddy, a fifteen-year-old boy whose world is spinning out of control. He meets Angela, whose angry parents accuse her of being “wild.” When life falls apart for Buddy and his father, and when Angela is attacked at home, they take action to create their own way of staying alive in Brooklyn. In the process, the two find refuge in one another and learn that love is real and necessary. His Own Where was one of The New York Times‘ Most Outstanding Books and was on the American Library Association’s list of Best Books in 1971.

 

A Friendship for Today by Patricia McKissack

The year is 1954, the place is Missouri, and twelve-year-old Rosemary Patterson is about to make history. She is one of the first African American students to enter the white school in her town. Headstrong, smart Rosemary welcomes the challenge, but starting this new school gets more daunting when her best friend is hospitalized for polio. Suddenly, Rosemary must face all the stares and whispers alone. But when the girl who has shown her the most cruelty becomes an unlikely confidante, Rosemary learns important truths about the power of friendship to overcome prejudice.

 

47 by Walter Mosley

The story you are about to read concerns certain events that occurred in the early days of my life. It all happened over a hundred and seventy years ago. For many of you it might sound like a tall tale because I am no older today than I was back in the year 1832. But this is no whopper I’m telling; it is a story about my boyhood as a slave and my fated encounter with the amazing Tall John from beyond Africa, who could read dreams, fly between galaxies, and make friends with any animal no matter how wild.

In his first book for young adults, bestselling author Walter Mosley weaves historical and speculative fiction into a powerful narrative about the nature of freedom. 47 is a young slave boy living under the watchful eye of a brutal slave master. His life seems doomed until he meets a mysterious runaway slave, Tall John. 47 soon finds himself swept up in an otherworldly battle and a personal struggle for his own liberation.

 

Slam by Walter Dean Myers

Seventeen-year-old Greg “Slam” Harris can do it all on the basketball court. He’s seen ballplayers come and go, and he knows he could be one of the lucky ones. Maybe he’ll make it to the top. Or maybe he’ll stumble along the way. Slam’s grades aren’t that hot. And when his teachers jam his troubles in his face, he blows up.

Slam never doubted himself on the court until he found himself going one-on-one with his own future, and he didn’t have the ball.

 

The Kayla Chronicles by Sherri Winston

Kayla Dean, junior feminist and future journalist, is about the break the story of a lifetime. She is auditioning for the Lady Lions dance team to prove they discriminate against the not-so-well endowed. But when she makes the team, her best friend and fellow feminist, Rosalie, is not happy.

Now a Lady Lion, Kayla is transformed from bushy-haired fashion victim to glammed-up dance diva. But does looking good and having fun mean turning her back on the cause? Can you be a strong woman and still wear really cute shoes? Soon Kayla is forced to challenge her views, coming to terms with who she is and what girl power really means.

Narrated with sharp language and just the right amount of attitude, The Kayla Chronicles is the story of a girl’s struggle for self-identity despite pressure from family, friends and her own conscience. Kayla’s story is snappy, fun and inspiring, sure to appeal to anyone who’s every questioned who they really are.

 

Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson

“Hope is the thing with feathers,” starts the poem Frannie is reading in school. Frannie hasn’t thought much about hope. There are so many other things to think about. Each day, her friend Samantha seems a bit more holy.”There is a new boy in class everyone is calling the Jesus Boy. And although the new boy looks like a white kid, he says he’is not white. Who is he?

During a winter full of surprises, good and bad, Frannie starts seeing a lot of things in a new light:—her brother Sean’s deafness, her mother’s fear, the class bully’s anger, her best friend’s faith and her own desire for the thing with feathers.”

 

Sunday You Learn How To Box by Bil Wright

Fourteen-year-old Louis Bowman is in a boxing ring — a housing project circa 1968 — fighting “just to get to the end of the round.” Sharing the ring is his mother, Jeanette Stamps, a ferociously stubborn woman battling for her own dreams to be realized; his stepfather, Ben Stamps, the would-be savior, who becomes the sparring partner to them both; and the enigmatic Ray Anthony Robinson, the neighborhood “hoodlum,” in purple polyester pants, who sets young Louis’s heart spinning with the first stirrings of sexual longing. Bil Wright deftly evokes an unrelenting world with quirky humor and clear-eyed unsentimentality.

 

Want more black YA reading in your life, both of the front and back list varieties? I cannot recommend The Brown Bookshelf enough as a tremendous resource. You’ll also want to know Zetta Elliott’s blog, as she’s been a prolific advocate for authors of color, and many of her books would be great fits on this very list. 

 

Hope you’ve found a great read or several here, and we’ll see you back again next week!

–Kelly Jensen @veronikellymars

Welcome to Mid-July, YA Fans!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Generation One by Pittacus Lore from Epic Reads.

The first book in a new I Am Number Four spin-off series! It’s been over a year since the invasion of Earth was thwarted. But now human teenagers have developed incredible powers of their own, known as Legacies. To help these incredible and potentially dangerous individuals, the Garde created an academy to train humans to control their powers and help mankind. But not everyone thinks that’s the best use of their talents. And the teens may need to use their Legacies sooner than they thought. The war may be over—but for the next generation, the battle has just begun!

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I don’t know about you all, but as much as I love summer, this is about the time things feel like they’re dragging a bit. One of the ways I seem to perk back up, though, is reading a lot of older YA titles. There’s something about picking up a great backlist title or two or three to really help those long, lazy days.

A goal of mine over the second half of this year is to do a little more talk of backlist YA in this space. As much as it’s exciting to highlight and feature new books, there’s power in also picking up an older book and discovering something great. For those who are newer to YA books, too, it’s a nice reminder that this category of books is at least 50 years old and has been full and vibrant through many periods of time, not just the present or due to a few Mega Blockbuster series or authors.

Which is to say, I’d love to hear what you as readers might find worthwhile. Do you want more booklists popping up here? More backlist bumps to new titles as they come up — in my mind, this might be noting that if you love Blair Thornburgh’s recently-released Who’s That Girl you’ll definitely want to pick up Robin Benway’s Audrey, Wait!  

Worth simply spotlighting recommended backlist reads from authors, writers, and other YA fans? If you have ideas or things you’d like to see as they relate to backlist YA — and I’m talking books more than a year old here, even beyond that since I see backlist as being more than a few years of a book being available — hit reply. I’ll keep a list and pull from it to put something special and engaging together as we journey through the world or YA. I want to keep this newsletter as useful to you, the readers, as possible, so your input and suggestions are part of how I do that.

And, of course, those backlist features, whatever they look like, will have a hearty dose of inclusive titles. I’ve also encouraged the cadre of Book Rioters who love YA to poke around a bit more and build some resources for talking about older, but still excellent, books.

That’s my sweet lead-in for this week’s newsletter, which is a round-up of what we’ve been writing on site and what you may have missed.

• Sun-themed YA titles for your solstice fun reading. Obviously, the solstice is past, but this one will do well again when the total solar eclipse happens next month.
• The longest YA books that you can read. In the event you need a huge book to read right now or in the future.
• We’ve got your teen photographers right here.
• And we’ve got some queer YA superheroes right here.
• YA books about aliens. Y’all, the microtrend of alien contact in YA this fall is real. Aliens have always been around, but it has usually been pretty patchy. This fall, though. Alien fun! All over!
• Did you read and love When Dimple Met Rishi? You’ll want to dig into these Bollywood films (I know what I’m putting on my rainy day/can’t read anymore to beat the summer blahs list!).
• 170 YA books hitting shelves over the next three months. Surely, there’s something of interest here.
• These 10 YA books will destroy you and you’ll love every. second. of. the. pain.
• Let’s talk about what YA books featuring reality TV are worth the cash, the stop to the library, or skipping.
• If you love Wonder Woman, here are 8 YA heroines you’ll also love.
• I always love reading these sorts of pieces because they give such insight into what teens are reading. The most frequently stolen books from my classroom.
• And let’s round this out with some YA memoirs that are totally worth your time. Nonfiction for YA readers keeps on getting better and better.

 

Thanks for hanging out again and we’ll see you next week.

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Hey YA Readers,

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Unraveling, book two in the Unblemished trilogy by Sara Ella.

The entire universe is unraveling. Can a young heroine stop the fray? Through her mastery of world-building and mind-bending plots, Sara Ella takes fantasy to a new level in Unraveling, the anxiously awaited continuation of the Unblemished Trilogy. As Eliyana continues her journey towards the throne, she tries to figure out her relationship with Ky and how it might be connected to the Callings. She needs answers before the Callings disappear altogether. Can El find a way to sever her connection to Ky and save the Reflections—and keep herself from falling for him in the process?

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It’s here, it’s here! Let’s dive into your favorite reads of 2017 so far with this round-up. There were hundreds of responses to the call for the book you loved most during the first half of this year. I distilled the answers into a single list of your 17 favorites of ‘17. Some are not surprises and some, I think, might be. It’s a wide and varied list, which seems to represent much of what this year has looked like in YA lit more broadly.

The titles below are in alphabetical order, rather than any ranking. Descriptions are from Goodreads.

Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: A white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it? She wouldn’t say.

Mary survived six years in baby jail before being dumped in a group home. The house isn’t really “home”—no place where you fear for your life can be considered a home. Home is Ted, who she meets on assignment at a nursing home.

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary must find the voice to fight her past. And her fate lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But who really knows the real Mary?

 

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

Scarlett Dragna has never left the tiny island where she and her sister, Tella, live with their powerful, and cruel, father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval—the faraway, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show—are over.

But this year, Scarlett’s long-dreamt-of invitation finally arrives. With the help of a mysterious sailor, Tella whisks Scarlett away to the show. Only, as soon as they arrive, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend. It turns out that this season’s Caraval revolves around Tella, and whoever finds her first is the winner.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. Nevertheless she becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic. And whether Caraval is real or not, Scarlett must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over or a dangerous domino effect of consequences will be set off, and her beloved sister will disappear forever.

 

A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah J Maas

A nightmare, I’d told Tamlin. I was the nightmare.

Feyre has returned to the Spring Court, determined to gather information on Tamlin’s maneuverings and the invading king threatening to bring Prythian to its knees. But to do so she must play a deadly game of deceit—and one slip may spell doom not only for Feyre, but for her world as well. As war bears down upon them all, Feyre must decide who to trust amongst the dazzling and lethal High Lords—and hunt for allies in unexpected places.

 

Eliza and Her Monsters by Francesca Zappia

Her story is a phenomenon. Her life is a disaster.

In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try.

Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile.

But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built—her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity—begins to fall apart.

 

Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh

The only daughter of a prominent samurai, Mariko has always known she’d been raised for one purpose and one purpose only: to marry. Never mind her cunning, which rivals that of her twin brother, Kenshin, or her skills as an accomplished alchemist. Since Mariko was not born a boy, her fate was sealed the moment she drew her first breath.

So, at just seventeen years old, Mariko is sent to the imperial palace to meet her betrothed, a man she did not choose, for the very first time. But the journey is cut short when Mariko’s convoy is viciously attacked by the Black Clan, a dangerous group of bandits who’ve been hired to kill Mariko before she reaches the palace.

The lone survivor, Mariko narrowly escapes to the woods, where she plots her revenge. Dressed as a peasant boy, she sets out to infiltrate the Black Clan and hunt down those responsible for the target on her back. Once she’s within their ranks, though, Mariko finds for the first time she’s appreciated for her intellect and abilities. She even finds herself falling in love—a love that will force her to question everything she’s ever known about her family, her purpose, and her deepest desires.

 

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Anything can happen once upon a con…

When geek girl Elle Wittimer sees a cosplay contest sponsored by the producers of Starfield, she has to enter. First prize is an invitation to the ExcelsiCon Cosplay Ball and a meet-and-greet with the actor slated to play Federation Prince Carmindor in the reboot. Elle’s been scraping together tips from her gig at the Magic Pumpkin food truck behind her stepmother’s back, and winning this contest could be her ticket out once and for all—not to mention a fangirl’s dream come true.

Teen actor Darien Freeman is less than thrilled about this year’s ExcelsiCon. He used to live for conventions, but now they’re nothing but jaw-aching photo sessions and awkward meet-and-greets. Playing Federation Prince Carmindor is all he’s ever wanted, but the diehard Starfield fandom has already dismissed him as just another heartthrob. As ExcelsiCon draws near, closet nerd Darien feels more and more like a fake—until he meets a girl who shows him otherwise.

 

The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his Grand Tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.

 

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.

Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.

 

A List of Cages by Robin Roe

When Adam Blake lands the best elective ever in his senior year, serving as an aide to the school psychologist, he thinks he’s got it made. Sure, it means a lot of sitting around, which isn’t easy for a guy with ADHD, but he can’t complain, since he gets to spend the period texting all his friends. Then the doctor asks him to track down the troubled freshman who keeps dodging her, and Adam discovers that the boy is Julian—the foster brother he hasn’t seen in five years.

Adam is ecstatic to be reunited. At first, Julian seems like the boy he once knew. He’s still kindhearted. He still writes stories and loves picture books meant for little kids. But as they spend more time together, Adam realizes that Julian is keeping secrets, like where he hides during the middle of the day, and what’s really going on inside his house. Adam is determined to help him, but his involvement could cost both boys their lives.

 

Lord of Shadows by Cassandra Clare

A Shadowhunter’s life is bound by duty. Constrained by honor. The word of a Shadowhunter is a solemn pledge, and no vow is more sacred than the vow that binds parabatai, warrior partners—sworn to fight together, die together, but never to fall in love.

Emma Carstairs has learned that the love she shares with her parabatai, Julian Blackthorn, isn’t just forbidden—it could destroy them both. She knows she should run from Julian. But how can she when the Blackthorns are threatened by enemies on all sides?

Their only hope is the Black Volume of the Dead, a spell book of terrible power. Everyone wants it. Only the Blackthorns can find it. Spurred on by a dark bargain with the Seelie Queen, Emma; her best friend, Cristina; and Mark and Julian Blackthorn journey into the Courts of Faerie, where glittering revels hide bloody danger and no promise can be trusted. Meanwhile, rising tension between Shadowhunters and Downworlders has produced the Cohort, an extremist group of Shadowhunters dedicated to registering Downworlders and “unsuitable” Nephilim. They’ll do anything in their power to expose Julian’s secrets and take the Los Angeles Institute for their own.

When Downworlders turn against the Clave, a new threat rises in the form of the Lord of Shadows—the Unseelie King, who sends his greatest warriors to slaughter those with Blackthorn blood and seize the Black Volume. As dangers close in, Julian devises a risky scheme that depends on the cooperation of an unpredictable enemy. But success may come with a price he and Emma cannot even imagine, one that will bring with it a reckoning of blood that could have repercussions for everyone and everything they hold dear.

 

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

The dream chooses the dreamer, not the other way around—and Lazlo Strange, war orphan and junior librarian, has always feared that his dream chose poorly. Since he was five years old he’s been obsessed with the mythic lost city of Weep, but it would take someone bolder than he to cross half the world in search of it. Then a stunning opportunity presents itself, in the person of a hero called the Godslayer and a band of legendary warriors, and he has to seize his chance or lose his dream forever.

What happened in Weep two hundred years ago to cut it off from the rest of the world? What exactly did the Godslayer slay that went by the name of god? And what is the mysterious problem he now seeks help in solving?

The answers await in Weep, but so do more mysteries—including the blue-skinned goddess who appears in Lazlo’s dreams. How did he dream her before he knew she existed? And if all the gods are dead, why does she seem so real?

Welcome to Weep.

 

The Takedown by Corrie Wang

Kyla Cheng doesn’t expect you to like her. For the record, she doesn’t need you to. On track to be valedictorian, she’s president of her community club and a debate team champ, plus the yummy Mackenzie Rodriguez has firmly attached himself to her hip. She and her three high-powered best friends don’t just own their senior year at their exclusive Park Slope, Brooklyn high school, they practically define the hated species Popular. Kyla’s even managed to make it through high school completely unscathed.

Until someone takes issue with this arrangement.

A week before college applications are due, a video of Kyla “doing it” with her crush-worthy English teacher is uploaded to her school’s website. It instantly goes viral, but here’s the thing: it’s not Kyla in the video. With time running out, Kyla delves into a world of hackers, haters and creepy stalkers in an attempt to do the impossible—take something off the internet—all while dealing with the fallout from her own karmic footprint.

 

The Upside of Unrequited by Becky Albertalli

Seventeen-year-old Molly Peskin-Suso knows all about unrequited love—she’s lived through it twenty-six times. She crushes hard and crushes often, but always in secret. Because no matter how many times her twin sister, Cassie, tells her to woman up, Molly can’t stomach the idea of rejection. So she’s careful. Fat girls always have to be careful.

Then a cute new girl enters Cassie’s orbit, and for the first time ever, Molly’s cynical twin is a lovesick mess. Meanwhile, Molly’s totally not dying of loneliness—except for the part where she is. Luckily, Cassie’s new girlfriend comes with a cute hipster-boy sidekick. Will is funny and flirtatious and just might be perfect crush material. Maybe more than crush material. And if Molly can win him over, she’ll get her first kiss and she’ll get her twin back.

There’s only one problem: Molly’s coworker Reid. He’s an awkward Tolkien superfan with a season pass to the Ren Faire, and there’s absolutely no way Molly could fall for him. Right?

 

We Are Okay by Nina LaCour

You go through life thinking there’s so much you need…

Until you leave with only your phone, your wallet, and a picture of your mother.

Marin hasn’t spoken to anyone from her old life since the day she left everything behind. No one knows the truth about those final weeks. Not even her best friend, Mabel. But even thousands of miles away from the California coast, at college in New York, Marin still feels the pull of the life and tragedy she’s tried to outrun. Now, months later, alone in an emptied dorm for winter break, Marin waits. Mabel is coming to visit, and Marin will be forced to face everything that’s been left unsaid and finally confront the loneliness that has made a home in her heart.

 

When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon

Dimple Shah has it all figured out. With graduation behind her, she’s more than ready for a break from her family, from Mamma’s inexplicable obsession with her finding the “Ideal Indian Husband.” Ugh. Dimple knows they must respect her principles on some level, though. If they truly believed she needed a husband right now, they wouldn’t have paid for her to attend a summer program for aspiring web developers…right?

Rishi Patel is a hopeless romantic. So when his parents tell him that his future wife will be attending the same summer program as him—wherein he’ll have to woo her—he’s totally on board. Because as silly as it sounds to most people in his life, Rishi wants to be arranged, believes in the power of tradition, stability, and being a part of something much bigger than himself.

The Shahs and Patels didn’t mean to start turning the wheels on this “suggested arrangement” so early in their children’s lives, but when they noticed them both gravitate toward the same summer program, they figured, Why not?

Dimple and Rishi may think they have each other figured out. But when opposites clash, love works hard to prove itself in the most unexpected ways.

 

Words in Deep Blue by Cath Crowley

Love lives between the lines.

Years ago, Rachel had a crush on Henry Jones. The day before she moved away, she tucked a love letter into his favorite book in his family’s bookshop. She waited. But Henry never came.

Now Rachel has returned to the city—and to the bookshop—to work alongside the boy she’d rather not see, if at all possible, for the rest of her life. But Rachel needs the distraction, and the escape. Her brother drowned months ago, and she can’t feel anything anymore. She can’t see her future.

Henry’s future isn’t looking too promising, either. His girlfriend dumped him. The bookstore is slipping away. And his family is breaking apart.

As Henry and Rachel work side by side—surrounded by books, watching love stories unfold, exchanging letters between the pages—they find hope in each other. Because life may be uncontrollable, even unbearable sometimes. But it’s possible that words, and love, and second chances are enough.

 

You’re Welcome, Universe by Whitney Gardner

When Julia finds a slur about her best friend scrawled across the back of the Kingston School for the Deaf, she covers it up with a beautiful (albeit illegal) graffiti mural.

Her supposed best friend snitches, the principal expels her, and her two mothers set Julia up with a one-way ticket to a “mainstream” school in the suburbs, where she’s treated like an outcast as the only deaf student. The last thing she has left is her art, and not even Banksy himself could convince her to give that up.

Out in the ’burbs, Julia paints anywhere she can, eager to claim some turf of her own. But Julia soon learns that she might not be the only vandal in town. Someone is adding to her tags, making them better, showing off—and showing Julia up in the process. She expected her art might get painted over by cops. But she never imagined getting dragged into a full-blown graffiti war.

 

Since there were so many great responses to this poll of enthusiastic YA readers, I couldn’t stop with one list. Here’s a look at a few titles that were included but with smaller percentages of the vote….and, perhaps, could fit that perfect bill of “under the radar” reads for your TBR.

 

After The Fall by Kate Hart

Seventeen-year-old Raychel is sleeping with two boys: her overachieving best friend Matt…and his slacker brother, Andrew. Raychel sneaks into Matt’s bed after nightmares, but nothing ever happens. He doesn’t even seem to realize she’s a girl, except when he decides she needs rescuing. But Raychel doesn’t want to be his girl anyway. She just needs his support as she deals with the classmate who assaulted her, the constant threat of her family’s eviction, and the dream of college slipping quickly out of reach. Matt tries to help, but he doesn’t really get it… and he’d never understand why she’s fallen into a secret relationship with his brother. The friendships are a precarious balance, and when tragedy strikes, everything falls apart. Raychel has to decide which pieces she can pick up – and which ones are worth putting back together.

 

American Street by Ibi Zoboi

The rock in the water does not know the pain of the rock in the sun.

On the corner of American Street and Joy Road, Fabiola Toussaint thought she would finally find une belle vie—a good life.

But after they leave Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Fabiola’s mother is detained by U.S. immigration, leaving Fabiola to navigate her loud American cousins, Chantal, Donna, and Princess; the grittiness of Detroit’s west side; a new school; and a surprising romance, all on her own.

Just as she finds her footing in this strange new world, a dangerous proposition presents itself, and Fabiola soon realizes that freedom comes at a cost. Trapped at the crossroads of an impossible choice, will she pay the price for the American dream?

 

Bad Romance by Heather Demetrios

Grace wants out. Out of her house, where her stepfather wields fear like a weapon and her mother makes her scrub imaginary dirt off the floors. Out of her California town, too small to contain her big city dreams. Out of her life, and into the role of Parisian artist, New York director—anything but scared and alone.

Enter Gavin: charming, talented, adored. Controlling. Dangerous. When Grace and Gavin fall in love, Grace is sure it’s too good to be true. She has no idea their relationship will become a prison she’s unable to escape.

Deeply affecting and unflinchingly honest, this is a story about spiraling into darkness—and emerging into the light again.

 

Dreadnought by April Daniels

Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero.

Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she’s always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.

It should be the happiest time of her life, but Danny’s first weeks finally living in a body that fits her are more difficult and complicated than she could have imagined. Between her father’s dangerous obsession with “curing” her girlhood, her best friend suddenly acting like he’s entitled to date her, and her fellow superheroes arguing over her place in their ranks, Danny feels like she’s in over her head.

She doesn’t have much time to adjust. Dreadnought’s murderer—a cyborg named Utopia—still haunts the streets of New Port City, threatening destruction. If Danny can’t sort through the confusion of coming out, master her powers, and stop Utopia in time, humanity faces extinction.

 

History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera

When Griffin’s first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he’s been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

To make things worse, the only person who truly understands his heartache is Jackson. But no matter how much they open up to each other, Griffin’s downward spiral continues. He’s losing himself in his obsessive compulsions and destructive choices, and the secrets he’s been keeping are tearing him apart.

If Griffin is ever to rebuild his future, he must first confront his history, every last heartbreaking piece in the puzzle of his life.

 

Noteworthy by Riley Redgate

A cappella just got a makeover.

Jordan Sun is embarking on her junior year at the Kensington-Blaine Boarding School for the Performing Arts, hopeful that this will be her time: the year she finally gets cast in the school musical. But when her low Alto 2 voice gets her shut out for the third straight year—threatening her future at Kensington-Blaine and jeopardizing her college applications—she’s forced to consider nontraditional options.

In Jordan’s case, really nontraditional. A spot has opened up in the Sharpshooters, Kensington’s elite a cappella octet. Worshipped…revered…all male. Desperate to prove herself, Jordan auditions in her most convincing drag, and it turns out that Jordan Sun, Tenor 1, is exactly what the Sharps are looking for.

Jordan finds herself enmeshed in a precarious juggling act: making friends, alienating friends, crushing on a guy, crushing on a girl, and navigating decades-old rivalries. With her secret growing heavier every day, Jordan pushes beyond gender norms to confront what it means to be a girl (and a guy) in a male-dominated society, and—most importantly—what it means to be herself.

 

The Ship Beyond Time by Heidi Heilig

Some things should not be stolen.

After what seems like a lifetime of following her father across the globe and through the centuries, Nix has finally taken the helm of their time-traveling ship. Her future—and the horizon—is bright.

Until she learns she is destined to lose the one she loves. To end up like her father: alone, heartbroken.

Unable to face losing Kashmir—best friend, thief, charmer extraordinaire—Nix sails her crew to a mythical utopia to meet a man who promises he can teach her how to manipulate time, to change history. But no place is perfect, not even paradise. And everything is constantly changing on this utopian island, including reality itself.

If Nix can read the ever-shifting tides, perhaps she will finally harness her abilities. Perhaps she can control her destiny, too.

Or perhaps her time will finally run out.

 

Tash Hearts Tolstoy by Kathryn Ormsbee

After a shout-out from one of the Internet’s superstar vloggers, Natasha “Tash” Zelenka finds herself and her obscure, amateur web series, Unhappy Families, thrust into the limelight: She’s gone viral.

Her show is a modern adaptation of Anna Karenina—written by Tash’s literary love Count Lev Nikolayevich “Leo” Tolstoy. Tash is a fan of the forty thousand new subscribers, their gushing tweets, and flashy Tumblr GIFs. Not so much the pressure to deliver the best web series ever.

And when Unhappy Families is nominated for a Golden Tuba award, Tash’s cyber-flirtation with Thom Causer, a fellow award nominee, suddenly has the potential to become something IRL—if she can figure out how to tell said crush that she’s romantic asexual.

Tash wants to enjoy her newfound fame, but will she lose her friends in her rise to the top? What would Tolstoy do?

 

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith

Let luck find you.

Alice doesn’t believe in luck—at least, not the good kind. But she does believe in love, and for some time now, she’s been pining for her best friend, Teddy. On his eighteenth birthday—just when it seems they might be on the brink of something—she buys him a lottery ticket on a lark. To their astonishment, he wins $140 million, and in an instant, everything changes.

At first, it seems like a dream come true, especially since the two of them are no strangers to misfortune. As a kid, Alice won the worst kind of lottery possible when her parents died just over a year apart from each other. And Teddy’s father abandoned his family not long after that, leaving them to grapple with his gambling debts. Through it all, Teddy and Alice have leaned on each other. But now, as they negotiate the ripple effects of Teddy’s newfound wealth, a gulf opens between them. And soon, the money starts to feel like more of a curse than a windfall.

As they try to find their way back to each other, Alice learns more about herself than she ever could have imagined…and about the unexpected ways in which luck and love sometimes intersect.

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Before signing off for the week, I wanted to share a really sweet new podcast you should listen to. Book Riot’s new podcast series called Annotated is a documentary podcast series about books, reading, and language (if you like This American Life, Planet Money, or Invisibilia, you’ll be familiar with the format).The next five episodes in the series will come out every other week, and you can subscribe to Annotated in Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or in your podcast player of choice.

I’m a nerd about books and reading and language…and I bet some of you are, too.

Hope you’ve added some more books to your own reading list. We’ll be back next week with more YA news.

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Hey Hey Hey YA Readers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA” newsletter is sponsored by The Waking Land by Callie Bates.

In the lush and magical tradition of Naomi Novik’s Uprooted comes this riveting debut from brilliant young writer Callie Bates—whose imagination places her among the finest authors of fantasy fiction, including Sarah J. Maas and Sabaa Tahir.

Lady Elanna is fiercely devoted to the king who raised her like a daughter. But when he dies under mysterious circumstances, Elanna is accused of his murder—and must flee for her life.

Returning to the homeland she has forsaken, Elanna is forced to reckon with her estranged father. Feeling a strange, deep connection to the natural world, she also must face the truth about the powers that suddenly stir within her.

 

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Don’t forget that if you haven’t dropped your pick for favorite YA read of 2017 so far, you have another day or two to have your pick counted. These’ll be rounded up and shared, top 10 style, in next week’s newsletter.

While you’re chowing down on your favorite holiday treats over this long weekend/holiday, why not catch up on some of the latest in YA news? Here’s a round-up of what’s been up in the world of YA.

• You probably already know this, but just in case: John Green has a new book coming out this fall.
• The film and TV rights for Frances Hardinge’s The Lie Tree have been snapped up. Mark my word: Hardinge is finally going to make a big splash in the US. She’s been on the cusp of it for a while — and she’s been successful in the UK — but now it seems things are growing on this side of the pond, too.
• A Pinterest board of the cover reveals for a selection of next year’s debut YA (and middle grade!) novels. Pretty!
• From fan fiction writers to bestsellers: the behind the scenes scoop on Christina Lauren.
• This is literally a tiny press release, but it’s worth noting that Robert Muchamore’s Cherub series has had its film rights acquired.
• Because as much as this newsletter is about YA books, it’s also worth sharing pieces about the rad shit teenagers do relating to books. In this case, a pair of NJ high schoolers created a racial literacy text to help spark and encourage discussions about race.  The kids are all right.
• The adaptation of Still Star-Crossed will likely not see a second season.
• David Levithan’s Every Day has been picked up for adaptation. The adaptation was done by none other than YA author Jesse Andrews, who you might know from Me and Earl and The Dying Girl. Here’s to the scene where A cannot fathom what having a fat body could possibly be like and is disgusted by the entire notion of it being cut, cut, cut.
• Rights to adapt the forthcoming Holly Black novel, The Cruel Prince, have been snapped up.
• There’s a surprise Star Wars: The Force Awakens graphic novel adaptation coming for YA readers.
• We have our Willowdean for the adaptation of Julie Murphy’s Dumplin’. What a great choice. 
• This piece about being a teenager and hating YA lit is really worth a read. What’s interesting to me is that, while the writer certainly has some good points, a lot of the assertions mimic those made by adults who haven’t read much YA. It’s superficial in scope of what YA is as a whole, though in this piece, there are specificities that suggest to me the writer has done a lot of reading. Perhaps she just hasn’t found what suits her yet? (& if I’m being honest: in contemporary YA at least, I read very few absolutely gorgeous characters or those who are sarcastic and biting — those seem to be rarer and rarer in today’s lit).
• 10 must-read LGBTQ books for Pride month. It might be July, technically, but what’s great about queer reads is they’re good for anytime reading.
• And last, but not least, how YA saves lives. Literally.

 

Thanks for hanging out this week and we’ll see you again next Monday. Prepare yourselves, though — your TBR will be growing longer.

 

–Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

Hello again, YA readers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by Be True To Me by Adele Griffin

Don’t miss this summer’s most sizzling read. From two-time National Book Award finalist Adele Griffin comes a story of riveting romantic suspense. New York Times bestselling author Jenny Han says, “This is a glittery gem of a book. I was utterly transported to endless summer days, girls in sundresses, that rush you get the first time you fall hard in love.”  And Morgan Matson, New York Times bestselling author of The Unexpected Everything, raves, “I devoured it in one heady, swoony sitting.”

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Last year, about this time, I asked for you to share your favorite read of the year so far, and I put together a massive list of reader favorites. Let’s do that again this year.

To participate, drop your favorite YA read of 2017 — books published between January 1 and June 30 of this year only — with title and author into this form. Easy peasy! Take the next week to think about it, and look for the big round-up on July 10.

In the meantime, let’s take a look at what’s been talked about in the YA world on Book Riot over the last month:

• 5 YA Romances For When The Real World Is Too Much
• Candles Inspired By YA Heroines
• Don’t Judge Me For Shopping In The Young Adult Section
• 40 YA Paperbacks Hitting Shelves This Summer
• The Days Of The Week According To YA Titles
• How Sarah Dessen’s Novels Have Aged With Me
• Sweet Diverse YA Covers For Books Hitting Shelves Soon
• 7 YA Novels With Superpowered Heroines
• Comics-To-Movies-To-YA-Books: Why We Need Them
• A Reading List From Cindy Pon’s WANT
• Readers Fabulously Recreate WHEN DIMPLE MET RISHI Cover
• YA Teens Who Are Obsessed With Real Life Bands And Musicians
• A Long Time Ago, In A YA Novel Far, Far Away (on learning to stop judging an entire category of books) (Thanks, Star Wars!)
• Celebrating The Solstice With Sun-Themed YA Reads
• Thirteen Reasons Why Censorship Won’t Help
• And finally, while this piece isn’t about YA lit specifically, it is about teenagers and it’s too good not to include: How Do You Get Teens Interested in Classic Literature? Blind Date With A Book!

Thanks for hanging out again and we’ll see you back here next week with all of the YA news your inbox can handle.

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars

 

PS: Don’t forget to drop your favorite YA read of 2017 into the form to take part in our reader survey.

 

 

 

 

Welcome to another week, YA fans!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by She’s So Boss by Stacy Kravetz –The Girl Entrepreneur’s Guide to Imagining, Creating, and Kicking Ass.

Whether you already have an idea for a business or you’re mulling how to turn the things you enjoy into a self-sustaining enterprise, this book will connect the dots. From inspiration to execution, there are concrete steps every young entrepreneur, creator, or leader needs to take, and this book shows you how. Packed with information and with the profiles of more than a dozen real-life girl bosses who have turned their passions into business, She’s So Boss is about thinking big, aiming high, and becoming the boss of your thing.

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I’m so excited to bring an interview to you, especially as this week’s guest is a Book Riot favorite: Malinda Lo.

Malinda Lo has been writing YA for many years, and prior to her first novel Ash hitting shelves, she was writing for many online outlets. Her work spans fantasy and realism, science fiction, heart-felt essays, short stories, and so much more. She’s here today to talk about her upcoming book (!!!), about the growth and evolution of LGBTQ+ YA lit, and how to be an advocate for inclusive lit, among other things.*

Without further ado, Malinda Lo!

Malinda Lo is the author of several young adult novels, including the forthcoming A Line in the Dark (Dutton, Oct. 17, 2017). Her novel Ash, a lesbian retelling of Cinderella, was a finalist for the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, the Andre Norton Award for YA Science Fiction and Fantasy, the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award, and was a Kirkus Best Book for Children and Teens. She has been a three-time finalist for the Lambda Literary Award. Malinda’s nonfiction has been published by The New York Times Book Review, NPR, The Huffington Post, The Toast, The Horn Book, and AfterEllen. She lives in Massachusetts with her partner and their dog.

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First, tell us a bit about what you’ve been working on between your last release Inheritance in 2013 and your upcoming A Line in the Dark. Anything you can tease us with about the new book?

Since Inheritance was published I dabbled in adult fantasy by joining the writing staff for Tremontaine, a serialized prequel to Ellen Kushner’s classic, Swordspoint. It was a lot of fun to work with other writers on crafting a TV series-like experience for readers. Tremontaine is basically a queer The Three Musketeers meets Dangerous Liaisons, and it is sexy, dangerous fun!

It’s also quite different than A Line in the Dark, although I’d like to believe my new novel is also sexy, dangerous fun! Line is a psychological thriller set in a New England winter, where four girls are drawn together by love, lust, and jealousy. The main character is my first published Chinese American queer girl main character, and she’s kind of the opposite of every stereotype you can imagine about Chinese American girls. It was almost cathartic for me to write her, because she breaks so many of those molds.

 

On a shallow note, the cover for A Line in the Dark is unbelievably good. Did you have any say in the process at all? Were there other concepts that got scratched?

I agree, the cover is unbelievably good! I am so, so thrilled by its creepiness and edginess. My editor, Andrew Karre, had great ideas for the cover from the beginning, when he wanted to commission art from Stina Persson. She does really bold ink and watercolor stuff, and she created the incredible typography for the title. The rest of the book cover went through several design iterations, and I was involved from the start. I wanted to make sure the cover told readers that this would be a mystery with a dark heart, and I think the cover does that brilliantly. I’ve been fortunate work with editors who invite my input into the design process, and I’m very grateful for that.

 

Before writing novels, and even during the time you’ve been writing them, you’ve written for online venues like AfterEllen and Diversity in YA. What have you enjoyed about the world of “online” writing and how/where does it differ for you from “offline” (aka, novel) writing? Do you prefer one over the other?

Everything I’ve written for online has been nonfiction, and to me, nonfiction is a totally different world from fiction. Nonfiction—especially the stuff that’s online—requires a different style, tone, and structure. And online essays require different structure than print essays, because people read online differently than they read in print. I enjoy many kinds of writing, and that’s why I also write fiction in different genres. I need the challenge that different genres and types of writing require, and I like that writing in different genres trains me to be flexible with my words.

 

You’ve been active and involved in the queer YA community for a long time. What sorts of changes have you seen in the way that queer lit is talked about online?

Primarily, there’s a ton more dialogue about it than before. It seems to be everywhere these days! That’s wonderful because it pushes LGBTQ issues to the front of the conversation. I’m glad that people are talking.

 

What do you hope to see more of — or where do you see a lack — in the realm of queer YA?

I want LGBTQ+-identified writers to feel free to write about whatever they want. I want them to feel the same freedom that heterosexual writers feel. In terms of what I find lacking, I want books about queer girls to have the freedom to include frank and moving explorations of sexuality. I don’t want that stuff pushed off the page.

 

What are some of your favorite queer YA novels? What have been some of your influences in writing (YA or otherwise)?

Some of my recent favorites include We Are Okay by Nina LaCour and Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit by Jaye Robin Brown. My writing influences include Sarah Waters, Madeleine L’Engle, and Robin McKinley.

 

 

What book do you wish you could go back and hand your young teen self? Why?

I would definitely want to give myself Ash. Even though I wrote it! Or because I wrote it. I basically wrote Ash for my younger self. It was the fairy tale retelling I never had, and I think if I’d been able to read it when I was 12 or 13, a lot of things would have made a lot more sense earlier!

 

Like all readers, surely there are some titles you’re looking forward to that are coming out later this year. Can you share a few you’re itching to get your hands on?

I’m fortunate to have already gotten my hands on Stephanie Kuehn’s next novel, When I Am Through With You, which comes out August 1. I love her unreliable narrators, and this one is about a group of teens who go on a hike in the Northern California mountains when disaster (of the natural and unnatural types) strike. Stephanie is such a good writer, and I love the sense of place that is infused in this book — as well as all the delicious moral ambiguity you can imagine.

 

What can readers do to ensure that queer YA lit gets love and attention within and beyond Pride month? How can we become advocates for this segment of the book world and the readers who are eager for both those mirrors and windows?

Keep talking about it! When people ask you for fantasy, give them fantasy that happens to feature queer characters. When people ask you for love stories, give them love stories that happen to feature queer characters. People often think of “queer YA” as fitting a particular box — the coming-out story, or some other sexual orientation-focused plot — and while those stories do exist and can be wonderful, that’s not the end-all be-all of books about queer characters. Don’t forget that queer characters can do things besides be queer; they can also, for example, save the world.

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See you next week, YA friends. Till then, hopefully you’ve found a book or two or more to pick up and enjoy.

— Kelly Jensen @veronikellymars

Welcome back, YA lovers!

This week’s edition of “What’s Up in YA?” is sponsored by The Evaporation of Sofi Snow by Mary Weber.

From award-winning author Mary Weber, comes a story of video gaming, blood, and power. As an online gamer, Sofi Snow battles behind the scenes of Earth’s Fantasy Fighting arena. Her brother Shilo is forced to compete in a mix of real and virtual blood sport. When, a bomb shatters the arena, Sofi thinks Shilo’s been taken to an ice-planet – Delonese. Charming playboy Miguel is a Delonese Ambassador. He’s built a career on secrets and seduction. When the bomb explodes, the tables turn and he’s the target. The game is simple: Help the blackmailers, or lose more than Earth can afford.

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Grab yourself some ice cream, some tea, or any other comfort comestible of choice and let’s catch up with all the YA news that’s fit to post.

• The life-changing bookish habit Sarah Dessen discovered as a teen. I bet a lot of us do this or something similar.
• Lauren Graham snags the rights to adapt Jennifer E. Smith’s latest book Windfall. I’ve liked Smith’s previous books, and it seems like Graham would be a great fit for capturing her voice.
• Rainbow Rowell will be penning the next YA Marvel project, Runaways. 
• The rights to the “buzzy YA” title S.T.A.G.S. have been picked up for film. I have literally never heard of this book. I also hope that it’s an author of color behind it, given the comp to Get Out.
• The YA title Under Rose-Tainted Skies has been optioned for potential adaptation.
• Here’s the trailer for season 2B of Shadowhunters on Freeform.
• Five things to know about Still Star Crossed, an adaptation for television from Shondaland. I only vaguely know of the title, but it’s neat to see a book like this — a period drama — getting this kind of treatment.
• What we might expect from the second season of Netflix’s take on 13 Reasons Why. It’s different than my prediction of following Alex, who we last left off with in season one with a Very Unresolved Ending.
• This UK prize-winning book looks like one we should hope crosses the pond. . . and/or that those of you in the UK should scoop up.
• These are the 5 Editor Buzz Panel books from Book Expo America. Expect to see and hear a lot about them in the coming months — I’ve read the new Samantha Mabry and it is, indeed, magical.
• And like I’ve been doing every year since starting these news round-ups, remember you can snag free YA and classic audiobooks all summer long with Audiobook Sync.

 

Thanks for hanging out and we’ll see you back here next week with a really exciting interview with a long-time Book Riot and YA reader favorite.

— Kelly Jensen, @veronikellymars