Category: What’s Up in YA

Hello YA Readers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” newsletter is sponsored by Spontaneous. 

Mara Carlyle’s senior year is going as normally as could be expected, until—wa-bam!—fellow senior Katelyn Ogden explodes during third period pre-calc. Katelyn is the first, but she won’t be the last teenager to blow up without warning or explanation. As the seniors continue to pop like balloons, smart and hilarious Mara narrates the end of their world as she knows it. But within an explosive year punctuated by romance, quarantine, lifelong friendship, and the hope of making it to graduation lies a funny, super honest, and truly moving story of being a teenager and the heartache of saying goodbye.

At the tail end of last month, the New York Times ran an article by Ginia Bellafante which many readers found to be somewhere between good enough and forgettable enough — perhaps in part because it is a pretty innocuous piece, save for the fact that some readers were irritated by the article’s accompanying image (consider that foreshadowing).  

The longer I’ve thought about the piece, though, the more frustrating it becomes. Let’s break this down bit by bit and closely read what it is Bellafante is really saying.

The piece begins with talking about growing up in the suburbs and reading Judy Blume’s iconic Are You There God?: It’s Me, Margaret. It then proceeds to highlight a couple more early YA authors, including Paul Zindel (The Pigman, among others) and Norma Klein (Domestic Arrangements, among others). But then there’s this paragraph:

For women who grew up in the 1970s and early ’80s — nurtured in the fictions of Ms. Blume, Paul Zindel and Norma Klein among others, writers for whom an urbane brand of social realism was the only reasonable métier — the arrival of the “Twilight” franchise a decade ago, with its enormous success, signaled a gloomy period of regression for the young-adult novel.

And so, the references to Twilight begin. Like any good YA article about ten years past prime, this piece references a mega successful franchise as the beginning of the downfall for young adult fiction. But what stands out is not the tired argument of Twilight being the ruin of YA; what stands out is that Bellafante notes that it’s middle age women who saw the franchise as the downfall of the YA novel.

In other words: not teenagers.

A distinct product of Bush-era gender politics rather than a renunciation of them, the series ultimately has its heroine forfeit a chance to go to Dartmouth to stay home and tend to her half-vampire baby, one conceived after a night of violent sex that leaves her body bruised with a husband who is at least 100 years old.

There was a piece not too long ago, one referenced in this here newsletter, about how YA is too liberal, offering no space for readers whose belief systems don’t fall into left-leaning politics. And yet, here’s an argument that Twilight, with the huge success it had, helmed by a woman who is Mormon, is problematic because it doesn’t reject the American politics of 2005. Because it’s not prescriptively against something, it’s for it, apparently.

It can’t be a vampire book, and it can’t be a book that launched deep and meaningful reading lives for thousands and thousands of young readers.

Rather than digging into the big books of this year, though, the article dives right into contemporary times:

Now, though, the appetite for paranormal lunacy has abated, and issue-driven fiction set very much in a universe of urbanism’s chief concerns is having a renaissance.

I’m going to ignore the phrase “paranormal lunacy” because it’s reductive and patronizing, but it’s curious how there are over 10 years of YA history ignored here. And not only are the years 2005 – 2015 ignored, there is no discussion of what else was going on in 2005 besides Twilight. Those of us who’ve been around long enough or who have been involved in the YA world for a good chunk of time realize that Twilight wasn’t a mega hit the minute it landed. It took time, the right marketing, the book getting into the right hands, and the era of the time being fruitful for such a success.

And it’s curious that these books — many of which were also big hits of 2005 and well beyond — are not mentioned at all:

Uglies by Scott Westerfeld

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan (middle grade, but with tremendous crossover appeal to YA readers)

13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson

The Boyfriend List by E Lockhart

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Keeping You a Secret by Julie Anne Peters

Autobiography of My Dead Brother by Walter Dean Myers

As well as books in continuing series by Meg Cabot (yes, The Princess Diaries!), Holly Black, Christopher Paolini, and others. Some other familiar authors who published books in 2005 include David Levithan, Celia Rees, Ron Koertge, Adele Griffin, Robin Wasserman, and Caroline B. Cooney.

To reduce the downfall of YA to one book and one year is to ignore the wealth of talent and good reading happening at the same time, in the same place, under the same historical and political conditions.

This week, “All American Boys,” a novel by Jason Reynolds and Brendan Kiely, an outgrowth of the Black Lives Matter movement, appears on The New York Times’s best-seller list for young-adult books. The story follows the beating of an innocent black child by a white police officer who thinks he has stolen a bag of chips.

Here’s the pivot: Bellafante moves from the downfall of YA through Twilight in 2005 to today’s growth of contemporary, modern issues like Black Lives Matter. She continues:

In a similar vein, “The Hate U Give,” to be released early next year, chronicles the story of a 16-year-old prep-school girl who witnesses a police officer shoot her unarmed best friend. A movie version of the novel, by Angela Thomas, is already in progress. And right now, prominently displayed at Barnes & Noble in Downtown Brooklyn, is “Bright Lights, Dark Nights,” a novel about racial profiling set against the backdrop of drugs and violence.

Ah ha. This is really an article about urban-set fiction about black teenagers and racial profiling. 

The recent upheavals in the economy stemming from the financial crisis, the rise of racial tensions and the increased animosity toward immigrants that the current election cycle has fed and exposed have arguably made this new catalog inevitable. The world has intruded in the lives of children in so many ugly ways.

But are these books so new? Is this an entirely new catalog? Where’s mention of Kekla Magoon and her book How It Went Down? 

Consider this: in 2005, as well as before and well after, we had authors writing about urban realities for teenagers. We had the great Walter Dean Myers, for one, as well as Coe Booth (Tyrell, etc), Jaime Adoff (The Death of Jayson Porter), Sharon Draper (The Battle of Jericho and others), Sharon Flake (The Skin I’m In), Angela Johnson (First Part Last), Jacqueline Woodson (After Tupac and D Foster), and a slew of books from imprints like Dafina and KTeen, which focused on black teens in urban stories.

Let’s not forget, either, there were white writers telling these stories, too, including folks like Paul Volponi (Black and White) and Paul Griffin (Stay With Me).

In some sense these new realist novels are even grittier than their predecessors from the 1970s, even though children, especially in New York where crime rates were so high, faced greater perils then. The classic young-adult novel of that period typically dealt with characters managing the fracture of American family life — divorce, a mother’s new boyfriend and so on — but those characters most often enjoyed the comforts of middle-class life. Norma Klein’s Manhattan was as sophisticated as any Woody Allen would devise. Children today may finally be resisting the elusive insulation we crave for them.

Children have had access to books and story tellers interested in coming of age realism, as well as urban grit, since the beginning of YA. Even in those horrible years between the emergence of Twilight and today, authors wrote these stories, and readers — teenagers — found them, either through their own searching or the help of gatekeepers.

But what’s going unsaid here is the thing that needs to be said: these books were never written for nor marketed to those middle age white ladies who are now discovering these gritty, urban coming-of-age stories thanks to better marketing and placement in bookstores. These books were never “for” them in the first place, and even in today’s market where adult buyers make up the majority of YA book purchases, these books are not “for” them. Rather, it’s thanks to the nonstop hard work of those behind diversity movements (a phrase I loathe because “diversity” is simply reality) who are getting more of these books at the forefront of bookstores and into the minds of those readers, like Bellafante, who never once had to pick up books like these.

Let’s step back again, though, and consider what this piece says: back in the 70s and 80s, grit was written by white people.

Today, it’s being written by authors of color.

Both are sweeping over generalizations about what grit is and is not, and it overlooks the rich history of YA grit that’s been written before and will continue to be written. It’s thanks to the work of Myers, of Woodson, of Flake, of Draper, and of the other authors listed above who’ve been writing “urban set gritty stories” that parallel the eras and times in which they wrote that today’s authors doing gritty, urban-set fiction are able to tell their stories, too.

So sure, Twilight mirrored the gender politics of 2005 and the Bush era. But Twilight was not the only YA book out then; it was one of many, many hundreds of YA books, and one that chose to zig, rather than zag with the times. Likewise, it’s a book about white characters written by a white author. It cannot and should not be the standard of YA for one year, nor for an era. It’s a bubble which got great marketing and got lucky.

Not to mention that it did extremely well with middle class white ladies, the exact audience that gritty YA isn’t written toward.

Now if only I could better explain why a picture of a white coauthor is paired with this piece that is distinctly about black authors and black fiction, rather than any of the black writers mentioned.

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I can’t help but link again to an interview done here earlier this year with YA author Brandy Colbert. The books we’re seeing promoted and discussed by and about black people are excellent and important and it is, without question, about damn time they’re getting table placement and big discussions about them in places like The New York Times.

But what about those books by black authors that aren’t gritty, urban-set stories? What about those black teens who are suburban? Who are also coming-of-age, but perhaps have lives that aren’t gritty (or that are gritty but not in the way we associate “gritty” with “inner city”)? These books deserve their time, too.

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Thanks for hanging out again for another edition of “What’s Up in YA?”. If nothing else, I hope this piece helped further open your reading lives to a wealth of fiction and authors of color who deserve your attention and consideration, even if they aren’t brand new (or if they are!). It’s worth noting that the majority of authors noted above have a nice, thick catalog of reads, even though they aren’t all mentioned or linked to. 

We’ll see you again next week.

Hello YA Fans!

This week’s edition of “This Week in YA” is sponsored by Way Down Dark.

Seventeen-year-old Chan’s ancestors left a dying Earth hundreds of years ago, in search of a new home. Generations later, they are still searching . . . Every day aboard the interstellar ship Australia is hell, where no one is safe. The Australia is filled with murderous gangs and twisted cults, vying for supremacy. Fierce and self-sufficient, Chan has learned to avoid the mayhem but then she makes an extraordinary discovery–there may be a way to return to Earth. But doing so will bring her to the attention of the murderers and fanatics, putting her and everyone she loves in danger.

 

Let’s take a look at the last few weeks in YA news, since there’s been quite a bit worth sharing or thinking about:

 

• First, the latest Book Mail box is up and available in the Book Riot Store. This is the YA edition, curated by your newsletter writer, and the theme for this box is Strange and Peculiar. There are two hardcover books, as well as three great bookish goodies — two of which are exclusive to this box. Check it out.

• I love stories about people’s jobs that are a bit unexpected. In this case, it’s Jennifer Connelly’s stint as a YA book cover model. And speaking of modeling for book covers, Jamie Canaves at Book Riot rounded up a few now-famous people who modeled on book covers — not all of these are YA, but many are.

• After five years, the independent YA press Jolly Fish is shutting its doors. This piece at Bustle sums up a number of reactions from around the YA community. The books currently published by the press will remain on sale through the end of October, and you can check out what they are and purchase them with the handy round-up from The Bookavid.

• JK Rowling’s “Fantastic Beasts” franchise will be five films long.

• A partnership between Lee & Low Books, First Book, and the National Education Association Foundation will get diverse books into the hands of kids and into schools in low income areas. Partnerships like this, which meet the kids where they are, are the ones I think are most effective. Kudos.  

• I can’t remember if I shared this one in the last linked-up newsletter or not, but in any case, it is worth a reshare: Amandla Stenberg will be in The Darkest Minds movie. I welcome Amandla as the new face for YA films, and I love this piece about the 5 YA roles she could play next.

• I’ve seen this same headline used in about eighteen other outlets and I find it a little annoying each time. That said, there have been some badass interviews lately with Ransom Riggs and Tahereh Mafi. This is a particularly good one.

• More YA Star Wars novels. This isn’t surprising, seeing that these books are doing really, really well.

• SE Hinton, why though?

• Some casting news for Down a Dark Hall. I’m pretty excited about this entire project, as it’s one of the adaptations that Stephenie Meyer is producing.

• I’m so glad to see the publication date for The Hate U Give got moved up, especially after reading this excerpt. One of my most anticipated 2017 reads, and I suspect I am not alone in that.

 

And a few links from Book Riot on YA:

 

• 100 YA books with little or no romance. Yes, they exist!

• And then sink your teeth into 100 must-read YA historical fantasies.

• 10 YA books worth listening to on audio.

• How about some queer Asian YA books?

• The evolution of LGBTQ+ book covers in YA.

• An interview with Maria Padian about her new book Wrecked, YA books as a category, and about rape culture.

 

Though there will be no edition of “What’s Up in YA?” on Halloween, I couldn’t end this one without talking about how great YA horror is. If you’re itching for a title or two, may I suggest trying out any of these 65 great YA horror reads by women?

Thanks for hanging out for another round of YA news and talk. We’ll be back in early November with more. Until then, grab yourself some candles, flashlights, blankets, and some spine-tingling reads.

Or, you know, whatever it is you want to spend your last days of October curling up with.

Hello, YA fans!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Wrecked by Maria Padian.

On the same night college freshman Haley sustains a career-ending concussion on the soccer field, her bookish roommate Jenny arrives home shell-shocked from a wild party. The next morning, on the other side of campus, Jordan brags to his housemate, Richard, about the cute freshman he hooked up with. When Jenny formally accuses Jordan of rape, gossip spreads like wildfire through the campus. Wrecked by Maria Padian, a gut-wrenching, powerful, kaleidoscopic account of a sexual assault on campus, is a must-read.

I promised in the last newsletter that there would be an excellent interview in this week’s edition. At the time, I hadn’t yet seen the answers and now that I have, all I can say is, you’re in for a treat, YA fans!

September 15 kicked off a month-long celebration of Hispanic Heritage, and I could think of no better way to talk about this than to interview an up-and-coming rising star in YA, Anna-Marie McLemore. Anna-Marie is a queer Latina whose first book The Weight of Feathers was short listed for the William C. Morris Debut Award and whose second book, the just-released When The Moon Was Ours, is long listed for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature.

Before diving in, I’ll take a moment to plug an older post I wrote on my personal blog: A YA reading list to Hispanic Heritage Month. It’s a little wonky in formatting, but for those of you seeking a great book by a Hispanic author or who want more background on the celebration itself (i.e., Why is it mid-September through mid-October? Who does it celebrate?), here you go.

And now, let’s talk with Anna-Marie!

 

Before we dive into talking about a host of other things, give us the pitch for THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS, as well as the pitch for your latest book, WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS!

The Weight of Feathers is the love story of two teens from rival families of traveling shows, the Mexican-American Palomas, who perform as mermaids, and the Romani Corbeaus, who are descended from a long line of French tightrope walkers.

When the Moon Was Ours tells the story of Sam, a transgender boy known for painting moon lamps and hanging them in the trees throughout his small town, and Miel, a Latina girl who grows roses from her wrist. Miel and Sam have been friends since the night Miel appeared from a water tower as a child; now, years later, they find themselves up against four sisters rumored to be witches.

You openly identify as a queer Latina writer — can you talk a bit as to why stating your identity is important to you as a writer and how you translate those experiences into your own stories?

Claiming my identity has been important both for my own spirit—for taking pride in my intersecting identities and my communities—and as part of being visible for and within my communities. I’m a light-skinned, dark-haired and dark-eyed Latina, and often people see me and understand me as “other”—not white or “not quite white”—but don’t know what I am. While we never owe anyone an answer to the question “What are you?” I want to be a visible as part of the Latinx community, especially since I’m queer. And since we’re talking about declaring queer identity, I am extremely straight-passing; when I’m not out with the Transboy, I’m usually assumed to be straight. While fellow members of the LGBTQ community often flag me as their own, straight, cis people usually don’t. They sometimes get the sense that I’m a little different, but that’s often as much part of being of-color as being queer. So claiming my queerness is in part about pride, in part about visibility as a queer woman of color, and in part about letting go of some of my straight-passing privilege in a way that I hope helps show the range and diversity in our community.

Do you find yourself feeling extra pressure to “get it right?” How do you balance the need to tell a story with the pain points that come from being a minority voice in the YA world? Do you feel there are more expectations for you as a queer female writer of color than writers who don’t identify as a minority or who don’t choose to be open about their identities?

My hope is that all authors, no matter their identities, feel a responsibility to their readers and to themselves to “get it right.” But I do think that when there are fewer stories by any one kind of marginalized voice, it’s hard for authors not to feel the added pressure of what role their stories will or should play. An author and blogger who knows YA titles as thoroughly as anyone else I can think of recently told me that When the Moon Was Ours is one of the only titles she has on hand to recommend that has both a trans* main character and an interracial romance between two main characters of color. So that’s an example of how it’s a tremendous honor to me when anyone recommends my books, but I do feel the weight of that responsibility. The hope, of course, is that, no matter what kind of book, no matter what kind of main character a reader asks for, there will eventually be many titles to recommend. I think that’s one of the things we hope for as we talk about diversity and inclusion in literature. We look toward the hope of many mirrors. However long that dream of many mirrors takes, I want to do the best I can as a queer female writer of color, both in the stories I tell and in the ways I engage in the community.

Who and/or what have been some of your influences as a queer writer of color?

The first novel by a queer Latina author I can remember reading is Carla Trujillo’s What Night Brings. That book to me had the draw of being both a mirror book and a window book. A mirror in that so much about narrator Marci Cruz’s culture was familiar to me. A window in that this young woman is looking at feminine women with the sort of gaze we tend to attribute to boys and men, like what we see in The Virgin Suicides. And that was such a strange and disconcerting and wonderful moment of “Oh. Do queer women look at us”—and by us I mean feminine-presenting queer women, femmes, the community I was only just starting to understand—“like that? Do queer women look at us like men look at us?” That made queer attraction real to me in a way it wasn’t before. I had never seen the attraction of a queer Latina woman depicted on the page before.

When it comes to YA, Malinda Lo was the author who drew me into the idea that there was room for the stories of queer women of color. Ash transfixed me, and every novel she’s written after has given me another breathless moment of “Oh. We (meaning queer women of color) can write those stories. We can write those genres. There is room for us, and if there’s not, we will make room.” She’s an author who has done so much to make that room, to open what so many queer women of color think of as stories that can belong to us, both as readers and as writers.  

And in terms of queer authors who wrote in Spanish, Lorca has been, and continues to be, a tremendous influence. His poetry and his plays were absolutely transformative to me. They had commonalities with a culture I knew, and they had a kind of passion that was even more meaningful to me when I understood his perspective as a gay man. To read such beautiful stories and images, and to know they had come from a heart that loved in a way that his society rejected and ultimately killed, was heartbreaking, haunting, and life-changing. He is one of my most deeply held reference points for why magical realism is so important to me. You feel it in his words and his characters, that meeting of oppression and transcendence, of being broken down and still finding the beautiful.

Your two books pull threads through them that readers might identify — Romeo & Juliet comes through in THE WEIGHT OF FEATHERS while the tale of La Llorona weaves its way a bit through WHEN THE MOON WAS OURS. Can you talk a bit about the power of stories and how they influence your own writing?

I grew up in a family that loves and values stories. Some of those stories, like the legend of la llorona, belong to our cultures, and they hold places in our hearts that are both harrowing and hopeful. Others, like Romeo & Juliet, have largely been claimed by white narratives, this despite the fact that so many cultures have their own stories with similar themes. My family taught me that sometimes, if we want stories of our own, we have to claim them, we have to create them, we have to make them ours.

Your books are readily identifiable as “magical realism.” This term has gained a lot of use in the YA world over the last couple of years to describe a wide swath of novels. But “magical realism” has significant cultural associations and meanings that separate it from fantasy reads. Can you talk a bit about what magical realism is, why you write it, and what YA books you see fitting into it?

Magical realism is a literary and cultural language. I hesitate to give a brief, one-sentence definition of magical realism for the same reasons I hesitate to give a short definition of what it means to be Latina. Magical realism is more than seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary. In a culture of oppression, seeing the magical in the midst of the tragic, the unjust, the heartbreaking is a way of survival, for people, for communities, for cultures. We must find our magic where it lives, or we will lose it. Our spirits depend on not overlooking that which might be dismissed or ignored. When the moon speaks in Lorca’s Blood Wedding, I take a deeper breath not because this seems impossible, but because the moon’s words stay with me. That’s really I think why I write it, it’s how I express what I know, that the world is more brutal than so many people believe, and more beautiful they than imagine.

One of the most classically depicted moments of magical realism I’ve ever found in YA is in Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Summer of the Mariposas, when the five sisters at the heart of the story speak to la llorona. La llorona is a legendary figure in Mexican-American culture; in my community, we all hear her story growing up. But these sisters speak to her, and she speaks to them, as though they’re simply relatives who haven’t seen each other in years.

I also must mention Laura Ruby’s Bone Gap and Nova Ren Suma’s Imaginary Girls, because Laura and Nova are two of the YA authors I admire most. I go back to their books often. I should mention that both Laura and Nova have called their books something other than magical realism; Laura calls Bone Gap a Midwestern fairy tale, which I love. Their books have hints of magical realism blended with elements that are uniquely their own.

Though Hispanic Heritage Month is coming to an end, reading and discussing diverse books is something that we’re all interested in. What have been some of your favorite YA and/or YA crossover reads written by those with a Hispanic and/or Latinx heritage?

Maria Virginia Farinango and Laura Resau’s The Queen of Water is the story of a young Ecuadorian girl fighting to have a chance at an education, independence, and the life she imagines; Laura Resau, the co-author who Farinango trusted to help tell her story, has also written many books, and she’s an example I constantly cite as a white author who respectfully and authentically depicts Latinx culture. Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe has two characters I just loved spending time with; their relationship is both fun and poignant, and the way it unfolds is gradual and powerful.

One of my favorite magical realism stories, Laura Esquivel’s Like Water for Chocolate, sets traditional magical realism against the landscape of familial closeness and conflict. Not technically YA, but I read it as a teen, and it was one of the books that made me a reader. It shares themes of becoming your own and making your own choices with many of my favorite YA books.

The Alchemist is a classic by Brazilian author Paulo Coelho, and it also has themes of making your own life that I think would resonant with readers who love YA.  Right now I’m reading The House of Impossible Loves by Cristina López Barrio, and I am loving it so far; at its core is the question of how much daughters want to be like or different from their mothers. And thanks to more diverse books reaching shelves every year, my TBR list is growing, including my TBR of specifically Latinx voices.

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A big, big thank you to Anna-Marie for this wonderful conversation and YA readers, hopefully you found even more books to add to your towering piles! And if you haven’t already read her books, make sure they’re on your piles because both are wonderful, lush stories that exemplify all of the best parts of YA and why YA is such a rich category of books. 

Enjoy your reading and we’ll see you back in two weeks! 

 

Welcome to Fall, YA Fans!

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

Look Past is a gripping murder mystery involving a transgender teen and a fundamentalist religious sect. Avery is a trans boy who was in love with his friend Mary, but was shunned by her conservative reverend father. Mary is murdered in a brutal way because of her love for Avery, and he could be next. With the entire town caught in the grip of fear, the killer remains at large. Avery is torn between finding the killer and saving himself—not just from the hands of a vicious murderer, but from everyone who thinks he should try to be “normal.”

In the next issue of “What’s Up in YA?,” we have a fun interview with an emerging YA powerhouse talking about Hispanic Heritage Month, magical realism, and a whole lot more. So for that, we’ll take it a little bit slower in this issue — let’s take a look at some of the big news from around the world of YA.

• I’d completely forgotten that Lauren Kate’s Fallen was being made into a film. The trailer has hit, and the article attached to it is interesting — there’s not a release date for the film, and there’s a push to get fans talking so that it will debut. Eventually.

• Did you know that Bernie Sanders is publishing a YA book? It’s a non-fic title being adapted from his next adult release.

• Tis the beginning of award season! You can check out the Kirkus Young Readers’ Literature short list here, then check out the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature here. Some crossovers there!

• “Be not afraid of discomfort. If you can’t put yourself in a situation where you are uncomfortable then you will never grow. You will never change. You’ll never learn. I think for me, the discomfort of drowning is what taught me to swim” — this quote from Jason Reynolds is one of the many great pieces of insight and advice authors for young readers offer up to those ready to leave home for the first time.

• Ann M. Martin talks about the enduring legacy of The Baby-Sitters Club, 30 years after its original publication. Of most interest to me reading this piece was learning Martin is queer!

• There is now a director attached to Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda.

• Hulu ordered a pilot for the adaptation of Sarah J. Maas’s Throne of Glass. Which of her series will hit screens first?

• Lizzie Skurnick books will no longer be acquiring new titles. This story is pretty interesting since it sounds like not all of the cooks in the kitchen were in agreement about the dish to be served. I’ve liked the Skurnick reissues that I’ve read quite a bit and hope we still see some more. If this bullet point made no sense to you, check out what it is.

• Remember Marley Dias of #1000BlackGirlBooks? She’s now created a mini-zine for Elle.com. This girl is rad.

 

From Book Riot…

• On a totally selfish note, I got to show off the cover to my own anthology, Here We Are: Feminism For The Real World, which hits shelves in February. I’m still in awe of the cover and that contributor list.

• A round-up of 100 must-read historical YA novels. Anything you’d add?

• A look at YA novels with shifting POVs.

• YA book covers that don’t whitewash. Some great covers here!

 

Thanks for hanging out with us another week, and we’ll be back with a fabulous author-reading-book discussion in two weeks. In the mean time, pick up a great YA book or two and have fun.

Welcome to September, YA fans!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter.

In the third volume of the highly addictive New York Times bestselling Jackaby series, Jenny Cavanaugh, the ghostly lady of 926 Augur Lane, has enlisted the services of her fellow residents  to solve a decade-old murder—her own. Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, dive into the cold case, starting with a search for Jenny’s fiancé, who went missing the night she died. EW.com calls the series “fast-paced and full of intrigue.” It’s “Sherlock Holmes crossed with Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” says the Chicago Tribune.

 

As you’re reading this, your newsletter writer is deep in the desert, soaking in the last few weeks of summer….and uninterrupted reading time. That means this week’s newsletter is dedicated to catching up on the links of interest. Dig in!

 

• First: did you know that we have a new YA-based tote bag in the Book Riot Store? This rad tote, with a quote from Nova Ren Suma’s The Walls Around Us was created for the first YA Book Mail Box, but we decided we’d put it in the store, too. Check it out and snag one. If you’re curious, it’s very big and has a nice pocket inside — it’s perfect for toting your library or bookstore hauls, some notebooks, pens, your phone, and other goods.

 

 

• A Monster Calls, the film based on the book by Patrick Ness (which might lean more middle grade than YA), is getting pushed back by a couple of months. Here’s info on the new release date and the latest trailer.

 

 

• Jennifer Yuh Nelson is on as the director for the adaptation of The Darkest Minds. Yeah lady director! Yeah lady director who is a woman of color!

 

• Speaking of female directors, Lumberjanes has one, too.

 

• Remember the announcement of YA X-Files books? Here are the covers for what will be hitting shelves early next year.

 

• In Italy, their young adults are getting nearly $600 to spend on books. This is awesome.

 

• Itching for some nostalgia reading? Here’s a piece from Broadly about our collective obsession with The Baby-Sitters Club. One of our Book Riot contributors just wrote a piece of interest, too, recommending books to the members of the BSC.  

 

• Malorie Blackman’s Naughts and Crosses is being adapted by the BBC. This is a huge deal for UK YA — Blackman has a massive and devoted following. (It’s always fascinating to me to see how different the reception is in the UK or in Australia as opposed to the US and vice versa!).

 

• There are two more books slated for the wildly popular “Ember in the Ashes” series.  

 

• 20,000 copies of Jason Reynolds’s books will be given out to kids. So great.

 

• There are more questions to be asked about this than answers to be had, so stay with me here. There is a proposal — not a written book yet — for the YA audience about The Donner Party which has already had its rights snapped for film? And it’s from Paper Lantern Lit (in basic terms, a book packager like Alloy that comes up with ideas and hires writers for them…think going for “Pretty Little Liars” type popularity and ubiquity). I don’t know how I feel about such a tragic, horrifying event being…commodified like that? And it’s not even a book yet! But the movie rights have been sold? “The Hunger?” Like I said, questions.  

 

• Getting ready for the spring 2017 YA books? Here’s a preview from Publishers Weekly (& hey! I spot a familiar name there!).

 

• Marvel’s Runaways is getting a Netflix deal. This series was always hugely popular in my libraries.

 

• YA author Corinne Duyvis is writing a Guardians of the Galaxy novel.

 

And because we’ve had a lot of YA writing over on Book Riot recently, let’s catch up with it:

 

• YA book recommendations for fans of Stranger Things. This was such a fun list to write!

 

• YA book covers worth loving….especially because they feature girls of color on ‘em!

 

• A wee bit biting but also not incorrect (& also clearly written with love!), here’s a look at fandom according to YA fiction.  

 

• 25 YA paperbacks for your fall reading pleasure. That’s backlist, baby.

 

• YA books with shifting POVs.

 

• A round-up of YA authors who literally rock . . . since they’re musicians.

 

• An early peek at some intersectional YA hitting shelves in 2017.

 

• And finally, an interview and look behind the scenes of cover design with Dave Caplan, Creative Director at Little, Brown. This entire series of interviews is outstanding for cover and design nerds.

 

May your books be fantastic and your end-of-summer delightful. We’ll be back with another installment of “What’s Up in YA?” in two weeks!

Good end-of-August, YA lovers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” newsletter is sponsored by Harmony from Europe Comics.

One day, Harmony wakes up in an unfamiliar basement having completely lost her memory. All she now knows of the world is the name of her “host,” the mysterious voices in her head and a newly discovered talent for telekinesis. She’s going to have to get her memory back pretty quickly in order to face the dangers that await her. There are so many unanswered questions, and the fight has only just begun…

 

I know what you’re thinking: she’s going to write about that terrible YA article this week! And you’re right. I am.

But not in the way that you’re expecting.

Instead, let’s talk about what makes literature important, what makes literature leave and impact, and what it is, as a whole, that makes some books “more important” than others.

I’ve pondered before what a YA canon might look like. What are the books which are so important in the YA world that we’ll be reading them forever? That we’ll consider them foundational books in the YA world? What are the books which the teenagers of the next generations will not only read, but will also potentially study in their high school or college classrooms and dissect, seeking out the meaning behind an author’s choice of giving their characters red shoes and green eyes?

Let’s take this a little bit further. We know what books are considered essential, important, and “literary” works — they’re the classics, the bulk of which are written by white guys in history who had the time, the money, the luxury, and the status to write and be published well. Not all of the books we know as part of the canon now were seen that way during their publication, just as there are plenty of books that were wildly popular throughout history that have been forgotten completely.

But those books, regardless of their status as classics in the canon, still left a tremendous impact on culture during the time, as well as long after.

Have you ever heard of the book Trilby by George du Maurier? Published in 1894 in Harper’s Monthly, it was a wildly popular story that sold hundreds of thousands of copies in the US. I wouldn’t be surprised if your initial reaction is never having heard of it. Regardless of being a runaway bestseller in the US and abroad at the turn of the century, it’s a book that is difficult to track down now, as well as a book that’s not read or considered part of the literary canon. It’s not one you’ll likely find in your public library (though it is available in some).

I’ve referenced that book before, and I reference it here again because the power of the book hasn’t left our culture, despite the book itself not being part of the classics/canon. You’ve heard of Svengali, right? If you grew up in a certain era in the Midwest, especially in the Chicago area, you might be familiar with the hosted horror show Svengoolie.  

The lineage of both Svengali and Svengoolie can be traced back to Trilby. (There is, of course, a lot to be said here about the antisemitism of this character, but for the purposes of this newsletter, know that that’s a thing).

It doesn’t end there, though. Surely, you’ve heard of the trilby hat? That, too, can be traced back to Du Maurier’s novel, and it was one of the popular fashion trends for men in the UK; it’s still in production and seen throughout the world even today.

Oh, and Trilby has been credited as a major inspiration for The Phantom of the Opera.

If a book has this much cultural power, even more than a century after its publication, how come it isn’t something we’re studying more closely in literary circles or in our literature courses?

Because sometimes, the power of a book isn’t in its longevity or in its power to be part of the elite “literary canon.”

Sometimes the power is in the cultural impact a book has when it’s published, as well as long afterward.

Where Nutt uses his platform to talk about how today’s teens — especially boys — are being harmed by popular YA literature, what he’s getting at is that he is worried about his place in the literary world as a white guy. While YA isn’t great at being inclusive, the calls for it to become more aware of these faults and fix them is a huge aspect of the YA world right now. YA is where female writers, as well as female characters, have had the chance to have a space, to be heard, to have power, to explore the limits of their worlds.

These are the things that, Nutt argues, are harmful.

And they are harmful precisely because they are not part of the White Male Literary Canon.

YA is a young category of fiction, and it’s one that’s ripe for being picked at, for having think pieces written about, and for being called harmful, shameful, and awful for teen readers. Of course, those arguments come from adult readers, many of whom still reference 10+ year old titles in their quest to sound relevant.

Whether or not YA remains robust and begins to build its own canon of literary masterpieces, what matters today, right now, and what will matter for decades upon decades, is that YA has a social and cultural currency that cannot be argued. How much of our language, how many of our references, and how many of our cultural connections come from YA? How much of our shared understanding of the world around us will emerge from our engagement with books like those found in YA?

Patronus.

Katniss.

Mockingjay.

Sparkly vampires.

The Feels.

Even if you don’t know where those references come from, chances are you know what they are or you’ve heard them in regular conversations or used them yourself. Phrases like “patronus” from Harry Potter become woven effortlessly into our vocabularies, used in place of highly appropriative phrases that might otherwise be used. You find yourself with a case of “the feels” after a great read or a great movie.

These are things that connect us with one another. These cultural references, pulled from the YA world and YA literature, have as much pull and importance as the books that we consider classics. The importance might not look the same or feel the same, it may not be studied in the same way in classrooms, but it still matters. 

Perhaps there is a reason these titles are so frequently referenced in pieces that argue YA’s value/harm/etc.

Rather than decry another article about how YA is ruining readers, why not instead spend some time reading the incredible journalism, the thoughtful and heart wrenching, the blood-splattered and pain-driven, the joyous and the insightful pieces that pepper the entirety of the YA world, both in the literature, as well as in the blogs, the websites, and from the people who are passionate and driven by this category of books?

I know which matters more in the long run.

100 years from now, even if we don’t see The Hunger Games or Twilight or The Fault in Our Stars or any number of other wildly popular, bestselling YA books in the limited canon (either in the YA world or broader literary world), their impact does not change. The #WeNeedDiverseBooks movement, the call for more inclusivity, the calling out of problems in the YA world, the pointing to these huge books as being extremely white (and the responses to seeing these books not represented that way on the big screen), those things matter and come directly as a result of being able to share in the common interests and passions for literature and good, representative reading.

Instead, it carves a path toward more and more connection, more and more commonality, between us and the world around us.

And that matters, too.

____________________

A big, fat round-up of YA news will come your way in the next edition of this newsletter. In the mean time, if you’re still feeling a little worked up over that article, why not pull out YA author and Book Riot contributor Justina Ireland‘s handy little YA article Bingo card and go to town? 

Hey YA fans!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Mary E. Pearson’s The Beauty of Darkness. 

Lia and Rafe have escaped Venda, and the path before them is winding and dangerous–what will happen now? This third and final book in the Remnant Chronicles is not to be missed. New York Times-bestselling author Mary  E. Pearson’s combination of intrigue, suspense, romance, and action makes  this a riveting page-turner that you won’t be able to put down!

This newsletter won’t have a huge amount of new things to talk about — just a short round-up of newsy items at the end — in part because this will be a longgggg read. Now that I’ve thoroughly confused you, let me explain.

In early July, as well as in the last newsletter, I asked you to share your favorite 2016 YA reads so far.

And you responded.

It wasn’t a small response. We’re talking roughly 1,700 of you — about 10% — of the subscribers to this newsletter chimed in with your favorite reads. Because there were so many responses, I whittled down the favorite reads by these criteria:

1. The book was published between January 1, 2016 and August 8, 2016. I kept off books that are coming that people have read advanced copies of or are anticipating (I loved reading so many responses along the lines of “I haven’t read x yet but I know I’m going to love it”).

2. The book was published as a YA book. I didn’t worry about fiction or non-fiction; it just needed to be a book explicitly marketed as YA. A lot of stuff skirts both the middle grade and the adult lines and YA readers read up and down, but just to keep numbers easier, I made the executive calls.

3. The books were published in the US. Not that I don’t appreciate the responses for books that were published outside the states — again, awesome to see those! — but they’re likely hard for readers here to check out.

4. I consolidated multiple responses for the same titles. In the list, you’ll see some titles have a * beside them. That means 15 or more readers listed it as their favorite.

5. For those responses with multiple answers, I went with the first title or the first title that was published this year in the timeframe.

6. Errors are mine. Because 1,700 responses!

That brought a grand total of 131 unique titles among your favorite YA reads this year.

This is such a fun list, rich with YA of all shapes and sizes. There are series books, there are stand alone titles, there are books which got a lot of buzz, as well as quieter reads. There’s both fiction and non-fiction represented here. It was neat to see the responses and be pleasantly surprised a book showed up that wasn’t one I’d expected to see. It’s also nice to see titles that published early on in the year — the ones that could be easy to forget — make an appearance.

Grab your TBRs. Here are your 131 favorite YA reads from January – August 8, 2016, in alphabetical order. I’m linking the titles so you can click through to read descriptions. Pasting them here would kill everyone’s bandwidth (& apologies if this comes out as one longgggg list — if that doesn’t work for you, click here for the readable and clickable spreadsheet).

*A Study in Charlotte by Brittany Cavallaro

A Fierce and Subtle Poison by Samantha Mabry

A Tangle of Gold by Jaclyn Moriarty

*A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

A Totally Awkward Love Story by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison

*A Tyranny of Petticoats edited by Jessica Spotswood

A World Without You by Beth Revis

After the Woods by Kim Savage

All the Feels by Danika Stone

American Girls by Allison Umminger

*And I Darken by Kiersten White

Ask Me How I Got Here by Christine Heppermann

Asking For It by Louise O’Neill

Assassin’s Heart by Sarah Ahiers

Autofocus by Lauren Gibaldi

*Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings

Beware That Girl by Teresa Toten

Blackhearts by Nicole Castroman

Bookishly Ever After by Isabel Bandiera

Burn Baby Burn by Meg Medina

Burning Glass by Kathryn Purdie

Burning Midnight by Will McIntosh

*Calamity by Brandon Sanderson

Chasing Impossible by Katie McGarry

Consider by Kristy Acevedo

*Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

Cure for the Common Universe by Christian McKay Heidicker

Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

Devil and the Bluebird by Jennifer Mason-Black

Down with the Shine by Kate Karyus Quinn

Drag Teen by Jeffry Self

Dreamology by Lucy Keating

Escape from Asylum by Madeleine Roux

Everland by Wendy Spinale

*Every Exquisite Thing by Matthew Quick

*Exit, Pursued by a Bear by E. K. Johnston

Firstlife by Gena Showalter

Firsts by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn

*Flamecaster by Cinda Williams Chima

Flannery by Lisa Moore

Flawed by Cecelia Ahern

Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury

Forest of Ruin by Kelley Armstrong

Front Lines by Michael Grant

Ghostly Echoes by William Ritter

*Girl Against the Universe by Paula Stokes

*Glass Sword by Victoria Aveyard

Half Lost by Sally Green

*Highly Illogical Behavior by John Corey Whaley

Hurricane Kiss by Deborah Blumenthal

I Woke Up Dead At The Mall by Judy Sheehan

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo

Ivory and Bone by Julie Eshbaugh

Into the Dim by Janet Taylor

Julia Vanishes by Catherine Egan

*Lady Midnight by Cassandra Clare

Let The Wind Rise by Shannon Messenger

Lois Lane: Double Down by Gwenda Bond

Mirror in the Sky by Aditi Khorana

Misunderstood: Why The Humble Rat May Be Your Best Pet Ever by Rachel Toor

My Kind of Crazy by Robin Ruel

*My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows

Nil On Fire by Lynne Matson

No Love Allowed by Kate Evangelista

Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee

Paper and Fire by Rachel Caine

*Passenger by Alexandra Bracken

Places No One Knows by Brenna Yovanoff

Rebel Bully Geek Pariah by Erin Jade Lange

*Rebel of the Sands by Alwyn Hamilton

Riders by Veronica Rossi

Ruined by Amy Tintera

Run by Kody Keplinger

*Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys

Saving Montgomery Sole by Jillian Tamaki

*Scarlett Epstein Hates it Here by Anna Breslaw

See How They Run by Ally Carter

Shadow Queen by C.J Redwine

Starflight by Melissa Landers

*Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

*Summer Days and Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins

Tell Me Three Things by Julie Buxbaum

Thanks for the Trouble by Tommy Wallach

The Blood Between Us by Zac Brewer

*The Crown by Kiera Cass

*The Crown’s Game by Evelyn Skye

The Darkest Corners by Kara Thomas

The Geek’s Guide to Unrequited Love by Sarvenaz Tash

The Girl From Everywhere by Heidi Heilig

The Glittering Court by Richelle Mead

The Great American Whatever by Tim Federle

The Haters by Jesse Andrews

The Island by Olivia Levez

The King Slayer by Virginia Boecker

The Last Boy and Girl in the World by Siobhan Vivian

The Last Star by Rick Yancey

The Lie Tree by Frances Hardinge

The Long Game by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone

*The Love That Split The World by Emily Henry

The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork

The Museum of Heartbreak by Meg Leder

The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You by Lily Anderson

The Outliers by Kimberly McCreight

*The Problem With Forever by Jennifer Armentrout

*The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater

*The Rose & The Dagger by Renee Ahdieh

The Safest Lies by Megan Miranda

The Sleeping Prince by Melinda Salisbury

*The Smell of Other People’s Houses by Bonnie-Sue Hitchcock

The Square Root of Summer by Harriet R. Hapgood

*The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokhi

The Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin

Titans by Victoria Scott

*The Unexpected Everything by Morgan Matson

The Way I Used To Be by Amber Smith

*The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

This Is The Part Where You Laugh by Peter Brown Hoffmeister

*This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp

This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

Three Truth and a Lie by Brent Hartinger

*Truthwitch by Susan Dennard

Unbecoming by Jenny Downham

Up To This Pointe by Jennifer Longo

*We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

*When We Collided by Emery Lord

Wild Swans by Jessica Spotswood

Wink Poppy Midnight by April Genevieve Tucholke

With Malice by Eileen Cook

You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour & David Levithan

You Were Here by Cori McCarthy

 

A huge, huge thank you to everyone who submitted a response. I know I asked some additional questions but after playing with these answers, I figured this would be enough to bust even the biggest reader’s to-read lists.

 

A handful of interesting/news-worthy links worth sharing:

* Though this piece is about books for kids under the YA set, it’s really worthwhile reading since the same observations about female protagonists made there can be said about YA.

* A wonderfully in-depth look at the evolution of LGBTQ+ YA stories.

* The Thousandth Floor, which is publishing later this month, has been picked up for a TV series. Not surprising at all, given it’s an Alloy book — they’re the same company behind things like Pretty Little Liars and Gossip Girl.

* The adaptation of the “Chaos Walking” series by Patrick Ness has scored a big name — Daisy Ridley.

* A sweet little reminder that reading YA is totally okay for adults.

 

And a few links from Book Riot: 

* I was blown away by the tremendous (!) response to this piece about why YA needs more quitters.

* A round-up of queer YA set at summer camp.

*Podcasts for YA fans.

 

Thanks for hanging out with us for another collection of YA news and fun. “What’s Up in YA?” will hit your inboxes again in two weeks.

In the meantime, perhaps a book or two mentioned here will suck you in.

Welcome to August, YA fans!

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by Harmony from Europe Comics. 

One day, Harmony wakes up in an unfamiliar basement having completely lost her memory. All she now knows of the world is the name of her “host,” the mysterious voices in her head and a newly discovered talent for telekinesis. She’s going to have to get her memory back pretty quickly in order to face the dangers that await her. There are so many unanswered questions, and the fight has only just begun…

 

Let’s take this week’s newsletter as a giant catch-up on recent YA news, interesting pieces from around the web, and adaptation updates. There has been a lot of exciting and thought-provoking linkage that’s hit my radar lately, and I hope you find a thing or two or ten that’s interesting.

 

• We Need Diverse Books is running a wonderful summer feature that pairs up books you’ve read and loved with diverse books you should pick up. It’s not all YA, but they’ve had a healthy selection. A number of the books on the left are ones I haven’t read, so it’ll be nice to catch up with all of these recs.

 

• Sarah J Maas fan? You’ll be treated to 6 (!!) more books in her Court of Thorns and Roses series, as well as 2 more in her Throne of Glass series. Wowza.

 

• Jason Reynolds will be writing a Miles Morales YA novel. It’s nice to see how inclusive the authors selected to write these comic adaptations have been — DC’s selections announced earlier this year are promising.

 

• This piece on the state of disability representation on YA book covers from Corinne Duyvis and Kayla Whaley at Disability in Kid Lit is outstanding. It’s given me a lot of pause for what I’m seeing on covers and what I’m not seeing.

 

• If you’re already thinking about YA books in 2017, then you’ll want to peruse the Publishers Weekly Spring 2017 children’s announcements. It’s not comprehensive, but it’s a nice taste of what’s to come.

 

• I really appreciate how The Guardian encourages teenagers write pieces. This one, about whether or not YA is too politically correct, has been on my mind for a few weeks now. The piece struggles to separate the idea of political correctness and diversity, suggesting that some authors do the second by relying too heavily on the first but….I don’t see it. I think through my adult eyes and my experience in reading YA for many, many years, I don’t see the push toward political correctness, nor do I see the push for diversity (a phrase I loathe!) as a means of checking some boxes. In order to have YA that explores the vastness of teenhood and teen experiences, there needs to be YA that explores topics that are, for the lack of a better phrase, “politically correct.” But “political correctness,” is a bs term. It means not being an asshole and/or embracing the idea that other people’s lives and choices are valid and worth listening to. I think what this piece is trying to get at is that we should consider the idea that YA could benefit from more conservative characters and situations. And if that’s the case, I’ll still argue that those books are there. What’s not there, and what never should be there, are books which are offensive, degrading, and hurtful to entire classes of people. We have a long way to go, though, considering how frequently we’re still seeing books where characters “play Indian.”

 

• This piece at School Library Journal with YA author Stephanie Kuehn about mental illness and unreliable narrators is fantastic.  

 

• Here are this year’s Eisner Award winners, including Jillian Tamaki and John Lewis for their teen-friendly graphic novels.

 

Here’s the latest in YA adaptation news to know about:

 

• Lauren Oliver fans: Before I Fall will hit the big screen on April 7, 2017. That would be the same day that the middle grade bestseller Wonder will also hit theaters.  

 

• The final film in the “Divergent” franchise won’t be hitting theaters. It will instead go to television and have the option for a miniseries to go along with it. This article at Salon is interesting, though I don’t think it necessarily conveys some of the other issues I’ve seen mentioned in this changeup. Namely, the second and third films in the series didn’t pull in a lot of money (see the YA newsletter from May on this), breaking up a trilogy into four parts has a lot of challenges to it (including the fact that a “hot” franchise in 2012 is going to look different in 2017…and teenagers who might have been 14 when the books hit are no longer 14 later on), and, perhaps on a shallower level, a lot of critics have gotten tired of white girls on the big screen (and, perhaps, tired of Woodley playing so many of the roles in these films). The Salon piece does talk about the challenges this change presents in terms of seeing powerful female leads on the big screen, which is worth considering. Though, if you keep an eye on rights acquisition news, it looks like there’s going to be more of them coming….more of them written by female authors….and a wider range of genres represented.

 

• For example, we just got news Amandla Stenberg will be starring in the film adaptation of Nicola Yoon’s Everything Everything.

 

• And then there is the news about the adaptation of Sara Zarr’s Story of a Girl.

 

• As well as the news about Bella Throne starring in Break My Heart 1000 Times.

 

• Then there’s the news about a director being attached to the adaptation of Alexandra Bracken’s The Darkest Minds.

 

• And Victoria Schwab’s This Savage Song has been acquired for an adaptation.

 

• Jonathan Maberry’s forthcoming YA novel Mars One has been acquired for television. The book isn’t out yet, but I’ll be really curious to see Maberry take on science fiction without zombies.  

 

• Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men will be getting the big screen treatment.

 

And here are a few pieces from Book Riot the last couple of weeks to check out:

 

• I pulled together a list of 65 YA horror books all written by women. What was great about this list was how many I had to leave off because women in YA are really doing a lot of great horror and have been for a long time.

 

• Alison talks about 3 great podcasts for fans of YA literature.

 

• A guide to get you started with Meg Medina’s work . . . and if you didn’t know already, she’ll be a guest at this year’s Book Riot Live.

 

• From the archives: a look at the Amelia Bloomer Project, which highlights feminist books for young readers.

 

• Eric talks about the books mentioned in the debut YA novel Mirror in the Sky.

 

Thanks for reading. As always, if you’ve seen something about YA lately that’s interested you or you want to say something about what I’ve shared here, you can always hit the reply button. “What’s Up in YA?” will hit your inbox in another two weeks, with a bit of a focus on what we’ve been reading and raving about this year so far.

If you want to, click here to share your favorite YA reads this year. I’ll use what you share here, as well as what was shared with me a couple of weeks ago, to compile your recommendations.

This week’s newsletter is sponsored by What the Dead Want by Norah Olson.

16 -year-old Gretchen’s passion for photography came from her mother Mona before she disappeared years ago. When Gretchen’s great aunt Esther calls unexpectedly to tell her that she has inherited a mansion on her mother’s side of the family in upstate New York, Gretchen understands nothing except that her aunt needs her help. But what she finds there is beyond her imagination. It’s full of secrets and ghosts of the past. The mystery of Mona’s disappearance and the evil that happened there during the Civil War are inextricably intertwined, and it’s up to Gretchen to figure out how…before even more lives are lost.

____________________

I’ve been putting off writing about diversity for “What’s Up in YA?” for a while now. Not that it’s not an important topic but rather, I want to find a way to talk about it that’s different, that’s urgent, that explores more than what we already know about how it’s vital. Being white, it’s not my place to be an authority on the topic; yet, it is my place to lift voices, to talk about why we need to be inclusive, and to talk about the books that aren’t getting the sort of support and praise and spotlighting that deserve it.

This week, in light of continued violence toward the black community, I couldn’t put off the topic any longer. There’s no need to be perfect and polished. It’s far more important to continue a dialog, as well as continue talking about the need for diverse books and more, the need to read, discuss, and champion books that invite a range of stories into our lives. Be them stories that are mirrors or windows, inclusive reads are what develop our senses of empathy, of understanding, and more, beg us to keep talking. And we need to keep talking.

But instead of doing the talking myself, I’ve invited a guest this week to talk with me. And instead of talking about the importance of diversity — we all know that it’s important — we’re digging into why exploring the diversity within diverse narratives matters, where and how we use our powers to share these stories with readers, and the ways in which we can seek out and find those inclusive YA stories that go beyond “easy reaches.”

Welcome Brandy Colbert, acclaimed author of Pointe and the forthcoming Little & Lion (Little, Brown, 2017). Pointe was named a 2014 best book by Publishers Weekly, BuzzFeed, Book Riot, the Chicago Public Library, and the Los Angeles Public Library, and Colbert was recognized as a debut author to watch by Publishers Weekly. She also has a short story in the recently published Summer Days and Summer Nights edited by Stephanie Perkins and (full disclosure, I guess?), she has an essay about black girl friendship in my forthcoming anthology of feminist essays, Here We Are: Feminism for the Real World (Algonquin Young Readers, February 28, 2017).

 

First, before we dig into talking about other books, can you give a quick description of Pointe and perhaps tease a tiny bit of what we could expect from Little & Lion?

Happy to! Pointe is the story of seventeen-year-old Theo, a black ballet dancer who’s aspiring to become a professional ballerina. Her best friend and neighbor, who disappeared from their Chicago suburb when they were thirteen years old, returns at the start of the book, and although he’s temporarily mute, Theo soon learns that she had something to do with his abduction.

Little & Lion is the story of sixteen-year-old Suzette, who was sent away to boarding school the autumn after her stepbrother had a mental break. When she returns home to Los Angeles for the summer, she’s struggling with her new romantic/sexual feelings for girls and whether or not to keep the biggest secret her brother has ever told her. It’s a story about blended families, loyalty, mental health, and sexuality, and features a main character that is black American and converted to Judaism at a young age.

 

One of the reasons I asked you to have this conversation with me is because your book is about a black ballerina, but it’s a story set in suburban Chicago, rather than in an urban area. I’ve been thinking a lot recently about how culturally, “urban” can be shorthand for “black.” And it’s hard not to think about how, when we talk about great books by and about black people for young readers, the titles that immediately come to mind are *also* stories that are urban. But we know that the black experience is so much more than an urban one. Why do you think it’s so easy to consider one experience *the* experience?

 

This reminds me a lot of the brilliant Chimamanda Ngozie Adichie’s speech “The Danger of a Single Story.” I think a lot of people interpret her message as recognizing the need to read inclusive stories, those that present narratives from the perspective of marginalized groups—which is absolutely true. But another part to that is we need diversity within diversity.

I think so many consider one experience the experience because they haven’t had any others to turn to in real life. Or, even if seeking out stories different from their own, they might find it easier to skim the surface and read only those books or stories they’ve been told are the best.

To me, changing this starts with the gatekeepers—editors, sales and marketing departments, librarians, and book bloggers—whose opinions all trickle down to readers. If those groups are championing and then promoting only a certain type of book from a group, those are the books that are going to get more marketing dollars and in turn gain a larger readership.

This isn’t to say these stories aren’t important or great on their own—so many of them are. But it’s dangerous to promote only one type of experience within a marginalized group as the one that needs to be represented. I’m black, and I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had to point out that black people aren’t a monolith. I don’t think you’d know that by the types of children’s books with black main characters that are most often touted as must-reads.

 

This leads me into my next question, which is this: we know we need diverse books. And we need diverse books because that’s reality, not because it’s a marketing tool nor a cash grab (both of those things having been claims leveraged against the movement, against publishing, against authors — you name it — and we know those things aren’t reality). The more openly discussed this topic is, the more we’re willing to talk about the books that are out there, as well as the books which are coming. But we also need to ensure when we talk about diverse books, we’re talking about diversity within those books, too; we need to see black girls who are ballerinas and we need to see Latino boys who live in rural America. We need to see disabled teenagers who save the world and we need to see black boys who are geeks and dressing up to take part in Renaissance Faires. We don’t want to ignore how important books that explore lives that we think of when we think of certain groups, but we also don’t want to ignore those stories about lives that differ from popular cultural perceptions. How can we balance those things? In what ways can we ensure when we talk about diverse books, we’re also exploring the diversity within those stories?

 

Again, to me, this goes back to the gatekeepers of the children’s book industry, who are primarily white women of a certain class. I think they need to ask themselves why they’re most often promoting books featuring black kids and teens who live in urban areas and/or are dealing with crime, gangs, etc. Or, in the case of historical novels, why those given the most attention tend to deal with black people who are enslaved or working to overcome the effects of slavery as the focus of the novel. Is it because these stories are the ones they’ve seen portrayed most often over the years and so it’s ingrained in them that these are the ones worth telling? Is it because these stories spark the most empathy in them? Sometimes I wonder if it’s because they don’t have many black friends, acquaintances, or colleagues in their own lives, and so it may be harder for them to imagine a black person as the hero of a story that’s not built around overcoming oppression.

(I’m specifically speaking to books featuring black characters because that’s the community I belong to; the need for diversity within diversity most certainly applies to other marginalized groups.)

And again, we need these stories. But we need more than these stories not only on the shelves, but given equal attention when it comes to promotion and booktalking. We need to see and celebrate more carefree black kids living their lives on the page. I’d especially like to see more stories about black kids who live in suburban or rural areas. Because while these kids’ stories are not necessarily about being black, trust that they are still very much living the life of a black person.

I grew up in a town in Southwest Missouri that was about 3 percent black when I was a kid and is still predominantly white today. My family was middle-class and I feel lucky that I had an excellent, fulfilling childhood. I excelled academically, was heavily involved in school activities, and spent my free time with the popular crowd. But this doesn’t mean I didn’t experience racism, both covertly and overtly, for the 22 years I lived in that town. I can quickly run down a handful of examples without having to think hard about them, including my car being vandalized with a racial slur; families of the same class as mine assuming that because we were black, my family was unable to afford a nice meal out; and people forcing their kids out of the public pool when I dared to get in. I remember these instances clearly and they are still painful, decades later.

But those racist acts and microaggressions weren’t the whole of my life. So when I write about black characters living in primarily white neighborhoods or suburbs, I include those moments as part of the story but not the intent of the narrative. Since I was a young kid, there’s always a white person quick to point out how “not black” I am, though I have brown skin, kinky hair, and examples like the above that clearly prove that’s untrue. Not to mention that I’m quite proud to be black, so I find that statement insulting, as if being black is something I wouldn’t want to be in the first place. But to them, being black is one experience: living in urban areas, living in poverty, speaking a certain way that some people have deemed unacceptable. It’s lazy and offensive on their part, yes, but is it any wonder they think this way when the only images they’re given of black people fit a single story?

I hated that I didn’t have other people my age to talk to about race-related issues. Though I’ve always had great groups of friends, I grew up feeling incredibly isolated because I was so often the only one. There were five black kids total in my high school graduating class of almost 300 students, and I didn’t start to meet other people who grew up like me until I was in my mid-twenties. I would have been ecstatic to have even one book that portrayed an experience like mine when I was a tween or teen, especially. I would have loved to know that someone else understood what it felt like to grow up as a black kid in an extremely white town in the Midwest.

 

I’ve always been fascinated by the desire to go for “easy reach” titles. I’ve written about this before on my own blog, and more specifically, how when people ask for book recommendations, they’re given titles that are popular, that sit on bestseller lists, and that have money behind them to get them out there. There is nothing wrong with these books at all, but the reach is easy. In a lot of ways, it seems like this happens with diverse books, as well. There’s nothing wrong with going for award winning diverse titles nor those with great marketing behind them (we love Jason Reynolds and Nicola Yoon, to name two, for a reason — great appeal, great writing, stories that serve as both windows and mirrors for a wide readership), but why do you think it is some books that are just as powerful don’t see the same sort of reader recommendation/passion behind them?

 

Regarding the lack of diversity within diversity, I do think things are getting better, if one book at a time. Nicola Yoon’s Everything, Everything is a lovely romance featuring a biracial girl who is half black and half Japanese, and was one of the biggest books of 2015. I’d like to see this type of attention expanded more, though. I want to see stories promoted with carefree black kids, with black kids who mess up, with black kids who live in rural areas and suburbs and don’t know how to dance or are terrible at basketball or have lived various types of sheltered lives.

As for easy reach titles, this has always confounded me. When I was a kid, after I’d read all of an author’s popular books, I’d immediately scoop up their lesser-known titles. One of my favorite parts about getting the Scholastic catalog was finding authors I’d never heard of and ordering their books based on the summary alone. That could also be why I found myself bored in most literature classes, even through college, knowing the teachers would not (and probably could not, in some cases) stray from the reading lists they’d been including in their syllabi for decades.

I’m a writer but still an avid reader. While the “big books” are always on my radar and I often read them if they sound interesting, I find myself looking through backlists or picking up the books that didn’t get as much attention. When I talk to my friends who are big readers but not involved in the publishing industry, I’m always a little frustrated when they only read or mention the books that have received the biggest marketing pushes. I urge them to open themselves up to books that aren’t easy reaches. I’m always so happy when I end up loving a book I found on my own, even if I know it should have received a bigger push from the book community.

 

What compels you to pick up a book? What sorts of things draw you into a story?

 

With fiction, I’m really drawn to dark, gritty, character-driven books. I primarily read contemporary realistic novels with some magic realism thrown in. I like stories about family. I like books that play with structure, and stories that show characters struggling through difficult situations. I love when a writer can combine all of these things and pepper in a little humor or romance, as well. Some of my recent favorites are:

Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara

Conviction by Kelly Loy Gilbert

Loving Day by Mat Johnson

Goodbye Stranger by Rebecca Stead

The Walls Around Us by Nova Ren Suma

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng

All The Rage by Courtney Summers

Everything Leads To You by Nina LaCour

 

What are some of your favorite inclusive YA titles that have hit shelves in the last few years?

I’ve really loved:

My Seneca Village by Marilyn Nelson, a slim but powerful book of poetry that imagines the lives of residents in a 19th-century community of black Americans and immigrants in Manhattan

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz, a gorgeous novel about the relationship between two Mexican-American teen boys

Dirty Wings by Sarah McCarry, a beautifully written road trip novel about two very different girls

Since You Asked by Maurene Goo, which is one of the funniest books I’ve read in a long time, and one of the few I’ve ever found that’s focused on a Korean-American teen

We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson, an excellent novel about a boy who has a strange and compelling connection to a spaceship full of aliens

 

Far From You by Tess Sharpe, a lovely and heartbreaking book featuring a bisexual main character and thrilling plotline

 

What are some of the inclusive YA titles you have on your to-be-read list?

So many! I’m dreadfully behind on my to-be-read list, but some books I own and am very much looking forward to reading are:

 

See No Color by Shannon Gibney

This Side of Home by Renée Watson

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero

Untwine by Edwidge Danticat

Under a Painted Sky by Stacey Lee

Fake ID by Lamar Giles

X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon

Saving Montgomery Sole by Mariko Tamaki

You Know Me Well by Nina LaCour and David Levithan

 

I’m also looking forward to picking up Peas and Carrots by Tanita S. Davis, Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash, The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore, Outrun the Moon by Stacey Lee, and The Memory of Light by Francisco X. Stork.

As for books that aren’t yet released, I’m quite eager to read: Dread Nation by Justina Ireland, The Education of Margot Sanchez by Lilliam Rivera, I Believe in a Thing Called Love by Maurene Goo, Dear Martin by Nic Stone, When Dimple Met Rishi by Sandhya Menon, Allegedly by Tiffany D. Jackson, American Street by Ibi Zoboi, and Piecing Me Together by Renée Watson, to name a few!

 

If you had to make a “must reads” list of inclusive titles, and maybe we can be really specific and say books by black authors or about black characters, what would they be? Why?

 

Kendra by Coe Booth

Charm & Strange and Delicate Monsters by Stephanie Kuehn

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

My Life as a Rhombus by Varian Johnson

The Gaither Sisters series by Rita Williams Garcia (One Crazy Summer, P.S. Be Eleven, and Gone Crazy in Alabama)

Monster by Walter Dean Myers (I really enjoyed the graphic novel version that was published in 2015 and adapted by Guy A. Sims with gorgeous art by Dawud Anyabwile)

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few titles, but to me, these books present authentic, varied portrayals of black American life and/or are written by storytellers I greatly admire.

 

“What’s up in YA?” readers include passionate YA fans, as well as gatekeepers like librarians, teachers, and others who work with teenagers. Tell us: how can we be better about talking inclusive YA? What sorts of ways can we share the stories that don’t always get the sort of coverage or discussion that others do?

 

I’m lucky that my first novel, Pointe, gained a much larger readership because of word-of-mouth recommendations. I cannot stress enough how much word of mouth can help a book—if you like or love a book, tell everyone you think might be interested. Tell people who may not be initially interested but could use a break from what they normally read. Share your love on as many social media outlets as you can. Leave reviews in every possible place online, even for titles that have already been out for a while—years, even! Preorder inclusive titles that you’re interested in to show publishers there’s a demand for books that don’t already have a huge marketing push. Request inclusive titles at your local library if they’re not already on the shelves.

For people who organize book festival/conference panels, I’d urge them to look beyond the easy reaches and the authors they automatically go to when thinking of diversity. Look for people who write similar work, or are of the same background but write completely different books. Don’t keep asking the same people to be on panels—do the work of seeking out a variety of voices that need to be heard.

 

Finally, what sort of books do you think are missing from shelves right now? What stories aren’t out there yet — or haven’t been talked about much — that would fill much-needed holes on shelves? Personally, I’ve wanted nothing more than a take on the film “Save the Last Dance,” but from the perspective of Derek, the black boy.

 

Ooh, I’d like to see that, too! (But honestly, I’d like to see it even more from the perspective of his sister, Chenille, played in the film by the ever-flawless Kerry Washington.)

I’m actually not great at wish lists! If I don’t see it, I typically attempt to write it myself. I guess that overall I’d like to see more books with black kids who are allowed to mess up just as much as white kids without their mistakes defining them. I’ve been sensing lately that it’s a pretty heavy recurring theme in my own work and I’d be happy to see more of it on the shelves.

 

____________________

 

Thank you so very much to Brandy for talking about such a huge, meaty topic. I hope you have found a book or two or ten to add to your to-be-read pile and, perhaps, found a nugget of wisdom to bring into your reading and in sharing your love of books.

“What’s Up in YA?” will be back in two weeks with a big round-up of recent YA news. In the meantime, enjoy your reading.

Thanks for rocking out with us!

Hello, YA lovers!

This week’s “What’s Up in YA?” newsletter is sponsored by Dream Jumper. 

Ben’s dreams are all nightmares . . . And his nightmares are real!  He can also jump into other people’s dreams. So when his friends start falling victim to an evil dream-monster that prevents them from waking, Ben knows he has to help them. With help from a talking rabbit-companion who has a mysterious past, Ben might just be able to defeat the monster and save his friends . . . if he can figure out how to harness the power within him against his enemies.

Read a free preview at scholastic.com/dreamjumper.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve talked some big stuff, haven’t we? We’ve covered YA adaptations at the box office, gender and feminism in YA, sexual assault through YA fiction, and in the last newsletter, we got to see a wonderful collection of YA Pride displays. And on Book Riot proper, we’ve seen pieces on “bad kids,” on queer YA that isn’t tragic, and YA author Benjamin Alire Saenz wrote a piece about the power of books and community that requires a tissue or ten to get through.

 

But this week . . .

In honor of America’s 4th of July and Canada Day long weekends, let’s take a break from the heavy work of talking YA.

How about a giveaway? This will be open to subscribers only (meaning if you pass along this link, those who enter will also need to sign up for the newsletter) and it’s open world-wide. I’ve curated a collection of brand new YA titles, along with some backlist titles that are worth your reading time. I’m also throwing in a few advanced reader copies for titles I know YA readers will be eager to pick up ASAP.

Here’s what you can win:

(Ignore that my wonderful chalk art reads “Giveawa” and not “Giveaway” — it’s art).

A closeup of the three small piles so you can see the titles:

Both of those piles are finished, pristine, beautiful hardcover books.

And here are the four ARCs I’ve got to give, too:

Tempted? Great! All you need to do is fill out the form. Click here to be taken directly to it. I’ll pick a winner and email them on or around July 12.

We’ll be back to regular YA news programming in two weeks. In the mean time, enjoy a little break and kick back with a great YA novel or two. Perhaps in a future newsletter, I’ll be asking you to share your favorite reads from 2016. . . get thinking!