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.
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
Strange Practice
Spirit Hunters
The Call
Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan to headline 
(My boyfriend) Mads Mikkelsen is circling the villain role in 
PLEEEEEEEASE let 
Bonfire
The Murders of Molly Southbourne
What She Ate
Among the Living and the Dead
Daring to Drive
My recent nonfiction reading hasn’t been very cheerful. I’m almost finished with