I mentioned earlier this week I’d have a guest post over at Nicole’s WORD for Teens blog as part of her characterize series. It’s up and live now! When she told me to write about characters and characterization and what works and doesn’t work, I spent a long time debating what I wanted to talk about. I started a post about unlikable characters (since I love them) but then thought about an entirely different angle: romantic male leads. And it so turns out all of the books I talk about were written by women. Do those characters work? Why or why not? Will boys even read them? Go see.
Archives for November 2012
Where’d you go 2012 and a plea for your help
Not to send anyone into panic, but you do realize that 2013 is only about five weeks from now, right? As such, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what I need to still read this year, especially as I’ve been lucky enough to have some exciting titles for next year start showing up.
This is where I ask for your help in a couple of different ways. I’ve mentioned I’m working on a book about contemporary YA fiction, and while I feel like I’ve read a lot of great stuff, I feel like I’m behind in my 2012 reading this year.
I’ve been brainstorming some of the books I still need to read, and I’ve been looking to see the ways I could acquire them. While I am lucky enough to have access to a great wealth of YA titles at work, it’s still a limited selection. I could make use of Interlibrary Loan, except that Interlibrary Loan has a year waiting period on it, so titles published in the last year can’t be acquired easily. Likewise, being that I am in small town Wisconsin, it’s over a fifty-mile drive to a chain bookstore, and that particular store is underwhelming in the YA department. I could order from an online retailer, but I am on a tight budget and spending on books, well. I’m a librarian, and here’s a hard fact: we don’t make money.
So what I’m asking is two-fold: if anyone has a copy of any of the books I’m super interested in reading but haven’t got access to and would be willing to lend me either a galley or a finished copy (I’d be happy to cover shipping) I would be so grateful; likewise, if there is a book that you think I should know about and read, please drop a note in my comments. Note that I only want help if you can help me acquire a title legally.
Obviously I haven’t blogged every book I’ve read this year. But I’m still curious to know what are your must-reads before the end of 2012? What came out this year that’s not to be missed? What’s been the most underappreciated title of 2012 you wish more people would read?
While I am primarily interested in contemporary, I’m sure other readers would be interested in any book published this year not worth missing. Even though I’ve reached my goal of reading 32 debut novels this year (I finished number 33 last weekend, in fact), I’d love to hear about more debuts. Did you have a favorite this year? You can share one title fitting one of those questions or multiple titles. I want to know so I can put some more stuff on my must-read list.
Here are the things I’m looking forward to reading and hope maybe someone can help me out getting access to. Please feel free to email me personally (my email address is kellybjensen at gmail) and if you can spread the word, I would be thrilled. Obviously, reading the book doesn’t guarantee it’ll either be something I blog about nor write about in my book, but I want to explore as many options as possible. Even if you can’t help me out on this aspect, maybe this post will put some of the titles that slid under my radar this year on yours.
All descriptions are from WorldCat.
Four Secrets by Margaret Willey: Through journal entries required by their social worker at a juvenile detention center, middle-schoolers Katie, Nate, and Renata relate how they came to kidnap their tormentor, Chase, a star athlete from the town’s most prominent family, who surprisingly became their willing victim.
After Eli by Rebecca Rupp: After the death of his older brother, Daniel Anderson became engrossed in recording details about dead people, how they died, and whether their deaths mattered but he is eventually drawn back into interaction with the living.
Anything But Ordinary by Lara Avery: A slight error left Olympic diving-hopeful Bryce Graham in a five-year coma and now, at at twenty-two, she must adjust to a world that went on without her and to visions that may or may not be real.
Since You Left Me by Allen Zadoff: A Jewish teenager struggles to find something to believe in and keep his family together in the cultural confusion of modern-day Los Angeles.
My Beautiful Failure by Janet Ruth Young: While dealing with the recovery of his mentally ill father, sophomore in high school Billy volunteers at a suicide prevention line and falls for one of the incoming callers.
Freaks Like Us by Susan Vaught: A mentally ill teenager who rides the “short bus” to school investigates the sudden disappearance of his best friend.
Such a Rush by Jennifer Echols: High school senior Leah Jones loves nothing more than flying, which allows her to forget her absentee mother and life in a South Carolina trailer park, but when Grayson, the son of her deceased flight instructor, blackmails her into working for him and his brother Alec, the consequences could be deadly.
Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz: Struggling with the aftermath of the September 11 attacks and sniper shootings throughout the Washington, D.C. area, Craig and Lio consider a romantic relationship that is complicated by Craig’s ex-boyfriend, Lio’s broken family, and the death of Lio’s brother.
Pizza, Love, and Other Stuff That Made Me Famous by Kathryn Williams: Although sixteen-year-old Sophie has grown up working in her family’s Mediterranean restaurant in Washington, D.C., she is not prepared to compete on the new reality show, Teen Test Kitchen, when her best friend Alex convinces her to audition. Includes recipes.
Someone Else’s Life by Katie Dale: When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother dies from Huntington’s Disease, a devastating secret is revealed that sends Rosie on a journey from England to the United States with her ex-boyfriend, where she discovers yet more deeply buried and troubling secrets and lies.
Everything You Need to Survive the Apocalypse by Lucas Klauss: A fifteen-year-old high school student becomes involved with an evangelical Christian girl in spite of his father’s adamant atheism and his own confusion about life.
Meant to Be by Lauren Morrill: During an educational trip to London, away from her friends and the boy she thinks she is fated to love, Massachussets high school junior Julia Lichtenstein is paired with her nemesis, Jason, and begins seeing many things differently.
Send by Patty Blount: All Dan wants for his senior year is to be invisible. This is his last chance at a semi-normal life. Nobody here knows who he is. Or what he’s done. But on his first day at school, instead of turning away like everyone else, Dan breaks up a fight. Because Dan knows what it’s like to be terrorized by a bully. He used to be one.
Social Suicide by Gemma Halliday: Hartley Featherstone’s first big story for the school paper takes an unexpected turn when she discovers the girl she’s supposed to interview dead in her swimming pool.
Lovely, Dark, and Deep by Amy McNamara: In the aftermath of a car accident that kills her boyfriend and throws her carefully planned future into complete upheaval, high school senior Wren retreats to the deep woods of Maine to live with the artist father she barely knows and meets a boy who threatens to pull her from her safe, hard-won exile.
Getting Somewhere by Beth Neff: Four teenaged girls participating in a progressive juvenile detention facility on a farm have their lives changed by the experience.
Fall to Pieces by Vahini Naidoo: Knowing that two friends are lying and keeping secrets about the night another friend killed herself, seventeen-year-old Ella searches for the truth.
Starting From Here by Lisa Jenn Bigelow: Sixteen-year-old Colby is barely hanging on with her mother dead, her long-haul trucker father often away, her almost-girlfriend dumping her for a boy, and her failing grades, when a stray dog appears and helps her find hope.
One Moment by Kristina McBride: Rising high school senior Maggie remembers little about the accidental death of her boyfriend, Joey, but as she slowly begins to recall that day at the gorge with their long-time friends, she realizes he was keeping some terrible secrets.
While He Was Away by Karen Schreck: When Penna Weaver’s boyfriend goes off to Iraq, she’s left facing life
without him. Then David stops writing. She knows in her heart he will
come home–but will he be the same boy she fell in love with?
Intentions by Deborah Heiligman: After fifteen-year-old Rachel overhears her rabbi committing infidelity,
she must come to terms with the fact that adults make mistakes,
too–and that she is old enough to be held responsible for her own
mistakes.
Way to Go by Tom Ryan: Danny is pretty sure he’s gay, but he spends his summer trying to prove otherwise.
The Summer My Life Began by Shannon Greenland: Em welcomes the chance to spend a month at her aunt’s island resort
where she can take a break from her family’s expectations, but
uncovering a family secret makes her reconsider her future.
The Space Between Us by Jessica Martinez: Seventeen-year-old Amelia feels like her life might be getting back on
track after a bad break-up when her younger sister’s pregnancy gets them
both banished to Canada, where new relationships are forged, giving
Amelia a new perspective.
Between You & Me by Marisa Calin: Phyre, sixteen, narrates her life as if it were a film, capturing her
crush on Mia, a student teacher of theater and film studies, as well as
her fast friendship with a classmate referred to only as “you.”
Everywhere But Here
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone in America celebrating today, and happy Thursday to international readers. I’m looking forward to the traditional spinach lasagna fare we have every year (because I loathe turkey).
Rather than write a lengthy post today, I thought I’d instead round up the posts I’ve written elsewhere in the last couple of weeks.
I’ve got two posts over at YALSA’s The Hub blog. The first is my regular feature on debut novels out this month. It’s a much slower month than the last couple, making reading all of them fairly manageable, if that’s something you’re challenging yourself to do.
My second post over there this month is something different. I thought it would be neat to interview a handful of authors who WERE debut novelists last year but have since released their second novels. I got to talk with Carrie Harris, Elana Johnson, Alissa Grosso, and Julia Karr about what it’s like to now be a more seasoned author.
Last month, I was asked by Jessica Olin, creator, writer, and curator of content over at one of my favorite librarianship blogs, Letters to a Young Librarian, if I’d like to contribute. I jumped at the opportunity to do so. And after thinking long and hard about what I could possibly have to say on the topic of lessons I wish I’d known as a young librarian (and seriously, when did I become a seasoned librarian?), I decided to talk about something that makes me nervous. That is that sometimes, you’re going to piss people off. Especially if you’re passionate about something.
Although the link’s not live and I plan on blogging about it when it does go live, I also was approached by Nicole at WORD for Teens about contributing to her fabulous Characterize series. Go check out the other posts in the series, written by bloggers and a variety of authors. Mine will go live later this weekend, and it’s on a topic that I think might be fairly surprising for anyone who knows my thoughts on boys and reading, as well as romance.
People vs. Objects on YA Fantasy Covers
While girls in pretty dresses are still ubiquitous on YA fantasy covers, I’ve noticed more and more are featuring objects much more prominently, particularly in high fantasy (as opposed to paranormal or other subgenres). It’s a refreshing change for someone like me. I remember many books I read as a teen featuring the (usually) magical objects within the stories, leaving the look of the main character up to my imagination.
I admit that I may just be seeing an increase in these types of covers
because high fantasy itself seems to be making a comeback in YA, but the covers are beautiful. They work really well for high fantasy, since they enhance the world-building so vital in stories like these.
(I also think it’s interesting to note that two of the biggest YA book series right now, Hunger Games and Divergent, both feature objects, rather than people, on the covers.)
Sometimes, the object is a sword or knife:
Sometimes it’s a crown:
Sometimes it’s a jewel:
Sometimes it’s a key or set of keys:
Are there any others you find particularly striking that I’ve missed?
Hardcover to Paperback Switch: Five to Consider
Ready for another batch of hardcover books seeing a face lift in their paperback form? I swear my list of cover changes grows every time I make one of these posts, too. Alas, here are a handful to take note of. I don’t think there are any bad changes this time, but there are a couple that kind of seem like they’re going after the same thing.
Daniel Kraus’s The Monster Variations has a bit of a killer hardcover look (on the left). I love how you can only make out the shadow of a person in the background, and the way that shadow looms over the entire cover gives the right kind of haunting vibe. Then there’s the car and the headlights in the middle of the shadow guy’s chest — but it’s not just the car and headlights that are noteworthy. It’s the smoke that’s kind of billowing out of the top. I think the deep purple background, which is a little sketchy in and of itself, adds to the dark vibe of the cover. But maybe the thing that works most for me on this cover is the font for the title and the author. I love how thin and jagged it is. I think this cover has pretty great appeal and it gives off just the right tone to the reader about what to expect.
That said, the paperback iteration? It’s not too shabby, either. It takes some of the same elements of the first cover and tweaks them. But rather than one looming guy on the cover, this time we get the shadows of three boys who are walking either toward or away from a pair of headlights. It’s got a dark and gloomy color to it, as well, though the font for the title and the placement has changed quite a bit. But you know what’s neat? It STILL gives off the same tone with the font and how tightly packed together the letters are. It’s interesting, though, how much smaller Kraus’s name became in the paperback edition than it is on the hardcover. Oh, and did you note the addition of a blurb on the front of the paperback from Lauren Myracle?
I’d say both covers work pretty well and have good appeal to a wide range of readers. If I were picking one up, I’d probably go for the hardcover, but I think that’s because it looks just a little bit creepier (and I think it’s a tiny bit more memorable visually). The Monster Variations came out in paperback at the end of October.
Can this hardcover to paperback change for Katherine Longshore’s Gilt get a huge high five? I think this is an excellent change over, especially because the hardcover is so bad. I don’t need to talk too much about what makes it bad — maybe it’s the closeup shot of the girl’s nose? Or the fact she looks dead? Or the fact it makes this historical fiction novel look like a paranormal kind of story with how pale and, well, dead the girl looks? Also, do we need to see up her nose?
The paperback version though gets at the romance and I think it gets at the fact this is a historical romance quite well. I mean, there’s no doubt the girl is quite enjoying that kiss (though if you look too quickly or you are stuck on the fact the hardcover looks like a dead girl, it could look like a guy who is getting a little vampiric on her neck). I’m not usually a huge fan of tag lines, but I think this one — “The price of desire could be her life . . . and the crown” — only adds to the feel of the novel. It’s like this cover gets who the readership of this book is. It’s kind of nice to see the color in this, too; I love that it has a golden tone throughout because that only furthers the tone of a story about royalty. Bonus is that I think this cover has great adult cross-over appeal, as well. This cover is sensual without being outright sexy.
I think it’s neat they kept the title font the same on both and the positioning of the title is identical. The author’s name placement on the bottom for the paperback works a little better for me, too, but I think that might be because it’s in a new color and that color is enhanced by the colors in the image itself. Hands down, the paperback edition of Gilt (due out in May) is a winner. I would wait to buy this book for a collection until May because that cover has much more appeal, particularly for those readers who love historical romance stories, than the nose shot hardcover.
I think I’ve talked about how this book was categorized as taking place in Mississippi on that infographic about books set in the US recently, even though 95% of the book actually takes place in Iowa. It still bothers me because I think the fact it’s set in Iowa is pretty important plot point. Alas.
The hardcover of Jacqueline Woodson’s Beneath a Meth Moon is incredibly simple and poignent because of that. I love how the green is done with the same effect as Kraus’s hardcover above. In this version, I like how the edges are darker than the center, too (we can get metaphoric here if you want to, but I don’t need to lay that out there). The title placement and font are minimalist, though the second “o” in Moon certainly conveys the drug use. This cover is stark and yet it nails home the story quite well. Personally, this is a cover I’d pick up; however, I have a feeling because of how little it tells visually without an actual image, it might be a harder sell to browsers, especially teens.
It’s an interesting shift to the paperback, which now not only has an image, but it’s also a fairly minimalist one. There is a clear sense of despair and challenge with it, given not just the crumbling brick wall, but the way the girl is positioned and in the way the image itself is sketched. It’s imperfect. I dig the use of the light blue color to enhance Woodson’s name, as well as parts of the title. Included on the paperback cover, too, are a nice blurb from the Los Angeles Times, as well as a small listing of Woodson’s honors as a writer.
Now it’s been a while since I’ve read this book, but something I’m kind of wondering about the image in terms of the content — I can’t remember if there is ever a moment in the book where we learn about Laurel’s ethnicity. It’s possible there is, though I don’t remember that being the case. It’s not important to the book itself, but it makes me wonder about the girl on the cover of this book. Is she ambiguous in terms of race? I feel like an argument could be made for that case, and the reason I bring this up is because that would be awesome. It’s a story about drug use, and I love how the cover could further the notion that drug problems aren’t relegated to any type of person (which is what I think Woodson is getting at in the book).
Both covers work for me for different reasons. The paperback edition of Beneath a Meth Moon will be available in February.
Here’s an interesting — and I think positive — change for Annabel Monaghan’s recently-released A Girl Named Digit. The hardcover on the left is fun, lighthearted, and bright. But the problem I have with it is that I think the girl looks really young. I think there is a lot of aging up on YA covers, in that a lot of the models are definitely on the upper range of teenage, if they’re not 20-somethings made to look younger. But this cover, I think the model looks really young, and while that would appeal to a younger reading demographic, I think it detracts older teens from wanting to pick it up. This is hurt by the fact she’s labeled a girl in the title (which is a young term) and the fact her outfit also reads really young.
The paperback, though? I love it. I love how it’s orange and black, which will stand out on a bookshelf because it’s so different. I love that even if it is a stock image, it’s been worked enough to look more like a sketch than a picture. The girl in this image looks much more like an average teen-on-a-book-cover in terms of age, and I feel like her expression is much more teen, too. Since we can’t see what she’s wearing, that only helps. I’m also feeling the way the cover font and title work: I like how it’s all capital letters except for the “i”s. It’s just a little effect and a little different, but it makes the title pop. It’s neat how both covers incorporated digits into the design, keeping the books tied together.
A Girl Named Digit will be out in paperback in May.
Last, here’s a huge change. A huge one. And while I think from the perspective of selling the book it’s a major improvement, from a design and eye-catching perspective, I think it’s a downgrade. On the left is the hardcover for Michaela MacColl’s Prisoners in the Palace, which was subtitled “A Novel of Intrigue and Romance.” I love how it’s like newsprint mixed with a painting. It’s so different, and it’s super bright. It stands out on a shelf. But because of the styling, it looks young. I get the vibe of it being a historical novel but I don’t know if from a reader’s perspective that’s so obvious. It’s pretty gutsy not to have the book’s title on the front, too, I think. But this is the kind of cover you have to see the entire jacket to to understand the effect, so I suggest checking it out. I think what I like most about this cover is that it does not follow any trends in design. It’s unique.
The paperback of McColl’s Prisoners in the Palace will be released in April, and it is much more along the lines of other young adult books in terms of style. It makes use of a stock image of what I presume is a teen girl (it’s hard to tell, of course), and it does so with the sort of golden light that gives the book an aged/historical tone to it. Note that in the paperback edition, the bit about this being a novel of intrigue and romance is no longer part of the title, but it’s instead used more like a burb. I’m not a huge fan of the font choice for the title — it feels a little bit showtime or even a little bit big top for me, but I do think it might situate the book’s content in an era. This isn’t the kind of memorable cover that the hardback is, but it might have more teen appeal.
And is it me, or can you spot a potential nice read alike for MacColl’s book from another paperback edition in this post? I think there is a lot of potential ability to do reader’s advisory by good cover design, and this might be a good example of that.
What do you think? Any of these do it better than another? Am I way off? Have you seen any cover changes lately that have really hit or missed the mark?
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