Emily Dickinson is the New Black in YA Fiction

April 28, 2014 |

While we’ve talked a bit about poetry this month in honor of April being poetry month, I thought it would be worth talking about an interesting trend that’s popped up over the last couple of years in YA. It’s not a huge trend, it’s stood out to me because it’s an interesting one: Emily Dickinson as inspiration to a main character or a key part of a story’s plot.

I’ve been thinking about Emily Dickinson and the role her work played in my life growing up. I noted a couple weeks ago that her poetry was one of the few long-term exposures to a female writer I had in high school. In that class, we did a large group project, and I remember doing it with two friends, devoting an entire weekend together to talk about who she was, what she wrote, and putting together a series of explications of her work. It was clearly memorable, and even though I wouldn’t count myself as one of Dickinson’s big fans, her work and the influence of her work can’t be overlooked.

It’s not a surprise, then, that she can play such a role in YA, especially in female-driven YA. It’s a voice I think teen girls relate to (or want to say they relate to) and it’s one of their first exposures to both a female voice and to poetry.

Here’s a roundup of a few recently Emily Dickinson flavored YA novels. All descriptions are from WorldCat, and I’m positive I’ll overlook a title or two. I’m interested in books published in the last 5 to 7 years, so if you can think of others, feel free to leave them in the comments.

Death, Dickinson, and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia by Jenny Torres Sanchez: Struggling to come to terms with the suicide of her crush, Andy Cooper, Frenchie obsessively retraces each step of their tumultuous final encounter and looks to the poetry of Emily Dickinson for guidance.

Nobody’s Secret by Michaela MacColl: When fifteen-year-old Emily Dickinson meets a charming, enigmatic young man who playfully refuses to tell her his name, she is intrigued–so when he is found dead in her family’s pond in Amherst she is determined to discover his secret, no matter how dangerous it may prove to be.

And We Stay by Jenny Hubbard: Sent to an Amherst, Massachusetts, boarding school after her ex-boyfriend shoots himself, seventeen-year-old Emily expresses herself through poetry as she relives their relationship, copes with her guilt, and begins to heal.

Emily’s Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak: A new girl in Amherst, Massachusetts, comes to terms with her mother’s suicide and her best friend’s disappearance with the help of Emily Dickinson’s poetry–and her dress.

What’s really interesting about these two titles is that in both, a dress of Emily Dickinson’s becomes an important part of each girl’s grieving and healing process. It’s almost as if the two girls in these books were attending the same boarding school a decade or so apart from one another.

Although this one is a little older, published in 2009, I wanted to include it as well:

A Voice of Her Own: Becoming Emily Dickinson by Barbara Dana: A fictionalized first-person account of revered American poet Emily Dickinson’s girlhood in mid-nineteenth-century Amherst, Massachusetts.

Revisiting YA Verse Novels: A 2014 Guide to the Format

April 7, 2014 |

April is poetry month, and while we didn’t write a lengthy genre guide to verse novels that month to celebrate, we did write one in May. If you’re curious about the format of YA novels in verse, that should get you set on what it is, why it’s so appealing, and it offers a pretty extensive reading list to titles published in the last few years.

Since I didn’t want to replicate work and write another guide to the genre, I thought it would be worthwhile to talk about the books in 2014 that are verse novels. Some of the titles are out already, while others will be publishing before the end of the year. This list is for titles published by traditional publishers, and it’s very possible that I’ll overlook some, so feel free to jump in with additional titles in the comments. A couple of titles below could easily be middle grade, as they fall into that strange category of being good for readers from age 10 to 14. I’m including them anyway.

All descriptions are from WorldCat, and I’ve included publication dates for titles not yet available. Of course, if you’re a fanatic of verse novels, make sure you check out Verse Novels and that you stay tuned for the third annual verse novels series over at Clear Eyes, Full Shelves, which will take place the last week of April.

Of note: a nice percentage of these titles are diverse.

The Sound of Letting Go by Stasia Ward Kehoe: At seventeen, Daisy feels imprisoned by her brother Steven’s autism and its effects and her only escape is through her trumpet into the world of jazz, but when her parents decide to send Steven to an institution she is not ready to let him go.

Kiss of Broken Glass by Madeline Kuderick (September 9): After she’s caught in the school bathroom cutting herself with the blade from a pencil sharpener, fifteen-year-old Kenna is put under mandatory psychiatric watch. She has seventy-two hours to face her addiction, deal with rejection, and find a shred of hope. Description via Goodreads.

Two Girls Staring At The Ceiling by Lucy Frank (August 5): Chess, the narrator, is sick, but with what exactly, she isn’t sure. And to make matters worse, she must share a hospital room with Shannon, her polar opposite. Where Chess is polite, Shannon is rude. Where Chess tolerates pain silently, Shannon screams bloody murder. Where Chess seems to be getting slowly better, Shannon seems to be getting worse. How these teenagers become friends, helping each other come to terms with their illness, makes for a dramatic and deeply moving read. Description via Goodreads.

A Time To Dance by Padma Venkatraman (May 1): In India, a girl who excels at Bharatanatyam dance refuses to give up after losing a leg in an accident.

Rumble by Ellen Hopkins (August 26): Eighteen-year-old Matt’s atheism is tested when, after a horrific accident of his own making that plunges him into a dark, quiet place, he hears a voice that calls everything he has ever disbelieved into question.

Like Water on Stone by Dana Walrath (November 11): Inspired by a true story, this relates the tale of siblings Sosi, Shahen, and Mariam who survive the Armenian genocide of 1915 by escaping from Turkey alone over the mountains.

Silver People: Voices From the Panama Canal by Margarita Engle: Fourteen-year-old Mateo and other Caribbean islanders face discrimination, segregation, and harsh working conditions when American recruiters lure them to the Panamanian rain forest in 1906 to build the great canal.

Dust of Eden by Mariko Nagai: Thirteen-year-old Mina Tagawa and her Japanese-American family are forced to evacuate their Seattle home and are relocated to an internment camp in Idaho, where they live for three years.

Caminar by Skila Brown: Carlos knows that when the soldiers arrive with warnings about the Communist rebels, it is time to be a man and defend the village, keep everyone safe. But Mama tells him not yet — he’s still her quiet moonfaced boy. The soldiers laugh at the villagers, and before they move on, a neighbor is found dangling from a tree, a sign on his neck: Communist. Mama tells Carlos to run and hide, then try to find her … Numb and alone, he must join a band of guerillas as they trek to the top of the mountain where Carlos’s abuela lives. Will he be in time, and brave enough, to warn them about the soldiers? What will he do then? A novel in verse inspired by actual events during Guatemala’s civil war, Caminar is the moving story of a boy who loses nearly everything before discovering who he really is.

Poisoned Apples by Christina Heppermann (September 23): Christine Heppermann’s powerful collection of free verse poems explore how girls are taught to think about themselves, their bodies, their friends–as consumers, as objects, as competitors. Based on classic fairy tale characters and fairy tale tropes, the poems range from contemporary retellings to first person accounts set within the original stories. From Snow White cottage and Rapunzel’s tower to health class and the prom, these poems are a moving depiction of young women, society, and our expectations. Poisoned Apples is a dark, clever, witty, beautiful, and important book for teenage girls, their sisters, their mothers, and their best friends. **While not a traditional novel in verse, I’m including this title since verse lovers will definitely be interested.

Crossing the Line: Adult-Teen Relationships in YA Fiction and Beyond

March 25, 2014 |

In Saturday’s Links of Note roundup, I pulled together some of the posts making rounds regarding the sexual misconduct scandal within DFTBA records. If you aren’t completely up on what’s going on — and I have to admit, I’m not entirely clear on everything happening either — here’s a piece that’ll give the rundown as it started. This is a story that has many layers to it, and I think that Jeanne has done a pretty good job breaking some more of them down in her post (and the subsequent update she’s linked to). Read this, as well as the comments. Her background is within the fandom perspective, which is an arena I know little about.

But what’s stood out to me over the course of this is less the allegations of sexual abuse — which isn’t to say that’s not important because it certainly is — but instead, I’ve found myself fascinated by an organization which is run primarily (entirely?) by men who serve a primarily teen audience and fan base. There is nothing wrong with that, but it leads to a lot of questions about how those who are older than eighteen can or should interact with their underage audiences. This isn’t only about DFTBA; it’s about any situation where adults work with or for or come in contact with teens in some capacity.

I was a teen girl once. I was a teen girl who loved male acoustic singers, and I was lucky enough to be able to go to a lot of concerts growing up. I lived close enough to Chicago to make this a reality, and I’d earned enough trust to go, whether with an adult or by myself/with a group of friends. I never thought a whole lot about the fact that I was under 18 and going and seeing these men who were in their late 20s and 30s performing. Many times because of my working for the high school newspaper, I was able to get in touch with these artists and set up either web-based or in-person interviews.

I never found it weird to talk with them after a show or ask for an autograph or ask a few questions or even approach them for a hug. It never occurred to me that that could be uncomfortable. I was a teen girl and expressing my interest and my passion for music and the art someone else was making.

One night after a show, I’d had such a good time and had a chance to talk with the singer afterwards, mentioning that I was really bummed I couldn’t go to his show the next night since it was a 21 and older only spot. I’d been there with my mom, and rather than invite me to come to the show anyway, he talked with my mom and said if she was willing to come with me, he’d sneak me in to sell merch for the show that night.

But this was after he talked with my mom.

Of course then it didn’t seem like a big deal to me, but in thinking about that moment now, it was exactly the right thing for him to do. Rather than invite me personally or offer to sneak me in, he asked my mom for approval and asked if she would come with me to do so. He didn’t lead me on and he didn’t try to make promises for me. He set up some clear boundaries and expectations immediately in order to protect not just himself but to protect me, as well.

Barry Lyga wrote two really great posts last week talking about being in the sort of position where he’s regularly interacting with teenagers. The first, which you should read here, set off a lot of questions and discussion. Was he being too strict in having a “no hugs” policy? He followed up with a response to the things people asked or said to him — primarily to those who thought his approach was far too rigid and strict — in this post. The golden piece is this quote: “Why do we presume men are guilty? Dunno, but here’s the thing: until it changes, I’m not going to pretend it hasn’t changed. Change comes first —then hugs.”

What Lyga speaks to isn’t the presumption of guilt. He’s not calling men the problem. He’s instead pointing out that we do live in a world where bad things happen and rather than contribute to that, his policy is simply hands off. Does it mean sometimes a teen doesn’t get what he or she wants? Something that could make his or her day or week or year? Certainly.

In his own words: “A part of respect in a relationship between an adult and a minor is acknowledging the power imbalance and setting reasonable boundaries. We can quibble about the nature and tone of those boundaries, but I don’t think we should quibble about their necessity.”

This is where I find myself most fascinated by the DFTBA community and the events going on within it right now. There is a power imbalance. While we’re most familiar with imbalances that put someone in a position to hold their power over the heads of others, what is going on here is a power imbalance that’s never been considered: those who have power don’t see themselves in that way. It’s not that they should feel guilty or bad for what happened. It’s that the possibility of what could happen in such a position wasn’t at the forefront and wasn’t considered.

There was no blanket manner of dealing with issues that could arise because the idea that they could arise wasn’t something that they thought about.

No matter how cool a 15 year old might be, a 22 year old shouldn’t be anything more than a 22 year old adult with that person. Gender does and doesn’t matter here. It matters because there’s certainly additional power imbalances when it’s a sexually-charged relationship, but it doesn’t matter because there is a clear line of legality regardless of the type of relationship being pursued. It can go either or both ways — older men or older women and/or younger boy or younger girl.

What’s interesting in this particular instance is the language used to describe the teenager. She is not a teenager, nor is she a girl. She’s a young woman. There is a power construct in the word choice, whether intentional or not. Regardless of how cool or polished she comes off, she’s still a teenager. When I think about when I was a teenager, I was fueled by my feelings, especially in regards to how I was being talked to and treated by “cool” adults. I loved that respect and attention.

But it didn’t change the fact I was a teenager and not a young woman.

In thinking about relationships between adults and teenagers, I thought rather than try to deconstruct this further, it’d be worthwhile to build a short reading list of books that explore these relationships. In some instances, the imbalance is clear and the lines of right and wrong are crisp. In others, it’s not as clear. Descriptions come from WorldCat, and I’ve elaborated a little bit, too, about why these books are worthwhile reading and discussion fodder, especially in light of what’s happening in the DFTBA community.

Please feel free to offer up other titles that showcase adult-teen relationships and the power (im)balances within them. I’d love to have a nice resource list because I think that this is a topic that doesn’t get talked about much but offers a lot of places for empowering not just teenagers, but adults, as well.

This Gorgeous Game by Donna Freitas

Seventeen-year-old Olivia Peters, who dreams of becoming a writer, is thrilled to be selected to take a college fiction seminar taught by her idol, Father Mark, but when the priest’s enthusiasm for her writing develops into something more, Olivia shifts from wonder to confusion to despair.

In Freitas’s novel, Olivia wants the approval of her idol so bad, she’ll go to the ends of the Earth to earn it. The problem is that Father Mark takes complete advantage of her desires and manipulates Olivia in the worst possible ways. Olivia is and is not entirely on to what’s going on. She believes that in order to achieve, she has to listen and follow with the instructions she’s given, even if it feels weird or creepy or wrong. What complicates the matter further is how well respected Father Mark is not just in the community, but in Olivia’s family in particular.

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr

Sixteen-year-old San Franciscan Lucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. Her chance at a career has passed, and she decides to help her ten-year-old piano prodigy brother, Gus, map out his own future, even as she explores why she enjoyed piano in the first place.

Zarr’s novel doesn’t seem like it would have this element to it, but it does. Lucy’s become a little bit smitten with one of her teachers, and there is a clear exploration of what the lines of appropriate and inappropriate are as it comes to their relationship. What I think is most noteworthy here is how much Lucy seeks that approval and admiration from an older male. He’s cool and she loves the attention he can give her. That desire in her is, at times, hard to separate from the fact she’s 16.

Love and Other Perishable Items by Laura Buzo

A fifteen-year-old Australian girl gets her first job and first crush on her unattainable university-aged co-worker, as both search for meaning in their lives.

What Buzo’s novel does is offer us the perspective of both the boy and the girl. We have a fifteen year old girl who is enamored by her coworker, who is in his early 20s and who enjoys hanging out and talking with her. But he understands clearly where the lines are in their relationship. He isn’t interested in her beyond talking and being friendly. He won’t pursue a deeper relationship with her and he certainly isn’t interested in leading her on nor holding his power over her head. He thinks she’s cool and she’s very smart, but he’s well attune to their age difference.

Pointe by Brandy Colbert (available April 10)

Four years after Theo’s best friend, Donovan, disappeared at age thirteen, he is found and brought home and Theo puts her health at risk as she decides whether to tell the truth about the abductor, knowing her revelation could end her life-long dream of becoming a professional ballet dancer.

I’ll have a lengthy, spoiler-laden review of Colbert’s novel next week, but it’s a title that fits within this list and does so in a bit of a different way. While we see the emotional tolls that happen in Freitas’s and Zarr’s novels, what happens in Colbert’s novel is not only emotional, it’s physical too. It takes Theo the entire novel to understand what happened to her and what ripple effects it had not only on her own well-being, but on the well-being of her best friend.

Though not for teen readers, Alissa Nutting’s Tampa is another novel worth reading that delves into wildly inappropriate adult-teen relationships. I mention this title in conjunction with the YA ones because I think it gets at an aspect that I haven’t talked too much about, which is gender. While the other novels have an older male at the forefront, Nutting’s flips the script and has an older woman pursuing completely inappropriate relationships with teen boys. This is a challenging and squick-inducing read.

What other titles would you add to the list? While I think there’s a lot worth exploring on the sexual abuse end (Pointe and Tampa fit there), I’d be particularly interested in titles where the power dynamic is on burgeoning non-sexual relationships.

Girls Kicking Ass With Their Brains: Guest Post by Sarah Stevenson

March 18, 2014 |

Let’s talk about girls who kick ass today. But let’s not focus entirely on the girls who are kicking ass when it comes to power and physical prowess. Instead, let’s hear about the girls who are smart, clever, savvy individuals. Sarah Stevenson will talk about her favorite smart girls who kick ass with their brains — and bonus, this post is definitely for those seeking to hear more about girls in genre fiction being fiercely intelligent.

Sarah Jamila Stevenson is a writer, artist, graphic designer, introvert, closet geek, good eater, struggling blogger, lapsed piano player, ukulele noodler, household-chore-ignorer and occasional world traveler. Her previous lives include spelling bee nerd, suburban Southern California teenager, Berkeley art student, underappreciated temp, and humor columnist for a video game website. Throughout said lives, she has acquired numerous skills of questionable usefulness, like intaglio printmaking, Welsh language, and an uncanny knack for Mario Tennis. She lives in Northern California with her husband and two cats. She is the author of three YA novels: The Latte Rebellion (2011), Underneath(2013), and The Truth Against the World (forthcoming June 2014). Visit her atwww.SarahJamilaStevenson.com.

I could not be more thrilled that my Kidlitosphere compadre Kelly invited me to participate in Women’s History Month over here at STACKED—so the first thing I want to say is thanks for having me! I’m excited to have the opportunity to talk books (obvs. one of my favorite subjects in the universe) and I’m even more excited to talk about girls in YA fiction. I mean, it is an amazing time to be a girl character in YA fiction. We girls rock on the page. We win gladiatorial-style fights to the death. We compete with the boys—and hold our own—at everything from swords to sorcery to straight-out survival. Just ask Katniss Everdeen (The Hunger Games) or Katsa (Graceling), Alanna the Lioness or Jacky “Bloody Jack” Faber: Girls Kick Ass.

As you can see from that list, I really like reading about girls who are strong and accomplished and quick, who use powers both physical and supernatural to survive and thrive. But as an author who (so far, anyway) writes characters who are far more human than superhuman, I’m also a fan of girl characters who use cleverness and intelligence to make their way, whether it’s book learnin’ or street smarts. It’s a running theme in my own books, too. Asha, the narrator of my first book The Latte Rebellion, is bright and academic, but her bright ideas also land her in major hot water. Fortunately, she’s clever enough to swim rather than sink. We need realistic, believable girl characters (and guys!) to show us that brainpower is just as important as physical strength, and sometimes more so. So, for women’s history month, I present you with my list of Favorite YA Girl Characters Who Kick Ass With Their Brains. (And not just with their ass-kicking boots. Though I would dearly love a pair of those…).

Can I quickly just say—this was SO HARD. There are a lot of amazing, brainy YA characters. I noticed that many of these ladies have multiple books, which probably made them more memorable and likely to stick in my head, since I’ve gotten to spend time with them over multiple adventures. You may also notice that there are middle grade books on this list, too: I just couldn’t bear to leave out some younger female protagonists simply because they’re tweens. They are simply too awesome to ignore. So here you go, in no particular order:

1. Jacky Faber

Yes, I already mentioned her above under girls who kick (physical) ass, but honestly? It’s Jacky’s cleverness that is her true appeal for me. It isn’t just that she can hold her own physically, thanks to the School of Hard Knocks, but the fact that she’s smart enough to successfully do the crazy things she does, from disguising herself as a ship’s boy in the first book to, in some of the more recent Bloody Jack volumes, penning and organizing stage performances and, basically, running her own business. (Even if some of that business is slightly shady, perhaps a bit piratical…)

2. Hattie Brooks

In Hattie Big Sky, Hattie Brooks was driven to prove herself capable and practical, and in the sequel, Hattie Ever After, she’s driven to prove herself intellectually capable in a world that is still very much a man’s world. A lot of her long-term success—in my mind—comes from learning her limitations, but also learning that those limitations are due to factors beyond her control. There are certain things women can’t do during the time period she lives in, but more than that, there are just things that humans can’t always do, and sometimes life doesn’t work out the way you expect it to. Yet she carries on, and it’s her determination and smarts and willingness to work hard that get here where she needs to be, and where she wants to be: on the reporting staff of a newspaper, at a time when being a “woman reporter” was rare.

3. Frankie Landau-Banks

Oh, wow. I can’t say much about Frankie without giving away the plot of The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, but she is one of my favorite characters for sheer moxie and mischief and the smarts not to get caught. My character Asha would absolutely worship Frankie. And I can’t help but love the whole “least likely suspect” scenario, in which the academic girl everyone thinks is probably boring and normal is hiding a whole secret life. Please feel free to assume there is a psychological explanation for this involving wishful thinking and/or vicarious enjoyment because you’re probably right.

4. Flora Segunda

Flora! She has to save the world by finding out who she really is—the introspective mystery that involves her in a larger web of intrigue. Definitely the type of plot I gravitate towards, and as a character, she is unique, quirky (okay, downright bizarre at times) but always, always searching and wondering and trying. And it isn’t just Flora, but her entire world that lends itself to Girls Kicking Ass. The alternate world she lives in is matriarchal, and women tend to run things, so it’s a very strong-female-oriented fantasy setting in Flora Segunda, Flora’s Dare, and Flora’s Fury. Dare, win, or disappear!

5. Seraphina Dombegh

In the more recent fantasy novel Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, the title character is a musical genius, but she also wields a very formidable and logical intelligence—one which, in her world, is generally associated more with dragons. And dragons are not exactly universally loved for it, in this scenario. Seraphina’s unusual dragon-like skills draw the wrong kind of attention, but they also make her a perfect candidate for bringing humans and dragons together for mutual understanding. Of course, she’s got to solve a murder mystery first…

6. Meg Murry

How could I have this list without Madeleine L’Engle’s beloved Meg Murry, who is practically the original Girl Who Kicks Ass With Her Brain? I mean that almost literally. In A Wrinkle in Time, it’s Meg who saves her brother, her family, and saves the human race, too. I was reminded of how much I love Meg when I read the recent graphic novel adaptation of A Wrinkle in Time by Hope Larson—Meg is smart and science-minded, a reader and a thinker, and as a kid reading this, I was transfixed by a heroine who felt so much more “like me,” who had adventures even if she wasn’t a daredevil, and who was brave and full of heart.

7. Theodosia Throckmorton

For an amazing middle grade heroine, I love Theodosia Throckmorton, star of Robin LaFevers’ series by the same name. She’s a budding archaeologist and an expert on all things Egyptian—both natural and supernatural. Her knowledge of Egyptology and hieroglyphs is rivaled only by her ability to defuse curses and detect evil magic.

8. Dewey Kerrigan

In The Green Glass Sea and White Sands, Red Menace by Ellen Klages, Dewey’s father is a scientist working on the Manhattan Project, out in the New Mexico desert in 1943. Dewey is mechanically-minded, loves numbers and patterns, and isn’t as easy with people…but she finds a place in this world of scientists, and her intelligence helps her ultimately figure out not just what her father is working on, but also how to be herself.

9. Gilda Joyce

Another really fun middle grade series is the Gilda Joyce books by Jennifer Allison. Gilda is a Psychic Investigator and gets to solve all sorts of entertaining mysteries. Even better, she gets to spend the summer as an intern at the International Spy Museum, which is a real place and I want to go there.

10. Lindy Sachs

Lindy is the hero of The Short Seller by Elissa Brent Weisman. She’s only a seventh grader, but it turns out she has a rather unexpected and major talent for day trading on the stock market. But it’s not just talent alone—she makes a point of reading and learning about stocks, and her extracurricular studies start to pay off. Until, of course, havoc ensues.

And there you go! I’m sure I’ve missed a few and will kick myself in my own ass later for it, but these are definitely some of my absolute favorite brainiac girls in YA fiction. If you haven’t read about their adventures, you’re missing out.

***

Sarah Jamila Stevenson is the author of The Latte Rebellion, Underneath, and the forthcoming (June) novel The Truth Against the World.

YA Adaptations of Adult Novels

February 25, 2014 |

I’m not a huge YA non-fiction reader, despite really enjoying adult non-fiction. I’m not sure why that is, but after this last year on committee reading and talking about non-fiction, I’ve been thinking a lot more about YA non-fiction. During one of our meetings, I brought up the topic of YA adaptations of adult non-fiction titles, and a number of people didn’t know that it was a thing that happened. In light of that, I thought it would be worthwhile to put together a list of non-fiction titles that began as adult books but then were rewritten and adapted for YA audiences.

Not every adult non-fiction title gets a YA adaptation, and in fact, I don’t think it’s a particularly big phenomenon. The books that seem to be adapted tend to be ones with high YA interest, gauged either through them being read or assigned in school, through them featuring primarily teen or younger main characters, or they’re books teens have been picking up and talking about all their own. Part of me wonders if sometimes adaptations happen when the title isn’t working for adults and there’s a decision to repackage and remarket for younger readers instead. Sometimes, the books that adapted for younger readers are surprising choices and other times, they’re natural fits. The sports adaptations to me are pretty obvious choices, especially for popular athletes, and the historical or cultural adaptations seem natural, too.

It’s interesting, too, to think about the adult non-fiction teens love that was never reworked as a YA non-fiction (say, for example, Dave Pelzner books, Alexandra Robbins books, or titles like Ophelia Speaks or Queen Bees and Wanna Bes, which have good appeal and readership to teens) against those which have.

YA adaptations of adult non-fiction are interesting. Sometimes, they present the material in a way that’s stronger and more engaging than the adult version of the novels. Other times, they’re weaker because of how the adaptation was presented — too much information was cut or the writing itself is taken to a level that doesn’t engage the reader. It is entirely dependent upon the writer and his or her ability to write for the YA audience or work with someone who is comfortable in doing so themselves, as not all adaptations are written by the original author.

One example standing out to me is I Am Malala by Malala Yousafzai. The book came out at the end of last year, written by Malala and Christina Lamb. Malala’s voice really comes through in the book, but it’s also clear she’s not a writer herself. The story told was important, but the book never fully engaged me because it wasn’t consistent nor fluid in execution. The narrative thread was weak, and that’s one of the most important elements of non-fiction: it was much more of a straight sharing of events that happened, rather than a working through of events that happened tied either to a bigger point or event (think about the best memoirs you’ve read — they aren’t timelines of events but a story around a grander theme or idea).

Coming this summer is a YA adaptation of the story. It’s written by Malala, but in the young reader edition, Patricia McCormick will be co-authoring. Knowing McCormick has written fiction tackling many of the things that have been a part of Malala’s life in her country, it seems not only a natural choice but suggests that perhaps the adaptation will be a stronger, more compelling read (at least to me!). Thinking about McCormick’s Sold especially, I suspect she’ll be a really smart and solid writer able to help Malala’s writing come across stronger, but it’ll make her voice ring even louder.

Here’s a look at a pile of other YA adaptations of adult non-fiction books. All descriptions are from WorldCat. As always, this is not comprehensive, so if there are other titles I should know about, I’d love to hear in the comments so they can be added.

Chew On This by Eric Schlosser and Charles Wilson: A behind-the-scenes look at the fast food industry. Adapted from Fast Food Nation.

Enrique’s Journey by Sonia Nazario: When Enrique was five, his mother, too poor to feed her children, left Honduras to work in the United States. The move allowed her to send money back home so Enrique could eat better and go to school past the third grade. She promised she would return quickly, but she struggled in America. Without her, he became lonely and troubled. After eleven years, he decided he would go find her. He set off alone, with little more than a slip of paper bearing his mother’s North Carolina telephone number. Without money, he made the dangerous trek up the length of Mexico, clinging to the sides and tops of freight trains. He and other migrants, many of them children, are hunted like animals. To evade bandits and authorities, they must jump onto and off the moving boxcars they call the Train of Death. It is an epic journey, one thousands of children make each year to find their mothers in the United States. Adapted from Enrique’s Journey.

Outcasts United by Warren St. John: American-educated Jordanian Luma Mufleh founds a youth soccer team comprised of children from Liberia, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Balkan states, and elsewhere in the refugee settlement town of Clarkston, Georgia, bringing the children together to discover their common bonds as they adjust to life in a new homeland. Adapted from Outcasts United.

Bloody Times by James Swanson: On the morning of April 2, 1865, Jefferson Davis received a telegram from General Robert E. Lee. There is no more time–the Yankees are coming, it warned. That night Davis fled Richmond, setting off an intense manhunt for the Confederate president. Two weeks later, President Lincoln was assassinated, and the nation was convinced that Davis was involved in the conspiracy that led to the crime. Lincoln’s murder, autopsy, and White House funeral transfixed the nation. His final journey began when soldiers placed his corpse aboard a special train that would carry him home to Springfield, Illinois. It was the most magnificent funeral pageant in American history. Adapted from Bloody Crimes.

Chasing Lincoln’s Killer by James Swanson: Recounts the escape of John Wilkes Booth, Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, and follows the intensive twelve-day search for him and his accomplices. Adapted from Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer.

Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder: Traces the efforts of Dr. Paul Farmer to transform healthcare on a global scale, documenting his visits to some of the world’s most impoverished regions and the unconventional methods that enabled him to improve and save lives. Adapted from Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Lincoln’s Last Days by Bill O’Reilly with Dwight John Zimmerman: Describes the events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and the hunt to track down John Wilkes Booth and his accomplices. Adapted from Killing Lincoln.

What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio: A photographic collection exploring what the world eats featuring portraits of twenty-five families from twenty-one countries surrounded by a week’s worth of food. Adapted from Hungry Planet.

The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan: What’s for dinner?’ seemed like a simple question -until journalist and supermarket detective Michael Pollan delved behind the scenes. From fast food and big organic to small farms and old-fashioned hunting and gathering, this young readers’ adaptation of Pollan’s famous food-chain exploration encourages kids to consider the personal and global health implications of their food choices. Adapted from The Omnivore’s Dilemma.

Discovering Wes Moore by Wes Moore: The author, a Rhodes scholar and combat veteran, analyzes factors that influenced him as well as another man of the same name and from the same neighborhood who was drawn into a life of drugs and crime and ended up serving life in prison, focusing on the influence of relatives, mentors, and social expectations that could have led either of them on different paths. Adapted from The Other Wes Moore: Two Names, One Fate.

The Mayflower and the Pilgrims’ New World by Nathaniel Philbrick: After a journey across the Atlantic, the Mayflower’s passengers were saved from destruction with the help of the natives of the Plymouth region. For fifty years, peace was maintained as Pilgrims and Natives worked together. But that trust was broken with the next generation of leaders, and conflict erupted that nearly wiped out English and natives alike. Adapted from Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War.

The Warrior’s Heart by Eric Greitens: Shares the author’s adventures as a young man that led him to a life of service as both a humanitarian and a Navy SEAL. Adapted from The Heart and the Fist.

Believe by Eric LeGrand: In this uplifting memoir, now adapted for young readers, Eric LeGrand tells the amazing story of how he rebuilds his life, continues his college education, and pursues a career in sports broadcasting following the injury that paralyzed him from the neck down. His belief in a grand plan and his hope for the future make him a model for anyone who has experienced tragedy or faced obstacles. Adapted from Believe: My Faith and the Tackle That Changed My Life.

Flags of Our Fathers by James Bradley with Ron Powers and Michael French: A true story behind the immortal photograph that has come to symbolize the courage and indomitable will of America. Adapted from Flags of Our Fathers.

Hope Solo: My Story by Hope Solo: Hope Solo, Olympic gold medalist and goalie for the US women’s national soccer team, tells the exciting insider details of her life on and off the field, in her own words. Adapted from Solo: A Memoir of Hope.