STACKED

books

#1000BlackGirlBooks Donation Fund Drive Book List

|

Black Girls

 

In Mid-January, a story about 11-year-old Marley Dias and her quest to collection 1000 books about black girls hit the internet. Or maybe the correct phrasing of that is that it hit the internet in a way where it picked up attention and got spread far and wide in the book community. Almost immediately, I knew I wanted to do what I could to help this fabulous girl collect the books she wanted to meet her goal.

Like last year, I thought putting it out there that I’d take up donations would work. But unlike the Some Girls Are drive, rather than collect books and send them to Marley, I opened up my Paypal account to accept donations, which I’d then funnel into sending her book after book after book.

Nearly $3000 came in from the drive, which is fabulous and powerful. I still have a couple hundred dollars left to spend, and it’s my idea to get in touch with the people behind this project and help fill in any additional holes.

One of the fun, frustrating, and challenging elements of this drive was selecting the books to send. I let anyone who donated choose a title or two (or ten, it didn’t matter!) to send, but I limited to one copy of each title. I did this knowing that some titles, like brown girl dreaming and Pointe would be requested again and again and be sent again and again. There’s nothing wrong with that in the least, especially for a library like the one Dias is working toward, but I wanted to offer a further range of titles, too. Thanks to the hard work of dedicated people like Zetta Elliott and Edi Campbell, I was able to really dig deep into the world of kid lit featuring black girls at the center of the story. In addition to utilizing their incredible resources, I tapped into the brains of Sarah Hannah Gomez, Justina Ireland, and Anne Ursu, who all provided a wealth of title ideas for sending.

Justina further pointed something out to me that I’ve been unable to stop thinking about. It only took $2500 to collect nearly every black girl book in children’s/middle grade/YA/crossover adult. These books have limited shelf lives, as numerous titles were tough to track down or required me going through third parties to collection. Do you know how sad it is to think that that amount of money is all it takes to buy nearly everything?

I’m thrilled we could do this, but it didn’t hit me how difficult finding black girl books truly was until I’d exhausted the obvious, exhausted the less obvious, and still have some money left over to find further titles.  I am eager to see how Marley completes this dream of hers, as well as what her library will look like, but I’m also saddened to see so clearly the very thing she was talking about (and that so many others have and continue talking about): these books are not out there, not obvious, and that needs to change. I also ran into seeing just how few graphic novels offer black girls at the center of the story.

As promised, here’s a round-up of nearly everything I purchased for #1000BlackGirlBooks. This list is so long and took a long time to compile, so forgive any errors or mistakes. I’m doing what I can to designate titles by category — picture books and early readers, middle grade, YA, adult, and graphic novel. I’ve starred titles within each of those categories that are non-fiction, and all links will take you to Amazon. I’m choosing to do it that way because I’m using Amazon as my way of gauging ages for some of the titles, and it’s where I made my purchases for Marley because of the ability to track purchases and ensure quick delivery.

I used my librarian brain when buying these, knowing these will be used in libraries. That means there are award winners here, as well as popular books, as well as pop culture leaning title. This is a mix of a little of everything, just as it should be.

Ready? Here we go.

 

Picture Books/Early Reader Titles

 

 

Middle Grade (some are higher level and some lower)

 

 

Young Adult

 

 

Adult (with crossover appeal)

 

 

Graphic Novels

 

 

Interracial Romance In (and on) YA Books: A Guest Post from Libertad Araceli Thomas

|

A couple of weeks ago, I talked about the lack of interracial couples on YA book covers. I asked readers in the comments to share any they could think of, and Libertad Araceli Thomas, who I had the honor of meeting at Kid Lit Con in 2014, commented with a long list. Rather than replicate her work and passion for this particular topic, I asked if she’d be interested in writing about this for STACKED. Lucky for me, she said yes.

Today’s guest post comes from Libertad. This is an outstanding look at interracial romance in YA (and a little middle grade, too!). She knows her stuff, and anyone looking for books with or featuring interracial romance — you can do no better than this! Like with any book list, not all of these are endorsements.

In addition to the wonderful list here, a few other titles of note: Out of Darkness by Ashley Hope Perez, See No Color by Shannon Gibney, and The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore.

libertad

Libertad Araceli Thomas is one half of Twinja Book Reviews, a book blog that celebrates diversity. Between mastering her handstands and perfecting her butterfly kicks, she can be caught reading and promoting a good book! Tweet with her @afrocubansista and @dos_twinjas

 

 

 

So just a few weeks ago I stumbled across Kelly’s amazing list featuring diverse cover models and anyone who knows me, knows how excited I get when I see a bit of color on covers. Especialmente Interracial couples or pairings.

 

This particular mission holds a special place in my heart because nearly every relationship I’ve been in has been interracial, so I love seeing mixed race couples. I’ll admit, I’ve never actually seen a couple that depicted any relationships I’ve been in (I, for one, am a dark skinned Black Cubana and most of the people I’ve dated have been white or mixed race Latinxs) or any couples that didn’t feature a non-white love interest (Cuz I mean Interracial doesn’t just mean dating white) but boy oh boy these are the covers that make me bargain my soul with bookstore owners promising them my first born child.

 

Compiling this list was loads of fun and while I spent all week working on it, I’m sure there were some that I missed. Feel free to leave in the comments any books you know of that feature an Interracial pairing on the cover. Cuz hey, my local bookstore is still taking the promise of my future children as payment and I totally need these books in my life!

 

interracial YA image 1

 

Love!Love!Fighting! Vol.1 (Volume 1) by Sharean Morishita

Love! Love! Fighting is about a young woman who currently has no money, no job and her father won’t return her phone calls. Stressed and in sore need of a good break, Oriana finds herself in a difficult position when her bossy little cousins tricks her back to their home country South Korea. Come and join Oriana as she learns how to handle her troublesome family members and strange new friends, who all seem to bring new and unwanted stress to her life.

 

Kiki and Jacques by Susan Ross (Holiday House)

Preteens prove that cultural differences can be overcome in this middle-grade novel about a native Mainer and a Somali girl who form an unlikely and supportive friendship.

 

Twelve-year-old Jacques’s mother has passed away, his father is jobless and drinking again and his grandmother’s bridal store is on the verge of going out of business. Plus he’s under pressure from an older boy to join in some illegal activities. At least Jacques can look forward to the soccer season. After all, he’s a shoe-in for captain.

 

But the arrival of Somali refugees shakes up nearly everything in Jacques’s Maine town, including the soccer team. So Jacques is surprised to find himself becoming friends with Kiki, a cheerful and strong-minded Somali immigrant. Despite their many differences they are able to help one another triumph over problems with friends, family and growing up

 

One Man Guy by Michael Barakiva (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

Alek Khederian should have guessed something was wrong when his parents took him to a restaurant. Everyone knows that Armenians never eat out. Between bouts of interrogating the waitress and criticizing the menu, Alek’s parents announce that he’ll be attending summer school in order to bring up his grades. Alek is sure this experience will be the perfect hellish end to his hellish freshman year of high school. He never could’ve predicted that he’d meet someone like Ethan.

 

Ethan is everything Alek wishes he were: confident, free-spirited, and irreverent. He can’t believe a guy this cool wants to be his friend. And before long, it seems like Ethan wants to be more than friends. Alek has never thought about having a boyfriend—he’s barely ever had a girlfriend—but maybe it’s time to think again.

 

Hooked by Liz Fichera (Harlequin Teen)

When Native American Fredricka ‘Fred’ Oday is invited to become the only girl on the school’s golf team, she can’t say no. This is an opportunity to shine, win a scholarship and go to university, something no one in her family has done.

 

But Fred’s presence on the team isn’t exactly welcome — especially not to rich golden boy Ryan Berenger, whose best friend was kicked off the team to make a spot for Fred.

 

But there’s no denying that things are happening between the girl with the killer swing and the boy with the killer smile…

 

GET HOOKED ON A GIRL NAMED FRED.

 

Everything but the Truth by Mandy Hubbard (Bloomsbury)

Holly Mathews’ mom is the new manager of a ritzy retirement home, and they just moved in. But having super-rich retirees as her only neighbors isn’t a total bust, because the gorgeous, notorious Malik Buchannan is the grandson of a resident. Just one problem: when they meet, Malik assumes Holly is there to visit her own rich relative. She doesn’t correct him, and it probably doesn’t matter, because their flirtation could never turn into more than a superficial fling . . . right? But the longer she lives in his privileged world, the deeper Holly falls for Malik, and the harder it is to tell the truth . . . because coming clean might mean losing him.

 

Transcendence by C.J. Omololu (Walker Childrens)

When a visit to the Tower of London triggers an overwhelmingly real vision of a beheading that occurred centuries before, Cole Ryan fears she is losing her mind. A mysterious boy, Griffon Hall, comes to her aid, but the intensity of their immediate connection seems to open the floodgate of memories even wider.

 

As their feelings grow, Griffon reveals their common bond as members of the Akhet—an elite group of people who can remember past lives and use their collected wisdom for the good of the world. But not all Akhet are altruistic, and a rogue is after Cole to avenge their shared past. Now in extreme danger, Cole must piece together clues from many lifetimes. What she finds could ruin her chance at a future with Griffon, but risking his love may be the only way to save them both.

 

Full of danger, romance, and intrigue, Transcendence breathes new life into a perpetually fascinating question: What would you do with another life to live?

 

interracial ya 2

 

 

Unstoppable by Liz Bankes (Piccadilly Press)

Rosie has managed to wangle spending the summer before uni in the same house as her boyfriend Cal – but who else should also be staying except for the infamous man-eater, Cleo.

 

Things between Cal and Rosie could never have been described as easy, but her growing jealousy seems like an unstoppable force. Can their love weather the storm?

 

Most Likely to Succeed by Jennifer Echols (Simon Pulse)

As vice president of Student Council, Kaye knows the importance of keeping order. Not only in school, but in her personal life. Which is why she and her boyfriend, Aidan, already have their lives mapped out: attend Columbia University together, pursue banking careers, and eventually get married. Everything Kaye has accomplished in high school—student government, cheerleading, stellar grades—has been in preparation for that future.

 

To his entire class, Sawyer is an irreverent bad boy. His antics on the field as school mascot and his love of partying have earned him total slacker status. But while he and Kaye appear to be opposites on every level, fate—and their friends—keep conspiring to throw them together. Perhaps the seniors see the simmering attraction Kaye and Sawyer are unwilling to acknowledge to themselves…

 

As the year unfolds, Kaye begins to realize her ideal life is not what she thought. And Sawyer decides it’s finally time to let down the facade and show everyone who he really is. Is a relationship between them most likely to succeed—or will it be their favorite mistake?

 

Burn for Burn by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian (Simon & Schuster)

Postcard-perfect Jar Island is home to charming tourist shops, pristine beaches, amazing oceanfront homes—and three girls secretly plotting revenge.

 

KAT is sick and tired of being bullied by her former best friend.

 

LILLIA has always looked out for her little sister, so when she discovers that one of her guy friends has been secretly hooking up with her, she’s going to put a stop to it.

 

MARY is perpetually haunted by a traumatic event from years past, and the boy who’s responsible has yet to get what’s coming to him.

 

None of the girls can act on their revenge fantasies alone without being suspected. But together…anything is possible.

 

With an alliance in place, there will be no more “I wish I’d said…” or “If I could go back and do things differently…” These girls will show Jar Island that revenge is a dish best enjoyed together.

 

Fire with Fire by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian (Simon & Schuster)

Lillia, Kat, and Mary had the perfect plan. Work together in secret to take down the people who wronged them. But things didn’t exactly go the way they’d hoped at the Homecoming Dance.

 

Not even close.

 

For now, it looks like they got away with it. All they have to do is move on and pick up the pieces, forget there ever was a pact. But it’s not easy, not when Reeve is still a total jerk and Rennie’s meaner than she ever was before.

 

And then there’s sweet little Mary…she knows there’s something seriously wrong with her. If she can’t control her anger, she’s sure that someone will get hurt even worse than Reeve was. Mary understands now that it’s not just that Reeve bullied her—it’s that he made her love him.

 

Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth, burn for a burn. A broken heart for a broken heart. The girls are up to the task. They’ll make Reeve fall in love with Lillia and then they will crush him. It’s the only way he’ll learn.

 

It seems once a fire is lit, the only thing you can do is let it burn…

 

Ashes to Ashes by Jenny Han and Siobhan Vivian (Simon & Schuster)

New Year’s Eve ended with a bang and Mary, Kat and Lillia may not be prepared for what is to come.

After Rennie’s death, Kat and Lillia try to put the pieces together of what happened to her. They both blame themselves. If Lillia hadn’t left with Reeve… If Kat had only stayed with Rennie… Things could have been different. Now they will never be the same.

Only Mary knows the truth about that night. About what she is. She also knows the truth about Lillia and Reeve falling in love, about Reeve being happy when all he deserves is misery, just like the misery he caused her. Now their childish attempts at revenge are a thing of the past and Mary is out for blood. Will she leave anything in her wake or will all that remain be ashes?

 

Hello I love You by Katie M.Stout (St. Martin’s Griffin)

Grace Wilde is running—from the multi-million dollar mansion her record producer father bought, the famous older brother who’s topped the country music charts five years in a row, and the mother who blames her for her brother’s breakdown. Grace escapes to the farthest place from home she can think of, a boarding school in Korea, hoping for a fresh start.

 

She wants nothing to do with music, but when her roommate Sophie’s twin brother Jason turns out to be the newest Korean pop music superstar, Grace is thrust back into the world of fame. She can’t stand Jason, whose celebrity status is only outmatched by his oversized ego, but they form a tenuous alliance for the sake of her friendship with Sophie. As the months go by and Grace adjusts to her new life in Korea, even she can’t deny the sparks flying between her and the KPOP idol.

 

Soon, Grace realizes that her feelings for Jason threaten her promise to herself that she’ll leave behind the music industry that destroyed her family. But can Grace ignore her attraction to Jason and her undeniable pull of the music she was born to write? Sweet, fun, and romantic, this young adult novel explores what it means to experience first love and discover who you really are in the process.

 

Best. Ramadan. Ever by Medeia Sharif (Flux)

No pizza. No boyfriend. (No life.)

 

Okay, so during Ramadan, we’re not allowed to eat from sunrise to sunset. For one whole month. My family does this every year, even though I’ve been to a mosque exactly twice in my life. And it’s true, I could stand to lose a few pounds. (Sadly, my mom’s hotness skipped a generation.) But is starvation really an acceptable method? I think not.Even worse, my oppressive parents forbid me to date. This is just cruel and wrong. Especially since Peter, a cute and crushable artist, might be my soul mate. Figures my bestest friend Lisa likes him, too. To top it off, there’s a new Muslim girl in school who struts around in super-short skirts, commanding every boy’s attention–including Peter’s. How can I get him to notice me? And will I ever figure out how to be Muslim and American?

 

Call Me By My Name John Ed Bradley (Atheneum Books for Young Readers)

Growing up in Louisiana in the late 1960s, Tater Henry has experienced a lot of prejudice. His town is slow to desegregate and slower still to leave behind deep-seated prejudice.

 

Despite the town’s sensibilities, Rodney Boulett and his twin sister Angie befriend Tater, and as their friendship grows stronger, Tater and Rodney become an unstoppable force on the football field. That is, until Rodney sees Tater and Angie growing closer, too, and Rodney’s world is turned upside down. Teammates, best friends—Rodney’s world is threatened by a hate he did not know was inside of him.

 

As the town learns to accept notions like a black quarterback, some changes may be too difficult to accept.

 

 

interracial YA 3

 

 

OtherBound by Corinne Duyvis (Amulet Books)

Amara is never alone. Not when she’s protecting the cursed princess she unwillingly serves. Not when they’re fleeing across dunes and islands and seas to stay alive. Not when she’s punished, ordered around, or neglected.

 

She can’t be alone, because a boy from another world experiences all that alongside her, looking through her eyes.

 

Nolan longs for a life uninterrupted. Every time he blinks, he’s yanked from his Arizona town into Amara’s mind, a world away, which makes even simple things like hobbies and homework impossible. He’s spent years as a powerless observer of Amara’s life. Amara has no idea . . . until he learns to control her, and they communicate for the first time. Amara is terrified. Then, she’s furious.

 

All Amara and Nolan want is to be free of each other. But Nolan’s breakthrough has dangerous consequences. Now, they’ll have to work together to survive–and discover the truth about their connection.

 

Keep Me in Mind by Jaime Reed (Point)

Ellia Dawson doesn’t recognize the handsome boy who sits in tears by her hospital bed. But he’s telling her that he’s Liam McPherson, her boyfriend. Boyfriend? Ellia thinks in shock. She has no clue who Liam is, let alone whether or not she once loved him. She remembers her family, her friends, and the fact that she wants to be a fashion designer. But Liam is a big blank in her life.

 

Meanwhile, Liam is devastated that Ellia, the love of his life, who suffered an accident while they were running together on the beach, has lost her memory. He is desperate to win her back, rebuild what they once had, but Ellia keeps him at an arm’s length. She’s much more comfortable with a new boy she meets at the hospital, who understands more what she’s going through. So Liam begins writing the story of the two of them, piecing together the past in the hopes of having a future with the girl he loves.

 

Living Violet by Jaime Reed (Dafina)

He’s persuasive, charming, and way too mysterious. And for Samara Marshall, her co-worker is everything she wants most–and everything she most fears. . .

 

Samara Marshall is determined to make the summer before her senior year the best ever. Her plan: enjoy downtime with friends and work to save up cash for her dream car. Summer romance is not on her to-do list, but uncovering the truth about her flirtatious co-worker, Caleb Baker, is. From the peculiar glow to his eyes to the unfortunate events that befall the girls who pine after him, Samara is the only one to sense danger behind his smile.

 

But Caleb’s secrets are drawing Samara into a world where the laws of attraction are a means of survival. And as a sinister power closes in on those she loves, Samara must take a risk that will change her life forever. . .or consume it.

 

Burning Emerald by Jaime Reed (Dafina)

Dating the most popular guy in school is every girl’s fantasy. But to Samara Marshall, he’s a dangerous force come to rekindle their tangled past. Only it’s not her past… Samara faces a challenging senior year. Controlling her inner demon is a struggle, even with help from her Cambion boyfriend, Caleb. But her life takes a turn for the worse when the hottest jock in school begins pursuing her-especially since Malik’s anything but what he seems. They share a connection from a forgotten past-a secret that could destroy her and Caleb.

 

As the attraction becomes harder to resist, Samara is now at the mercy of the demon within her. To break free, Sam must fight a battle where she is the enemy and the prize…and victory will come at a deadly price.

 

Fading Amber by Jaime Reed (K-Teen/Dafina)

After falling for a Cambion and then turning into one herself, Samara never thought her senior year could get any more complicated. The gaps in her memory, the mysterious deaths and the constant danger that threaten her once quiet town have a common thread: Tobias, a demon with a lot of enemies. He’s also Samara’s other soul mate and he’s suddenly disappeared. But Samara isn’t the only one who wants to find Tobias. His enemies are getting closer and their plans for retribution could mean deadly consequences for Samara and her true soul mate, Caleb.

 

Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles (Walkers Children)

When Brittany Ellis walks into chemistry class on the first day of senior year, she has no clue that her carefully created ‘perfect’ life is about to unravel before her eyes. She’s forced to be lab partners with Alex Fuentes, a gang member from the other side of town, and he is about to threaten everything she’s worked so hard for: her flawless reputation, her relationship with her boyfriend, and the secret that her home life is anything but perfect.

 

Alex is a bad boy and he knows it. So when he makes a bet with his friends to lure Brittany into his life, he thinks nothing of it. But soon Alex realizes Brittany is a real person with real problems, and suddenly the bet he made in arrogance turns into something much more.

 

Bright lights, Dark Nights by Stephen Emond (Roaring Book Press)

Walter Wilcox has never been in love. He just wants to finish high school under the radar with his 2.5 friends and zero drama. And then there’s Naomi Mills, an adorably awkward harpist with a habit of saying the wrong thing at the right time.

 

It’s inevitable that they’re going to get together…but they’re also on the unavoidable path to being torn apart.

 

How to Salsa in a Sari by Dona Sarkar (Kimani Tru)

First, Issa Mazumder’s nerdy boyfriend dumps her for popular Latina princess Cat Morena—as if Cat even likes him. She just hates Issa. And for good reason: Issa finds out that her mother not only has been dating Cat’s dad, but is going to marry him. That means they’re moving into Cat’s huge house. And not only is Issa’s stepsister-to-be a total beyotch, she has no respect for Issa’s Indian and African-American heritage. But Issa gets some tough advice: if she wants Cat Morena to welcome her traditions, Issa had better learn how to salsa in a sari.

 

interracial ya 4

 

 

Dragon’s Mind by Vered Ehsani

Ten years ago, an artificial brain was installed into a futuristic computer system. To most people, it is a non-living entity operating in the background of their lives. Only a girl named Myth knows better: his name is Dragon and he is very much alive. After ten bodiless years, Dragon has a dream that will change everything and will put his mind and Myth’s life in mortal danger. There are powerful forces that don’t want the truth revealed and they’re coming for Dragon. But where do you run to when you’re already everywhere?

 

Unleashed by Kristopher Reisz (Simon Pulse)

What lies beneath Daniel Morning seems perfect — handsome, charismatic, intelligent. But living up to everyone’s expectations has cost him the right to make his own decisions. The urge to shatter those expectations is beginning to gnaw at his insides.

 

Then Daniel meets Misty. She’s smoky, rebellious, tender…and much more. She decides to let him into her pack of outcasts — and in on their little secret: She and her friends have learned to shapeshift, and have been prowling the night as wolves.

 

Daniel soon falls in love with the primal sensation of shifting, just as he’s falling in love with Misty. The freedom to follow his most basic instincts is like nothing he’s ever felt. But Daniel will slowly come to realize that such freedom comes at a price….

 

While We Run by Karen Healey (Little Brown)

Abdi Taalib thought he was moving to Australia for a music scholarship. But after meeting the beautiful and brazen Tegan Oglietti, his world was turned upside down. Tegan’s no ordinary girl – she died in 2027, only to be frozen and brought back to life in Abdi’s time, 100 years later.

 

Now, all they want is for things to return to normal (or as normal as they can be), but the government has other ideas. Especially since the two just spilled the secrets behind Australia’s cryonics project to the world. On the run, Abdi and Tegan have no idea who they can trust, and when they uncover startling new details about Project Ark, they realise thousands of lives may be in their hands.

 

Flirt, The Portrait of Us by A.Destiny and Rhonda Helms (Simon Pulse)

First crush, first love, first kiss in this addition to the sweet and clean Flirt series, art may be the common ground between opposites Corinne and Matthew in their summer class.

 

Corinne is looking forward to a perfect summer taking classes at a local art studio, where a famous artist-in-residence will be teaching. She’s always wanted to focus more on her art, and the related competition (and grand prize) would be a perfect way to end the summer.

 

Her dreams become muddled when she finds out she has to work with Matthew the arrogant, annoying jock whose postmodern style seriously clashes with her classic aesthetic.

 

But what she expects to be a total nightmare turns out to be something different when she finds that maybe, just maybe, Matthew isn’t as bad as she thought. Underneath that jock exterior, he might be someone Corinne could tolerate. Or possibly even like.

 

The question does Matthew feel the same way? Or is this all just a summer fling?

 

The Mark of Noba by G.L. Tomas (Rebellious Valkyrie Press) <—-Oh wait…how did that get there?**

Sterling Wayfairer has one goal for his senior year: make his mark. He’s been slipping into the background his whole high school career—distracted by his mother’s mental health, unsettled by the vivid dreams that haunt him at night, and overshadowed by the athletic accomplishments of his popular best friends. But this year is going to be different. He’s going to break a few rules, have some fun, and maybe even work up the nerve to ask his crush out on a date.

 

But things don’t go exactly as planned. Students are disappearing, Sterling starts losing time, and it all seems to center around Tetra, a girl no one else seems to notice but him. When he finally tracks her down for answers, they aren’t what he expects: He and Tetra hail from a world called Noba, and they’re being hunted by a Naga, a malevolent shapeshifter that’s marked them for destruction.

 

Tetra and Sterling have distinct abilities that can help them fight back, but their power depends heavily on the strength of their bond, a connection that transcends friendship, transcends romance. Years apart have left their bond weak. Jumpstarting it will require Sterling to open his heart and his mind and put his full trust in the mysterious Tetra.

 

If he doesn’t, neither of them will survive.

 

**Editor’s Note: It belongs on this list!

 

Taylor Davis and The Clash of Kingdoms by Michelle Isenhoff (Candle Star Press)

Taylor Davis just can’t catch a break. Most of his friends only concern themselves with girls and grades, but he has to worry about retaliation from hellish warlords.

 

When three of his classmates succumb to a strange malady, Taylor becomes the target of irrational violence. Is it a coincidence, as Elena so firmly believes? Or could there be a more dangerous explanation?

 

The epidemic soon spreads to national leaders. Taylor and his team are called on to uncover the root of the problem before violence breaks out on a worldwide stage. Their quest leads them to the heart of Africa, to the underworld, and to a second encounter with an enemy who just won’t stay dead.

 

interracial ya 5

 

 

Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley (Harlequin Teen)

Sarah Dunbar is one of the first black students to attend the previously all-white Jefferson High School. An honors student at her old school, she is put into remedial classes, spit on and tormented daily.

 

Linda Hairston is the daughter of one of the town’s most vocal opponents of school integration. She has been taught all her life that the races should be kept separate but equal.

 

Forced to work together on a school project, Sarah and Linda must confront harsh truths about race, power and the fact that they may be falling for one another.

 

Boldly realistic and emotionally compelling, Lies We Tell Ourselves is a brave and stunning novel about finding truth amid the lies, and finding your voice even when others are determined to silence it.

 

A Song for Bijou by Josh Farrar (Walker Childrens)

Life for Alex Schrader has never involved girls. He goes to an all-boys prep school and spends most of his time goofing around with his friends. But all that changes the first time he meets Bijou Doucet, a Haitian girl recently relocated to Brooklyn after the earthquake-and he is determined to win her heart. For Bijou, change is the only constant, and she’s surprised every day by how different life is in America, especially when a boy asks her out. Alex quickly learns that there are rules when it comes to girls-both in Haitian culture and with his own friends. And Bijou soon learns that she doesn’t have to let go of her roots to find joy in her new life.

 

Told in alternating viewpoints against the vibrant backdrop of Haitian-American culture, Alex and Bijou take their first tender steps toward love in this heartwarming story.

 

The Rivers of Zadaa by D.J. MacHale (Aladdin Books)

The struggle of good versus evil continues as Bobby Pendragon follows Saint Dane to the territory of Zadaa. Saint Dane’s influence has fueled the fire of discontent between two warring tribes: the Rokador and the Batu. This is also the territory where the Traveler Loor lives as a member of the Batu. Together she and Bobby must work to thwart Saint Dane’s efforts to destroy Zadaa.

 

But as Bobby pursues Saint Dane, he begins to notice changes in himself. He is no longer a flip kid looking for excitement. He is a young man beginning to see this quest as more than a series of adventures. He is also learning that as a Traveler, he has powers no normal human should have.

 

Unbound by Tricia Drammeh

Alisa and Bryce are keeping a huge secret, but when an accident illustrates how dangerous their secret has become, she’s forced to make a choice between her family’s expectations and the man she loves more than anything.

 

Rachel’s past mistakes have finally caught up with her. Her continued association with Re’Vel results in unspeakable tragedy and brings to question her loyalty to the magical community. With accusations from all directions and her heart in tatters, she finds out who her real friends are and finds her true strength.

 

Game World by C.J. Farley (Black Sheep)

Dylan Rudee’s life is an epic fail. He’s bullied at school and the aunt who has raised him since he was orphaned as a child just lost her job and their apartment. Dylan’s one chance to help his family is the only thing he’s good at: video games. The multibillion-dollar company Mee Corp. has announced a televised tournament to find the Game-Changers: the forty-four kids who are the best in the world at playing Xamaica, a role-playing fantasy game that’s sweeping the planet. If Dylan can win the top prize, he just might be able to change his life.

 

It turns out that Dylan is the greatest gamer anyone has ever seen, and his skills unlock a real-life fantasy world inside the game. Now actual monsters are trying to kill him, and he is swept up into an adventure along with his too-tall genius sister Emma, his hacker best friend Eli, and Ines Mee, the privileged daughter of Mee Corp.’s mysterious CEO and chief inventor. Along the way they encounter Nestuh, a giant spider who can spin a story but not a web; Baron Zonip, a hummingbird king who rules a wildly wealthy treetop kingdom; and an enchantress named Nanni who, with her shadow army, may be bent on conquering Xamaica and stealing its magic.

 

In order to save his sister and his friends, Dylan must solve a dangerous mystery in three days and uncover secrets about Xamaica, his family, and himself. But will he discover his hidden powers before two worlds—Xamaica and Earth—are completely destroyed?

 

Romiette and Julio by Sharon Draper (Simon Pulse)

When Romiette Cappelle meets Julio Montague, she feels as though she has met the soul mate who can rescue her from her recurring nightmare about fire and water. But like the Shakespearean characters whose names echo theirs, Romiette and Julio discover that not everyone approves of their budding romance. In their case, it is because Romiette is African-American and Julio is Hispanic, and the Devildogs, a dangerous local gang, violently oppose their interracial relationship.When the Devildogs threaten to teach them a lesson, Romiette and Julio come up with a risky plan to escape from the gang’s fearsome shadow. But things go terribly awry, and the two find themselves caught up in a deadly reality more frightening that Romiette’s nightmare — and in a desperate struggle to avoid the tragic fate of Shakespeare’s famous young lovers.

 

interracial ya 6

 

 

Biggest flirt by Jennifer Echols (Simon Pulse)

Tia and Will’s lives get flipped upside down when they’re voted Yearbook’s Biggest Flirts in this sassy novel from the author of Endless Summer and The One That I Want.

 

Tia just wants to have fun. She’s worked hard to earn her reputation as the life of the party, and she’s ready for a carefree senior year of hanging out with friends and hooking up with cute boys. And her first order of business? New guy Will. She can’t get enough of his Midwestern accent and laidback swagger.

 

As the sparks start to fly, Will wants to get serious. Tia’s seen how caring too much has left her sisters heartbroken, and she isn’t interested in commitment. But pushing Will away drives him into the arms of another girl. Tia tells herself it’s no big deal…until the yearbook elections are announced. Getting voted Biggest Flirts with Will is, well, awkward. They may just be friends, but their chemistry is beginning to jeopardize Will’s new relationship—and causing Tia to reconsider her true feelings. What started as a lighthearted fling is about to get very complicated…

 

Under The Lights by Dahlia Adler (Spencer Hill Contemporary)

Josh Chester loves being a Hollywood bad boy, coasting on his good looks, his parties, his parents’ wealth, and the occasional modeling gig. But his laid-back lifestyle is about to change. To help out his best friend, Liam, he joins his hit teen TV show, Daylight Falls … opposite Vanessa Park, the one actor immune to his charms. (Not that he’s trying to charm her, of course.) Meanwhile, his drama-queen mother blackmails him into a new family reality TV show, with Josh in the starring role. Now that he’s in the spotlight—on everyone’s terms but his own—Josh has to decide whether a life as a superstar is the one he really wants.

 

Vanessa Park has always been certain about her path as an actor, despite her parents’ disapproval. But with all her relationships currently in upheaval, she’s painfully uncertain about everything else. When she meets her new career handler, Brianna, Van is relieved to have found someone she can rely on, now that her BFF, Ally, is at college across the country. But as feelings unexpectedly evolve beyond friendship, Van’s life reaches a whole new level of confusing. And she’ll have to choose between the one thing she’s always loved … and the person she never imagined she could.

 

The Summer of Chasing Mermaids by Sarah Ockler (Simon Pulse)

The youngest of six talented sisters, Elyse d’Abreau was destined for stardom—until a boating accident took everything from her. Now, the most beautiful singer in Tobago can’t sing. She can’t even speak.

 

Seeking quiet solitude, Elyse accepts a friend’s invitation to Atargatis Cove. Named for the mythical first mermaid, the Oregon seaside town is everything Elyse’s home in the Caribbean isn’t: An ocean too cold for swimming, parties too tame for singing, and people too polite to pry—except for one.

 

Christian Kane is a notorious playboy—insolent, arrogant, and completely charming. He’s also the only person in Atargatis Cove who doesn’t treat Elyse like a glass statue. He challenges her to express herself, and he admires the way she treats his younger brother Sebastian, who believes Elyse is the legendary mermaid come to life.

 

When Christian needs a first mate for the Cove’s high-stakes Pirate Regatta, Elyse reluctantly stows her fear of the sea and climbs aboard. The ocean isn’t the only thing making waves, though—swept up in Christian’s seductive tide and entranced by the Cove’s charms, Elyse begins to wonder if a life of solitude isn’t what she needs. But changing course again means facing her past. It means finding her inner voice. And scariest of all, it means opening her heart to a boy who’s best known for breaking them . . .

 

Stealing Bases by Anne Key (Harmony Ink Press)

All Charlene “Charley” Lemain wants in the world is to play softball well enough to get into UT and to hang with her bestie Kaylee.

 

That’s why it sucks so hard when she tears her rotator cuff and has to spend most of her senior year not playing, not practicing, not doing much of anything but watching Kaylee cheer and flirt with her quarterback boyfriend. As with besties, Kaylee sets Charley up for homecoming. It’s a nice enough date until Brant confides in her that he’s glad Charley’s “like him.”

 

Like him? What the hell does that mean?

 

Charley needs to figure out what’s going on in her body, in her life, and most importantly, in her heart.

 

Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez (Simon & Schuster)

Lance has always known he was gay, but he’s never had a real boyfriend. Sergio is bisexual, but his only real relationship was with a girl. When the two of them meet, they have an instant connection–but will it be enough to overcome their differences?

 

Allie’s been in a relationship with a guy for the last two years–but when she meets Kimiko, she can’t get her out of her mind. Does this mean she’s gay? Does it mean she’s bi? Kimiko, falling hard for Allie, and finding it impossible to believe that a gorgeous girl like Allie would be into her, is willing to stick around and help Allie figure it out.

 

I’ll Always Miss You by Raine O’Tierney (Harmony Ink Press)

Isa Zaman might forgive his parents for taking in a friend’s son if only he wasn’t the most boring teenager in the universe. Macklin “Mackie” Cormack’s only interests are reading and the outdoors. Yeah, right. Isa’s convinced Mackie is either a pyro or a klepto. Plus, as a white kid, Mackie looks ridiculous in the Zamans’ Arab American household. Forced to share a bedroom, the boys keep butting heads until an absurd fight finally breaks the tension between them.

 

Isa’s just starting to figure life out: this new houseguest, his cultural identity, school, and even girls, when the entire family is uprooted from their home for reasons Isa can’t understand. They move from their tiny city apartment to a giant, old house in a small town, hours away from everything he’s ever known. Oh, and the new house? It’s probably haunted, or so says the blank-faced ten-year-old next door. As if things weren’t weird enough, Isa’s friendship with Mackie suddenly takes a strange turn down a path Isa’s not sure he’s ready to follow. It turns out Mackie Cormack isn’t nearly as boring as Isa once imagined.

 

interracial ya 7

 

Team Human by Justine Larbalestier and Sarah Rees Brennan (Harper Teen)

Mel is horrified when Francis Duvarney, arrogant, gorgeous, and undead, starts at her high school. Mel’s best friend, Cathy, immediately falls for the vampire. Cathy is determined to be with him forever, even if having him turn her could inadvertently make her a zombie.

And Mel is equally determined to prove to her BFF that Francis is no good, braving the city’s vampire district and kissing a cute boy raised by vampires as she searches evidence in this touching and comic novel.

 

Vanessa’s Fashion Face-Off by Jo Whittemore (HarperCollins)

Vanessa Jackson has style to spare and an amazing ability to rock any look. She’s always had a flair for fashion, and dreams of being a designer one day. She’s loving middle school, and being on the newspaper staff with her two best friends is a blast. Vanessa knows her fashion advice is always on point for the group’s popular advice column.

 

But then she meets her new neighbor, Katie Kestler. Katie is cute, super-stylish, and just moved from glamorous LA. When Katie ends up attending the same middle school, suddenly it seems like Katie’s everywhere, and not in a good way. But when an advice-off competition threatens Vanessa’s spot on the column, she’s determined to take Katie down.

 

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan (Simon & Schuster)

Kami Glass loves someone she’s never met… a boy she’s talked to in her head ever since she was born. Having an imaginary friend has made fitting in hard – but that’s never bothered Kami. She has her best friend, runs the school newspaper, and is only occasionally caught talking to herself. Her life is just the way she likes it.

 

But all that changes when the mysterious Lynburn family return to Kami’s village, along with teenagers, Jared and Ash, one of whom is eerily familiar to Kami…

 

As life as she knows it begins to unravel, Kami is determined to get to the bottom of every mystery. Who is responsible for the bloody deeds in the depths of the woods? What is her own mother hiding? And now that her imaginary friend has become a real boy, does she still love him?

 

And can she trust him?

 

Quantum Coin by E.C. Myers (Pyr)

Ephraim thought his universe-hopping days were over. He’s done wishing for magic solutions to his problems; his quantum coin has been powerless for almost a year, and he’s settled into a normal life with his girlfriend, Jena. But then an old friend crashes their senior prom: Jena’s identical twin from a parallel world, Zoe.

 

Zoe’s timing couldn’t be worse. It turns out that Ephraim’s problems have just begun, and they’re much more complicated than his love life: The multiverse is at stake—and it might just be Ephraim’s fault.

 

Ephraim, Jena, and Zoe embark on a mission across multiple worlds to learn what’s going wrong and how to stop it. They will have to draw on every resource available and trust in alternate versions of themselves and their friends, before it’s too late for all of them.

 

If Ephraim and his companions can put their many differences aside and learn to work together, they might have a chance to save the multiverse. But ultimately, the solution may depend on how much they’re willing to sacrifice for the sake of humanity…and each other.

 

Hidden by Helen Frost (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)

When Wren Abbott and Darra Monson are eight years old, Darra’s father steals a minivan. He doesn’t know that Wren is hiding in the back. The hours and days that follow change the lives of both girls. Darra is left with a question that only Wren can answer. Wren has questions, too.

 

Years later, in a chance encounter at camp, the girls face each other for the first time. They can finally learn the truth–that is, if they’re willing to reveal to each other the stories that they’ve hidden for so long. Told from alternating viewpoints, this novel-in-poems reveals the complexities of memory and the strength of a friendship that can overcome pain.

 

The Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit (Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective) by Octavia Spencer (Simon & Schuster)

Deer Creek is a small town whose only hope for survival is the success of their Founder’s Day Festival. But the festival’s main attraction, a time capsule that many people believe hold the town’s treasure, has gone missing.

 

Randi Rhodes and her best friend, D.C., are Bruce Lee-inspired ninjas and local detectives determined to solve the case. Even if it means investigating in a haunted cabin and facing mean old Angus McCarthy, prime suspect.

 

They have three days to find the treasure; the future of their whole town is at stake! Will these kids be able to save the day?

 

The Sweetest Heist in History (Randi Rhodes, Ninja Detective #2) by Octavia Spencer (Simon & Schuster)

A hard-to-prove art heist makes a New York City mystery for ninja detective Randi Rhodes in this second book in a series full of humor, adventure, and heart from Academy Award–winning actress Octavia Spencer.

 

Randi Rhodes and her fellow ninja detectives, DC and Pudge, were flying high after solving the Case of the Time-Capsule Bandit. But life in sleepy Deer Creek has begun to feel…a bit boring. There are no crimes to investigate! But a trip to New York City to visit Randi’s aunt changes that! While the ninja detective trio explores Randi’s old neighborhood in Brooklyn, they uncover an art heist. Except no one will believe them. So they’ll just have to catch the criminals in the act…

 

interracial 8

 

Turning on a Dime by Maggie Dana (Pagework Press)

Two girls from two different centuries and the horse that brings them together.

 

Teenage equestrian Samantha DeVries wants to be the first African American to ride in the Olympics. Her father, a successful trainer, pushes Sam to excel, while Sam’s academic mother tries to instill a sense of heritage in her headstrong daughter who’d rather be riding horses than studying history. But Sam’s beliefs and her carefully constructed world shatter like a jelly jar when she travels through a time portal and lands in the canopy bed of an 1860s Southern belle.

 

Even more surprised by Sam’s unexpected arrival is Caroline Chandler. She’s a tomboy who wears breeches beneath her crinoline and rides horses bareback, much to the dismay of her critical mother.

 

But neither girl has time to fret over petticoats and prejudice. The Civil War is raging, and soldiers from both sides are stealing horses. At risk is Pandora, Caroline’s beloved mare. Without her, Sam’s future Olympic horse, Nugget, might not exist in the present.

 

Neither will Sam if the slave catchers grab her.

 

Peas and Carrots by Tanita S.Davis (Knopf — March 2016)

Dess knows that nothing good in life lasts: her mother’s sobriety will inevitably fade, her abusive father’s absence is never long enough, and her brother Austin—the one bright spot in their family—was put into foster care when he was still a baby. Disappointment is never far away, and that’s a truth that Dess has learned to live with.

 

Dess’s mother’s arrest is just the latest in a long line of disappointments, but this one lands the teen with Austin’s foster family. Dess doesn’t exactly fit in with the Carters. They’re so happy, so comfortable, so normal, and Hope, their teenage daughter, is so hopelessly naïve to the harsh realities of the world. Dess and Hope couldn’t be more unlike each other, but Austin loves them both like sisters. Over time their differences, insurmountable at first, fall away to reveal two girls who want the same thing: to belong.

 

How Do You Keep Track of YA Book Releases?: A Resource Guide

|

A popular question I get in my inbox or on social media from people is how I find and keep track of book releases. I thought rather than keep answering that question, I’d write about it so more people can keep tabs on upcoming YA releases. My method isn’t perfect and it’s not consistent, but I can offer the wheres and leave the hows up to how they work best for you.

There are three main sources from which I collect YA release date information: publisher catalogs, YA Lit/Bloggers/Goodreads, and Tumblr. There are a couple of other places I peruse, as well, which I’ll note at the end.

Publisher Catalogs


I spend a little time every single week going to Edelweiss. From there, I look at the center column to see what the most recently added catalogs are. If there’s a catalog from a publisher I like to peruse, I’ll make note and spend a little time with it when I can allot an hour or so.

It’s really easy to remember the big five publishers, and all of them — Hachette, Macmillain, Simon & Schuster, Penguin/Random House, and Harper Collins — are on Edelweiss. They each do a good job of separating out their children’s catalogs from their general and adult catalogs. Generally, though not always, the catalogs come out during three seasons: winter, summer, and fall. Some of those publishers do four catalogs, one for each season, and some do a spring catalog instead of a winter. They tend to come out about six months in advance, if not more. That means, I can look at Fall 2015 catalogs now for most of these publishers and it probably won’t be too long until Winter/Spring 2016 catalogs hit.

Mid-size publishers are recognizable on Edelweiss, too, though they’re not all there. Publishers like Scholastic are easy to find, as are Abrams, Candlewick, Chronicle, Disney, and Sourcebooks. Smaller publishers, those which are ensconced within bigger houses, can be more difficult to find because you have to know the name of the bigger house. For example, Carolrhoda LAB books are found in the Lerner catalog, Algonquin Young Reader books are found in the Workman Press catalog, and sometimes Harlequin Teen is within Harlequin. I find the Harlequin catalogs very difficult to figure out on Edelweiss, so I tend to instead go to their website and do a search there.

Not all publishers are on Edelweiss, so I know that I will have to do some searching elsewhere. Amazon publishing, Switch Press, and Flux, for example, don’t have a presence on Edelweiss, so I have to go to their sites specifically to look. Flux, I should note, is finally getting onto Edelweiss, but I still like to cross check.

Edelweiss catalog use is a time investment, but I am okay spending the bulk of my research time here. I can, as noted in the link above explaining Edelweiss, be efficient in my searching by release date or keywords. That makes an hour or two there not feel overwhelming. Likewise, I find looking at the available digital review copies helpful, too. But that’s more for immediate information rather than long-term planning.

YA Lit/Bloggers/Goodreads

One of the best non-publisher resources, one that I tell every single person to keep tabs on, is YA Lit. Kari and Stefan have been running this site since 2006, and it’s a straight up compilation of YA books by release dates, with links to appropriate retailers. You can see upcoming releases for a few months ahead of time, as well as look through already-published titles. It’s that simple and straightforward. Since it’s curated by a librarian, I trust the information being correct. If I had to direct general readers to one place for book release information or those who have little time but want to stay ahead of the game, it would be YA Lit.

I don’t read as many blogs as I used to and a number of blogs I used to read aren’t running any longer. But there are still a few that do excellent round-ups of books that they’re excited about and looking forward to. The Book Smugglers do this in their weekly “On the Radar” feature and Leila at Bookshelves of Doom does this through her “By The Catalog” posts, her “New Books” posts, as well as her previews over on Kirkus.

I don’t tend to use a lot of Goodreads lists, since they’re crowdsourced and people don’t tend to keep them well managed, but I do peruse the 2015 YA books lists periodically. This is especially useful for smaller press books AND for being conscious of what books look like they’re going to be extremely popular. There’s also a nice list of diverse YA/MG titles out in 2015 and debut 2015 YA novels (though sometimes this one in particular isn’t always correct).

Tumblr


I love Tumblr’s book lists. There are some really solid ones, and there are some that come out each and every week. Though I often know about the books from the publisher’s catalogs, these do tend to fill in some holes or cover some titles I miss. And what’s great about Tumblr is I can share the lists easily and return to them when I need to do some research.

Two of the best Tumblrs for book lists: Paperbacked’s monthly new releases post andRich in Color’s weekly roundup of new diverse books being released. I read a ton of other Tumblrs too, including Diversity in YA and Disability in Kid Lit, though they don’t tend to offer up regular new/upcoming books features.

Another really solid Tumblr is the Pickerington Public Library, which regularly does reader’s advisory for brand new or upcoming YA titles, which helps me sometimes place who a book might be for before I’ve even read it. They do some excellent graphic reader’s advisory, too, with flow charts and read alikes.

Other Resources


A few other resources I take advantage of, but to a much lesser extent, include trade reviews and the handful of debut novelist websites.

I don’t tend to love trade reviews. They’re often reviewing things I know about already or that are already published, though not always. I like to peruse Kirkus in particular, in part because I love the honesty of the reviews (though I sometimes think they love and pan the same authors/styles over and over) but more, they’re reviewing well in advance of publication. They pick up on a lot of mid size and smaller presses I might otherwise miss. You can read the reviews by those recently posted, those which have the books out already, or those books which are coming soon. That ease of navigation works for me.

For monthly debut YA novel roundups here at Stacked, alongside the other tools above, I make sure to check the Fearless Fifteeners site and the Class 2K15 site. I use their author profile/book links on site, then I do a search by month. As a side note: if you run a site like this, either now or in the future, the best thing you can offer to those who aren’t insiders is a way to quickly find relevant information about publication dates. I’ve seen sites in the past where the publication dates haven’t been easy to find and I don’t spend time trying to figure it out. This is my last stop, so by this point, I’m only picking up what I’ve missed and double checking what I’ve got.

Once in a great while, I do look at the previews on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but since those tend to be the biggest books of the season or are paid for by publishers, I generally already know about those books.

How I Organize Information


I have a really good memory for book titles, release dates, and especially covers. So when I read catalogs or blogs or reviews, I’m able to make mental notes that get them on my mind well enough. Things I am personally really looking forward to reading or that I think I might forget I tend to pop onto Goodreads in my “to read” shelf.

When I know I’m going to write something specific relating to book releases, such as a big roundup on Book Riot or the monthly “on the radar” posts here, I write book titles, authors, and month of release down (see the photo above). Usually it’s in a notebook dedicated to my notes about books or reading, and sometimes, I’ll open up either a draft email or a draft blog post and take notes. Sometimes, perusing catalogs leads me to seeing a thematic trend, and I note those things down, too, to think about later. Since migrating from post-it notes to using a bullet journal for my day-to-day planning, I’ve made use of one specific notebook for taking these notes and returning to them at a later date to think about.

I know of folks who use spreadsheets to track book releases, particularly when it comes to the books they’re receiving from publishers. I tried to do this, but I found it overwhelming and ineffective for me. It would take me more time to do that than it would to do research when I can dedicate time to it and it keeps me from actually reading the books.

So what about you? Do you have any sources you frequent when organizing information about upcoming YA releases? Anything I should know about?

Edelweiss 101: A Guide for New Users

|

I’m a huge fan of Edelweiss. I’ve talked it up at a couple of library conferences, telling attendees that it’s a one-stop shop for learning all about the books coming out that they should have on their radars. I used it regularly not only for features here at Stacked, but it’s where I acquire some of my digital review copies of forthcoming titles.

Something I regularly hear, though, is that Edelweiss is not easy to use and for those who haven’t been playing with it for a while, it can be extremely difficult to navigate. It’s not intuitive. So I thought because it’s a tool I find so useful and valuable not only in blogging but in librarianship, I’d offer up a quick and dirty how-to to Edelweiss. This is geared toward US librarians, educators, and bloggers who aren’t otherwise familiar with the site and its interface, and I know for sure I’ll miss some key or valuable features. Things might vary depending on what country you’re in, which is why I note it’s geared toward those in the US (I think most things should be the same if you’re in Canada, but I can’t tell you for certain). This is meant to be a beginner’s guide, and it’s meant to help make some of those really frustrating elements of the site easier to work through.

 

stackedbooks.org (2)

 

 

What IS Edelweiss?


First, if you haven’t used it or have only heard of it in passing, you might not even know what Edelweiss is or where to find it.

Edelweiss is a one-stop shop for publishers to share their seasonal catalogs. It’s not comprehensive, as it’s opt-in by the publishers. But it offers the biggest place to peruse numerous catalogs; it saves you from having to track down each publisher’s website then navigate their websites to find their most recent catalog. Many publishers not only have the current season up, but they have loads of former seasons still available and many of them will share specialty catalogs as well. Scholastic, for example, will offer not only the Fall 2014 catalog, but they’ll also have a catalog of titles they spoke specifically about during one of their educator/librarian webinars, making it easy to see only the books that were talked about.

That’s the front page of Edelweiss when you’re not logged in with your own account. It’s got the publishers listed on the left-hand sidebar, and down the center are the most recently added catalogs. Even if you’re not logged in, you should be able to access many — if not all — of the catalogs when you click on a publisher’s name. I’m logged out, and I clicked on the ABRAMS catalog:
All of their listings are along the left-hand sidebar, and down the center are the most recent catalogs they’ve added to Edelweiss.
When you pick a catalog to view — I chose the Spring 2014 Children’s catalog — this is what the screen will look like. There are 79 entries for this particular catalog, but the entries include all sorts of products that ABRAMS made available this spring. The top entry, for The Night Gardener, is for that specific book and you can see all kinds of information about it, including the ISBN, publication date, page count, what the first print run will be, the cover, and so forth. Not all publishers furnish all of this information; it’s entirely dependent upon the publisher. The second entry for this catalog is for the 12-copy floor display of the same book. This is meant for book sellers, rather than for librarians or educators, so it might not be super useful information.
Digging Deeper Into Catalog Entries
 
I’m still logged out of Edelweiss, but even logged out, there’s a ton of information that can be pulled from the individual catalog entries. Using the same ABRAMS Spring 2014 Children’s catalog from above, I went and clicked on the title The Night Gardner.
Where looking at the entire catalog as a list gives you some basics about upcoming titles, clicking on the individual entries will give you far more in-depth information. This particular title doesn’t have as much information in it as others do, but it gives you a summary, a biography of the author, and it lists the first book in the series as a comparable title. You can also see the reviews that the book’s garnered, as well as blurbs that might have been given for the title.
The information presented varies depending upon the book and depending upon the publisher. Some offer far more information and some offer even less. Here’s a title that gives a ton of great information about the book:
The entry for Melissa Marr’s Made for You, out in September, has a really filled-out entry. You not only have the basics, but you also have the marketing plan laid out on the right-hand side. For a general reader or blogger, this might not be interesting. But what it can be valuable for — what I’ve told people to use it for — is to see where the book, or other books, might pop up. You might see website names that there will be promotions pitched to and that can be useful for sussing out where people are learning about books more broadly (and it lets you stay ahead of the curve on those things). Made for You doesn’t list any specific sites except for Epic Reads, which is Harper’s promotional site, but it does tell you that there will be some significant marketing for this title, suggesting teen and non-teen readers will likely see something for this book, especially around Halloween. The 150K first printing, which you can see in the top box, tells you it’s one of the lead titles in the Fall.
The comp titles for this entry are all Marr’s previous titles. This isn’t particularly useful when you know the author’s other works, but it can be useful to know it’s going to be fairly similar to her prior books and it can be useful to know in the event you’ve missed an older title.

There are some publishers which offer really great comp titles in their entries that can be extremely useful for figuring out what a book might be about or who that book might appeal to.

For Brenna Yovanoff’s Fiendish, the comp titles are really great. You not only get a look at her own titles, but you also see that Fiendish is comparable to Kendare Blake’s books, Tom McNeal’s, Jonathan Maberry’s, and Holly Black’s. They’re not meant to be read alikes, but rather, they’re meant to sort of situate the book within a genre or a style. Sometimes they work as read alikes, but that’s not the purpose of comps.
Limitations of Using Edelweiss Without an Account
 
While you can pull a lot of information out of Edelweiss without an account, you’re also limited in what you can do. For one thing, there’s not a good search interface. You can’t, from the front page, look up books well. Even within catalog, it’s not easy to search through titles. So if you wanted to pull up information for a book, you’d have to dig around for it.
If you’re not logged into Edelweiss, you also have no access to digital ARCs, either. You have no idea whether a title is available for request because the buttons just don’t exist at all.
You don’t have the capability of looking up buzzing titles. In fact, the way the home page of Edelweiss looks when you’re logged in as opposed to using outside your account is substantially different. This is my homepage while logged in:
I’m able to pick up where I may have last been looking (the center column tells me the last catalogs I looked at), and I’m able to simple do and peruse a lot more.
Signing Up for Edelweiss
 
It’s easy to sign up for Edelweiss and have access to a lot more information. Signing up does not guarantee you anything — you might never be given access to digital ARCs, for example, which I’ll get to in a minute — but you will be able to do more advanced searching and other things.
 
To sign up for an account, click on “Register” in the top right-hand corner. The form looks like this:
                           

Fill this out as best you can, with as much information as possible. Include all relevant URLs and be as specific as possible about what your role within an organization is. If you’re a blogger and a librarian, I’d put librarian down as your key role, followed by your blogging information under the “User Profile Information.”

You’ll get a confirmation email minutes after you agree to the terms, and then you can log in to the site. Now your screen looks different and you can see so much more.

Digital Review Copies


The biggest advantage for logging in at this point is probably digital ARC access. But just because you have access doesn’t mean that publishers are going to grant you copies. There are limits in distribution and choices aren’t always clear-cut. Sometimes, you’ll find you have access without having to ask for a book, and other times, you’ll see that there isn’t even a button to request a digital ARC. Still other times, you’ll request a title and wait for a couple of weeks before you find out whether your request was accepted or rejected.

When you’re perusing a catalog and logged in, oftentimes, you’ll see a button that there’s a digital copy available right in the catalog itself.

 

I can request this particular digital ARC right from the catalog Fall 2014 Penguin Children’s catalog. When I click on the “Request” button, this is the box that pops up:
The first time you request a title, you’ll be asked to describe your role. This is going to stay attached to your requests every time you put one in, unless you choose to edit them each and every time. Be specific in your role — mine says I’m a YA librarian, as well as a book blogger. I listed where I blog, since that tells the person going through all of the requests exactly where I’m writing, rather than just saying that I have a blog. It’s one way to differentiate yourself and it’s giving a better idea of who you are. You can include stats or any other information, but I choose not to furnish that information because it’s not something I pass along for free.
That second box, where you can give a specific reason for your request, is really important. This is a box I make sure I fill out each time I request. In it, I reiterate I’m a blogger and where, and I note that I’m requesting it for potential coverage at either site. I don’t promise a review or any response; I note that there’s the potential for it.
I request very few digital ARCs, so I don’t feel bad about saying that by requesting, I may not cover it. In many cases, I’ve also used this box to express an interest in a particular digital ARC because I’ve read the author’s prior work or I saw it in a promotion somewhere and it piqued my interest. Fill this out each and every time to increase your chances of having your request approved. Even if it doesn’t grant you a specific ARC at times, it’s important for you to do because it reminds you why you’re interested. It’s a reminder of the role YOU play.
 
There’s no timeline for when requests are approved or denied. It can be hours, it can be days, it can be weeks. Those will come through the email you gave Edelweiss when you signed up. But if you happen to miss the communication, there is a way to check out it.
Discovering available digital ARCs isn’t limited to catalog perusal. There’s an entire tab on the Edelweiss website devoted to ARCs and to ARC organization. You’re able to search it, narrow down your interests, and you’re able to submit reviews or other information as you choose.
When you go back to the Edelweiss homepage, click on the  “Review Copies” tab and this is what you’ll see:
Along the left-hand sidebar, you can narrow down your search through the available digital ARCs by age category, subject, publisher imprint, publication date, or publisher. When I pulled up this screen, I had 3,370 digital ARCs I could peruse, so narrowing down to exactly what interests me would be helpful. If there’s a specific title I’m interested in, the search box right above the first available title is useful.
When you look at the right-hand side of this screen, you can see that above the “Request Digital RC” there’s a note that lists when the title was added. This is useful if you check back every few days. You’ll know exactly what’s new. You can also see there are two different colored buttons on my screen: the blue one notes I can request the ARC and the green one, for the title below, means I can just download it. I’m “white listed” for Random House Children’s titles, meaning anything they put up is available for me to download without asking. Different publishers have different rules for who and how they choose people to put on their white list. I know some, like Macmillan, let librarians on their white lists and tell you how to go about it.
The next little tab to know about within the Review Copies tab is where those ARCs are held and where you can check the status of titles you’ve requested.
You can see I clicked over to the “Requests” tab which is on the second row of tabs that stretch across the top of the screen. In there, I can see the status of everything I’ve requested. The top title, The Walled City, I haven’t yet heard back about, which is why it’s a blue question mark under “status.” I sent the request about a week ago. Beside the status, you can see when the title is downloadable until and when I downloaded it. (And funny, as soon as I began writing this section of the post, I got an email saying I’d been approved for this title).
The second two titles you can see were both approved and had both been downloaded. If I had an issue with either of them, the little blue “Message” link beneath them would allow me to be in touch with someone about those issues.
The bottom title, A Time to Dance, shows that I was approved, but that it expired and I never downloaded it. This happens — I think this particular title is one I requested close to when it would expire, and since I use a Nook to read and downloading/transferring can be cumbersome, I didn’t act on it fast enough. It’s not the end of the world, but I do dislike seeing that I never downloaded it when I’d been able to.
You’ll be emailed when your request has been answered, but if you miss it, this is where you can check that status. Do read those emails, though, since they can tell you some of what the publisher wants from you. Though you don’t have to comply if the request isn’t reasonable — if they expect a review, for example — some publishers kindly ask you to hold off on posting reviews until it’s near publication date. That kind of stuff I do keep in mind when reviewing, especially if it’s for a book I really enjoyed.
There’s a second tab beside the Request tab worth knowing about, too. Though it looks like it has the same information, the Downloads tab is where you’ll input reviews of titles you’ve requested if you want to do that. Many people think you have to write or share a review for each title you request, and I think it’s courtesy to do that, but I’m not very good at it. I think part of why is because I read a lot and review them in other venues — Stacked or on Goodreads — though it’d be just as easy for me to copy those reviews and put them into Edelweiss.
Here’s a look at the titles I’ve requested and downloaded in the last 4 months (I can change the view to look at books within the last 2 days or up to the last year or more) and on the right-hand column, I can put in my review. As you can see, too, I do my requests/downloads in batches. I should probably get better about doing that with reviews. It’s not the end of the world if you don’t include a review, but it’s probably a good idea to do that if you aren’t reviewing in other places. Here’s what the review screen looks like. Note that your profile from where you request review copies carries over into the review form, too:
You can leave a recommendation for the book with your level of enthusiasm, and you’re also able to leave a text review. On the bottom right-hand side, you can see that you have options for who can see the review. The little blue “i” boxes will tell you what IndieNext and LibraryReads are, so if you’re able to submit to either of those, feel free to do so. Edelweiss is a professional tool used by professionals, so if you’re a librarian and the title fits the LibraryNext criteria, then go for it.
Those reviews you enter into Edelweiss can be seen in the catalog if a publisher so chooses. I hopped up to the search bar on the top of the screen — the one that looks at All Titles, as opposed to just the review titles search — and put in 100 Sideways Miles by Andrew Smith to get back to the main catalog entry for it, which looks like this:
The entry notes that there is 1 featured peer review and that it has received “much love” from 11 peers. 11 people were enthusiastic enough to give this a “much love” rating in their review box, and one person wrote and submitted a text review that then the publisher allowed other users to read:
I think of those text reviews like Amazon or Barnes & Noble reviews. They’re as useful as you allow them to be when you write them, and they’re as useful to you as you allow them to be when you read them. They’re going to be better since this is an industry tool, as opposed to a consumer tool, so if you like reading reviews, digging through these when you’re looking at titles might not be a bad thing.
There is another way to read through reviews, too, but it’s a little more involved. Edelweiss has ways for you to make the site social in a GoodReads sort of way. I don’t use it this way, so I can’t show a good example, but up on the main bar of tabs at the top of the screen, there’s a tab for Reviews:
If you use the social aspects of Edelweiss and have friends on the site, you’re able to see what reviews they’ve submitted within any give time frame. You can also filter it down by which friend reviews you want to look through. For me, this isn’t particularly useful, but I can see it being an interesting thing to toy with if you’re at a school or a library with multiple people reading and reviewing titles.
Buzz
 
Another basic feature worth hitting in Edelweiss is the “Buzz” tab. You can find that up on the top bar, where you found the “Review Copies” tab. This digs through the catalogs and pulls out entries that fall within a variety of different awards.
Say you want to know what books were on the recent LibraryReads list but can’t remember or you want to read through their descriptions. You can find them all here under this tab. The future pub titles are for the most recent list — the August LibraryReads list — and the recent pub titles are ones from the last four months. The backlist are from prior seasonal catalogs (and remember in the publishing world that backlist is 6 months old, so those would include titles that were published this year).
Though there’s not a whole lot here for those interested in children’s or YA titles, I still find it’s useful to look through periodically because it tells me what books are being talked about in other arenas. I may not be reading them, but other people are, and knowing that is useful to me.
Interestingly, if you were to see the rest of this page of buzzed titles, you’d see that Texas’s state awards titles are included, as are starred reviews from Publishers Weekly. I’m not sure I know how the lists got included here or what the criteria are for being included, but they’re worth a look.
Using Search

The final basic thing worth knowing about Edelweiss is their advanced search feature. It’s imperfect and misses a lot of things I know I catch when I read the individual entries, but it is a great starting point when you have a question or want to try to remember something you thought you saw.

On the second row of tabs across the top of the main screen page, there’s a tab for “Advanced Search.” When you click on it, you’re taken to a screen where you can search through a ton of different elements within the catalog entries. Again, since publishers include different information in different parts of their entries, this is going to be imperfect searching.
I find using the “summaries” and “keynotes” boxes the most useful for seeking out what I’m looking for. So, for example, I think I’ve seen a few books that have been compared to Looking for Alaska recently. But I want to know what some of them might be. I can do that from here by going to the “summaries” box and doing a search for Looking for Alaska and changing my delimiter to “containing the exact phrase.” I could limit my search to specific catalog seasons (which is useful if you’re looking for books about a certain topic coming out in the fall) or to specific publishers (like I did in a prior microtrends post, I did for books featuring girls named “Lucy” — I kept it to the publishers I knew did YA). In this case, I’m not going to limit though, since I limited by search to the exact phrase “Looking for Alaska.”
This is what that search looks like when you run it. Note that if you’re looking for something big, the search can take a long time and can sometimes bring you tons of unnecessary results. This one is pretty straightforward and limited, though:
When I get the results for this search, I get 28 entries. Among them are the various editions and sales models for Looking for Alaska and books which were reviewed by Green. A couple of titles pop up that include the words “looking” and “Alaska” in their summaries, too, even though they’re not being compared. But out of 28 titles, I can browse and see that a few have been compared to the book in their summaries:
Indeed, there’s at least one forthcoming book with that in the description.
I looked through the rest of the entries I got for this search and they confirmed that a few titles in the past have been compared to Looking for Alaska. I’m not sure why this is the case, but it doesn’t capture all of the titles I know have that comparison. The advanced search, as I noted, is imperfect, but it’s a really good starting place. If I wanted to find more comps, I’d go back and revise my search to look in the keynotes, too, as it might help me pull up some of the other titles I know have that comparison drawn (one off the top of my head which didn’t appear in any search combination I did is Chelsey Philpot’s Even in Paradise, despite the fact the exact phrase Looking for Alaska is right there in the summary).
To Wrap Up
 
While the interface is imperfect and there are things which aren’t intuitive, Edelweiss is a great tool for professional readers or those who teach or work in libraries. It takes experimentation and everyone will find different aspects of it suit their needs and their interests. I’ve laid out the basics here, and from those starting points, I’m able to pull out the information I am looking for or thinking about. I use Edelweiss to put together previews and to talk about book covers and trends. Since these are the catalogs from the publishers, I trust them more than I trust pulling images from a retail site (those aren’t always accurate, as the wrong cover may have been submitted).
Feel free to ask questions if you have any and I can try my best to answer. Edelweiss does have a pretty good help page, which has a lot of other tips and tricks to help you navigate and use the site in the best way possible. Edelweiss is what you make of it, and once you have the basics down, you’ll find that you’ll use it more than you thought you would.
If you know any other tips or tricks I should know about, I’d love to know those, too.

Observations Upon Weeding: What My Teens Aren’t Reading

|

The library I work at moved into its new building in 2009. When I started, I was told the YA collection hadn’t been weeded since the move (maybe even before the move). At this point, the stacks are packed since we’ve continued to acquire in that time. But more than simply being packed, the collection is in desperate need for attention in the form of weeding. 

For non-librarians, weeding is the art and science of removing books from a collection. I say art and science because it’s a little bit of both — your science comes in the form of numbers, such as dates of last check out and the number of times a book has checked out, while your art comes from thinking about those numbers in context of the book itself and its place in your collection. Do you keep all award winning books, even if they haven’t circulated in 3 or 4 years? Do you keep a book that last circulated in 2010 but you know that, if you were to display or put onto a book list, would get picked up by a new reader? Do you keep books with terrible covers knowing that the content is excellent? If you have a book that hasn’t moved in three years but another library in your system has it, can you safely pull your copy knowing another is easily available? 

You also have to consider your books in a series a little bit differently: if book two of a four book series is missing or hasn’t moved in years, do you remove just that volume or do you remove the entire series? What about if you cannot replace a book that you discover is missing because it has gone out of print?

Another consideration I like to make is whether or not to replace a book that does circulate well with a newer edition. I noted in my review of To Be Perfectly Honest by Sonya Sones, the new covers of her backlist titles are fantastically contemporary. So much so that weeding the older, still circulating titles, in order to replace them with the newer look was worth the budget costs. They’ll get new life and readership. 
Weeding is one part objective and one part subjective. It’s figuring out a fine balance between the two. 
Many people hate weeding. It’s hard to be objective because so much of reading is about the subjective experience. You know a book hasn’t moved, that the chances of it moving are slim, and yet you can’t stop thinking that maybe if that right reader found this right book, it is worth keeping on the shelf. 
I am not one of those people. I love weeding. I love putting my analytical brain to work with my more subjective brain, but more than that, I love the cleaning element of weeding. When you weed books from your shelves, you invite better browsing and discoverability. Because readers are no longer having to sort through, say, 75 books jammed on one shelf, they are looking instead at 50 or 60. There’s breathing room to sort through titles, and there’s breathing room for inviting new titles into the collection. 
When you weed, you’re also looking at every book as a singular object. For me, my familiarity with my collection is through what I have myself purchased or put onto a reader’s advisory guide. My familiarity is also in what I’ve read or what I’ve helped other people seek out. And while that’s not an insignificant number of books, with weeding, I’m revisiting older titles — older meaning books 10 years old or 3 years old — and looking at what they’re about. I take notes when I weed about themes and content. That helps me think about not only whether to weed it or not, but it gives me a sense of what may be missing in or collection or what may be simply overlooked. 
Because for the most part, as much as readers love the newest books, they also love backlist. 
I don’t need my collection to average only one or two years old. I need my collection to best reflect the interests and needs of my patrons. 
Over the course of this weeding project, I have found some really interesting trends in regards to what my YA readers are reading (and note that I continue to use “YA readers,” as opposed to teens because while teens make up the bulk of YA readers, they aren’t the only YA readers in the library). I’ve also noticed really interesting trends in terms of publishing, as well. When you begin looking at the books that published around the same time and explore their similarities and consider what the book landscape looks like today, it’s fascinating.
Here’s a look at some of the trends I’ve noticed from my weeding project. I’m talking about them fairly broadly, as well as pulling out some interesting anecdotes. This post will highlight some of the little gems I’ve found in the collection that caught my eye, too, perhaps as a means of not only put them on some reading radars, but as a means of having others think about the value of the backlist.

For what it’s worth, my observations are based on 200 titles I marked as ones I’d like to weed based on paper credentials alone, so circulation dates and numbers. It doesn’t mean they’ll be the only ones weeded and it doesn’t mean that I’ll weed them all when I get to the shelves. But 200 is the number for numerical state. 

YA Book Length

When I began looking at titles that haven’t moved much in a few years, I found evidence of an instinct I’d had about YA books in general: books have gotten longer. There’s not a definitive average length of a YA novel that I know of, but a little research brought up a couple of interesting posts. First, agent Bree Ogden suggests the average YA novel is between 55,000 and 90,000 words, which translates to roughly 200 to 350 pages. But if you go check out list word count list by author Jessica Khory, you can see that the actual word counts of well-know YA novels average on the high end of that list and beyond. Generally, though not always, fantasy and science fiction novels tend to average a little higher.
For the titles I’ve marked as ones to weed, the average page count was 231 pages. That translates to about 65,000 words or so. That’s definitely on the lower end of average, if it’s even within average anymore. 

Page counts ranged from 93, 95, and 96 total (those were published in 2004, 2006, and 2001 respectively) to 553 and 574 (2006 and 2009 respectively). It’s worth noting that looking at my data, the average publication date of my to-weed titles in 2006, and I would maybe go as far as to argument that 2006 and 2007 were sort of turning point years for YA. It didn’t quite take off yet, but that date seems to be a tipping point not just in my collection but for YA more broadly. 

2006 is when Twilight was first published. 

Age of YA Characters
From what I can tell with my data, they’ve gotten older. Again, there’s not any standard to judge by, and it’s very possible my own reading skews my perception on the average age of a YA protagonist. But I tend to think more of them fall into the 16 or 17 year old range than younger — for many reasons. 

Looking at my own information was tougher because many books don’t outright tell you the main character’s age. I ended up going through catalog records of my titles, and I pulled ages out where I could find them. So, the average age I pulled comes from 158 titles, as opposed to the 200 I looked at. 

My average age was 14.95 — or I’ll go ahead and say 15 to make it even. It’s worth noting that we do have a juvenile section, so our teen area is for readers 12 and older; some libraries have middle grade with their YA, but we do not. To me, that 15 average seems somewhat young, though I feel like the age range I found was more telling: some of the YA novels featured characters ages 10, 11, and 12 (all published before 2006, except for two which featured 12 year olds, published in 2007 and 2010). In 2003, there was a pair of books featuring a 19-year-old that were part of a series, and the same went for a pair of books published in 2008. There were twenty books published with main characters who were 17 or older, but the bulk hovered in the 13, 14, and 15 year old range. 

Besides suggesting to me that main characters have aged a bit (again, I have no conclusive proof except in my own reading experience), it also suggests to me that books with older protagonists do better in my collection than those with younger ones. 

Trends/Popular Titles That No Longer Are Popular
This is entirely community-centric and specific, so this might not be the case in all libraries, though it’s true in mine. What used to be hot and trendy doesn’t always last, as my circulation stats seem to suggest. I go by a baseline of last circulation date in 2010, though I consider last circulation date of 2011 on a title-by-title basis, especially for books as part of a series. 

Remember when these were hot commodities?

I used to have to replace them all the time when I began working in libraries in 2009. But in 2013? These haven’t moved in two or three years. 

I’ve also found that books spun in the light of those above titles also haven’t moved a whole lot. It breaks my heart, but the books Anna Godbersen’s The Luxe series has not been checked out in a couple of years, either. The first book has a billed status in our catalog, meaning it never came back to us, but seeing that no one has asked about it and the other books haven’t moved in a couple of years, I feel okay in saying they aren’t likely to see a resurgence. 

We don’t own her second series and as far as I know, we haven’t been asked to acquire it, either. 

Beyond those, there are other books, too, that have fallen out of favor. 

We have the Pendragon series in YA, and though it used to be quite popular, it seems to not have gone out in a while. Part of me wonders if the covers are doing a disservice to the series now, as they look really young compared to the fantasy that’s been published in more recent years (book one published in 2002, for the record). 

The other book — which is part of a series — doesn’t surprise me at all in its lack of circulation. Rave New World, along with a number of other similar titles, weren’t necessarily novels for reading, but instead, they were written and marketed as books for readers to prepare for the SAT. Remember that trend a few years ago? Teens aren’t dumb. They know this is meant to be medicine for them, rather than something they pick up for enjoyment. The publication dates on the SAT novels in my library are 2004, 2005, and 2006 respectively, and there is a grand total of zero circulations combined. Those things are leaving. 

Although it’s not a trend, I found that in our collection, books which are Biblical retellings or stories based on any Bible elements don’t circulate.  I plan on keeping a few of them by well-known authors, but the majority are not paying their rent on our shelf space. 

Very Dated Covers
This is the “art” part of weeding being an art and a science, quite literally. There are times when you look at the cover of a book and just know that it is time for the book to go. Either it’s one you can replace easily with new and updated work or it’s a book that hasn’t moved in a while and you have a pretty good reason to suspect it’s because the cover simply dates the book. It’s unfair, but in YA especially, it does matter. Particularly as cover art has gotten to be a huge aspect of the selling of YA books. 

Then there are times when the cover doesn’t make sense, as is the case in this one:

Pretty innocuous all things considered. But the book features a male main character who takes a job at an advertising agency. It seems like a little bit of a disconnect from the jacket copy — though I haven’t read it to see where the girl might play in. The book circulated really well when it was in its heyday, but it hasn’t moved since 2010 in my collection. I have no idea if the cover has anything to do with that but it was one that made me stop. 

Here’s a look at a handful of the covers that made me pause and give a lot of consideration to whether they’re worth holding on to or they should be let go.

All of these look really dated and really juvenile. While The Exchange Student fits the story, it’s still bizarre. 

These are a few more of the “too dated” or “too young” covers in our collection. I think, too, Visiting Miss Caples looks like it’s not a YA book at all. 

I could post a lot more of the covers, but for me, the cover consideration aspect of weeding happens less when I’m working on paper with numbers and much more when I’m in the stacks physically looking at the books. If anything, though, it’s clear that cover design in YA has not only become a means of really selling a book to readers, but it also has gotten much, much better. I’d even argue that many YA cover models now look like they’re 20-somethings, rather than teens. I think that might be an appeal factor, too. 

Backlist Gems

I’ve stumbled upon some real gems in my weeding, too, which is one of the biggest reasons I love this part of collection development in libraries. Sure, many of these books haven’t circulated in a few years, and sure, many may end up off my shelf, but sometimes you find books in your collection that you know you can sell on a display or in a reader’s guide or in a book talk. They have themes or topics that are still timely and relevant and would make excellent read alikes to well-known and popular titles. 

My biggest and favorite find so far was this one, with what might be one of my favorite covers in a long time because it fits the content so perfectly:

Wait. Wait. Wait. I know you’re thinking that the cover looks really young. And it does. But the description of this book is what sells the cover. 

Sixteen-year-old Kayla, a ballet dancer with very large breasts, and her sister Paterson, an artist, are both helped and hindered by classmates as they confront sexism, conformity, and censorship at their high school for the arts while still managing to maintain their sense of humor. (via Worldcat).

This sounds awesome.

The weeding process is a lengthy one, without any hard-and-fast rules, but it’s one that is so satisfying not only from the collection-level standpoint, but from the reader’s advisory standpoint, as well. With shelves that aren’t filled with books that aren’t moving, it’s easier for readers to discover books they want to read, and it’s easier for people who are reader’s advisors to know their collections well. In some cases, what should be weeded and doesn’t get weeded gives an opportunity to get those under-read gems to shine on shelf and in reader’s advisory tools.