On The Radar: 12 Books for October

October 1, 2015 |

One of the most popular posts I do over at Book Riot is the round-up of upcoming YA fiction titles, and one of the most popular questions I seem to get on Twitter and in my inboxes is “what should I be looking out for in YA?” For a lot of readers, especially those who work with teens either in classrooms or in libraries, knowing what’s coming out ahead of time is valuable to get those books into readers’ hands before they even ask.Each month, I’ll call out between 8 and 12 books coming out that should be on your radar. These include books by high-demand, well-known authors, as well as some up-and-coming and debut authors. They’ll be across a variety of genres, including diverse titles and writers. Not all of the books will be ones that Kimberly or I have read, nor will all of them be titles that we’re going to read and review. Rather, these are books that readers will be looking for and that have popped up regularly on social media, in advertising, in book mail, and so forth. It’s part science and part arbitrary and a way to keep the answer to “what should I know about for this month?” quick, easy, and under $300 (doable for smaller library budgets especially).

For October, here are 12 titles to have on your radar. All descriptions are from WorldCat, and I’ve noted why it should be included.

Black Widow: Forever Red by Margaret Stohl: Natasha Romanov, called the Black Widow, agent of S.H.I.E.L.D, rescues a young girl from Ivan, the man who once trained her as an assassin–and eight years later she is called upon to protect the teenager Ava has become from a threat from the past–and possibly from S.H.I.E.L.D itself.

Why: A full-length novel about Black Widow is going to do well. A female comic hero getting a whole book dedicated to her story? Rare and awesome.

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell: Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who’s ever been chosen.That’s what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he’s probably right.Half the time, Simon can’t even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire. His mentor’s avoiding him, his girlfriend broke up with him, and there’s a magic-eating monster running around, wearing Simon’s face. Baz would be having a field day with all this, if he were here — it’s their last year at the Watford School of Magicks, and Simon’s infuriating nemesis didn’t even bother to show up.

Why: Rainbow Rowell.

Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch: When Cordellan debt forces the Winterians to dig their mines for payment, they unearth something powerful and possibly dangerous: Primoria’s lost chasm of magic. Theron sees this find as an opportunity — with this much magic, the world can finally stand against threats like Angra. But Meira fears the danger the chasm poses — the last time the world had access to so much magic, it spawned the Decay.

Why: This is the sequel to Snow Like Ashes, which did quite well. It’s a female-driven fantasy series with comparisons to Graceling.

An Inheritance of Ashes by Leah Bobet: The strange war down south—with its rumors of gods and monsters—is over. And while sixteen-year-old Hallie and her sister wait to see who will return from the distant battlefield, they struggle to maintain their family farm.

When Hallie hires a veteran to help them, the war comes home in ways no one could have imagined, and soon Hallie is taking dangerous risks—and keeping desperate secrets. But even as she slowly learns more about the war and the men who fought it, ugly truths about Hallie’s own family are emerging. And while monsters and armies are converging on the small farm, the greatest threat to her home may be Hallie herself.

Why: It’s a stand alone fantasy! I’m not usually a fantasy reader but this one sounds really neat.

MARTians by Blythe Woolston: ast girl Zoë Zindleman, numerical ID 009-99-9999, is starting work at AllMART, where “your smile is the AllMART welcome mat.” Her living arrangements are equally bleak: she can wait for her home to be foreclosed and stripped of anything valuable now that AnnaMom has moved away, leaving Zoë behind, or move to the Warren, an abandoned strip-mall-turned-refuge for other left-behinds. With a handful of other disaffected, forgotten kids, Zoë must find her place in a world that has consumed itself beyond redemption. She may be a last girl, but her name means “life,” and Zoë isn’t ready to disappear into the AllMART abyss. Zoë wants to live.

Why: Woolston always writes thought-provoking, challenging YA titles and this sounds like no exception.

Newt’s Emerald by Garth Nix: After the Newington Emerald is stolen at the height of a conjured storm, eighteen-year-old Lady Truthful Newington goes to London, disguised as a man, to search for the magical heirloom of her house, and is soon caught up in a dangerous adventure where she must risk her life, her reputation, and her heart.

Why: A new Garth Nix book is reason enough.

The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness: What if you aren’t the Chosen One? The one who’s supposed to fight the zombies, or the soul-eating ghosts, or whatever the heck this new thing is, with the blue lights and the death? What if you’re like Mikey? Who just wants to graduate and go to prom and maybe finally work up the courage to ask Henna out before someone goes and blows up the high school. Again. Because sometimes there are problems bigger than this week’s end of the world, and sometimes you just have to find the extraordinary in your ordinary life. Even if your best friend is worshipped by mountain lions.

Why: Patrick Ness writes about those characters who aren’t “the chosen ones.”

The Rose Society by Marie Lu: Known and feared as the White Wolf, Adelina Amouteru and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. But as Adelina’s powers (fed only by fear and hate) start to grow beyond her control, she also distrusts her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness?

Why: The sequel to Marie Lu’s bestselling Young Elites. It’s going to be popular.

These Shallow Graves by Jennifer Donnelly: A young woman in nineteenth-century New York City must struggle against gender and class boundaries when her father is found dead of a supposed suicide, and she believes there is more than meets the eye, so in order to uncover the truth she will have to decide how much she is willing to risk and lose.

Why: Sounds like a solid historical mystery, and that it’s written by Jennifer Donnelly only adds to the appeal.

A Thousand Nights by EK Johnston: Lo-Melkhiin killed three hundred girls before he came to her village, so when she is taken to the king’s dangerous court she believes death will soon follow, but night after night Lo-Melkhiin comes to her and listens to the stories she tells, leading her to unlocking years of fear that have tormented and silenced the kingdom, and soon she is dreaming of bigger, more terrible magic, power enough to save a king, if she can put an end to rule of a monster.

Why: Johnston is definitely an emerging talent in the YA world, and retellings are always popular. Kimberly reviewed this one positively, too.

Wolf by Wolf by Ryan Graudin: The first book in a duology about an alternate version of 1956 where the Axis powers won WWII, and hold an annual motorcycle race across their conjoined continents to commemorate their victory.

Why: Graudin is doing some risky fiction with Little Brown and this is no exception. Her last book with them, The Walled City, didn’t get the attention that it should have. This particular title had a nice promotional mailing with it, so it’s going to be bigger. First in a new duology.

The Death and Life of Zebulon Finch by Daniel Kraus: The story follows Zebulon Finch, a teenager murdered in 1896 Chicago who inexplicably returns from the dead and searches for redemption through the ages.

Why: Kraus never disappoints with his work, and this is a massive, challenging tome that readers looking for a long, thought-provoking read, will be eager to dig into.

Guess The YA Book By Its Subject Headings

August 24, 2015 |

Library catalog subject headings are amazing to me. For the most part, they are useful to librarians who are trying to locate books for patrons. Out of context, though, they can make little or no sense. Because their purpose is to organize information contained within a book (or movie or tv show or anything else being cataloged), they distill something complex into something much more simplistic. They’re also constrained — there are designated subject headings, meaning that cataloging is consistent across libraries, rather than tagged by individuals who may choose to describe the contents of an item in a different way. There are other tools within individual catalogs to do that.

I used to play a game on Twitter periodically, where I’d share a handful of a television show’s subject headings from WorldCat and ask people to guess what it was. It’s not as easy as it sounds, since it requires thinking about a piece of art differently than you normally would. I thought I’d try doing this game on STACKED, but with YA. So without further ado, how good are you at identifying a YA book from its library subject headings? I’ll copy and paste the screen shot of the catalog headings from WorldCat and you’ll try your best at guessing what book is being described. I’m sticking with more well-known books, since even those aren’t easily recognized by their headings only. Answers are at the bottom of the post, so don’t scroll down unless you’re ready to get your answers.

I’d love to know how you do, too, so feel free to share in the comments which ones you got right away and which ones were challenging.

10.

1. Forever . . . by Judy Blume, 2. The Perks of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky, 3. Feed by M. T. Anderson, 4. The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han, 5. Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo, 6. Legend by Marie Lu, 7. Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs, 8. Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, 9. The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater, 10. Monster by Walter Dean Myers

Hispanic Heritage Month: A YA Reading List

October 2, 2014 |

While I may live in small town Wisconsin, one of the things that makes this community unique is that roughly 1/3 of the residents are Hispanic. During the month of May, the city swaps out the flags lining downtown to Mexican national flags to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, and during Hispanic Heritage Month — September 15 through October 15 — there are multiple celebrations throughout town.

So why the mid-month beginning and ending to the celebration? Beginning in 1968, Hispanic Heritage Month began as a way to commemorate the anniversary of the independence of five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Within this same September 15 to October 15 time frame, Mexico, Chile, and Belize celebrate independence day. More about the history of Hispanic Heritage Month and celebrations that take place can be found here.

In honor of this month of honoring those of Hispanic heritage, I thought it’d be worthwhile to pull together a YA book list. These are titles written by Hispanic authors or books featuring Hispanic main characters. This won’t be comprehensive, so feel free to let me know of other authors and titles to include in the comments.

I’ve limited my entries to one per author, but I’ve noted authors of Hispanic heritage with a * for further reference, and note that I’ve made those determinations based on information I could find and may miss some. All descriptions are from WorldCat.

For those seeking even more information about Latino/a authors, it’s worth digging into this excellent resource.

The Book of Broken Hearts by Sarah Ockler: Jude has learned a lot from her older sisters, but the most important thing is this: The Vargas brothers are notorious heartbreakers. But as Jude begins to fall for Emilio Vargas, she begins to wonder if her sisters were wrong.

It’s Not About the Accent by Caridad Ferrer*: Caroline Darcy decides to explore–and exploit–her distant Cuban ancestry when she goes away to college, claiming to be half-Cuban, calling herself “Carolina,” and dying her blond hair Havana Brown, but soon faces profound consequences.

Sammy & Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz*: Sammy Santos and Juliana Rios live amongst the racism, discrimination, and everyday violence during the Vietnam years of the 1960s in a small town in Southern New Mexico.

Mexican Whiteboy by Matt de la Pena*: Sixteen-year-old Danny searches for his identity amidst the confusion of being half-Mexican and half-white while spending a summer with his cousin and new friends on the baseball fields and back alleys of San Diego County, California.

Red Glass by Laura Resau: Sixteen-year-old Sophie has been frail and delicate since her premature birth, but discovers her true strength during a journey through Mexico, where the six-year-old orphan her family hopes to adopt was born, and to Guatemala, where her would-be boyfriend hopes to find his mother and plans to remain.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass by Meg Medina*: One morning before school, some girl tells Piddy Sanchez that Yaqui Delgado hates her and wants to kick her ass. Piddy doesn’t even know who Yaqui is, never mind what she’s done to piss her off. Word is that Yaqui thinks Piddy is stuck-up, shakes her stuff when she walks, and isn’t Latin enough with her white skin, good grades, and no accent. And Yaqui isn’t kidding around, so Piddy better watch her back. At first Piddy is more concerned with trying to find out more about the father she’s never met and how to balance honors courses with her weekend job at the neighborhood hair salon. But as the harassment escalates, avoiding Yaqui and her gang starts to take over Piddy’s life. Is there any way for Piddy to survive without closing herself off or running away?

Border Town (series) by Malin Alegria*: When Fabiola’s sister Alexis joins her at Dos Rios High, she warns her away from the troublemaking superjock Dex Andrews, but Alexis does not listen, and soon it is up to Fabiola to make things right, even if it means breaking her sister’s heart.

**Alegria also wrote Estrella’s Quincenara, which was wildly popular in the local library here.

Cuba 15 by Nancy Osa*: Violet Paz, a Chicago high school student, reluctantly prepares for her upcoming “quince,” a Spanish nickname for the celebration of an Hispanic girl’s fifteenth birthday.

Under the Mesquite by Guadalupe Garcia McCall*: Throughout her high school years, as her mother battles cancer, Lupita takes on more responsibility for her house and seven younger siblings, while finding refuge in acting and writing poetry.

Amigas series by Veronica Chambers*: Carmen is turning fifteen and her friends Sarita, Alicia, Jamie, and Gaz plan to throw her a quinceañera; but when the group decides to join a reality show competition, Carmen feels like her party is becoming less important.

The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer: After a meteor hits the moon and sets off a series of horrific climate changes, seventeen-year-old Alex Morales must take care of his sisters alone in the chaos of New York City.

Sweet 15 by Emily Adler and Alex Echevarria: Shortly before her fifteenth birthday, Destiny Lozada’s traditional Puerto Rican mother and feminist older sister hijack her quinceañera, each pushing her own agenda and ignoring the possibility that Destiny, a skateboarding tomboy, might have her own ideas about the coming-of-age ritual she is about to participate in.

Dark Dude by Oscar Hijuelos*: In the 1960s, Rico Fuentes, a pale-skinned Cuban American teenager, abandons drug-infested New York City for the picket fence and apple pie world of Wisconsin, only to discover that he still feels like an outsider and that violent and judgmental people can be found even in the wholesome Midwest.

The Last Summer of the Death Warriors by Francisco X Stork*: Seventeen-year-old Pancho is bent on avenging the senseless death of his sister, but after he meets D.Q, who is dying of cancer, and Marisol, one of D.Q.’s caregivers, both boys find their lives changed by their interactions.

Return to Sender by Julia Alvarez*: After his family hires migrant Mexican workers to help save their Vermont farm from foreclosure, eleven-year-old Tyler befriends the oldest daughter, but when he discovers they may not be in the country legally, he realizes that real friendship knows no borders.

Chasing the Jaguar by Michele Dominguez Greene*: After having unsettling dreams about the kidnapped daughter of her mother’s employer, fifteen-year-old Martika learns that she is a descendant of a long line of curanderas–Mayan medicine women with special powers.

Cubanita by Gaby Triana*: Seventeen-year-old Isabel, eager to leave Miami to attend the University of Michigan and escape her overprotective Cuban mother, learns some truths about her family’s past and makes important decisions about the type of person she wants to be.

Emily Goldberg Learns to Salsa by Micol Ostow: Forced to stay with her mother in Puerto Rico for weeks after her grandmother’s funeral, half-Jewish Emily, who has just graduated from a Westchester, New York, high school, does not find it easy to connect with her Puerto Rican heritage and relatives she had never met.

Gringolandia by Lyn Miller-Lachman: In 1986, when seventeen-year-old Daniel’s father arrives in Madison, Wisconsin, after five years of torture as a political prisoner in Chile, Daniel and his eighteen-year-old “gringa” girlfriend, Courtney, use different methods to help this bitter, self-destructive stranger who yearns to return home and continue his work.

La Linea by Ann Jaramillo When fifteen-year-old Miguel’s time finally comes to leave his poor Mexican village, cross the border illegally, and join his parents in California, his younger sister’s determination to join him soon imperils them both.

Romiette and Julio by Sharon M. Draper: Romiette, an African-American girl, and Julio, a Hispanic boy, discover that they attend the same high school after falling in love on the Internet, but are harrassed by a gang whose members object to their interracial dating.

City of the Beasts by Isabel Allende*: When fifteen-year-old Alexander Cold accompanies his individualistic grandmother on an expedition to find a humanoid Beast in the Amazon, he experiences ancient wonders and a supernatural world as he tries to avert disaster for the Indians.

When Reason Breaks by Cindy L. Rodriguez* (February 10, 2015): Elizabeth Davis and Emily Daniels seem to have little in common except Ms. Diaz’s English class and the solace they find in the words of Emily Dickinson, but both are struggling with to cope with monumental secrets and tumultuous emotions that will lead one to attempt suicide.

The Vicious Deep (series) by Zoraida Cordova*: After being sucked out to sea in a tidal wave, Tristan Hart returns ashore on Coney Island with no memory of what happened to him–yet he can sense the emotions of others and dreams of a terrifying silver mermaid with razor-sharp teeth.

Carmen by Walter Dean Myers: A policeman’s obsessive love for a tempestuous wig factory worker ends in tragedy in this updated version of Bizet’s Carmen, set in Spanish Harlem, and told in screenplay format.

Illegal by Bettina Restrepo: Nora, a fifteen-year-old Mexican girl, faces the challenges of being an illegal immigrant in Texas when she and her mother cross the border in search of Nora’s father.

Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright: Sixteen-year-old Carlos Duarte is on the verge of realizing his dream of becoming a famous make-up artist, but first he must face his jealous boss at a Macy’s cosmetics counter, his sister’s abusive boyfriend, and his crush on a punk-rocker classmate.

The Secret Side of Empty by Maria E. Andreu*: M.T. is a high-achieving high school student who is hiding the fact that she’s an undocumented immigrant in the United States

The Tequila Worm by Viola Canales: Sofia grows up in the close-knit community of the barrio in McAllen, Texas, then finds that her experiences as a scholarship student at an Episcopal boarding school in Austin only strengthen her ties to family and her “comadres.”

What Can(‘t) Wait by Ashley Hope Perez*:Marooned in a broken-down Houston neighborhood–and in a Mexican immigrant family where making ends meet matters much more than making it to college–smart, talented Marissa seeks comfort elsewhere when her home life becomes unbearable.

Accidental Love by Gary Soto*: After unexpectedly falling in love with a “nerdy” boy, fourteen-year-old Marisa works to change her life by transferring to another school, altering some of her behavior, and losing weight.

Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole: Laura, a seventeen-year-old Cuban American girl, is thrown out of her house when her mother discovers she is a lesbian, but after trying to change her heart and hide from the truth, Laura finally comes to terms with who she is and learns to love and respect herself.

Muchacho by LouAnne Johnson: Living in a neighborhood of drug dealers and gangs in New Mexico, high school junior Eddie Corazon, a juvenile delinquent-in-training, falls in love with a girl who inspires him to rethink his life and his choices.

The God Box by Alex Sanchez*: When openly gay Manuel transfers to Paul’s high school, Paul, a born-again Christian, begins to question his own sexuality.

Red Hot Salsa: Bilingual Poems on Being Young and Latino in the United States edited by Lori Marie Carlson: “i think in spanish “i write in english “i want to go back to puerto rico, “but i wonder if my kink could live “in ponce, mayaguez and carolina “tengo las venas aculturadas “escribo en spanglish “abraham in espanol “–from “My Graduation Speech,” by Tato Laviera A new collection of bilingual poems from the bestselling editor of “Cool Salsa Ten years after the publication of the acclaimed “Cool Salsa, editor Lori Marie Carlson has brought together a stunning variety of Latino poets for a long-awaited follow-up. Established and familiar names are joined by many new young voices, and Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos has written the Introduction. The poets collected here illuminate the difficulty of straddling cultures, languages, and identities. They celebrate food, family, love, and triumph. In English, Spanish, and poetic jumbles of both, they tell us who they are, where they are, and what their hopes are for the future.

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

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces by Isabel Quintero* (October 14): Sixteen-year-old Gabi Hernandez chronicles her senior year in high school as she copes with her friend Cindy’s pregnancy, friend Sebastian’s coming out, her father’s meth habit, her own cravings for food and cute boys, and especially, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey* (April 28, 2014): Beneath the streets of New York City live the Avicen, an ancient race of people with feathers for hair and magic running through their veins. Age-old enchantments keep them hidden from humans. All but one. Echo is a runaway pickpocket who survives by selling stolen treasures on the black market, and the Avicen are the only family she’s ever known. Echo is clever and daring, and at times she can be brash, but above all else she’s fiercely loyal. So when a centuries-old war crests on the borders of her home, she decides it’s time to act. Legend has it that there is a way to end the conflict once and for all: find the Firebird, a mythical entity believed to possess power the likes of which the world has never seen. It will be no easy task, but if life as a thief has taught Echo anything, it’s how to hunt down what she wants . . . and how to take it. But some jobs aren’t as straightforward as they seem. And this one might just set the world on fire. (Description via Goodreads).

Extraction (series) by Stephanie Diaz*: When she proves Promising enough to be “extracted” from the planet Kiel’s toxic Surface to the much safer Core, sixteen-year-old Clementine learns that the planet’s leaders are planning to exterminate Surface dwellers, including Logan, the boy Clementine loves.

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera* (June 16, 2015): When it first gets announced, the Leteo Institute’s memory-alteration procedure seems too good to be true to Aaron Soto – miracle cure-alls don’t tend to pop up in the Bronx projects. Aaron can’t forget how he’s grown up poor, how his friends all seem to shrug him off, and how his father committed suicide in their one bedroom apartment. He has the support of his patient girlfriend, if not necessarily his distant brother and overworked mother, but it’s not enough. Then Thomas shows up. He doesn’t mind Aaron’s obsession over the Scorpius Hawthorne books and has a sweet movie set-up on his roof. There are nicknames. Aaron’s not only able to be himself, but happiness feels easy with Thomas. The love Aaron discovers may cost him what’s left of his life, but since Aaron can’t suddenly stop being gay Leteo may be the only way out. (Description via Goodreads).