STACKED

books

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson

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Stevie Bell has been accepted into Ellingham Academy, a prestigious boarding school with no formal application – teenagers who want to attend simply write to the school, stating why they think they should be granted admission. Stevie is a true crime aficianado, and the powers-that-be at Ellingham think she belongs there. Stevie is eager to get away from her parents, who want her to focus more on dating and less on murder, but what she really wants is to solve the Ellingham cold case.

Wealthy tycoon and lover of games and riddles Albert Ellingham founded the school in the 1930s as a place where, according to him, “learning is a game.” But soon after it opened, his best intentions backfired in the most horrifying way: his wife and young daughter were kidnapped by someone who left a riddle as a calling card, signing it “Truly Devious.” They were never found and the crime was never solved, though someone was convicted of it (that someone died soon after). Stevie knows this is one of the greatest challenges she could undertake, and she makes it the focus of her senior project.

But things are about to get very real and a lot less cold at Ellingham. One of the students dies under mysterious circumstances, and the incident has overtones of Truly Devious. Stevie doesn’t know who to trust as she faces solving a cold case along with a very hot one. Is it an accident, as the school administrators claim? Or is one of her classmates guilty of a horrible crime? And is it connected to the original Ellingham kidnappings – has Truly Devious returned?

This is such a cool setup. I love mysteries set in two different time periods, where two different crimes could be connected – or maybe not. It adds layers to the mystery and makes it that much more intriguing. Of course, when you have two mysteries within a single book, there’s a lot riding on how they both turn out. Ideally, both solutions are equally ingenious. Ideally, the reader gets two solutions. Less ideally but still acceptable, the reader gets at least one really good solution and then learns that life sometimes doesn’t give you all the answers and is satisfied with forever not knowing the other solution.

Unfortunately for readers of Truly Devious, there are no solutions given here. Neither mystery is solved. Sure, we get one big revelation concerning each near the end, but an actual whodunnit? Nope. The book ends with To Be Continued (and probably a lot of groans of frustration).

By reading through the Goodreads reviews, I can tell you that this doesn’t bother everyone. Readers seem to be split half and half. And despite this glaring flaw of no resolution to a mystery (which is a requirement for the genre, much like a happily ever after in romance), this is a mostly well-written book with an intriguing plot and interesting characters. There’s going to be a sequel, of course, so readers who need solutions to the mysteries they read can wait for that and then read both books together as if they were one very long book (assuming, that is, we get answers in Book 2).

The book is a bit slow to get going; the modern-day death doesn’t happen until about halfway through. Not all of the cast of characters felt distinct, even by the end. The exceptions are the the amateur sleuth (Stevie), the love interest, the prime suspect, and the murdered teen, whose personalities come through clearly on the page. There’s also a bit of politics thrown in in the form of a fictional congressman who shares commonalities with many powerful Republicans today, which I think teens will appreciate – it brings a currency to the story that counterbalances the historical crime. I’m hoping that this facet of the story is explored more fully in the next book, including how and if it connects to either murder.

Ultimately, though, I was Truly Disappointed by this book. Maureen Johnson, I wanted to like it – but why’d you have to leave me in the lurch like this?

Copy provided by the publisher.

 

Anatomy of a YA Anthology: On ALL OUT, edited by Saundra Mitchell

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“Anatomy of a YA Anthology” is back with a brand new anthology to spotlight with an editor who has had experience with the process of anthology creation before, All Out edited by Saundra Mitchell. All Out hits shelves tomorrow, February 27, and the reviews of the collection have been nothing short of positive.

 

Your Name

Saundra Mitchell

 

Your Anthology’s Name

All Out: The Not-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages

 

Anthology Description

From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, ALL OUT tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.

 

How did you get your idea/what was the initial spark?

I had edited an anthology before (Defy the Dark, Harper, 2013) and I was raring to go again. My agent (Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret) mentioned one day that he would love to do a queer historical anthology. I took that as an invitation and dropped a proposal in his inbox the next day.

 

Where did you begin researching your idea and/or developing the idea into a more clear, focused concept?

After the initial proposal, Jim and I hammered out specifically what ALL OUT should be. We’re both queer, and it was easy to figure out what we didn’t want: the moralistic, miserable stories that were available to US as teens. It was important from the start that ALL OUT be the anthology we wish *we’d* had at sixteen. You know, stories about queer characters having adventures, living in cursed towns, discovering magic, abandoning Hollywood…

The historical aspect was important to us as well– queer history isn’t taught in schools. It’s kept and carried on through universities, but also oral histories. So we wanted an anthology that reflected the fact that there have always been queer teens, even if they were made invisible in the history books. It’s a lighthouse for queer teens: you’re not alone, and you’ve never been alone.

 

How did you find your writers?

I asked all of my colleagues whom I knew were queer– because I love, love, love working with my friends. Then, I crept around like a creeper asking authors I love (but didn’t know) if they might possibly be queer, because I wanted to invite them to an antho. I really did that. I sent multiple messages on Twitter that started with, “This is the rudest question in the universe, and I apologize, but…”

I visited multiple Twitter chats, including #TransLitChat and #AceLitChat, because the few trans and ace authors I personally know were unavailable. The goal was to make sure that as many kids as possible could see themselves represented in this anthology. I’m delighted to say that I met the wonderful Nilah Magruder through #AceLitChat.

Finally, my agent told me he’d just signed a new author that he thought would be perfect for the project. I had had open calls for the final slot in DEFY THE DARK, because I love working with new, unpublished authors, so I was thrilled to take his suggestion. That’s how we got the extraordinary Tehlor Kay Meija!

 

How did writers pick their story or essay topic ideas?

I asked each of these authors to write the story they wish they could have read when they were wee queer teens. The only constraint is that it had to take place no later than 1999.

 

As an editor, were you responsible for contracts between you and your writers? Did your publisher or agent handle the administrative/legal side of things?

I control the vertical! I control the horizontal! All of my authors are contracted to me. My agent and I negotiated all contract changes with contributor agents. I contact the contributors and their agents with all business details, requests and information. I built my schedule based on the publisher’s delivery schedule, and then I held my authors to it. Normally, I would also process all payments and tax documents, but my agency was kind enough to remit checks for me this time. (My personal publishing schedule was so hectic that I was afraid I might miss something.) When it comes time for royalty statements, I’ll also be generating and sending those out, as well.

 

How did the editing process work between you and your writers?

I am a hands-on editor when it comes to anthologies. Some authors bounced ideas off of me; some went away to write their stories, and returned with them. No matter how I got the first drafts, I carefully read each one. I wrote revision letters and in-line notes on the first drafts.

This is the first point where I involved sensitivity readers. Many authors wrote their own representation, and many included others in their stories, as well. So we wanted to make sure that we got it as right as we possibly could. In addition to Sensitivity Readers, I also referenced a variety of inclusivity sites and guidelines like Disability in Kidlit and We Need Diverse Books.

I talked to a few authors on Skype, because they preferred to go over notes that way. I think I also did a couple of Google Chats with some authors, because real-time discussion is more organic than long e-mail chains. Basically, a pretty standard first draft/first letter situation, I think.

Once an author finished their revisions, I re-read. If there were any remaining major issues, I wrote another letter or more in-line notes. Mostly, at this point, though, it was line editing and minor suggestions. There was one author at this point who requested another sensitivity pass, because she was concerned about the trans representation in her story.

I am *so* glad she followed her instincts and spoke up on that. I sourced three more transgender readers for it, and they all zeroed in on a particular passage. I had missed it on multiple reads, but the trans readers found it instantly.

Once I had all the stories, I sent them on to TS Ferguson, my editor at HarlequinTEEN for his pass. He had very few notes (yay!) and returned them to me with copyediting. When it came to copyedits, I did most of them, but I passed them on to individual authors if there were rewriting queries, or queries where I felt the author might have strong feelings. (Do you want this to be a semi-colon, or a comma? Did you mean to use this word twice here? Is this the best word here?)

I gathered all the copyedited stories and sent them back to HarlequinTEEN, and off it went to become a book! When the typeset pages came back, I passed PDFs to each author so they could have one more look at their story. This is when we discovered that all of the primary-language, non-English words had been italicized. I asked TS to change those back, which was no problem! But it was a fun challenge, because one story, which is written in English with primary-Spanish speakers and Spanish words (not italicized) which also included secondary-French language (italicized!) I asked for a third-pass copyedit on that story, just to focus on the language.

(Seriously, y’all. This is how the sausage gets made!)

 

Money talk: how did you get paid for your work? How did your writers get paid?

HarlequinTEEN won the auction for ALL OUT, and they paid me a standard advance. Half on signing, and then the balance on Delivery & Acceptance.

I split the total amount of the advance in half. One half was mine, the other half was split among the contributors. I paid them on the same schedule that I got paid: half on signing, half on D&A. This is how royalties will be paid out, as well– the authors will be paid when I get paid.

 

What role did you take on as editor of the anthology? Were you hands on? Hands off?

I try to be the editor that the authors need. So if they want me down in the trenches with them, that’s where I’ll be. If they want to go away and hide, and come back with a story, I leave them alone. I try not to be intrusive; I try to time reminders and or requests carefully, so no one is overwhelmed. For me, the anthology is a big project. For the contributors, this is one story they’re writing, in the midst of their primary career.

 

How did you communicate changes and/or concerns between writer and your editor/publisher?

I have had such a great relationship with TS at HarlequinTEEN. He has treated me as the editor and helm of this project from the beginning. Any questions, problems or issues I had, I felt 100% comfortable taking directly to him as a peer. He put a lot of trust in me, and allowed me to steer this collection on my own, and I really appreciate that. (I do want to say that this was the same relationship I had with the editor on DEFY THE DARK, as well. Anne Hoppe is a dream of a collaborative editor!)

 

When it came to the package of your anthology, how much say did you have in the cover or design? How much were contributors involved in that part of the process?

The contributors weren’t involved in the package and design, except to the extent that I sent them comps so they could see where the cover was headed, and let them know what the final cover was. I feel like I had a lot of say in the cover design– TS and HarlequinTEEN took my and my agent’s suggestions seriously. We went through a lot of different covers, trying to get just the right one. (And if you’ve seen an advance copy of ALL OUT, you’ll note it has a different cover from the final. Everybody worked SO hard to get this cover right!)

 

What was your favorite part of the anthology creation process?

I love, love, love reading the stories. I really do. The magical thing about anthologies for me is that I get to ask my favorite authors to write stories *just for me*. It’s a book lover’s dream.

 

What was your least favorite part?

Ugh. I hate it when I have to ask an author to start over, or to radically change what’s on the page. It’s demoralizing as an author to get those requests, and I hate to give them. But, through two anthologies I’ve learned, sometimes those reboots turn into the most extraordinary stories in the collection.

 

What were some of the biggest lessons you as an editor learned in creating an anthology?

I’ve learned so much about how other authors work. How their language works, how they draft. What the difference between their initial idea and their final piece can be. I’ve also learned that the thing I think is the best fix sometimes isn’t. I encouraged one author here to just retool the ending of a story. They decided to start over… and their new story blew me away. It’s a good reminder that my job as editor is to help the author shine.

 

If you aren’t already working on another anthology, would you do another one? Why/why not?

Honestly, I’m an anthology maniac. If I could start another one today, I would. I have a concept and a wish-list of authors sitting on my hard drive right now. Alas, I must wait. ALL OUT comes out February 27, and I actually have several novels under contract that I need to work on as well. But I would do it again in a heartbeat. I love working with other authors. I love creating collections that I think teens will love. The process is frustrating and chaotic and infuriating and exhilarating and delicious. I hope there are so many more to come!

Booklist: Short Story Collections

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There have been a ton of great short story collections published within the last year. Kelly has been spotlighting the creation of several of them in her Anatomy of a YA Anthology series, which also includes collections of essays. Like the rest of YA, short story collections are slowly growing more diverse in all areas – race, gender, and sexuality in particular. The books on this list would all serve as great refreshers for your library’s short story collections for teens. All are 2017 or 2018 publications or won awards in 2018. What others would you recommend?

Meet Cute: Some People Are Destined to Meet

Whether or not you believe in fate, or luck, or love at first sight, every romance has to start somewhere. MEET CUTE is an anthology of original short stories featuring tales of “how they first met” from some of today’s most popular YA authors.

Readers will experience Nina LaCour’s beautifully written piece about two Bay Area girls meeting via a cranky customer service Tweet, Sara Shepard’s glossy tale about a magazine intern and a young rock star, Nicola Yoon’s imaginative take on break-ups and make-ups, Katie Cotugno’s story of two teens hiding out from the police at a house party, and Huntley Fitzpatrick’s charming love story that begins over iced teas at a diner. There’s futuristic flirting from Kass Morgan and Katharine McGee, a riveting transgender heroine from Meredith Russo, a subway missed connection moment from Jocelyn Davies, and a girl determined to get out of her small town from Ibi Zoboi. Jennifer Armentrout writes a sweet story about finding love from a missing library book, Emery Lord has a heartwarming and funny tale of two girls stuck in an airport, Dhonielle Clayton takes a thoughtful, speculate approach to pre-destined love, and Julie Murphy dreams up a fun twist on reality dating show contestants.

This incredibly talented group of authors brings us a collection of stories that are at turns romantic and witty, epic and everyday, heartbreaking and real.

Because You Love to Hate Me: 13 Tales of Villainy edited by Ameriie

In this unique YA anthology, thirteen acclaimed, bestselling authors team up with thirteen influential BookTubers to reimagine fairy tales from the oft-misunderstood villains’ points of view.

These fractured, unconventional spins on classics like “Medusa,” Sherlock Holmes, and “Jack and the Beanstalk” provide a behind-the-curtain look at villains’ acts of vengeance, defiance, and rage–and the pain, heartbreak, and sorrow that spurned them on. No fairy tale will ever seem quite the same again!

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

Travel to a world of dark bargains struck by moonlight, of haunted towns and hungry woods, of talking beasts and gingerbread golems, where a young mermaid’s voice can summon deadly storms and where a river might do a lovestruck boy’s bidding but only for a terrible price.

Inspired by myth, fairy tale, and folklore, #1 New York Times–bestselling author Leigh Bardugo has crafted a deliciously atmospheric collection of short stories filled with betrayals, revenge, sacrifice, and love.

Perfect for new readers and dedicated fans, these tales will transport you to lands both familiar and strange—to a fully realized world of dangerous magic that millions have visited through the novels of the Grishaverse.

This collection of six stories includes three brand-new tales, all of them lavishly illustrated with art that changes with each turn of the page, culminating in six stunning full-spread illustrations as rich in detail as the stories themselves.

Begin, End, Begin: A #LoveOzYA Anthology edited by Danielle Binks

The YA event of the year. Bestsellers. Award-winners. Superstars. This anthology has them all. With brilliantly entertaining short stories from beloved young adult authors Amie Kaufman, Melissa Keil, Will Kostakis, Ellie Marney, Jaclyn Moriarty, Michael Pryor, Alice Pung, Gabrielle Tozer, Lili Wilkinson and Danielle Binks, this all-new collection will show the world exactly how much there is to love about Aussie YA.

 

Fresh Ink edited by Lamar Giles (August 14)

Careful–you are holding fresh ink. And not hot-off-the-press, still-drying-in-your-hands ink. Instead, you are holding twelve stories with endings that are still being written–whose next chapters are up to you.

Because these stories are meant to be read. And shared.

Thirteen of the most accomplished YA authors deliver a label-defying anthology that includes ten short stories, a graphic novel, and a one-act play. This collection will inspire you to break conventions, bend the rules, and color outside the lines. All you need is fresh ink.

Feral Youth edited by Shaun David Hutchinson

At Zeppelin Bend, an outdoor education program designed to teach troubled youth the value of hard work, cooperation, and compassion, ten teens are left alone in the wild. The teens are a diverse group who come from all walks of life, and they were all sent to Zeppelin Bend as a last chance to get them to turn their lives around. They’ve just spent nearly two weeks learning to survive in the wilderness, and now their instructors have dropped them off eighteen miles from camp with no food, no water, and only their packs, and they’ll have to struggle to overcome their vast differences if they hope to survive.

Inspired by The Canterbury Tales, Feral Youth features characters, each complex and damaged in their own ways, who are enticed to tell a story (or two) with the promise of a cash prize. The stories range from noir-inspired revenge tales to mythological stories of fierce heroines and angry gods. And while few of the stories are claimed to be based in truth, they ultimately reveal more about the teller than the truth ever could.

All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens Throughout the Ages edited by Saundra Mitchell (February 27)

Take a journey through time and genres and discover a past where queer figures live, love and shape the world around them. Seventeen of the best young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens.

From a retelling of Little Red Riding Hood set in war-torn 1870s Mexico featuring a transgender soldier, to two girls falling in love while mourning the death of Kurt Cobain, forbidden love in a sixteenth-century Spanish convent or an asexual girl discovering her identity amid the 1970s roller-disco scene, All Out tells a diverse range of stories across cultures, time periods and identities, shedding light on an area of history often ignored or forgotten.

Eat the Sky, Drink the Ocean edited by Kirsty Murray, Payal Dhar, and Anita Roy

Be transported into dystopian cities and other-worldly societies. Be amazed and beguiled by a nursery story with a reverse twist, a futuristic take on TV cooking shows, a playscript with tentacles – and more, much more. Plunge in and enjoy!

A collection of sci-fi and fantasy writing, including six graphic stories, showcasing twenty stellar writers and artists from India and Australia: Isobelle Carmody, Penni Russon, Justine Larbalestier, Margo Lanagan, Lily Mae Martin, Kuzhali Manickavel, Prabha Mallya, Annie Zaidi, Kate Constable, Vandana Singh, Mandy Ord, Priya Kuriyan, Manjula Padmanabhan, Samhita Arni, Alyssa Brugman, Nicki Greenberg and Amruta Patil.

Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time edited by Hope Nicholson

“Love Beyond, Body, Space, and Time” is a collection of indigenous science fiction and urban fantasy focusing on LGBT and two-spirit characters. These stories range from a transgender woman trying an experimental transition medication to young lovers separated through decades and meeting far in their own future. These are stories of machines and magic, love, and self-love.

 

 

Unbroken: 13 Stories Starring Disabled Teens edited by Marieke Nijkamp (September 18)

A YA Anthology of short stories featuring disabled teens, written by #OwnVoices disabled authors. The stories reflect a range of genres and disabilities; contributors include bestselling authors Kody Keplinger and Francisco X. Stork, as well as newcomers Fox Benwell, Keah Brown, and more.

Welcome Home edited by Eric Smith

Welcome Home collects a number of adoption-themed fictional short stories, and brings them together in one anthology from a diverse range of celebrated Young Adult authors. The all-star roster includes Edgar-award winner Mindy McGinnis, New York Times bestselling authors C.J. Redwine (The Shadow Queen) and William Ritter (Jackaby), and acclaimed YA authors across all genres, like Adi Alsaid, Lauren Gibaldi, Sangu Mandanna, Karen Akins, and many more.

 

The Radical Element edited by Jessica Spotswood

In an anthology of revolution and resistance, a sisterhood of YA writers shines a light on a century and a half of heroines on the margins and in the intersections.

To respect yourself, to love yourself—should not have to be a radical decision. And yet it remains as challenging for an American girl to make today as it was in 1927 on the steps of the Supreme Court. It’s a decision that must be faced whether you’re balancing on the tightrope of neurodivergence, finding your way as a second-generation immigrant, or facing down American racism even while loving America. And it’s the only decision when you’ve weighed society’s expectations and found them wanting. In The Radical Element, twelve of the most talented writers working in young adult literature today tell the stories of the girls of all colors and creeds standing up for themselves and their beliefs—whether that means secretly learning Hebrew in early Savannah, using the family magic to pass as white in 1920s Hollywood, or singing in a feminist punk band in 1980s Boston. And they’re asking you to join them.

Take Us to Your Chief and Other Stories by Drew Hayden Taylor

A forgotten Haudenosaunee social song beams into the cosmos like a homing beacon for interstellar visitors. A computer learns to feel sadness and grief from the history of atrocities committed against First Nations. A young Native man discovers the secret to time travel in ancient petroglyphs. Drawing inspiration from science fiction legends like Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov and Ray Bradbury, Drew Hayden Taylor frames classic science-fiction tropes in an Aboriginal perspective.

The nine stories in this collection span all traditional topics of science fiction–from peaceful aliens to hostile invaders; from space travel to time travel; from government conspiracies to connections across generations. Yet Taylor’s First Nations perspective draws fresh parallels, likening the cultural implications of alien contact to those of the arrival of Europeans in the Americas, or highlighting the impossibility of remaining a “good Native” in such an unnatural situation as a space mission.

Infused with Native stories and variously mysterious, magical and humorous, Take Us to Your Chief is the perfect mesh of nostalgically 1950s-esque science fiction with modern First Nations discourse.

Three Sides of a Heart edited by Natalie C. Walker

You may think you know the love triangle, but you’ve never seen love triangles like these. These top YA authors tackle the much-debated trope of the love triangle, and the result is sixteen fresh, diverse, and romantic stories you don’t want to miss.

This collection, edited by Natalie C. Parker, contains stories written by Renee Ahdieh, Rae Carson, Brandy Colbert, Katie Cotugno, Lamar Giles, Tessa Gratton, Bethany Hagan, Justina Ireland, Alaya Dawn Johnson, EK Johnston, Julie Murphy, Garth Nix, Natalie C. Parker, Veronica Roth, Sabaa Tahir, and Brenna Yovanoff.

A teen girl who offers kissing lessons. Zombies in the Civil War South. The girl next door, the boy who loves her, and the girl who loves them both. Vampires at a boarding school. Three teens fighting monsters in an abandoned video rental store. Literally the last three people on the planet.

What do all these stories have in common? The love triangle.

Behind the Song edited by K. M. Walton

A song to match everyone’s heartbeat.

A soaring melody, a pulse-pounding beat, a touching lyric: Music takes a moment and makes it a memory. It’s a universal language that can capture love, heartbreak, loss, soul searching, and wing spreading—all in the span of a few notes. In Behind the Song, fourteen acclaimed young adult authors and musicians share short stories and personal essays inspired by the songs, the albums, the musicians who move them.

So cue up the playlist and crank the volume. This is an anthology you’ll want to experience on repeat.

2018 Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide edited by Corie and Sean Weaver

What’s it like to be a space station detective? To be homesick for Mars? What do you say when your robot gets you in trouble?

Join the adventures of a diverse cast of characters in this year’s Young Explorer’s Adventure Guide, featuring award-winning writers alongside great new voices. If you’re lucky, you might even learn how to raise a dragon from a chicken egg or where to find the best space treasure.

 

February 2018 Debut YA Novels

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It’s time for another round-up of debut YA novels of the month — here’s what we’ve got for February.

This round-up includes debut novels, where “debut” is in its purest definition. These are first-time books by first-time authors. I’m not including books by authors who are using or have used a pseudonym in the past or those who have written in other categories (adult, middle grade, etc.) in the past. Authors who have self-published are not included here either.

All descriptions are from Goodreads, unless otherwise noted; I’ve found Goodreads descriptions to offer better insight to what a book is about over WorldCat. If I’m missing any debuts out in February from traditional publishers — and I should clarify that indie/small presses are okay — let me know in the comments.

As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. List is arranged alphabetically by title, with pub dates beside them. Starred titles are the beginning of a new series.

Get ready to get your read on.

 

All We Can Do Is Wait by Richard Lawson (2/6)

In the hours after a bridge collapse rocks their city, a group of Boston teenagers meet in the waiting room of Massachusetts General Hospital:

Siblings Jason and Alexa have already experienced enough grief for a lifetime, so in this moment of confusion and despair, Alexa hopes that she can look to her brother for support. But a secret Jason has been keeping from his sister threatens to tear the siblings apart…right when they need each other most.

Scott is waiting to hear about his girlfriend, Aimee, who was on a bus with her theater group when the bridge went down. Their relationship has been rocky, but Scott knows that if he can just see Aimee one more time, if she can just make it through this ordeal and he can tell her he loves her, everything will be all right.

And then there’s Skyler, whose sister Kate—the sister who is more like a mother, the sister who is basically Skyler’s everything—was crossing the bridge when it collapsed. As the minutes tick by without a word from the hospital staff, Skyler is left to wonder how she can possibly move through life without the one person who makes her feel strong when she’s at her weakest.

 

American Panda by Gloria Chao (2/6)

At seventeen, Mei should be in high school, but skipping fourth grade was part of her parents’ master plan. Now a freshman at MIT, she is on track to fulfill the rest of this predetermined future: become a doctor, marry a preapproved Taiwanese Ivy Leaguer, produce a litter of babies.

With everything her parents have sacrificed to make her cushy life a reality, Mei can’t bring herself to tell them the truth–that she (1) hates germs, (2) falls asleep in biology lectures, and (3) has a crush on her classmate Darren Takahashi, who is decidedly not Taiwanese.

But when Mei reconnects with her brother, Xing, who is estranged from the family for dating the wrong woman, Mei starts to wonder if all the secrets are truly worth it. Can she find a way to be herself, whoever that is, before her web of lies unravels?

 

 

The Calculus of Change by Jessie Hilb (2/27)

Aden isn’t looking for love in her senior year. She’s much more focused on things like getting a solo gig at Ike’s and keeping her brother from illegal herbal recreation. But when Tate walks into Calculus class wearing a yarmulke and a grin, Aden’s heart is gone in an instant.

The two are swept up in a tantalizingly warm friendship, complete with long drives with epic soundtracks and deep talks about life, love, and spirituality. With Tate, Aden feels closer to her mom—and her mom’s faith—than she has since her mother died years ago. Everyone else—even Aden’s brother and her best friend—can see their connection, but does Tate?

Navigating uncertain romance and the crises of those she loves, Aden must decide how she chooses to see herself and how to honor her mom’s memory.

 

 

Don’t Forget Me by Victoria Stevens (2/13)

Seventeen-year-old Hazel Clarke is no stranger to heartbreaks, and being sent to live with a father she’s never met is the latest in a string of them. Even the beauty of eastern Australia isn’t enough to take her mind off her mother and the life she had to leave behind in England. But when Hazel meets the friendly, kindhearted Red and his elusive twin, Luca, she begins the slow process of piecing together a new life—and realizes she isn’t the only one struggling with loss. As friendships deepen and love finds its way in, Hazel also learns that when you truly love someone, they are always in your heart.

 

 

 

 

Down and Across by Arvin Ahmadi (2/6)

Scott Ferdowsi has a track record of quitting. Writing the Great American Novel? Three chapters. His summer internship? One week. His best friends know exactly what they want to do with the rest of their lives, but Scott can hardly commit to a breakfast cereal, let alone a passion.

With college applications looming, Scott’s parents pressure him to get serious and settle on a career path like engineering or medicine. Desperate for help, he sneaks off to Washington, DC, to seek guidance from a famous professor who specializes in grit, the psychology of success.

He never expects an adventure to unfold out of what was supposed to be a one-day visit. But that’s what Scott gets when he meets Fiora Buchanan, a ballsy college student whose life ambition is to write crossword puzzles. When the bicycle she lends him gets Scott into a high-speed chase, he knows he’s in for the ride of his life. Soon, Scott finds himself sneaking into bars, attempting to pick up girls at the National Zoo, and even giving the crossword thing a try–all while opening his eyes to fundamental truths about who he is and who he wants to be.

 

A Girl Like That by Tanaz Bhathena (2/27)

Sixteen-year-old Zarin Wadia is many things: a bright and vivacious student, an orphan, a risk taker. She’s also the kind of girl that parents warn their kids to stay away from: a troublemaker whose many romances are the subject of endless gossip at school.  You don’t want to get involved with a girl like that, they say. So how is it that eighteen-year-old Porus Dumasia has only ever had eyes for her? And how did Zarin and Porus end up dead in a car together, crashed on the side of a highway in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia? When the religious police arrive on the scene, everything everyone thought they knew about Zarin is questioned. And as her story is pieced together, told through multiple perspectives, it becomes clear that she was far more than just a girl like that.

 

 

 

 

I Stop Somewhere by TE Carter (2/27)

Ellie Frias disappeared long before she vanished.

Tormented throughout middle school, Ellie begins her freshman year with a new look: she doesn’t need to be popular; she just needs to blend in with the wallpaper.

But when the unthinkable happens, Ellie finds herself trapped after a brutal assault. She wasn’t the first victim, and now she watches it happen again and again. She tries to hold on to her happier memories in order to get past the cold days, waiting for someone to find her.

The problem is, no one searches for a girl they never noticed in the first place.

 

 

 

People Like Us by Dana Mele (2/20)

Kay Donovan may have skeletons in her closet, but the past is past, and she’s reinvented herself entirely. Now she’s a star soccer player whose group of gorgeous friends run their private school with effortless popularity and acerbic wit. But when a girl’s body is found in the lake, Kay’s carefully constructed life begins to topple.

The dead girl has left Kay a computer-coded scavenger hunt, which, as it unravels, begins to implicate suspect after suspect, until Kay herself is in the crosshairs of a murder investigation. But if Kay’s finally backed into a corner, she’ll do what it takes to survive. Because at Bates Academy, the truth is something you make…not something that happened.

 

 

 

*The Queen’s Rising by Rebecca Ross (2/6)

When her seventeenth summer solstice arrives, Brienna desires only two things: to master her passion and to be chosen by a patron.

Growing up in the southern Kingdom of Valenia at the renowned Magnalia House should have prepared her for such a life. While some are born with an innate talent for one of the five passions—art, music, dramatics, wit, and knowledge—Brienna struggled to find hers until she belatedly chose to study knowledge. However, despite all her preparations, Brienna’s greatest fear comes true—the solstice does not go according to plan and she is left without a patron.

Months later, her life takes an unexpected turn when a disgraced lord offers her patronage. Suspicious of his intent, and with no other choices, she accepts. But there is much more to his story, and Brienna soon discovers that he has sought her out for his own vengeful gain. For there is a dangerous plot being planned to overthrow the king of Maevana—the archrival kingdom of Valenia—and restore the rightful queen, and her magic, to the northern throne. And others are involved—some closer to Brienna than she realizes.

With war brewing between the two lands, Brienna must choose whose side she will remain loyal to—passion or blood. Because a queen is destined to rise and lead the battle to reclaim the crown. The ultimate decision Brienna must determine is: Who will be that queen?

 

 

The Tombs by Deborah Schaumberg (2/20)

New York, 1882. A dark, forbidding city, and no place for a girl with unexplainable powers.

Sixteen-year-old Avery Kohl pines for the life she had before her mother was taken. She fears the mysterious men in crow masks who locked her mother in the Tombs asylum for being able to see what others couldn’t. Avery denies the signs in herself, focusing instead on her shifts at the ironworks factory and keeping her inventor father out of trouble. Other than secondhand tales of adventure from her best friend, Khan, an ex-slave, and caring for her falcon, Seraphine, Avery spends her days struggling to survive.

Like her mother’s, Avery’s powers refuse to be contained. When she causes a bizarre explosion at the factory, she has no choice but to run from her lies, straight into the darkest corners of the city. Avery must embrace her abilities and learn to wield their power—or join her mother in the cavernous horrors of the Tombs. And the Tombs has secrets of its own: strange experiments are being performed on “patients”…and no one knows why.

 

Where I Live by Brenda Rufener (2/27)

Linden Rose has a big secret–she is homeless and living in the halls of her small-town high school. Her position as school blog editor, her best friends, Ham and Seung, and the promise of a future far away are what keep Linden under the radar and moving forward.

But when cool-girl Bea comes to school with a bloody lip, the damage hits too close to home. Linden begins looking at Bea’s life, and soon her investigation prompts people to pay more attention. And attention is the last thing she needs.

Linden knows the only way to put a stop to the violence is to tell Bea’s story and come to terms with her own painful past. Even if that means breaking her rules for survival and jeopardizing the secrets she’s worked so hard to keep.

 

 

 

Winterfolk by Janel Kolby (2/6)

Rain is a homeless teen living with her father in the woods outside Seattle, near a community of other homeless people called the Winterfolk. She finds safety and sanctuary in this hidden world—until the day that safety is shattered when she learns the city plans to clear the woods of everyone who lives there. Now she’s forced to confront Seattle, which is full of strange sights, sounds, people—and memories.

 

 

 

 

 

Your One and Only by Adrianne Finlay (2/6)

Jack is a walking fossil. The only human among a sea of clones. It’s been hundreds of years since humanity died off in the slow plague, leaving the clones behind to carry on human existence. Over time they’ve perfected their genes, moving further away from the imperfections of humanity. But if they really are perfect, why did they create Jack?

While Jack longs for acceptance, Althea-310 struggles with the feeling that she’s different from her sisters. Her fascination with Jack doesn’t help. As Althea and Jack’s connection grows stronger, so does the threat to their lives. What will happen if they do the unthinkable and fall in love?

 

The Thing(s) About YA Titles

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We’ve talked about the trend of “Girl” in the title of YA books. We’ve talked about the trend of “Edge” in the title of YA books.

We now present the trend of even less specificity: “Thing” or “Things” in the YA title.

Note that the titles on this list are only for YA books published in 2017 and in 2018. The list really is this long, and it excludes titles which have the word “everything” or “nothing” in them — which would have added another significant number of titles to this list.

What does “Thing” in the title imply when it comes to a trend? Perhaps nothing. But as a reader and as someone who talks about a lot of book titles, as well as someone who regularly thinks about serving readers great book recommendations, I can say easily all of these titles blend and blur together far too easily.

It’s almost as if “Thing” in the title is as unmemorable as the word itself.

Can you think of others from the last year or so that would fit on the list? I’d love to see them, if for no reason other than to continue becoming confused among all of the titles which have a hard time standing apart from one another. I’ve purposefully left the authors of the books off the list, in part because authors often don’t come up with the titles of their books and in part to showcase how indistinguishable the titles can be from one another without that context.

I have, of course, put together a nifty graphic of some of the covers because there is power in seeing an image, too.

 

 

10 Things I Can See From Here

Airports, Exes, and Other Things I’m Over

All The Forever Things

All Things New

Broken Things

I Believe In A Thing Called Love

Dare Mighty Things

Definitions of Indefinable Things

The Geography of Lost Things

That Inevitable Victorian Thing

Kale, My Ex, and Other Things To Toss In A Blender

The Last Thing You Said

The Most Dangerous Thing

Never-Contented Things

One Small Thing

Sasquatch, Love, and Other Imaginary Things

These Things I’ve Done

That Thing We Call A Heart

The Thing With Feathers

Things I Should Have Known

Things I’m Seeing Without You

Things Jolie Needs To Do Before She Bites It

The Things We Promise

Unearthly Things

A Very, Very Bad Thing

The Whole Thing Together