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Color Me Purple: YA Covers Featuring Shades of Plum

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One of the fun types of displays I enjoyed doing at the library was the most simple: books by color. “Have you RED these books?” “C’mon get happy” (books with yellow covers). “I don’t remember the title but the cover was blue.” They’re straightforward and an easy way to get some books out that might otherwise not see display time regularly.

As I was perusing books coming out this year, I noticed something I haven’t noticed in a while, which is purple book covers. I don’t think it’s a not thing nor do I necessarily think we have a new trend, but the array of purple-infused colors caught my eye. I couldn’t not do a big round-up of them.

I’m not going to include descriptions because I think there’s something really appealing about the visual effect alone. All of these are 2015 YA releases — some paperback rereleases of books that had different covers before — and if you can think of other purple or mostly purple 2015 covers, I’d love to see them in the comments.

Of course, if you do a display like this, I’d love to see that, too.

 

A School for Unusual Girls by Kathleen Baldwin

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It’s 1814 in England, and young Georgie is being sent to a reform school after accidentally setting her family’s stables aflame. The fact that she didn’t do it on purpose and that it was all in the pursuit of science doesn’t seem to make a difference. She’s shipped off to Stranje House to be “fixed,” which means ridding her of any thoughts of being a scientist. Little do Georgie or her parents know that Stranje House is not a reform school at all, and the unusual girls sent there are groomed for very unusual activities indeed. Espionage, for example.

While it takes Georgie a ridiculously long time to realize that the school is not what it seems (past believability), this is a really fun story. The main plot involves Georgie trying to develop an invisible ink that can be used by England to defeat Napoleon once and for all, and she’s got a dreamy young man assisting her. They butt heads a lot, which means there’s lots of lovely romantic banter (Baldwin also writes adult romance, and it’s evident). It’s clear that Georgie is the brains behind this endeavor, though. This is an historical novel that turns into alternate history near the end, which may surprise some readers already familiar with the end of Napoleon’s story. I know I sat back and thought “Wait…” for a few moments before I remembered that this was fiction and the author is free to change history if she likes. And she does. It actually makes me even more excited to read the next book.

This one can be added to my list of secret historical societies of teenage girls along with The Agency, Grave Mercy, and Maid of Secrets, and readers who enjoy the subversive nature of those stories should like this one as well.

Georgie and the supporting cast members are predominantly white, but one student who becomes part of Georgie’s circle of friends is of Indian descent. There are a couple missteps with the treatment of her character – she’s referred to as “exotic” and described using food adjectives. This could be partially explained as it being Georgie’s perspective, but it’s still lazy and could have been done better. Aside from being a really fun romance and adventure story, this is also a great story about friendship, and all of Georgie’s friends have distinctive personalities and an important role to play. Subsequent books in the series will each focus on a different girl, which again reminds me of Grave Mercy. If you liked Grave Mercy but are interested in something a little lighter, A School for Unusual Girls is a natural pick.

Review copy provided by the publisher.

On The Radar: 12 Books for May

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

The Heir by Kiera Cass: Twenty years ago, America Singer entered the Selection and won Prince Maxon’s heart. Now the time has come for Princess Eadlyn to hold a Selection of her own. Eadlyn doesn’t expect her Selection to be anything like her parents’ fairy-tale love story … but as the competition begins, she may discover that finding her own happily ever after isn’t as impossible as she’s always thought.

Why: It’s the fourth book in the incredible popular “Selection” series. 

Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen: Sydney’s charismatic older brother, Peyton, has always been the center of attention in the family but when he is sent to jail, Sydney struggles to find her place at home and the world until she meets the Chathams, including gentle, protective Mac, who makes her feel seen for the first time.

Why: Sarah Dessen is a staple in YA, and her new book is no exception. 

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas: Dragged to a treacherous magical land she only knows about from stories, Feyre discovers that her captor is not an animal, but Tamlin, a High Lord of the faeries. As her feelings toward him transform from hostility to a fiery passion, the threats against the faerie lands grow. Feyre must fight to break an ancient curse or she will lose Tamlin forever.

Why: Maas’s other series, “Throne of Glass” has been extremely popular. This book is the launch of a new series. I received a couple review copies of it, so I know it’s getting a big push, too. 

The Wrath and The Dawn by Renee Andieh: In this reimagining of The Arabian Nights, Shahrzad plans to avenge the death of her dearest friend by volunteering to marry the murderous boy-king of Khorasan but discovers not all is as it seems within the palace.

Why: A retelling of 1001 Nights, and it’s been getting really positive buzz. 

Off The Page by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Van Leer: When Delilah is united with Oliver, a prince literally taken from the pages of a fairytale, the line between what is on the page and what is possible is blurred, and all must be resolved for the two to live happily ever after. 

Why: Though I don’t know how well Picoult’s previous YA novel did, there’s name recognition here, and teens and adults will want to be picking this up (bonus: it’s partially illustrated). 

Lois Lane: Fallout by Gwenda Bond: Lois Lane is the new girl at East Metropolis High, and her instinct to ask questions brings her and her online friend, Smallville Guy, into conflict with some bullying video gamers called the Warheads, who are being used in a dangerous virtual reality experiment.

Why: Lois Lane gets a YA backstory! I can’t wait to read this one myself, and I suspect it’ll be a hit, especially with comics fans who want to pick up a novel about a character who hasn’t been given a lot of her own story. 

I Am Princess X by Cherie Priest: Years after writing stories about a superheroine character she created with a best friend who died in a tragic car accident, 16-year-old Libby is shocked to see stickers, patches and graffiti images of the superheroine appearing all over town.

Why: I’ve not read this myself, but it has received tremendous positive buzz and a few starred reviews. 

The Hunted by Matt de la Pena: After surviving the earthquake and tsunami, Shy manages to make it back to land but he is far from safe because a secret his cruise ship co-worker, Addie, shared with him is one that people have killed for, and now that Shy knows, he has become a moving target.

Why: It’s the sequel to The Living, a dystopia. Plus, it’s Matt de la Pena and he’s one you always should have on shelf. 

Dangerous Deception by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl: When Ridley goes missing after a car crash, Link, his bandmates, and Lennox Gates, joined by Liv and John Breed, embark on a search for the Siren, taking them to Mississippi, where they encounter legendary blues guitarist Robert Johnson, and then to New Orleans, where an evil threatens to destroy them all.

Why: This is the sequel to Dangerous Creatures, the second series by Garcia and Stohl. 

Ink and Ashes by Valynne E. Maetani: Claire Takata has never known much about her father, who passed away when she was a little girl. But on the anniversary of his death, not long before her seventeenth birthday, she finds a mysterious letter from her deceased father, addressed to her stepfather. Claire never even knew that they had met.

Claire knows she should let it go, but she can’t shake the feeling that something’s been kept from her. In search of answers, Claire combs through anything that will give her information about her father . . . until she discovers he was a member of the yakuza, the Japanese mafia. The discovery opens a door that should have been left closed.

So begins the race to outrun his legacy as the secrets of her father’s past threaten Claire’s friends and family, newfound love, and ultimately her life. (via Goodreads)

Why: Out from Tu Books, this won their annual “New Visions” award for a debut author. A diverse mystery hurts no one. 
Scarlett Undercover by Jennifer Latham: Scarlett, a sixteen-year-old private detective in the fictional city of Las Almas, finds herself at the center of a mysterious case–involving ancient curses, priceless artifacts, and jinn–as she discovers that her own family secrets may have more to do with the situation than she thinks. 
Why: Speaking of diverse mysteries, I devoured this one when I read it last month. It’s very Veronica Mars in tone and voice, and Scarlett is a Muslim American, and this does play a big part in her story in a way we don’t get to see enough of in YA. 
Hold Me Like A Breath by Tiffany Schmidt: Penny Landlow, seventeen, the overprotected daughter of a powerful crime family, has rarely left the family estate due to a blood disorder but when tragedy strikes and she is left alone in New York City, she must prove she is not as fragile as everyone believes.
Why: This thriller is a retelling of “The Princess and the Pea” with organ trafficking. It’s the first in a new series and readers will dig the twist on the tale. This is a fun one. 

It’s Prom Season: A YA Reading List

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It’s prom season!

Way back in 2011 — a mere 4 years ago — I put together a prom-related YA book list. Since then, there has been a wave of more prom books that hit shelves; it seems like every year we get a handful, and they tackle this teen rite of passage in unique and interesting ways. Even in the years since I graduated high school, prom has become a bigger, more expansive, and more stressful (promposals!) experience for teenagers. It’s an industry unto itself.

Young AdultBooks AboutProm

 

I’ve talked about my own prom experience before, and someday, I hope there are even more stories about teens who decide to ditch the dance in favor of alternate plans. More interesting, though less surprising, is how few tales of the prom feature characters of color, have a primarily male-focused point of view, or feature LGBTQ characters (though we’re seeing a few more of these). There are some, but certainly the bulk of the prom books out there are very female and very white. If you can think of titles that fall into these categories, even if it’s a smaller plot point and not the focus of the book itself, I’d love to hear.

Dig into these tales of prom, published since 2011. All descriptions are from WorldCat, and if I’ve missed something, let me know in the comments.

Ask Again Later by Liz Czukas: Instead of a “No Drama Prom-a” with a group of friends, seventeen-year-old Heart LaCoeur must choose between two boys with good reasons for asking her, but a flip of a coin leads not to one date but two complete–and very different–prom nights.

 

Ditched: A Love Story by Robin Mellom: When high school student Justina ends up in a ditch in the middle of the night after prom, she stumbles to a nearby 7-Eleven where she tries to recall exactly how she got there.

 



It’s Our Prom (So Deal With It) by Julie Anne Peters: Told in separate voices, Azure, who is a lesbian, and Luke, who is bisexual, help plan an inclusive senior prom while Luke is writing and producing a musical about his life, both are working through the crush they have on their friend Radhika, and all three are dealing with problems at home.

Prom Ever After by Dona Sarkar, Caridad Ferrer, and Diedre Berry: Prom night is finally here. Three girls will find that the biggest night of high school can also be the most surprising.

The Prom Goer’s Interstellar Excursion by Chris McCoy: Minutes after eighteen-year-old Bennett Bardo of Gordo, New Mexico, asks Sophie Gilkey, his dream girl, to prom and she says yes, she’s abducted by aliens and Bennett catches a ride across the galaxy with a band of misfit musicians to find her.

 

(An alien abduction prom story? Yes, please!)

 

The Prom Queen by Melody Carlson: Life gets more and more complicated for a high school girl who decides to do whatever it takes to be elected as prom queen.

 

Prom by Ellie O’Ryan (novel based on the movie): Nova Prescott is the president of this year’s Prom Committee at Brookside High. After an accidental fire causes the prom decorations to go up in smoke, Jesse Richter is enlisted by the principal to do so community service and help Nova repair the damage. Will Nova go to the dance with Jesse (to whom she is attracted), or with Brandon Roberts (with whom Nova had wanted for ages to go to the prom)?

 

Promposal by Rhonda Helms: Camilla hopes her secret crush, Benjamin, might ask her to prom but feels pressured into accepting the invitation of a casual acquaintance, and Joshua has worked up the courage to ask his best friend, Ethan, to be his date when Ethan asks his help in crafting the perfect “promposal” for another boy.

 

 

Tag Along by Tom Ryan: It’s junior prom night. Andrea is grounded for getting her older brother to buy booze for her, Paul is having panic attacks, Roemi has been stood up by his Internet date, and Candace is busy tagging a building (before she gets collared by a particularly tenacious cop). By happenstance, the four near-strangers end up together, getting into more trouble, arguing and ultimately helping each other out over the course of eight madcap hours.

Tessa Masterson Will Go To Prom by Emily Franklin & Brendan Halpin: Feeling humiliated and confused when his best friend Tessa rejects his love and reveals a long-held secret , high school senior Luke must decide if he should stand by Tessa when she invites a female date to the prom, sparking a firestorm of controversy in their small Indiana town.

April Debut YA Novels

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It’s time for another round-up of debut YA novels of the month.

Like always, 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.

All descriptions are from WorldCat, unless otherwise noted. If I’m missing any debuts out in February from traditional publishers, let me know in the comments. As always, not all noted titles included here are necessarily endorsements for those titles. 

Ask The Dark by Henry Turner: A thriller about Billy Zeets, a 14-year-old semi-delinquent in a deadly tango with a killer.

Becoming Jinn by Lori Goldstein: Behind closed doors, sixteen-year-old Azra is learning how to harness her powers and fulfill the obligations of her destiny. Mentored by her mother and her Zar “sisters,” Azra discovers she may not be quite like the rest of her circle of female Jinn … and that her powers could endanger them all.

Dating Down by Stefanie Lyons: Seventeen-year-old aspiring artist Samantha Henderson, eager to learn about life and to get away from her father’s political campaigns and her stepmother, refuses to give up on her new boyfriend, “X,” even after he proves to be trouble, damaging her friendships and introducing her to drugs.

Denton Little’s Deathdate by Lance Rubin: In a world where everyone knows the day they will die, a teenage boy is determined to outlive his upcoming expiration date.

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir: Laia is a Scholar living under the iron-fisted rule of the Martial Empire. When her brother is arrested for treason, Laia goes undercover as a slave at the empire’s greatest military academy in exchange for assistance from rebel Scholars who claim that they will help to save her brother from execution.

Fig by Sarah Elizabeth Schantz: In 1994, Fig looks back on her life and relates her experiences, from age six to nineteen, as she desperately tries to save her mother from schizophrenia while her own mental health and relationships deteriorate.

The Girl at Midnight by Melissa Grey: A girl who’s adopted and raised by a race of creatures with feathers for hair and magic in their veins becomes involved in an ancient war and a centuries-old love, discovering startling truths about the world she lives in.

I Am Her Revenge by Meredith Moore: Enrolled at an English boarding school, Vivian targets an innocent senior as part of a revenge plot her manipulative mother devised, but as the plan’s set into motion, Vivian starts to uncover secrets so dark and deadly they threaten to unravel the deceptive being that Mother worked so hard to create.

In A World Just Right by Jen Brooks: Eighteen-year-old Jonathan Aubrey, a scarred loner, escapes at will into other worlds of his making, but suddenly the world in which a popular girl is his long-term girlfriend is intersecting reality in startling ways.

None of the Above by I. W. Gregorio: A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she’s intersex…and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between. Reviewed here. 

Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli: Sixteen-year-old and not-so-openly gay Simon Spier prefers to save his drama for the school musical. But when an email falls into the wrong hands, his secret is at risk of being thrust into the spotlight. Now Simon is actually being blackmailed: if he doesn’t play wingman for class clown Martin, his sexual identity will become everyone’s business. Worse, the privacy of Blue, the pen name of the boy he’s been emailing, will be compromised. With some messy dynamics emerging in his once tight-knit group of friends, and his email correspondence with Blue growing more flirtatious every day, Simon’s junior year has suddenly gotten all kinds of complicated. Now, change-averse Simon has to find a way to step out of his comfort zone before he’s pushed out — without alienating his friends, compromising himself, or fumbling a shot at happiness with the most confusing, adorable guy he’s never met. Reviewed here. 

Still Waters by Ash Parsons: High-schooler Jason, who lives with a drunk, abusive father at home, hopes to earn enough money to escape with his younger sister, Janie, by being tough at school, but the stakes grow ever more dangerous and soon even his fists and ability to think on his feet are not enough to keep his head above water.

Zeroboxer by Fonda Lee: As seventeen-year-old Carr ‘the Raptor’ Luka rises to fame in the weightless combat sport of zeroboxing, he learns a devastating secret that jeopardizes not only his future in the sport, but interplanetary relations