Get Genrefied: Christian Fiction

December 10, 2014 |

This month, we’re tackling Christian fiction. For most of the genre guides, I’ve stuck to stuff I know really well, but I don’t read much Christian fiction myself, so I’m branching out a bit for this one. It’s an important genre to know about and helps fill a niche for many teen readers.

Introduction

In general, Christian fiction encompasses those stories that present a Christian worldview. This definition is really broad, but deliberately so. Often there will be explicit mention of God, Jesus, the Bible, sin and redemption, and so on, and the protagonist’s journey will be overtly spiritual. But that’s not always the case. Sometimes the focus is more allegorical (think Narnia) or the Christian ideology is subtler and conveyed more through character actions rather than deliberate mention of religious tenets. It can also be any genre under the sun: realistic, contemporary, historical, fantasy, science fiction, and so on. Because Christian fiction can be done with such a light touch, sometimes it’s unclear whether a certain book should truly be called “Christian fiction.” For example, there’s a lot of debate over whether Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings is Christian fiction. This also makes it really important to be able to recognize Christian fiction by its publishing house or author, since it’s not always apparent from the book blurb.

Christian fiction is huge in the adult market. If you work in a public library, you’ve no doubt seen the hordes of Amish fiction that readers can’t seem to get enough of (referred to as the “bonnet brigade” by one of my co-workers). It’s not just Amish fiction though; it’s also books like Left Behind or Karen Kingsbury’s hugely popular novels. Christian fiction also encompasses some specific subgenres such as
Catholic or Mormon fiction, which can be hugely popular among their
intended audience. Christian adult fiction is sometimes referred to as “inspirational fiction,” but I haven’t seen that term used as much for teen novels. It does give a good idea of some of the appeal behind these books though: they’re meant to uplift and inspire. Christian fiction in general also doesn’t seem to be as widespread in the teen realm, but there’s a definite readership for it.

In my experience, the teens who seek out Christian fiction are those who want to see their Christian values reflected in the books they read. Often, these values are quite conservative – socially, politically, and religiously – but not always. Christian fiction reads tend to be gentler reads, with less violence, sex, and foul language – but again, not always. Often the assumption is that the parents foist these books on their kids, but I find that teens also want them without any prompting from their parents. Christian teens whose religion is a big part of their lives are drawn to stories featuring protagonists whose religious beliefs mirror their own. I’m reminded of this piece written a few years ago about the seeming lack of religion or religious protagonists in YA. Christian fiction helps fill this gap.

Because Christian fiction ranges from very message-heavy to very subtly religious, it has the ability to attract a wide range of readers, and publishers are trying to capitalize on that. Blink, a new imprint of Zondervan launched in 2013, aims to publish YA Christian fiction “for anyone, regardless of faith.” Their About page on their website doesn’t even mention the word Christian anywhere. The YA bloggers at Redeemed Reader discussed a few of Blink’s first titles (part one, part two), giving their opinions on the stories as Christian fiction and whether they thought the books would appeal to non-Christians. Those two posts are also a great way to get an idea of what Christian fiction means to teens who read it regularly.

Resources

As I mentioned above, recognizing Christian fiction from a book blurb isn’t always easy. Look for specific publishers/imprints and authors to clue you in.

Publishers/Imprints:

Baker Publishing Group, including Bethany House and Revell
HarperCollins Christian Publishing, which includes Blink, Thomas Nelson, and Zondervan/Zonderkidz
Tyndale House
Waterbrook Multnomah, including Waterbrook Press and Multnomah Books
Moody Publishers including Moody Urban

Popular YA Christian Fiction Authors:

Ted Dekker
Melody Carlson
Donita K. Paul
Melanie Dickerson
G. P. Taylor
Andrew Klavan
Jenny B. Jones
Robin Jones Gunn
Stephanie Perry Moore
Adult author Beverly Lewis has also written some YA Christian fiction.

Of course, the above list is only a few of the authors writing YA Christian fiction today. Many of these authors have compiled much larger, more exhaustive lists, some of which I’ve linked to below.

On the Web:

Author Jill Williamson maintains a website called Novel Teen that aims to help YA readers find great Christian fiction books. She also has a huge list of recommended authors.
Similarly, popular adult author Karen Kingsbury has a great list of YA Christian fiction authors at a website she runs called Family Fiction.
On the blog front, Redeemed Reader is a great resource, as is Sherry Early’s blog, Semicolon. (Sherry is a Cybils panelist this year in the Elementary/Middle Grade speculative fiction category.)
The Christy Awards give annual awards to Christian books in a variety of categories. They do have a YA category, though it’s not always awarded (presumably because it doesn’t get the required ten entries).

Books

The books on the list below have all been published within the last five years or so and are generally regarded as Christian fiction. Descriptions are from WorldCat. A lot of YA publishing is very white and straight, but Christian fiction seems to be even more so. See this blog post on the topic. LGBT Christian fiction, in particular, is tough to find, and that is no doubt due – at least in part – to the more conservative type of Christian fiction that dominates the market. LGBT-friendly Christian fiction may be best found outside the genre – in books that may not explicitly state they’re Christian, but still have a Christian feel. If you know of some titles that would help diversify this list, please let us know in the comments.

Remants: Season of Wonder by Lisa T. Bergren
The year is 2095. Gifted teens known as Remnants have been chosen and
trained to act as humanity’s last hope to rectify the horrors that are
now part of everyday life. But the Sons of Sheol are determined to stop
them. | Sequel: Season of Fire

Halflings by Heather Burch
When Nikki is targeted by an evil intent on harming her, she finds
herself under the guardianship of three young men who call themselves
Halflings. | Sequels: Guardian, Avenger

Premiere by Melody Carlson (On the Runway series)
When two sisters get their own fashion-focused reality television show,
vivacious Paige is excited, but Erin, a Christian who is more interested
in being behind the camera than in front of it, has problems with some
of the things they are asked to do. | Sequels: Catwalk, Rendezvous, Spotlight, Glamour, Ciao

Trading Secrets by Melody Carlson

Back in fifth grade, Micah Knight got an Amish pen pal, and over the
years, they’ve exchanged many letters–and many secrets. At age
seventeen, Micah finally has the chance to meet her pen pal
face-to-face. The only problem is that because of confusion about her
name when the pen pals were assigned, her pen pal was a boy, Zach
Miller. And all this time, Micah’s never told Zach that she’s actually a
girl. While she
wants nothing more than to experience life on Zach’s Amish farm, she’s
afraid he’ll hate her for deceiving him all these years. But she makes
up her mind to face the music–and that’s where the fun really begins.

So Not Happening by Jenny B. Jones
Forced to move from Manhattan to an Oklahoma farm when her mother
remarries, sixteen-year-old Bella relies on her faith while
investigating a deadly, secret organization for the school newspaper, as
she slowly realizes how shallow and spoiled she has been. | Sequels: I’m So Sure, So Over My Head

Nightmare City by Andrew Klavan

Tom Harding only wants the truth. But the truth is becoming more
dangerous with every passing minute. As a reporter for his high school
newspaper, Tom Harding was tracking the best story of his life when,
suddenly, his life turned very, very weird. He woke up one morning to
find his house empty, his street empty, his whole town empty. Empty
except for an eerie, creeping fog; and whatever creatures were slowly moving toward him through the fog. Now Tom’s once-ordinary world has become something out of a horror movie.

Doon by Carey Corp and Lorie Langdon
Embarking on a summer adventure in Scotland, best friends Veronica and
Mackenna find romance and danger when they are transported to the
kingdom of Doon, a hidden village that appears once every 100 years.
Inspired by the musical Brigadoon. | Sequel: Destined for Doon

The Healer’s Apprentice by Melanie Dickerson

In this story loosely based on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale,
seventeen-year-old Rose, a healer’s apprentice, falls in love with the
betrothed Lord Hamlin, who is seeking the sorcerer who cursed his future
bride. | Sequels: The Fairest Beauty, The Merchant’s Daughter, The Captive Maiden, The Princess Spy

Aquifer by Jonathan Friesen

In 2250, water is scarce and controlled by tyrants, but when
sixteen-year-old Luca descends to the domain of the Water Rats, he meets
one who captures his heart and leads him to secrets about a vast
conspiracy, and about himself.

A Girl Named Mister by Nikki Grimes
A pregnant teenager finds support and forgiveness from God through a
book of poetry presented from the Virgin Mary’s perspective.

Hit by Lorie Ann Grover
High school senior Sarah takes a poetry class led by Mr. Haddings, a
student teacher from the nearby University of Washington, and finds
herself using her poetry journal to subtly declare her feelings for him,
but everything changes when she is hit by a car.

Black, White, Other by Joan Steinau Lester
Twenty miles from Oakland, California, where fires have led to racial
tension, multi-racial fifteen-year-old Nina faces the bigotry of
long-time friends, her parents’ divorce, and her brother’s misbehavior,
while learning of her great-great grandmother Sarah’s escape from
slavery.

Finding Your Faith by Stephanie Perry Moore
Thirteen-year-old triplet Yasmin tries to find solace in prayer while
helping her family recover from her older brother’s suicide, as well as
dealing with all of the drama of middle school and life in the projects. | Sequels: Believing in Hope, Experiencing the Joy, Learning to Love, Enjoying True Peace

Me, Just Different by Stephanie Morrill
An incident at a summer party and major family crises have high school
senior Skylar Hoyt rethinking her way of life, and with the help of a
new boy at school and a youth coach at church, she begins to find her
true self.

Like Moonlight at Low Tide by Nicole Quigley
When high school junior Melissa Keiser returns to her hometown of Anna
Maria Island, Florida, she has one goal, to hide from the bullies who
had convinced her she was the ugliest girl in school. But when she is
caught sneaking into a neighbor’s pool at night, everything changes.

Running Lean by Diana Sharples
Told from their separate viewpoints, Calvin Greenlee copes with grief
over his brother’s recent death by racing his vintage Yamaha on rural
North Carolina streets while his girlfriend, Stacey Youngblood, battles
anexoria, and their relationship may not survive the strain.

Simply Divine by Jacquelin Thomas
After a family catastrophe, glamorous Hollywood teenager Divine goes to
live with devout relatives in Georgia, where she learns the importance
of family and finds strength by turning to God. | Sequels: Divine Confidential, Divine Secrets, Divine Match-Up

Merlin’s Blade by Robert Treskillard
When a meteorite crashes near a small village in fifth-century Britain,
it brings with it a mysterious black stone that bewitches anyone who
comes in contact with its glow—a power the druids hope to use to
destroy King Uthur’s kingdom, as well as the new Christian faith. The
only person who seems immune is a young, shy, half-blind swordsmith’s
son named Merlin. As his family, village, and even the young Arthur,
are placed in danger, Merlin must face his fears and his blindness to
take hold of the role God ordained for him. | Sequels: Merlin’s Shadow,
Merlin’s Nightmare

The Summer of Cotton Candy by Debbie Viguie
Forced by her father to get a summer job, seventeen-year-old Candace
makes the most of selling cotton candy in an amusement park, despite a
botched nametag, vindictive co-workers, lewd patrons, and growing
distant from her best friend. | Sequels: The Fall of Candy Corn, The Winter of Candy Canes, The Spring of Candy Apples

Captives by Jill Williamson
In a dystopian future, most of the population is infected with a plague.
The exceptions are those who live outside the Safe Land’s city walls.
When a mutation in the plague sends city enforcers looking for the
uninfected, Levi’s village is raided. While the attack leaves many dead,
Levi’s fiancee is being held captive. Levi launches a war against the
city in an attempt to free her before it’s too late. | Sequels: Outcasts, Rebels

A Few Cybils Reads – Part VIII

December 9, 2014 |

Starbreak by Phoebe North

This is the sequel to North’s debut, Starglass, and picks up right where the first book left off. Terra and a few other humans flee the chaos of the ship and make it to the planet below, which they know by now is already inhabited. Much to Terra’s surprise, they run into Aleksandra, the captain’s murderous daughter, who leads the rebels. They’re all eventually captured by the aliens that live on the planet, and Terra finally gets a chance to meet the alien boy she’s been literally dreaming about for months – it turns out he’s the translator between humans and aliens. The culture clash between the humans and the aliens is as fractious as you’d expect. It’s unclear whether the aliens will allow the humans to live on the planet – or if they’ll exile them to space once more.

I’ve long wanted more alien books where the aliens are less humanoid and more…something else. Starbreak fulfills this desire and tells a fascinating story to boot. While the first book was relegated entirely to the ship of humans, the sequel takes us onto an alien planet peopled with two different species of sentient creatures. They’re somewhat humanoid in that they speak through their mouths and walk on two legs, but they’re plant-based rather than animal-based. The idea of sentient plants is so cool to me, and I loved seeing how North built upon it. For example, one species of alien is carnivorous, like a Venus fly trap, whereas the other subsists on sun and water alone. The two species of aliens also have a unique relationship with each other, unlike anything on Earth (at least among humans). Of course, this story is also about human Terra, and it is in this book that she truly finds her voice and comes into her own. It’s a love story as well, a sweet one and a weird one.

All books about humans meeting aliens can be read as a metaphor for different human cultures first interacting with each other, and Starbreak is no different. It would take a shallow reader not to note the parallels, but this is not a message-driven book that wants you to Learn a Lesson. It’s a character-driven story imbued with human truth and a lot of creativity, solidly science fiction but always relatable. It would be a great readalike for fans of Beth Revis’ Shades of Earth (the best book in that trilogy, in my opinion) or perhaps Cecil Castellucci’s Tin Star, another book where a human finds herself alone among aliens.

Promise of Shadows by Justina Ireland

Zephyr is a harpy, and she’s been banished to Tartarus (sort of like Hell) for exacting revenge against the god who killed her sister. The thing is, she shouldn’t have been able to kill a god in the first place. This ability indicates that Zephyr may be the long-lost Nyx, able to use dark magic and protect the harpies and other half-god beings from gods like Hera who mean to wipe them out. First Zephyr has to escape Tartarus, which she does with the help of a long-lost (and hot) childhood friend. Then she has to accept this destiny, not an easy thing to do for someone who is a coward (a refreshing character trait. Being brave is hard and doesn’t come easy for most of us).

Ireland’s writing is smooth and easy to read – and I mean that in a good way. I read this book coming off a string of duds and it was so refreshing to finally read something well-written and competently structured. It’s not hugely different in premise or plot from the scads of other mythology-inspired paranormal reads out there, but it’s done quite well and features a black protagonist, helping to diversify a genre that is too often lily white. Zephyr feels like her own person, not an everygirl – she’s not very brave, tends to run from fights, and is pretty bad at school. This makes for a satisfying character arc when she finally does learn how to be the Nyx (because you knew she would, right?). Ireland takes traditional Greek mythology and builds on it, weaving many different elements together into an interesting whole. The story is action-packed with a side of romance (rather than vice versa). Ancillary characters are well-drawn as well. It’s just a good book in every way. I can see it having lots of appeal for readers who can’t get enough of Greek mythology; it would be a natural next read for fans of Percy Jackson who are ready for something a little older.

Talker 25 by Joshua McCune
Melissa lives in a country much changed from the one we know. Dragons have terrorized the people for years, but humans have finally achieved a tenuous peace – they’ve hunted the most violent dragons to their deaths or exile, and have put the rest on reservations. When Melissa and her friends go to one of these reservations as a prank, it sets off a chain of events that will utterly change her life. For starters, she learns she can talk to dragons with her mind. Then a terrible dragon attack destroys Melissa’s town, and she’s rescued by dragon sympathizers, usually called terrorists by everyone else. This encompasses the first part of the book, where Melissa realizes that a lot of what she’s been told about the dragons is wrong. The second part involves Melissa being captured by the government and exploited for her telepathic abilities. She’s forced to trick dragons to their deaths, and sometimes she’s forced to kill them herself.

I wasn’t crazy about this one. I’ve always been a bit tepid toward dragons. I loved Pern, but nothing dragon-related since then has really grabbed me. The premise of Talker 25 – that some humans can communicate with dragons telepathically – is interesting, but the execution was pretty jumbled. I never got a clear idea of what exactly the dragons had done to start such a war, which meant I had no context for the humans’ fight against them. It seems like McCune just assumed that we’d know humans and dragons had been locked in a deadly fight for years, but I never figured out why. There’s some stuff about a reality show thrown in that feels odd and out of place, too. I read the whole thing feeling a little lost. The first part of the book I mostly felt mystified; the second part, where Melissa is in captivity, I mostly felt ill. It’s quite violent, with several scenes of dragon torture, some committed by Melissa herself under duress. There’s one scene in particular where McCune details just how many strokes it takes to decapitate one of Melissa’s old dragon friends (hint: it’s a lot). It felt too drawn out and a little lurid. Recommended for readers who can’t get enough of dragons – and can stomach a lot.

All books borrowed from my library.

“Best of 2014” in YA Fiction List Break Down

December 8, 2014 |

Every year, I like to dive into the “best of” lists and look at the similarities and differences between and among the lists. More, I think it’s worthwhile to dig into what the books that comprise these lists do or don’t have within them — how diverse are they, how are they representing sexuality, what sort of gender make up are the characters and authors, and so forth. Because the “best of” lists offer a glimpse into the year of reading for YA, this is an interesting and worthwhile way to see what is and isn’t happening.

This is the fourth year I’ve done this, and previous data sets can be found here, here, and here. I do plan on looking through them all and comparing across years, since I am curious whether things are looking any differently now in 2014 than they were in 2011. Look for that in the next week or so.

To look at the numbers, I broke apart the “best of” YA lists from the following professional publications: Kirkus, Horn Book, School Library Journal, and Publishers Weekly. In previous years, I also used Library Journal’s lists — first a “Best YA” list, then a “Best YA for Adult Readers” list — but they didn’t have one this year. From those lists, I pulled out only the YA fiction, meaning that they were titles designated for those readers 12-18. I did not include graphic memoirs, though I did include graphic novels when they were fiction. In the past I’ve eliminated graphic novels, but this year there were only two, so I kept them. This led to a total of 55 titles being tallied in the data. There were 59 authors considered here, as well. I included translators and illustrators in the author category because their work is as important and worth considering. When I get into the charts and designations, there will be further notes about this, as I could not track down information I’d hoped to and had to leave it out in some places.

Using my own knowledge from reading the books or reviews, I determined whether books featured a main character or main arc that included LGBTQ themes. I double-checked that data with Malinda Lo, who will be posting her 2014 round-up of the year in LGBTQ YA this week. I also looked at whether main characters were people of color or an author was a person of color, as determined through my own reading, reviews, and/or easily researched information. I did have to ask about a couple books and authors, and that information was verified for me. In addition to these analytical pieces, I’ve made notes in my data where other elements of diversity were part of a story; this includes mental illness, disabilities, minor roles for characters of color, and so forth. I did not tabulate this data, but it is all available to look at in my giant spreadsheet. Because writing out titles would make this post very, very long, I encourage having that open while looking at the data, as it’ll make referencing which books were counted where easier.

All information about starred reviews came through Jen J’s exceptionally well-done spreadsheet. There is one note to make about this, which is that I also went through Horn Book’s January/February starred reviews to be completist about it, which led to one title on this list having an additional star yet to be noted on her spreadsheet.

As always, caveats: none of this data means anything. I’ve not tried to draw conclusions or suggest certain things about the books that popped up on these lists. Errors here in terms of counting, in how I’ve marked books LGBTQ or POC are my own, and so forth, are all my own. Since I haven’t read all of these books, some of these are educated guesses.

Now…what do those “best of 2014” YA fiction lists look like this year?

Gender Representation In “Best Of” Lists

When it comes to male and female authors, who has more slots on the “best of” lists?

Out of the 59 authors represented, 18 were men and 41 were female. This isn’t a surprising ratio at all, though it certainly looks a lot different than the ratio we see on the New York Times Bestsellers List. While I’m not going to draw comparisons in this post, I can say that this ratio is smaller than in previous years of looking at this data — there are more men represented in 2014 than in previous years.

It’s really challenging to look at how main character gender breaks down, but I gave it a go. To make it a little easier, I’ve broken the data into three pieces: male main characters, female main characters, and a third segment, cast of characters. For books with two main characters alternating voices, they’ve been counted in their respective categories. For books with more than two main characters — How It Went Down and The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone, for example — I’ve put them into the cast of characters category. Those books all featured multiple narrators, multiple “main” voices, and both male and female perspectives. I counted a total of 63 main characters (“cast” was counted as a single number here) and the breakdown looks like this:

There were a total of 37 main characters who were female, 22 who were male, and 4 books featured a cast of each. For what many like to believe of YA being a “female dominated” category, these numbers really do not suggest that. These “best of” lists represent a slice of YA, of course, but they represent a vetted and respected slice of YA — one professionals deem to be the most solid or remarkable of the year (or as the case might be in some places, the books that had really nice marketing budgets and got into the right hands). There were more female-driven narrators for sure, but they were not entirely out of line with male narratives here.

Last year, I wondered if the perspective was that male-led narratives were “better” or more respected than female-driven ones. This is something I’m still curious about, given how much talk there is that there aren’t books out there with male voices or that there aren’t male YA authors. Both of those claims are false, as anyone who knows anything about YA can tell you, but looking at the hard numbers from these lists only confirms those claims aren’t truths. There ARE more female led books, but it doesn’t mean male led books don’t exist. They make up 35% of the “best of” lists this year!

Debut Authors

How good are the chances of making a “best of” list when you’re a debut author? Note that all four of these lists appeared before YALSA’s announcement of the five Morris finalists. That, I think, is a good thing, since there could be no influence.

As always, my definition of “debut” is purist. This is a first book. My one exception to this is the same one made for the Morris — if it’s an author’s first book in English for a US audience, I consider it a debut. This was the case in one title included. I included authors as “debut” if they had published in or edited an anthology in the past, as that was the case in a couple of authors.

More than 1/4 of the books on this year’s lists were written by debut authors, for a total of 16 books written by debuts. This is a really nice showing of new voices within “best of” lists. It’s been my suspicion this year has been a great one for debut authors, and I think that has been playing out in these lists, as well as other year-end round-ups.

What about gender of debut authors?

One-quarter of the debuts this year were male, while the rest were female. That breaks down into 4 men and 12 women.

Back to the note on Morris titles: of the books that landed on the Morris list, four out of five of them also appeared on the “best of” lists: The Story of Owen, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, and The Carnival at Bray.

“Best Of” By Genre

Every year, this is the hardest breakdown for me, since genre is so fluid. How do you decide exactly what category a book belongs in if you haven’t read it? Or even if you HAVE read it, the breakdowns can be really challenging. One thing is for sure, though: there are zero paranormal titles hanging with the “best of” crowd this year.

I took a stab at making these genres make sense, and from looking at the titles, my own reading knowledge, as well as other reviews, I pulled out eight main genres: realistic (which includes those books inexplicably set in the 90s, a trend that I have been over for a couple years now), science fiction, fantasy, horror/fantasy, mystery, historical, magical realism, and historical fantasy.

A caveat here: there are 56 titles being considered here, rather than just 55. Because Scott Westerfeld’s Afterworlds could fall into either the realistic or the fantasy category, depending on the reader, I didn’t want to make a call. I decided to include it in both.

Realistic fiction had a strong showing this year, but it’s also a little bit deceiving. Because there were a number of subgenres of fantasy represented, it could easily be said that fantasy held its own, too. In fact, let’s look at this genre breakdown as we collapse the subgenres into the larger one. All of the books within the “horror/fantasy” subgenre are more fantasy than they are realistic, so I’m putting them in that grouping.

And if I went ahead and made magical realism a subgenre of fantasy, then it looks like this:

Fantasy outpaced realistic fiction by one book. The two genres eclipsed science fiction, mystery, and the single, lone book in the historical fiction genre.

Frequency of “Best of” List Appearances

Was there a big spread of titles across this year’s “best of” lists or did many titles end up on many lists? This is a little bit of a false category in that some of the publications — Horn Book, for example — had a very tiny number of titles that fit the criteria I set. Other publications, like Kirkus, had a big number of titles on their list that fit the criteria.

Some publications that put their lists out very early, like Publishers Weekly, always fascinate me because I wonder how much it may (or may not) influence the appearance of titles on other lists. In other words, is there a “first!” pride in naming a title the best? These numbers won’t shed light on that, but they do show whether some titles were really popular among all of the “best” lists.

Only two books appeared on all four of the “best” lists — We Were Liars by E Lockhart and This One Summer by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki. The vast majority of books landed on one list, and that list would be Kirkus’s.

Out of curiosity, I wanted to know how the books on the “best of” list shook out when it came to starred reviews earned. I used Jen J’s spreadsheet, as noted above, which includes starred reviews from Kirkus, Booklist, The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, School Library Journal, Publisher’s Weekly, and Horn Book. That means titles have the chance to have up to six stars.

Most of the books on the “best of” list earned 1 or 2 starred reviews. Out of the 55 books, only two earned six stars: This One Summer and Glory O’Brien’s History of the Future.

This One Summer by the Tamakis landed on all four lists and earned six starred reviews. It is, by this measure, the most decorated and distinguished YA novel in 2014.

As for the entire breakdown of starred reviews and list honors, here’s the spreadsheet:

Sometimes the more stars earned means the more likely the book will appear on multiple “best of” lists and sometimes, it doesn’t. In general, this year looked to be more spread out in terms of the titles being given a “best of” designation.

“Best of” By Publication Date

One really interesting thing I read in the reports by YALSA committee chairs for an upcoming board meeting was that books published in the latter half of the year had a distinct disadvantage when it came to being considered for the Morris award, which announces its finalists in early December. This is something I have always thought about, especially when it comes to these “best of” lists. While it’s great to announce them in early November or even the first week of December, what about the books that are published later? Reviews are obviously reading all year long, but how easily would a smaller title from a smaller publisher with a not-so-huge marketing budget fall under the radar? Most people know that “big books” are published in the March – May range, as well as the September – October range. That’s not a hard-and-fast rule nor universal, but spend a little time looking at publication frequency, budgets, when book publication dates change, and so forth, and you see the patterns.

Here’s when the books published each month:

If you look at the first half of the year against the last half of the year, the divide is almost exactly even: 28 of the “best of” titles published between January and the end of June, while 27 published between July and December. October was the most frequent month — how much is that due to fresh memory of titles when list-making time happens? There were zero books published in December on these lists, and there was only one title from the months of November and June.

Again, nothing can be said about this, but it is interesting to speculate.

“Best of” By Publisher

How diverse were the publishers represented on the lists? Did we see Candlewick doing really well, as seems to be the case every single year?

I’ve collapsed imprints into their bigger house, so First Second, Tor, and St Martins fall under Macmillan.

This chart is difficult to read, but breaking it into two charts throws off scaling, which is even more problematic. Everything to the right of Macmillan, which reaches 6 and is in dark blue, lands at one title each. These are primarily smaller publishers, like Pyr, Soho Teen, Holiday House, Algonquin, and so forth.

Penguin had the most representation on this year’s lists, with 8 books, followed by Random House at 7, Macmillan at 6, and — as always, this makes me so happy — Candlewick had 5.

While Penguin and Random House are now one publishing house, I chose to keep them separate. Putting them together is really fascinating though: they certainly dominate then, with a total of 15 titles on the “best of” lists.

Collapsing the publishers down by whether they’re a “Big 5/6” or smaller, the “Big 5/6” have a total of 32 titles on the list, while the mid-size and small publishers have 23. Not a bad split at all.

LGBTQ and POC Representation on “Best of” Lists

This was a watershed year for discussion of diversity in the publishing world. While it’s always been there, this year, in comparison to prior years, it was a much bigger, more vocal discussion. But did it make any impact on the books on these lists?

It would be a tease to compare to years past in this post, but the long and the short of it is that the answer is no.

As noted above, I used my own knowledge, research, and consultation with Malinda Lo to pull out the books which featured main characters who identified as LGBTQ or which had significant story lines that involved LGBTQ themes or situations. Where Malinda doesn’t count Sarah McCarry’s About A Girl since it’s not necessarily overt, I have included it, since I thought it was a big enough thread to merit inclusion. I do not look at author’s sexuality when looking at LGBTQ because this is too difficult to gauge without knowing the authors — it’s not obvious, sexuality is fluid, and not all authors choose to self-identify in their bios or information available about them.

Out of the 55 books, a total of 6 books fit the LGBTQ criteria. That would be 10% of the list.

What about representation of racial diversity? Because finding information about authors and their racial backgrounds is easier, I fold them into the same category as I do main characters of color. For books where the author is a person of color and their main character is a person of color, I counted it only once. Some authors, whose background may be difficult to distinguish, I reached out to them or to those who know them for confirmation.

Out of the 55 books and 59 authors, there was a count of 14 writers/main characters of color. That’s roughly 24%.

What about books that feature or are written by people of color that feature LGBTQ main characters or plot elements?

It’s still very straight and very white on the “best of” lists.

It’s worth noting again, though, that some of the books DO feature secondary characters who aren’t straight or aren’t white; those have been noted in the spreadsheet.

Miscellaneous Data

Let’s wrap this up with a couple more pieces of data that are interesting, even if they’re not necessarily important ones.

First, there were a total of 49 books published as hardcovers, 3 published as paperback originals, and 3 published as split runs (meaning both hardcover and paperbacks published at the same time).

Three of the books were novels in verse, and I include Jenny Hubbard’s And We Stay in this count, even though it’s only partially in verse. I did not include Gabi, A Girl in Pieces, though it does include poetry in it. This list also had 3 graphic novels and 1 book in an “alternative” format — The Unfinished Life of Addison Stone‘s interview-format made it worth putting into a category all of its own.

I’ve always looked at country of origin on these lists, too, as they often seem like they feature a lot of books by authors who aren’t from the US. This year, there were a total of 40 authors who were from the US, and there were 18 from outside the US. I did not include information on one of the illustrators, as I could find nothing about her in my research and didn’t want to make assumptions either way in terms of her country of origin (I did find enough to know other data about her, as reflected above).

Finally, I broke out books by whether or not they were stand alones or part of a series. There were 39 stand alone titles and 16 books that were part of a series. This included “loose” series, like Dirty Wings. Of the books in a series, I found where they fell within their series to be one of the most interesting pieces of data — where you’d suspect almost entirely first or final books in a series to hit these “best of” lists, it turns out that this year was a good year for books in the middle of a series-in-progress. There was one book that was a final in a series, 10 that were first in a series, and 5 that fell somewhere in the middle.

So…What Now?

Nothing can be made from this data. It doesn’t mean anything, especially pulled from its context. But nevertheless, it’s interesting to look at and speculate upon because it does give a glimpse into the year of YA as deemed by professionals and experts on YA.

Were there any surprises in this data? Any titles that did or didn’t make the lists that were curious?

One thing I keep wondering about and have zero explanation for — and would love to read some theories about — is why Andrew Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle earned more acclaim from review journals and “best of” lists than his second release this year, 100 Sideways Miles, which was a title on the National Book Awards long list. I thought it was a more accomplished, literary, and full novel (not to mention it portrayed females as actual dynamic characters, rather than as props for use by the male heroes). It was surprising Smith didn’t have both books pop up on these “best of” lists.

This Week on Book Riot & The Book Smugglers

December 6, 2014 |

This week, Kimberly and I were part of The Book Smuggler’s annual Smugglivus celebration. We took the prompt a little differently this year, talking about 3 of our favorite books from this year, 3 books we’re eager to read next year, and then we picked 3 books we read this year that we think each other should read. Here’s what our picks are!

Over at Book Riot this week…

After writing a little bit about the cover redesign for Anne of Green Gables over here as part of my Toronto International Book Fest post, I had to look at other designs of the classic. Here are 6 different takes on the book’s cover — each unique and reaching a different audience.

I put together a “starting/ending” post for YA in 2014. These are the books that people who want to catch up on their 2014 YA reading should check out, the books I think would be solid gifts for a YA reader, and what I think sort of depicted what YA looked like in 2014. This is a different take on the “best of,” so there’s some popular titles and some that were a little more under-the-radar.

2015 Contemporary YA Fiction For Your Radar

December 5, 2014 |

What better way to round out this week’s contemporary YA celebration than with a booklist of what’s to come in 2015? This is an incomplete list, in part because it would be impossible to find everything and in part because the fall publisher catalogs aren’t available yet. This is primarily a guide to the contemporary YA hitting shelves in the first half of the year.

I’ve pulled from my own knowledge, from publisher catalogs, and from reviews I’ve seen of upcoming titles to put this list together. Aside from being incomplete, I know it’s possible a title or two included here end up not being contemporary — I can only pull so much from short descriptions — but I do know for sure most of these are. Like last year, the biggest trend in realistic YA is, without doubt, romance. This is a very romance-heavy list. I’ve also not included crime thrillers in this list, even though many could be seen as contemporary.

If you know of other contemporary YA titles publishing in 2015 through traditional publishers, feel free to let me know in the comments. Because not all of these books have WorldCat descriptions nor do they all have covers yet, I’m linking directly to Goodreads entries. Most, if not all titles, should have a description there.

Grab your pens and paper and hop on Goodreads because your to-be-read list is about to grow. As a head’s up, know this is a very long post. Contemporary YA was never dead, and it still isn’t.