The YA Agenda – January 2018
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ladybusinessHappy 2018, YA lovers! I hope that everybody has made an assortment of manageable resolutions for the New Year, and that one of them is "be kind to myself." 2017 was very hard, and 2018 promises to be hard as well, although hopefully we’ve all gotten stronger and will be better equipped to handle it.
In honor of the New Year, I’ve made you a rec list of YA (and YA-ish) books about new beginnings. Some of these belong to my perennial favorite subgenre, “goes-off-to-live-with,” while others are about characters launching themselves into the unknown, or endeavoring to reclaim lost versions of their lives.
Tamsin, Peter Beagle
While Jennys feature in plenty of songs, I rarely get to spend any time with a substantial character called Jenny in fiction. They’re all sex workers or maids or dead, or some combination of those things, and in all iterations they tend to be peripheral. So Peter Beagle’s Tamsin was going to be good for me even if it weren’t a goes-off-to-live-with book. Thirteen-year-old Jenny Gluckstein has moved unwillingly to England with her mother and new stepfather. She’s in the process of making everyone as miserable as she is when she meets the ghost of a girl called Tamsin, a few years older than she is, who carries within her a universe of secrets and history.
Bloomability, Sharon Creech
I don’t care what the Newbery thinks; Bloomability is the best of Sharon Creech’s books. It’s about a girl whose family of origin can no longer keep her, so they send her to live with her childless aunt and uncle, who are newly employed at a posh boarding school in Switzerland. Disoriented and missing her family, Dinnie makes new friends from all over the world and begins to appreciate the possibilities (bloomabilities, her Japanese friend Keisuke calls them) that her new life has to offer. Bloomability is a wonderfully buoyant, hopeful book about good people who strive to treat one another with kindness. If you need one book to read to start your new year off right, Bloomability is the one.
The Property, Rutu Modan
I cherish and adore Israeli comics artist Rutu Modan, and I only wish that she had written another dozen books. The Property tells the story of a girl who goes to Poland with her grandmother to reclaim the property that her family lost under the rule of the Nazis. Mica believes they are going there to find a new start for their family, but she soon begins to realize that her grandmother’s reasons for coming back to Poland are not at all what she had supposed.
Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor
Twelve-year-old Sunny feels that there is nowhere she fits in. An American living in Nigeria, a soccer player whose albinism prevents her from playing in the sun, she faces violence at her school and derision from her classmates. But everything changes when she learns that she is a Leopard person, a being of magic who quickly develops a small group of loyal magical friends. I personally prefer middle installments to origin stories, so I’m excited for the sequel, Akata Warrior, but this first in the series does a ton of cool worldbuilding and is well worth your time.
Bleeding Violet, Dia Reeves
Hanna hasn’t lived with her mother since she was a baby, but she’s come to the strange, magical town of Portero, Texas, in search of a home. Her mother isn’t interested in having her there, but Hanna sneaks into the house and unpacks, ready to stay for the long haul. Though she hasn’t planned for the magic that infuses her new town, Hanna is prepared to face it head-on if that’s what it takes to find a home. All love to the Book Smugglers for putting me on to Dia Reeves and this story of a bipolar biracial heroine coming into her own in a new place.
Into the Beautiful North, Luís Alberto Urrea
Nineteen-year-old Nayeli does not travel to America in search of a new beginning for herself. Instead, she goes there to find men who can make a new beginning in her Mexican hometown of Tres Camarones, a village she adores but one that is perennially plagued by visiting gangsters. Though Nayeli and her friends face danger on their odyssey, the overwhelming themes of Into the Beautiful North are about friendship and hope.
American Street, Ibi Zoboi
Recently named a National Book Award finalist, American Street is about a Haitian girl called Fabiola who moves to Detroit to live with her aunt and cousins. Her mother is detained by ICE on the journey to America, leaving Fabiola to fend for herself in an unfamiliar city. Though American Street sometimes falters by endeavoring to cover too much ground in not quite enough book, it’s still wonderfully written and wins my heart by depicting Fabiola’s religious beliefs and practice. (One of these days I’m going to do a list of YA books about characters of faith, a thing I’d like to see way more of.)
If you take a message from this assortment of books, let it be that humans possess an infinite, unknowable capacity to build workable lives for ourselves. Let it be my wish that all of you take steps in this New Year towards lives that sustain you most fully and give you a greater capacity for love and joy.
And now, mushy stuff out of the way, onward to the books I’m anticipating this month!
Chainbreaker, Tara Sim
The first book in Tara Sim’s series, Timekeeper, was so fun and delightful that it’s had me itching for the sequel ever since. Timekeeper is about a mechanic who falls in love with a clock that is a boy! And to my absolute delight, Chainbreaker is also about time mishaps and broken clocks that ruin towns and boys kissing but THIS TIME IN INDIA. It drops on 2 January from Sky Pony Press.
The Cruel Prince, Holly Black
Jude lives with at the High Court of Faerie, although she’s a mortal. To prove-slash-earn her place among them, she must defeat the most despised mortal of them all, Prince Cardan, son of the High King. I love Holly Black the best when she’s managing creepy fairies (I love creepy fairies!), and The Cruel Prince is the first in a series. I can’t wait to dive into this world, and I can do it as of 2 January, when The Cruel Prince drops from Little, Brown.
Let’s Talk about Love, Claire Kann
I love this cover! Though it’s long overdue, I’m excited to see more and more books with black protagonists on the covers, especially when those books are written by black authors. Let’s Talk about Love is a romcom about a biromantic ace black girl, and I’m all about romcoms and all about more ace rep in YA (and all of literature, but I’m trying not to set myself up for disappointment). It’s coming on 23 January from Swoon Reads!
What are some books about new beginnings that y’all adore? What YA (and YA-ish) novels have you been reading so far in the New Year?
In honor of the New Year, I’ve made you a rec list of YA (and YA-ish) books about new beginnings. Some of these belong to my perennial favorite subgenre, “goes-off-to-live-with,” while others are about characters launching themselves into the unknown, or endeavoring to reclaim lost versions of their lives.
Tamsin, Peter Beagle
While Jennys feature in plenty of songs, I rarely get to spend any time with a substantial character called Jenny in fiction. They’re all sex workers or maids or dead, or some combination of those things, and in all iterations they tend to be peripheral. So Peter Beagle’s Tamsin was going to be good for me even if it weren’t a goes-off-to-live-with book. Thirteen-year-old Jenny Gluckstein has moved unwillingly to England with her mother and new stepfather. She’s in the process of making everyone as miserable as she is when she meets the ghost of a girl called Tamsin, a few years older than she is, who carries within her a universe of secrets and history.
Bloomability, Sharon Creech
I don’t care what the Newbery thinks; Bloomability is the best of Sharon Creech’s books. It’s about a girl whose family of origin can no longer keep her, so they send her to live with her childless aunt and uncle, who are newly employed at a posh boarding school in Switzerland. Disoriented and missing her family, Dinnie makes new friends from all over the world and begins to appreciate the possibilities (bloomabilities, her Japanese friend Keisuke calls them) that her new life has to offer. Bloomability is a wonderfully buoyant, hopeful book about good people who strive to treat one another with kindness. If you need one book to read to start your new year off right, Bloomability is the one.
The Property, Rutu Modan
I cherish and adore Israeli comics artist Rutu Modan, and I only wish that she had written another dozen books. The Property tells the story of a girl who goes to Poland with her grandmother to reclaim the property that her family lost under the rule of the Nazis. Mica believes they are going there to find a new start for their family, but she soon begins to realize that her grandmother’s reasons for coming back to Poland are not at all what she had supposed.
Akata Witch, Nnedi Okorafor
Twelve-year-old Sunny feels that there is nowhere she fits in. An American living in Nigeria, a soccer player whose albinism prevents her from playing in the sun, she faces violence at her school and derision from her classmates. But everything changes when she learns that she is a Leopard person, a being of magic who quickly develops a small group of loyal magical friends. I personally prefer middle installments to origin stories, so I’m excited for the sequel, Akata Warrior, but this first in the series does a ton of cool worldbuilding and is well worth your time.
Bleeding Violet, Dia Reeves
Hanna hasn’t lived with her mother since she was a baby, but she’s come to the strange, magical town of Portero, Texas, in search of a home. Her mother isn’t interested in having her there, but Hanna sneaks into the house and unpacks, ready to stay for the long haul. Though she hasn’t planned for the magic that infuses her new town, Hanna is prepared to face it head-on if that’s what it takes to find a home. All love to the Book Smugglers for putting me on to Dia Reeves and this story of a bipolar biracial heroine coming into her own in a new place.
Into the Beautiful North, Luís Alberto Urrea
Nineteen-year-old Nayeli does not travel to America in search of a new beginning for herself. Instead, she goes there to find men who can make a new beginning in her Mexican hometown of Tres Camarones, a village she adores but one that is perennially plagued by visiting gangsters. Though Nayeli and her friends face danger on their odyssey, the overwhelming themes of Into the Beautiful North are about friendship and hope.
American Street, Ibi Zoboi
Recently named a National Book Award finalist, American Street is about a Haitian girl called Fabiola who moves to Detroit to live with her aunt and cousins. Her mother is detained by ICE on the journey to America, leaving Fabiola to fend for herself in an unfamiliar city. Though American Street sometimes falters by endeavoring to cover too much ground in not quite enough book, it’s still wonderfully written and wins my heart by depicting Fabiola’s religious beliefs and practice. (One of these days I’m going to do a list of YA books about characters of faith, a thing I’d like to see way more of.)
If you take a message from this assortment of books, let it be that humans possess an infinite, unknowable capacity to build workable lives for ourselves. Let it be my wish that all of you take steps in this New Year towards lives that sustain you most fully and give you a greater capacity for love and joy.
And now, mushy stuff out of the way, onward to the books I’m anticipating this month!
January Releases
Chainbreaker, Tara Sim
The first book in Tara Sim’s series, Timekeeper, was so fun and delightful that it’s had me itching for the sequel ever since. Timekeeper is about a mechanic who falls in love with a clock that is a boy! And to my absolute delight, Chainbreaker is also about time mishaps and broken clocks that ruin towns and boys kissing but THIS TIME IN INDIA. It drops on 2 January from Sky Pony Press.
The Cruel Prince, Holly Black
Jude lives with at the High Court of Faerie, although she’s a mortal. To prove-slash-earn her place among them, she must defeat the most despised mortal of them all, Prince Cardan, son of the High King. I love Holly Black the best when she’s managing creepy fairies (I love creepy fairies!), and The Cruel Prince is the first in a series. I can’t wait to dive into this world, and I can do it as of 2 January, when The Cruel Prince drops from Little, Brown.
Let’s Talk about Love, Claire Kann
I love this cover! Though it’s long overdue, I’m excited to see more and more books with black protagonists on the covers, especially when those books are written by black authors. Let’s Talk about Love is a romcom about a biromantic ace black girl, and I’m all about romcoms and all about more ace rep in YA (and all of literature, but I’m trying not to set myself up for disappointment). It’s coming on 23 January from Swoon Reads!
What are some books about new beginnings that y’all adore? What YA (and YA-ish) novels have you been reading so far in the New Year?
Jenny is the delightful and brilliant co-host of the Reading the End bookcast. She blogs about books and other sundries at the informative Reading the End, where you will gain many excellent book recs every time she links to another robust upcoming books lists.
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Date: 2018-01-25 05:05 pm (UTC)