The YA Agenda — April 2018

[helloladies]

Jenny is the splendid and prodigious co-host of the Reading the End bookcast. She blogs about books and other sundries at the funny and entertaining Reading the End, where you can go for even more book recs in genres other than YA. She is also a champion library patron and is kind to all librarians.

Happy spring, my YA-loving friends. I hope that you are in locations that experience pleasant spring weather, and that April is not bringing you too many showers or too many of those caterpillars that fall from trees in your hair and sting your hands when you scream and try to remove them. This month, we’re welcoming the fabulous Tomi Adeyemi to talk about her debut novel, the fantasy epic Children of Blood and Bone.

And now: Five Questions for YA Authors (and one just for Tomi Adeyemi)

What were you watching, eating, and listening to when you were working on Children of Blood and Bone?
There was a lot of jelly beans and popcorn and grapes and beef jerky and pizza consumed during the writing process of this book!

As for listening, there was a lot of Hans Zimmer playing, particularly the interstellar soundtrack! Also The Alabama Shakes—Sound & Color + Over My Head—they got me!

What were your favorite and least favorite things that you researched for this book?
My favorite aspect was getting the chance to draw from my own heritage and really explore the history while writing. It was incredible to dig into something for this story that also involved digging into my own culture and history. It also gave me a lot of memories I’ll cherish, like working on Yoruba translations with my mother!

My least favorite aspect was that the book is so closely tied to reality. There are parts of the book I wrote after reading awful headlines of police brutality in our world, sobbing in my bed, and then pulling myself up to the keyboard. Even this past week, I wrote a short author’s note for the back of the book that meant I had to relive the horrors of Philando Castile’s shooting and it destroyed me. The author’s note is barely one page long, but having to relive the horror of his death and the witnesses to it was soul-crushing. To write 500 words, I was sobbing in my bed and I couldn’t do anything for the rest of the day.

Having a story so tied to reality is a double-edged sword. It’s making my dream come true in such an incredible way, but it’s tied to so much pain. Even in my happiest moments with the book, I can’t forget that, nor should I because I don’t want my readers to forget either. But having to deal with that emotional trauma in real life and then relive it through my characters and this book is the hardest part for me.

What changed in the book between your initial idea for it and the final manuscript?
The easier question to answer would be what didn’t change…70% of the first scene…yep. That’s it lol. And know that I actually stared into space for 30 seconds trying to see if there was anything else.

I guess Nailah’s name stayed the same.

Everything else was changed in some significant way for the better over the course of 40+ drafts.

Who was your favorite character to write? (And did you have a character that was most challenging to write?)
Definitely Zélie (well Roën is actually my secret favorite lol, but I stick with Zélie!) Writing her is like getting to write the most tricked out, Beyoncé badass version of myself. In life sometimes I think “ooo, I want to hit that person.” Zélie doesn’t think. She just does it lol.

It was most difficult for me to write from Amari’s perspective. Zélie came to me fully formed, but in the beginning Amari was just a part of Zélie’s story, someone to narrate the moments of the book that Zelie couldn’t. My brilliant editor Tiffany Liao really helped me find Amari’s story through revisions, which in turn helped me discover Amari’s amazing voice.

What are you reading now?
A Reaper at the Gates by my favorite author and huge-CBB inspiration, Sabaa Tahir!

The fate of the world in this book depends on Zelie, but you avoid the trope of the solitary Chosen One. Zelie constantly draws on the community of diviners for support and aid. What does that mean for/say about the world Zelie and her friends are trying to build?
Something I want readers to take away from this is the need to unify. I think we’ll always love the idea of the chosen one because of the biblical influences on our society, but in reality no one is capable of creating change on their own. Zélie needs Amari, she needs her brother, she even needs Inan. And they all need the heart and the faith of all the divîners and maji behind them. Take away even one of those people, and Zélie wouldn’t have a chance.

I think that is very true for our world as well. We’re so focused on dividing, but we have to come together to make meaningful change.

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If you haven’t yet, take this opportunity to pick up Children of Blood and Bone­—but be aware that it ends on a hell of a cliffhanger! And while you’re placing a library hold on that, let’s talk about some of the YA I’m excited about in the months of March and April!

March and April Releases

Orphan Monster Spy, Matt Killeen (March 20, Viking Books for Young Readers)
A Jewish girl is recruited by a spy after the death of her mother, and he asks her to infiltrate an elite Nazi boarding school. Her mission is to steal the blueprints of a devastating weapon, to keep it out of the hands of the Axis powers. I’ve become a trifle leery of Nazi-era historical fiction, but a review from Katherine Locke (who wrote the terrific The Girl with the Red Balloon) on Goodreads is keeping me in the game on this one. Sarah sounds like the Nazi-fighting Jewish heroine this year requires. (Will she get to punch any Nazis? Stand by to find out.)

The Astonishing Color of After, Emily X. R. Pan (March 20, Little Brown Books for Young Readers)
(cn: suicide) Leigh Chen Sanders is visiting Taiwan to meet her mother’s parents for the very first time, and she’s determined to find her mother while she’s there. She is certain that her mother transformed into a bird when she died by suicide. I love this cover and the book promises to be dreamy and heartbreaking, and I appreciate so much that the book’s marketing materials use the phrase died by suicide. This is the correct language to use, and it makes me feel that I can trust this author and this book to be respectful about a very difficult subject.

Dread Nation, Justina Ireland (3 April, Balzer + Bray)
The fact that I’m recommending Dread Nation in spite of my known aversion to zombies is evidence of how much glowing hype I’ve heard about it. When the dead begin to rise again from the battlefields of the Civil War, black and Native children are sent to combat schools to learn how to protect white Americans from the undead hordes. As that synopsis implies, there’s lots of magical and glorious social commentary PLUS there’s apparently a female friendship that forms the lynchpin of the book.

Leah on the Offbeat, Becky Albertalli (24 April, Balzer + Bray)
The days stagger past, and I still haven’t seen Love, Simon or read Simon and the Homo Sapiens Agenda, and I understand if in your opinion this disqualifies me from writing a YA column. But that doesn’t mean I can’t read the sequel, Leah on the Offbeat, which is all about Simon’s (awesome, from what I’ve heard) friend Leah. She’s fat and bisexual and amazing, and I believe she has a crush on a girl. Yayyyy queer girls in YA!

Picture Us in the Light, Kelly Loy Gilbert (10 April, Disney-Hyperion)
Someone compared Picture Us in the Light to Akemi Dawn Bowman’s debut YA novel Starfish, which was one of my favorite books from last year. So. Picture Us in the Light features Danny Cheng, who’s got his full ride at RISD ready to go. But he’s still grieving his sister’s death, and he’s shaken by the knowledge that he’ll soon be separated from his lifelong best friend Harry. Then he finds a top secret file on a major Silicon Valley family in the back of his father’s closet, and commences finding out family secrets.

The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles), Amy Spalding (3 April, Sky Pony Press)
Plus-size fashion blogger Abby has landed an incredible summer internship with a local boutique and GUESS WHAT HAPPENS. You guess, I’ll wait.

I know you didn’t guess correctly because you were like “well surely there can’t be two queer fat girl books in a single month, the world could not so bless us” but the world has so blessed us, friends. What happens is that Abby falls for her fellow intern, Jordi Perez, against whom she must compete to win a paid job at the boutique. Romcommy hijinks—presumably—ensue.

White Rabbit, Caleb Roehrig (24 April, Feiwel Friends)
Two things happen to Rufus in one single night: First, his ex-boyfriend Sebastian comes over wanting to “talk.” Then his sister April calls for help, and Rufus and Sebastian find her covered in blood and standing over the body of her boyfriend Fox. I love a good murder mystery, and White Rabbit is reportedly a wild ride of a thriller, with nonstop twists and turns.

Please hit me up in the comments to scream about that cliffhanger in Children of Blood and Bone, or hit me up on Twitter if you want the Lady Business readers to live spoiler-free lives.