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There are people out there–often whole communities–just waiting to embrace and celebrate you for who you are.
To some readers—mostly adults, who are under some fallacy that teenagers will remain innocent so long as we shelter them from difficult themes—my book will be one giant red flag.
Once we let go of the concept that characters can only be inherently good or inherently bad, we can start creating complex book characters who are both and neither.
This raw, emotional, experimental story is a powerful read. In turns melancholy, brutal, and funny, this is an innovative look at loneliness and sexuality.
I asked my mom a question I was given for a blog interview: “What the hardest obstacle you’ve had to overcome?” My mom looked at me for a moment, then said, “Ah, how about the fact you couldn’t read until fourth grade!”
An extremely thoughtful and moving examination of death that focuses on the honor of being with someone when they die. A complex read that isn't easy but is worth it.
Children of the Black Glass began some years ago on a family road trip, when we found an obsidian deposit near a dirt road on the wild side of a jagged mountain range.
Back matter, as well as a nod in the publisher's description, explains that often female victims of white supremacy and lynching are overlooked in history. Here, they take center stage, and the stories of Lamb, Marion, and their family will stick with me for a long time. A brutal but beautiful read.
Nightbirds is a fiercely feminist fantasy: a potent cocktail full of intrigue and glamor, but also questions about girls trying to claim their power and find their voices.
Dan Santat is on the latest episode of The Yarn podcast!
For the first time ever, SLJ is offering reviews of video games. Here, we review Pokémon Scarlet, Pokémon Violet, Pokémon TCG Live, and Marvel Snap.
A Latinx pirate fantasy, a scavenger hunt, magical creatures, queer power, and more!
Happily Ever After’s, in the current state in which they are offered, should come with a big disclaimer: BELIEVE AT YOUR OWN RISK.
With the unprecedented rise in book bannings and anti-LGBTQ+ legislation targeting marginalized youth, I feel the need to use this opportunity to talk about books and their significance to me.
A look back at some of our posts discussing YA literature
I ended up burning through this super-readable book about love, identity, and trans joy and can't wait to see what else Underhill does.
It's I Love to Read Month and post-it note reviews would be a great way to allow students, staff, and librarians to show off their recommended reads!
Lizzy Mason puts it all here on the page---the grief and guilt are palpable. The despair is crushing. It's not an easy read. But it's an important one.
I chat with the brand-new Caldecott Medalist for The Yarn.
I’ve learned more about myself on road trips than I ever did in a classroom, and all of the experiences I’ve lived through were worth more than all the miles combined.
From the doldrums of winter I offer you this look at titles from Wednesday Books that will be released this summer.
My name is Ponti. James Ponti. I am awkward, goofy, and if I’m being completely honest, a little scared of lizards. There’s absolutely no way that I was ever a real-life spy.
Explore 14 new and forthcoming books from Holiday House and Pixel + Ink!
Marla Frazee stops by to talk about IN EVERY LIFE.
Artemis Sparke is an invitation for all ages to join a brigade or, even better, to rally up their own brigade and experience the power of resurrected voices.
In The Carrefour Curse, I have revisited my gothic obsessed childhood and had a great deal of fun doing so.
These recent audiobooks offer irrefutable proof and auspicious validation that our youth are our most promising changemakers today, tomorrow, and beyond.
Kendare Blake talks Scoobies old and new, a Buffy-less Buffyverse series, and more!
Life would be so much easier if it came with a map that contained all the right answers. But as Ocean and I have learned, mapmaking is sort of the point.
This well told story explores racism, the criminal justice system, activism, restorative justice, loss and grief, and so much more.
Riley Jensen shares a look at some upcoming YA mysteries that are on her TBR list
Transitions are tough, and they never stop coming. It’s a good thing we have great books to help us through them.
Teen librarian Karen Jensen takes a look at YA publishing for 2023
I believe there is an important place for serious dramas but why does culture and immigration always come with tears and seriousness? Often, we are the fiesta!
There seems like an awfully long distance between the past and future and yet, whether it is 1940 or 2040, the questions I continue to find most intriguing are timeless. Who are we in the worst of times? What does it mean to survive? And, What do we want our world to look like?
What does 2023 hold? Colby Sharp and I discuss on The Yarn podcast.
I didn’t set out to make the library so central in Another Dimension of Us, but as I was writing this book, the library became the one place where the characters felt safe — just like it was for me when I was like Tommy: a gay-but-definitely-not-out 15-year-old in the 80s.
If you told elementary-school me that one day, I’d have my own published books on those very library shelves, I would’ve been thrilled. It’d be a dream come true. But high-school me wouldn’t have believed you.
People love to make fun of romance. Isn’t it embarrassing to have huge, vulnerable feelings for another person? Gross! I hope you’re catching my sarcasm, because no! Not gross!
This very busy book is a funny, heartwarming look at community, identity, family, and theater.
May I recommend these delicious young adult novels (and graphic novels) to satisfy your cravings?
A heartfelt and thoughtful look at a fractured friendship and the transformative capability of love and compassion.
Writing Sincerely Sicily was very liberating, as it allowed me to thoroughly share my background in a way I have never been able to do before.
Our last episode of 2022 takes a look back . . .
There are quite a few more tropes within the story that I’m excited for readers to discover when they read The Love Match. I hope they will give it a chance and do away with the notion that harmless, joyful tropes can “die” before an endless amount of marginalized authors who’ve never gotten a chance to write them can do it.
Here's what YA I'm really looking forward to reading in 2023.
Here are a few books for young readers I'm looking forward to in 2023.
From debut artists to returning favorites, these 11 family music albums cover a wide range of musical styles and topics.
Quinn, sometimes Quinnie, is in 8th grade and grappling with the most complicated and significant thing a person can grapple with: becoming oneself.
Pull out your TBR lists or get ready to add to the orders for books that stock your library or classroom shelves. Today I’m sharing with you new and forthcoming titles from Candlewick.
Don't just read or hire the splashy debuts--seek out the seasoned authors! Trust me, it'll be worth it!
Don't just read or hire the splashy debuts--seek out the seasoned authors! Trust me, it'll be worth it!
The use of exterior landscape to illustrate what is going on ‘inside’ my characters is now a feature of my writing.
Perseverance, to me, is faith in four syllables. I like to think of it as faith in myself, faith in the process, and faith in my dream, even when faced with rejection after rejection, obstacle after obstacle.
Verse novels can deftly tell a story of trauma, struggle, or loss, while allowing rays of sunshine in and the music of hope to sing.
Cheerleading tryouts, an undercover spy, a genius inventor, and more!
From adaptations of award-winning picture books to meaty videos about gender expression and social activism, these DVDs offer viewers a range of subjects and topics that will pique their interest and would be useful in library collections.
Kyle Lukoff is over on The Yarn podcast today, talking all about his award winning book Too Bright to See. Click here to head there and listen.
Time to update those TBR lists!
From the 200-plus audiobooks with November 2021 to October 2022 publication dates considered, two picture books, a family history in verse, remade fairy tales, an intertwined podcast, and a haven’t-ever-heard-that-before double recording are among this year’s outstanding listens.
These excellent albums have styles that will appeal to children and adults and include a wide variety of songs that can be used in story times, library programs, or just riding around in the car.
In some ways, the first draft is the most magical part of the writing process. Turning a blank word document into a manuscript will never not feel like alchemy to me.
Follow along as we celebrate the release of Midnight at the Shelter with behind-the-scenes looks from author Nanci Turner Steveson, plus 5 chances to win a copy!
At its heart, Morning Sun In Wuhan is not merely a book about the pandemic but a tale about kindness, love, and community.
Dear reader, let my life be a lesson: Let not the pains of rejection keep you silent. Instead, let them be the contrary wind that pushes your sails onward listen to the wants permeating within your heart and quiet your every wondering brain.
The themes of my graphic memoir A Pros and Cons List for Strong Feelings are art, memory, love, math, growing up, puzzles, gender, death, and family. These are all big life topics (except maybe puzzles) and the only way I can understand them is through specific moments.
I wanted to write a party mix of all of it, those things that I love, in a story world where I and everyone else exists, because that’s the book I wanted to read as a teen but couldn’t find.
Now, writing animal POV isn’t all puppy breath and kitten kisses. There are definitely some challenges. But for the most part it’s a delight.
When I’m done with a series, I always lament the many stories that didn’t get told. So now I try to do something about that. First with UnBound – a story collection in the world of Unwind. And now again with Gleanings – stories from the world of Scythe.
I realized my creativity could impact people and it didn’t have to be something in the future. What do you want to be when you grow up? I didn’t have to wait. I could be a writer now.
Reading and I didn’t have a great start. Writing and I have an even more complicated history.
Part two of our interview with the horror master!
Today I’m sharing with you new and forthcoming titles from Holiday House and Pixel+Ink.
With 32 new and forthcoming books in this post, surely there's something to add to everyone's TBR!
Write what you know does not mean writing about the surface stuff of our lives; it means writing what your heart knows. And sometimes our hearts lie to us.
My books are about characters finding a place to belong where they can be exactly, wholly, unabashedly themselves.
The authors talk about their shared love of nonfiction and their new books.
I had no intention of writing a children's book set against the pandemic. None. And yet, and yet...I felt compelled. Ultimately, I surrendered to the impossible and set out to write Garvey in the Dark.
Historical fiction helps [kids] see that the past is closer to the present than they ever imagined, that the lives of people who lived long ago are not so different from their own.
Unfettered, fearless writing doesn’t just break or make new molds; it is so confident that it reshapes those molds into sturdy bridges that allows readers of all backgrounds to walk across safely.
R.L. Stine takes us behind the scenes of his latest series, STINETINGLERS, on the latest episode of The Yarn podcast.
At nearly every school visit some kid will ask me, “How long does it take to write a book?”To really talk about how long it takes to write a book, one must decide what “writing” is, and when the process begins.
In my years of research, I’ve discovered not only factual events and persons who literally changed the course of society as we know it today, but also something far greater and more personal to my well-being: a connection to a world I never felt a part of.
Today I’m sharing with you forthcoming titles from Peachtree and Peachtree Teen.
Do you think we’ve had enough vampire books or zombie novels? I recently read some people discussing how vampire stories aren’t over and done until we get to read an over abundance of vampire stories written by people of color. And by recently I mean a few months ago, long enough ago that I unfortunately […]
Quick reviews of 7 graphic novels and 4 novels.
Carol Dines, author of THE TAKE-OVER FRIEND, shares the friendship breakup that inspired her latest YA novel and what she's learned about friendship along the way
Both appear on recent episodes of The Yarn podcast.
Do you want to "Do Revenge"? Here are some YA titles that tackle the topic of revenge
My Name is Magic taught me the incredibly important lesson that in order to be true to the story and characters I’m creating, I have to be true to myself.
This book is my heart, a love letter to home and family and stories. It exists because I refused to quit.
With 35 new and forthcoming books here, you'll definitely find something you need to read!
From "Let's Move" to "Moonwalking," seven out of these 11 family music albums have received starred reviews.
If you asked younger me what a writer looks like, they never would have imagined that it could be somebody like me, walking in circles around a room, talking aloud to themself as they tell their computer a story.
I’m so grateful for my memories of library, and I’m certain that growing up in that book-filled environment is a big part of how I became an author.
Write down your goals and dreams, friends. They happen, sometimes in the most roundabout and unique ways. Put pen to paper with your deepest desires, and watch them burst into fruition.
When I sat down to write my debut YA novel, in December of 2019, I thought I was writing a book about violent antisemitism, about worlds colliding, forbidden love, and betrayal.
I’m truly fulfilled now; teacher, librarian, author– I’ve done everything I set out to do when I was that 10-year-old writing about a gnome in New Jersey. I may be crossing the finish line later than most of the other participants in the race, but guess what? I still get a ribbon.
I’m truly fulfilled now; teacher, librarian, author– I’ve done everything I set out to do when I was that 10-year-old writing about a gnome in New Jersey. I may be crossing the finish line later than most of the other participants in the race, but guess what? I still get a ribbon.
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