Defying Gravity: Ryka Aoki’s Light from Uncommon Stars
This book is disarmingly—in fact, unnervingly—amoral.
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Posts Tagged: young adult
Facing Her Truth: A Conversation with Ariel Henley
Ariel Henley discusses her debut memoir, A FACE FOR PICASSO.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project: Ray Stoeve
“You can’t fake knowledge of zip zap zup.”
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Rumpus Exclusive: Cover Reveal for Foreshadow
An exclusive first look at the cover of the forthcoming collection, FORESHADOW!
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Off the Grid: Talking with Jamie Beth Cohen
Jamie Beth Cohen discusses her debut novel, WASTED PRETTY.
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The Rumpus Mini-Interview Project #163: Padma Venkatraman
“Stories have a power science doesn’t.”
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Living in the Fulcrum: A Conversation with Mary H.K. Choi
Mary H.K. Choi discusses her debut YA novel, Emergency Contact, her versatile writing career, and writing diverse Korean-American characters.
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Bethany C. Morrow
Bethany C. Morrow discusses her debut novel, MEM, how it felt to read Toni Morrison for the first time, and her hope for Black girl readers.
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VISIBLE: Women Writers of Color: Tania James
Tania James discusses her most recent novel, The Tusk That Did the Damage, the challenges of writing an elephant narrator, and the moment when she knew she could be a writer.
...moreYA Novels Help Parents Talk Sex
A discussion with your kid about the birds and the bees might be one of the more intimidating moments of parenthood, but YA novelists can lend a hand. When YA writers confront modern issues of sex, rape, consent, abuse, and gender, they help parents—and schools—introduce these sensitive topics: Consent doesn’t even have to be about sex, per se, […]
...moreJohn Green Sends Books to Ferguson
Scott Bonner, the director of the Ferguson Municipal Public Library, answered questions on Reddit over the weekend and discussed the needs of the community in light of the ongoing protests. The Ferguson library has continued to function, even as schools have been closed. During the question and answer session, Bonner mentioned the popularity of young […]
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The Rumpus Interview with Rainbow Rowell
Rainbow Rowell talks about her new novel, Landline, the writing advice she refuses to follow, and young adult fiction.
...moreYA Lit Tackles Modern Concerns
Plenty of critics have lamented the rise of Young Adult literature, but its popularity isn’t accidental. The genre is focusing on contemporary problems and, more importantly, manifesting them in easily digestible ways that appeal not just to teens, but to adults as well. Damien Walter explains at the Guardian: Young adult novels externalise evil as […]
...moreBooks for Children Top “Great Books” Lists
While the great debate over whether adults should love or hate YA books raged this summer, Facebook users were busy listing their top ten favorite books in a viral status update challenge. Turns out, Facebook’s favorite books were meant for children. Mother Jones reports that almost all of the most popular books are from the […]
...moreYA Television
This summer’s debate over young adult literature has raised questions ranging from whether adults should read YA to what even counts as thee genre in the first place. The New Yorker’s television critic Emily Nussbaum extends these questions to the world of television, where adolescent dramas have had a different impact on the development and […]
...moreAre YA Dystopian Novels Breeding Conservatives?
The Harry Potter series might have been helping make young kids more open and accepting of diversity, but a new crop of young adult novels might be push kids in the opposite direction of the political spectrum. Heroines like Katniss Everdeen and Tris Prior aren’t just strong women–they’re exceptionally special people oppressed by nanny states […]
...moreAll Grown Up
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory has a creepy new book cover presumably intended to attract older readers, giving another stir to the pot of YA literature that may or may not be OK for adults to read. In the New Yorker, Margaret Talbot wishes people would argue about something more interesting.
...moreYA Shaming
Young adult fiction has never been more popular among grownup-adults—more than half of YA books are sold to people over the age of 18. There isn’t anything wrong with the occasional guilty pleasure, or even in indulging in topics that are, by definition, childish, says Ruth Graham, writing at Slate, but should we be concerned […]
...moreYA Heroines Don’t Get Fat (Or Tall)
The action heroine archetype is enjoying something of a golden age with blockbuster young adult novels like The Hunger Games and Divergent series starring strong female leads. But Julianne Ross over at The Atlantic has noticed a disturbing trend: all of these women are petite. Being skinny isn’t a bad thing, but it becomes an […]
...moreQueer Characters of Color in YA Novels
As a queer woman of color who writes young-adult fiction, Malinda Lo “was a little bit taken aback by the sheer paucity of books I could find about queer characters of color.” If you, too, have been seeking those sorts of books without much success, look no further: Lo has compiled a list, which, though […]
...moreNext Letter for Kids: Michael Reisman
The next Letter for Kids, going out Monday, July 15, is from Michael Reisman! Born and raised in New Jersey, Michael worked all kinds of jobs, from dishwasher at a pizzeria to assistant for Tom Hanks, before settling on young-adult author. He just concluded his Simon Bloom series with the electrifying Simon Bloom: The Order of Chaos and […]
...moreA Reader’s Guide to YA Novels
Upworthy has an exhaustive (but not at all exhausting) list of young-adult books besides the Harry Potter series for the teenager in your life (or you—no judgment!). Historical fiction (The Book Thief, Island of the Blue Dolphins), utopian/dystopian fiction (The Giver, The House of the Scorpion), classics (Charlotte’s Web, Where the Red Fern Grows)—it’s all there. In fact, even Harry […]
...moreThe Intern and the Rejectionist
It’s your two favorite formerly anonymous publishing-industry-bloggers-turned-YA-novelists in one post! Which is to say: Hilary T. Smith (aka The Intern) interviewed Sarah McCarry (The Rejectionist) about her new book All Our Pretty Songs. A preview: There is also a weird cultural assumption that if a book is published as young adult it is obligated to provide […]
...moreNext Letter for Kids: Sally Nemeth
The next Letter for Kids, going out Monday, July 15, is from the multitalented Sally Nemeth! Her plays, including Holy Days and Mill Fire, have been widely produced, and she has written for every major TV network, starting with Law & Order on NBC. Her young-adult novel, The Heights, the Depths, and Everything in Between, is about two best friends, […]
...moreNext Letter for Kids: Leslie Margolis
Woohoo! The next Letter for Kids, going out Friday, June 14, is from Leslie Margolis! Leslie writes books for teens and tweens, including the Annabelle Unleashed series and the brand-new Maggie Brooklyn Mysteries series. The Young Adult Library Services Association put her novel Fix on the “Popular Paperback” reading list and her novel Boys Are Dogs on the “Amazing […]
...moreOn Pointe, and in Limbo
Martha Schabas’ Various Positions is an excellent novel about performance anxiety and sexual development disguised as a young adult novel.
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