SERENDIPITY romance short stories, edited by Marissa Meyer (YA book review)

Jan18
book cover of Serendipity: Ten Romantic Tropes, Transformed, ed. by Marissa Meyer. Published by Feiwel & Friends | recommended on BooksYALove.com

That grand romantic gesture!
Stranded together – oh my!
The Matchmaker’s magic!

Whether it’s a character suddenly realizing they’re In Love with their Best Friend or the Makeover that opens the eyes of an admirer, classic tropes (story patterns) lead readers of romance writing to a satisfying HEA – Happily Ever After.

These ten stories about teens (including a graphic novel chapter) give familiar patterns a fresh look in every color of the rainbow, from the social Class Warfare to Just One Bed on a school trip to Trapped Together in a small space to the Fake Relationship that becomes oh-so real.

Technology plays a part in some stories, while school dance jitters loom large in others. Trying to fit in is a common theme, but fear not – being true to oneself triumphs in the end.

And just look at the stellar crew of YALit contributors to this collection!
Elise Bryant,
Elizabeth Eulberg (Revenge of the Girl With the Great Personality! ),
Leah Johnson,
Anna-Marie McLemore ( in Hungry Hearts anthology),
Sandhya Menon (remember When Dimple Met Rishi ),
Marissa Meyer (gotta love Cinder )
Julie Murphy (Dumplin’ forever),
Caleb Roehrig,
Sarah Winifred Searle,
and Abigail Hing Wen.

Enjoy this January 2022 release, then see how many romantic tropes you can identify in the books you read in the future.

Which story pattern leads to your favorite HEA?
**kmm

Book Info: Serendipity: Ten Romantic Tropes, Transformed / Marissa Meyer, editor. Fiewel & Friends, 2022. (editor site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher, via NetGalley

BLOOD LIKE MAGIC, by Liselle Sambury – her witch test will destroy love or family! (YA book review)

Jan17
book cover of Blood Like Magic, by Liselle Sambury. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Safety is staying in her family home,
facing the forces outside is her fate…
how can she balance the magic required?

Oh yes, her extended family is exasperating on a day-to-day basis, but 16-year-old Voya knows they love her and that she’d do anything to keep them safe in mid-21st century Toronto.

Now the Trinidadian-Canadian teen pleads for a second chance to claim her Calling as a witch, through a task to be set by her ancestor.

But this task is brutal, far beyond what anyone in her extended family experienced in their Calling – ‘destroy her first love.’

Time is of the essence as Voya must fall in love with someone and then eliminate them…or her little sister will die, and her entire family will lose its long-held magic!

Love match via genetic blood test?
Cozying up to a rival magic family?
Surely there must be another way…

Find this great YA debut at your local library or independent bookstore now. The series continues with Blood Like Fate in August 2022.

What would you sacrifice to keep your family safe?
**kmm

Book Info: Blood Like Magic (Blood Like Magic, book 1) / Liselle Sambury. Margaret K. McElderry Books (S&S), 2021. (author site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

MIND GAMES, by Shana Silver – Remember forever or every memory erased? (YA book review)

Jan14
book cover of Mind Games, by Shana Silver. Published by Swoon Reads/Macmillan | recommended on BooksYALove.com

If you could remember every moment,
or experience someone’s memory as if it were your own –
would you?

Her brilliant parents’ invention of HiveMind means that you never have to forget cherished memories.

Everyone at their school for extraordinary talents is connected to HiveMind, and Arden has figured out how to override security and access memories to share…for a price.

But then she wakes up with a vital chunk of her own memory gone and no backups of it on HiveMind! Even worse for Bash, who’s forgotten everything about the past several weeks of his life – with no backups – how?

The classmates’ important final tech project must be presented soon… if only they could remember what it was.

Who wants Arden and Bash to forget?
Why are just their memories gone?
Can they stop the literal brain drain before it’s too late?

It’s a race against the clock, because without HiveMind backups, when a memory is gone, it’s like it never happened at all.

What favorite memory would you like to preserve everything about – forever?
**kmm

Book info: Mind Games / Shana Silver. Swoon Reads/Macmillan, 2019. (author site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

NINE! a Book of Nonet Poems, by Irene Latham & Amy Huntington (picture book review)

Jan13
book cover of Nine: a Book of Nonet Poems / Irene Latham; art by Amy Huntington. Published by Charlesbridge | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Rhymes or none,
poems are fun –
you know haiku,
so try something new!

Expressing yourself in verse or song can make everyday life more interesting. That’s what a birthday girl and her little brother and their armadillo pal do, using the nonet form as they celebrate many nines – nine players in baseball, a nonagon-shaped nest, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, being on Cloud Nine.

What’s a nonet? She answers readers in the very first poem, “Nonet”:

Grand
poem
with nine lines –
one syllable
first line builds toward
nine-syllable ninth line
(or the reverse). A staircase
for poets and readers alike!
(Any subject, rhyming optional.)
-page 1

Did you count the syllables as you read down the nonet-staircase?

Some of her nonets start with the nine-syllable line and get shorter line by line, like “Nine-Banded Armadillo” and “Dressed to the Nines” for her big birthday bash!

Flip to the back of the book to learn more about all the nines in the poems and even the dimensions of the book itself.

Celebrate Poetry Break Day today or any day by writing your own nonet!

What’s your favorite nine fact?
**kmm

Book Info: Nine: a Book of Nonet Poems / Irene Latham; art by Amy Huntington. Charlesbridge, 2020. (author site) (artist site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Bad news AIN’T BURNED ALL THE BRIGHT, by Jason Reynolds & Jason Griffin (YA book review)

Jan11
book cover of Ain't Burned All the Bright, by Jason Reynolds; artwork by Jason Griffin. Published by Atheneum | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Three long sentences,
Two Jasons collaborating again,
One vibrant book, willing us to breathe…

His father coughing and coughing in the bedroom, his mother glued to the all-bad-news television. Brother won’t stop playing his video game, sister chatting about what to bring for a protest during a pandemic.

Stuck at home together – will it ever be safe to leave?
After George Floyd’s murder – who wants to be away from home?
TV locked on the same channel – is there better news anywhere?

A Black young man feels like he’s the only family member who realizes how bad things really are, how “worry is worn like a knit sweater in summer” suffocating them all, yet maybe hope can get them through all this.

Jason Reynolds (I’ve recommended his books Boy in the Black Suit; Ghost; Look Both Ways) wrote the story of a young man and his family during that first year of pandemic and protests as three very, very long sentences.

His former roommate Jason Griffin journaled his impressions of 2020 via paint, colored pencil, and collage in his moleskin notebook, then cut out and taped Reynolds’ words onto his artwork whose textures leap off the satin-surfaced pages of this book.

Happy book birthday to this stunning reflection on events of 2020 when so many of us wished we could change the TV channel from its harsh realities to something brighter.

What do you remember most about 2020?
**kmm

Book info: Ain’t Burned All the Bright / Jason Reynolds; artwork by Jason Griffin. Caitlyn Dlouhy Books/ Atheneum, 2022. [author site] [artist site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

When tattooed boy STARLING falls from the sky.. #YALit by Isabel Strychacz (book review)

Jan10
book cover of Starling, by Isabel Strychacz. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

A lifetime of following the very unusual,
wanting to escape sneering neighbors,
graduation seems as far away as the stars…

Outcasts in their odd California desert town, teens Delta and Bee try to keep folks from realizing that Dad stepped into a different dimension a few weeks ago, not just off on another esoteric research trip.

Their house on the outskirts of Darling truly has a mind of its own, and the sisters won’t open the hall closet door, hoping Dad will walk back through someday soon.

When a meteor or plane or something crashes into their woods one night, Delta ventures out and finds a boy covered with moving tattoos – but who could have survived this?

Maybe Starling is a boy, but more likely not. If they can’t find the object he needs to return home, can he survive here?

If Del’s sort-of-boyfriend finds out about Starling and tells his dad the mayor…. oh no!

Recounted from Delta’s and Starling’s perspectives, this tale of disconnection, love, and loss brings the distant near.

What makes a place ‘home’ for you?
*kmm

Book Info: Starling / Isabel Strychacz. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021. (author site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

THE LUCKY LIST – Mom’s message to try again? by Rachael Lippincott (YA book review)

Dec14
book cover of The Lucky List, by Rachael Lippincott. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Messy breakup at prom,
Dad’s selling the house,
No joy in her future…

Finding her late mom’s “Twelve adventures before twelfth grade” list shakes up Emily as she faces a boring summer while her best friend works away at camp…for a whole month.

Mom loved playing community benefit bingo, thought luck brightened the world, left a huge hole in their hearts when she died of cancer 3 years ago.

Why is now the time to sell the house they shared with Mom?
As Dad downsizes what Mom left behind, where will their memories go?
Can Emily become lucky again?

Her parents’ best friend from high school has just moved back to this small Pennsylvania town with his daughter Blake, same age as Emily.
Maybe she can help Emily break out of her prom-disaster gloom as they work on the list:

1.Get a tattoo (really, Mom?)

9. Buy a book in another language (in this little town?)

12. Kiss J.C. (wait, those aren’t Dad’s initials…)

Small steps seem like huge leaps, but if the bucket list worked for Mom, Emily has to try it!

What small steps have helped you cope with big losses?
**kmm

The Lucky List / Rachael Lippincott. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021. (author site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Staying friends LONG DISTANCE is hard, #MGLit graphic novel by Whitney Gardner – book review

Dec8
book cover of Long Distance, by Whitney Gardner. Published by Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Moving to Seattle?
Leaving her best friend?
(leaving her only friend…)

Middle-schooler Vega doesn’t care that she’ll have a great window for her star-gazing telescope – leaving Portland is terrible!

Her dads try to help by sending her to Camp Very Best Friend. Their new neighbor guy Qwerty is going too, also with great reluctance. And best friend Halley doesn’t even text back as Vega endures the counselor’s off-key singing on the long ride to camp…

Tent-mate Gemma and twin Isaac both collect rocks (especially thundereggs), Qwerty is a computer whiz (talks non-stop), and George (the kid in all the camp brochure photos) seems to change personality every day.

Where are the squirrels and birds and insects?
Why won’t Qwerty’s satellite phone work at camp?
Why are the counselors are super-happy every single moment?

The multicultural campers find a pine cone with a speaker inside and a secret tunnel to the big telescope promised in the brochure.

Then weird things start happening… truly weird.

Great graphic novel in hardcover, paperback or ebook – worth your gift card!

How do you cope with friends moving away?
**kmm

Long Distance / words and art by Whitney Gardner. Simon Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021. (author site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

YOU CAN’T SAY THAT! yes, authors can! #BannedBooksWeek (nonfiction book review)

Sep30
book cover of You Can't Say That! Writers for Young People Talk About Censorship, Free Expression, and the Stories They Have to Tell, edited by Leonard S. Marcus. Published by Candlewick Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Too rude! too scary!
Not in our school, our town,
we don’t talk about such things…

Name a ‘controversial topic’ and you can find a list of books for kids and teens that someone, somewhere in the US has tried to censor or ban from class or remove from library shelves.

That’s why this is Banned Books Week and why noted children’s books expert Leonard Marcus decided to talk with authors whose books have challenged by people who think their viewpoint is the only one.

Marcus sets the stage in each chapter by noting the author’s books, the censorship they faced, and how he knows them, so the interviews are conversations between friends as well as explorations of how their depictions of real life often clash with adults trying to protect kids from unpleasant things.

Authors interviewed include: Matt de la Peña, Robie H. Harris, Susan Kuklin, David Levithan, Meg Medina, Lesléa Newman, Katherine Paterson, Dav Pilkey, Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, Sonya Sones, R. L. Stine, and Angie Thomas.

You’ll recognize challenged titles from Captain Underpants to the Goosebumps series to Heather Has Two Mommies that have been stolen, challenged, and even publicly burned, but might not have heard about authors being ‘disinvited’ from speaking at schools because their books include gay characters or children in families with alcoholism.

Meg Medina expresses the balance between would-be censors and the author’s right to tell their stories freely: “When it comes to formal challenges to books, the problem is not that parents don’t have the right to be involved in deciding what their children read. The problem is that they don’t have the right to make that determination for other people’s children.” (p. 96)

What are your experiences with book banning or censorship at your school?
**kmm

Book Info: You Can’t Say That! Writers for Young People Talk About Censorship, Free Expression, and the Stories They Have to Tell / Leonard S. Marcus, editor. Candlewick Books, 2021. [editor site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

The more you know: CONSTITUTION DECODED, by Katie Kennedy, art by Ben Kirchner (Nonfiction book review)

Sep29
book cover of Constitution Decoded, by Katie Kennedy, art by Ben Kirchner. Published by Workman Publishing | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Preamble, articles amendments –
we know what they are,
but what do they mean?

If we’re widely reading something over 200 years after its publication, it’s a classic.

To better understand the meanings of the Constitution’s old-time phrasing and vocabulary, we could use some help – here’s the book we need!

Going article by article, even word by word, we get insights into the historical context of key principles like separation of powers, creating new states, and establishing the U.S. monetary and postal systems.

The first ten amendments are called the Bill of Rights, detailing important ideas like the rights of free speech, peaceful gatherings, and trial by jury.

Other amendments fine-tuned Constitutional concepts or changed certain sections that were outdated. Did you know that here were no political parties in 1776, so the Vice President was the runner-up in the Presidential election? The 12th Amendment establishes the Electoral College with distinct voting on President and Vice President.

This book gives clarifying ‘translations’ side-by-side with each section of the Constitution and amendments, notes where amendments changed the original document, and provides vocabulary definitions, case examples, and facts in action (the 27th Amendment was ratified in 1992, but had originally been proposed in 1789!).

With full-color art on each page to help readers remember key concepts and fact-checked by a constitutional law scholar, this book makes a very old document very readable today.

Did you have to memorize the Preamble for school?
**kmm

Book Info: The Constitution Decoded: a Guide to the Document That Shapes Our Nation / Katie Kennedy; art by Ben Kirchner; contributions by Kermit Roosevelt. Workman Publishing, 2020. (author site) (artist site) (contributor site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.