Archives de catégorie : Young Adult

BETWEEN PERFECT AND REAL de Ray Stoeve

A moving YA debut about a trans boy finding his voice—and himself.

BETWEEN PERFECT AND REAL
by Ray Stoeve
Abrams, April 2021

Dean Foster knows he’s a trans guy. He’s watched enough YouTube videos and done enough questioning to be sure. But everyone at his high school thinks he’s a lesbian—including his girlfriend Zoe, and his theater director, who just cast him as a “nontraditional” Romeo. He wonders if maybe it would be easier to wait until college to come out. But as he plays Romeo every day in rehearsals, Dean realizes he wants everyone to see him as he really is now––not just on the stage, but everywhere in his life. Dean knows what he needs to do. Can playing a role help Dean be his true self?

Ray Stoeve is a writer. They received a 2016-2017 Made at Hugo House Fellowship for their young adult fiction and created the YA/MG Trans and Nonbinary Voices Masterlist, a database that tracks all books in those age categories written by trans authors about trans characters. They are a contributor to Take The Mic: Fictional Stories of Everyday Resistance. BETWEEN PERFECT AND REAL is their debut novel. When they’re not writing, they can be found gardening, making art in other mediums, or hiking their beloved Pacific Northwest.

TELL ME MY NAME de Amy Reed

We Were Liars meets Speak in this haunting, mesmerizing psychological thriller—a gender-flipped YA Great Gatsby—that will linger long after the final line.

TELL ME MY NAME
by Amy Reed
Dial Books for Young Readers, March 2021

On wealthy Commodore Island, Fern is watching and waiting—for summer, for college, for her childhood best friend to decide he loves her. Then Ivy Avila lands on the island like a falling star. When Ivy shines on her, Fern feels seen. When they’re together, Fern has purpose. She glimpses the secrets Ivy hides behind her fame, her fortune, the lavish parties she throws at her great glass house, and understands that Ivy hurts in ways Fern can’t fathom. And soon, it’s clear Ivy wants someone Fern can help her get. But as the two pull closer, Fern’s cozy life on Commodore unravels: drought descends, fires burn, and a reckless night spins out of control. Everything Fern thought she understood—about her home, herself, the boy she loved, about Ivy Avila—twists and bends into something new. And Fern won’t emerge the same person she was. An enthralling, mind-altering psychological thriller, TELL ME MY NAME is about the cost of being a girl in a world that takes so much, and the enormity of what is regained when we take it back.

Amy Reed is the award-winning author of several novels for young adults, including The Nowhere Girls, Beautiful, and Clean. She also edited Our Stories, Our Voices: 21 YA Authors Get Real About Injustice, Empowerment, and Growing Up Female in America. Amy is a feminist, mother, and Virgo who enjoys running, making lists, and wandering around the mountains of western North Carolina where she lives.

THINGS WE COULDN’T SAY de Jay Coles

From one of the brightest and most acclaimed new lights in YA fiction, a fantastic new novel about a bi Black boy finding first love… and facing the return of the mother who abandoned his preacher family when he was nine.

THINGS WE COULDN’T SAY
by Jay Coles
Scholastic, September 2021

There’s always been a hole in Gio’s life. Not because he’s into both guys and girls. Not because his father has some drinking issues. Not because his friends are always bringing him their drama. No, the hole in Gio’s life takes the shape of his birth mom, who left Gio, his brother, and his father when Gio was nine years old. For eight years, he never heard a word from her . . . and now, just as he’s started to get his life together, she’s back. It’s hard for Gio to know what to do. Can he forgive her like she wants to be forgiven? Or should he tell her she lost her chance to be in his life? Complicating things further, Gio’s started to hang out with David, a new guy on the basketball team. Are they friends? More than friends? At first, Gio’s not sure . . . especially because he’s not sure what he wants from anyone right now. There are no easy answers to love— whether it’s family love or friend love or romantic love. In THINGS WE COULDN’T SAY, Jay Coles, acclaimed author of Tyler Johnson Was Here, shows us a guy trying to navigate love in all its ambiguity—hoping at the other end he’ll be able to figure out who is and who he should be.

Jay Coles is a graduate of Vincennes University and Ball State University. When he’s not writing diverse books, he’s advocating for them, teaching middle school students, and composing for various music publishers. His debut novel Tyler Johnson Was Here is based on true events in his life and inspired by police brutality in America. He resides in Indianapolis, Indiana.

I SPEAK BOY de Jessica Brody

What if an app could tell you what boys are really thinking?

I SPEAK BOY
by Jessica Brody
Delacorte, July 2021

After a matchmaking attempt for her best friend, Harper, goes horribly, embarrassingly wrong, Emmy is fed up. Why are boys so hard to figure out? But then something amazing happens . . . she wakes up with a new app on her phone: iSpeak Boy! Suddenly Emmy has access to the super-secret knowledge of how boys think—and who they like! Now Emmy is using her magical app to make matches left and right. But can she use it to help Harper, the only person who doesn’t seem to buy into Emmy’s “gift”? And when her secret gets out and the app ends up in the wrong hands, can Emmy undo all the damage she’s caused? From the author of Better You Than Me, this fun, funny, and girl-positive book with a dash of romance is perfect for anyone who loves reading about friendship—and life hacks like magic apps.

Jessica Brody has written and published over seventeen novels for teens, tweens, and adults published and translated in over 23 countries, and Unremembered and 52 Reasons to Hate My Father are currently in development as films.

SKIN OF THE SEA de Natasha Bowen

Sold at auction in a 7-figure deal, SKIN OF THE SEA is an unforgettable fantasy duology from #DVpit-winning debut author Natasha Bowen. Inspired by West African mythology, this is Children of Blood and Bone meets The Little Mermaid, in which a mermaid takes on the gods themselves.

SKIN OF THE SEA
by Natasha Bowen
Random House, November 2021

Credit: Natasha Bowen

A way to survive. A way to serve. A way to save.
Simi prayed to the gods, once. Now she serves them as Mami Wata—a mermaid—collecting the souls of those who die at sea and blessing their journeys back home. But when a living boy is thrown overboard, Simi does the unthinkable—she saves his life, going against an ancient decree. And punishment awaits those who dare to defy it. To protect the other Mami Wata, Simi must journey to the Supreme Creator to make amends. But something is amiss. There’s the boy she rescued, who knows more than he should. And something is shadowing Simi, something that would rather see her fail. . . . Danger lurks at every turn, and as Simi draws closer, she must brave vengeful gods, treacherous lands, and legendary creatures. Because if she doesn’t, then she risks not just the fate of all Mami Wata, but also the world as she knows it.

Natasha Bowen is a writer, a teacher, and a mother of three children. She is of Nigerian and Welsh descent and lives in Cambridge, England, where she grew up. Natasha studied English and creative writing at Bath Spa University before moving to East London, where she taught for nearly ten years. Her debut book was inspired by her passion for mermaids and African history. She is obsessed with Japanese and German stationery and spends stupid amounts on notebooks, which she then features on her secret Instagram. When she’s not writing, she’s reading, watched over carefully by Milk and Honey, her cat and dog.