Archives de catégorie : Young Adult

THE MEMORY THIEF de Lauren Mansy

A heart-pounding YA fantasy

THE MEMORY THIEF
by Lauren Mansy
     HarperCollins, October 2019

In the city of Craewick, talents are bought and sold, and memory reigns over everything. Madame, the power-obsessed ruler of the city, has cultivated a society in which memories are  currency, citizens are divided by ability, and Gifted individuals can take memories from others through touch as they please. Seventeen-year-old Etta Lark is desperate to live outside of the corrupt culture, but grapples with the guilt of an accident that has left her mother bedridden in the city’s asylum. When Madame  threatens to put her mother up for Auction, a Craewick tradition in which a “worthless” person’s memories are sold to the highest bidder before she is killed, Etta will do whatever it takes to save her. Even if it means rejoining the Shadows, the rebel group trading in the black market of memories, who she swore off in the wake of the  accident years earlier. To prove her allegiance to the Shadows and rescue her mother, Etta must pull off the greatest heist of her life – steal a memorized map of the Maze, a formidable prison created by the bloodthirsty ruler of a neighboring realm. So she sets out on a journey in which she faces startling attacks, unexpected romance, and, above all, her own past in order to set things right in her world.

Lauren Mansy has built a career from working with young people, and her debut novel has already attracted a devoted legion of fans

LONER de Georgina Young

An irresistible new voice alive to the choices and confusions of youth, and the messiness of learning how to adult

LONER
by Georgina Young
Text Publishing, 2020

LONER moves beyond the expected boundaries of young adult fiction. It is an intimate, comic novel about learning how to be, and how to not be, a person in this world. It is about finding and creating yourself—as many times as it takes. Lona spends her days developing photographs in the dark room of the art school she dropped out of. She spends her nights DJ-ing the roller disco at Planet Skate. She is in inexplicable, debilitating love with a bespectacled, Doctor Who-obsessed former classmate. She is in comfortable, platonic love with her best friend, Tabitha. When Lona’s grandfather moves into her home, she finds herself bonding with him as she watches his health decline. When she is promoted to manager of checkout three in her supermarket job, she argues for a demotion to trolley-girl. When she meets a bass-playing, cello-shredding, charming-as-all-hell suitor, she is thrown by somehow finding herself in a romantic relationship with another human being. Lona doesn’t know what she wants, but she knows what she doesn’t want—well, some of the time.

Georgina was born in 1995 and lives in Melbourne. She has been published in a number of anthologies and literary magazines..

THE SPEED OF FALLING OBJECTS de Nancy Richardson Fischer

From the author of When Elephants Fly comes an exceptional new novel about falling down, risking everything and embracing what makes us unique. Don’t miss this compulsively readable novel about the most unlikely of heroes

THE SPEED OF FALLING OBJECTS
by Nancy Richardson Fischer
Inkyard Press, October 2019

Danger « Danny » Danielle Warren is no stranger to falling. After losing an eye in a childhood accident, she had to relearn her perception of movement and space. Now Danny keeps her head down, studies hard, and works to fulfill everyone else’s needs. She’s certain that her mom’s bitterness and her TV star father’s absence are her fault. If only she were more-more athletic, charismatic, attractive-life would be perfect.
When her dad calls with an offer to join him to film the next episode of his popular survivalist show, Danny jumps at the chance to prove she’s not the disappointment he left behind. Being on set with the hottest teen movie idol of the moment, Gus Price, should be the cherry on top. But when their small plane crashes in the Amazon, and a terrible secret is revealed, Danny must face the truth about the parent she worships and falling for Gus, and find her own inner strength and worth to light the way home.

Nancy Richardson Fischer is a graduate of Cornell University, a published author with children’s, teen and adult titles to her credit, including Star Wars titles for Lucas Film and numerous athlete autobiographies, such as Julie Krone, Bela Karolyi and Monica Seles.

ORDINARY GIRLS de Blair Thornburgh

A heartfelt and humorous contemporary YA novel, perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Sarah Mylnowski, about two sisters—polar opposites—who struggle to find themselves outside of the shadow of their late father

ORDINARY GIRLS
by Blair Thornburgh
Harper Teen, May 2019

Fifteen-year-old Plum Blatchey’s real name is Patience, but with an older sister like Ginny—who flings herself on furniture when she’s stressing about college admissions—patience is not a virtue Plum can easily identify with. Sort of like how she is definitely not a writer even though her late father was an acclaimed author. Ginny got the genius genes, unfortunately. Plum’s skills are limited to analyzing Brontë novels, getting her cat to eat his heartworm pill, and—oh!—making a fool of herself in front of fellow classmate Tate Kurokawa, who she has been tutoring for extra cash since her mother’s finances have hit a snag. Ginny Blatchley is not getting into the University of Pennsylvania. Her straight As aren’t straight enough, she only speaks three languages, and she did not even take advanced calculus. Is this what her dad meant when he called her, in one of his last essays, a genius? It’s not like she’s clever or brilliant like Plum… But this has always been the sisters’ dynamic. So why does everything feel different this year? Maybe because Ginny is going to leave for college. Maybe because Plum has a secret for the first time in her life. Or maybe because the girls are forced to come to terms with who they really are instead of who their late father said they were.

Blair Thornburgh writes stories for and about teenagers. A graduate of the University of Chicago and a graduate of Hamline University’s MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults, she lives in Philadelphia. Her first book, “Who’s That Girl”, was named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year.

THE SURVIVAL LIST de Courtney Sheinmel

A heartbreaking yet uplifting teen novel from veteran author Courtney Sheinmel, a grieving girl follows a mysterious list across the country after her older sister’s death. Perfect for fans of I WAS HERE by Gayle Forman and FAR FROM THE TREE by Robin Benway

THE SURVIVAL LIST
by Courtney Sheinmel
Katherine Tegen Books, September 2019

The only thing connecting Sloane to her older sister Talley is a list—random places, unfamiliar names, a phone number that she doesn’t recognize. Ever since Talley died, Sloane has been completely fixated on it: maybe understanding how the items on list connect is the key to understanding why Talley took her own life. Except the clues on the list seem to be pointing her to California, and Talley had never even been there, right? Turns out the list of things Sloane didn’t know about her sister is much longer than she realized.
She heads out west in search of Adam, the owner of the mysterious phone number, who claims he’d never met Talley. Even though Adam is clearly hiding something, Sloane can’t deny that she’s drawn to him. Can unraveling the cryptic non-sequiturs Talley left behind— and putting her trust in a stranger— heal the hole her sister’s death has left in Sloane’s life?

Courtney Sheinmel is the author of over a dozen highly celebrated books for kids and teens, including the YA novel Edgewater, and the Kindness Club and Stella Batts series for middle grade readers.