In the same way that the Alex Award recognizes books published for adults that have teen appeal, other book lists and awards intended for adults may contain titles that older teen readers will enjoy. The Over the Rainbow List recognizes LGBTQ titles for adults, but some of the books the committee chose are definitely cross-over titles. Committee chair Arla Jones features a few in this post. –ed.
For those of you who may not know about us, let me explain a bit: four years ago, the American Library Association’s GLBT-RT’s (Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Round Table) launched The Rainbow Project. The Rainbow Project’s mission is to publish a recommended list of LGBTIQ books for youth, from birth to age 18. The Rainbow List was so well-received that we launched another committee last year, whose mission is to publish a recommended list of LGBTIQ books for adult readers–the Over the Rainbow Book Committee (OTR). I chaired OTR for the first two years, and I must say that we have been quite pleased with the reception of the list. One of the most rewarding aspects of this committee is that we have the opportunity to bring attention to so many small and independent publishers and authors. This year’s list has 74 titles, and if you go to our website, you can see the entire list and see the committee’s top ten titles for the year.
Among the committee’s favorites this year are two very different and wonderful graphic narratives. The first, a + e 4ever was written and drawn by Ilike Merey. Merey’s graphic novel was published by Lethe Press. I’m highlighting this title because it is about high school students who are struggling genderqueers, yearning for romance. It’s definitely a book that some young adults might find interesting.
Our other graphically narrated title this year is The Complete Wendel by Howard Cruse. read more…
Welcome to The Hub’s second installment of Great Graphic Novels for Teens Top Ten 2012! In our first post, we covered politics, social change, and ghosts. Today, we’ll be taking a look at media and politics, a classic superhero, and kung-fu (how’s that for a combination?).
Most of you are probably familiar with Brooke Gladstone, journalist and host of NPR’s On the Media. In The Influencing Machine, Gladstone tackles no less than 2000 years of media and politicking, but this book really shines when it comes to discussing media in our current age. Who produces it? Who consumes it? Can you even believe what you read anymore? What is media now that anyone can be a reporter? This book is a bit heavy on dialogue but with a subject this complicated, not to mention important, there is much to say. This title works particularly well as a graphic novel because the illustrations are pretty lively and often quite funny. Combined with Gladstone’s insight and delivery, it keeps readers challenged and engaged.
If you are a graphic novel reader that shies away from the superhero stuff, you might take one look at Roger Langridge‘s Thor: the Mighty Avenger and roll your eyes, but looks can be deceiving and the latest interpretation offers a take that is as fresh as it as amusing. While the basic premise remains the same, this particular incarnation of Thor has the feel of an awkward teenager who is smart enough to know he has messed up but can’t figure out what he did to make everyone so mad. Volumes 1 and 2 are a stellar example of how equal attention paid to illustrations, storyline and characters result in a complete package that definitely rises above the crowd. I was very disappointed to learn this utterly charming series has been cancelled, but maybe its place on GGNFT 2012 Top Ten list will persuade the publishers to continue it.
All I Need to Know I Learned from YA Books: relationship advice from your favorite books
Ah Valentine’s day … I keenly remember the sweet pain of anticipation that every Valentine’s day brought. Waiting in home room at my high school for the coveted cans of soda to be delivered to their intended recipient bearing the note, “______ has a “Crush” on you!” And the agony of trying to decipher the intentions of the sender. Was the “crush” meant romantically or just in a friendly way? These questions would be discussed in the halls, at lunch, and in notes passed in class. Although my love life was a comedy of errors, I found solace in the romantic endeavors of my favorite characters. And so to celebrate relationships from fairy-tale to failure, we offer up our favorite dating advice we have garnered from YA books.
Read These Books –> Learn These Lessons
If the hottest guy in school acts like he hates you, but can’t stop staring at you … its probably because he’s not quite human and your fates are intertwined. – Twilight by Stephenie Meyer (and any number of paranormal romances)
Never hypnotize a guy into being the friend you think you want at nine, because then he’ll never develop into the guy you can date at seventeen! – Crush Control by Jennifer Jabaley
If you write your deepest emotions down in a “story” and you share it, eventually people are going to figure out what and WHO you are talking about…. – Love Story by Jennifer Echols
You know that beautiful, witty, excentric girl that you have a crush on? Someday she will realize how amazing you are and take you on the adventure of a lifetime, just be patient. – Looking for Alaska and Paper Towns by John Green
Two months into 2012, and it’s still proving to be a strong year for debut YA novels. There’s a big batch of them this February, just as there was in January. And now that the field nomination period for next year’s YALSA awards is open, make sure you take the time to suggest favorite debut novels for the William C Morris award.
Erin Saldin’s The Girls of No Return (Scholastic/Arthur Levine Books, 9780545310260) follows Lida as she moves to the Alice Marshall School, in the remote Idaho wilderness. The school is a place for girls who are troubled, and Lida’s been sent there as sort of a last resort to overcome some challenge’s she’s had. But what the brochures didn’t tell her or her family was that the social dynamics of a school of troubled girls is not good. Not good at all. What seems like innocent pranking is something much darker and sinister. All of the girls in this story have secrets and even though Alice Marshall is supposed to be a safe space, it ends up being anything but. Saldin’s debut is a sort of mean girls story, but it’s subtle and, in a way, much darker than a typical story of bullying. Setting plays a major role in the story, and the novel’s set up of being told through multiple time frames–the story starts with the epilogue–builds the suspense and the darkness. The flap copy suggests this one for fans of Cut or Speak and I think that’d be a pretty fair assessment. I think it’d also be a good book for fans of Jo Knowles (a 2010 Best Books for Young Adults listee) or Nina de Gramont (a 2011 Best Fiction for Young Adults listee).
It’s February and the excitement of youth media awards season is starting to be eclipsed by things like the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards (I mean, clearly for myself and anyone reading this blog there is nothing more exciting that the announcement of the Printz, Morris, Odyssey, and other YALSA awards, but there’s a whole lot going on in the world of entertainment at this time of year!).
By now maybe you’ve read a few other winning titles … maybe you’ve even tried to read ALL of them, and are feeling a little in need of a literary palette cleanser. That’s why I’d like to take a moment to salute one of my favorite media award lists: the nonfiction section of Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers. This list is full of some of the most quirky, fun, visually beautiful, and fascinating titles of the year, and often books that fly under the radar of other awarding and reviewing sources. The titles can be sassy reference materials like How They Croaked: The Awful Ends of the Awful Famous or Show Me How: 500 Things You Should Know, Instructions for Life from the Everyday to the Exotic. They can be awe-inspiring artistic presentations like Pavement Chalk Artist: The Three-Dimensional Drawings of Julian Beever or share fashion from around the globe like Gothic and Lolita.
by flickr user Ani-Bee
I’ve been watching the results of this week’s poll over the week, cheering for my favorite, and it’s really been a neck-and-neck race. Now that all of the final votes are in, though, “barking spiders!” has won, with “frex” and “cakesniffer” coming in a very close second and third. Apologies to those of you who wanted to vote for the many different made-up swear words in the Maze Runner trilogy and were disappointed not to see it as an option. But thanks to all of you who voted and commented. See the results of this poll and all that came before it in our Polls Archive.
Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day and whether you love the holiday or hate it, it’s gotten us thinking about love, so this week, we want to know who the most tragic star-crossed lovers in YA lit are. Vote in the poll below and leave a comment if we’ve forgotten a truly heartbreaking couple.
Who are the most tragic star-crossed lovers?
- Hazel and Augustus (The Fault in Our Stars by John Green) (47%, 34 Votes)
- Lyra Belacqua & Will Parry (His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman) (34%, 25 Votes)
- Mau and Daphne (Nation by Terry Pratchett) (8%, 6 Votes)
- Jem and Spider (Numbers by Rachel Ward) (7%, 5 Votes)
- Kaede & Taisin (Huntress by Malinda Lo) (3%, 2 Votes)
- Sammy and Juliana (Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz) (1%, 1 Votes)
Total Voters: 73
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So, remember how the Vlogbrothers are kind of a big deal on the internet? Well, this year, in celebration of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars, the brothers took their show on the road. In previous years, the brothers have held Tour de Nerdfighting, and the most recent tour was called, appropriately enough, Tour de Nerdfighting 2012. Yeah, yeah, you’re thinking, another YA author touring the country, reading from his book and then signing. Well … not quite.
A couple of weeks ago, I was drawing up a list of YA novels featuring LGBTQ characters for the library where I work. As I worked on the list, I realized that figuring out which books had LGBTQ themes was a little trickier than I’d first imagined: a quick catalog search for something like “gay and teen” only turned up a few titles, even though I knew there were more on the shelves, and eventually I got sick of coming up with alternative search terms (“queer and ya,” “lesbian and teen,” “transgender” … you get the picture). It turns out that searching the catalog isn’t the best way to find LGBTQ books. Luckily, there are some great resources available that are much quicker and more user-friendly. You can always just Google, of course, but these blogs, lists, and awards are a quick, easy way to find queer-friendly books to add to your bookshelf.
Awards & Selected Lists:
Although YALSA doesn’t have a queer-specific award, YALSA’s parent organization, the American Library Association, does! In fact, they have a whole family of LGBT awards called the Stonewall Awards. The award for YA books is officially called the Stonewall Book Award-Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award, but it’s usually just referred to as the Stonewall. This year the award went to Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy, and four honor titles were named: a+e 4ever, Money Boy, Pink, and with or without you. You can also check out the list of previous winners to find wonderful reads from previous years.
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Another ALA-sponsored resource is the Rainbow List. It’s a joint project between the GLBTRT (that’s the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table!) and the Social Responsibilities Roundtable. Every year, the Rainbow Project Committee compiles a list of great LGBT fiction for children and teens. You can check out the 2012 list to see the committee’s most recent picks, or browse older lists to find books you might have missed when they were published.
Here is a list of fun and informative tweets from some of your favorite people in YA Lit:
- day lacking zombies? the 1st chapter of my zombie YA,THIS IS NOT A TEST has them! read it here: http://courtneysummers.ca/this-is-not-a-test-excerpt/ (RTs appreciated <3!) - @courtney_s (Courtney Summers – Fall for Anything)
- Don’t forget to enter the February Goddess Interrupted ARC contest!http://aimeecarter.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/february-goddess-interrupted-arc-contest/ @aimee_carter (Aimée Carter - Goddess Interrupted)
- twitter! I’m excited to tell you my 5th YA novel sold! it’s called ALL THE RAGE & you can read all about it here:http://courtneysummers.ca/2012/02/all-the-rage-with-a-side-of-zombies-2/ yay! - @courtney_s (Courtney Summers - Fall for Anything)
- Want a sneak peek at THE BOOK OF BLOOD AND SHADOW by@robinwasserman? - @randomhousekids (Random House Kids)
- Do you know that you can read the first eighty pages of The Disenchantments online? (Yes, eighty as in 8-0.) http://www.scribd.com/doc/77345181/The-Disenchantments-by-Nina-LaCour - @nina_lacour (Nina LaCour - The Disenchantments)
- I Heart Daily is giving away an ipod loaded with author playlists (including mine): http://iheartdaily.com/2012/02/win-an-ipod-loaded-with-author-playlists/ You know you want it. - @robinwasserman (Robin Wasserman - The Book of Blood and Shadow) read more…
Right before winter break, I had a class come into the library to check out books for a free-choice reading unit they were going to start right after the holidays. One 10th grader who comes into the library almost every day to use the computers ended up checking out Coe Booth’s Tyrell.
The first day back from break, he was back in the library. But when I reached to get him a laptop, he told me that he didn’t want a computer–he wanted another book like Tyrell. I gave him her newest title, Bronxwood, but he was back again two days later to return that one, too, because he was already finished. He told me that he hadn’t read a book for “fun” since middle school.
Coe Booth’s books provide the perfect, gritty balance between hard and soft for a tough, but secretly sensitive, guy. There’s a backdrop of urban conflict: Tyrell’s father is in jail and his mother has a drug problem, leaving his family homeless and him to take care of his younger brother; he’s missed more school than he’s attended; his girlfriend doesn’t understand him. But ultimately it’s a story about a teenage boy falling for a girl and finding the courage to try to follow his own dreams–with some healthy contemplation of race issues.
The books below all follow this model. They’re about tough guys who can’t seem to stay out of trouble and have incredibly messed up home lives, but who find a certain amount of salvation in themselves (and from girls who are perhaps out of their league). If you have other ideas for what a Coe Booth reader might like, share them in the comments!
