diversity

More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera

December 29, 2016 Leave a Comment

Release Date: 6/2/16

Audiobook Length : 8 Hours 25 minutes

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Soho Press

The expectation to be happy can be overwhelming, but Aaron Soto is going to try. He is going to happily spend the summer hanging with his friends, nerding out over comics and finally telling his girlfriend he loves her. He won’t think about the things that threaten his happiness like his father’s suicide or Tomas, a neighborhood boy whose friendship could spark something more. Looming in the background of this happy summer is the divisive Leteo Institute, a facility that claims that can make memories go away.

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9 Episodes of This American Life YA Readers Will Love

December 10, 2015 Leave a Comment

Did you know NPR’s This American Life turned 20 this year ? I’ve been binge listening to the podcast and since I blog about books I decided to pair nine episodes of TAL with with some amazing YA books because sometimes life is stranger than fiction.

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Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon

August 27, 2015 Leave a Comment

Release Date : September 1st 2015

Genre : Contemporary

Pages : 320

Publisher : Delacorte Books For Young Readers

To Madeline Whittier the world is a stranger. She suffers from a rare illness that makes her allergic to…everything. She has classes, the internet and mom to keep her connected, but when a troubled family with a curious boy moves next door she realizes she could have more.

I went into this novel thinking it would focus on a romance between Olly and Maddy, but the story focuses more on Maddy’s coming-of-age. For me this book was all about Maddy and the romance didn’t quite do it for me. I was more drawn to how Yoon wrote Maddy’s inner conflicts. As the reader you know the risks she takes to be normal are bad for her, but you still want her to take the chance….

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Like No Other by Una LaMarche

April 29, 2015 1 Comment

Release Date: July 24th 2014

Pages: 368

Genre: Contemporary

Publisher: Razorbill (Penguin)

Like No Other has an easy pitch; take the star crossed lovers trope and apply it to a Hasidic Jewish girl and West Indian boy in 21st century Brooklyn with a meet cute in a broken elevator during a storm.

I really like what this book is doing in terms of the current state of YA publishing. It’s like yeah diversity in YA, yeah diverse cover art and oh look The New York Times is reviewing a diverse book by a female author. But despite my cheering for its successes I kind of take issue with LaMarche’s portrayal of the male protagonist Jaxon

I didn’t necessarily hate his character. Jaxon is a nerdy first-generation West Indian who represents the average teen boy and I actually like many of his introductory paragraphs.

It’s funny; I forget sometimes how I might look to other people. I could be reading The Great Gatsby on the 3 train, or walking down the street listening to a podcast on my phone, or coming out of the orthodontist’s office with Invisalign braces feeling like the biggest nerd on the planet, but some people don’t notice anything but an almost six-foot-tall black man.

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