Some people are extraordinary. Some are just extra. TJ Klune’s YA debut, The Extraordinaries, is a queer coming-of-age story about a fanboy with ADHD and the heroes he loves. Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right? After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova CityâsContinue reading “The Extraordinaries”
Tag Archives: young adult literature
S4 E11: An Interview with Swati Teerdhala
This week we’re joined by author, Swati Teerdhala, author of The Tiger at Midnight and The Archer at Dawn. We played a bookish version of Would You Rather…? and our favorite spoiler getting game Never Have I Ever Spoiled My Own Book (we got a little info on book 3). Long live the naked mole-rat! Let’s get started!
The Henna Wars
When Dimple Met Rishi meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this rom com about two teen girls with rival henna businesses.
When Nishat comes out to her parents, they say she can be anyone she wantsâas long as she isnât herself. Because Muslim girls arenât lesbians. Nishat doesnât want to hide who she is, but she also doesnât want to lose her relationship with her family. And her life only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life.
FlĂĄvia is beautiful and charismatic and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both FlĂĄvia and Nishat choose to do henna, even though FlĂĄvia is appropriating Nishatâs culture. Amidst sabotage and school stress, their lives get more tangledâbut Nishat canât quite get rid of her crush on FlĂĄvia, and realizes there might be more to her than she realized.
S4 E7 Aurora Rising
Jess is a gearhead with both eyebrows, Dan is a stunningly attractive Ace, and Maggie finds herself with newfound responsibilities on this episode of Booked All Night when we discuss Aurora Rising by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff.
The Abyss Surrounds Us
If there’s anything that can be said for me, is that I love my fiction to have a hearty dosage of pirates. And queer girls. And queer pirate girls. The Abyss Surrounds Us is that, and more. So much more. For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. Sheâs been a ReckonerContinue reading “The Abyss Surrounds Us”
The Hate U Give
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.
Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
But what Starr does or does not say could upend her community. It could also endanger her life.
A Tale of Highly Unusual Magic
Bestseller and author of the popular middle grade series Confectionately Yours Lisa Papademetriou is back with a magical, page-turning adventure for readers of all agesâa touching tale about destiny and the invisible threads that link us all, ultimately, to one another.
Kai and Leila are both finally having an adventure. For Leila, that means a globe-crossing journey to visit family in Pakistan for the summer; for Kai, it means being stuck with her crazy great-aunt in Texas while her mom looks for a job. In each of their bedrooms, they discover a copy of a blank, old book called The Exquisite Corpse. Kai writes three words on the first pageâand suddenly, they magically appear in Leila’s copy on the other side of the planet. Kai’s words are soon followed by line after line of the long-ago, romantic tale of Ralph T. Flabbergast and his forever-love, Edwina Pickle. As the two take turns writing, the tale unfolds, connecting both girls to each other, and to the past, in a way they never could have imagined.
A heartfelt, vividly told multicultural story about fate and how our stories shape it.
Ghosts
Catrina and her family are moving to the coast of Northern California because her little sister, Maya, is sick. Cat isn’t happy about leaving her friends for BahĂa de la Luna, but Maya has cystic fibrosis and will benefit from the cool, salty air that blows in from the sea. As the girls explore theirContinue reading “Ghosts”
Freeks
Welcome to Gideon Davorinâs Traveling Sideshow, where necromancy, magical visions, and pyrokinesis are more than just part of the actâŠ
The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett
A teenage misfit named Hawthorn Creely inserts herself in the investigation of missing person Lizzie Lovett, who disappeared mysteriously while camping with her boyfriend.
