There’s something extra thrilling about a debut novel, which allows us to access the contents of a brand-new author’s brain, and all the magic therein, for the very first time. The 15 brave, strange, magical, funny, heartrending, lifesaving, eye-opening books below are all from new authors who’ve instantly made it onto my must-buy list. Look for more debut […]
It’s hard to match the excellence of 2015’s excellent LGBTQI YA offerings, from the bold bi pride of Hannah Moskowitz’s Not Otherwise Specified, to the gorgeous gut punch of Adam Silvera’s More Happy Than Not, to I.W. Gregorio’s groundbreaking None of the Above, to the heart-melting delight of Becky Albertalli’s Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, but if any […]
As a primarily contemporary reader, nothing excites me on the eve of a new year like the promise of new stories of brutal realism, light romance, psychological thrill rides, and everything in between. Being that contemporary is my absolute favorite genre, my “must-read” list is far longer than this, but apparently it’s frowned upon to […]
In 2015, We Need Diverse Books’ battle cry for more diverse reads rang out loud and clear! And in 2016, thanks to readers who are demanding more and publishers who are heeding the call, we can expect even more fabulous—and decidedly diverse—reads to hit the shelves. Herewith, just a small sampling of the awesomely diverse […]
Required reading mainstays like Carson McCullers, Toni Morrison, and Arthur Miller should and will always be read, but there are other books that deserve to be added to the canon—books that speak directly to and about the teens reading them. Here are 10 YA books published recently or right now (and one forever classic) that are so […]