Get ready to declare your genre love!
It’s time to celebrate all things young-adult! The brainchild of Scholastic, #IReadYA Week (May 18-22, 2015) is designed to get fans to share their love of the genre on social media (which is what the hashtag is all about).
If you’re looking for your next terrific YA read, check out some of these titles that were recently reviewed in the Independent:
X: A Novel by Ilyasah Shabazz and Kekla Magoon (Candlewick). Wrote reviewer Keely Cutts, “Often, authors of historical fiction become so caught up in research that period detail overwhelms and the characters are lost to the setting. Not in this novel. This is an interactive read, challenging the reader to consider not only Malcolm [X’s] life and circumstances, but the same circumstances faced by black American teenagers today. It is the most powerful type of historical fiction: Not only does it make the reader enter the world of the subject; she enters her own world more fully, too.”
Vango: Between Sky and Earth by Timothée de Fombelle; translated by Sarah Ardizzone (Candlewick). In her review, Caroline Bock explained that “Fombelle’s Vango, like his French literary descendent, Voltaire’s Candide, comes of age when the world is on the brink of something new and dangerous, and there does seem to be a bit of satire at work as Vango continues to outwit the Soviets, the French police, and all others out to track him down. The modern world of zeppelins, fast-driving motorcars, paranoia, and turbulence fuels this adventure.”
Splinters (The Prospero Chronicles) by F.J.R. Titchenell and Matt Carter (Jolly Fish Press). Reviewer Joe Dell’Erba revealed that the authors “employ a lot of familiar tropes throughout the novel — the popular girl, the infamous love triangle, the tech kid, the over-the-top drama teacher, and the cool, aloof guy. Many of the secondary characters, the townsfolk, seem cookie-cutter. But this fakeness adds to the vibe that things aren’t quite as they should be. It actually works in the authors’ favor. Tropes lead to reader expectations, which make it all too easy to have the rug pulled out from underneath our feet.”
Have a favorite YA title? Tell us about it in the comments section below or tweet it to @wirobooks!
