YA Lit Blog

  This is a story of a Vietnamese family and their journey to America during the Vietnam war. They are refugees that endure pain and struggle yet find a way to experience the beauty of life. Thien, our author and main character, contemplates his identity as the more American he becomes, the less Vietnamese he feels. This story is beautiful yet tragic, as the family works through hard times with the help of Good Samaritans and the pressures of lay-offs, extorters, racists, and poverty. This graphic memoir is certain to make you feel it all; all of what it is to be human. About the Book                                                                                                 ...

  This is a story that follows Tre Brun, and Ojibwe teen that lives in the shadow of his deceased older brother, a star basketball player who died in a car accident. While Tre is figuring himself out, he slowly begins to crawl out of the shadow when he picks up a basketball. Tre becomes dedicated to becoming a star just like his brother. He wants to continue the basketball legacy but shine in his own ways as well. Tre faces challenges on and off the court, though. Outside of hooping, he deals with the struggles of grief, family expectation, school pressure, complexities of friendship, the perils of romance, and self discovery. Will he be able to take the Red Lake Warriors further than they ever have before? Read and find out for yourself as he battles against it all in Rez Ball .  About the Book                                             ...

  This is a not a history book. At least, it is not a conventional history book. This is an exceptional well crafted study of Americas history with a critical lens on race, racism, and how it all got started. Jason Reynolds adapts Kendi’s acclaimed and decorated Stamped From the Beginning into an energetic, sometimes humorous, sometimes heartfelt, and sometimes stern approach that is hyper-accessible. It tells the story with incredible detail that dates back the better half of a millennium to the present day and all of its problems. It picks up on key figures, key events, key movements, and key eras in a way that doesn’t make your eyes bleed or your brain hurt. Also, the audiobook is read by Jason Reynolds himself, who delivers a fantastic read with real life human emotion.  About the Book                                        ...

  Karou is a woman unlike any you’ve met before. An art school student in Prague who sketches in her notebook pictures of angels and monsters. Everyone who sees the sketches loves the drawings and asks Karou to tell stories about the creatures featured. What they don’t know though, is that they’re real. She lives as a human, but travels to Elsewhere to visit her pseudo father that grants her wishes in exchanges for teeth. With a life like this you can imagine things get bumpy, leading to an all-out bloody disaster than spans for millennia. Oh, and of course there is some complicated forbidden love that is both doomed and destiny.  About the Book                                                                        ...

  This Savage Song features a unique world where darkness is not your friend. As a cold war conflict rages on, splitting “V City” in half, the leaders of each side send their children on missions to either create or restore balance. Katherine (Kate) Harker is the daughter of Callum Harker, a ruthless man. August Flynn is the “son” of Henry Flynn, a compassionate leader. After Kate is kicked out of her sixth faraway school, she returns home to V City. That’s where she meets August, who had recently been given a false identity to sneak across the seam to spy on the recently returned daughter of Callum Harker.  In this world, however, mankind are not the only monsters in the world. Sin and death spawn creatures of the night that can consume souls. August is one of the most sophisticated of those monsters, but can he keep that a secret from Kate as tensions rise and blood spills?  About this Book                    ...

This book has a unique story to it, following three separate generations of boys/men through their experiences with love. Moud (pronounced Mood) is a queer teen who lives in present day LA. Saeed is his father who struggles to deal with his son’s identity and his own past. Bobby (or Baba) is Moud’s grandfather and Saeed’s father. He lives in Tehran, Iran, where he keeps his own sexuality very private. This twisting tale takes you on a journey through an inter-generational struggle to come to terms with who they are, and accepting each other for who they are. A family with high tensions reunites after an emergency calls Moud and Saeed back to Tehran. While there, the family must come together or risk severing bonds. This is a journey of self-discovery, forgiveness, and of love.  About the Book                                               ...