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RECENT YA RELEASES SET IN THE 1990S

  Tirzah Price   Sep 6, 2023 The 1990s are alive and well with Gen Z! While it might be simple to say that the ’90s are so popular because of the fashion aesthetics or easy access to ’90s pop culture (thanks, internet!), I think the ’90s are such an interesting time period to explore for today’s teens because they look back on a time (although not so long ago!) where our lives didn’t center around the constant connection of phones, social media, and the internet. While some things have changed, we’re still facing a lot of the same social issues, but in different contexts. YA books set in the 1990s aren’t exactly scarce thanks, likely, to many millennials’ nostalgia, but here are three more recent YA releases set in the 1990s for your TBR! BE THAT WAY  BY HOPE LARSON Set in 1996, this novel follows Christine, who makes a resolution to be the shiny, cool girl that people will actually want to hang out with — like her best friend. But when a falling out and a misstep leaves her without fr
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8 YA BOOK CLUB BOOKS TO READ FOR GREAT DISCUSSIONS

Alice Nuttall   Sep 5, 2023 B ook clubs aren’t just a way to enjoy reading and branch out by trying books you wouldn’t have picked for yourself — they’re also a great way to get into discussions of multiple different subjects inspired by the reading you’ve done together. While book clubs can be beneficial to people of all ages, they can be a particularly helpful place for teens to engage with new ideas, put their opinions forward, and take part in friendly discussions about everything from social issues to the writing process. I’ve been in a few book clubs over the years, and while I certainly haven’t loved everything I’ve read as part of them, it definitely led me to YA book club books I otherwise would never have tried and got me looking at a whole range of different perspectives. School is back in session for the autumn, and whether you’re an educator yourself or just want to help the teens in your life discover new books, a YA book club is a great way to get young people engaged in
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NEW SEPTEMBER 2023 YA RELEASES

  Tirzah Price   Sep 6, 2023 Happy September, YA readers! Even though it is not officially fall until later this month, I am choosing to embrace the impending season with all things autumn! Bring on the pumpkin everything, the cozy sweaters, crunching leaves, and gloriously moody fall weather! I also love fall because it is the start of a veritable landslide of new releases, and I absolutely love nothing more than an avalanche of great new books! This month, there are more books releasing than I could possibly highlight in one post, so I have had to do the very difficult task of narrowing the list down to just ten. But don’t miss new books by Ally Condie (The Only Girl in Town), the latest from Chloe Gong (Foul Heart Huntsman), and Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s long-awaited sequel, The Siren, the Song, and the Spy! I’ve also got my eye on the gorgeous 40th-anniversary editions of Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness Quartet, and I have a pretty good feeling that, yes, I do need another copy of a
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BEST YA BOOKS FOR BACK-TO-SCHOOL

  Nikki DeMarco   Aug 30, 2023 Back-to-school season is always a little bit bonkers. You have to figure out your new schedule, get back on the homework wagon, and set that alarm for  so   early. There are buses or rides to straighten out, new teachers to learn, and a need to balance home and school life. And did I mention the early alarm? Because it’s early. During this time, I always like to read books about people going back to school, too. It’s nice to read a story at a different school, with different people. It helps get me out of my head and my chaotic first weeks of readjusting. Seeing how fictional characters handle different situations gives me an idea of what students might be experiencing. On the other hand, reading something so completely opposite to my life helps me escape my own back-to-school blues. I may not like how early school starts, but at least my principal hasn’t been murdered, I don’t have a crush on my off-limits tutor, a ghost isn’t silently following me aroun
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CLASSIC YA BOOKS THAT MADE YOU FEEL SEEN

  K.W. Colyard   Jul 26, 2023 SPEAK   BY LAURIE HALSE ANDERSON I’m sure I’d heard of another book about rape before  Speak  came along. Hell, I might even have read one. But these days? This is the only book I can remember that dealt with one of the myriad possible reactions to sexual assault: silence.  Speak  and other books that deal with similar subject matter have the ability to empower victims of abuse to label what’s happened to them and seek help. ARE YOU THERE GOD? IT’S ME, MARGARET  BY JUDY BLUME Once a staple on banned books lists, Judy Blume’s most famous novel has been teaching preteens about puberty — including menstruation and boob exercises — since 1970.  Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret  was far ahead of its time, being one of the first children’s books to show an interfaith family on the page, and — along with Lois Lowry’s Anastasia Krupnik — depicted a child allowed to make up her own mind about which religion she wanted to follow. THE CAT ATE MY GYMSUIT  BY PAULA
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9 OF THE MOST UNIQUE MAGIC SYSTEMS IN YA FANTASY

  Grace Lapointe   Aug 15, 2023 Magic systems establish a set of rules for what magic can do in a fictional world, and crafting a coherent magic system is an important aspect of worldbuilding. Some popular types of magic systems include magic from books, words, or spells, elemental magic, and magic from supernatural beings. In many fantasies, rules are necessary. Completely unrestricted magic could eliminate any possible plots or be too chaotic for readers. Moral rules demonstrate what magical societies value and prohibit. Magic systems can be like physics — for example, laws of motion — and like metaphysics, revealing a fictional society’s moral and spiritual beliefs. In Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse novels, the Grisha call their power “the small science,” not magic, and contrast it with forbidden magic, called merzost. Despite the comparisons to chemistry and physics, magic is never an exact science. Doing spells or rituals incorrectly, or with the wrong motives, can be deadly but unpr
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8 HEARTFELT YA BOOKS FEATURING CHARACTERS WITH ANXIETY

  Megan Mabee   Jul 28, 2023 Over the past couple of years, mental health has become a much more frequent topic of conversation. It’s refreshing to find more people discussing mental health with honesty, vulnerability, thoughtfulness, and care. While we still have a ways to go as a society, I’m thankful for how much visibility mental health has now and how the stigma surrounding mental health has lessened. The more people talk about mental health conditions like anxiety, the more the stigma will erode and people will feel less alone in their experiences. When it comes to anxiety, there are a number of resources available to help teens and young adults, from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s  online resource center for anxiety  to  Teen Line ,  The Youth Mental Health Project , and more. Another Rioter created  this handy guide to workbooks and books about anxiety  as well. Fiction books featuring characters navigating mental health conditions like anxiety can al
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