Top 9 YA Books of 2016

2016 has been an eventful year and I've been encouraged by all of the great books that have come out featuring writers of color and characters of color, but there is still a lot to be done and more advocacy to do before their is equitable representation on the shelves and in the publishing houses. As a member of the Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers committee I've read a TON of books this year. If you're still looking for gifts or something to sink your teeth in this winter take a look at my top 9. 

Sorry, I couldn't come up with 10, which could speak to the dearth of good, well-rounded fiction this year. Not one of these books has a black boy as the lead or even as a secondary character. Don't think that this has nothing to do with how easily people dismiss the murder of black boys. You have to see people to recognize their humanity.

 Here is my criteria:

Is it diverse in scope? - This means that this isn't white, cis, heteronormative, middle class angel food cake in a generic package that I've seen hundreds of times before.
Can anyone enjoy it? - This means young, old, black , white, gay , straight and all the shades in between.
Is it different? - Is this a new take on an old trope. Gimme something new!


1. Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo - A fantasy heist that has intrigue, danger and love gone wrong set in a mythical land. It's fast paced and fantastic.

2. A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers & Other Badass Girls by Jessica Spotswood- Diverse, feminist, historical fiction from YA powerhouse women. Each one is fantastic, especially the kick-off about a Black girl pirate in the 1700's.

3. Wonders of the Invisible World by Christopher Barzak - A magical realism boy meets boy, boy forgets boy because of magic spell  and then meets boy again story.

4. Dime by ER Frank- A heart breaking story about sexual traffiking, how it happens and the emotional manipulation that plays into it.

5. The Head of the Saint by Socorro Acioli - This is a modern classic. It feels like a legend or even a bible story, this is how epic it is. Follow a boy who lives in the head of a beheaded statue of a saint as he begins to answer the prayers of his village.

6. Ink and Bone by Rachel Caine - A steampunk adventure wherein books have been outlawed and managed by a magic-robot protected librarian dictatorship.

7. My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton and Jodi Meadows-  You remember Henry the VIII, well what if he descended from a line of shapeshifters and what if his only son didn't die. There are a lot of what if's in this reimagining of history, but they're all hilarious.

8. When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie Mclemore- Your typical transboy meets girl in and girl grows roses from her wrists story that is anything but typical.

9. Ms. Marvel by G. Willow Wilson - A graphic novel you have to have about learning who you are and then finally accepting it.

Diverse Non-Fiction Books for the Advanced Elementary Reader

Recently, I was asked for some recommendations for books that would appeal to advanced readers in elementary school, some reading on the high school level. Whenever this happens you have to consider that even though the students can read very well, the subject matter of high school books might not appeal to them or may even be inappropriate.

Now, we can have a censorship discussion, but that's another post for another time. What I want to focus on is interest level coupled with ability. She also wanted to make sure the books were culturally relevant. This is important, because we are concerned with "interest". Culture is a big part of that. Many black and brown kids become reluctant readers because there are few books that appeal to them culturally. There are more talking animals who are the main characters in books in kidlit than kids of color. By the the time they reach middle school those animals disappear and are replaced by more straight, white children. So, what happens when you're a kid of color who reads very well? How do we support you?

Here is a list of appropriate non-fiction books for Advanced Elementary Readers:

Outliers	Malcolm Gladwell
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind	William Kwamkamba
I am Malala (Young Reader's Edition)	Malala Yousafazi
March	John Lewis
Find Where the Wind Goes	Mae Jemison
No Crystal Stair: A Documentary Novel of the Life and Work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem Bookseller	Vaunda Micheaux Nelson
Rhythm Ride	Andrea Davis Pinkney
This Kid Can Fly: It's About Ability (Not Disability)	Aaron Philip
Sitting Bull: Lakota Warrior and Defender of His People	SD Nelson
Breakthrough: How Three People Saved "Blue Babies" and Changed Medicine Forever	Jim Murphy
Drowned City:Hurrican Katrina & New Orleans	Don Brown

#iwriteincolor Twitterchat

Did you miss the #iwriteincolor twitterchat on Sunday? You can live vicariously through all of us here.

#BooksFightHate Reading List

Modern Classics for the AP Student

Check out this list of books that I compiled for one of my teachers who was looking for a list of modern classics to lead her mostly black and brown AP English students to for additional study. It's important for representation and it's important because these books are just as good as the "canon" that gets stale after a while. We must also remember that the canon is mostly white men because it was selected by mostly white men and white, straight men don't have the monopoly on literature. Read something a with a bit more teeth and read it from a different perspective. Note: The descriptions of the books were pulled from their Amazon profiles.

#BookTube review of The Iron Cast by Destiny Soria

Read the full review in this earlier post 

Choosing Books for "At Risk" Teens

If you're a librarian, teacher or a parent you often are tasked with helping a kid find a book that they actually want to read. Too often schools select books based on some arbitrary canon that reflects neither the experiences or worldview of the students that are forced to read them. If you do this day in and day out for years it becomes easy to check out and decide not to read at all. But reading opens up the world.

Reading allows everyone to access information and information can be the difference between life and death.

Students who have become "reluctant readers" may be that way because they haven't found anything they like to read or a reason to do it. If they've got little parent support it's even easier to find yourself in that category. Often reluctant readers are those kids who aren't having much success in school, but they don't have to be. Often reluctant readers are stereotyped as the black and brown kids. Take a look at the covers of mainstream books and those for reluctant readers and you'll be able to see which ones feature black and brown faces, but I digress.

The "In the Margins" list of books for incarcerated youth and at-risk teens is a favorite of mine because I can always find books for kids who live in circumstances that aren't sweet and ripe for fond rememberings. Their lives are hard and they need stories that show them that they aren't alone and there is light at the end of the tunnel. These books do that. Take a look at them. Buy them. Share them.

If you're wondering what I consider At-Risk then these kids qualify:

• Kids who have been or have family members who have been incarcerated
• Kids who do or know people who do a recreational drugs that negatively impact their lives
• Kids in foster care
• Kids in non-traditional homes (living with a sister or grandparent)
• Kids who have limited mobility (no access to public transit or personal vehicles)
• Kids who have been retained
• Kids who have been recruited or at risk of being recruited by gangs

Increasing Awareness of Youth “in the Margins” |YA Underground | School Library Journal via kwout