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I know it gets confusing but this list is a bit different from the Calde-not list from a couple days ago.  The reason is simple.  While the Calde-not list looks primarily at books with illustrations so distinguished they could easily win major illustration awards if given half a chance, this is list is more for those books that may not blow you away on a first glance, but that make our publishing landscape richer for their very existence.  I was inordinately pleased after I read each and every one of these books.  They’re a little peculiar, distinctly different from what you’ll find in the American market, and altogether remarkable.

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2016 International Imports for Kids

Picture Books

Chirri & Chirra by Yuki Kaneko

Sweet and dreamlike, this Japanese import has a light and sweetness to it that will simultaneously make it deeply beloved in a few select homes, while also not drawing so much attention to itself that it ever becomes much more than a cult hit in the States.  Do yourself a favor and discover it.  It’s the kind of book you want to influence the dreams of your children with.

Cry, Heart, But Never Break by Glenn Ringtved, ill. By Charlotte Pardi

This Danish import just reminds us that when it comes to poetic picture books about death, American just don’t deal very well.  Our death books tend to either be straightforward guides (here’s what to expect, etc.) or complete and utter fanciful metaphors.  This book feels like it’s both fable and straightforward talk.  A rare thing.

The Day I Became a Bird by Ingrid Chabbert, ill. Guridi

Kirkus didn’t get it. SLJ did.  In this story a boy falls in love with a bird-loving girl.  To get her attention he constructs an elaborate bird costume.  Make of that what you will.

Don’t Cross the Line! by Bernardo P. Caravalho, ill. Isavel Martins

Portugal!  And an interesting book at that.  This one combines the interactive qualities of something like Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus or Press Here with a political statement about thwarting unjust authority.  This book may get a bit more play in the coming years.

Look Up by Jung Jin-Ho

I love this one since it confronts and rearranges the reading experience and expectations of children.  Add in the fact that it stars a girl in a wheelchair (who is not solely defined as a person from that chair) and you’ve got a golden book on your hands.

My Baby Crocodile by Gaetan Doremus

Funny story. I cannot read this book without setting it to the tune of “My Funny Valentine”. I suspect that this is because the two phrases share the same number of syllables more than anything else, but maybe it also has to do with the strange nature of love celebrated in this book.  The story is between a near-sighted crocodile that “adopts” a knight, thinking he’s a baby croc.  It’s odd and sweet and strange and funny.  Memorable too.

A Promise Is a Promise by Knister, ill. Eve Tharlet

I found this one interesting perhaps because of the deep-seated feeling of betrayal our hero suffers in the course of things.  It’s a very childlike understanding of an impossible promise and I like how it’s handled.  A book that belies its cutesy cover.

Undercover by Bastien Contraire

I absolutely adore this book.  It’s a story where you have to spot the thing that doesn’t match.  Contraire, living up to his name, doesn’t make it easy on you, though.  The cover alone should be enough to prove that to you.

What Color Is the Wind? By Anne Herbauts

I’ve already reviewed it but if you somehow missed mention of this marvelous books about blindness and tactile response, now’s the time.  You won’t find anything else like it on the market today.

Why Am I Here? by Constance Orbeck-Nilssen, ill. Akin Duzakin

Big questions for little brains.  I like this one a lot.  Lemur or not lemur.

Middle Grade

The Birth of Kitaro by Shigeru Mizuki

Honestly the backmatter explaining the entire history of the yokai in Japanese history and literature is some of the most fascinating stuff here.  In a way, this book reads like what would have happened if Quasimodo turned into a superhero rather than a bell fantastic.  I loved the peculiar (to me) nature of the storylines, the characters, and particularly the creatures.

The Heartless Troll by Oyvind Torseter

The troll is, without a doubt, one of the most horrific renderings I’ve seen in a children’s book in a long time.  Which is to say – it’s awesome!  Definitely hand this to older kids, but appreciate it on your own when you get a chance.  As graphic novels go, there are few things to compare it to.

Under Earth / Under Water by Aleksandra Mizielinska and Daniel Mizielinski

This Polish import is fantastic.  There was a book of maps that came out from this couple previously.  I’m not as big a fan of those, but what I am a fan of is learning about all that goes on below.  Good times.

Misc

And just a quick shout-out to the Candied Plums titles that aren’t online yet.  These are the real deal.  I just adore them:

• Little Rabbit’s Questions by Dayong Gan, translated by Helen Wang (978194529270 – www.candiedplums.com)
• Picking Turnips by Xu Zhou, translated by Adam Lanphier (9781945295263 – www.candiedplums.com)
• Who Wants Candied Hawberries? by Dongni Bao, ill. Di Wu, translated by Adam Lanphier

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Interested in the other lists of the month? Here’s the schedule so that you can keep checking back:

December 1 – Board Books

December 2 – Board Book Adaptations

December 3 – Nursery Rhymes

December 4 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Alphabet Books

December 7 – Funny Picture Books

December 8 – Calde-Nots

December 9 – Picture Book Reprints

December 10 – Math Picture Books

December 11 – Bilingual Books

December 12 – International Imports

December 13 – Books with a Message

December 14 – Fabulous Photography

December 15 – Fairy Tales / Folktales

December 16 – Oddest Books of the Year

December 17 – Older Picture Books

December 18 – Easy Books

December 19 – Early Chapter Books

December 20 – Graphic Novels

December 21 – Poetry

December 22 – Fictionalized Nonfiction

December 23 – American History

December 24 – Science & Nature Books

December 25 – Transcendent Holiday Titles

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 28 – Nonfiction Chapter Books

December 29 – Novel Reprints

December 30 – Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

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I wish I had the numbers in front of me. I wish I could tell you how many bilingual books for kids have been published in the past and how that number compares to today.  If we’re going to speak to my experience as a children’s librarian over the past decade, all I can say with any certainty is that while I don’t know if the number of bilingual books has increased, I do feel as if I’m seeing a wider range of languages.  That is a wholly unscientific speculation, of course.  In any case, enjoy this smattering of some truly lovely bilingual books out in 2016.

Note: Some of the titles on this list are not strictly bilingual. They may instead incorporate more than one language into their text.  I have included these because they encourage a love of multiple languages and do not slot neatly under any kind of definition (and are consequently forgotten).  I’ll note these titles as they appear.

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 2016 Bilingual Books for Kids

SPANISH

Ada’s Violin: The Story of the Recycled Orchestra of Paraguay by Susan Hood, ill. Sally Wern Comport

A friend pointed out to me earlier in the year that it was somewhat remarkable that a nonfiction picture book was coming out in both English and Spanish versions.  Never mind that it’s beautiful to look at with great writing and a unique story.  Or that it’s one of the rare picture books out there where you can honestly get it from a child’s point of view.  I like to think that this book may be a sign of things to come.  Or maybe I just hope it.

Animal Talk: Mexican Folk Art Animal Sounds in English and Spanish by Cynthia Weill, ill. Rubi Fuentes and Efraiin Broa

This isn’t Weill’s first time around the block.  It is, however, strange that I can’t conjure up more titles that do precisely this: show animals sounds in another language.  It sort of sounds like a no brainer when you hear about it, doesn’t it?  Kudos for the idea and the gorgeous follow through.

Little Chickies / Los Pollitos by Susie Jaramillo

I think this is just one of the great book publications of the year.  In fact, I included this on my earlier board book list.  Then, one of my commenters mentioned that there was also this out there:

Little Elephants / Elefantitos by Susie Jaramillo

I’ll take twenty.

La Madre Goose: Nursery Rhymes for Los Ninos by Susan Middleton Elya, ill. Jana Martinez-Neal

Yay!  Now this appeared on the nursery rhymes list already, but it’s nice to see it here on the bilingual list as well.  Granted it’s not strictly bilingual.  Spanish words are integrated into the text.  But that’s okay.  I just think it’s neat.

Olinguito, from A to Z! / Olinguito, de la A a la Z! by Lulu Delacre

And you may have seen this gorgeous title on my alphabet list too.  It’s far more than that, though.  A science book that looks at rainforests in depth, an alphabet book, a bilingual book, and a collection of the author’s poetic rhymes (in TWO languages!), it’s a bit of an achievement.

Rudas: Nino’s Horrendous Hermanitas by Yuyi Morales

They’re baaaaack!  Again, not strictly bilingual but with a consistent smattering of Spanish words, this sequel to Nino Wrestles the World picks up where the last book left off.

Somo Como Las Nubes / We Are Like the Clouds by Jorge Argueta, ill. Elisa Amado

Oh, these poems are AMAZING!  Subject matter aside, these poems make an immediate emotional connection with readers

Waiting for the Biblioburro / Esperando el Biblioburro by Monica Brown, ill. John Parra

I felt bad.  An acquaintance, not knowing if this book would appear on my list, went so far as to send me a copy. I could have saved them a stamp since this book has been on my radar for a while.  It is by NO means the first biblioburro book I’ve ever seen, but it may well be the most touching.

JAPANESE

Are You an Echo?: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko by David Jacobson, ill. Toshikado Hajiri, translations by Sally Ito and Michiko Tsuboi

I believe that there’s a fair amount of Japanese at the end of this book or perhaps in the poems.  Hey, if it means I get to put it on a list, you can BET that I’ll be first in line to do so.

The Last Kappa of Old Japan: A Magical Journey of Two Friends by Sunny Seki

A sweet story with a modern twist, this is great!  Takes a classic folktale creature and gives it warmth and heart and wonder.

ARABIC

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey by Margriet Ruurs, ill. Nizar Ali Badr

Bilingual Arabic books for kids are few and far between,  so the appearance of this book on our shelves is a real treat.

I would be amiss if I didn’t should out two Chinese / English bilingual titles that I thought were truly wonderful but that are well nigh impossible to find online.  Alakazam by Chao Wang, ill. Duncan Poupard (9781945295102) and CeeCee by Mao Xiao, ill. Chunmiao Li & Yanhong Zhang, translated by Helen Wang (9781945295140) are two books that deftly display how seamlessly some translated Chinese titles fit into the American picture book market.  Unfortunately, as of this posting, I’ve been unable to locate them online.  If you have any leads on the matter, be sure to let me know.  They’re really and truly great books.

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Interested in the other lists of the month? Here’s the schedule so that you can keep checking back:

December 1 – Board Books

December 2 – Board Book Adaptations

December 3 – Nursery Rhymes

December 4 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Alphabet Books

December 7 – Funny Picture Books

December 8 – Calde-Nots

December 9 – Picture Book Reprints

December 10 – Math Picture Books

December 11 – Bilingual Books

December 12 – International Imports

December 13 – Books with a Message

December 14 – Fabulous Photography

December 15 – Fairy Tales / Folktales

December 16 – Oddest Books of the Year

December 17 – Older Picture Books

December 18 – Easy Books

December 19 – Early Chapter Books

December 20 – Graphic Novels

December 21 – Poetry

December 22 – Fictionalized Nonfiction

December 23 – American History

December 24 – Science & Nature Books

December 25 – Transcendent Holiday Titles

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 28 – Nonfiction Chapter Books

December 29 – Novel Reprints

December 30 – Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

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Jonathan Nelson's The Woolf of Jonesy: Part I is a treat!

In some ways it is (for me) a mirror. See... I grew up on the Nambe Indian reservation in northern New Mexico. As I gaze at the cover, I see a cool dude (that's Jonesy--he's a sheep) sitting on... something (more on that later). He's holding a flip style phone. On the ground is a little red wagon with bent wheels and a backpack. Behind him is... (imagine me exclaiming) a barbed wire fence and a cattleguard! Silly? Not to me! And certainly not to anyone who grew up on a reservation. Or a ranch, somewhere.

Here. Take a look yourself:

Here's how the story starts out: Jonesy has just finished high school. It is springtime. The story opens with Jonesy asleep... and it is getting hot... He doesn't want to get up. Sound familiar?! He reaches over, turns on the electric fan, drifts off again, and the fan quits. He hauls himself out of bed.

Some of Nelson's work on Jonesy was on display at the Heard Museum in Arizona, in 2015. The first three rows in this panel are similar to what ended up in The Wool of Jonesy. Nelson has since expanded the last row (remember this panel was exhibited in 2015):

Source: Heard Museum http://heard.org/event/comic-workshop-071715/

Compare the sleeping Jonesy in the panel to the Jonesy on the cover... he does, indeed, as that last row shows us, shave his wool. The story then, is his efforts to get that wool to the trading post, where he plans to sell it. At the end of the story, Jonesy is back home, waking up, his bag of wool nearby.

As you see in that panel, there is no text. The Wool of Jonesy is a wordless comic. Readers use the images to create the story, themselves. It is like Owly. If you're new to wordless comics, or comics in general, take a look at Gene Yang's Graphic Novels in the Classroom from the January 2008 issue of Language Arts. 

I am pretty sure that I know some librarians and teachers who would love to have this book... As I study it, I see all kinds of things I love (example: it is set in the present day).

What is Jonesy going to do... in Part II?!

The Wool of Jonesy came out in 2016 from Native Realities. Get your copy directly from Native Realities. Heck! Get two copies and give one to a friend or a kid you know! I highly recommend it!

Oh! Follow Nelson on Twitter https://twitter.com/badwinds and check out his website.

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BLACK MOON is the third book in the Zodiac series, and we're thrilled to have Romina Russell here to chat about writing.

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God has a sense of humor. How else to explain the fact that for the past three or four years I have been a founding and contributing member of the Mathical Book Award committee?  Yep, each year I read a slew of math-related books for kids.  I do it because while I personally was not overawed by integers as a child (aside from enjoying the PBS show Square One, of course), there are a lot of kids out there who are.  Where are their books?  Since the founding of the award, it’s not as if the number of quality math books have increased significantly over the past few years.  That said, I have begun to notice them more astutely.

Here are the best and the brightest relating to math in 2016.  Books that even an entirely right-side-of-the-brain kid will appreciate on some level.  And to keep it fair, I’m highlighting both books that incorporate math into the text and stories about mathematicians themselves.

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2016 Math Picture Books

Counting Books

Billions of Bricks: A Counting Book About Building by Kurt Cyrus

I’m sort of stretching the definition of what constitutes a counting book as far as I possibly can.  That said, this picture book is a subtle little number, implying to the reader that counting and math are essential when it comes to construction and architecture.  It’s never explicitly stated, but you could explain it pretty easily after reading the book.  Give it a go!

Counting in the Garden by Emily Hruby, ill. Patrick Hruby

I’m not always a fan of digital art, but there was something deeply satisfying in how the Hrubys chose to display the plants, insects, and animals of this book.  From a design standpoint alone I think it’s notable.  The counting is just the icing on the cake.

It’s Not Easy Being Number Three by Drew Dernavich

Not technically a counting book but since it involves numbers I figured it could fit in here.  The number three decides it’s had enough and is quitting its job.  It enters the real world, taking on different professions, before it becomes clear that the world is a lesser place without threes.

Octopuses One to Ten by Ellen Jackson, ill. Robin Page

Who doesn’t love octopuses?  Particularly when you get to count them?  At long last these odd alien-looking creatures get their due.  Page’s work on the art is truly stunning as well.

1 Big Salad: A Delicious Counting Book by Juana Medina

I’ve grown very fond of counting books that include healthy food, these days.  Anything that allows me to promote tasty veggies to my impressionable small children AND covers counting is gold in my book.

Swallow the Leader: A Counting Book by Danna Smith, ill. Kevin Sherry

First thought upon seeing this cover was to be reminded of Victoria Chess’s magnificent Ten Sly Piranhas.  This lacks that book’s courage of its convictions, but is still a really fun and lovely reverse counting book.

Biographies

Ada Lovelace, Poet of Science: The First Computer Programmer by Diane Stanley, ill. Jessie Hartland

It never rains but it pours.  Last year saw the publication of one picture book biography of Ada Lovelace.  This year has produced two, with more on the way in the future, I’m sure.

Ada’s Ideas: The Story of Ada Lovelace, the World’s First Computer Programmer by Fiona Robinson

The crazy thing is, for all that they’re so strongly different from one another, there are elements that I like in both.

Real World Applications

Animals by the Numbers: A Book of Infographics by Steve Jenkins

Do kids actually like infographics?  I’ve never been able to answer that question so hopefully they do.  Particularly when the visuals are as stunnng as the ones you’ll find here.

How Much Does a Ladybug Weigh? by Alison Limentani

I give full credit to my discovery of this book to New York Public Library’s recent release of its 100 Best Books of 2016 list.  Had they not highlighted it, I never would have found it on my own.  In this book it starts slowly with small animals.  Oh, here, I’ll give you an interior visual:

On the next page that one grashopper has become two and you get to see what two grass hoppers weigh as much as.

Place Value by David Adler

To be fair, Circles was another Adler title this year, but if I had to choose between that and this, this would win every time.  Cheeky monkey chefs walk your kid through different numerical values.  Probably the smartedst explanation I’ve seen in a book for kids to date.

For Older Readers

I know this list says it’s just for picture books, but I’d be amiss if I didn’t include two of my favorite notes.

Rebel Genius by Michael Dante DiMartino

A co-creator of Avatar: The Last Airbender came out with a middle grade novel this year and it’s certainly exciting to read.  In the book, students must learn geometry to fulfill their tasks.  There’s not a ton of geometry in the book, mind you, but there’s just enough to keep you coming back for more.

Secret Coders by Gene Luen Yang

How on earth did Gene Luen Yang convince his good people to allow him to produce a graphic novels series on coding?  That man must have magical powers.

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December 1 – Board Books

December 2 – Board Book Adaptations

December 3 – Nursery Rhymes

December 4 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Alphabet Books

December 7 – Funny Picture Books

December 8 – Calde-Nots

December 9 – Picture Book Reprints

December 10 – Math Picture Books

December 11 – Bilingual Books

December 12 – International Imports

December 13 – Books with a Message

December 14 – Fabulous Photography

December 15 – Fairy Tales / Folktales

December 16 – Oddest Books of the Year

December 17 – Older Picture Books

December 18 – Easy Books

December 19 – Early Chapter Books

December 20 – Graphic Novels

December 21 – Poetry

December 22 – Fictionalized Nonfiction

December 23 – American History

December 24 – Science & Nature Books

December 25 – Transcendent Holiday Titles

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 28 – Nonfiction Chapter Books

December 29 – Novel Reprints

December 30 – Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Where Do We Go From Here? from The Brown Bookshelf. Peek: "We may sign on to petitions and open declarations, forward emails, RT, and 'like', and these can all be good and powerful things. But we believe that it’s important to reflect on how we will hold ourselves accountable, how we will act, and reflect...."

18 Middle Grade Authors on Writing Girl Characters After the Election by Karina Glaser from BookRiot. Peek: "For many of us, the hardest part of the election was waking up the morning after and realizing that we would have to explain to children that a man who belittled women throughout his campaign had just been elected to the highest office in the nation."

Editors at the Top! Interviews with Anne Schwartz, Neal Porter, and Allyn Johnston from Picture Book Builders. Peek from Allyn: "The text of a picture book is more like poetry than prose. It needs rhythm and succinctness and not a bunch of description and dialog. ...it needs 'perfect words in perfect places.' And not too many of them."

The Dreaded Editorial Letter by Densie Webb from Writer Unboxed. Peek: "It was like someone telling me I’m beautiful, while punching me in the gut, knocking the air out of my lungs." See also How to Use Fiverr to Create a Book Trailer by Therese Walsh.

Why Does Your Character Do That? A New Look at Backstory by Darcy Pattison from Fiction Notes. Peek: "The function of the origin scene is establish firmly the Misbelief that will plague the character throughout the story."

10 Books for Children About Kindness by Jalissa Corrie from Lee & Low. Peek: "...books can change a reader’s perspective and open a reader’s mind to a different world, a different culture, and a different way of life. In celebration of empathy and kindness, we’ve collected a list of recommended books that encourage kindness, giving, and open-mindedness."

Page Time for Adult Villains in YA Fiction? by Deborah Halverson from Dear Editor. Peek: "...don’t fall into the trap of thinking backstory will deepen your antagonists. In fact, being stingy with info about motivations and circumstances can enhance the mystery of your bad guys and their nefarious deeds, making us wonder about them."

10 Native Titles for Gifting by Jessica Fleck from Kidliterati. Peek: "...here's the perfect list for you to support Native titles this holiday season while also spreading knowledge and awareness."

How Novelists Can Infuse Their Scenes with Color from C.S. Lakin. Peek: "Filmmakers sometimes tone everything down except for one or two objects in the frame to make them stand out. A POV character can also perceive something similarly when one object appears to be brighter than anything else around it, or a glare of light shines on it, highlighting it in a symbolic way."

Creating Thunder Boy, Jr. -- It Takes a Village by Alvina Ling from Design of the Picture Book. Peek: "Sherman and I continued to work on the ending—we felt that the resolution was happening too quickly. Here’s the previous ending text...."

2016 Favorites List: Libros Latinxs from Latinx in Kidlit. Peek: "...this year’s releases offered picture books that we found irresistible, early reader/chapter books that charmed us to the core, and works of fiction and nonfiction sure to thrill middle-grade and YA readers. Librarians, parents, and teachers, please consider adding these selections to your bookshelves."

Cynsational Screening Room

Author Mitali Perkins's acceptance speech for the 2016 South Asia Younger Readers Book Award for Tiger Boy (Charlesbridge, 2015).



This Week at Cynsations

Amy Rose Capetta

• Danica Davidson on Writing Merchandise Tie-In Books

Amy Rose Capetta: Something Good Happened in 2016

• Celebrating LGBTQ YA
• Intersectionality in LGBTQ YA
• LGBTQ YA Genre Fiction
• Where Does LGBTQ YA Go From Here?

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Jingle Dancer art by The Girls' School of Austin

Feeling the holiday spirit? I am!

It's been quiet here, as I've been grading the last round of packets from my Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA students and writing end-of-the-semester evaluations.

Teacher Cyn is in charge.

But I'll start writing again soon, even as I continue teaching and public speaking.

I received my editorial letter from Candlewick this past week (huzzah!), and I'm so excited to dive into revisions.

My editor's biggest-picture concern is that, while the A and B plots run parallel and compliment thematically, they don't seem sufficiently linked.

Reflecting on what's already in the manuscript, I already see a solution. I'm going to bullet point out that part of the arc and then look at how to merge it into the whole. Yay!

My new deadline is the end of March, and I have a lot going on between now and then--the winter holidays, the VCFA residency and Kindling Words East in Vermont, an Open Book event and Association of Writers and Writing Programs conference in Washington, D.C., and the SCBWI National Winter Conference in New York City. (I hope to see many of you during my time in the northeast U.S.!) And there's of course preparation to be done--manuscripts reviewed, speeches written and delivered, for those events, too. Whew!

But here's the thing. Once I have a toehold into a revision, I can quickly make notes and sketch out scenes as inspiration strikes. And in the midst of that creative whirlwind, the fresh ideas will come. So, while it won't be all sustained focus, I'll still benefit from ah-ha! moments and heightened energy.

Special thanks to Amy Rose Capetta for her series this week, Something Good Happened in 2016: LGBTQ YA Lit. Spend a little time learning from her posts, signal boost if you're inclined and support the highlighted books and authors. Like all diverse books, LGBTQ lit benefits most from word of mouth. You can make a positive difference!

Great news! This month Feral Nights (Book One in the Feral Trilogy) is on sale for $1.99 at Evolt.

Personal Links

• Hugh Jackman, Fox 2000 Team for Alexie's 'Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian'  
• The Value of Writing Retreats
• Mr. (Fred) Rogers Statue Unveiled at Latrobe
• California Booksellers See a Threat in New Law
• Dolly Parton Pledges $1000 Monthly to Families Made Homeless by Tennessee Fires
• Heartwarming Polish Grandpa Christmas Ad
• How Paleontologists Care for Their Long-Dead, High-Maintenance Stars
• All the Ways We Have Loved Anne of Green Gables  
• Judgement & The Ghost Ship Fires: American Has Abandoned Its Artists 

Honored to join the SCBWI winter conference faculty!

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Welcome to the 2016 Cybils Speculative Reader! As a first run reader for the Cybils, I'll be briefly introducing you to the books on the list, giving you a mostly unbiased look at some of the plot.Enjoy! While some girls are horse-crazy from the... Read the rest of this post

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Here's what I asked:

What real-life adventure would you most like to go on?

What fictional adventure would you most like to crash?

Besides storytelling, what skill(s) would you contribute to the group on an adventure quest?

As a writer, what do you think is your strongest skill? And do you have any tips for getting better at it?
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Sometimes I talk about how books with illustrators from countries other than America get a bum rap because there are so few awards that they can win.  And this isn’t untrue, but there are a couple lists that give them their due.  There’s the New York Times Best Illustrated list, and the Society of Illustrators show with all the awards inherent therein.  There’s the Batchelder Award (sorta) and all those Best of the Year lists the review journals put out.

Pity then the picture book reprint.  There is no award for a reprint.  No best of list will tend to display such books.  They are often lovely, but they rarely go viral.  Perhaps there will be a crew of stalwart fans that cheer such a book’s reappearance, but no one ever gets rich off of picture book reprints.

Today, I sing the praises of those reprints.  I’ve seen a lot of them this year, and these are the standouts.  A truly lovely creation, each and every one.  Your bookshelves will be richer for having them.

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2016 Picture Book Reprints

The Brownstone by Paula Scher, ill. Stan Mack

I’m so pleased that this book comes first alphabetically on today’s list.  I was completely unaware of the existence of this book, to say nothing of Paula Scher or Stan Mack, until it was reprinted.  It’s marvelous!  Each denizen of an apartment bugs another one, so they keep switching apartments around like mad.  It’s basically a lower stakes version of the old fox/chicken/bag of grain riddle.  Did I mention it was charming?  It’s charming.

Colors by John J. Reiss

 

I’m switching it up.  I put one of the Reiss reprints in the reprinted board book selection.  Now I’m putting this one into the reprinted picture book section.  Fair’s fair, and all the books in this series are lovely and deserving of praise.

Do You Hear What I Hear? by Helen Borten

Add this one to your collection of picture books about the five senses.  Borten tackles sound in this book through a variety of creative methods.  Though this book came out in the 1960s, it still feels pretty darn fresh when you read it through.

Fletcher and Zenobia by Victoria Chess and Edward Gorey, ill. Victoria Chess

No, your eyes do not deceive you.  That’s Victoria Chess pairing with Edward Gorey.  What a duo!  I was a huge fan of Chess back in the day.  Remember Slugs?  No.  Wait.  Don’t remember Slugs.  That thing was unnerving.  Remember the piranha one instead.  I love her work and to see her with a Gorey plot (and a sweet one at that) is just icing on the cake.

The Happy Hunter by Roger Duvoisin

I guess it’s fairly safe to say that we don’t see quite as much bandying about of guns in picture book these days.  Fortunately, this particular hunter is more enamored of the act of having a gun than actually using it in any way.  This was a good Duvoisin that I never really saw.  Nice to see him coming back in print.

The Marzipan Pig by Russell Hoban

I think I actually physically squealed with delight when I saw that this was coming out this year.  Way back in 2004 I would run film strips (yep, FILM strips) in the Jefferson Market Branch of NYPL.  I could request these films from the Performing Arts Library of NYPL (by typing little carbons on a typewriter, but that’s another story) and my favorite one to request was The Marzipan Pig.  You can’t find it on YouTube but you can see some of it on Fandor, so enjoy.  I tended to play it around Valentine’s Day, thereby ensuring that a bunch of young adults are now wandering this Earth wondering why they have this strange memory of a film with a pig and an owl and a taxicab.  So happy to see the book, at least, is back in print.

The Nutcracker by E.T.A. Hoffman, ill. Lisbeth Zwerger

It’s a lovely one, really.  I had to have at least one Zwerger on my list this year and I decided to go with this one because besides the Maurice Sendak one it’s the only illustrated version I’ve seen of the original story by E.T.A. Hoffman.  Tis the season.

Roland the Minstrel Pig by William Steig

A good year for pigs, no?  It’s hard to believe that this was William Steig’s first picture book.  Harder still to believe that he wrote it when he was sixty-one.

Sam and Emma by Donald Nelsen, ill. Edward Gorey

What’s better than one reprinted Edward Gorey?  TWO reprinted Edward Goreys!  I knew that this particular book was a bit of a cult hit and that Sam and Emma fans abound.  What I didn’t know was that it would feel quite so much like the Houndsley and Catina series by James Howe.  It’s actually a rather remarkable little book in that it attempts to show that our perceptions and expectations may not always be accurate when dealing with other people.

Tomi Ungerer: A Treasury of Eight Books by Tomi Ungerer

 

Though I was a little surprised to find that The Beast of Monsieur Racine was not included in this collection, all told I was happy with the selection.  You’ve got a nice mix of old classics and newer works.  They all have this feeling peculiar to Ungerer and no one else.  It’s nice to see him having his Renaissance while he’s still alive.

The Toy Brother by William Steig

This one had a lot of similarities to Steig’s later work Sylvester and the Magic Pebble.  Spells going awry and the possibility that you’ll now be stuck in the form you’ve accidentally just made for yourself for all eternity.  It’s a mighty interesting book.  There’s a reason I have multiple Steigs on this list.

What Can I Be? by Ann Rand, ill. Ingrid Fiksdahl King

The cover.  Need I say more?

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Interested in the other upcoming lists of this month? Here’s the schedule so that you can keep checking back:

December 1 – Board Books

December 2 – Board Book Adaptations

December 3 – Nursery Rhymes

December 4 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Alphabet Books

December 7 – Funny Picture Books

December 8 – Calde-Nots

December 9 – Picture Book Reprints

December 10 – Math Picture Books

December 11 – Bilingual Books

December 12 – International Imports

December 13 – Books with a Message

December 14 – Fabulous Photography

December 15 – Fairy Tales / Folktales

December 16 – Oddest Books of the Year

December 17 – Older Picture Books

December 18 – Easy Books

December 19 – Early Chapter Books

December 20 – Graphic Novels

December 21 – Poetry

December 22 – Fictionalized Nonfiction

December 23 – American History

December 24 – Science & Nature Books

December 25 – Transcendent Holiday Titles

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 28 – Nonfiction Chapter Books

December 29 – Novel Reprints

December 30 – Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

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Synopsis: This is another one I acquired and got signed at the KidLitCon in Wichita a couple of months ago—and I got to meet and hang with the author as a fun bonus! Interesting aside—James Kennedy is founder of the really awesome 90-Second... Read the rest of this post

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I've had a couple queries lately, from people asking me about a "Native American Story Book" series by G. W. Mullins.

It is easy to say "not recommended" to the series.

Mullins dedicates Volume Three to his grandfather, Vince Mullins, "a tall red man." Mullins tells us he is Cherokee. Maybe he is, but his use of "tall red man" reflects a romanticized and stereotypical image. In the introduction, Mullins uses, primarily, past tense. His words there, too, suggest a romantic image.  He says, for example,

"I was born Cherokee and as a child heard many of these stories. These stories were passed to me in the old traditional way of my grandfather."

His grandfather may, indeed, have told him some stories, but, the first story in Volume Three is Longfellow's "The Song of Hiawatha." That is not a Native story! Longfellow made it up. Does Mullins know it isn't a Native story?!

As I glance through others in the book, I see that Mullins is including stories from Native writers, like Zitkala Sa--that he took from her books. He's taken others from government reports. The publisher is "Light of the Moon" and the pub year is 2016. There's a note that says the book is:

"... a collection of Native American works which are public domain." 

I looked through a couple of the others, in his series, and find them problematic for many reasons. I do not know why they're popping up right now, but I definitely do not recommend them.

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Everything about Celtic Tales, Fairy Tales and Stories of Enchantment from Ireland, Scotland, Brittany, and Wales calls to be held, read, and visually absorbed. The design is simple but beautiful. Kate Forrester's imagery is beguiling. I've awaited this release with images from the catalog taped to my wall. In the sophisticated art, there's a refined simplicity. The Celtic tales themselves are fresh and surprising.

This is a beautiful pick to gift someone for the holidays. Just be aware:

Celtic Tales
illustrated by Kate Forrester
Chronicle Books, 2016

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By Amy Rose Capetta
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Amy Rose Capetta writing

While the goal of this blog series is to celebrate LGBTQ YA, there’s so much more room for growth.

It might seem like LGBTQ YA books are hitting new heights, when in reality they’re only beginning to find their audience.

In the words of Alex London, author of Proxy (Speak, 2015):

"The challenge remains getting books with overtly queer themes and characters in front of all sorts of readers. I've been lucky to have had my first YA included on many state reading lists, which brings it into schools and I've been lucky with some of my middle grade books to have the support of Scholastic Book Fairs--another route into the schools.

"But for kids without active librarians who seek out and promote LGBTQ books, those books might never find their way into the reading life of young people, straight or queer.

"You can't read a book you've never seen or heard of, so exposure and access remain the greatest challenges...as for all books, really.

"We've a long way yet to go, but it's a positive development that queer books are finally competing in the same marketplace as books without queer elements."

I asked Dahlia Adler, the founder of LGBTQ Reads, about the gap that seems to exist between LGBTQ books and readers.

"I think it's really, really important that people who have access to those readers - parents, teachers, booksellers, librarians - make it their business to have even just a bare bones rec list of LGBTQ YA handy.

"I've seen some people make amazing resources for that, like bookmarks with recommendations printed right on them that can easily be distributed, and that's a huge help. Things like that, that help get the word out, are gonna be hugely important.

"It's also tricky because you have this real divide in LGBTQ YA marketing - some of it is glaringly queer, and sometimes the queerness is completely hidden.

"And the fact is, we need both. If I could give every LGBTQ YA two different covers and blurbs, I totally would. Because it's important for there to be books that are easily identifiable both so kids can find them or, if they can't take any books home, to at least see themselves in the covers and blurbs.

"But there are also kids who really want to read these books but can't safely buy or borrow them if they're obviously queer. And that's a very, very tricky thing."

When I asked Vee Signorelli of The Gay YA the same question, they said:

"There are so many teens desperately seeking representation, and yet somehow, the connection never gets made that those books are out there…

"I think maybe one reason there's so much disconnect is that, even though there are all these amazing #ownvoices books being penned, the ones that still reach peak heights of attention are almost all written by straight, cis authors…

"So I guess I'd love to see those big name authors of LGBTQIA+ YA have a thorough knowledge of other books and use their platforms to promote them.

"�One of the major angles missing right now is TUMBLR. Tumblr is where the teens are that are desperately seeking representation, and taking it in any form they can find.

"I once ran across a post in which someone talked about how they were crossing out the pronouns of one of the characters in a book and replacing them with she/her so that it would make it about an F/F couple. And my heart just broke a little.

"I think there’s also a lot that needs to be done in libraries and schools. The library I work at has kept our LGBTQIA+ display up, and those books are flying in and out like nobody’s business."

I asked authors if they had any messages that they wish could reach readers, publishers, librarians, booksellers and/or educators who want to support LGBTQ YA. Audrey Coulthurst, who wrote Of Fire and Stars (Balzer + Bray, 2016), said:

"It’s heartening to see the growing enthusiasm for LGBTQ YA and the efforts bloggers, publishers, librarians, booksellers, and educators are making to help increase visibility…

"The thing I would love most is for event organizers to try to focus less on putting together 'diversity' panels, and more on creating inclusive panels.

"Why not include SFF LGBTQ books on a broader fantasy panel about worldbuilding? Or LGBTQ romances on sex in YA panels?

"Being inclusive of LGBTQ books allows us to have deeper conversations and showcase broader perspectives, directly furthering the movement for better representation by reaching readers who might not already be aware of the push for that.

"I’d love to see a shift from acknowledging (but compartmentalizing) marginalized groups toward complete inclusivity.

"Also, the YA community is so fantastic and full of passion, which is one of the things I love best about it. One evergreen reminder is that the best way to make sure your favorite authors continue writing is to support them with your dollar. That doesn’t always mean it has to come right out of your pocket either!

"Ways you can support authors:

Audrey Coulthurst

• Buy their books (for yourself or as a gift). 
• Request their books at your local library.
• Discourage people from pirating books or selling ARCs. This makes authors sad (and penniless). 
• Leave reviews on retail sites like Amazon or Barnes & Noble.
• Spread the word on social media.
• Tell your friends about books you love."

The word absolutely needs to spread about the books that are out there.

Not all marketing budgets are created equal, and word of mouth is still one of the biggest factors in how all books, especially LGBTQ ones, reach their audiences.

That means we all have power in the publishing industry--to spread the word, to share books we love as widely as possible. In some ways, it’s a simple equation. The more LGBTQ books we buy, the more there will be.

There are also libraries to consider. Cori McCarthy and I looked for recipients for our Rainbow Boxes (a charitable initiative, connecting LGBTQIA fiction with readers across the U.S.), we chose many small community libraries because we knew that in many cases limited budgets meant they could only afford a handful of titles, the most visible and bestselling YA--which often leaves out #ownvoices LGBTQ books.

In other cases, organizations that raised money for library spending budgets wouldn’t allow the money to be spent on LGBTQ books.

If you don’t see LGBTQ books at your local library, talk to your librarian. Consider requesting titles or even donating books to the collection.

Talking to Becky Albertalli, author of Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda (Balzer + Bray, 2015), she pointed out some other factors at work:

"The most exciting part about writing and publishing LGBTQ YA has been, hands down, hearing from readers. I get the most beautiful emails from teens (and adults!) at different stages of the coming out process, and I feel so privileged to be a part of that moment.

"Interestingly, I haven't encountered as many challenges as I anticipated. The one recurring frustration has been with a small subset of middle school librarians who feel that Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda is inappropriate for their students.

"I 100% understand this judgment call, if they're concerned about cursing and adult language, but these libraries often feature comparable heterosexual titles. It's deeply upsetting that Simon's (very innocent!) love story is seen as less appropriate for middle school than hetero love stories with equal or more sexual content.

"I think the most important message I'd like to share is for librarians. I've been seeing really wonderful LGBTQ YA collections in so many library systems, but I'm not sure there's enough discussion around the importance of including electronic copies in public library collections.

"Having physical copies of LGBTQ YA on library and bookstore shelves is incredibly important as well, and it sends a powerful message to teens encountering these collections - but digital copies are often safer and more practical for LGBTQ teens, particularly in certain regions of the country."

Malinda Lo, author of Ash (Little, Brown, 2009) and Huntress (Little Brown, 2011), points out that when it comes to YA books that do include sexual content, there are even more barriers:

Guest Post: E.M. Kokie on Radical

"I'm excited that the publishing industry is now more willing to publish these stories, but I also know that the struggle is not over. There are still limitations to the experiences that publishers are supportive of portraying in YA books.

"For example, straightforward representations of sexuality remain taboo for many, which is why I'm also very excited by E.M. Kokie's fall novel, Radical (Candlewick, 2016), which delivers one of the most realistic sex scenes involving two girls I've ever read in YA.

"Teens and sexuality push a lot of buttons in adult gatekeepers, and that's one barrier that is still pretty high for representations of queer teens.

"However, now that so many more people in the industry are talking about representation, and with so many more authors writing these stories, I hope that it's only a matter of time before barriers like this are also overturned."

While some areas of representation are flourishing, others are still barely included in YA. There are a very small number of books about intersex characters and characters on the asexuality spectrum.

There are also strikingly few characters with nonbinary gender identities.

When I asked Bill Konigsberg, author of The Porcupine of Truth (Arthur A. Levine, 2015), what he’s excited about in LGBTQ YA, and what he wants to see more of, he said:

"I went on a road trip last fall to talk to LGBTQ youth across the south and Midwest about suicide and depression. It was an amazing, exhausting trip, and in the end I think I learned more than I taught.

"One thing that was especially valuable to me as a writer and as a human being was to learn about how pervasive gender fluidity is for this youngest generation. I don't think I really understood when I set out on my journey the entire spectrum of the transgender experience, and I got educated!

"I think it's extremely clear that what we are beginning to see on the shelves are books with gender-fluid characters, and that this needs to continue to grow as an area.

"I have a feeling that this young generation is going to change the world with its exploration of gender."

When I asked Marieke Nijkamp, author of This is Where it Ends (Sourcebooks, 2016), the same question, she said:

"I want to see more queer characters of color, disabled queer characters, reliqueer characters.

"I want more ace/aro rep. I want questioning characters. I want explicit rep of all orientations.

"I want to see the entire gender spectrum reflected in YA and I want to see those intersections too. (And all across genres, too!)

"I love seeing how our stories branch out. I love seeing increasingly more support and excitement for queer YA. I think we're making massive steps right now. But I'm a very hungry caterpillar. I want more." 

More seems to be one of the most important words to take from this conversation. We need more books, more representation, more people supporting inclusive fiction in more ways, both old and new.

Before the series ends, I want to share Vee Signorelli ’s story of how they started The Gay YA.

It shows how far LGBTQ YA has come in five years--and how amazingly important these stories really are.

"In May of 2011, Jessica Verday put up a post explaining why she’d pulled out of the Wicked Pretty Things anthology: one of the editors said they would not include her piece unless she changed her m/m pairing to an m/f one.

"Book Twitter exploded with criticism of the straight-washing, and support for LGBTQIA+ characters. A #YesGayYA hashtag was formed, and other authors began sharing similar experiences of straight-washing.

"It became very apparent that there was a huge problem going on behind the scenes in publishing.

"It wasn’t necessarily straight up homophobia fueling it-- it was more the (faulty) belief that it wouldn’t sell.

"My older sister and I both saw the same thing: tons of people calling out for representation, with no way to reach the ears of publishing, and no plans to build any sort of coalition to keep the energy going.

"We were only sixteen and twelve at the time, but it wasn’t even really a question in our minds: we knew how to do websites, and we knew social media.

"We both identified as straight at the time (ha ha), and we really knew nothing about the LGBTQ community. But, we had the time and the passion and the knowledge of websites to be able to do it. Then, due to life and health issues, we had to drop off for awhile. My sister started college, and it sort of looked like it would never get started back up again.

"And then I turned fifteen and entered into what I affectionately refer to as “the year of hell.” (TW for suicidal ideation) I was suicidal, and full of self hatred, and I didn't know why. And then I realized I was queer and trans.

"I went through a lot of therapy, and that was really what stopped me from killing myself.

"But the thing that actually made me start wanting to live, the thing that made me think I might have a possible future ahead of me, was queer and trans fiction. Primarily, Far From You by Tess Sharpe (Disney-Hyperion, 2014), Brooklyn, Burning by Steve Brezenoff (Carolrhoda, 2011), and The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan (Knopf, 2004).

"Those books meant so much to me. But, I knew from spending half of my life on tumblr that year, that most teens desperately seeking representation did not know about these kinds of books were out there.

"In a way, these books saved my life. I knew they could save other lives as well."

Vee chose to restart The Gay YA, and it’s become one of the most important sources online for LGBTQ fiction and community. Please take a look at the work being done there, as well as at LGBTQ Reads, Diversity in YA and Lee Wind's blog, I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?

Amy Rose signs Echo After Echo (Candlewick, 2017) contract

As a queer person, I know that the years ahead are going to be difficult. I have sat with this reality every day, and one of the few things that offer me hope right now are stories.

We will need YA books more than ever, as a source of catharsis and beauty, of comfort and resistance. This moment is more than just a trend in publishing--it’s a rare and necessary chance for LGBTQ people to share their truth with each other, and the rest of the world.

If you believe that these books are important, that LGBTQ young people are important, please do what you can to support these stories. And if you already do--thank you, thank you, thank you.

And keep watching for the next step from Rainbow Boxes! We’ll announce a new way that you can help spread the love for LGBTQ fiction in early 2017.

Cynsational Notes

Amy Rose Capetta is the author of three YA novels: Entangled and Unmade, a space duet (out now from HMH), and Echo After Echo (Candlewick, 2017), a queer love story wrapped in a murder mystery and set on Broadway.

She is on the writing team for the second season of Remade, a YA sci-fi thriller from SerialBox, and works with writers on their novels through Yellow Bird Editors (with a special interest in genre fiction and LGBTQ fiction of all kinds!)

She is the co-founder of Rainbow Boxes (@rainbowboxesya), and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Amy Rose lives and writes in Michigan with her girlfriend Cori McCarthy, who is also a YA author, and their five-year-old, who wants to be a wizard.

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A list based entirely on what a book is not?  And what precisely is a Calde-not?  Well, we’re getting into semantics and rules today, so buckle up.  First and foremost, I direct your attention to the illustrious Caldecott Award.  The most famous award given to the most distinguished examples of American illustration for children.  Note that I said “American”.  A Caldecott Award has terms and criteria.  Here are two of them:

 

• The Medal shall be awarded annually to the artist of the most distinguished American picture book for children published by an American publisher in the United States in English during the preceding year. There are no limitations as to the character of the picture book except that the illustrations be original work. Honor books may be named. These shall be books that are also truly distinguished.
• The award is restricted to artists who are citizens or residents of the United States.  Books published in a U.S. territory or U.S. commonwealth are eligible.

 

The reason for these rules dates back to the Caldecott’s inception.  Created to accompany the already popular Newbery Medal, the award was meant to focus attention on American artists of children’s books.  And in a nation besotted with Beatrix Potter (alongside other European creators), it was a good idea.  These days, however, we have no difficulty finding delightful American creators.  In the end, a lot of magnificent books fall by the wayside, unable to earn worthy awards.

Well, no longer!  Today we celebrate books that would be definite Caldecott contenders, if they just weren’t so doggone un-American.  In the literal sense, naturally.

---

 

2016 Calde-nots

Are You an Echo?: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko by David Jacobson, ill. Toshikado Hajiri, translations by Sally Ito and Michiko Tsuboi

You’ve heard me wax eloquent (or at least long) about the work of Toshikado Hajiri before, but I’ll just mention one more time that the nature scenes in this book, whether it’s a rising sun or sea alongside mountains and sky, are spectacular.  The whole book is a wonder.  Hopefully it’ll find its audience.

Armstrong: The Adventurous Journey of a Mouse to the Moon by Torben Kuhlmann

German to its core, though I’ve been surprisingly gratified by the increase in Kuhlmann-love over the past year.  Though he never gets attention from folks like the New York Times Best Illustrated list, at least his star is rising.  This book is just as lovely as its predecessor (Lindbergh) if less of a surprise.

The Bear Who Wasn’t There and the Fabulous Forest by Oren Lavie, ill. Wolf Erlbruch

It’s such a strange but lovely little import than I can’t help but think that if it was American we’d be discussing it all over the place.

The Blue Bird’s Palace by Orianne Lallemand, ill. Carole Henaff, translated by Tessa Strickland

An original folktale with a French illustrator.  This story was surprisingly lovely to read.  I suppose looking at the cover I shouldn’t have been too shocked, but I really didn’t expect to love it as much as I did.

Circle by Jeanne Baker

If I had my way Ms. Baker would have all the awards in the world.  Her art is unparalleled.  That cover image you’re looking at here?  Yeah.  That’s clay.  Now look me in the eye and tell me she isn’t one of the cleverest, smartest artists working in the picture book field today.

Cloth Lullaby: The Woven Life of Louise Bourgeois by Amy Novesky, ill. Isabelle Arsenault

To mention Arsenault in any kind of a context is a bit of a cheat.  She’s more accessible than similar artists, and by all appearances she has impeccable taste.  I’ve yet to see her take on a dud of a project.  This peculiar but lovely little bio certainly fits the bill as well.

The Dead Bird by Margaret Wise Brown, ill. Christian Robinson

But wait, you say!  Christian Robinson’s American.  Why wouldn’t this work?  To answer I direct you to the “original work” stipulation of the Caldecott terms and conditions.  This re-illustrated version of Brown’s classic is lovely, but the book is technically by no means new.

Pinocchio: The Origin Story by Alessandro Sanna

Okay.  So it’s weeeeeeeird.  But if you’ve read the Pinocchio story at all it makes a strange bit of sense.  I already used the word “dreamlike” in a previous book list, so I can’t play that card again.  Let’s just say it’s gently surreal instead.  Beautiful, sad, odd, and ultimately uplifting.

Stepping Stones: A Refugee Family’s Journey by Margriet Ruurs, ill. Nizar Badr

 

The Syrian refugee crisis explained with rock sand stones?  The art in this book is only slightly more fascinating than the story of how the author tracked down the Syrian illustrator in the first place.

What Can I Be? by Ann Rand, ill. Ingrid Fiksdahl King

 

Another reprint, and couldn’t you tell?  Gorgeous through and through, that’s for certain.

What Color Is the Wind? by Anne Herbauts

Not only is the art interesting to look at in this book but it feels different on every page.  Could have had a tactile leg up.

When Green Becomes Tomatoes: Poems for All Seasons by Julie Fogliano, ill. Julie Morstad

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but Ms. Morstad is Canadian.  Doggone neighbor to the north.  If she ever moves south we’ll be waiting, awards in hand.

You Belong Here by M.H. Clark, ill. Isabelle Arsenault

Again with the Arsenault but that’s okay.  To my mind you can never have enough Isabelle Arsenault on a list.  Never, truly.

And now, because I can, the official Randolph Caldecott music video as recorded by the Effin’ G’s.

---

 

Interested in the other upcoming lists of this month? Here’s the schedule so that you can keep checking back:

December 1 – Board Books

December 2 – Board Book Adaptations

December 3 – Nursery Rhymes

December 4 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Alphabet Books

December 7 – Funny Picture Books

December 8 – Calde-Nots

December 9 – Picture Book Reprints

December 10 – Math Picture Books

December 11 – Bilingual Books

December 12 – International Imports

December 13 – Books with a Message

December 14 – Fabulous Photography

December 15 – Fairy Tales / Folktales

December 16 – Oddest Books of the Year

December 17 – Older Picture Books

December 18 – Easy Books

December 19 – Early Chapter Books

December 20 – Graphic Novels

December 21 – Poetry

December 22 – Fictionalized Nonfiction

December 23 – American History

December 24 – Science & Nature Books

December 25 – Transcendent Holiday Titles

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 28 – Nonfiction Chapter Books

December 29 – Novel Reprints

December 30 – Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

 

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By Amy Rose Capetta
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

One of the standout differences in the LGBTQ offerings in 2016, as opposed to previous years, is a boost in genre fiction.

While I love reading LGBTQ books of all kinds, in my truest and nerdiest heart, I’m a lifelong reader and devoted writer of genre fiction.

Stories with marginalized main characters tend to take a particular route through the publishing world--starting with “issue” books, expanding into a broader range of contemporary fiction, and finally arriving at genre fiction.

My first two published novels--Entangled (2013) and Unmade (2016)(both Houghton Mifflin Harcourt--are space opera and feature a f/f romance between two secondary characters.

The farther into the series I got, the more I knew that my heart was completely wound up in the story of those girls. I knew what I wanted to do--what I needed to do--write about queer characters in the kind of stories I love best.

Unfortunately, I could think of few traditionally published YA novels that fit into the categories I wanted to write.

I threw myself into the work, focused on crafting the best stories I could, and tried to cloak my worries in stubborn optimism. I’m beyond happy to say that my 2017 novel coming out from Candlewick is a mystery novel with a queer love story at its heart.

I know that I’ve been lucky. I have so many other stories to tell, as do so many LGBTQ authors. But the readers are what I keep coming back to.

Every time I find a new, beautifully crafted world with LGBTQ characters in it, that world changes mine a little bit. And if I’d had those books as a young reader--it would have changed everything.

One of the authors I looked up to as proof that LGBTQ YA genre fiction was possible is Malinda Lo.

Her science fiction fantasy (SFF) books featuring queer girls are among the handful published before 2016, including Ash (Little, Brown, 2009), a lush and lyrical retelling of Cinderella.

When I asked Malinda about her own favorites of new and upcoming books, she said:

"In November, Audrey Coulthurst's fantasy novel Of Fire and Stars (Balzer + Bray) [came] out.

"An early version of this book was Audrey's submission to Lambda*, and when I first read it I honestly wasn't sure if I trusted my own assessment of it because it checked so many of my personal reading faves. I was almost afraid it wasn't real!

"It's a high fantasy about two princesses who fall in love with each other against the backdrop of political intrigue and one girl's growing knowledge of her own magical talents.

"It also involves (to my eternal delight) plenty of romantic horseback riding lessons. Ever since reading Robin McKinley's novels as a teen, this has been one of my absolutely most favorite tropes in fantasy.

"And Of Fire and Stars is also such a delicious, slow-burning romance. Anyone who enjoys romances should love this book."

I had the opportunity to talk to Audrey Coulthurst as well, and ask her what she loves about writing genre fiction.

Audrey Coulthurst

"Perhaps the best thing about writing genre fiction is how boundless the opportunities are; writers of SFF are not obligated to create worlds that have the same social structures or prejudices that are present in ours.

"As a teen it would have been very meaningful to me to find a fantasy book that felt familiar in the ways I loved—the medievalesque setting, magic, and political intrigue—but also showed me that it was possible for a girl to fall for another girl in that imaginary world.

"Desire for that kind of book is what inspired me to write Of Fire and Stars.

"There still are not a ton of LGBTQ books in YA SFF, but that means a lot of opportunity exists for writers. I can’t wait to see what new releases arrive in the coming years.

"What I would love is not necessarily to focus on creating a SFF LGBTQ YA category, or expanding LGBTQ YA to include SFF, but for characters of all gender identities and sexual orientations to be present on the page in many different kinds of stories and for those to be accepted as part of the broader canon."

In the spirit of adding LGBTQ books to the broader canon, here are some excellent reads that will be at home in any collection.

Readers who loves high fantasy will no doubt embrace Of Fire and Stars, while those who enjoy high-paced adventures with pirates and sea monsters will delight in The Abyss Surrounds Us by Emily Skrutskie (Flux, 2016). Fans of myth retellings in contemporary settings, should run out and immediately read About a Girl by Sarah McCarry (St. Martin's Griffin, 2015).

Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova (Sourcebooks, 2016) is a rich fantasy starring a bisexual Latina bruja. The Scorpion Rules by Erin Bow (McElderry, 2015, 2016) features deftly written dystopian politics and a beautiful queer romance. Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee (Duet) is an exciting new addition to the YA superhero genre. Christopher Barzak’s Wonders of the Invisible World (Knopf, 2015, 2016) is a beautifully written contemporary novel that weaves in fantastical elements. Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz (Candlewick) is a fantastic sci-fi novel with a nonbinary main character.

While these novels will appeal to anyone who loves great storytelling, for queer readers, the expansion into genre fiction is positive for so many reasons.

As Corinne Duyvis, the author of the excellent YA fantasy novel Otherbound (Amulet, 2014), puts it:

"The delight of these books is that queer readers can see themselves in the same adventures that cishet readers can. Too often, queer characters only get stories about being queer, and aren't allowed much of an identity or adventures beyond that.

"While we need issue books, we also need more. Some readers want an escape from the real world. Some want to be empowered in a supernatural fashion. Some just love reading about dragons and are tired of being excluded from all the exciting dragon stories, damn it.

"You can't say it's 'representation' when it only exists within a very narrow kind of narrative, often dictated by cishet people. Representation means representation everywhere."

And she points out that queer readers aren’t the only ones who benefit.

"Queer genre books are also essential for cishet readers. Many who might not pick up a 'queer book' will still be exposed to queer characters that way. It helps normalize our existence.

"It's been proven in studies that exposure to positive representation of queer characters/people can actively increase acceptance, so it's important that books of all kinds accurately reflect our reality and the queer people in it.

"Finally, because these books often aren't about being queer, the flap copy often doesn't mention this aspect of the characters.

"This can be negative, since it makes the books harder for queer readers to find, but also positive, since it makes the books safer to read for teens whose parents who might not want them reading queer books."

It’s important to remember that just because a book has an LGBTQ main character, that shouldn’t be seen as limiting its readership to queer readers--any more than a book with a straight main character would be limited to straight readers. LGBTQ books shouldn’t be treated as “niche” or special interest.

When I asked Alex London, the author of dystopian YA novel Proxy (Speak, 2015), what he was most excited about in LGBTQ YA, he said:

"For me, I thought the most exciting part of publishing LGBTQ YA would be connecting with the young LGBTQ readers who were hungry for the kinds of adventure stories I write, where traditionally LGBTQ characters have been lacking.

"And the response has been touching and uplifting and inspiring (and sometimes, although rarely, heartbreaking--a book can provide some armor but it can't rescue a kid from homophobia and bigotry, especially when it comes from their parents and community).

"However, the LGBTQ response has not been the most exciting part for me. I have really delighted in the response from cis het kids and teens who are mostly willing to engage with queer heroes like they engage with any other character. They want someone they can root for and thrill with and if that character is queer, so be it.

"I've loved the anxious emails from straight readers pleading for one of the gay boys I've written to find a boyfriend. I love the emails from straight readers asking how to be better allies to their queer friends.

"Essentially, I've been thrilled that my books have acted as mirrors and windows, but most thrilled that, for some, the books have been, as [YA Goddess] Teri Lesesne puts it, '...doors books that offer them a sense of how to be powerful change agents.'"

Another highlight of my talk with Alex was his explanation of the delights of writing genre fiction.

"Writing genre, I think, frees up a part of my imagination to imagine sexual and gender identity politics beyond what our society currently can.

"I think sci fi and fantasy are freeing in that way, although I think we could all push these boundaries farther than we do.

"I love what Ursula K. Le Guin writes about the power of fantasy and sci fi not to offer prescriptions or predictions, but to dislodge the imagination from thinking that the way things are is the way they have to be. Imagining other possible realities, from our relationship to economics, our understanding of the natural world, or the bonds that connect us to each other and to our bodies--those are the joys of genre.

"I think genre fiction has the unique ability of queering our minds anyway, so it seemed natural to me to write queer characters within it."

This is one of my favorite elements of genre fiction--the expansion of possibility. The inclusion of a wider range of stories, worlds, people, and the ways they might live.

Seeing beyond our own time, place, and circumstances can be truly mind-expanding and life-changing.

As Lindsay Smith, author of the forthcoming A Darkly Beating Heart (Roaring Brook, 2016), reminds us, historical fiction is another genre we can look to for stories of LGBTQ characters who have grappled with different realities.

"My first published LGBTQ stories have been historical (“City of Angels,” in the A Tyranny of Petticoats: 15 Stories of Belles, Bank Robbers & Other Badass Girls, edited by Jessica Spotswood (Candlewick, 2016)) and time-travel-y (A Darkly Beating Heart).

"I’ve always loved historical fiction, and taking into account the social pressures and situations LGBTQ characters faced in different places and periods provides an interesting challenge.

"I think across the board people assume things were always worse in the past, but there are so many more stories to be told."

Even with the recent increase in genre fiction, there are still relatively few LGBTQ YA historical fiction titles. A recently announced anthology, All Out, edited by Saundra Mitchell (Harlequin Teen, 2018) features LGBTQ historical fiction short stories from a number of incredible authors. This is a good one to pre-order and put on the to-be-read list now.

I’d like to share some closing thoughts from Tristina Wright, author of the forthcoming 27 Hours, a thrilling sci-fi novel which features a main cast of queer characters that span many identities.

When I asked her what she values most about writing genre fiction, she said:

Tristina Wright

"Giving us the spotlight to be the hero, to solve the puzzle, to slay the monster, to get the romance, to do and to be instead of furthering a straight character's journey.

"Genre can reflect the hope and optimism for the future. It can reflect the universe we want. It can contain the people around us, but in better versions.

"We can write a world where horrible things happen, but homophobia isn't one of them. Some will laugh and insist that's not realistic but, then again, neither are dragons."

Thank you for checking out this post--it’s part three of a four-part series.

Check back for the final installment, about the future of LGBTQ YA, challenges that still need to be met, and where we go from here!

Notes from Amy Rose

*Lambda Literary holds a yearly retreat for emerging LGBTQ writers, where they are mentored by experienced professionals in the field.

Cynsational Notes

Amy Rose Capetta is the author of three YA novels: Entangled and Unmade, a space duet (out now from HMH), and Echo After Echo (Candlewick, 2017), a queer love story wrapped in a murder mystery and set on Broadway.

(See New Voice Amy Rose Capetta on Entangled from Cynsations.)

She is on the writing team for the second season of Remade, a YA sci-fi thriller from SerialBox, and works with writers on their novels through Yellow Bird Editors (with a special interest in genre fiction and LGBTQ fiction of all kinds!)

She is the co-founder of Rainbow Boxes (@rainbowboxesya), and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Amy Rose lives and writes in Michigan with her girlfriend Cori McCarthy, who is also a YA author, and their five-year-old, who wants to be a wizard.

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We're excited to welcome Carol Riggs, author of THE LYING PLANET, to the blog today to discuss the value in accepting negative reviews.

"Reading reviews can be eye-opening, a constructive learning experience for some (warning: not all) authors. If I choose to, I can incorporate any relevant feedback I happen to come across."

Reviews: The Danger Zone. 

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Every single list that appears on this blog is subjective.  I mean, here I am declaring stuff to be great based entirely on a single solitary opinion: my own.  That’s okay when you’re talking alphabet books or readalouds, but humor is a far trickier matter.  There are a LOT of humorous picture books that come out in a single year and this list is just a miniscule smattering of the whole. That said, these are the books that really retained a strong grip on my brain after reading them.  There were other funny books out in 2016.  I’m just particularly partial to the following.  I’m pleased with the number of funny women representing here too.  After all, if there’s one thing I know something about, it’s funny girls.

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2016 Funny Picture Books

Best Frints in the Whole Universe by Antoinette Portis

Kind of like Du Iz Tak? but with a slight increase in English, this alien friendship story earns its humor stripes when it explains those little socially awkward moments like when you accidentally/on purpose bite off your best frint’s tail.

Dylan the Villain by K.G. Campbell

First off, I love that in this world, villainy is genetic but is capable of skipping generations.  Second, I love that our anti-hero’s antagonist is a girl with a killer purple eyepatch.  Having super villains as heroes isn’t a new idea in the movies, but in picture books it doesn’t happen all that often.  I, for one, am hoping for more Dylan in the future.

The Happiest Book Ever! by Bob Shea

Every book should have a frog in it.  There’s a lot of happy happy joy joy to this book mixed with a tincture of Monty Python.  Could you ask for anything more?

A Hungry Lion by Lucy Ruth Cummins

The subtitle, which is distinctly Edward Gorey-esque, gives you an indication of what kind of funny book this is.  You know what it reminds me of?  The movie Alien.  And, naturally, the turtle is Ripley.  Oh, like you hadn’t considered it before.

I Don’t Want To Be Big by Dev Petty, ill. Mike Boldt

I didn’t bother to do this with any of the other books on this list, but for this one, I wanted to show you my favorite gag.  The idea is that the frog is arguing that growing up is a bum rap.  His dad tries to come up with reasons why it should still be done.  So we get this:

The defense rests, your honor.

Is That Wise Pig? by Jan Thomas

I mean, there’s a boot on that pig’s head.  A boot!  Just sayin’.

King Baby by Kate Beaton

We’re getting there.  Beaton’s starting out slow with her picture books.  This one’s funnier than her last, and at the rate she’s going she should be able to make a perfectly Beaton-esque one soon.  Though, to be frank, this next book on my list felt like Kate Beaton but not by Kate Beaton:

Leave Me Alone! by Vera Brosgol

Did you notice that it appeared on the NPR Book Concierge for 2016?  Did you notice who blurbed it?  Ah, thank you.  Ah, thank you.

Monsters Go Night-Night by Aaron Zenz

Proving yet again that I have the sense of humor of a 5-year-old.  But let’s be frank.  That potty joke?  The best misdirection I’ve seen on a page in a long time.

Next to You: A Book of Adorableness by Lori Haskins Houran, ill. Sydney Hanson

I’m going to stand by this one as a humor book.  It throws you off with its big-eyed animals and then you get the snarky text.  Seriously funny.

Oh No, Astro! by Matt Roeser, ill. Brad Woodard

Proof positive that you can be a funny book and a visually stunning one all at the same time.

Penguin Problems by Jory John, ill. Lane Smith

Misanthropic penguins make for comedy gold.  Every good author worth his or her salt knows that.

Poor Little Guy by Elanna Allen

Of all the books on my list today, I worry that this one is the most underrated.  Did you ever get a chance to read it?  I feel like it got buried under a lot of other publications, but for sheer visual storytelling and gags it’s an out-and-out winner.  I. Just. Love. It.  Love it, love it, love it.

President Squid by Aaron Reynolds, ill. Sara Varon

Okay.  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to watch this video at the 18:30 mark.  That’s when Aaron reads from his book and it’s the funniest reading ever you did see.

Pug Man’s 3 Wishes by Sebastian Meschenmoser

He’s the funniest German picture book author/illustrator of all time.  Granted, the competition may not be particularly intense . . .

Quit Calling Me a Monster! by Jory John, ill. Bob Shea

Both Jory and Bob are on this list twice.  And I’d take off one of their books apiece, honest I would, if it weren’t for the fact that the monster in this book is named Floyd Patterson.  I mean, I’m only human, after all.

Super Happy Magic Forest by Matty Long

2016 was a good year for picture books making fun of fantasy tropes.  I honestly think this book would appeal to any kid, though, regardless of their interest in swords and sorcery.  Plus there’s a Gollum reference on one of the pages, so kudos there.

This is My Book by Mark Pett (and no one else)

I almost swallowed my gum when I saw that the author of this book was Mark Pett.  Pett?  A subdued author/illustrator by and large, this book is a huge departure for him.  A huge, hilarious departure.  We could all use a mischievous panda in our lives.

A Voyage in the Clouds: The (Mostly) True Story of the First International Flight by Balloon in 1785 by Matthew Olshan, ill. Sophie Blackall

Somehow the fact that it’s all based on a true story (the iron vest, the peeing off the boat, the landing in their underwear, etc.) makes it all the funnier.  Plus the fact that Ms. Sophie Blackall is in Funny Girl in 2017 is just the icing on the cake.

Who What Where? by Olivier Tallec

It’s a sequel but I don’t rightly care.  It’s a hilarious sequel and may even improve upon the original.

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Interested in the other upcoming lists of this month? Here’s the schedule so that you can keep checking back:

December 1 – Board Books

December 2 – Board Book Adaptations

December 3 – Nursery Rhymes

December 4 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Alphabet Books

December 7 – Funny Picture Books

December 8 – Calde-Nots

December 9 – Picture Book Reprints

December 10 – Math Picture Books

December 11 – Bilingual Books

December 12 – International Imports

December 13 – Books with a Message

December 14 – Fabulous Photography

December 15 – Fairy Tales / Folktales

December 16 – Oddest Books of the Year

December 17 – Older Picture Books

December 18 – Easy Books

December 19 – Early Chapter Books

December 20 – Graphic Novels

December 21 – Poetry

December 22 – Fictionalized Nonfiction

December 23 – American History

December 24 – Science & Nature Books

December 25 – Transcendent Holiday Titles

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 28 – Nonfiction Chapter Books

December 29 – Novel Reprints

December 30 – Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

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Folks, if you’re anything like me then you probably live in a lovely little mental bubble, unaware that this week is Computer Science Education Week.  Why should you care?  Well, I’m part of a little Gene Luen Yang blog tour right now, and the folks at First Second just put out these fast facts.

The majority of schools don’t teach computer science – 90% of parents want their kids to study computer science, but only 40% of schools teach it.

15% of households in the US don’t have a computer. So if the kids in those households overlap with the 60% of schools around the country that don’t teach computer science, they won’t have any access to computers or learn about them in school.

There are fewer students in the US graduating with a degree in computer science than there were ten years ago – and half as many women.

Computer science majors can earn 40% more than the average college graduate.

Computing jobs are the #1 source of new wages in the US; there are more than 500,000 open jobs in computers right now (in every state around the country), and these jobs are projected to grow at twice the rate of all other jobs.

Computer science only counts towards graduating in 32 states.

To celebrate the week properly I’m showing off a quote from our distinguished National Ambassador of Young People’s Literature, Gene Luen Yang.

Want more?  Check out all the other folks on the tour this week.  They are:

• Kid Lit Frenzy, 12/5
• Sharp Read, 12/6
• Fuse #8, 12/7
• SLJ Good Comics For Kids, 12/8
• Watch Connect Read, 12/9
• SLJ 100 Scope Notes, 12/10

Many thanks to Gina Gagliano for making this happen.

 

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By Amy Rose Capetta
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Rainbow Boxes is a charitable initiative to connect LGBTQIA fiction with readers across the United States.

When Cori McCarthy and I did our research for Rainbow Boxes (AKA the most fun research--it mainly consisted of reading every LGBTQ YA book we could find), we were able to assemble a box of books that featured characters with a range of identities.

But if we’d tried to fill another box…it would have been much more difficult. And we were only looking for fifteen titles!

That was in 2015, and there are many exciting new additions to the list of titles this year, but this is one of the biggest places where LGBTQ YA needs to grow. The authors and LGBTQ YA advocates I interviewed seemed to be on the same page--almost every single one mentioned it.

Dahlia Adler, who runs the website LGBTQ Reads and keeps track of the books coming out, said:

"Most of all, I really, really want to see more intersectionality - more queer kids of color and more disabled queer kids. The numbers on these are still really sadly low."

Her book, Under the Lights: A Daylight Falls Novel (Spencer Hill, 2015), features a Korean-American lesbian main character, and is one of a small number of f/f books that fall in the category of delightful fluffy reads featuring queer girls.

When I spoke with Anna-Marie McLemore, author of When the Moon Was Ours (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Griffin, 2016), she gave a similar answer--with an exclamation point.

"More intersectional stories! I’m excited to see all stories with respectful representation of LGBTQ characters, but especially ones that have queer characters who are also of color, who also have disabilities, and so many more intersecting identities."

When I asked her about the exciting parts and the challenges of writing LGBTQ YA, Anna-Marie said:

"My agent, editor, and publishing house have been tremendously supportive of me writing When the Moon Was Ours. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t scared to write queer and transgender main characters. I was already writing characters of color, and I felt like I wasn’t allowed to do both.

"I’m queer, and I’m married to a transguy, but I felt like I had to keep that part of my identity off the page.

"But I’m glad I had people around me who encouraged me to write the story that was in me, to write characters who are of color and also LGBTQ.

"I have heard authors talk about pressure to limit themselves to one marginalization per character. Hopefully that is changing, but wherever it remains the case, it creates a situation where queer characters must always be white, neurotypical, and able-bodied, among other things.

"It also limits the potential for multiple LGBTQIA identities (eg queer intersex people, gay or bisexual people on the asexuality spectrum.)

"This is not a question of 'checking boxes' when it comes to diversity, but rather reflecting a wider range of lived experience."

As author Tristina Wright puts it:

Tristina Wright

"Intersections exist.

"Someone can be Black, bisexual, have anxiety, and come from a single parent home.

"Someone can be Muslim, gay, OCD, and a twin.

"Someone can be Latinx, genderfluid, depressed, and stutter.

"Someone can be Biracial, pansexual, use a wheelchair, and Deaf.

"There are intersections upon intersections and when people protest this point, they reinforce the idea that there's a default setting of white/straight/cisgender/abled and anything away from that is Other."

Tristina’s debut novel, 27 Hours, coming Fall 2017 from Entangled Teen, features characters of many backgrounds and identities. Here’s how Tristina describes the intersectional identities of her characters:

4 alternating POVs

1. Male, biracial (Indian/Nigerian), bisexual, PTSD

2. Female, biracial (Cuban/Greek), pansexual, Deaf

3. Male, white, gay, adopted

4. Male, white, asexual, has two moms

+ 2 ensemble characters

5. Female, transgender, Latinx, bisexual

6. Male, gay, Caribbean, missing two fingers (from birth)

Sometimes, in the case of fantasy and sci-fi novels, intersections don’t have exact real-world correlation.

In the authors’ own words, here are the identities in Malinda Lo’s Huntress (Little, Brown, 2011):

"Huntress is set in a Chinese-inspired world, so the characters are both non-white and queer. I wouldn't describe them as Chinese, because it's a secondary fantasy world. 'Non-white' is probably best."

And Corinne Duyvis’ Otherbound (Amulet, 2014):

"Nolan is Mexican-American and disabled. Amara is bisexual, disabled, and a woman of color. As she lives in a fantasy world, the bisexuality is unlabeled and her ethnicity has no real-world analog."

Recent titles that include main characters with intersectional identities are More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (Soho Teen, 2015), which features a gay male Puerto Rican main character, Far From You by Tess Sharpe (Disney-Hyperion, 2015), which has a disabled bisexual girl protagonist, Proxy by Alex London (Philomel, 2013), with a gay male person-of-color protagonist, Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee (Duet) with Chinese-Vietnamese American bisexual girl protagonist, and Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova (Sourcebooks, 2016) about a bisexual Latina protagonist.

I spoke with Kekla Magoon, author of 37 Things I Love (in No Particular Order)(Henry Holt, 2012), about the intersectionality in her book.

"I didn't make a big point about identity in 37 Things I Love, but I pictured the cast of that book as relatively diverse.

"Ellis is biracial (black dad/white mom) and Cara is also biracial (white/Asian). Ellis will likely identify as bisexual when she is older, though at the moment she is at the beginning of her journey to discover her sexual self. Cara identifies as a lesbian and is more secure in her identity on a lot of levels.

"The text contains a couple of hints toward Ellis's racial identity, but fewer to indicate Cara's, and while it's clear from the novel action that the girls are interested in each other romantically, they don't fully name their respective identities.

"For me as a writer, the important thing at the time was to write a story that included a biracial, bisexual protagonist without drawing too much attention to the fact. I hoped that leaving it less clearly defined would allow space for readers to draw the characters however they see fit.

Kekla Magoon

"I'm not sure if I would make the same choices about representing the identities in that book if I was writing and publishing it today. [37 Things was sold in 2010 and published in 2012.]

"I've changed as a writer, and the industry has evolved in what it is ready to accept.

"At the time, I felt a little bit subversive in sliding this book out, and it flew largely under the radar.

"People had come to expect 'black' books from me, based on my previous work, so to write a 'gay' book felt a bit sneaky. Which, I suppose, parallels my interest in being more subtle about the characters' identities too.

"On the one hand, maybe I could've served the need for 'diverse YA' better if I had landed harder on those descriptions. On the other hand, it didn't feel as germane to the story I was trying to tell at the time, and in the long run don't want any book to have to stand alone as one or the other ('black' vs. 'gay').

"Just as much, I don't want my book to be labeled as even more narrowly as a 'black LGBTQ' book, either. I would like to be able to stop pressing the point that it's okay for a single book to cover lots of identity territory without being pigeonholed or assumed to be directed to a limited audience."

It’s extremely important that books that deal with characters of intersecting identities are treated as part of YA literature as a whole, and not a special interest category.

These books are part of what makes YA exciting, truthful, and worthwhile to readers whose real lives encompass so many identities.

For a parting thought, here’s Vee Signorelli, co-founder of The Gay YA, on what they’re excited about:

"There's this amazing energy about LGBTQIA+ right now. I don't know how else to explain it. It's really new and current and vibrant. Like… it’s really beginning to feel like anything is possible.

"That said, we have a long way to go, especially in terms of intersectional representation.

"Sometimes it’s easy to think we’ve come super far, only to get a tumblr ask for an autistic queer character, or a black gay teen, or a trans girl who ends up in a happy relationship with another girl, and you’re like… that... doesn’t exist."

As writers, readers, publishers, booksellers, educators, librarians, and lovers of books, let’s all do what we can so that in a few years, we can look back and see a vast improvement in the number of intersectional books--so many that we can’t possibly list all of the titles, so many that no book request goes unfilled.

This post is part two in a four-part series. Tomorrow, we'll reflect on genre fiction.

Amy Rose Notes


Check out Diversity in YA from Malinda Lo and Cindy Pon. Peek: "We celebrate young adult books about all kinds of diversity, from race to sexual orientation to gender identity and disability. Our goal is to bring attention to books and authors that might fall outside the mainstream, and to bring the margin to the center."

Cynsational Notes

Amy Rose Capetta is the author of three YA novels: Entangled and Unmade, a space duet (out now from HMH), and Echo After Echo, a queer love story wrapped in a murder mystery and set on Broadway (coming in 2017 from Candlewick).

She is on the writing team for the second season of Remade, a YA sci-fi thriller from SerialBox, and works with writers on their novels through Yellow Bird Editors (with a special interest in genre fiction and LGBTQ fiction of all kinds!)

She is the co-founder of Rainbow Boxes (@rainbowboxesya), and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Amy Rose lives and writes in Michigan with her girlfriend Cori McCarthy, who is also a YA author, and their five-year-old, who wants to be a wizard.

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Welcome to the 2016 Cybils Speculative Reader! As a first run reader for the Cybils, I'll be briefly introducing you to the books on the list, giving you a mostly unbiased look at some of the plot.Enjoy! Writing inclusive speculative fiction is... Read the rest of this post

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Why are Qin Leng and I smiling? 
Is it because we inadvertently showed up to our event wearing matching outfits? Is it because we got to talk about our book together with a lot of wonderful children and their grown-ups? Or is it because we've just learned that A Family Is a Family Is a Family is headed for its third printing?
All of the above!

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“In Adam’s Fall, we sinned all.”  That catchy little ditty was from one of the earlier abecedarian picture books for children in America (the 1784 edition of The New England Primer, in case you’re curious). Practically from our nation’s inception, alphabet books were a go-to resource for teaching children to read.  Every year more and more of them come out, but how many can you name off the top of your head?  Just before typing this I was reading Chicka Chicka Boom Boom to my son and marveling at how Bill Martin Jr. managed to create an actual honest-to-goodness alphabet classic.  I don’t know if any of the books on today’s list will ever hit such heights, but I the alphabet books of 2016 have dabbled in some truly sophisticated fare.

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 2016 Alphabet Books

ABC by Xavier Deneux

I was very good when I posted the board book list.  I didn’t say how many names featured were French.  After all, once you start seeing the influence of the French on board books, it’s difficult to stop.  M Deneux is no exception.  This isn’t his first time around the block, but his previous titles do feel as though they were gearing themselves up to this.  It is the culmination of all that he has accomplished.

 

ABC: The Alphabet From the Sky by Benedikt Grob and Joey Lee

Is it as cool as it looks from the cover?  My friend, it’s even cooler.  Every year I have regrets about the books I didn’t have a chance to officially review.  This year it included this book.  It’s probably more for older kids and there’s one letter that I think they could have improved, but all told it’s a remarkable effort.  It’s also a neat way of talking about our planet.  AND it could well be a great book to take onto an airplane with a kid, since the shots will look somewhat familiar from 10,000 feet in the air.

 

ABCs on Wheels by Ramon Olivera

It’s pretty standard stuff.  Vehicles plus the alphabet.  Yep.  But Olivera’s art is what makes this book a bit better than a lot of similar titles out there.  It has this cool retro vibe that obliquely references  James Flora for spice.

 

An Artist’s Alphabet by Norman Messenger

Undoubtedly there must have been alphabet books before now that integrated both upper and the lowercase letters into their art, but I think it’s fair to say that almost none of these are as visually stunning as Messenger’s book.  I was just sitting here trying to figure out how I’d describe it.  It’s not hyper-realism, though there’s a bit of realism to some of the shots.  And it’s not surreal in a David Wiesner sense.  I hate to use the d-word, but it seems I have no choice.  It’s dreamlike.  Nuff said.

 

A Beauty Collected by Rachel Garahan

If you read this blog regularly then you’ll know that I have a weakness for beautiful photography.  And they don’t come much more beautiful than Garahan’s title.  I hesitate to call this a picture book.  Coming in at 192 pages it is the first true coffee table alphabet book I’ve ever seen of its kind.  So why include it on this list?  Because in addition to being just the loveliest thing, older kids really do enjoy it.  It has the kind of purified beauty that appeals to a wide range of ages.  I’m a fan.

 

Never Insult a Killer Zucchini! by Elana Azone & Brandon Amancio, ill. David Clark

Only two alphabet books on this list truly count as having any kind of a plot.  This is another book that will appeal to older kids.  The alphabet trope is more of a way of setting up the story (such as it is) than anything else.  That said, it’s funny.  And funny alphabet books are fairly rare indeed.

Oops, Pounce, Quick, Run! An Alphabet Caper by Mike Twohy

I know a librarian who is so gaga over this book she’ll bring you around to it pretty quickly.  There’s just one word a page, and it follows the story of a canine and its dogged (har har) pursuit of a mouse.  If you’re looking for a really simple alphabet book with a clear plot and even clearer pictures, this is your best bet.  I’ve a lot of really sophisticated alphabet books on this list today so it’s nice to have something on the younger end of the scale as well.

Olinguito, from A to Z! / Olinguito, de la A a la Z! by Lulu Delacre

Can I convey adequately how deeply satisfying it’s been this year to see this book showing up time and again on so many Best of the Year lists?  DEEPLY satisfying, sez I.  This book does so many different things all at the same time but never overextends itself.  If I had my way it would be a staple in every library.

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Interested in the other upcoming lists of this month? Here’s the schedule so that you can keep checking back:

December 1 – Board Books

December 2 – Board Book Adaptations

December 3 – Nursery Rhymes

December 4 – Picture Book Readalouds

December 5 – Rhyming Picture Books

December 6 – Alphabet Books

December 7 – Funny Picture Books

December 8 – Calde-Nots

December 9 – Picture Book Reprints

December 10 – Math Picture Books

December 11 – Bilingual Books

December 12 – International Imports

December 13 – Books with a Message

December 14 – Fabulous Photography

December 15 – Fairy Tales / Folktales

December 16 – Oddest Books of the Year

December 17 – Older Picture Books

December 18 – Easy Books

December 19 – Early Chapter Books

December 20 – Graphic Novels

December 21 – Poetry

December 22 – Fictionalized Nonfiction

December 23 – American History

December 24 – Science & Nature Books

December 25 – Transcendent Holiday Titles

December 26 – Unique Biographies

December 27 – Nonfiction Picture Books

December 28 – Nonfiction Chapter Books

December 29 – Novel Reprints

December 30 – Novels

December 31 – Picture Books

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Rainbow Boxes co-founders Cori & Amy Rose

By Amy Rose Capetta
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

In 2015, it seemed like there was a slowly growing list of excellent YA books with central LGBTQ main characters--but there were clearly still barriers making it difficult for readers, especially teen readers, to find them.

Fellow YA author Cori McCarthy* and I created Rainbow Boxes to help bridge that gap, to directly connect LGBTQ YA to young readers.

We raised funds that allowed us to send a box of fifteen YA titles to LGBTQ centers and community libraries in all 50 states.

Rainbow Boxes co-founder Cori McCarthy in our living room--with hundreds of LGBTQ books!

Then 2016 happened.

Looking forward at the beginning of this year, I saw new LGBTQ YA titles everywhere--seemingly more in a single year than we had seen in the past five put together.

Looking back now, while the publishing landscape has indeed changed in 2016, so has the world.**

Amy Rose, Cynthia & Sara Kocek

When I first talked to Cynthia Leitich Smith about this blog series, I hoped it would be a celebration of great LGBTQ YA: a call to uplift the excellent books that are being published while we continue to work for a wider range of stories and representation.

Now this series feels more urgently important than ever. In the coming years, LGBTQ people, especially young ones, will need stories. They will need adventure and friendship and truth and love, messiness and beauty, fluff and darkness, a place to see their humanity fully explored, even as other people seek to deny it.

Straight and cisgendered people need these stories, too. Without them, there will be no truthful narratives that push against the limited, distorted, and stereotyped portrayals of the past.

Amy Rose, Adam & Cori

The work is underway. Minds and hearts are changing. LGBTQ teenagers are brave and amazing. But there is still so much we can do. I’d like to start by waving my rainbow flag as hard as I can to celebrate some of the wonderful successes in LGBTQ YA.

Books about gay teenage boys have increasingly been enjoying mainstream success levels. Some of the breakouts include New York Times bestselling More Happy Than Not by Adam Silvera (Soho Teen, 2015), named as “mandatory reading” and selected as an Editor’s Choice by the NYT.

David Levithan’s many books about gay teenagers, which have been published for over a decade, are considered a YA staple.

Wildly popular Simon Vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (Balzer + Bray, 2015) won the coveted Morris Award for debut authors.

Books about queer girls have not enjoyed the same levels of visibility, but there are signs that might be changing. In 2016, Anna-Marie McLemore’s When the Moon Was Ours (Thomas Dunne/St. Martin's Griffin, 2016) was long-listed for National Book Award, Emily M. Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post (Balzer + Bray, 2012) was announced as an upcoming movie adaptation, and Marieke Nijkamp’s This is Where it Ends (Sourcebooks, 2016) hit #1 on the NYT bestseller list--and stayed on the list week after week.

I asked Marieke: how does it feel to have a #1 NYT bestselling title featuring queer girl main characters? What does it mean for you as a writer? As a queer person? She said:

"It means the world to me. One of the reasons why I started writing was to give a voice and stories to readers who struggled to find themselves in books.

"Like I did, growing up. And as it is, nothing fills my heart more than hearing from those exact readers, who recognize themselves--if only a little--in TIWIE.

"Of course I hoped and dreamed my stories would resonate, but to hear those reactions and to see this queer book of mine do so well...

"It's far beyond even my wildest dreams. It's out of this world. I'm so incredibly grateful for it, and I hope I can pay it forward."

I talked to Anna-Marie McLemore about how she sees the field changing. Her first book, The Weight of Feathers, came out last fall. Her second book, When The Moon Was Ours, features a queer girl and trans boy as main characters, and people of color compose the main casts of both books. She said:

"I have a lot of hope for the future of inclusive literature. We still have a long way to go, but thanks to the conversations taking place, many of them fostered by leaders like those of We Need Diverse Books, we’re moving forward."

I asked the same question to Malinda Lo, a well-known author in the LGBTQ community, whose books include Huntress (Little, Brown, 2011) and Adaptation (Little, Brown, 2012). She said:

"When my first novel, Ash (Little, Brown), was published in 2009, very little YA was published that included queer characters who did not have to struggle with coming out. This has changed significantly in the last seven years.

"This change certainly wasn't driven only by my books, because other authors had also been moving in this direction, but I think my books did contribute to the growing normalization of queer characters in YA.

"In other words, you can have a queer character in a book, but it doesn't always have to be about being queer. It can be about falling in love, or saving a kingdom, or simply coming of age, with sexual orientation one issue of many that a character engages with.

"I am really encouraged by this, because the struggle for LGBT rights and acceptance does not end with coming out; it begins there. We can only be full human beings when the whole of our lives and experiences count."

This was a common refrain when I talked to authors. There will always be a place for coming out stories, and a need for excellent books that struggle with the varied and changing realities of coming out. (I’d love to see more books that deal with the fact that coming out isn’t always a binary experience dividing life neatly into “before” and “after”.)

But focusing on coming out as the only important narrative results in a limited literature that reduces LGBTQ people to a single experience.

I asked Kekla Magoon, author of 37 Things I Love (in No Particular Order)(Henry Holt, 2012) what she’s excited about in the field and how she sees it changing.

"It's exciting to contribute to the growing offering of books that deal with sexuality in big and small ways while intersecting with other storylines and multiple layers of character development.

"Around the time I sold 37 Things I Love (2010) and the time it came out (2012), people had begun talking about the need for more books that dealt with LGBTQ characters doing things other than coming out, and the need for books that showed LGBTQ characters of color.

"The need still exists for those books, but it seems as though the conversation has intensified, and is beginning to result in changes. There are more LGBTQ books now than there used to be, and that the door to the industry is cracking open even further now, as we collectively deepen our understanding of identity and intersectionality."

When I asked Corinne Duyvis, author of Otherbound (Amulet, 2014), what she’s excited about in LGBTQ YA, she said:

"I'm very excited to be seeing more #ownvoices*** books hit the shelves. The more the better!

"After all, no two people's experiences are the same. The more different voices we have, the more we can show the wealth and breadth of experiences of queer characters--and the less pressure there is on individual authors to 'speak for' queer YA.

"They can just be honest about that one character's experiences instead of being put into the position of representing an entire group.

"I would very much like to see more trans representation both on the pages and behind the scenes. There are still a lot of experiences out there that aren't being written about very much, whether in terms of trans identity or the various angles of intersectionality.

"It's essential that we listen, that we actively seek out and welcome trans voices, and that we do whatever we can to make the industry--and the world--more trans-friendly."

2015-16 saw the publication of a small number of #ownvoices books about trans characters--such as If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo (Flatrion) and George by Alex Gino (Scholastic) in the middle grade category.

Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz (Candlewick) is an excellent sci-fi novel about a nonbinary character.

There is still such a long way to go. Trans characters are consistently underrepresented in LGBTQ fiction.

While celebrating how far LGBTQ YA has come, it’s important that we pay attention to areas where representation is seriously lagging. Almost every single person I interviewed for this blog series cited the need for more #ownvoices trans YA.

Vee Signorelli, the co-founder of The Gay YA, is currently running Trans Awareness Week. Please check out their work, starting with this post.

When I asked Vee about the delights and challenges of running a site that covers LGBTQ YA, they said:

"I’ve gotten to connect with other literary trans people. That… has meant so much to me. The literary community loves to herald any one trans person as the one and only, when in fact, there are many of us here, and that is unhelpfully isolating.

"There is something amazing about creating, theorizing, and working things through in community. Especially when you’re all part of such a marginalized identity that has been used and misrepresented, in culture, and in YA. There’s so much you’re able to reclaim.

"One of the absolute delights is how wonderful, strong, and vibrant the entire community is. Sometimes I get up in my head about the administration work, and I start freaking out about everything I have to do… and then I put something out to the community, like a call for submissions or volunteers, or opinions on a certain book, or anything and they are just there.

"I’m repeatedly amazed by everything the community does to keep this going."

Community is one of the most important words we can keep in mind, and foster moving forward.

Whether you’re a reader, a librarian, a teacher, a writer, a member of the publishing industry, a bookseller, there are things that all of us can do to keep this surge in LGBTQ YA going strong. And we can all work to make the YA book community a truly inclusive space.

One of the most obvious and wonderful is to enjoy and share the great books that are being published, so I want to leave you today with recommendations for new and upcoming books from Dahlia Adler, who runs LGBTQ Reads, and Vee Signorelli of The Gay YA.

These two websites are some of the most helpful resources and positive spaces for LGBTQ fiction, and I would greatly encourage anyone who doesn’t already check them out regularly to do so. (After adding these books to your TBR, of course.)

Dahlia said:

"I’m really, really into Jaye Robin Brown's Georgia Peaches and Other Forbidden Fruit (HarperTeen, 2016). I think it does a really beautiful job with queerness and religion, and it's also just fun and cute and sexy and everything you want f/f YA to be.

"Anna-Marie McLemore's When the Moon Was Ours is not only remarkably beautiful in itself and its style, but in its representations of sexual orientation and gender identity and intersectionality.

"And for some books I think are just great that center queer characters but not queerness, check out Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova (Sourcebooks, 2016), A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith (Roaring Brook, 2016), As I Descended by Robin Talley (HarperTeen, 2016), and Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig  (Feiwel & Friends, 2016).

"One I haven't read but am super excited about is Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee (Duet, 2016) - it sounds like so much fun.

"Beyond 2016, I can already definitely recommend History is All You Left Me by Adam Silvera (Soho Teen), How to Make a Wish by Ashley Herring Blake (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee (Katherine Tegen, 2017) -- I loved all of them and I'm positive many readers will too!"

Vee said:

"Queens of Geek by Jenn Wilde (Swoon) and Meg & Linus by Hanna Nowinksi (Swoon) are two of my new all time favorite books. I’m also psyched to read Dreadnought by April Daniels (Diversion)(an #ownvoices YA featuring a trans girl), Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert (Little, Brown), 27 Hours by Tristina Wright (Entangled Teen), and It’s Not Like It’s a Secret by Misa Sugiura (HarperTeen)."

This post is the first in a four-part series. Please come back for part two--I’ll be talking about LGBTQ YA genre fiction!

Notes from Amy Rose

Rainbow Boxes co-founders and YA authors Cori McCarthy and Amy Rose Capetta

*Yes, Cori McCarthy is also my girlfriend. Thank you for scrolling all the way down here to confirm this happy fact.

**Please note that all interviews were given before November, which means all answers are reflective of a pre-election cultural landscape.

***If you’re not familiar with the term/hashtag "#ownvoices," please check out #ownvoices, where Corinne Duyvis, who coined the term, explains what it means. 

Cynsational Notes

Amy Rose Capetta is the author of three YA novels: Entangled and Unmade, a space duet (both Houghton Mifflin Harcourt), and Echo After Echo (Candlewick, 2017), a queer love story wrapped in a murder mystery and set on Broadway.

She is on the writing team for the second season of Remade, a YA sci-fi thriller from SerialBox, and works with writers on their novels through Yellow Bird Editors (with a special interest in genre fiction and LGBTQ fiction of all kinds!)

She is the co-founder of Rainbow Boxes (@rainbowboxesya), and holds an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Amy Rose lives and writes in Michigan with her girlfriend Cori McCarthy, who is also a YA author, and their five-year-old, who wants to be a wizard.

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Happy Monday! Don't forget to check out all the new releases and enter to win below.

Happy Reading,

Shelly, Sam, Jocelyn, Martina, Erin, Susan, Michelle, Laura, Anisaa, and Kristin

YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS THIS WEEK

Mind Games
by Heather W. Petty
Hardcover Giveaway
U.S. Only
Simon & Schuster Books
Released 12/6/2016

Sherlock Holmes and Miss James “Mori” Moriarty may have closed their first case, but the mystery is far from over in the thrilling sequel to Lock & Mori, perfect for fans of Maureen Johnson and Sherlock.

You know their names. Now discover their beginnings.

Mori’s abusive father is behind bars…and she has never felt less safe. Threatening letters have started appearing on her doorstep, and the police are receiving anonymous tips suggesting that Mori—not her father—is the Regent’s Park killer. To make matters worse, the police are beginning to believe them.

Through it all, Lock—frustrating, brilliant, gorgeous Lock—is by her side. The two of them set out to discover who is framing Mori, but in a city full of suspects, the task is easier said than done. With the clock ticking, Mori will discover just how far she is willing to go to make sure that justice is served, and no one—not even Lock—will be able to stop her.

Purchase Mind Games at Amazon
Purchase Mind Games at IndieBound
View Mind Games on Goodreads

YA BOOK GIVEAWAYS LAST WEEK: WINNERS

Avalanche by Melinda Braun: Theresa S.

MORE YOUNG ADULT FICTION IN STORES NEXT WEEK WITH AUTHOR INTERVIEWS

Black Moon
by Romina Russell
Hardcover
Razorbill
Released 12/6/2016

One final secret stands between Rho and the enemy. But will the devastating truth be enough to destroy her first?

Rho, the courageous visionary from House Cancer, lost nearly everything when she exposed and fought against the Marad, a mysterious terrorist group bent on destroying balance in the Zodiac Galaxy. Now, the Marad has disappeared without a trace, and an uneasy peace has been declared in the Zodiac Galaxy.

But Rho is suspicious. She believes the Master is still out there in some other form. And looming over all are the eerie visions of her mother, who died many years ago, but is now appearing to Rho in the stars.

When news of a stylish new political party supported by her best friend, Nishi, sends Rho on another journey across the galaxy, she uses it as an opportunity to hunt the hidden master and seek out information about her mother. And what she uncovers sheds light on the truth--but casts darkness upon the entire Zodiac world.

Author Question: What is your favorite thing about Black Moon?

My favorite thing about BLACK MOON is that I finally got to create my very own royal ball! In addition to young adult fiction, I love the Victorian novel, so I’ve always longed to script an over-the-top ballroom scene riddled with gaudy gowns, decadent decorations, and cryptic conversations—a night rife with romantic and political entanglements—and now I finally have! Plus, the ball takes place on a new planet, so it was extra fun playing around with the setting, technology, and fashion. 

Purchase Black Moon at Amazon
Purchase Black Moon at IndieBound
View Black Moon on Goodreads

MORE YOUNG ADULT NOVELS NEW IN STORES NEXT WEEK

Spindle
by E.K. Johnston
Hardcover
Disney-Hyperion
Released 12/6/2016

The world is made safe by a woman...but it is a very big world.

It has been generations since the Storyteller Queen drove the demon out of her husband and saved her country from fire and blood. Her family has prospered beyond the borders of their village, and two new kingdoms have sprouted on either side of the mountains where the demons are kept prisoner by bright iron, and by the creatures the Storyteller Queen made to keep them contained.

But the prison is crumbling. Through years of careful manipulation, a demon has regained her power. She has made one kingdom strong and brought the other to its knees, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. When a princess is born, the demon is ready with the final blow: a curse that will cost the princess her very soul, or force her to destroy her own people to save her life.

The threads of magic are tightly spun, binding princess and exiled spinners into a desperate plot to break the curse before the demon can become a queen of men. But the web of power is dangerously tangled--and they may not see the true pattern until it is unspooled.

Purchase Spindle at Amazon
Purchase Spindle at IndieBound
View Spindle on Goodreads




True Power
by Gary Meehan
Hardcover
Jo Fletcher Books
Released 12/6/2016

The War
After battling their way across Werlavia, Megan and her companions have sought the promise of safety in the mountain city of Hil . . . but the army of the True lies in wait for their arrival.

The Threat
Megan knows they can't ignore the witch menace any longer. Empowered by their guns and their allies, the True are coming for her, for her young daughter, and for everyone else she loves. Nothing less than the soul of Werlavia hangs in the balance.

The Power
Now deep into her quest, which began when she suddenly found herself a refugee from her destroyed village, Megan is no longer an ordinary miller's daughter. As her destiny has unfolded through her travels, she has taken on the role of Mother, Apostate, and Countess. And now it is up to her to protect the people of the Realm from evil. But she will have to risk everything and everyone she loves if she has any hope of succeeding against the savage forces of the True.

Purchase True Power at Amazon
Purchase True Power at IndieBound
View True Power on Goodreads

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