If one of your New Year’s resolutions is to read more YA fiction, you’re in luck. (And if this isn’t one of your resolutions, it really should be!) Scholastic has a slew of new YA books for every reader and here are three of many new releases that would make excellent additions to the stack of books on your bedside table.
A must-read for political enthusiasts and those interested in a great lesson in civics history is Divided We Fall by Trent Reedy.
In Divided We Fall, acclaimed author Trent Reedy takes readers into the near future with a provocative and compelling new young adult trilogy tackling today’s socio-political issues. The first book, Divided We Fall,is about a small town boy who gets caught up in a big national story and a dispute over the role and power of the federal government versus the rights of individual states. Trent Reedy was recently interviewed by CBS This Morning and spoke about how his experiences as a soldier in Afghanistan coupled with encouragement from literary legend Katherine Paterson inspired him to write 2011’s Christopher Award-winning Words in the Dust. After watching this piece, it’s clear that Reedy puts his heart and soul into every book he writes and Divided We Fall is no exception.
Readers with a case of wanderlust should check out Why We Took the Car by Wolfgang Herrndorf.
You’ll be dreaming of summer when you pick up this beautifully written, darkly funny coming-of-age story from an award-winning, bestselling German author making his posthumous American YA debut. In its starred review, Publishers Weekly described the book as an “alternately wild, sad, hilarious, and tender tale [that] chronicles the development of a strange and beautiful friendship.” This is the kind of book that stays with you after the tears have dried and the laughs have stopped. In addition to Publishers Weekly, the book also received a star in Kirkus, plus raves in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and the Washington Post.
Readers seeking a taut, suspenseful novel should check out The Killing Woods by Lucy Christopher.
From the author of the Michael L. Printz Honor Book Stolen, The Killing Woods is the highly anticipated thriller about deadly games played in the dark. In its starred review, Kirkus described the book as “a gripping, heartbreaking, emotionally substantial look at war wounds and the allure of danger.” This book kept me up all night. To whet your appetite, here’s a link to the book’s trailer and a clip of the author reading the first chapter, http://dialedin.com/scholastic10/Killing_Woods_/killing_woods.
Want more book suggestions? Check out https://www.facebook.com/thisisteen.
OOM readers, what books are you looking forward to reading this year?
