Tagged YA
Feb 06 2026
“Flip” Is a YA Body-Swap Comic About Race, Class, and Self-Image
What would happen if you swapped bodies with your crush? That’s the inciting incident of Flip, a graphic novel written and drawn by Ngozi Ukazu. Although it has a fantastical premise, Flip is a funny, grounded, and heartwarming look at the emotions of young people, exploring mental health and self-confidence.…
Dec 23 2020
All I Want for Christmas Is the Holiday Pick-Me-Up We Need This Year
In the past few years, I’ve grown to appreciate Hallmark and Netflix Christmas movies. They may be predictable and cheesy, but there’s something so comforting about that familiarity, especially when it’s covered in fake snow and candy canes. That same aura abounds in in Wendy…
Dec 14 2020
Magic Dark and Strange Doesn’t Quite Live Up to Its Potential
Kelly Powell‘s debut novel, Songs from the Deep, was easily one of my favorite books of 2019. Atmospheric and emotional, what starts as a murder mystery involving sirens doubles as a narrative about handling grief and moving forward in the wake of tragedy. When Powell’s sophomore novel,…
May 04 2020
Dancing at the Pity Party Is a Real and Expressive Look at a Mother’s Death
Death, fictional or true, isn’t an uncommon event in stories told through books and movies, but Dancing at the Pity Party by Tyler Feder is unique in how it treats the subject. Where most media uses death as a plot point to establish danger or make everyone feel sad (and no other emotions but sad), Feder…
Nov 29 2019
The Wickerlight Takes Readers Back to Mary Watson’s World of Irish Mythology
Note: This review contains spoilers for The Wren Hunt and reveals minor plot points for The Wickerlight.
In preparation for Mary Watson’s new novel, The Wickerlight, I read its predecessor, The Wren Hunt, over the summer. The book is lush with Irish lore and an ages-long feud between druid clans that…
Aug 06 2019
Postcards for a Songbird Comes Up Short as a Character-Driven Story
I admit that I have very simple expectations when it comes to contemporary YA novels. I’m not looking for a big, sweeping epic or an action-packed road trip; for me, the quieter, character-driven stories that focus on the complicated relationships we have with others are the ones that I remember…
May 25 2019
Sincerely, Harriet Is the Best Kind of Graphic Novel for Kids
It’s 1996 in Chicago, and Harriet Flores is bored. Not just bored, but bored. It’s summer vacation, but since she and her parents just moved to Chicago, she has no friends from school. Her parents are busy with trying to get situated in their new jobs, so she can’t even explore the city. The only person around…
Mar 18 2019
Five Feet Apart Is a Simply Sweet and Somber Tearjerker
Though it plays within the very familiar territory of teens romancing amid serious health conditions, Five Feet Apart stands apart as a drama that works a little harder for your tears. While the assembly is of a very familiar formula, in which you can nearly set your watch to every tragic beat, there’s…
Mar 05 2019
If You’re Out There Gives Readers a Unique Mystery to Solve
Three years ago, I decided to take a chance on a couple of Internet friends and flew to Texas to live with them. It’s a very long, complicated story, but the gist is that things didn’t work out, and I was back in Minnesota five days later. I had hoped that maybe I could fix things with them, but…
Feb 27 2019
The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project Is a Fun and Witty Look Into YA Tropes
Film critic Nathan Rabin coined the term Manic Pixie Dream Girl in 2007 in a review of the film Elizabethtown. But while the term is relatively young, the type of character it describes is not.
In a nutshell, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl is (usually) a young woman who is vivacious, quirky, and totally “not…