Books have been a significant inspiration at the movies since the earliest days of the cinema. We’re never less than thrilled (if, perhaps, trepidatious) when we learn our favorite novel is being adapted into a film, because when it all comes together in just the right way, it’s glorious, breathing a second life into a beloved […]
A teen novelist, set loose in New York City after her debut sells big. A girl mutated by fever, just discovering the extent of her new supernatural powers. The dregs of the human race, fighting to survive alien invasion. In the best teen books of the year, young protagonists navigate life in our world and at the end of it. They struggle to survive and thrive in imagined universes, dead-end towns, and deep under the sea. These are the year’s most moving, heart-pounding, and engrossing teen books.
First lines are powerful. It’s the author’s best chance to hook the reader. A great first line will pull you in, introduce you to the narrator, and set the tone for the entire book. Depending on what you’re reading, a great first line can be funny or meaningful or sad or somehow all of the above. […]
Sci-fi and fantasy have their big, bad, powerful villains, but make no mistake—so does contemporary. In realistic YA fiction, no villain stands out like the bully, those classmates who make your life a living hell. Most of those books, of course, feature the victims: kids who get bullied for anything from going for the wrong […]
In the world of high school, no clique is more feared or glamorized than the Mean Girls. Sometimes they’re beautiful and intimidating, other times they’re downright nasty, and they don’t just exist in the real world. They’ve taken over YA lit, too, where we can safely observe them from a distance, without the risk of our […]
