03/10/2014
Life has gotten weird for 16-year-old Tabitha. Her parents are expecting a baby and fighting about her father’s pot use; her best friend dumped her when a late puberty surge put Tabitha in the “hot” column; and she’s flirting with a guy who has a girlfriend. This is all happening in a small Vermont town where everyone knows everyone, and the whole school has a stake in the opposites-attract relationship between Joe, the jock Tabitha likes, and his girlfriend, an arty, sad-girl type. Then Tabitha discovers the website Life by Committee. Its anonymous members trade in secrets, and their M.O. is escalation: tell a secret, get an assignment, then repeat. Tabitha reveals that she kissed Joe, and her assignment is to do it again. Haydu (OCD Love Story) gets at the push-pull between wanting to keep and to divulge secrets, as well as the way that anatomy can feel like destiny. While the school-wide obsession with Joe’s girlfriend seems overstated, Haydu keeps a multi-strand plot moving, and the climax, a kind of 12-step meeting meets high-school assembly, is cathartic. Ages 14–up. Agent: Victoria Marini, Gelfman Schneider. (May)
Sometimes it seems like parents in YA (at least one, if not both) are either checked out or dead. So it’s always nice to come across a fictional parent or two that not only exist as an actual presence in their children’s life, but also act like totally normal parents—in other words, completely and utterly embarrassing, all of the time. […]
With back-to-school season right around the corner, it’s time to start getting in the mood for bulging backpacks, questionable cafeteria food, and forgotten homework panic. High off the sun and summer break, it’s easy to forget real life isn’t your favorite teen movie, where insta-popularity awaits anyone who simply takes off their glasses. High school is […]
We all have that one crazy relative who swears—swears—that Facebook is all just some plot by the government to control your life or some other elaborate, looping scheme you can’t quite make sense of. And we’ve all briefly skimmed totally read those studies that claim social media is actually making us less social. But mostly we give […]
The sophomore slump can be one of the greatest curses of any writer, and the stronger your debut, the scarier the expectations. Many an author has been felled by the pressure to write a great second novel, and yet, for whatever reason, when it came to YA standalones, this was The Year of the Sophomore. […]
Parents have it pretty rough in YA. Sure, plenty of real-life parents are absent or negligent, but finding a solid, caring, and awesome parental unit in YA can feel a lot like searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie. But in honor of Mother’s Day, I did a little digging, and I’m pleased to […]