*"The author demonstrates exquisite facility with tech-savvy teen-speak in every scenario and balances the authentic dialogue with elegant prose. An excellent choice for YA collections."—School Library Journal (starred review)
"Picture Us in the Light illuminates the intricate bonds that draw us together. Danny Cheng, a young artist growing up amongst Ivy-League minded peers, will break your heart into a million pieces, and then quietly put it back together. Impressively layered and real."—Stacey Lee, 2017 Pen Center USA Literature Award Winning Author of Outrun the Moon
*"Family, art, love, duty, and longing collide in this painfully beautiful paean to the universal human need for connection Exquisite, heartbreaking, unforgettable."—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"This urgent, achingly beautiful story shines a light on those living in the shadows. A beacon of hope and resistance."—Melissa de la Cruz, #1 New York Times best-selling author
"Picture me madly in love with this moving, tender, unapologetically honest book."—Becky Albertalli, William C. Morris Award winning author of Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda
"Moving, tender, honest, and intense."—The Coil
"Kelly Loy Gilbert's story is heartbreaking and beautiful, touching on immigration, suicide, sexual orientation, money (and lack thereof) with poise and care."—Bustle.com
"In addition to offering a heart-rending depiction of the gritty realities of life for immigrants fearing deportation and a poignant exploration of a teen struggling to be open about his sexual identity, this novel also offers a thrilling mystery, gradually revealing a tragic secret that casts the family's entire history in a shockingly different light."—Buffalo News
"Heartbreaking and transcendent. Gilbert is a true artist of character, both obscuring and illuminating with each brilliant turn of phrase. In Danny, she gives us a narrator who, in so deeply and completely revealing his own inner life, shows us each other and ourselves."—Anna-Marie McLemore, author of Stonewall Honor Book When the Moon Was Ours and Wild Beauty
"Few books have ever moved me like this masterful story that pulses with love, loss, quiet hurts, and soaring dreams. An instant classic."—Jeff Zentner, William C. Morris Award winning author of The Serpent King and Goodbye Days
"A searing exploration of buried secrets and the heart-wrenching ways that they can tear child from parent, friend from friend and a community from its long-held identity."—Sabaa Tahir, #1 New York Times best-selling author
"A novel as radiant as its title suggests. Picture Us in the Light is fierce proof that Kelly Loy Gilbert is one of the best writers around."—David Arnold, New York Times best-selling author of Mosquitoland
*"All together, it's a heady concoction: a compelling story of all kinds of love and all kinds of heartbreak overlaid with the unveiling of all kinds of secrets."—BCCB (starred review)
Accolades
BNTeen: 14 of Our Most Anticipated Sophomore Novels of 2018, selection
BookRiot: Riot Roundup: The Best Books We Read in January (2018), selection
BNTeen: 8 YAs About Defying Parental Expectations, selection (2018)
BookRiot: 8 Books About Immigrants to Look Forward to in 2018, selection
Bookish: Spring 2018's Must-Read Young Adult Books, selection
Brightly: The Best Children's and YA Books of April 2018, selection
The Strategist: Becky Albertalli on the LGBTQ-Themed YA Books to Read Now, selection
Bustle: The Sequel to 'Love, Simon' & 12 Other New YA Books Coming Out In April 2018, selection
The Coil: Most Anticipated April 2018 Books, selection
Bookish: April 2018 Book Club Picks: Queens, Feminists, and Zombie Slayers, selection
Epic Reads: Here's Your Bookish Horoscope for April!, selection (Pisces)
BookRiot: Must-Read April New Releases, selection (2018)
*"Gilbert masterfully negotiat[es] plot twists and revelations while keeping the focus on her characters."
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
*"With grace and respect, Gilbert manages to address the existential quandaries of both second-generation American teens and their immigrant parents Gilbert methodically lays bare her characters' secrets as if she was slowly pulling a cloth off a fine painting."—Booklist (starred review)
We’re closing out another year of fabulous YA lit, full of breakout debuts, devastating contemporary, series starters that left us breathless, mega huggable romcoms, intoxicating fantasy visions, and more more more! Here are fifty of the YA books we can’t/won’t/don’t stop talking about in 2018.
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