We’ve got a great YA Spotlight this week! Five of the six titles received two starred professional reviews–definitely worth a closer look!
My top YA pick this week is the first book, A Drop of Venom. This is a retelling of the Medusa myth from Greek mythology. That cover!
Escaping Mr. Rochester, a retelling of the gothic classic Jane Eyre, also looks pretty interesting.
Author: Sajni Patel
Publication Date: January 16, 2024
Genre: fantasy, mythology
Recommended for: Grades 9-12
Themes: snakes, monsters, monster slayers, rape, power, corrupt kings, alternating perspectives, Medusa, Greek mythology, Indian folklore, dark magic, misogyny
Protagonist: alternates between female, age 16, priestess and male, age 17, monster slayer
Starred reviews: Kirkus and Publishers Weekly
Pages: 416
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Sixteen-year-old Manisha is no stranger to monsters—she’s been running from them for years, from beasts who roam the jungle to the King’s army, who forced her people, the naga, to scatter to the ends of the earth. You might think that the kingdom’s famed holy temples atop the floating mountains, where Manisha is now a priestess, would be safe—but you would be wrong.
Seventeen-year-old Pratyush is a famed slayer of monsters, one of the King’s most prized warriors and a frequent visitor to the floating temples. For every monster the slayer kills, years are added to his life. You might think such a powerful warrior could do whatever he wants, but true power lies with the King. Tired after years of fighting, Pratyush wants nothing more than a peaceful, respectable life.
When Pratyush and Manisha meet, each sees in the other the possibility to chart a new path. Unfortunately, the kingdom’s powerful have other plans. A temple visitor sexually assaults Manisha and pushes her off the mountain into a pit of vipers. A month later, the King sends Pratyush off to kill one last monster (a powerful nagin who has been turning men to stone) before he’ll consider granting the slayer his freedom.
Except Manisha doesn’t die, despite the hundreds of snake bites covering her body and the venom running through her veins. She rises from the pit more powerful than ever before, with heightened senses, armor-like skin, and blood that can turn people to stone. And Pratyush doesn’t know it, but the “monster” he’s been sent to kill is none other than the girl he wants to marry.
Author: Kamilah Cole
Publication Date: January 16, 2024
Genre: fantasy
Setting: island of San Irie, a Jamaica-inspired fantasy world
Recommended for: Grades 7-12
Themes: sisters, magic, dragons, alternating perspectives, Jamaican culture
Protagonist: two sisters, ages 17 and 18, both Black
Starred reviews: Booklist and Publishers Weekly
Pages: 400
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Faron Vincent can channel the power of the gods. Five years ago, she used her divine magic to liberate her island from its enemies, the dragon-riding Langley Empire. But now, at seventeen, Faron is all powered up with no wars to fight. She’s a legend to her people and a nuisance to her neighbors.
When she’s forced to attend an international peace summit, Faron expects that she will perform tricks like a trained pet and then go home. She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister.
As Faron’s desperation to find another solution takes her down a dark path, and Elara discovers the shocking secrets at the heart of the Langley Empire, both must make difficult choices that will shape each other’s lives, as well as the fate of their world.
Author: Ann Fraistat
Publication Date: January 16, 2024
Genre: mystery, gothic horror
Setting: Madame Clery’s House of Masks, a creepy older home with a questionable past that the protagonist's mother grew up in
Recommended for: Grades 7-12
Themes: bipolar disorder, creepy Victorian mansions, insects, recent suicide attempt (protagonist), seances, masks, ghosts, body horror, mental health
Protagonist: female, age 16, white, recently diagnosed as bipolar III
Starred reviews: Publishers Weekly and Kirkus
Pages: 464
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
The house was supposed to be a fresh start. That’s what Libby’s mom said. And after Libby’s recent bipolar III diagnosis and the tragedy that preceded it, Libby knows she and her family need to find a new normal.
But Libby’s new home turns out to be anything but normal. Scores of bugs haunt its winding halls, towering stained-glass windows feature strange, insectile designs, and the garden teems with impossibly blue roses.
And then there are the rumors. The locals, including the mysterious boy next door, tell stories about disappearances tied to the house, stretching back over a century to its first owners. Owners who supposedly hosted legendary masked séances on its grounds.
Libby’s mom refuses to hear anything that could derail their family’s perfect new beginning, but Libby knows better. The house is keeping secrets from her, and something tells her that the key to unlocking them lies in the eerie, bug-shaped masks hidden throughout the property.
We all wear masks—to hide our imperfections, to make us stronger and braver. But if Libby keeps hers on for too long, she might just lose herself—and everyone she loves.
Author: L.L. McKinney
Publication date: 9 Jan 2024
Genre: classic retelling, gothic horror
Setting: Thornfield Hall, Lancashire, England
Recommended for: Grades 8-12
Themes: governesses, Jane Eyre, LGBT, domestic violence, abuse, alternating perspectives
Protagonist: perspectives alternate between female (Jane Eyre), age 19, Black or mixed race, queer, governess; and female, impisoned wife of Mr. Rochester, Black, queer, American
Starred reviews: Booklist and Publishers Weekly
Pages: 320
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Jane Eyre has no interest in a husband. Eager to make her own way in the world, she accepts the governess position at Thornfield Hall.
Though her new employer, Edward Rochester, has a charming air—not to mention a handsome face—Jane discovers that his smile can sharpen in an instant. Plagued by Edward’s mercurial mood and the strange wails that echo through the corridors, Jane grows suspicious of the secrets hidden within Thornfield Hall—unaware of the true horrors lurking above her very head.
On the topmost floor, Bertha Mason is trapped in more ways than one. After her whirlwind marriage to Edward turned into a nightmare, he locked her away as revenge for withholding her inheritance. Now his patience grows thin in the face of Bertha’s resilience and Jane’s persistent questions, and both young women are in more danger than they realize.
When their only chance at safety—and perhaps something more—is in each other’s arms, can they find and keep one another safe before Edward’s dark machinations close in around them?
Author: Krystal Sutherland
Publication Date: January 16, 2024
Genre: supernatural, thriller
Setting: fantasy London, England
Recommended for: Grades 9-12
Themes: occult, murder, sisters, grief, witches, curses, demons, making bad deals
Protagonist: 3 teen females, white; one is a witch
Starred reviews: Publishers Weekly and SLJ
Pages: 400
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
Zara Jones believes in magic because the alternative is too painful to consider—that her murdered sister is gone forever and there is nothing she can do about it. Rather than grieving and moving on, Zara decides she will do whatever it takes to claw her sister back from the grave—even trading in the occult.
Jude Wolf may be the daughter of a billionaire, but she is also undeniably cursed. After a deal with a demon went horribly wrong, her soul has been slowly turning necrotic. It’s a miserable existence marred by pain, sickness, and monstrous things that taunt her in the night. Now that she’s glimpsed what’s beyond the veil, Jude’s desperate to find someone to undo the damage she’s done to herself.
Enter Emer Byrne, an orphaned witch with a dark past and a deadly power, a.k.a. the solution to both Zara’s and Jude’s problems. Though Emer lives a hardscrabble life, she gives away her most valuable asset—her invocations—to women in desperate situations who are willing to sacrifice a piece of their soul in exchange for a scrap of power. Zara and Jude are willing, but they first have to find Emer.
When Emer’s clients start turning up dead all over London, a vital clue leads Zara and Jude right to her. If a serial killer is targeting her clients, Emer wants to know why—and to stop them. She strikes a tenuous alliance with Zara and Jude to hunt a killer before they are next on his list, even if she can’t give them in return what Zara and Jude want most: a sister and a soul.
Authors: Sherri L. Smith and Elizabeth Wein
Publication Date: January 16, 2024
Genre: nonfiction
Setting: Curtiss–Wright School of Aviation; Chicago, Illinois, USA; first half of the 20th Century
Recommended for: Grades 7-12
Themes: US history, Black history, aviation history, discrimination, prejudice, racism, Tuskegee Airmen
Protagonists: multiple African American aviators, both male and female
Starred reviews: no starred reviews
Pages: 384
PUBLISHER’S SUMMARY
In the years between World War I and World War II, aviation fever was everywhere, including among Black Americans. But what hope did a Black person have of learning to fly in a country constricted by prejudice and Jim Crow laws, where Black aviators like Bessie Coleman had to move to France to earn their wings?
American Wings follows a group of determined Black Americans: Cornelius Coffey and Johnny Robinson, skilled auto mechanics; Janet Harmon Bragg, a nurse; and Willa Brown, a teacher and social worker.
Together, they created a flying club and built their own airfield south of Chicago. As the U.S. hurtled toward World War II, they established a school to train new pilots, teaching both Black and white students together and proving, in a time when the U.S. military was still segregated, that successful integration was possible.
Featuring rare historical photographs, American Wings brings to light a hidden history of pioneering Black men and women who, with grit and resilience, battled powerful odds for an equal share of the sky.
THE LINKS YOU’LL NEED FOR JANUARY
- January 2024 – YA Books – Google Slides presentation – click “use template” to make a copy – share with students and teachers! Remember that this presentation will eventually include all YA Spotlight titles for January 2024.
- Printable list of all January 2024 Spotlight titles – sorted by genre and grade level group; click “use template” to make a copy
- The Ginormous Book List – this week’s YA titles are #3775 – #3780 on The Ginormous.
MORE JANUARY 2024 NEW RELEASE SPOTLIGHTS
ABOUT THE SPOTLIGHT
The New Release Spotlight began in May 2016 as a way to help librarians keep up with the many new children’s and YA books that are released each week.
Each week, school librarian Leigh Collazo compiles the New Release Spotlight using a combination of Follett’s Titlewave, Amazon, Goodreads, and Barnes and Noble. Recommended grade levels represent the range of grade levels recommended by professional book reviewers. See the full selection criteria here.
Inevitably, there are far more books that meet my criteria than can make it on the Spotlight. When I have to make the tough decisions on what to include, I just use my “librarian judgment.” Would I buy this book for my own library? Would my students want to read this book? Is the cover appealing? Does it fill a need?