Mysterious and melancholy, The Book of Pearl consists of two complex, interwoven strands. One is historical fiction, the other is pure faerie fantasy, and both are the story of Joshua Iliån Pearl. Framing these two strands is the story of a young photographer/narrator who first appears as a teen and whose intervention many years later … Continue reading #WorldKidLitWednesday: The Book of Pearl
“Bronze’s family was like an old cart that has rolled for years along bumpy roads and through wind and rain. The axles need grease, the wheels need fixing, the parts seem a bit loose and the cart creaks forward, as though everything is a big effort. But it still works, and it still gets to … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: Bronze and Sunflower
Max (by Sarah Cohen-Scali, translated by Penny Hueston) is creepy. Beautifully written. Translated in flawlessly idiomatic English. And seriously creepy. A well-researched work of historical fiction for upper YA readers*, the book tells the story of the eponymous Max, aka Konrad von Kebernsol, a product of the once-secret, actual Nazi Lebensborn program (literally, fountain of … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: MAX by Sarah Cohen-Scali
#WorldKidLit Wednesday: My Brother’s Husband MBH, v. 1 I was captivated by My Brother’s Husband, by Gengoroh Tagame, translated by Anne Ishii. The story’s warm, gentle trajectory addresses an important subject for teens and, frankly, readers worldwide: accepting one’s sexuality and, more specifically, being gay in a homophobic society. Author Gengoroh Tagame is an award-winning, openly gay … Continue reading #WorldKidLit Wednesday: My Brother’s Husband
The Indecency Club I didn’t understand what it meant to be a man. If in the past I thought it was enough to have genitals dangling between one’s legs, now I wasn’t so sure. Because Uncle Marcelo’s were like that, but nobody in the village considered him a man. So would the perfect man be … Continue reading GLLI YA Prize Shortlist Excerpt: La Bastarda by Trifonia Melibea Obono
Chapter 1 Here we go: the Pig Pageant results have just come out on Facebook. I’m in third place: bronze medal. How perplexing. After winning gold for two years in a row, I thought I’d never lose the top spot. I was wrong. I check who’s won the grand title. She’s a new girl, in … Continue reading GLLI YA Prize Shortlist Excerpt: Piglettes by Clémentine Beauvais
AFRICA Equatorial Guinea - La Bastarda Palestine - Code Name: Butterfly ASIA Bangladesh - Rasha China - Bronze and Sunflower China - The City of Sand China - The Dragon Ridge Tombs India - Agnyatha India - Amazon Adventure (graphic novel) India - The Aunt Who Wouldn't Die Japan - Go Japan - My Brother's … Continue reading 2019 Translated YA Book Prize Submissions – Complete List
Sara Lovestam's Wonderful Feels Like This is “a coming-of-age tale of a young artist and is as soulful as it is triumphant” (SLJ) that celebrates being a little bit odd, finding your people, and the power of music to connect us For Steffi, going to school everyday is an exercise in survival. She's never fit … Continue reading GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Wonderful Feels Like This by Sara Lovestam (Sweden)
A classic story about a magical miniature family’s adventures in wartime Japan In a dusty library, in the quietest corner of a house in a Tokyo suburb, live the Little People: Fern and Balbo, Robin and Iris. Just a few inches high, sleeping in cigarette boxes and crafting shoes from old book jackets, they need … Continue reading GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: The Secret of the Blue Glass by Tomiko Inui (Japan)
The breathtaking story of a feisty young girl. Fifteen-year-old Rasha is abandoned by her mother in a village with her aged and probably mad grandmother. Uprooted from her school and her friends back in cosmopolitan Dhaka, a disgruntled Rasha has to start life afresh in a faraway place with no electricity, incessant rains, nosy neighbors, … Continue reading GLLI Translated YA Book Prize Shortlist: Rasha by Muhammed Zafar Iqbal (Bangladesh)
