Review by Kris Feller Queen of the Tiles opens as our protagonist, Najwa Bakri, is dropped off by her family at the annual Word Warrior Weekend, a Scrabble competition which she describes as "part elite tournament, part sleepover, all awkward teen hormones and chaste, chaperoned social events in between." At the previous year’s tournament, Najwa’s … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Review: Queen of The Tiles
#IntlYALitMonth Review Essay: The Queen Series
The following extended review essay was written by Ritwika Roy. At first glance, the three books in Devika Rangachari’s Queen Series – Queen of Ice (2014), Queen of Earth (2020) and Queen of Fire (2021) – might seem like a relative of the hit Korean drama Queen of Tears. In Queen of Tears, Hong Haein, … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Review Essay: The Queen Series
#IntlYALitMonth Review: Never Tell Anyone Your Name
Review by Emily Corbett Federico Ivanier’s Never Tell Anyone Your Name (2020), translated by Claire Storey (2023), is unlike anything I have read before for two reasons. First, it is the first YA novel to be translated from Uruguayan to English. Second, Ivanier’s plot is both utterly bizarre and enthralling. The novel takes place in … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Review: Never Tell Anyone Your Name
#IntlYALitMonth Review: Blood Scion
Review by Emma Tueller Stone “Once, there was a little girl who prayed for heroes… But that little girl is long gone… I am a monster. I am one of them” (Falaye, p. 362). If anyone finds out who or what Sloane is, she will die. She is a Scion, the descendent of powerful Orisha … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Review: Blood Scion
#IntlYALitMonth Review: The Ventriloquist’s Daughter
Review by Alice Penfold “I had a feeling that something terrible was going to happen…” Liur is dominated by the fear of “something terrible” happening to her or her father. After her mother dies suddenly, her father disappears to America; although he originally goes there to study, he soon abandons this plan and goes travelling, … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Review: The Ventriloquist’s Daughter
#IntlYALitMonth Review: Sugar Town Queens
Review by Jennifer Gouck Fifteen-year-old Amandla’s mother, Annalisa, has had a vision: if Amandla wears a blue bedsheet hastily fashioned into a dress to school today, its magic will bring her father, who has been missing since before she was born, home forever. Annalisa has lots of visions. She also has a broken memory that … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Review: Sugar Town Queens
#IntlYALitMonth Review: Bitter
Review by Kelly-Anne McDonald "All these feelings were knotted inside her - how helpless she felt, how hopeless Lucille felt, how even talking about change felt like a joke, a cruel hope." Bitter is set in the imagined city of Lucille, which is rife with corruption and police brutality. Ordinary citizens have been oppressed for … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Review: Bitter
#IntlYALitMonth Spotlight: The YA Studies Association
The YA Studies Association (YASA) is an international organisation existing to increase the knowledge of, and research on, young adult (YA) literature, media, and related fields and to encourage the cooperation of specialists, institutions, organisations, and individuals engaging with YA whether through research, teaching, or practice. We welcome scholars and practitioners at all stages and … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Spotlight: The YA Studies Association
#IntlYALitMonth Review: Houses with a Story
Review by Emma K. McNamara Seiji Yoshida’s Houses with a Story, translated from Japanese to English by Jan Mitsuko Cash, showcases the floor plans of a variety of homes that one might find in literature. Each building is accompanied by a short description, annotations of the building’s contents, and who lives there and why. Fair-skinned … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Review: Houses with a Story
#IntlYALitMonth Review: Do You Dream of Terra-Two?
Review by Alex Henderson It takes twenty-three years to travel from Earth to the exoplanet Terra-Two. By the time the Beta crew of the Off-World Colonization Programme arrive, they will be in their forties. But when they leave, they are just teenagers—six of the best and brightest young people in the UK, put through rigorous … Continue reading #IntlYALitMonth Review: Do You Dream of Terra-Two?
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 