Please join me in welcoming All the Love Under the Vast Sky to the world!
It was such a pleasure working with the other eleven authors to create this anthology filled with love stories in verse. I adore each story more than the next, and I hope you will too! Please read and share with the teen readers in your life!
On the very last day of 2024, I made my goal of reading 75 books, whew! I usually exceed my goal by at least a few books, but it’s been a busy/hectic/bananas year, so I’m happy with my 75. Lots of these were audiobooks on my commute, and I read a few ebooks too, but my favorite type of book remains the good old-fashioned paper kind. My top 10 favorites this year:
THIS BOOK WON’T BURN by Samira Ahmed. Noor Khan is an inspiring heroine facing multiple tough situations (her father leaving the family with no warning, a move to a new small town from the big city, and dealing with small minds banning books in the school and library). Her relationship with her mom and sister is rocky but loving, and her new friends are everything every teen at a new school could wish for.
RADIO SILENCE by Alice Oseman. I adore all the Heartstopper graphic novels, but I think I loved this traditional prose novel even more.
WHAT YOU ARE LOOKING FOR IS IN THE LIBRARY by Michiko Aoyama translated by Alison Watts. I literally can’t find my copy, which makes me sad because I want to read it again. I absolutely loved the way these characters’ lives inter-connect through the library and librarian on their paths to discovery. So lovely and inspiring!
REZ BALL by Byron Graves. I am not a sporty person, but I absolutely LOVED this book. I think sporty people will love it even more, if that’s possible. I listened to the audiobook and was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Just fabulous.
MOST ARDENTLY by Gabe Cole Novoa. This is my favorite P&P retelling ever! So earnest and lovely and the characters are just so authentic and wonderful. <3 <3 <3
BRIGHT RED FRUIT by Safia Elhillo. Gorgeous poetry, and verse was the perfect form for this story. What the protagonist goes through is heartbreaking, and the ending packs a powerful punch.
WARRIOR GIRL UNEARTHED by Angeline Boulley. I loved Firekeeper’s Daughter, and I loved this one even more. It was SO FABULOUS, everything about it. Perry was such a gritty, real character, while also being completely loveable. Her quest was so admirable, and her mistakes and choices so believable. She and her friends were an unstoppable team in getting justice for these missing native women.
WHEN WE FLEW AWAY by Alice Hoffman. I read a lot of WWII MG books this year, and this was exceptional. Loved hearing the details about Anne’s life before she began her diary. I’ve read as many books as I can find about Anne Frank, and Hoffman still managed to uncover details that were completely new and bring them to life on the page.
THE BLETCHLEY RIDDLE by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin. Fabulous book to pair with THE ENIGMA GIRLS! Really engaging and completely plausible story that will probably hook lots of readers on history.
THE ENIGMA GIRLS by Candace Fleming. Really gripping nonfiction about the teen girls working at Bletchley Park during WWII.
On top of these and other fabulous books that came out in 2024 or earlier, I also read and blurbed several advance copies of books that will be out in 2025, so get these on your radar now:
THE TROUBLE WITH HEROES by Kate Messner. Verse is the perfect format for Finn’s journey through the Adirondack High Peaks in The Trouble with Heroes by Kate Messner. The pitch-perfect tween voice spills out of the poetry with raw authenticity. Any tween who’s ever lost someone, made bad choices, or felt unworthy of love will identify with Finn, forced to hike the peaks as reparation for vandalism. Finn might be angry at the world, but readers will find an unlikely hero in him as he figures things out about his deceased firefighter father—and himself—through hiking, poetry, and new relationships. I couldn’t put this book down!
ONE STEP FORWARD by Marcie Flinchum Atkins. One Step Forward by Marcie Flinchum Atkins marches the reader alongside teen Matilda Young, the youngest suffragist jailed for standing up for the right to vote. A wealth of historical details, poetic play with words and whitespace, and absolute relevance to young women today make this verse novel a must read!
A MOST PERILOUS WORLD by Kristina R. Gaddy. Impeccable research and incredible details bring the stories of these four young people (two white and two Black) to life as they come of age in the years leading up to and during the Civil War. The inclusion of surprisingly relevant primary source materials will draw readers in, allowing them to connect the dots from this nation’s dark past to today and furthermore to arm themselves with information to work toward a brighter future.
THE REBEL GIRLS OF ROME by Jordyn Taylor. The Rebel Girls of Rome alternates between the stories of two young women from the same Jewish family in different timelines: Lilah in the present day and her great-aunt Bruna in World War II. Both their stories kept me on the edge of my seat as details emerged about what happened to the family after a Nazi roundup in 1943. A gripping tale of resistance, survival, and love.
The first review for All the Love Under the Vast Sky is in, and it’s a lovely one. “A celebration of love through 12 unique stories in verse. Beloved and award-winning young adult authors explore different forms of love across time and a variety of places. The evocative writing in different verse forms connects the narratives in this timely, relatable collection with a diverse cast of characters. The variety of themes and points of view offers something for every reader. Love wins in this enjoyable, well-executed anthology.”—Kirkus
Contributors include:
Alexandra Alessandri
David Bowles
Melanie Crowder
Margarita Engle
Eric Gansworth
Robin Gow
Mariama J. Lockington
Laura Ruby
Padma Venkatraman
Jasmine Warga
Charles Waters
Kip Wilson
The release date is fast approaching (January 14, 2025), and I’m thrilled it will be out in the world soon. Along with the hardcover, an audiobook will also be released on the same date! Please pre-order your favorite medium of the book so you get a nice January surprise for yourself.
I’m thrilled to share that my first middle-grade verse novel is in the works! The announcement:
Backpack, Boy, Berlin is filled with action, intrigue, and tons of heart. The inspiration was the real Donald R. Heath, Jr., a young American boy living in Berlin, Germany during World War II, and Mildred Harnack, the American woman at the core of the Red Orchestra resistance group with her German husband Arvid. I hope to have lots more to share as we work toward publication in 2026!
What would you, a tortured poet, call your radio show recorded and aired during National Poetry Month? What else but the Tortured Poets Department radio show!
A couple of weeks back was parent/teacher takeover week at my high school’s station WIQH, and I got to do my own TTPD radio show. It was lots of fun!
Besides playing Taylor Swift music, mostly from what I consider her best album (Folklore), I read poetry from some of the books we have in the school library, including “Seven White Butterflies” from West Wind by Mary Oliver, “Stardust” from Star Child by Ibi Zoboi, and “We Study Each Other” from Wild Dreamers by Margarita Engle. I also got to share a clip from the audio book of my own verse novel, The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin read by fabulous narrator, Juliette Goglia!
All in all, it was tons of fun and very poetic but not all that tortured.
I read a lot of fabulous books this year, so I’m really excited to share my favorites. I’m still reading others, but I’m currently sitting at 80 books completed–a bit higher than my goal of 75. I have a longer commute this year (and by car instead of bike), so the biggest change in my reading habits was an increase in audio books. But I have to admit, I still love paper books best of all! These books below were some of my tippy-top favorites!
NO COUNTRY FOR EIGHT-SPOT BUTTERFLIES by Julian Aguon. My teen bookseller daughter knocked it out of the park when she chose this for me (even when she told me I was hard to buy books for because I read so much, eep!). I hadn’t heard of this collection of “lyric essays” before, but it had me weeping already on page six, which is highly impressive and the kind of book I love. If you’re concerned about the natural world and climate change and love beautiful writing, this might be the right read for you too.
WE ARE ALL SO GOOD AT SMILING by Amber McBride. Another incredible YA verse novel from the author of award-winning ME (MOTH), which I likewise adored.
A FIRST TIME FOR EVERYTHING by Dan Sanat. This graphic novel is probably on everyone’s radar since it won the National Book Award, but my daughters and I all enjoyed it too much not to include it!
SUPER BOBA CAFÉ by Nidhi Chanani. I love, love, love Nidhi´s artwork and stories, and this graphic novel is no exception. Adorable! Plus, who doesn´t love boba???
PARDALITA by Joana Estrela translated by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. This YA graphic novel is on the quiet side, but it’s set in Portugal, beautifully translated, and is a fantastic read for Heartstopper fans.
I got several of my other favorite reads from the library this year, so I don’t have a photo of this stack, but I also highly recommend these:
YELLOWFACE by R. F. Kuang. Once I gave into the hype and began to read this incredible book, I sat there picking my jaw off the floor page after page. I just–WOW. So good. Read it!
THE BLACKWOODS by Brandy Colbert. This story is epic. Epic! It’s a saga about several generations of a Black Hollywood family with two timelines (historical and contemporary) and tons of amazing characters that jumped to life off the page.
GATHER by Kenneth Cadow. This YA contemporary has some pretty dark themes (poverty and drug abuse), but the story comes to life with so much heart and really had me rooting for the main character. I have to say, I’m a little tired of all the well-off teenagers in YA today, so this was a welcome change that felt truly authentic.
MASCOT by Charles Waters and Traci Sorrell. This MG verse novel is written from POVs of several kid characters in a community grappling with the important decision whether to change their rascist mascot. The co-authors did such a great job showing the various perspectives, including of course why these stereotypes are so harmful.
Those are my top ten picks, and I and would love to hear your favorites!
But first, two quick bonus rounds!
1. Books I blubed that came out in 2023! Obviously I love all of these and highly recommend them!
2. Two 2024 books I got to read early and absolutely loved. Please pre-order both of these as soon as you read these words!
Exciting news! The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin has won the 2023 Julia Ward Howe Award for Older Readers! The Boston Authors Club announces the awards annually for books published in the previous year, and there will be a ceremony in September to celebrate. Already looking forward to meeting fellow winners and finalists then!
It’s officially a wrap! My last events of the school year are now behind me, and I’m ready to focus on writing again. But before I lock myself in the writing cave, a fun photo album from the events I was lucky enough to attend in the past couple of months!
On a YA panel at the New Hampshire School Library Media Association (NHSLMA) Conference
At the Derry Author Festival
Going to the LA Times Book Prizes Ceremony
At the LA Times Book Festival
At my new local indie, Molly’s Bookstore
At the Mass Poetry Festival
That’s it! It was a marvelous spring and such a great whirlwind of fun, wheee! Now, to work!
This week, the L.A. Times announced the finalists for their prizes for books published in 2022. What a thrill and honor for me to learn that The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin was one of the five finalists in the YA category!
Readers of this blog might recognize the first three titles. I loved them so much that I listed them among my top ten favorite books of the year! So landing on this list with these other books is such a huge honor. Plus, I’m going to get to go to L.A. for the ceremony, woot! It will be amazing to spend time with the other authors in person. I’m already thrilled for whichever title will win the prize. Yay!
I read a lot of fabulous books this year, and I’m about to finish three more, so I’ll be at 65 out of my goal of 75 books shortly. I’m hoping for some reading time over the holidays too, so hopefully I can finish a few more of my other partially-completed reads before the end of the year. As always, YA verse novels and historicals were at the top of my list of favorites, but I also fell in love with a few others! Since all of my top ten favorites are so fantastic, I decided to list them in alphabetical order.
AFRICAN TOWN by Charles Waters and Irene Latham. As a YA historical-in-verse, this one ticked all my boxes before I even started reading. All the voices Charles and Irene captured on the pages here really bring these people to life.
ALL MY RAGE by Sabaa Tahir. This National Book Award winner is surely on everyone’s radar, but yeah, this really blew me away too. Just fantastic storytelling.
A MILLION QUIET REVOLUTIONS by Robin Gow. This verse novel is about two trans boys who name themselves after Revolutionary War soldiers. Bonus! Not only is this in verse, but it also includes letters!
HOLLOW FIRES by Samira Ahmed. This contemporary YA set in Chicago is all about a teen’s quest for justice on behalf of a younger teen who should have had a full, promising life, were it not for racism. So powerful, and loved the format.
MY SECOND IMPRESSION OF YOU by Michelle Mason. This YA contemporary is definitely a lighter read compared to most of my faves, but I love theater kids, and I love the life lesson that sometimes how we remember something isn’t how it happened at all.
NOTHING SUNG AND NOTHING SPOKEN by Nita Tyndall. I’m a sucker for a historical set in Berlin, and the love and friendship between these girls in the Schwingjugend during World War II captured my heart.
RIMA’S REBELLION by Margarita Engle. Yes, another YA historical-in-verse! This story about suffragettes fighting for their rights in Cuba is simply glorious.
THE GHOSTS OF ROSE HILL by R. M. Romero. This verse novel about a teen violinist wrestling ghosts in Prague is truly magical.
THE SILENT UNSEEN by Amanda McCrina. This YA historical set in Eastern Europe during World War II offers a glimpse of the complicated history still affecting people in the region today.
TORCH by Lyn Miller-Lachmann. This YA historical is set in former Czechoslovakia after the 1968 Soviet invasion. I loved all the characters so, so much–especially how they work together to fight oppression.
Those are my top ten picks, and I and would love to hear your favorites!
But first, one quick bonus! Two 2023 books I got to read early and absolutely loved. They are both YA verse novels and are both incredible, so get them on your radar now!
