Not a YA fan but...

 Weekly YA Explorations: What DO Teens Like? 😊 Since this week didn't (as far as I could tell?) have as much of a defined theme as previous weeks, I decided to just do some poking around the YA section and note what appealed to me.  Furia by Yamile Saied Mendez is about Camila Hassan, an Argentine teenager leading a bit of a double life: the daughter her parents expect her to be on one hand and La Furia, soccer star, on the other. This pull quote I read in a review really captured my attention I fight for every ball, and although I don’t always win, no one can say I hold back. I leave my soul on the pitch. I relish what my body can do, appreciate its unorthodox beauty. The eyes of the crowd are on me, and I feel like a goddess. As a former soccer player myself, I identified with this quote (though I never quite reached goddess level, myself). I like that this book seems to be steeped in a love of futbol, and it seems like it would make a fun read for an American teenage girl...

Weekly YA Explorations: Nutritious Books 🍎  I've become more of a non-fiction reader in my old age, so I was interested in seeing what kinds of non-fiction books are out there for teenagers these days. This week's exploration didn't disappoint! Flowers in the Gutter , by K.R. Gaddy, tells the story of working-class German teenagers who fought the Nazi's rise to power in Germany. This teenage resistance army was known as the Edelweiss Pirates, and they fought the Nazi's rise to power in numerous ways; through a mutual aid network of sorts, distributing leftist literature, and sometimes engaging in physical fights with Brownshirts. I selected this book because I think the feeling of fighting for something, or against something dangerous, is a feeling that teenagers today will easily relate to as many of them are also fighting; against racism, income inequality, climate change, etc. You can read more about Flowers in the Gutter here .  We Should All Be Feminists , by...

Weekly YA Explorations: Romance 💖  This week I decided to start with a book that I saw mentioned many times last week, Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Perkins wrote There's Someone Inside Your House , my most controversial pick from last week. Many of the negative reviews I read of that book included something along the lines of "she should stick to romance because that's what she's good at!" So I thought it was only fair that I check out something of hers from the Romance genre. Anna and the French Kiss seems like a great, escapist treat. The book features Anna, a teenager forced to live out her senior year at a boarding school in France, who meets a boy (of course!) who is very perfect and very taken. I could see reading it now, amid the rising hum of pandemic anxiety, as a fun treat, akin to how I watch Hallmark Christmas movies to escape the stress of the holiday season. You can read more about Anna and the French Kiss here .  To All The Boys ...