I read 100 books this past year, and wound up with many, many favorites that I’m already recommending to people in my library. As usual, most of the books I read were YA titles, but I also read quite a few nonfiction and middle-grade fiction books, as well as some adult books. These were nine of my favorites–a bit more about each below.
Song of a Blackbird by Maria van Lieshout: graphic novel with beautiful artwork and dual timelines (WWII and 2011) about the Dutch resistance in Amsterdam
My Friends by Fredrik Backman: another hit from the author of Beartown with one of the best first lines out there
Sunrise on the Reaping by Suzanne Collins: even more fabulous than the rest of the books in the Hunger Games world
Lin-Manuel Miranda: The Education of an Artist by Daniel Pollack-Pelzner: excellent biography focusing on Miranda’s thirst for learning
This Thing of Ours by Frederick Joseph: realistic YA about a sidelined basketball player who has to reinvent himself with the help of some new friends and an amazing English teacher
Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley: another novel set in the world of Firekeeper’s Daughter and I don’t know how she manages to make each book better but she does
Everything Is Poison by Joy McCullough: historical verse novel about women helping women in their apothecary in 17th century Rome
A Most Perilous World: The True Story of the Young Abolitionists and Their Crusade Against Slavery by Kristina R. Gaddy: nonfiction loaded with engaging prinmary sources about four children of famous abolitionists (two young men, two young women, two white, and two Black)
Under the Neon Lights by Arriel Vinson: verse novel about gentrification, roller skating, family, friendship, and just the right amount of romance
Then there was my tippy-top favorite: The Leaving Room by Amber McBride. I always love her books, but this one is somehow even more gorgeous, even more deep and meaningful. I wish I would’ve had as a teenager obsessed with death and love and everything in between. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy!
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!
