Every week, The Passed Note scours the internet to bring you the most interesting links and news from the Young Adult literary scene. We specialize in recommending the next book you should read, writing tools, and author spotlights.
We’re excited to watch how this campaign is providing books to teens with depression and other mental health issues being funded by the group, Reading Well Books on Prescription. The project will “provide 13-18 year-olds with high-quality information, support and advice on a wide-range of mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, eating disorders and self-harm, and difficult life pressures, such as bullying and exams.”
Loved Beverly Cleary growing up? In honor of her 100th birthday this past week, Ruth Graham of Slate wrote this article in a voice as gallant as Cleary’s characters. The piece discusses Cleary’s less well-know YA work and how accurately it represented teenagehood. “But Cleary’s supposedly ordinary girls are complex: resentful of their mothers one moment and sympathetic toward them the next, willing to do anything for one special boy but indignant when they’re taken for granted.”
When an article starts off this ballsy (“Isabel Quintero loved to write but didn’t think she could earn a living at it because she “wasn’t a white guy”), you’ve got to pay attention. Ms. Quintero’s narrative on being a writer and a woman of color is so honest and her book, Gabi: a Girl in Pieces, is such a fascinating read. Case and point, this quote: “I mean, this is America and the 21st century; not Mexico one hundred years ago. But, of course, I can’t tell my mom that because she will think I’m bad. Or worse: trying to be White.”
I have no idea how, but, somehow, John Green‘s novel, Looking for Alaska, ended up on this banned book list. Was it the fox hat? They must not love fox hats. How rude.
Moleskine released a digital writing set, AKA, a smart pen that digitizes your notes for you as you write. Clearly this means robots are going to take over the world in the near future.
And, finally, Buzzfeed has retitled midgrade and YA books from the 90’s, with hilarious results. (My personal favorite is “He Just Ate a Whole Bag of Cool Ranch Doritos,” paired with a cover of a blonde teen staring angrily into the distance while a 90’s hottie-hunk tries to kiss her. Been there, boo-boo, been there.)
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