The B&N YA Podcast

Our guest today is the novelist Abigail Hing Wen, who joins us to talk about her new YA novel Loveboat, Taipei, a coming-of-age story about taking risks, finding your voice, and discovering yourself in places you never would have predicted. Ever's Chinese-American parents have planned every aspect of her future: but one summer in Taiwan -- a trip they've sprung on their daughter as a not-very-welcome surprise might change everything. The result is an absolutely sparkling story that's based in part on the author's own young experience and a program that's still going on today, and it's B&N's latest YA Book Club selection. Abigail Hing Wen sat down with Bill Tipper in the B&N studio to talk about the real summer-in-Taiwan experience that was the genesis for the story of Loveboat, Taipei.

A note to listeners:  After this episode we're integrating our YA guests into our main B&N Podcast.  Go to this page to get links to subscribe to the B&N Podcast on your favorite podcast platform, or search for "B&N Podcast" wherever you listen!

On today's episode we're joined by Ryan LaSala, for a conversation about his bewitching debut novel Reverie. It's a story that begins as a mystery -- a high school student named Kane Montgomery is recovering from a terrible auto accident that left him nearly dead, and has robbed him of a large part of his memory. When Kane tries to solve the puzzle of what happened that night -- and why people he barely knows seem to treat him as an old friend -- what he discovers will turn his world upside down and inside out. Ryan LaSala has written a gripping YA fantasy in which dreams and reality trade places, and discovering the truth about yourself can have world-shattering consequences. Reverie is our B&N YA Book Club pick for January 2020, and we were thrilled to have him join Bill Tipper in the podcast studio to talk about the unusual path to this uniquely spellbinding read.

Hi YA Podcast listeners. If you're a regular listener you know that one of our most exciting episodes ever was Melissa Albert's interview last December with the groundbreaking fantasy author Tomi Adeyemi, when the writer joined us for a deep dive into her critically acclaimed and hugely bestselling Children of Blood and Bone, the first volume in her West African–inspired series about an oppressed magical class and the girl who fights to reclaim their power. Huge world- building, electric storytelling and indelible characters combined to make that book an instant classic, and now Adeyemi has returned with the second volume in the series, Children of Virtue and Vengeance. To celebrate we're bring back Tomi Adeyemi's visit to our studio, and her conversation with Melissa Albert about the origin of the series, writing love letters to Harry Potter, and overcoming the reluctance to love your own work. 

On today's episode science fiction and fantasy titan Brandon Sanderson joins us to talk about his brand new YA novel Starsight, the sequel to 2018's New York Times bestseller Skyward. Sanderson has made his name with fans all over the world through epic fantasy like the Mistborn series and the Stormlight Archive, as well as the bestselling Reckoners trilogy for young adults. With Skyward, Sanderson says he set out to take a classic fantasy pairing -- think a girl and her dragon -- but gave it a sci-fi twist, matching the hotshot young pilot Sensa -- a girl with a mysterious past and some unique talents -- with an ancient spacecraft powered by a wisecracking artificial intelligence called M-Bot. Skyward was, simply put, a blast, and with its sequel Starsight, the author takes Sensa, M-Bot and her friends into a universe vastly larger -- and more dangerous --than the one she's known. Brandon Sanderson joined B&N's Bill Tipper just before Starsight hit bookshelves for a spoiler-free chat about his new novel, how a boy who didn't like books became such a prolific writer, and what he's learned from his students.

On today's episode we're thrilled to have bestselling author Marie Lu joining us to talk about creating one of the most powerful and popular YA series of the decade, the page-turning dystopian saga that began with 2011's Legend. Her latest novel, Rebel, returns readers to the world of the authoritarian future state known as the Republic, with her focus moving to Eden Wing -- the younger brother who the heroic Daniel Wing has tried so hard to protect. Our frequent YA Podcast host Melissa Albert -- author of The Hazel Wood -- chatted with Marie Lu by phone about writing complex characters, incorporating disturbing social trends into her imagined world, and her forthcoming work of fantasy The Kingdom of Back. Plus, the author reveals the the plucky video game character who was her first inspiration as a writer.

Our guest for today's episode is Akwaeke Emezi, the author of the new YA novel Pet, which is a finalist for this year's National Book Award for Young People's Literature.  Emezi burst onto the literary scene with their novel Freshwater, a powerful story of a young woman inhabited by multiple spirits, and her journey to understanding her many-sided self.  Now, writing for Christopher Myers's Make Me a World YA imprint, Akwaeke brings us the story of Jam, a teenager living in the city of Lucille, a community that prides itself on having been through a revolutionary change — one that eliminated what are known as monsters — those who abused, imprisoned, or did violence to others; where a black trans girl like Jam lives in a happy community with her loving parents Bitter and Aloe.  But when Jam accidentally invokes the magic that lies dormant in her mother's powerful artwork, a strange being emerges, one that calls itself Pet.  Pet is a hunter and it has come, it tells Jam, because there are still monsters in Lucille.  I talked with Akwaeke Emezi about this ingenious and spellbinding tale, and their lifetime of making worlds out of story.

What would happen if the future were made perfect?  That was the question National Book Award-winning author Neal Shusterman posed in  2016's YA blockbuster Scythe, a story set in a world without hunger, poverty, disease or war, in which human life is only ended by specially trained figures known as Scythes.  But perfection turns out to have its own problems, and the Arc of the Scythe trilogy follows young characters caught up in the question of the price we might pay for having everything we want.  The stakes got higher in 2018's Thunderhead --and now the saga concludes with the breathtaking and ambitious final volume The Toll.  Scythe is B&N's YA Book Club selection for December, Neal Shusterman joined Melissa Albert to talk about this provocative epic, and the challenges of concluding the trilogy.

Maggie Stiefvater is the keeper of a host of odd obsessions, threading her bestselling fantasy novels with vicious water horses, sleeping Welsh royalty, ley lines, and liminal spaces. She’s the author of books including the Raven Cycle, which continues this fall with the first installment of the Dreamer trilogy, Call Down the Hawk. In it she’ll further explore the Lynch brothers and the dark gift of dreaming, taking objects from your unconscious life into your waking one. I talked to Stiefvater about her early ambitions, books that feel like a fever dream, and why Call Down the Hawk is THE book for her.

On today's episode, we're joined by the writer Rick Riordan, known by thousands of readers around the globe for his blockbuster series including Percy Jackson and the Olympians, the Kane Chronicles and Magnus Chase. Riordan takes his fans on thrill rides through fantasy worlds that draw up on Greek, Roman, Egyptian and Norse mythos, mixing anachronistic humor and page-turning thrills to make figures from Poseidon to Loki come alive as friends or foes — and in the process he's left an enduring stamp on fantasy and adventure for young adults. In his latest series The Trials of Apollo, he's taken a fresh twist, following the travails of a god trapped in a human body. Riordan dropped by our studio to talk with Melissa Albert, bestselling author of The Hazel Wood and our regular YA podcast host. We were especially excited not only to talk about his new book The Tyrant's Tomb, but also to hear about his groundbreaking new imprint Rick Riordan presents, which has tapped up-and-coming writers from diverse backgrounds to tell stories from myth traditions around the world. 

Nic Stone entered the YA canon with her blistering debut, Dear Martin, in which a contemporary Black teen writes letters to Martin Luther King, Jr, following a galvanizing incident of racial profiling. Her next book was the cliche-cracking love triangle tale Odd One Out, and her latest, Jackpot, is a story of income inequality, teens growing up too soon, and the irresistible allure of a lottery win. I talked to Stone about destabilizing her characters, driving plot through dialogue, and writing the books that become a teen reader’s landscape.

Today special guest is the internationally bestselling author Ruta Sepetys. In novels like Between Shades of Gray and Salt to the Sea, Sepetys has given readers glimpses into turning points of 20th century history through the experiences of characters set right in the midst of these gripping real-world dramas. She's told the stories of Lithuanians sent to Siberian camps by the Soviet regime and refugees fleeing the devastation of the second world war — all via intricately constructed tales of individuals who have everything at stake. Her new novel The Fountains of Silence takes readers to 1950s Spain under the rule of Franco's authoritarian regime; when 18 year old American Daniel Matheson arrives in Madrid, his hope is to capture its beauty with his camera — but his growing connection to a young woman named Ana reveals the struggles that her family faces under the dictatorship, and forces Daniel to make some very hard choices. It's our B&N YA Book Club selection for November and so we were thrilled to get a chance to talk with the author about her obsessions, how she finds her ideas — and the extras she's included inside the B&N Exclusive Edition of The Fountains of Silence.

Laura Ruby is the author of books including the fairy-tale inflected award-winner Bone Gap, the York trilogy, a steampunk series for younger readers, and her latest Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All, a ranging, layered historical tale told by a ghost who can't stop tangling with the living.  She watches over Frankie, a girl consigned to an orphanage in World War II era Chicago in a story of heartache and survival that mixes worlds both haunted and achingly real. We talked to Ruby about what shaped her as a writer and her new book — recently named as a finalist for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature.

On today's episode we've got a conversation we've been waiting for since... well, since we heard that author Rainbow Rowell was going to give readers a sequel to her captivating contemporary fantasy Carry On. In Carry On, we meet Simon Snow, the most unlikely Chosen One ever, in his last year at the Watford School of Magicks and having a distinctly un-magical time. But Rowell steers her creation through it via adventure, laugh out loud humor, a wonderfully inventive magical system, and an extremely appealing vampire named Baz. Her fans did everything short of their own magical rituals in the hope that Simon and Baz's story would continue, and now the award winning author of Eleanor and Park and Fangirl has brought this couple back in Wayward Son — and this time she's brought them to America. B&N YA Podcast host Melissa Albert called up Rainbow Rowell on the phone just before Wayward Son hit bookshelves, for a talk about fantasy and fandom, Baz's unique charms, and the special magic of a road trip.

Today on the YA Podcast, our special guest is the celebrated graphic novel writer Mariko Tamaki, in to talk about her razor-sharp and groundbreaking new take on a DC comics character who has crossed over from villainous sidekick to fan-favorite antihero. Mariko Tamaki is the Eisner Award and Caldecott Honor-winning author of celebrated graphic novels including Skim, This One Summer and Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me. With Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass, Tamaki offers a story of teen angst, fierce loyalty, and finding your voice. Bestselling author of The Hazel Wood and regular YA Podcast host Melissa Albert spoke with Tamaki on the phone to talk about the quest to give readers a Harley they've never seen before.

David Yoon is the debut author of Frankly in Love, a tale of fake dating, first love, and life as a first-generation Korean American that deepens as it goes, from a wickedly incisive comedy to a painfully beautiful exploration of how identity is determined by and in spite of our families. We talked to Yoon about his high school years; how fatherhood has changed his craft; collaborating with his wife, the novelist Nicola Yoon; and writing his first novel.

On today's episode we spoke with novelist Shelby Mahurin about her darkly enchanting debut Serpent and Dove. It's a story of deception, betrayal, love and magic set in a world divided between an authoritarian religious government and a mysterious society of powerful witches. Louise le Blanc is a witch hiding among townsfolk who would consider her a monster, and she finds herself in an uncomfortable alliance with righteous witch-hunter Reid Diggory. Mahurin sets their story in an atmospheric world drawn uniquely from French culture and folklore. A short while before Serpent and Dove hit bookshelves, Shelby Mahurin dropped in to out studios to talk about her inspirations and plans for the world of Serpent and Dove, which has also been chosen as a Barnes & Noble YA Book club selection. 

Our guest on today's episode of the B&N YA Podcast is the writer Katharine McGee talking about her new novel American Royals, which hits bookshelves this week. McGee first dazzled readers with her Thousandth Floor trilogy, a glamorously imagined story of wealth, power and intrigue set in the dizzying atmosphere of a future Manhattan in which the word "skyscraper" takes on a whole new meaning. With American Royals, the inventive author places a modern romantic comedy in an alternate reality in which the American Revolution ended with George Washington accepting the crown from a grateful nation — and 200 years later, his descendants still hold the throne. Katharine McGee joined Melissa Albert in the studio to talk about her fascination with history, her love of a great TV cliffhanger, and the sources of her unique, addictive stories.

We are resharing one of our favorite conversations that we originally posted earlier this year, in case you missed it!

Leigh Bardugo is the keeper of the Grishaverse, a sprawling fantasy landscape that includes the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, gorgeous fairy tale collection The Language of Thorns, and now King of Scars, the opening title of a duology about Nikolai, the charming, haunted Ravkan king. On the eve of its publication we talked to Bardugo about her path to publication, finding solace in books, what it means to write a zero draft, and the upcoming Netflix adaptation. 

Gretchen McNeil is the author of YA books including the Agatha Christie-inspired Ten; the Don't Get Mad series, coming soon to the BBC and Netflix; and the #MurderTrending series, continuing this month with #MurderFunding, an anarchic horror comedy about a reality TV show gone disturbingly wrong. We talked to McNeil about what really scares her, how her performer's past influenced her writing, and being the teen with all the bad ideas.

Today our special guest is Derek Millman, author of the new novel Swipe Right for Murder. Millman burst onto the YA scene last year with his darkly funny debut Scream All Night, set in an off-kilter world of B-movie monsters. Swipe Right for Murder is part classic noir story, part 2019 coming of age, and absolutely page turning throughout. Millman sat down with B&N's Melissa Albert to talk about his obsessions, inspirations and the stories that have fed his one-of-a-kind imagination. 

I'm not Dying with You Tonight is the story of two high school seniors who find themselves thrown together when a fight at a sporting event ignites into widespread violence of a kind that's become heartbreakingly familiar.  As events spiral out of control, Lena and Campbell — who are most certainly not friends — will need each other to make it through the night, get to safety and pick up the pieces.  It's a propulsive story that unfolds over the course of hours, but the conversations that readers are going to want to have — about racism, prejudice and reality, and what it means to cross seemingly enormous divides between us — are going to go on for a long time.  We were so lucky to have authors Kimberly Jones and Gilly Segal with us to talk about their enthralling debut — they dropped into the studio just as I'm Not Dying With You Tonight hit bookshelves everywhere.

If we had to name two things we're maybe most obsessed with on the B&N YA Podcast, they would be amazing debuts, and fascinating twists on classic tales. So we're thrilled today to have as our guest Erin A. Craig, whose brilliantly conceived debut novel House of Salt and Sorrows is coming next week — a story that mingles eerie atmosphere, a tantalizing mystery, and a twist, of course, on one of the most haunting and beguiling of classic fairy stories, The Twelve Dancing Princesses. House of Salt and Sorrow hits bookshelves on August 6th, and in the run up to its arrival, Craig spoke with B&N's Melissa Albert about how her background stage-managing lavish productions helped spark her writer's imagination.

For six books and counting, author Serena Valentino has enraptured readers with her stunning upendings of the tales of favorite heroes and villains in her Disney Villains series, reimagining beloved tales like Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid. The golden thread that linked these stories? Her mischievous, troublemaking trio, The Odd Sisters, who finally get to share their version of things in their very own edition of the series. B&N Teen Blog editor Sona Charaipotra, author of Symptoms of a Heartbreak, talked to Valentino about the new book, whether she was intimidated at reimagining beloved Disney faves, how she maps and connects her sprawling world, and which of the Odd Sister is most like her.

TK

In Astrid Scholte's inventive and beguiling mashup of murder mystery and fantasy, Four Dead Queens, the world of Quadara is a carefully divided realm in which technology and nature, commerce and beauty, reason and emotion are carefully sorted out among four wildly different regions, each with its own queen representing her people's unique character. Teenage thief Keralie Corrington is drawn into an intrigue that threatens to overturn the balance at the heart of this world — and Keralie's cunning and professional skill may be crucial to untangling a deadly conspiracy — if she can survive the ordeal. We talked with Astrid Schulte by phone about her approach to worldbuilding, the Stephen Spielberg film that inspired her career, and how she went about pursuing her goal of writing in her words, a fantasy version of Agatha Christie. 

Sarah Dessen is a YA queen, the beloved author of over a dozen contemporary YA novels exploring themes of loss, first love, assault, family ties, and all the confusing, heartbreaking, thrilling moments when things change forever for her young protagonists. Her new book, The Rest of the Story, centers on a lakefront town divided between the working-class families who live there year round, and the wealthy families who just summer there, and the girl whose fraught family history straddles both. We talked to Dessen about her teen years, her long career, and how the YA landscape has changed since her debut.

Since the release of her bestselling debut, When Dimple Met Rishi, Sandhya Menon has been writing funny, heart-tugging romcoms centering Indian American characters, exploring modern arranged marriage, first love and first heartbreak, memorable meet-cutes, and self-acceptance. To celebrate her third book, There's Something About Sweetie, we talked with Menon about body positivity, finding the time to write, and her own teen love story.

Since 2010 author and designer Hafsah Faisal has been writing about books on her blog Icy Books, and now she's celebrating the launch of her own Arabian culture inspired fantasy debut. We Hunt the Flame is about a girl who braves an enchanted darkness to keep her people alive, a prince who kills on behalf of his father, and their unexpectedly shared quest to bring magic back to their world. Faisal joined Melissa Albert for a chat about inspired design, great fantasy maps and the spark that became We Hunt the Flame.

Days after they got engaged in front of a joyous bookstore audience, I sat down with Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy to talk about their inclusive fantasy/sci-fi series starter Once & Future, pitched as queer King Arthur in space. The authors talked about their cowriting adventures, falling in love, and taking creative and personal leaps of faith.

Jennifer Donnelly is the author of historical fiction including Printz honoree A Northern Light, and fantasy novels that travel under the sea, into the Beast's magical library, and now into the small country village of Stepsister. Her latest follows Cinderella's so-called ugly stepsister, whose life becomes a battlefield between Fate and Chance: one of whom wants her to march quietly to her predetermined end, the other determined to help her defy it. We talked to Donnelly about fractured fairy tales, her life as a storyteller, and weird historical research.

Every week, Christine Riccio tells hundreds of thousands of people what to read next on her booktube channel PolandBananasBooks—and now, she's promoting her own bestselling debut novel. Again, But Better tells a story of study abroad, second chances, and decisions that change your life with a magical twist, and it's Barnes & Noble's very first pick for the newly launched YA Book Club. We talked to Riccio about her fandoms, debut noveling, and being a book crusader.

Maurene Goo writes warm, funny romantic comedies with irresistible hooks and fabulous supporting casts, about type-A K-Drama obsessives, K-pop stars, LA prankster girls, and heart-lifting love stories. We talked to her about going to K-Pop school, owning your guilty pleasures, and new book Somewhere Only We Know.

Today on the B&N YA Podcast, Elizabeth Acevedo joins us to talk about her forthcoming novel With the Fire on High, the story of a high-school girl balancing motherhood, her care for her beloved grandmother, and her ambitions to take her culinary talents to new heights. It's a marvel of a follow-up to The Poet X, her National Book Award-winning novel in verse.  She talks with Melissa Albert about food, identity, memory, reading and much more.

Emily A. Duncan is a youth services librarian and YA author whose Russian-inspired fantasy debut, Wicked Saints, centers on a cruel prince, a boy turned monster, and a girl with a pantheon of gods whispering in her head.

This buzzy first novel inspired fan art before it even released, and has since hit the bestseller list. We talked to Duncan about fanfic, fairy tales, and pantsing her way through two books and counting.

Danielle Paige has revisited the story of Dorothy Gale, gone dark retelling the Snow Queen, and now, with Mera: Tidebreaker, tells the tale of Aquaman's partner in crime as a teen girl fighting for what's right and falling in love for the first time.  We talked to Paige about writing her first graphic novel, playing with canon, and what she learned in soap opera school.

Samira Ahmed’s debut, Love, Hate & Other Filters, explored Islamophobia through the contemporary story of Indian American teen Maya Aziz, whose life changes after a terrorist attack whose perpetrator shares her last name. Her new book, Internment, takes place fifteen minutes into a dark near-future, where Muslim Americans are being incarcerated in internment camps following a political spiral into bigotry and intolerance. We talked to Ahmed about the new book, her path to YA author, and maintaining your belief in the power of resistance. 

Karen McManus’s debut thriller, One of Us Is Lying, was a runaway hit, spending months on the bestseller list and winning countless readers with its twisting storyline and addictive elevator pitch: Breakfast Club with murder. Now she’s back with a bestselling sophomore novel, Two Can Keep a Secret, a cold case mystery set in the tiny town of Echo Ridge. We talked to McManus about the new book, plotting a sprawling story, and how she finds time to write.

On today's podcast, Dhonielle Clayton drops into the studio to talk about her new novel The Everlasting Rose, the exciting sequel to her New York Times bestseller The Belles.  Joining her to talk about everything to do with the exciting world of Orleans is YA writer, editor, and B&N Teen regular contributor Sona Charipotra.

For the last four years, Sarah Enni has traveled the country interviewing YA authors about their histories, their craft, and their new releases, as the creator and host of the wonderful First Draft Podcast. Today, I get to talk to Enni about her own first novel, Tell Me Everything, a tale of art and anonymity, and good intentions and bad mistakes. We talked internet spaces, outsider art, the appeal of Jeff Goldblum, and why she writes.

In this episode we're featuring a crossover with our sibling podcast The B&N Podcast as we welcome debut novelist Gita Trelease, whose sparking new novel Enchantée has critics and readers buzzing alike. Trelease weaves a suitably enchanting adventure of 18th-century France that journeys from the gutters of Paris to the gilded halls of Versailles, on the eve of Revolution. Gifted with a magical talent, Trelease's heroine Camille transforms herself from hungry child of the streets to a glamorous aristocrat -- and that change is only the beginning in this gloriously original blend of history and fantasy. The author joins B&N's Miwa Messer to talk about how she built a glittering world — and kicked off what just might be a whole new series of wonders.

When Bett Devlin discovers that her Dad has a new long-distance boyfriend, that’s one thing.  But when he wants to send Bett off to a strange summer camp with his new boyfriend's daughter Avery? No thank you!  Bett fires off an irate email to a girl she definitely doesn’t want to be camp buddies with, in the hopes they can put a quick end to their Dads’ plans.  But fate has other ideas, and the result is the hilarious and moving story of foes-turned-friends that is To Night Owl from Dogfish.  Bestselling co-authors Meg Wolitzer and Holly Goldberg Sloan join us in the studio to talk about their own camp days, the bonus material and outtakes in the B&N Exclusive Edition, and how their novel started when Meg got an email — not from Holly, but from Bett.

Laura Sebastian’s Ash Princess is a book of elemental magic, fallen royals, and brutal betrayal, about a deposed princess living in exile in her murdered mother’s palace. When her country’s brutal conqueror pushes her too far, she starts laying the groundwork for rebellion, reclaiming her lost power. Sebastian’s trilogy continues this month with Lady Smoke, in which her conflicted heroine, Theo, has both her freedom and a hostage, but must raise an army to save her people. Sebastian is a New York Times bestseller, former Floridian, current New Yorker, and one-time child actor, and we talked to her about worldbuilding, writing fanfic, different kinds of heroines, and plotting Theo’s rise to rebellion.

A  Halloween treat for readers -- we return to our wide ranging interview with the queen of shadowy fantasy, Holly Black! Black's books  straddle the real world and the realm of the fey, or reimagine reality to include magical mobsters, walled vampire cities, and haunted toys. In The Wicked King, sequel to last year’s The Cruel Prince, human girl Jude, raised in Faerie by her parents’ murderer, has seized control of the fey courts through puppet king Cardan. But, says Black, while book one was about what Jude would do to seize power, book two is about what she’ll do to keep it. We talked to the author about pleasure reads, how she writes, and why we’re more likely to forgive villainy if it’s on an epic scale.

Leigh Bardugo is the keeper of the Grishaverse, a sprawling fantasy landscape that includes the Shadow and Bone trilogy, the Six of Crows duology, gorgeous fairy tale collection The Language of Thorns, and now King of Scars, the opening title of a duology about Nikolai, the charming, haunted Ravkan king. On the eve of its publication we talked to Bardugo about her path to publication, finding solace in books, what it means to write a zero draft, and the upcoming Netflix adaptation. 

Today we have a special treat for you, a YA Podcast extra featuring bestselling author Angie Thomas talking with YA podcast host Melissa Albert about her brand-new book On the Come Up.  Thomas dropped in to see us last year to talk about her blockbuster hit The Hate You Give, just before the movie adaptation was set to release, And while she was with us, Melissa asked Angie to talk a little bit about the book we couldn't wait to read, her new novel On the Come Up.  And now that it's here, we want to share what she told us about her brand new book about hip-hop, high school, and learning to find your own voice.  The first item on the menu — all the incredible extras Angie added to the Barnes & Noble exclusive edition.

Does anyone in high school really know themselves?  That’s one of the subjects explored — via laughter — by this week’s guest Ben Philippe, who dropped by our studio to talk about his wonderful debut novel The Field Guide to the North American Teenager.  It’s  the story of a sharp-tongued and cynical black French Canadian boy who is transplanted to a Texas high school —  with appropriately complicated, and often hilarious results.   It's one of Barnes & Noble's Discover Great New Writers selections for Spring 2019, and the author was joined this week in the studio by Discover director Miwa Messer, sitting in for our regular host Melissa Albert.

Since her 2016 debut The Star-Touched Queen, Roshani Chokshi has been blending existing and created mythology, taking readers to Indian folklore-infused fantasy worlds filled with witty characters and dangerous creatures. New trilogy starter The Gilded Wolves is a magical heist novel set in a glittering alt Paris, which explores questions of who owns the historical record and will the world survive the greed of secret society the Order of Babel. We talked to Chokshi about the new book, her twisty path to becoming a writer, and how she refills the creative well.

Whether she’s writing London-set ghost stories, offbeat coming of age tales, or cold-case mysteries, Maureen Johnson’s YA books are full of eccentric supporting characters, eerie and oddball twists, and deeply specific heroes and heroines. Her latest series began with last year’s Truly Devious, combining a present-day riff on the manor house mystery with a 1930s-set cold case murder, both centering on isolated boarding school Ellingham Academy. Sequel The Vanishing Stair hits shelves January 22, and it will answer loads of your burning questions while raising many more. We talked to Johnson about plotting a mystery trilogy, working on a theater production in which everything went wrong, and her deep and abiding love for podcasts.

Malala Yousafzai is the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, an advocate for comprehensive women's education around the world, and the author of the brilliant memoir I Am Malala. In her new book, We Are Displaced, she gathers the stories of refugee women displaced by conflict, genocide, and loss. We spoke to Malala Yousafzai about the new book, her life at Oxford, and how she maintains her optimism in dark times.

Christopher Paolini has been writing about the wide world of Eragon since he was a teen, drawing from classic fantasy influences including Tolkien, Pullman, McCaffrey, and LeGuin. Since 2002 he has released four novels in the bestselling Inheritance Cycle, focusing on the dragon-filled land of Alagaesia, and now he’s introducing The Fork, the Witch, and the Worm, a triad of short stories that kicks off his new Tales of Alagaesia series. We talked to Paolini about his early reading life, his writing habits, and the books all fantasy writers should read.

This week, B&N Teen Blog editor Melissa Albert sat down with blog contributors and authors Dahlia Adler and Sona Charaipotra to discuss the YA books we loved in 2018, and the incredible YA

Julie Murphy is the author of layered contemporary tales celebrating body positivity, fierce female characters, and complicated friendships. Her bestselling second book, Dumplin’, just hit the screen in a Netflix adaptation that turned our eyes into hearts and had us listening to Dolly Parton tracks on repeat. We talked with Julie about seeing her work on the screen, new Dumplin' sequel Puddin’, and what it was like to meet Dolly.

Tomi Adeyemi’s Children of Blood and Bone is the biggest YA fantasy of the year, a politically relevant West African – inspired series starter about an oppressed magical class and the maji girl who fights to reclaim their power. It spent most of the year atop the bestseller list, is currently in development for film, and will be getting a hotly awaited sequel, Children of Virtue and Vengeance, next year. I talked to Tomi about the spark that became her debut, writing love letters to Harry Potter, and overcoming the reluctance to love your own work.

Chris Colfer has been a YA writer, middle grade writer, screenwriter, actor in movies including Struck by Lighting, based on a book he wrote, and Kurt Hummel on Glee. Soon he’s adding director to the list, with the film adaptation of his bestselling Land of Stories series, set in a fairytale land and inspired by a story he started writing when he was seven years old. Colfer is busy, but he sat down with us to talk about fairy tales, his writing process, and his new book, The Land of Stories: The Ultimate Book Hugger’s Guide.

On December 4 Cassandra Clare’s Dark Artifices trilogy will end with Queen of Air and Darkness, picking up just after the devastating, game-changing events that closed last year’s Lord of Shadows. We talked to Clare about the new book, the Shadowhunters world, and why she loves morally gray heroes.

In her beloved Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, a portal fantasy spanning Earth and the angel- and chimaera-populated land of Eretz, Laini Taylor cemented her reputation as a creator of rich, expansive worlds, author of impossible love stories, and spinner of narrative spells. In her new Strange the Dreamer duology, she introduces an unlikely hero: Lazlo Strange, an orphan-turned-librarian whose obsession with the lost city of Weep leads him, finally, to its borders. The duology closed in October with Muse of Nightmares, a book that is glitteringly magic, achingly romantic, and stuffed with gorgeous prose. We talked with Taylor about her process, her perfectionism, and her fictional obsessions.

Tahereh Mafi’s latest book is a departure for the author of the bestselling dystopian Shatter Me series, and magical middle grade novels including Furthermore. A Very Large Expanse of Sea, set in the months after 9/11, is a semiautobiographical novel centering on flinty, music-loving teen Shirin, a hijabi girl who puts up mile-high walls to protect herself from the attacks of the ignorant and the Islamophobic. It’s a story of bigotry and breakdancing and artistic escape, and is also one of the best depictions of the heady, overwhelming days of first love we have ever read. Mafi stopped by the podcast to talk about drawing inspiration from her own life, the role of books in her childhood, and growing up first-generation in the U.S.

Since 2011 Ransom Riggs has told stories set in the strange and dangerous world of Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children, taking his peculiars across Europe and across time. In the fourth chapter of the series, Map of Days, they’ve made their way from Europe to the U.S., where they encounter the very different landscape of peculiar America, complete with turf wars, haunted diners, and roadside nightmares. We talked to Riggs about shiny surfaces, uncanny things, and the new book. 

TK

Becky Albertalli is known for hilarious, feelsy, sweet and sour high school stories stuffed with wildly relatable insights and characters that will become your best friends. Adam Silvera is known for searching, often speculative tales of first love, painful memories, and coming of age that want to rip your heart out and use it as a book jacket. So ever since the two announced that they were collaborating on a meet-cute love story, fans have been debating whether we should prepare ourselves for happy tears or miserable tears. No spoilers here, but we did talk to Becky and Adam about their fandoms, their high school selves, and What If It’s Us, their ridiculously adorable book.

Neal Shusterman deals in dark fictional visions — but he never forgets to give readers a reason to hope. His Unwind dystology centered on a dystopia in which children can be retroactively aborted, or "unwound," and harvested for their organs. In his ongoing Scythe series, death by disease or accident have been rendered obsolete, and mortality is in the hands of an elite group of professional killers known as scythes. He won the 2015 National Book Award for Challenger Deep, in which a young man's descent into mental illness is rendered as a surreal sea journey into the depths of the Marianas Trench. Now in his latest novel, Dry, Neal has paired up with son Jarrod Shusterman to tell the story of a California drought turned deadly. The two of them joined us to talk about water zombies, what to do when a great idea comes to you when you're driving, and why great writing is best done on a boat.  And yep, there's a lightning round.

Lauren Oliver grew up in a house full of books, writes her novels even when she's at parties, and has so many ideas she started a company, Glass Town Entertainment, to help her turn more of them into things you can watch and read. She has written for kids, teens, and adults, seen her work adapted into film, and hit the bestseller list with works including Before I Fall and Replica. Her latest, Broken Things, combines cult literary fandom and true crime into the story of two girls wrongly accused of the murder of a third. We talked to her about her fandoms, her teen years, and why our culture is so scared of girls.

In show business, a "triple threat" is a performer who can sing, dance and act -- and that makes Neil Patrick Harris, who is all these things and the author of an inventive series of books for young readers, a quadruple threat.  The star of Netflix's A Series of Unfortunate Events joined Josh Perilo from B&N's Union Square, just before the launch event for The Magic Misfits: The Second Story, the latest adventure in his delightful series for young readers, what readers can find in the B&N Exclusive Edition, and how he is infusing these stories with his love for the mystery of stage magic.

Angie Thomas's Black Lives Matter-inspired debut, The Hate U Give, has topped the bestseller list since its release, gained fans around the world, and become the most visible title in a much-needed wave of fiction examining police brutality against black communities. It’s also one of the best coming of age books in recent memory, combining a heartbreaking topical story with a warm, funny, vividly specific portrait of a family and a neighborhood. In the weeks before the book hits the big screen, we talked to Thomas about the adaptation process; writing her forthcoming novel, On the Come Up; and the books and authors that helped pave the way for her and Starr Carter’s story.

Nova Ren Suma writes haunting, female-fronted tales about sinister things, exploring the complexities of family, different kinds of ghost stories, and what it means to be a woman in the world. Her latest, A Room Away From the Wolves, takes place in the stifling rooms of an all-female boarding house in New York City. Deeply unreliable teen narrator Bina flees to Catherine House after an unnamed trauma, and there she falls under the sway of long-dead founder Catherine de Barra, and of fellow boarder Monet, who may just be the key to breaking Catherine House’s spell. We talked to Nova about New York stories, girls gone astray, and her path to becoming a writer.

Ibi Zoboi’s debut, American Street, turned heads with its gorgeous mashup of vodou-infused magical realism and the coming of age immigrant’s story of Haitian teen Fabiola, navigating a strange new life in the U.S. following her mother’s detainment midway through their journey from Port au Prince to Detroit. Her sophomore novel, Pride, is a novel not of displacement but of deep roots, a remixed take on Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice set in Zoboi’s adopted childhood home of Bushwick, Brooklyn, following her own move at age four from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. In her hands, Elizabeth Bennet becomes Haitian-Dominican teen Zuri Benitez, whose neighborhood is her kingdom—but whose status quo is threatened by both her imminent departure for college and the arrival on her street of the ultra-rich Darcy family, including the handsome, infuriatingly snobby Darius Darcy. Zoboi talked with us about the inspirations that became her second novel, her path from slam poetry to the written word, and the importance of being courted.

Courtney Summers’ latest book, Sadie, is a dark new thriller fusing episodes of a true crime podcast focusing on the disappearance of small-town girl Sadie with the first-person story of Sadie herself, on a desperate mission of vengeance following the abduction and murder of her younger sister. Summers’ books explore the darkest things that can happen to girls, from sexual assault to ostracization to supernatural attack. Her heroines are flawed and fascinating, her depiction of their struggles unflinching. We talked to her about her process, her fandoms, and why she goes dark.

Kara Thomas writes page-turning thrillers with true crime DNA, about complicated girls navigating hard histories, dangerous entanglements, and dark deeds. Her latest is The Cheerleaders, centering on a small-town girl whose older sister was the final girl to die in a string of terrible incidents—including an accident, a double-murder, and an alleged suicide—that wiped out half a high school cheer squad. Thomas talked to us about her dastardly Google search history, her fascination with complicated female characters, and what inspires her twisting tales.

Marisha Pessl debuted in 2006 with Special Topics in Calamity Physics, a fascinating bestseller about a bookish girl and her charismatic whirlpool of a father. With its dark thrills and astonishing reveals, it made her an immediate author to watch. She followed it with Night Film, a horror thriller about a reclusive creator of cult "terror films" and the journalist who destroyed his career in pursuit of the filmmaker’s secrets. Now she’s releasing her YA debut, Neverworld Wake, a brainy supernatural tale about five teens who, following an accident that leaves them on the edge of death, must relive one day over and over, until they can vote on who among them will survive it.

Pessl’s books are dense with creation and hyper articulate, filled with invented cultural artifacts and singular characters. We sat down with her to talk about entering the YA world, cult fandom, and the killer concept behind Neverworld Wake.

Stephanie Garber’s debut novel Caraval is a jewel box of a book, filled with unearthly delights. With its magical dresses, life-or-death riddles, and glittering carnival backdrop, it became one of 2017’s best loved fantasies. Now, Garber has returned with sequel Legendary, in which the magic is darker, the stakes higher, and the game of Caraval is played out across a far grander canvas. Garber is an author who’s funny and frank about her journey to publication and the battles she fights as a full-time author creating immersive worlds. We sat down with her to discuss worldbuilding, why she became a reader later than you’d think, and taking the wrong fictional roads so you can find the right ones.

Nicola Yoon writes love stories that will break your heart, filled with all the hope, excitement, and uncertainty of first romance. Her characters fall in love through emails, from afar, or in the space of just one day. She explores the walls between them and the moonstruck optimism that guides them in effervescent, deeply humanistic prose that wraps itself around your heart. Her #1 NYT bestselling debut, Everything, Everything, was adapted into a 2017 film, and her sophomore novel, National Book Award finalist The Sun Is Also a Star, will be following it to the big screen soon. We talked about her process, immigration stories, and what it’s like to work on a love story with the one you love.

Rainbow Rowell is a literary chameleon. From a devastating teen love story to a magical realistic marital romance to her latest project, reviving Brian K. Vaughan's Runaways comics, she moves among genres, setting, and style, never writing the same book twice.  But what books from Eleanor & Park to Carry On share is imperfect, deeply real characters who leap off the page, whether they're high school students, dissatisfied office employees, or wizards in training; dialogue that crackles with humor and life; and funny, true moments that give you the feeling that Rowell is right on the other side of the pages, your funniest, most brilliant friend telling you a story.  In this episode of the podcast, Rainbow Rowell joins us from her hometown of Omaha for a wide-ranging conversation about comics, fan fiction, growing up in the pre-Internet world and the path from reader to creator.

Renée Ahdieh and Sabaa Tahir have been shaping the landscape of YA fantasy since the release of their debut novels in 2015. Ahdieh’s The Wrath and the Dawn folded elements of the Thousand and One Nights and Beauty and the Beast into a lush, sensuous love story, about a girl who’s more than she seems telling stories to her husband, a murderous caliph, to stay alive. Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes kicked off a bloody, addictive fantasy epic set against the brutal backdrop of the Martial Empire, built on the backs of the oppressed Scholar people. Their work explores, among other things, magic dark and light, fascinating villains, oppression and colonialism, and moral rot. Recently Tahir released A Reaper at the Gates, the third book in the Ember quartet, and Ahdieh released Smoke in the Sun, her fourth book and the second in her Flame in the Mist duology, set in a magic-infused version of Feudal Japan. We spoke to them about their books, their teen years, and the fast friendship that started with a two-hour phone call and has been going strong ever since.

Gayle Forman is an author best known for demolishing readers’ hearts. In books like If I Stay ( adapted as a film in 2014) and Just One Day Forman creates characters who feel utterly real, as they wrestle with everything life can throw at them: the explosive power of first love, the wrenching grief of a friend’s suicide, or the impact of cold reality on creative dreams. Her latest, the instant bestseller I Have Lost My Way, centers on the fateful meeting of three teens in New York City, each on the verge of a personal cataclysm. In this episode, Gayle Forman joins us to talk about the new book, her world travels, getting real for Seventeen magazine, and celebrating the connections that just feel like fate.