Regardless the genre, teens dealing with death is a familiar topic in young adult literature. Loss of a loved one is a life-defining moment for the main characters in three new YA novels. The first book in a new fantasy series, Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi, focuses on a young girl whose mother was murdered when the king decides that all magicians in the kingdom must die. The Beauty that Remains, a contemporary realistic fiction debut by Ashley Woodfolk, explores the way three teens deal with the death of a beloved friend. Finally, Orphan Monster, Spy by Matt Killeen is a WWII historical fiction about a young Jewish girl, who becomes a spy after her mother is killed as they try to escape the Nazis.
Children of Blood and Bone, from the new Legacy of Orisha series, introduces Zelie, a diviner with latent magic abilities, who is hoping to bring magic back to her kingdom. King Saran has killed most of the maji, including her mother, but his daughter Amari escapes his palace with a scroll containing the power to reignite magic. Amari's is devastated when her maid, who is a diviner, is killed by her father. During her escape she is aided by Zelie, who realizes that the scroll Amari has stolen is one of the three relics need to perform a ceremony to restore magic powers to diviners. Aided by Zelie's brother Tzain, they are traveling to a mythic island, which they must reach to perform the ceremony before the solstice. Prince Inan, Amari's brother is hot on their trail, but en-route he discovers, he is a diviner as well. Along the way, allegiances shift and a cliff hanger ending will leave readers anxious for the sequel to this new action-packed page turner.
In The Beauty that Remains Autumn, Shay and Logan, teens who are loosely connected by their interest in an Indie band known as Unraveling Lovely, have all lost a loved one. Autumn's best friend Tavia, who is Autumn's boyfriend Dante's sister, died in a car accident. Shay's twin sister Sasha died after a long battle with leukemia, and Logan's ex-boyfriend Bram committed suicide. They are all struggling in unhealthy ways. Autumn, who is blaming herself for opting out of the party from which Tavia was driving, is lashing out a everyone around her, including Dante, leaving her without a support system. Shay, whose family doesn't really know how to cope without focusing on her dying sister, is having panic attacks and skipping school. Logan, the lead singer in Unraveling Lovely, derails the band when he turns to alcohol to assuage his pain. The self- and life-defining nature of grief is examined, as these characters learn that things change after someone dies, but they must focus on the beauty that remains. The story, which is told in alternating voices, involves three empathetic teens about whom readers will care deeply, as their separate lives ultimately converge in this exploration of loss.
In 1939 Germany Sarah and her mother are trying to escape to Switzerland, but her mother is killed. Blond, blue-eyed Sarah has been trained by her actress mother to assume various identities because she is a Jew. She is aided by a British spry, who convinces her to help him steal Nazi blueprints for a nuclear bomb. She enrolls in a Nazi boarding school, befriends a scientist's daughter, sneaks into a fortress where the bomb is being built, but not without a vast amount of intrigue and danger. With references to real-life characters, Orphan, Monster, Spy has a unique story line from which to investigate a variety of familiar topics, including the Holocaust, the race to get the nuclear bomb, and the complex spy network during WWII. This fast paced and cleverly constructed spy thriller is also a coming-of-age story about an incredibly imaginative and resourceful young girl, who lives in constant danger.
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