The main character Maddy is bullied for multiple reasons, but mostly for the recent revelation that she has been passing as white since coming to school in the 7th grade. The story line mirrors the class King tale; the seemingly well-meaning Wendy sets Maddy up as her boyfriend Kenny’s date to the prom. Kenny, the senior, Black football star, carefully navigates what it means to be the tokenized Black friend amongst his peers, while his white girlfriend Wendy and her circle of friends engage in regular microaggressions. ​

​Happy October reading, everyone! 

Our many thanks to Julie Hoffman for her ongoing contributions to the YA community this month. We appreciate you!

​Julie Hoffman is an educator with Springfield Public Schools and an adjunct professor at the University of Illinois Springfield. Her research interests include urban education, empathy, social and emotional learning, young adult and children’s literature.  She believes that young adult literature and poetry can be a message of perseverance and hope and believes that we thrive when we invest in ourselves and others.

In Chaos Theory, when main characters Shelbi and Andy (Aka Walter) first connect it is through a “wrong number” text conversation. ​

​Throughout the book, there are haiku pauses—placed like a cleansing breath. Although some made me hold my breath while my heart caught up with the message. Again, Elliott balances pain and joy, reality and hope, but always bears testimony. ​

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​Dr. Erinn Bentley is a professor of English education at Columbus State University, where she also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Global Engagement. She enjoys mentoring pre-service secondary English teachers, graduate students, and her doctoral candidates. In addition to teaching YA literature and pedagogy courses, Erinn leads study abroad programs for education majors in Belize, Ecuador, England, and Japan.

​Our many thanks to professor Bentley for her contributions to the blog all this month! Best of luck to her as she travels with a group of students to Oxford this fall. 

I first fell in love with Maureen Johnson’s teen sleuth, Stevie Bell, when I read the first novel in this series (Truly Devious). Stevie is a quirky adolescent girl with an uncanny ability to solve cold cases. In the first three novels, Stevie gains fame for uncovering cryptic clues and solving the kidnapping and triple murder that occurred at her remote boarding school in the 1900s as well as surviving a recent crime spree on her campus.

​In Nine Liars, we find Stevie and her three best friends starting their senior year, but our crime-stopper is bored. Her boyfriend, David, is studying abroad in London, her friends are distracted with college applications, and Stevie is left feeling alone with no mystery in need of her attention. In a twist of fate, David arranges for his girlfriend and three besties to spend a week in London “studying” during Thanksgiving break. What begins as a packed itinerary of museum visits and Jack the Ripper tours quickly turns into Stevie’s next cold case. ​

​With alternating storylines from Stevie’s present-day sleuthing to the Nine’s fateful experiences in the 90s, Johnson weaves a suspenseful mystery with plenty of plot twists, humor, and loveable characters. As someone who has led study abroad programs in England, I will admit that Johnson took some creative liberties in the “program” she developed for Stevie and her friends. I was happy, though, to suspend reality to enjoy another entertaining adventure.

For this weekend’s pick, Dr. Bentley recommends another sci-fi YA novel, Matthew J. Kirby's Star Splitter.


​Dr. Erinn Bentley is a professor of English education at Columbus State University, where she also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Global Engagement. She enjoys mentoring pre-service secondary English teachers, graduate students, and her doctoral candidates. In addition to teaching YA literature and pedagogy courses, Erinn leads study abroad programs for education majors in Belize, Ecuador, England, and Japan.

​​When Jessica awakens, she is relieved, thinking “I was the first thing I remembered. Me. I was me.” But she quickly realizes something is wrong. She is by herself in an abandoned craft that has crashed into the planet her parents were sent to explore. Alone, she must figure out what happened to the aircraft, its crew, and her parents as well as survive in this unknown place. Then - she suddenly discovers she is not the only human survivor, and things get much more confusing and complicated. 

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Dr. Erinn Bentley is a professor of English education at Columbus State University, where she also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Global Engagement. She enjoys mentoring pre-service secondary English teachers, graduate students, and her doctoral candidates. In addition to teaching YA literature and pedagogy courses, Erinn leads study abroad programs for education majors in Belize, Ecuador, England, and Japan.


Many thanks, Dr. Bentley, for our Weekend Picks this month! 

For this weekend’s pick, I’m recommending another sci-fi YA novel, Pitch Dark. This is a roller coaster read - combining horror, suspense, humor, and adventure. ​

​​This novel features two teens, Tuck and Laura, whose worlds literally collide when their spaceships crash into one another.  Here is the plot twist – Tuck (and his shipmates on the John Muir) have unknowingly been stranded in stasis for 400 years on their ship, which carries precious artifacts from Earth. When Tuck awakes, only a handful of human survivors are left, and sections of his ship have been overrun with zombie-like creatures. 

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​Enter Laura, whose family are ship raiders searching for historical treasures. When they accidentally crash into the John Muir, they are forced to evacuate and join Tuck’s crew – along with the horrors on board. ​

​Together, Laura and Tuck must join forces-  as well as rely on some AI assistance - to battle a mysterious hacker who is trying to destroy the John Muir, fend off the murderous creatures on board, and outsmart greedy shipmates determined to steal the Earthly treasures. As I said, this novel really is a roller coaster read, and it’s definitely entertaining as a weekend pick.


Take a look at other amazing works by author Courtney Alameda, and where to purchase Pitch Dark. Happy reading, all! 

​Our many thanks to professor Erinn Bentley for her contributions to the blog this month! ​

​Dr. Erinn Bentley is a professor of English education at Columbus State University, where she also serves as the Associate Director of the Center for Global Engagement. She enjoys mentoring pre-service secondary English teachers, graduate students, and her doctoral candidates. In addition to teaching YA literature and pedagogy courses, Erinn leads study abroad programs for education majors in Belize, Ecuador, England, and Japan.

​I’ve always been a fan of sci-fi YA novels, and a while back I fell in love with Eliot Schrefer’s novel, The Darkness Outside Us. Set in outer space, two teens (Ambrose and Kodiak) are sent on a mysterious mission to save humanity from a dying planet Earth. More than just a suspenseful space odyssey, this novel is a poignant exploration of friendship, loyalty, and what it means to be “human.” (My review of this novel can be found here).

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​If you’ve read Schrefer’s first novel, my recommendation is to check out his next one – The Brightness Between Us. Both a prequel and a sequel, this novel shifts in time from the days leading up to the teens’ departure from Earth to nearly 2 decades in the future, as the adult Ambrose and Kodiak face deadly challenges while building a new family and civilization. ​

​Schrefer does a beautiful job weaving together the narratives into a seamless story, including humor and suspense to keep the reader engaged. The best part about The Brightness Between Us, though, is being able to spend more time with these characters, who captured my heart in the first novel and had me cheering for them again this time.