Welcome to the second Weekend Picks for November! This pick is brought to us by North Dakota State University student Ellie Keppel.

​Ellie Keppel is a senior at North Dakota State University studying English, with a minor in psychology and a certificate in publishing. She is graduating in December 2025 and will be moving on to a job in publishing. This job will take her back to the Minneapolis area, where she is from, every few weeks. Ellie is a member of Chi Alpha Christian Fellowship and Sigma Tau Delta English Honors Society on the NDSU campus. When Ellie isn't reading for school, you will find her reading historical nonfiction books, leading a small group through Chi Alpha, or spending quality time with her loved ones. Ellie is looking forward to indulging in her favorite book genre again after graduation.

Thanks for your great YAL recommendation, Ellie! 

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​Man Made Monsters, written by Andrea L. Rogers (Cherokee), contains a series of stories about monster encounters, all of which involve one long Cherokee family line between the years 1839 and 2039. While the revelation of the familial ties is sometimes hard to find, they are in each and every chapter of this book. The monster stories aren’t always necessarily related, as most of them tell tales of different monsters interacting with different people. One specific character, Ama, appears frequently throughout. She is the narrator of the first chapter and plays a part in many chapters thereafter. This thread of family horror engages readers, leaving them to wonder how each story might be related and what the outcome will be. 

​This book involves some fairly mature themes but makes these topics accessible for young readers. Descriptions aren’t too vivid or vulgar, allowing readers to explore these topics without feeling overwhelmed. I found myself completely engulfed in this book. I couldn’t put it down. I was intrigued by each connection and each monster. No two stories were identical. They were all new and exciting, but beautifully intertwined.

​I would most definitely recommend this book for middle and high schoolers. It’s a fantastic introduction to the author’s incredible writing style, to new cultures, to familial connections, to mild horror, and to life throughout history. 

​You can find more about Andrea L. Rogers here and you can purchase a copy of your own here.

Dr. Rebecca Chatham-Vazquez is an assistant professor and the director of English Education at North Dakota State University, where she is living her dream, teaching Methods courses and Young Adult Literature and mentoring preservice English teachers. She is in her 16th year of teaching and loves it just as much now as she did on day one. She has taught and worked with pre- and in-service teachers in Montana (very rural), Arkansas (urban), Arizona (urban and rural), and, now, North Dakota (urban and rural). She has been a member of NCTE since 2008, and is a strong supporter of professional organizations like NCTE, its state affiliates, and ALAN. Her research interests include teacher education, rural teacher support, YAL, and methods of teaching reading. She can be reached at [email protected]     

Amidst all the basketball action, Tre bonds deeply with his best friends, mourns a devastating loss, builds better relationships with his parents, and learns what it means to be true to himself. This book is for you if you love basketball (though this is not a prerequisite!), if you love reading about friends who go through highs and lows together, and if you are interested in the perspective of a young man learning to be himself.

​It was such a good read, and I hope you’ll pick it up! (See my Wednesday post for an interview with author Byron Graves!)

You can read a synopsis and preview of the novel here: and purchase your own copy here. 

​Dr. Kia Jane Richmond is Professor and Director of English Education at Northern Michigan University and author of Mental Illness in Young Adult Literature: Real Struggles through Fictional Characters (Bloomsbury, 2019). She is a frequent presenter at NCTE, ELATE, ALAN, CEL, and MCTE conferences and has published many articles and book chapters focused on young adult literature and teacher preparation in English Language Arts.

​She can be reached at [email protected].


Note, picture at left: Kia with Whiskers in 1969. The family doctor recommended getting Kia a cat to give her something to take care of while her daddy was overseas during the Vietnam War.

Readers learn a great deal from Anderson about what it’s like to live with a relative who is struggling with symptoms of PTSD, which can include hallucinations, anxiety, panic attacks, intrusive memories or flashbacks, nightmares, negative thoughts about the self, heightened arousal, difficulty sleeping, irritability, and aggression, among others (PTSD and DSM-5 - PTSD: National Center for PTSD). ​​For Hayley, her dad’s erratic behavior interrupts her days and her nights, her thoughts and her emotions. She has spent years taking care of him, cleaning up after him, and worrying about him. And thus, she has developed a kind of secondary PTSD, which is shown by her own symptoms of feeling anxious and demonstrating a need to be “on guard” (hypervigilant) a lot of the time and to feel helpless at times (and as a teenager, she has limited agency in terms of her father’s decision-making process). 

Welcome to the third installment of our October Weekend Picks by Julie Hoffman; this week she has another great YA read in mind for us: a book that brings messiness and embarrassment, but also beauty and hope: The Beat I Drum by Dustin Bowling. 

​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.

“I got out of the car and slammed the door without either of us saying another word. I ran up the steps to my apartment, turning slightly at the last second to see him leaving the parking lot.

Positive: I hurt him just as much as I'd hoped.
Negative: I hurt him just as much as I'd hoped.”

When Connor starts high school he is bracing himself for the worst. It's a new school and a new town where the other students don't know him . . . or about his Tourette Syndrome. They will know soon enough because his tics include barking and spitting—not something easy to hide. Connor is prepared to deal with staring, bullying, meanness, and questions from his new high school classmates. ​

Mid-October is here and we have another great recommendation for our YA Lit readers: Road Home by Rex Ogle is contributor Julie Hoffman's Weekend Pick. 

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.

This young adult novel is a powerful testimony to what a teenager has to consider when dealing with pregnancy. More importantly, Hannah V. Sawyerr tries to normalize all of the options. It is okay for a teenager to choose to keep and raise her child. It is okay for a teenager to decide on an adoption plan. It is okay for a teenager to choose to abort. Truth Is places us in the shoes of a character who has good reasons to make any of her choices.  ​

​This novel also affirms the power of story-telling. In Truth’s case, it was through spoken word poetry. Whether it is writing, art, speaking, singing, poetry or other outlets, sharing our truth helps us heal and helps humanity heal, and the truth is... we all need a little healing.

Jordyn is enrolled in pre-law at an HBCU (I’m getting Howard University vibes). She shares a suite with three other girls. Everything is cool until Devonte, the brother of one of Jordyn’s roommates arrives on campus. He is just out of prison and needs somewhere to stay . . . just until he gets something together for himself. Good thing he is charming and has lots of friendly advice to help out the young college students, right? ​

Devonte takes care of everything. He cleans. He cooks. He speaks up about injustice and inequities, schooling the girls on Black history. He is charming, influential, and quick with advice, encouraging the girls toward success, at least it seems so at first. His helpfulness eventually starts to look more sinister, like control. And quite possibly something worse. ​​

Co-written with Yusef Salaam, who was wrongfully convicted along with four other young men in the “Central Park Jogger Case,” this book tells the story of a young Black man who is also convicted of a crime he didn’t commit. Sixteen-year-old Amal Shahid is the protagonist of this story, told in Amal’s voice through his poetry. In Arabic, Amal means “hope,” and throughout this book, Amal struggles to maintain hope as he is convicted and sentenced to serve time in juvenile detention, where–just like in the world outside the detention center’s walls–he faces racism and discrimination. ​

In the detention center, Amal attends poetry writing workshops that inspire him, even though he was already a skilled poet. He also reads books by Black men suggested to him by his uncle.