Weekend Picks for August 7th

The calendar has flipped to August, and we know the upcoming school year is on many of our readers' minds. But fear not - there is still time to sneak in more reading! If you are looking for a great YA read as summer winds down, look no further than this sci-fi read by Eliot Schrefer. 

Erinn Bentley

​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.

The Brightness Between Us by Eliot Schrefer

​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.

Eliot Schrefer