Please Ignore Vera Dietz

‘One of the best YA writers working today.’ John Green Vera’s spent her whole life secretly in love with her best friend, Charlie Kahn. And over the years she’s kept a lot of his secrets. Even after he betrayed her. Even after he ruined everything. So when Charlie dies in dark circumstances, Vera knows a lot more than anyone—the kids at school, his family, even the police. But will she emerge to clear his name? Does she even want to? Edgy and gripping, Please Ignore Vera Dietz is an unforgettable novel: smart, funny, dramatic and always surprising. A.S. King is the author of many acclaimed novels and has won the Michael L. Printz Award in 2020 for Dig, a Michael L. Printz Honor in 2011 for Please Ignore Vera Dietz, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2012 for Ask the Passengers, The Amelia Walden Award, The Carolyn Field Award, and one time she won £50 on a scratch card. The New York Times called her ‘one of the best YA writers working today’. King lives in Pennsylvania. ‘A harrowing but ultimately redemptive tale of adolescent angst gone awry. The author depicts the journey to overcome a legacy of poverty, violence, addiction and ignorance as an arduous one, but Vera’s path glimmers with grace and hope.’ Kirkus Reviews ‘Watching characters turn into the people they’ve long fought to avoid becoming is painful, but seeing them rise above it, reflect, and move on makes this title a worthy addition to any YA collection.’ Booklist ‘This is a strong and engaging book about growing up and coming-of-age...The ending is hopeful and uplifting but in no way unrealistic.’ Reading Time 'Bullying, grief, abandonment and dysfunctional families are ever with us and King uses the language and insights of young people to put these before us in a very accessible way.’ Otago Daily Times ‘A moving and thought-provoking read.’ BookMooch.

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With the explosion in YA publishing, it’s harder than ever to separate good books from the rest. Booklistmagazine’s editors’ deep and broad knowledge of the landscape offers indispensable guidance, and here they bring together the very best of the best books for young adults published since the start of the 21st century. Drawing on the careful judgment of expert YA librarians, this book Includes a foreword by best-selling YA lit authority Michael Cart, who demonstrates how we have entered a new golden age of books for young adults Collects reviews which showcase the most stimulating contemporary YA titles Features an essay in each section, grouped by genre, presenting an overview and examining relevant trends Indexes selections by author, title, and genre for handy reference The thoughtful professional review coverage for which ALA’s Booklist is known makes this volume an ideal tool for YA readers’ advisory and collection development..

Covering the genres popular with today's teens—fiction and nonfiction, including poetry and graphic novels—this resource provides 110 great book choices for young adult reading, interactive booktalks, and individual writing activities. All educators and library professionals need practical resources with easily accessible information and activities that can be immediately applied. Teen Talkback with Interactive Booktalks! is such a resource, supplying ready-to-use, interactive booktalks and curriculum connections for more than 100 recently published young adult books. This unique book is an invaluable tool for motivating teens to read. It shows how to make booktalks interactive and get teens participating in the presentation, rather than passively listening. Book selections include titles published from 2008 to 2012 organized in seven categories: Issues, Contemporary, Adventure/Survival, Mystery/Suspense, Fantasy, Heritage, and Multiple Cultures. Complete bibliographical information for each selection is included along with a literary classification as well as an age/grade level and gender designation. The read-alouds passages include talkback questions to facilitate discussion, and related works are supplied as suggestions for additional reading choices. Provides complete bibliographical information, literary designations, and age and gender suggestions Offers tools for custom-designing booktalks, noting passages for read-alouds with talkback questions and prominent themes Identifies related works and supplementary Internet sources Supplies values designations, lists of book trailers, and study guides that will be especially useful to school librarians.

This examination of the literary effectiveness of young adult literature from a critical, research-oriented perspective answers two key questions asked by many teachers and scholars in the field: Does young adult literature stand up on its own as literature? Is it worthy of close study? The treatment is both conceptual and pragmatic. Each chapter discusses a topical text set of YA novels in a conceptual framework—how these novels contribute to or deconstruct conventional wisdom about key topics from identity formation to awareness of world issues, while also providing a springboard in secondary and college classrooms for critical discussion of these novels. Uncloaking many of the issues that have been essentially invisible in discussions of YA literature, these essays can then guide the design of curriculum through which adolescent readers hone the necessary skills to unpack the ideologies embedded in YA narratives. The annotated bibliography provides supplementary articles and books germane to all the issues discussed. Closing "End Points" highlight and reinforce cross-cutting themes throughout the book and tie the essays together..

A brilliant and surreal novel about isolation and human connection, from award-winning author A. S. King..

'Moving, unapologetically strange, skilfully constructed.... Read this book, whatever your age. You may find it’s the exact shape and size of the hole in your heart.' New York Times Sixteen-year-old Sarah can't draw. This is a problem, because as long as she can remember, she has 'done the art.' She thinks she's having an existential crisis. And she might be right; she does keep running into past and future versions of herself as she wanders the urban ruins of Philadelphia. Or maybe she's finally waking up to the tornado that is her family, the tornado that six years ago sent her once-beloved older brother flying across the country for a reason she can't quite recall. After decades of staying together 'for the kids' and building a family on a foundation of lies and domestic violence, Sarah's parents have reached the end. Now Sarah must come to grips with years spent sleepwalking in the ruins of their toxic marriage. As Sarah herself often observes, nothing about her pain is remotely original—and yet it still hurts. Insightful, heartbreaking, and ultimately hopeful, this is a vivid portrait of abuse, survival, resurgence that will linger with readers long after the last page. I am late to school because I don’t exactly remember the bus I took to get here before. The minute I step into the building, I open the umbrella and walk toward my locker. Superstition abounds. Students act as if I’ve brought a curse upon the building, but that’s only because they don’t know that there is already a curse upon the building. The curse is: Nobody here focuses on the now. A.S. King is the author of many acclaimed novels and has won the Michael L. Printz Award in 2020 for Dig, a Michael L. Printz Honor in 2011 for Please Ignore Vera Dietz, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 2012 for Ask the Passengers, The Amelia Walden Award, The Carolyn Field Award, and one time she won £50 on a scratch card. The New York Times called her ‘one of the best YA writers working today’. King lives in Pennsylvania. ‘One of the best YA writers working today.’ John Green 'A. S. King has always brought her unique touch to her YA novels, but she may have outdone even herself in Still Life with Tornado.' Bustle 'You’ll find Still Life’s exploration of an artist’s inner strength particularly enriching.' Teen Vogue 'The presentation of the surreal as real, the deeply thoughtful questions she poses, the way she empowers her teenage characters to change the trajectory of their lives—King writes with the confidence of a tightrope walker working without a net.' Publishers Weekly 'King understands and writes teen anxieties like no other, resulting in difficult, resonant, compelling characters and stories.' Kirkus ‘A slow burn of a novel concerned with the difficulty of coming to terms with life as it is...A riveting and rewarding read.’ Adelaide Advertiser ‘Still Life with Tornado is a slow-burning but fascinating book...With elements of magical realism, this novel is one that will have you glued to the pages. The writing is as lyrical as it is poignant, and I couldn’t recommend this one enough for people wanting to delve into the sub-genre I call existential contemporary.’ Written Word Worlds ‘Still Life With Tornado is the perfect blend of magic, mystery, and real life. It’s clever, heartbreaking, and hopeful.’ Bookish Manicurist ‘A. S. King shows a deep understanding of teen anxieties and writes with streetwise humour, tenderness and originality...Hers is a magical style that dances off the page.’ Otago Daily Times ‘Amid the dark ubiquity of fractured relationships, crumbling families, adolescent angst and rebellion that characterises YA fiction, it is an unusual novel that rises above that common ground, that explores that generic territory in a fresh and compelling way. A. S. King is one writer who does just that.’ Magpies ‘An authentic representation of the effect of domestic violence on an ordinary family, and the complex consequences of trying to keep together while being as wind-swept as a tornado. A thoughtful read.’ Reading Time ‘A fantastic mix of contemporary and magic realism with some of the most well-developed characters I have ever read. If you’re a fan of character-driven novels, then this one is for you...This book has gotten under my skin.’ Younger Sun.

Four teenagers are on the verge of exploding. The anxieties they face at every turn have nearly pushed them to the point of surrender: senseless high-stakes testing, the lingering damage of past trauma, the buried grief and guilt of tragic loss. They are desperate to cope, but no one is listening. So they will lie. They will split in two. They will turn inside out. They will even build an invisible helicopter to fly themselves far away...but nothing releases the pressure. Because, as they discover, the only way to truly escape their world is to fly right into it. The genius of acclaimed author A.S. King reaches new heights in this groundbreaking work of surrealist fiction; it will mesmerize readers with its deeply affecting exploration of how we crawl through traumatic experience--and find the way out..

In this fearless portrayal of a boy on the edge, highly acclaimed Printz Honor author A.S. King explores the desperate reality of a former child "star" struggling to break free of his anger. Gerald Faust started feeling angry even before his mother invited a reality TV crew into his five-year-old life. Twelve years later, he's still haunted by his rage-filled youth--which the entire world got to watch from every imaginable angle--and his anger issues have resulted in violent outbursts, zero friends, and clueless adults dumping him in the special education room at school. No one cares that Gerald has tried to learn to control himself; they're all just waiting for him to snap. And he's starting to feel dangerously close to doing just that...until he chooses to create possibilities for himself that he never knew he deserved..

In the dark land of Novus, a Light is beginning to move. As the true High King attempts to rally his forces, crystalline beings move among mortals, seen and heard only by those specially attuned to their existence. One of the Erela stands supreme above all the rest. Known as the Dark One, Zohar has all but succeeded in erasing the name of the High King from the hearts and minds of everyone in Novus. It is now up to the rest of the Erela to stop his wrath. In an unknown community tucked away in a hidden valley, an Erela recruits a young apprentice to help carry out their important mission. As Levi embarks on a dangerous quest to fetch a princess and bring her to Zion to fulfill her destiny, she is struggling to understand why she has been chosen to be the new Queen of Novus. After twelve-year-old Aliatta learns the truth about her identity, her life intertwines with Levi’s. As the pair begins the long trek to Zion, they have no idea that the Dark One’s fury has just begun. The Quest for Hope begins an exciting saga of good versus evil as a young apprentice and a princess journey through a perilous land so she can fulfill her purpose to become their new queen..

Five white teenage cousins who are struggling with the failures and racial ignorance of their dysfunctional parents and their wealthy grandparents, reunite for Easter..

Beyond the Age of Waste: A Report to the Club of Rome, Second Edition discusses the results of the study conducted by the Club of Rome, which tackles the issues of the depletion of resources and its implication for the world in general. The opening chapter is an introduction that covers the history and cites several events relevant in tackling the issues that this book covers. Chapter 2 covers energy, including demands, sources, and implication of energy problems. The third chapter is about materials, encompassing the supply, life cycle, and technology. Chapter 4 discusses issues about food, which includes production, agricultural resources, and commodities. Chapter 5 covers climate, while chapter 6 discusses some global considerations. The last chapter deals with science, technology, and institutional implications. This book will be of great interest to readers who are concerned with the possibility of resource crisis..

Lucky Linderman didn't ask for his life. He didn't ask his grandfather not to come home from the Vietnam War. He didn't ask for a father who never got over it. He didn't ask for a mother who keeps pretending their dysfunctional family is fine. And he didn't ask to be the target of Nader McMillan's relentless bullying, which has finally gone too far. But Lucky has a secret--one that helps him wade through the daily mundane torture of his life. In his dreams, Lucky escapes to the war-ridden jungles of Laos--the prison his grandfather couldn't escape--where Lucky can be a real man, an adventurer, and a hero. It's dangerous and wild, and it's a place where his life just might be worth living. But how long can Lucky keep hiding in his dreams before reality forces its way inside? Michael L. Printz Honor recipient A.S. King's smart, funny and boldly original writing shines in this powerful novel about learning to cope with the shrapnel life throws at you and taking a stand against it..

Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother's pushiness and her father's lack of interest tell her they're the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn't know the passengers inside, but they're the only people who won't judge her when she asks them her most personal questions . . . like what it means that she's falling in love with a girl. As her secret relationship becomes more intense and her friends demand answers, Astrid has nowhere left to turn. She can't share the truth with anyone except the people at thirty thousand feet, and they don't even know she's there. But little does Astrid know just how much even the tiniest connection will affect these strangers' lives--and her own--for the better. In this truly original portrayal of a girl struggling to break free of society's definitions, Printz Honor author A.S. King asks readers to question everything--and offers hope to those who will never stop seeking real love..

The first middle-grade novel from YA superstar Amy Sarig (A. S.) King is a boy-and-his-pet story like no other. The first middle-grade novel from Printz Honor-winning author Amy Sarig (A. S.) King!Washington Post Best Book of the YearA New York Public Library Best Book for KidsA Texas Bluebonnet Master List selectionObe Devlin has problems. His family's farmland has been taken over by developers. His best friend Tommy has abandoned him. And he keeps getting nosebleeds, because of that thing he doesn't like to talk about. So Obe hangs out at the nearby creek, in the last wild patch left, picking up trash and looking for animal tracks.One day, he sees a creature that looks kind of like a large dog. And as he watches it, he realizes it eats plastic. Only plastic. Water bottles, shopping bags... No one has seen a creature like this before. The animal--Marvin Gardens--becomes Obe's best friend and biggest secret. But to keep him safe from the developers and Tommy and his friends, Obe must make a decision that might change everything..

In this masterpiece about freedom, feminism, and destiny, Printz Honor author A.S. King tells the epic story of a girl coping with devastating loss at long last--a girl who has no idea that the future needs her, and that the present needs her even more. Graduating from high school is a time of limitless possibilities--but not for Glory, who has no plan for what's next. Her mother committed suicide when Glory was only four years old, and she's never stopped wondering if she will eventually go the same way...until a transformative night when she begins to experience an astonishing new power to see a person's infinite past and future. From ancient ancestors to many generations forward, Glory is bombarded with visions--and what she sees ahead of her is terrifying: A tyrannical new leader raises an army. Women's rights disappear. A violent second civil war breaks out. And young girls vanish daily, sold off or interned in camps. Glory makes it her mission to record everything she sees, hoping her notes will somehow make a difference. She may not see a future for herself, but she'll do anything to make sure this one doesn't come to pass..

A travesty. A violation. An ecstasy. A disappointment. An instant. A lie. A theft. A rite of passage. Whatever you call it, there's only one first time. A.S. King, Melvin Burgess, Keith Gray, Patrick Ness, Anne Fine, Sophie McKenzie, Bali Rai, Jenny Valentine, Mary Hooper, and Andrew Smith. Some of today's leading international YA authors contributed to this hard-hitting collection of original short stories: some funny, some moving, some haunting, but all revolving around the same subject—virginity..