Movies and Harry Potter and diversity, oh my!

YA Heard? With RBR – February 2016

Exciting publishing programme from J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World

From Pottermore

Some of the biggest YA news all year: The scripts from the Harry Potter play “The Cursed Child” will be sold as a novel. The play looks at Harry’s life as an adult and parent.

I’m nervous about this because it seems a little dark, but JUST TAKE MY MONEY because I know I’m going to read it.

Official Me Before You Trailer

From YouTube

I haven’t read this Book, but I have to admit this trailer is pretty darn cute!! I know it might crush my heart, but I might have to dive in…

When is YA going to shape up to body diversity?

From The Guardian

This article takes a look at how YA books often feature the same body type: slim and tall. As someone who does not fit into this mold, I identify with the challenge of constantly reading about someone who doesn’t look like you.

It’s a great article for those of you who would like to see more body diversity!

The ‘sick-lit’ books aimed at children: It’s a disturbing phenomenon. Tales of teenage cancer, self-harm and suicide…

From The Daily Mail

So this article has caused a bit of a stir in the YA community. While I do think many YA books examine dark topics, a ton of YA books are fun and light and capture the typical teenage experience. If you read it, please let me know what you think in the comments!

Unseen JRR Tolkien poems found in school magazine

From The Guardian

“Two poems by JRR Tolkien, in which The Lord of the Rings author writes variously of “a man who dwelt alone/beneath the moon in shadow”, and of the “lord of snows”, have been discovered in a school magazine in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.”

This is really cool! Although…can you imagine someone finding random poems you wrote in college? But if you’re dead, then you’re saved the embarrassment…too morbid, sorry!

More Than 90 Percent Of College Students Prefer Reading Paper Books Over E-Books

From Tech Times

Does this surprise you? It’s true for both U.S. and international students: “In 2010, the team found that 92 percent of college students in the U.S. favored the paper book version over the e-book version. About 95 percent of German students and 77 percent of Japanese student said the same.”

I LOVE IT!

Aaron Sorkin Bringing Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird to Broadway

From Playbill

I loved To Kill a Mockingbird in school, and I think this would actually make a great play. Also I trust Aaron Sorkin, of West Wing and A Few Good Men fame.

Author of ‘Thirteen Reasons Why’ has new novel coming

From Associated Press

Jay Asher’s first novel Thirteen Reasons Why is being developed into a Netflix mini series and now on TOP of that, he’s publishing a new book!

It’s called What Light, and it’s “billed as a ‘contemporary romance’ that features a Christmas Tree Lot in northern California. According to Penguin, Asher was inspired to write the book after reading about a family in Oregon with a Christmas tree lot. What Light comes out Oct. 11.”

Bestselling Author Melissa de la Cruz Inks Deal to Launch Seventeen Fiction from Harlequin TEEN

From Harlequin

Harlequin Teen and Seventeen magazine will be launching their own imprint! This is pretty big, as magazines typically don’t cross over into the book world.

Launching their imprint with Melissa De La Cruz is a great idea though. Here’s a bit about her new book: “The book, titled Something in Between, follows the daughter of immigrant parents who is living the American dream—until her world shatters when she learns she is ineligible to receive the National Scholarship Award because her family is in the country illegally and may be deported. But a chance encounter with the son of a powerful senator sets off a chain reaction that compels her to fight not just for the future that is rightfully hers but for the only place she’s ever called home.”

And that’s your book news for this week!