Long ago, I studied to become a youth services librarian. The class "Literature for Young Adults" was an eye-opener. It started with S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders and continued as I read YA classics such as Jacqueline Woodson's Miracle's Boys, J. K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, and Gary Paulsen's Hatchet. I came to the startling conclusion that many of the protagonists in these stories were orphans. Writers chose to kill off the parents to focus on the teen's coming-of-age struggle. This is not a new device. Consider orphans Anne of Green Gables and Tom Sawyer. If the parents were not dead, they often were removed in other ways. Current YA lit offerings such as Sara Zarr's Gem and Dixie and Dee Ellis' You May Already Be a Winner center on mothers who are either emotionally absent or unaware of the realities that their children face.

Literature, and especially literature for teens is constantly evolving.  

Recently I have noticed several books which run counter to the "absent parent" trope. These novels are about a different sort of dilemma.  In these recently published books, teens aren't trying to negotiate a world without parents. Instead they live in a world of overly concerned, constantly interfering, zealously protective parents. Meet four young people who discover ways to assert themselves and move out into the world while recognizing and respecting their parents. This can be a difficult tightrope to walk.

​Pub date: May 30, 2017       Publisher: ​Simon Pulse    ISBN: 978-1481478687

​Pub date: February 13, 2018       Publisher: ​Barefoot Books   ISBN: 978-1250159854

Background: Danny Cheng lives with his parents in Cupertino, California. It’s senior year and his group of Asian American friends are in the throes of post high school planning. Danny is thrilled. He been accepted to RISD and dreams of pursuing his passion for art. Then he discovers a box, hidden in a closet at home, which contains a sheaf of documents relating to a mysterious individual. The narrative explores Danny’s search to uncover the identity of this person and to learn why his parents are so secretive about the box and its contents.

​This is a book of secrets, of secrets wrapped inside secrets. Important plots points are revealed as Danny learns more about the box of papers. Most of these discoveries took me by surprise. But the story also reveals secrets of the heart. I was able to identify some of those secrets early on. Gilbert offers enough clues to help readers understand what is buried deep inside the hearts of her main characters. I found myself rooting for them, hoping that these young people would recognize and respond to their innermost longings.

Most of the narrative is Danny’s first-person account. Woven throughout his story are brief chapters written by another individual who describes a series of personal life events. Eventually the two stories come together, leading to an emotion-filled conclusion.

You’ll get no spoilers from me. I will say that as I reached the final pages, I found it hard to read as my vision became blurred due to a copious quantity of tears. Read it for the mystery. Read it for the portraits of young Asian Americans. Read it to view the complications brought on by a family in crisis and the extent of a family’s love. Read it for the vivid portrayal of coming-of-age. But most of all, read it so that you and I can talk about it!

​Pub date: April 10 2018       Publisher: ​Disney-Hyperion    ISBN: 978-1484726020

​Some things that I have come to expect from a John Green Book: There will be a well-meaning parent (Green tends to be less harsh on parents of teens than many YA authors). There is the ever-present snark. It’s witty. There will be some deep philosophical concepts. There will be an odyssey of some sort, maybe an actual journey to a place and/or a pilgrimage in search of an ideal. A friend will often serve as a companion on this quest. Expect to find references to literary and pop culture classics.

​But there are some distinct differences with his latest YA novel. First, the voice is that of a female. To be honest, I so clearly hear John Green in his prose that I usually picture his face. I had to constantly remind myself that Aza Holmes was female. I found it hard to do. Sometimes the relationships, especially the relationship between Aza and her mother felt more like a mother- son relationship. Would the story have worked as well if Aza had been a male?

I completed a second read. The grapes and chocolate long gone. But the conclusion remains true and bittersweet, realistic yet hopeful. Good-bye Mr. Green.

It’s not giving away too much to say that this dog dilemma reaches a satisfactory conclusion.
Award-winning artist Marla Frazee’s black and white line drawings perfectly capture the relationship between this ten year old and his beloved mutt.

The story is chock full is Waylonisms: his fascination with science including the creation of a comic entitled Cosmo-Quest and OAT, the One Awesome Thing game. Waylon, the boy who constructs battles between the food items on his plate “mashed potatoes could take the chicken nuggets any day...they were thick enough to wall off peas, wait out any siege” and carries Dumpster Eddy, safely zipped up inside his coat has won my heart.

Reynolds use of the page turn is a masterstroke of poetic genius. It left me marveling at the power of carefully positioned words to create maximum impact.
The pacing is breathtaking. What initially appears to be rough starts and stops speeds up as the car descends closer and closer to the ground floor or the elevator's L button.
This is a book to be discovered while alone and also to read aloud. It is a book for quiet contemplation as well as group discussion. It is a story that continues to resonate with readers well past the final page.
Thank you, Jason Reynolds. The legacy of Walter Dean Myers lives on.

Continue the discussion with these award-winning books.

​Johannes’ early chapter book contains wild adventures, puns, and illustrations with just the right amount of zaniness. Did I mention the Pig Latin? Young readers will not be able to get enough of Miss Zinker, a book chock full of more fun than should be allowed. But go ahead and read it. You too might be an upside down thinker.

If you are acquainted with Beatrice, then you know of her affinity with this dessert. Why not try making these Pineapple Upside Down Mini-Cakes? They are fun and easy and yummy! Here is the recipe from an upright girl who knows the up and down sides of cake: Betty Crocker.

Enjoy these time-honored classics. They have captivated generations of listeners and performers. They inspired Williams-Garcia, Hess, and Alexander as they wrote.  Can you hear the echoes of the music in their books?

Your book covers a lot of territory: from impoverished neighborhoods in the Dominican Republic to middle class privilege in Minneapolis.  It also shifts between the present and the past. How did you plan the composition of your book? Did you use some type of visual organizer?
Yep, my most important project management tool is a good ol’ calendar. I write down what happens each day for a character over the span of a story. In this case I also needed to include a real baseball schedule for the teams Rafael is playing on. I feel it adds verisimilitude if I’m working from a real schedule.
This was more complicated for Rafael’s half of the story because it takes place over years, but I had to think about the DR baseball season, major holidays, school year, and even the sugar season. And I had to think about his age and where a boy would be in the process, coming up as a baseball player.
In terms of plot I use a skeletal outline for each character, showing their setbacks and successes. It is a zigzag, not an arc… ups and downs.

How did Rafael and Maya develop? Was each character’s story initially created separately or did they evolve together during the writing process?
I went back and forth between the two as I wrote, but was usually immersed in one or the other. I knew from the start it was a dual narrative, and where they would first intersect, but bringing them back together in an interesting way took some creativity.

I was intrigued with the first sentence in your acknowledgments: “It is audacious to write outside one’s own cultural experience.”  I have listened to several authors speak on this topic and they mentioned that in addition to the extensive research  that is required when writing about other cultures,  the “devil is in the details.” Each noted specific changes that were made to the manuscript after it was read and vetted by those with first-hand knowledge of the culture.  Were there elements which required modifying after others read drafts of your book? 
Yes, I got feedback from several readers from the DR and am very grateful for their input. 
One of the early “oops” moments was that I kept having Rafael’s family sitting down for supper at the end of the day, before being reminded that the big meal of the day in the D.R. is lunch and that was when they would have their family talks.
Another change was, it is very easy for North Americans to fall back on nuclear family as the basic unit for writing about family, and that’s not true for most of the world… the DR has a much more expansive idea of family, where uncles and aunts and grandparents and cousins are part of your daily life. It’s hard to manage a large cast of characters, but realizing that helped me shape the character of Rafael’s family and contrast him more with his friends.

I notice that you infuse the text with Spanish words and phrases, often in italics, which are not translated into English. What influenced your decision to include Spanish words and phrases? 
I wanted a sprinkling of Spanish to add color and remind readers that these characters are actually not speaking English; I especially used words that show a little slang and baseball terminology. That was a lot of fun to do. I spent pretty much the whole time I was writing it actively learning Spanish.

Sideline Observation: There seems to be an abundance of children’s authors living in Minnesota. Is there something in the water? Do the long winters provide ample writing time?  Is it the state’s vibrant literary community? What is it about Minnesota?
It’s a great state to be a writer in any genre, and I think it’s also a great state to be a visual artist, filmmaker, musician, actor… anyone connected to the arts. There’s a lot of support for the arts here, from the community and from the state government. I want to mention that specifically because the Minnesota State Arts Board helped fund the writing of this book, through an artist initiative grant.
But it’s also a great culture for the arts, and I think it’s one where people lift each other up and support each other. We turn out for each other’s events, talk up each other’s books, read each other’s drafts… it’s a wonderful community and I don’t think I’d have done much without them.

Sal has two friends who figure predominantly in his life: Samantha (Sam) and Fito. The backgrounds for both of these teens contrast sharply with the warm and stable home life Sal knows. He sees the pain which his friends constantly experience and reflects "I guess life hurts everybody. I didn't understand the logic of this thing we call living. Maybe I wasn't supposed to."
Both Sam and Fito cope with emotional abandonment and rejection. All three friends must come to terms with complicated and conflicting emotions with respect to adults in their lives. "just because my love isn't perfect doesn't mean i don't love you"  
The specter of death permeates each of their young lives. Each experiences loss and learns what it is to grieve.
"Life had its seasons, and the season of letting go would always come, but there was something very beautiful in that, in the letting go."

The story opening makes it clear that the act of remembering is an essential component of identity.  “We are what we remember.”
​“I had a picture of my dad teaching me how to tie a tie, taken the morning before my First Communion…I had a picture of Mima holding me in her arms when I was four. She had all this love in her eyes, and I swear I could drown in all that love.”

The endearing appellation “Oh mijito” and other Spanish phrases radiate family warmth and connection. From the fresh tortillas slathered with butter to the kitchen filled with traditional tamale-making, readers feel a strong sense of home and family.
A story of beginnings and endings, life and death, confliction and resolution, faith and doubt; Saenz has created a tale of “Life (that) had a logic all its own."

Gracias Benjamin Alire Sáenz, for this luminous literary gift.