This is a compelling look at the aftermath of a tour of duty in a war zone. The nervous awkwardness his family feels around him makes sense—he left them as a high school graduate and returns as a war-hardened Marine. While the relationship between him and Harper is meant to be the story’s focus, it is Travis’s relationship with his mom that gives depth to his character. His annoyance at her nervous chatter as they leave the airport evolves into real appreciation for her vigilance during his tour of duty and seething anger at his father for his disrespectful treatment of his mom.

And it got me thinking about other great familiar relationships in YA. So often parents or siblings are just foils for the main characters, someone for them to act out against, or argue with, or fight with, that it’s a real breath of fresh air to find a relationship between family members that feels loving. I think Scarlett and Spencer Martin in Maureen Johnson‘s Suite Scarlett and Scarlett Fever are another great example, and to call out a non-client, the entire Casson family in any of Hilary McKay’s Series about them, including Indigo’s Star and Saffy’s Angel. What are some of your favorite family relationships in YA or MG?

Basma, email me at daphne.unfeasible@gmail.com with your snail mail address, and I’ll get the galley right off to you!

Amazing. You will smile and sob and when you finish, you will walk away a better you. READ THIS BOOK NOW.

Then, from Kirkus:

An affecting look at the experience of one teen soldier’s experience on leave from Afghanistan.

Travis is trying hard to pretend everything is normal, but there’s nothing normal about this little chunk of life at his former home in Florida. His girlfriend is now sleeping with his little brother, a smug, self-interested bastard. His friends don’t understand why he can’t just slide back into his stupid pre-Afghanistan life. His mother worries nonstop. The only thing that’s normal is that his father, an ex–football player who bullied Travis mercilessly into playing the game, still seems to hate his guts. At least when he was with his unit, they all understood how their shared hellish experience has affected them. An unlikely encounter with Harper, a girl he humiliated in middle school, gives him a sense that, maybe, a normal life might be something he can shoot for. Travis’ present-tense narration puts readers directly into his uneasy psyche; he only gradually reveals to himself as well as readers the extent of the damage he has taken in the desert. If the growing relationship between Travis and Harper seems too good to last and the sudden stiffening of his mother’s spine unlikely, readers will be so invested in Travis’ poor, shattered soul they will forgive narrative convenience.

At its heart, this too-timely novel is purely honest.

And finally, a very nice review from the Horn Book’s upcoming May/June issue:

Travis Stephenson’s life has become a “quilt of horror,” a patchwork of nightmares, hallucinations, and flashbacks after just one year in Afghanistan. He had joined the Marines to escape his disapproving, belittling father, but now the war has followed Travis back home. His parents are splitting up, his girlfriend has dumped him for his brother Ryan, and he’ll always be a “disrespectful little punk” to his father. Doller’s debut novel effectively captures the haunted and hallucinatory feeling of a damaged soldier returning home, a nineteen-year-old who says he’s “having trouble even picturing a future with me in it.” Travis is a likable guide to his personal hell, and the characters in his orbit are well drawn and believable. His voice is strong, even when his belief in himself is not. When Travis reunites with Harper Gray, a girl who has hated him since he started an ugly rumor in middle school that ruined her reputation, he is drawn to her, “all green eyes and tousled hair,” and the tentative relationship that ensues may just ensure some kind of a new normal for Travis. Her support and shy love, including nudging him to see a therapist, may help Travis to feel a bit more whole and stop feeling like a “Travis Stephenson-shaped space that needs to be filled in.”

Trish and I are super excited to introduce Travis to the world this summer, but I’m thrilled to give one lucky reader and early opportunity to meet and fall in love with him.

Trish’s tumblr is filled with gorgeous photos of boys and girls, and couples she’s tagged “Together.” I’d love to help her add to it! Add a link in the comments to an image you think would fit well with the others on her blog, and I’ll pick one to receive a galley of Something Like Normal. Can’t wait to see what you come up with!

Gemini Bites, by Patrick Ryan, Scholastic
Huntress, by Malinda Lo, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
I am J, by Cris Beam, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
PINK, by Lili Wilkinson, HarperCollins
Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy, by Bil Wright, Simon & Schuster

Congrats again to Lili, and to all the nominees!

And speaking of Lili, look at the lovely poster Allen & Unwin, her fabu Australian publishers, had up in their booth at Bologna for her new novel Love-shy!

Amy Spalding’s THE REECE MALCOLM LIST, about a daughter reconnecting with her reclusive bestselling author mother, and finding a place for herself at a performing arts high school, and INK IS THICKER THAN WATER, centered around a family-run tattoo parlour in St. Louis, to Stacy Cantor Abrams at Entangled Children’s, in a nice deal, for publication in Spring 2013, by Kate Schafer Testerman at kt literary (World).

Huzzah! Hooray for both Amy and Stacy, who are already bonding on Twitter over shared images of their dogs.

I can’t wait to tell you more about these books as their pub dates approach!

Virginia Duncan at HarperCollins’s Greenwillow Books took North American rights, in a six-figure deal, to Salvage by Alexandra Duncan (no relation). Another YA science fiction entry, the book, which Kate Testerman at KT Literary sold, has what the publisher calls a “feminist slant” and follows a teenager raised on a male-run spaceship who comes to a scorched future Earth where she settles on a “floating island of garbage and debris.” Author Duncan is a librarian in North Carolina and has written a number of short stories, including “Amor Fugit,” which initially ran in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and then appeared in the anthology The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2011 (Prime Books). Greenwillow has Salvage set for a 2013 release.

Hooray for Alexandra and Virginia!

Cliques, dating, and the school social scene are the focus of this Australian import. Midge, 16, is embarrassed to be lagging behind her friend Tahni in the boyfriend department, so she invents one on the spot. Her imaginary guy is an Englishman named Ben and before she realizes what she’s doing, she’s created a whole backstory for him. By complete chance, a transfer student matching this description arrives at school. The real Ben agrees to play along, blackmailing Midge in exchange for homework help. Midge is lovably nerdy—each chapter opens with a dictionary definition, and she obsesses about proper grammar. Über-geek George might seem to be a better match for her, but even she can’t lower her standards enough to date a live-action role-player. Her parents’ possible divorce amps up the stress before everything is pleasantly resolved. This is a surprisingly lighthearted, funny book, peppered with Australian slang. Teen drinking (legal in Australia) is handled as routine. Fans of Louise Rennison’s “Confessions of Georgia Nicolson” series (HarperTeen) or Carolyn Mackler’s The Earth, My Butt, and Other Big Round Things (Candlewick, 2003) will find a lot to like in this frothy offering.

Note: The NY Office is not actually located in the Flatiron Building (pictured above), it’s just my favorite building in NYC.

We are pleased to announce that the Amelia Bloomer Project selected Pink as one of the titles to be honored this year on the Amelia Bloomer List. Each year the Amelia Bloomer List selects the best books with significant feminist content that will appeal to young readers from birth to 18 years old, published in the previous 18 months.

The Amelia Bloomer Project is part of the American Library Association, Social Responsibilities Round Table’s (SRRT) Feminist Task Force (FTF). You can find out more about the Amelia Bloomer Project at http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com/ and view the complete list of recommended titles at http://ameliabloomer.wordpress.com/2012-bloomer-list/.

Thank you for writing Pink. We found it to be a story of evolving self-awareness and personal transformation.

Pink was also selected for the 2012 Rainbow List, selected by a joint task force of the Social Responsibilities Round Table and the Gay, Lesbian, Transgender and Queer Round Table of the American Library Association.

Hooray for Lili, and for Pink!

Julia’s colleague on the League of Extraordinary Writers and author of Ashfall, Mike Mullin writes:

Julia’s accomplished the nigh-impossible—writing a sequel that’s even better than her excellent debut. [...] Julia achieves this feat by deepening and complicating Nina’s story. In XVI, sex is a threat that looms with Nina’s sixteenth birthday—when her dystopian society will literally brand her a sex-teen. In Truth, sex is something to be both feared and enjoyed, making Nina’s inner struggle more complex and relatable. Similarly, the world-building deepens in Truth—we learn how the Governing Council formed—and as a consequence the book feels even more plausible than XVI.

I couldn’t agree more!

If you can’t make it to Bloomington tonight, you can check out Julia’s virtual online launch, complete with question and answer session!

I look forward to hearing more good news about Truth soon!