Catch Up on March’s YA Book News

It’s been a busy month when it comes to YA book news. There have been updates on favorite adaptations, excellent interviews with long-time authors who have released new books, and so much more.

Let’s take this final newsletter of March to catch up with what’s been happening in the world of young adult literature.

• L.J. Smith, author of the Vampire Diaries and many other urban fantasy YA books, has died at the age of 66.
• Here are all of the new YA science fiction and fantasy releases that hit shelves this month.
• In honor of the 20th (!!!) anniversary of Twilight, here are some gorgeous new special editions to celebrate. These are really pretty.
• Libba Bray, whose most recent release Under The Same Stars was picked by GMA as their YA book club title, talks with the Good Morning America team about it.
• The Audies named their YA winner for best audiobook from last year. I’ve…never heard of this book. The print edition came out in 2018, so it’s not a new book—just new in audio.
• Nic Stone is debuting her first adult novel this fall. If you missed it, here’s a big roundup of YA authors publishing their debut adult books this year.
• Here’s the Global Literature In Libraries Translated Young Adult Book Prize Committee’s shortlist of the best translated titles in the last year. The winner will be announced on April 16.
• I have a lot of feelings about “new adult” as a category. It was a nonstarter for college-age contemporary romances a decade ago, and now there’s an imprint beginning at Little Brown that is casting “new adult” as romantasy. It’s a label that’s being applied to whatever’s popular with young adults who are, well, young adults and not young adults as in teenagers. You can read a piece I wrote with two other librarians in 2013 (!!!) on the topic of “new adult” over here.
• In more imprint news, DK is launching their first fiction imprint and it includes YA books. You may know DK from their awesome “Eyewitness” line of nonfiction.
• A new book in E. Lockhart’s We Were Liars world will be published in November.
• Legendary sports writer John Feinstein, who wrote several YA books including the series “The Sports Beat,” died this month at the age of 69.
• Michael Cart, who worked as a librarian and was an endless advocate for young adult literature (as well as a writer about YA literature), died in mid-February. The news just came out mid-March.
• Angie Thomas has made it possible for a fifth student to get a full ride scholarship to her alma mater.

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• We officially have a first look at Frendo, the scary clown at the heart of the forthcoming adaptation of Clown in a Cornfield. I cannot wait for this one. Here’s some more about the adaptation from the cast.
• Because of fan demands, The Summer I Turned Pretty season three will have more episodes than previous seasons. We also have an idea when the show will be dropping this summer.
• There is another new addition to the incredible cast of the forthcoming adaptation of Children of Blood and Bone.
• A good question being posed here: in light of the news that Hulu has officially canceled A Court of Thorns and Roses as an adaptation, what’s going on with YA fantasy adaptations more broadly?
• Production is underway for the adaptation of This Is Not a Test, and there have been more additions made to the cast.
• The adaptation of RL Stine’s Fear Street: Prom Queen will hit Netflix at the end of May.
• Go a little behind the scenes of the 2026 adaptation of Suzanne Collins’s Sunrise on the Reaping.
• While we’re with Ms. Collins, here is what to expect with the stage adaptation of The Hunger Games coming to London this fall.
• We Were Liars is closer to hitting small screens, too. The nebulous date of “spring” was announced for a Prime debut.
• The latest updates on the second season of My Life With The Walter Boys.
• Susan McCauley’s 2010 series “Ghost Hunters” is being made into a series. I don’t remember these books, and I’m not quite sure they’re YA, despite the framing. The age range that it lists on retails sites is… 8-18. Not helpful.
• And last but not least, as we’re deep into adaptation news here, Judy Blume’s Forever . . ., set in 2018 Los Angeles and featuring two Black lead characters, will hit Netflix May 8.