We Love This Book

REPRESENTING DISABILITY IN YA Someone told me recently that my genre is "Disabilities YA" and I had to bite my tongue to keep from arguing. For one thing, I'm pretty sure that's not a real subgenre of young adult literature, but even if it is, I don't like the idea of putting books with disabled or disadvantaged characters in a box, as if they somehow need to be separated from all the rest of the books. I say, I write for young adults. ALL young adults. Yes, one of my characters happens to be obese; one happens to be a bully living on the edge of poverty; and in Dead Ends, one of them happens to have Down's Syndrome. But Dead Ends isn't about Down's Syndrome, it's a story of friendship and family, of coming of age and of finding what you need when you go looking for what you want. READ MORE >

	FEATURES

    

AUGUST NON-FICTION The Bookseller's non-fiction editor, Caroline Sanderson, chooses her favourite non-fiction titles published in August. MORE >

WIN A KINDLE FIRE To celebrate the launch of poetry anthology Colours of Childhood, we have a Kindle Fire tablet to give away. MORE >

	BOOK OF THE WEEK

SOLITAIRE by Alice Oseman Tori despairs of the other students in the sixth form at "Higgs". She struggles to find her place in the group, not really fitting in anywhere and unsure if she cares. Following a trail of Post-It notes she is met by her first glimpse of Solitaire, a blog seemingly aimed at Higgs students. Solitaire is compelling; a unique book for the YA audience and fans of fiction about real-life issues. Tori is strong, hopelessly cynical and opinionated but also struggling with life and looking for her place. The book deals with really difficult subjects sensitively but without sugar coating them; self-harm, eating disorders, sexuality and fitting in somewhere. Oseman's writing is mature for her age [19] and it's exciting to think that it can only continue to improve when it's already so good. She understands her characters; the experiences described in the book are contemporary and unique to modern teens. A wonderful debut. MORE >