Tuesday, August 16, 2016

Five top YA stories set in both the past and the present

Darren Croucher writes YA novels with a partner, under the name A.D. Croucher. At the BN Teen blog he tagged five dual YA narratives that bridge history and the present day, including:
Conversion, by Katherine Howe

St. Joan’s Academy, present day: Colleen and her clique are powering their way through their ultra-high-pressured final year of high school, keeping their GPAs as high as possible in the race to gain acceptance to top colleges, when something weird happens: One of Colleen’s friends collapses in class. Soon, other girls are developing violent tics, having seizures, and displaying all kinds of other unusual symptoms. Meanwhile, in 1706, Ann, a young teen from Salem, is seeing and experiencing the same things among girls her age. Ann is based on a real figure from the Salem witch trials, the only one who admitted she and her friends were lying about their accusations. Howe bounces us between Ann and Colleen’s stories as the truth begins to emerge: What’s really going on in Salem and St. Joan’s? Arthur Miller’s The Crucible features prominently in this spooky and intriguing novel.
Read about the other entries on the list.

Conversion is among Meredith Moore's five top YA thrillers and Anna Fitzpatrick's top four books "featuring small towns, teen girls, intimate friendships on the border between love and hate, and brutal murders."

--Marshal Zeringue