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Hello everybody, my name is Cara, and today I'm here to do kind of a multi-review on three YA contemporaries that have strong political elements. So I feel like we've seen several of these YA contemporaries this year, which is not surprising, it's a big election year, um and I just wanted to talk about that trend a little bit and to review three of the books I have read so far this year that kind of fit into that category. Spoiler alert, I actually really enjoyed all of these, I believe all of these got 4 stars from me, but before we get into those books now is a perfect time to remind you to vote. I will put some resources in the description box down below, be sure that depending on your state and your county you follow the specific rules about voting by mail or early voting or however you're going to do it, I'm sure you're already aware how important voting is so I won't go on too much about that, but please please check out those resources, especially about vote by mail and how that's going to work, um, be careful about which ballot boxes you drop your mail-in ballots off [in], I believe your county office should have provided you with a list of the official drop boxes, so no other drop boxes are guaranteed to get your ballot to where it needs to go to be counted, so be sure to check that out as well. So now into the three books: I'm just going to talk about a little bit about what [these] books focus on, what I liked about them, if maybe there were some things I think didn't get done as well, and kind of like the different attributes of these so maybe if you're interested in one more than the other this can help you decide. Um but like I said I actually did really enjoy all of these. I'm just gonna go in the order that I read them this year, and the first one is Yes No Maybe So by Aisha Saeed and Becky Albertalli. Now I read this one I think in January or February, so quite a while ago, so I might not have uh quite as many details *laughs* about this one, um, but I do have some notes I want to talk about. This is a dual perspective novel following Maya and I believe the boy's name is Jamie, I think. And they kind of get thrown together to work on some local election things that are coming up, they end up canvassing and getting very involved in this local election, and through that process they get to know each other and they start forming a friendship or potential romantic relationship but they also end up becoming much more politically engaged: they start learning a lot more about how local elections work, why they're important, and like I said I really liked this. I definitely think the focus on local elections is really important, I think there's sometimes a tendency to think that if you're not voting for one of the top offices in the country or even in your state then it doesn't matter, or that you don't need to worry about voting, and that's really not true. I think this book does a really good job of showing how local elections still drastically affect people's quality of life, um, and they're really important to vote in and to be engaged in. Another strong element of this book is the focus on the two characters, the two main characters' dynamic and relationship, so that is definitely a significant part of this book. And I definitely liked Maya's chapters a lot more than Jamie's. I, I liked him as a character, but I just found myself really really not clicking with Becky Albertalli's writing style - this was the first book I had read from her and I just didn't really like her writing. I also think that there's a big conflict at the end that is not really I think done in the best way or the most satisfying way, um, and I also since reading this one months ago, I have started hearing more things about the representation in this book - which it is ownvoices both for Jamie as a Jewish character and Maya as a Muslim character - um so it is ownvoices, but I have kind of been hearing more from ownvoices reviewers about how maybe the representation [especially the Muslim rep] isn't done in the best way or just that it wasn't as great [or prominent] as they had kind of been hoping or led to believe, so do keep that in mind, but I think if you're looking for a book that focuses on the importance of local elections and especially of getting young people involved and also with a strong emphasis on the character dynamic, I think this one might be a hit for you. And that's another reason why I think this um kind of trend in political YA contemporaries is so great is because I think we're seeing young people becoming more engaged and more politically conscious than ever before, at least that's the way it seems, so I think it's really great that authors are starting to reflect that, that readers are reading these books, so yeah I just think that's really cool. And then the next book I'm going to talk about is The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert. And this is another dual perspective novel and we follow Duke and Marva and this is one of those books that takes place over the course of a day, and at the very beginning of the book Duke goes to vote and he is prevented from doing it. And Marva, who's been doing a lot of work for this election and for getting out the vote, she's like 'this is unacceptable, we have to make sure you vote, this is your right', and so they kind of end up going on an expedition throughout that day um to try and figure out where Duke's polling place is and how he can vote and to accomplish that before the end of the day. So this book deals with voter suppression and obstacles to voting, again it deals with being politically engaged: both Marva and Duke have a lot of reasons for why they view voting the way that they do, and it's not that Duke doesn't care or anything, like it's not that Marva has to convince him to care about the election, it's that he has some kind of complicated reasons for--for why he's not as enthusiastic about it as maybe Marva is, um, and I think that that dynamic was explored really well. This book also covers other topics like Black identity and also being biracial; Duke is biracial, his father is Black and his mother is white and we see how that affects sometimes how communities treat him, and the specific things that he deals with being a biracial person. Another thing this book did that I really love is it tackles um this idea of like the "protest vote" or the like choosing not to vote as a form of protest, or because you think it doesn't matter and all of this. Um, this book does a really good job of showing how that is not helpful - there are definitely problems with our political system and there are problems with our voting system, and it's--like, voting is not the only thing that you can do or *should* do to make a difference, but it also does matter, and I think this book did a really great job of showing that and exploring that. I also think that even though the romantic relationship that is developing throughout the book, um it's definitely quick because it does take place over one day, but I actually felt like it was done really well and it felt very believable. And like I've said many times before, I'm not generally a fan of fast developing romances, um, but I do think they can be done well, and this one I think it really was because we got to know both characters really well and they had a lot of really meaningful interactions throughout the day so you kind of understand why they would click so quickly, um so I felt like that was actually really satisfyingly done. So I really liked both of these characters, I also think this book did a really great job of talking about a variety of issues, a lot of them related to voting and being politically engaged and voter suppression and Black identity, like I was talking about earlier, but we also have some other issues covered and one of the criticisms I was seeing from some people is that they felt like it--this book was too um I guess obvious about the way it was handling these issues, and when I read it I actually didn't feel like that. And people were kind of like explaining it as like "well this is a YA, what do you expect, it's going to be really kind of in your face about what...what the book is talking about" um and I actually didn't feel like that, I actually feel like it did a really good job of exploring these issues. I guess you could say that it was a little obvious in the sense that, okay, you have to accept that these two characters would have like all of these important conversations in one day, like for the sake of the book, but the actual way that these characters interacted and the way those issues were brought up actually felt pretty natural to me so that didn't bother me, um, the one thing that did [bother me] is that for the most part I think everything was developed really well um but there were a few I guess like smaller issues that this book kind of touched on where I feel like it was kind of rushed and incomplete-feeling, and compared to how thoughtful I think the other aspects were, I did notice that, and it was a little bit frustrating, but other than that I really really liked this book, I think it did a lot of important things, um, so again if you're interested in a book that talks about like voter suppression, race, and other topics, um and that also has a really well developed relationship and interesting characters, would definitely recommend this one. And finally the most recent book I read on this list is Running by Natalia Sylvester. I think these last two actually, depending on when my wrap ups go up, you haven't actually heard me talk about them yet! In this book we follow our main character Mariana and she is Cuban-American and her father's a politician and um at the beginning of the book he begins his run for president um and this book is about Mariana realizing that she might not believe the same things that her-- that her father or her family does. So this is a book about finding your voice, and using your privilege to make a difference, and like I said it's about Mariana realizing that she doesn't believe the same things as her family. It's about her really having to come to terms with the fact that people you are close to or people around you um might believe some really terrible things, they might be part of some really terrible things, and this whole book is really about Mariana's journey with that. So in a sense it's a very tightly focused book even though it's dealing with a lot of um broad and important issues, and another thing I think in this book's favor is that it doesn't have a romance; this book is completely free from romance. And I'm not somebody who thinks that having a romantic angle or a plot line in a book automatically makes that book um less effective or less focused [or less serious/important] or anything, like I can really enjoy a well-done romantic storyline in a book, but in this case specifically um I think it was a really smart move not to...not to bring that into this book because it didn't need it. It was... it was a full and complete story in itself and because it was so focused on Mariana and her journey um I think it kind of would have diluted that a little bit if we had kind of brought in a romantic angle when this book didn't really need one. And again I really really enjoyed this one, this was a really compelling book, very quick to read - actually all three books that I've talked about have been very quick reads and they're really good at getting you engaged in this story and these characters and these issues and keeping you engaged throughout, um, and this book was no different. I think this is also a book about complacency and waking up from that; Mariana definitely has um problems with her family at home and in some ways her life has not been very easy, but in a lot of ways she has had the privilege of being politically disengaged, and one of the other things this book shows is her realizing that, and trying to do better and starting to become more aware and more engaged and I think this book did that really really well. Again I gave this one 4 stars as with all of them, and I will be talking about this more in my wrap up so I will have more details there, um, but yeah, so those are the three YA political contemporaries that I have read this year, there have probably been a few others that I have missed or that I haven't read yet, um, so let me know if you have read any of these books what you thought of them or if you're going to pick them up. Like I said I think this is really really cool, I think this is a really um hopeful and exciting trend - I don't know if *laughs* three books is enough to call it a trend but I feel like it's a trend! - um I just think it's really great that we're...we're starting to see young people's political engagement reflected in the stories um that people are writing about young adults and for young adults, I think that is really really great. So let me know if you have read any of these books what you thought of them or if you're going to pick them up, let me know if you have read any other YA political contemporaries that you really enjoyed, whether they [were] published this year or earlier. Thank you guys so much for watching, I will see you soon with another video, and I hope you love the next book you read. Bye!