The Best YA Horror and SFF Books, Brandon Sanderson’s Latest Adaptation, and More YA Book News

YA Adaptation News

YA Potpourri

• Legendary writer for young readers Jane Yolen died at the age of 87. She wrote over 400 (!!!) books in her lifetime, which is incredible.
• Here are all of the YA science fiction and fantasy titles that hit shelves in June, which means you can pick them all up now.
• In mid-June, the youth discovered that Tyra Banks wrote a YA novel called Modelland, which has spawned some fun reading. Recall this was supposed to be a trilogy and she devoted at least one full episode of America’s Next Top Model to creating a trailer for the series that never came to be. Among the highlights of the 2026 resurgence in the book, this piece on the song related to the book and this piece about how bad the book really is.
• I love deep dive pieces like this look at how YA Jewish authors are expanding Jewish storytelling, which came from a panel discussion at New York Comic Con.
• Trang Thanh Tran has a new novel coming out in February, and you can read an excerpt from The Summoning of Tess Pham right here.
• Rosiee Thor talks about centering aromantic voices in YA literature.
• Ever wonder how YA superstars Tiffany D. Jackson, Dhonielle Clayton, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon have written three books together? They break it down!
• In the land of surprising announcements, E.L. James is writing a YA novel. You can pick up Land of Ghosts in October.
• For fans of the Fence comics, good news: you’ll be able to pick up deluxe volumes soon, starting with Fence Book One this fall.
• Jennifer Dugar talks about the need–or not–for a happily ever after in a YA romance and how she approached it in her most recent novel.
• Remember at the end of last year, I wrote a piece about how the YA category was having a coming-of-age crisis, and as part of it, I talked about two YA series that were repackaged as adult series? There’s now a third YA series getting the adult series makeover, and it’s Victoria Aveyard’s “Realm Breaker” trilogy.
• Here’s a big ole roundup of new YA books about awareness, activism, and empathy.
• Meg Cabot’s The Princess Diaries turns 25, and it’s being given the graphic novel treatment.
• YA author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé has a guest post over on Kathleen Schmidt’s Substack and it’s really good. It’s a look at how the publishing industry commodifies its young authors–and it immediately made me think of the fixation the industry had on Kody Keplinger and others in the 2010s and their youth.
• Every year, Read With Jenna pulls together recommended summer reads for young people. Here’s this summer’s list, including a handful of YA picks.

And the big news around these parts? We’ve debated and developed our list of some of The Best YA Books of the Century So Far. Next week, we’ll also be sharing the best YA books of the year so far–already, there’s another title I’d add to my picks if I had read it before our deadline, so I’m excited to talk about that one, too.