This Week in YA — Issue #66
Welcome to the Voyage newsletter!
It’s another new week and another installment of this newsletter for you this week, my fellow YA enthusiasts. First off, it’s my favorite month once again—National Poetry Month, yippee! We’ll be sharing some poetry resources all month long, starting with one below. We’ve also got some additional resources on how to combat book banning, information that’s unfortunately still very much needed. And as always, we’ve got another interview with a fabulous YA author. To access News and Resources plus Weekly Inspiration from Kip, we invite you to subscribe using the button below. Thank you for your continued support!
The 5 Questions Interview Series
Each week, this newsletter will include interviews with industry professionals sharing insight about the who, what, where, when, why in YA today.
Today we’ve got an interview with journalist, activist, and author Ruchira Gupta, whose debut YA novel, I Kick and I Fly, releases next week. As you’ll see in Ruchira’s bio below, this novel was very much inspired by the real work she has done to help women. Just incredible. I for one cannot wait to read this book, and I hope you all add it to your TBR lists too!
5 Questions Interview with Ruchira Gupta, journalist, activist, and author
ABOUT I KICK AND I FLY
On the outskirts of the Red Light District in Bihar, India, fourteen-year-old Heera is living on borrowed time until her father sells her into the sex trade to help feed their family and repay his loans. It is, as she's been told, the fate of the women in her community to end up here. But watching her cousin, Meera Di, live this life day in and day out is hard enough. To live it feels like the worst fate imaginable. And after a run-in with a bully leads to her expulsion from school, it feels closer than ever.
But when a local hostel owner shows up at Heera's home with the money to repay her family's debt, Heera begins to learn that fate can change. Destiny can be disrupted. Heroics can be contagious.
It's at the local hostel for at risk girls that Heera is given a transformative opportunity: learning kung fu with the other girls. Through the practice of martial arts, she starts to understand that her body isn't a an object to be commodified and preyed upon, but a vessel through which she can protect herself and those around her. And when Heera discovers the whereabouts of her missing friend, Rosy, through a kung fu pen pal in the US, she makes the decision to embark on a daring rescue mission to New York in an attempt to save her.
A triumphant, shocking story inspired by Ruchira Gupta's experience making the Emmy-award winning documentary, The Selling of Innocents, this is an unforgettable story of overcoming adversity by a life-long activist who has dedicated her life to creating a world where no child is bought or sold.
ABOUT RUCHIRA GUPTA
Ruchira Gupta is a writer, feminist campaigner, professor at New York University, and founder of the anti-sex-trafficking organization, Apne Aap Women Worldwide. She won the Clinton Global Citizen award in 2009, the Sera Bangali Award in 2012, and an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism in 1996. She has helped more than twenty thousand girls and women in India exit prostitution systems. She has also edited As If Women Matter, an anthology of Gloria Steinem’s essays, and written manuals on human trafficking for the UN Office for Drugs and Crime. Ruchira divides her time between Delhi and New York. I Kick and I Fly is her debut novel.
1. Who: Who are your instabuy, go-to YA authors? And which new talent have you discovered recently?
Hmmm. So many. Hundreds. But the names that just popped up in my head are Susan Collins, Angie Davis, John Green, Gayle Forman and Jason Reynolds. I also love Angeline Boulley.
But having said that I can’t stop. I have discovered more authors and more compelling stories this year. I have had the pleasure of finding books by Betty C Tang, Brandon Hobson, Meg Kuyatt, Aida Salazar, and Areli Molares.
They portray contemporary issues that affect young people with unwavering honesty in an interesting and compelling way. It’s been a revelation to read their books-like the clouds in the sky parting after a storm. I knew some of the things they talk about existed but did not have a story to understand. Now I do.
And finally, Ayaan Mahmoud's, You Think You Know Me book is piercing painful and beautiful.
2. What: What was the most joyful moment in preparing to bring I Kick and I Fly into the world?
I think when my characters-Heera, and her brother, Salman began to dictate the story to me. My fingers just flew over the keypad. The most free-ing moment was when I realized that I did not have to worry about what would happen next, or that I would forget to add something vital. Heera and Salman would tell me and I could trust them. They became real people.
Another wonderful moment was in an early meeting with Scholastic. My editor told me that they saw truth and hope in that book. Those words paved the way for I Kick and I Fly to stick to the true-life experiences I had witnessed through my NGO, Apne Aap. I began writing the book when a girl just like Heera won a gold medal in Karate.
3. Where: Where is the state of YA right now, from where you sit? Where do you hope to see it go next?
Young Adult literature today is more diverse, more truthful, and therefore more relevant.
Kids suddenly see people like themselves in the narrative, talking about and doing things which are present in their lives but never talked about. They find reassurance that they are not alone after all but a viable part of a larger community of beings who share a common humanity.
Young adult literature now is set in the real, contemporary world and addresses problems, issues, and life circumstances of interest to young readers. It tells them the truth, however disagreeable that may sometimes be, and in this way, it equips them for dealing with the realities of impending adulthood.
That is why both its sales and the size of its population segment has expanded and reluctant young adult readers have become avid young adult readers.
It’s a misconception to think that young people are predominantly narcissistic. YA novels will always deal with identity, but my hope is that with time we will see more stories where Black kids, marginalized girls, or queer people of color will get to celebrate their lives in all its dimensions—political, economic, social, and cultural—be joyful, angry, happy, useful, and celebrated in every way.
4. When: Looking ahead to next year (or beyond), what exciting things are next on the horizon for you?
I have another YA book with Scholastic coming out set in the Arizona desert. I have plot lines for two more—one has a ghost and a skeleton. So, I guess the future holds writing and interacting with more teenagers.
And!!! There is a TV series of I Kick and I Fly in the works. Shhh! It’s a secret right now. I can’t tell more. But you will see Heera kick and fly on screen.
5. Why: Why YA? What draws you to writing for this age group?
I want young people to know what children their age go through, what hunger and exploitation can mean, but also for them to know that change is possible. That they too can stand up to injustice in their own way and win.
In my own life I have found that the pursuit of justice is an adventure and the friends that we make along the way become a family of choice.
I want to share all this with young people who are just starting to chart their own life’s journey, so that they too can find hope and inspiration. After all, it’s all true.
