Ellie Bate

Square Fish
Paperback
288 pages • $13.99
ISBN: 9781250848031

11 College Tales from Orientation to Graduation

Aashna Avachat

College . . . the best time, the worst time, and something in between. What do you do when orientation isn’t going according to your (sister’s) detailed plans? Where do you go when you’re searching for community in faith? How do you figure out what it means that you’re suddenly attracted to your RA? What happens when your partner for your last film project is also your crush and graduation is quickly approaching? Told over the course of one academic year, this collection of stories set on the same fictional campus features students from different cultures, genders, and interests learning more about who they are and who they want to be. From new careers to community to (almost) missed connections—and more—these interconnected tales explore the ways university life can be stressful and confusing and exciting and fulfilling. Gen Z contributors include Jake Maia Arlow, Arushi Avachat, Boon Carmen, Ananya Devarajan, Camryn Garrett, Christina Li, Racquel Marie, Oyin, Laila Sabreen, Michael Waters, and Joelle Wellington.

Aashna Avachat is a YA author and editorial assistant with a love for hope-filled stories. She graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, in spring 2020 with a BA in English and is currently a 1L at Harvard Law School. She is passionate about amplifying marginalized voices in publishing and increasing space for readers to see themselves in book pages. Study Break is her first book. When she’s not writing, she’s probably reading on a sunny patch of grass, going on long walks to grocery stores, or being cozy with one of her many foster kittens.

Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Hardcover
496 pages • $20.99
ISBN: 9780374314347

The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed

Dashka Slater

“This is a compelling and contemporary cautionary tale that should be required reading for any teen before they create, comment, or even like a media post.”

—Booklist, starred review

When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account. Pretty soon, everyone knew. Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery. Not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults—educators and parents—whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse. In the end, no one was laughing. And everyone was left asking: Where does accountability end for online speech that harms? And what does accountability even mean? Award-winning and New York Times–bestselling author Dashka Slater has written a must-read book for our era that explores the real-world consequences of online choices.

Dashka Slater is an Award-winning journalist, she has written for such publications as The New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, Salon, and Mother Jones. Her New York Times-bestselling young-adult true crime narrative, The 57 Bus, has received numerous accolades, including the Stonewall Book Award, the California Book Award, and a Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor. It was a YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Award Finalist and an LA Times Book Award Finalist, in addition to receiving four starred reviews and being named to more than 20 separate lists of the year’s best books, including ones compiled by The Washington Post, the New York Public Library, and School Library Journal. In 2021, The 57 Bus was named to TIME magazine’s list of the 100 Best Young Adult Books of All Time. The author of fifteen books of fiction and nonfiction for children and adults, Dashka teaches in Hamline University’s MFA in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults program. She lives and writes in Oakland, California.