As I prepare this post on December 5, 2021, I have just tweeted about The Last True Poets of the Sea by Julia Drake and found that waaaay too many people either don’t know about it, or don’t know how great it is, or don’t know that it’s a contemporary reimagining of Twelfth Night, or that it’s full of found family and the most stunning, lyrical writing. So consider this my shoving it in your face and saying READ IT because it is just so absolutely beautiful and even though it might make you cry, you won’t be sorry.
The Larkin family isn’t just lucky—they persevere. At least that’s what Violet and her younger brother, Sam, were always told. When the Lyric sank off the coast of Maine, their great-great-great-grandmother didn’t drown like the rest of the passengers. No, Fidelia swam to shore, fell in love, and founded Lyric, Maine, the town Violet and Sam returned to every summer.
But wrecks seem to run in the family: Tall, funny, musical Violet can’t stop partying with the wrong people. And, one beautiful summer day, brilliant, sensitive Sam attempts to take his own life.
Shipped back to Lyric while Sam is in treatment, Violet is haunted by her family’s missing piece-the lost shipwreck she and Sam dreamed of discovering when they were children. Desperate to make amends, Violet embarks on a wildly ambitious mission: locate the Lyric, lain hidden in a watery grave for over a century.
She finds a fellow wreck hunter in Liv Stone, an amateur local historian whose sparkling intelligence and guarded gray eyes make Violet ache in an exhilarating new way. Whether or not they find the Lyric, the journey Violet takes-and the bridges she builds along the way-may be the start of something like survival.
Epic, funny, and sweepingly romantic, The Last True Poets of the Sea is an astonishing debut about the strength it takes to swim up from a wreck.
Buy it: Amazon | B&N | Indiebound
Ryan La Sala writes about surreal things happening to queer people. He is the author behind the riotously imaginative 
Amanda DeWitt is an author and librarian, ensuring that she spends as much time around books as possible. She also enjoys Star Wars, Dungeons & Dragon-ing, and even more writing, just not whatever it is she really should be writing. She graduated from the University of South Florida with a Masters in Information and Library Science. She lives in Clearwater, Florida with her dogs, cats, and assortment of chickens. Aces Wild: A Heist is her debut novel.
Vitor Martins received his degree in journalism but works as an illustrator. He published his first YA novel Here the Whole Time in the U.S. in fall 2020. Already an established YA author in Brazil prior to coming to Scholastic, Vitor’s books have garnered much praise, including a starred review. Here the Whole Time was co-winner of the 2021 Global Literature In Libraries Initiative Translated YA Book Award. The book has been sold in several foreign territories, including The U.K./Commonwealth (Hodder Children’s Books), Germany (LYX, Bastei Lübbe AG), and Russia (Mann, Ivanov, and Ferber). It is also a finalist for the 2021 Latino Book Award for best young adult book originally in Portuguese. Additionally, Here the Whole Time‘s film rights have been optioned by Conspiração Films, one of the most prominent film producers in Brazil. Vitor is very active in the American and Brazilian YA communities – even having translated Abdi Nazemian’s Like A Love Story into Portuguese.
Emanuela Ragno always gets what she wants. With her daring mind and socialite schemes, she refuses to be the demure young lady everyone wants her to be. In her most ambitious move yet, she’s about to marry Alessandro Morandi, her childhood best friend and the heir to the wealthiest house in Occhia. Emanuela doesn’t care that she and her groom are both gay, because she doesn’t want a love match. She wants power, and through Ale, she’ll have it all.