SUBSCRIBE
SUBSCRIBE
SLJ Blog Network +
  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal: A Mock Newbery Blog
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • About TLT
  • Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • A to Z Book Lists
    • Book Review Policy
  • Teen Issues
  • Middle Grade Mondays
  • Programs
    • TPiB
    • Tech Talk
  • Professional
    • Teen Services 101
    • Things We Didn’t Learn in Library School
  • MakerSpace
  • Projects
    • #SVYALit
    • #FSYALit
    • #MHYALit
    • #Poverty in YA Lit

November 20, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS

YA A to Z: Jenny Torres Sanchez

November 20, 2014 by Karen Jensen, MLS   Leave a Comment

Here’s a fun fact for you: The first author to ever work with me for anything here at Teen Librarian Toolbox, when it was just me and I had zero to no idea what I was doing, was then debut author Jenny Torres Sanchez. I met her at ALA as she was promoting her debut novel The Downside of Being Charlie.

I fell instantly in love with Charlie because here was a book about a very authentic teenager, the geeky, insecure and uncomfortable in his own skin teens that I knew and had been working with for years. And Charlie was an artist, using photography as a means to help him figure out the world much the way that another great YA character I love does: Glory O’Brien. Except Charlie did it first, but these are great complimentary novels to highlight using art and looking at life through the lens of a camera.

SCROLL TO KEEP READING THIS POST

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

But as much as I loved Charlie, I was blown away by Sanchez’s second book: Death, Dickinson and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia. Frenchie Garcia is obsessed with death, and very, very depressed. She is getting ready to graduate high school but suddenly her after school plans are changing, in part because her male best friend is thinking about going in some different directions. One of the main reasons for Frenchie’s current struggles involves her high school crush. You see, when she finally spends one night hanging out with him, she wakes up the next morning to learn that after they parted ways he took his own life. Now she is struggling with questions: Did he do something that night that might have indicated what was going to happen? Did she miss something? Could she have helped? So one night she embarks on a journey with a new friend where they revisit all of the stops she made that night to see if she can find the answers she needs to move forward. I really love this book and think it is an under-rated gem. It taps into those deep emotions of fear and guilt and uncertainty and really allows us to journey with Frenchie as she tries to find a way to move out of the molasses of depression that is holding her hostage.

About Jenny:

“My name is just Jenny, not Jennifer, or Victoria, or Elizabeth, or Lizzie, which is what I tried to make friends and my sister call me when I was younger because Jenny didn’t sound fancy enough. I spent a lot of time trying to come up with better names because I thought Jenny was too plain. I was quite the aristocrat, you see. I even tried to convince my fourth grade teacher that my name was Gennifer (like the creative spelling?), which caused a lot of confusion on that year’s state assessment test. Anyway, I like Jenny now and find it suits me just fine.” As you can see from reading a part of her bio, Jenny has a fantastic sense of humor.

I follow Jenny on Twitter and she claims to be a long lost twin sister of Dallas author Julie Murphy. Jenny is artistic, which probably helps explain why both of her main characters in her first two novels have been so artistic. But I say bring on the arts, we need more arts! Jenny was a high school teacher but is now writing and raising her kids, the youngest of whom is around 1 years old. For those of you who are actively looking for ways to support more diversity in your YA collection, Jenny Torres Sanchez is a Latina author that you can confidently add to your collections because her books have an authentic teen voice that captures the rich emotional lives of teens.

I can tell you that Jenny loves A. S. King and even wrote a post about Please Ignore Me, Vera Dietz as part of the Why YA series. Her post about King prompted me to read the book and I am now obsessed with A. S. King. So if you ever get sick of my A. S. King obsession, just remember that Jenny Torres Sanchez is the one who started it all. Jenny may be the only person who understands that every time I get to have a moment in conversation with A. S. King I kind of tear up; we have a mutual admiration society going. She was one of the first authors I interviewed and you can read that interview here. I haven’t actually gotten any better at interviewing authors, but I’ll never forget how kind she was working with me in those early blog days.

I am looking forward to reading more great YA novels in the future by Jenny Torres Sanchez. If for some reason you don’t yet have Jenny on your radar, do be sure and go pick up both The Downside of Being Charlie and Death, Dickinson and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia. And yes, the Dickinson is Emily Dickson (her ghost makes an appearance of course). And in case I didn’t make myself clear, I really, really, really adore Death, Dickinson and the Demented Life of Frenchie Garcia.

Join the conversation!  Share a post about your favorite author OR tweet us your favorite author with the tag #YAAtoZ. While we’re sharing our favorite authors, we would love to hear about yours. We all might find some new authors we haven’t heard of before. And the more authors we share, the more comprehensive and diverse the list becomes. On Twitter, we’re @TLT16, @boothheather, @robinreads, and @citesomething.

#YAAtoZ Schedule: Week 1 4: A ; 5: B ; 6: C ; 7: D  Week 2 10: E ; 11: F ; 12: G, H, I ; 13: J, K ; 14: L  Week 3 17: M ; 18: N, O ; 19: P, Q ; 20: R, S ; 21: T  Week 4 24: U ; 25: V, W ; 26: X ; 27: Y ; 28: Z

Filed under: YA A to Z

SHARE:

Read or Leave Comments

About Karen Jensen, MLS

Karen Jensen has been a Teen Services Librarian for almost 30 years. She created TLT in 2011 and is the co-editor of The Whole Library Handbook: Teen Services with Heather Booth (ALA Editions, 2014).

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Posts

January 2018

YA A to Z: Bullying by Michelle Biwer

by Karen Jensen, MLS

November 2014

YA A to Z: An Alphabet Soup of YA Authors - the list

by Karen Jensen, MLS

November 2014

YA A to Z: Sara Zarr

by Karen Jensen, MLS

November 2014

YA A to Z: Gene Luen Yang

by Karen Jensen, MLS

November 2014

YA A to Z: Francisco X. Stork (a guest post by Linda Jerome)

by Karen Jensen, MLS

ADVERTISEMENT

SLJ Blog Network

100 Scope Notes

Sydney Taylor Blog Tour: THE TOWER OF LIFE by Chana Stiefel and Susan Gal

by Travis Jonker

A Fuse #8 Production

Abecedarian Movement and Dance: A Q&A with Corinna Luyken About ABC and You and Me!

by Betsy Bird

Good Comics for Kids

Haley Newsome on Unfamiliar | Interview

by J. Caleb Mozzocco

Heavy Medal

What’s Coming in 2023, A Feedback Poll, and Goodbye for Now…

by Steven Engelfried

Teen Librarian Toolbox

Writing Trans Joy in Spite of Everything, a guest post by Edward Underhill

by Amanda MacGregor

The Classroom Bookshelf

The Classroom Bookshelf is Moving

by Erika Thulin Dawes

The Yarn

A Book 25 Years in the Making: Marla Frazee Visits The Yarn

by Travis Jonker

ADVERTISEMENT

Related Articles on SLJ

12 YA Titles Publishing in 2022 That Feature Asian American Protagonists

13 Hard-Hitting Nonfiction, Immersive Poetry, and Magnetic Thrillers for Teens | We Are Kid Lit Collective

8 Realistic YA Novels To Break Your Heart—and Put It Back Together | Summer Reading 2020

19 Top Books for Tween and Teen Climate Activists

Spotting Misinformation and #FakeNews: 10 Resources To Teach Students Media Literacy

Commenting for all posts is disabled after 30 days.

ADVERTISEMENT

Archives

Follow This Blog

Enter your email address below to receive notifications of new blog posts by email.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

This coverage is free for all visitors. Your support makes this possible.

Primary Sidebar

  • News & Features
  • Reviews+
  • Technology
  • School Libraries
  • Public Libraries
  • Age Level
  • Ideas
  • Blogs
  • Classroom
  • Diversity
  • People
  • Job Zone

Reviews+

  • Book Lists
  • Best Books
  • Media
  • Reference
  • Series Made Simple
  • Tech
  • Review for SLJ
  • Review Submissions

SLJ Blog Network

  • 100 Scope Notes
  • A Fuse #8 Production
  • Good Comics for Kids
  • Heavy Medal
  • Neverending Search
  • Teen Librarian Toolbox
  • The Classroom Bookshelf
  • The Yarn

Resources

  • 2022 Youth Media Awards
  • The Newbery at 100: SLJ Celebrates the 100th Anniversary of the Award
  • Special Report | School Libraries 2021
  • Summer Reading 2021
  • Series Made Simple Spring 2021
  • SLJ Diverse Books Survey
  • Summer Programming Survey
  • Research
  • White Papers / Case Studies
  • School Librarian of the Year
  • Mathical Book Prize Collection Development Awards
  • Librarian/Teacher Collaboration Award

Events & PD

  • In-Person Events
  • Online Courses
  • Virtual Events
  • Webcasts
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe
  • Media Inquiries
  • Newsletter Sign Up
  • Content Submissions
  • Data Privacy
  • Terms of Use
  • Terms of Sale
  • FAQs
  • Diversity Policy
  • Careers at MSI


COPYRIGHT © 2023


COPYRIGHT © 2023