Keynote Three: Senior Year

       Back to School season is in full swing, and to celebrate the first day of my last year of high school, I thought it would be fun to put together a few of my favorite books about senior year. The three that I have chosen (Which all happen to be purple, my favorite color if you couldn’t tell. I love it.) are the ones that most accurately represents my senior experiences so far. If you have any other recommendations for senior year books, please leave them in the comments below. I’d love to read them during the school year!

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Always and Forever, Lara Jean, by Jenny Han

       Lara Jean is having the best senior year. And there’s still so much to look forward to: a class trip to New York City, prom with her boyfriend Peter, Beach Week after graduation, and her dad’s wedding to Ms. Rothschild. Then she’ll be off to college with Peter, at a school close enough for her to come home and bake chocolate chip cookies on the weekends.
       Life couldn’t be more perfect!
       At least, that’s what Lara Jean thinks…until 

she gets some unexpected news.
       Now the girl who dreads change must rethink all her plans—but when your heart and your head are saying two different things, which one should you listen to?

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       Since the first book in this trilogy just got adapted into a Netflix movie (if you didn’t know this, have you been living in a cave for the past month?), this book was the first that came to mind when I thought of my senior year. I read this book last summer, and I remember, quite vividly, that it was the first YA book that I had ever read that discussed a college decision. The decision process has just started up for me, so I am relating more and more to her story. Reading this book was the first time that I realized that it’s okay to still be figuring out what you want to do after high school. All three of Jenny’s books are super cute and relatable; they’re perfect high school contemporaries. If you haven’t picked them up yet, what are you waiting for? Go! Now! Read!

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Autoboyography, by Christina Lauren

       Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

       But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity.
       It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him. 

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       In the mood for an LGBTQ senior year? Well, this is certainly the book for you. This book is one of my all-time favorite contemporaries, hands down. I had heard people raving about it, but I didn’t get around to it super quickly. But, man, when I did, I COULD NOT SET THIS THING DOWN. I was reading this book ANYWHERE I could squeeze in a few pages. Tanner and Sebastian are the CUTEST (I think I even fell in love). Besides the abundance of cute and romantic scenes, Tanner’s narration was the funniest I have ever read. To top it all off, this book discusses real-life issues surrounding homosexuality, which I think everyone needs to think about. 

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​Foolish Hearts, by Emma Mills

       A contemporary novel about a girl whose high school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream leads her to new friends—and maybe even new love.
       The day of the last party of the summer, Claudia overhears a conversation she wasn't supposed to. Now on the wrong side of one of the meanest girls in school, Claudia doesn't know what to expect when the two are paired up to write a paper—let alone when they're both 

​forced to try out for the school production of A Midsummer Night's Dream.
       But mandatory participation has its upsides—namely, an unexpected friendship, a boy band obsession, and a guy with the best dimpled smile Claudia's ever seen. As Claudia's world starts to expand, she finds that maybe there are some things worth sticking her neck out for.

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       As a theatre nerd myself, this book is the perfect representation of me and my fellow thespians. I am always surprised when I talk to people and they aren’t aware of how much work goes into the production of a live show. Granted, this isn’t the focus of the story. Our main character, Claudia, gets herself into a bit of drama right before the start of senior year. As the year progresses, she experiences a bunch of new events and relationships which provide for a great tale. This book was another one with great narration and laugh-out-loud lines that made me want to keep reading.

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       And those are the three senior books you should read as I enter my last year of high school! Let me know what books I should read this year in the comments.

Your graduate-hopeful,
Ashton

​Senior year. And then life. Maybe that's the way it worked. High school was just a prologue to the real novel. Everybody got to write you -- but when you graduated, you got to write yourself. At graduation you got to collect your teacher's pens and your parents' pens and you got your own pen. And you could do all the writing. Yeah. Wouldn't that be sweet?

— Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe