Indigo Teen Staff Pick: August 2019

Welcome to my Indigo Teen Staff Pick of the Month blog post for August 2019! If you’ve been following my Instagram, you might have noticed that I’ve been posting about the Indigo Teen Staff Picks since November 2017. I started talking about these picks in January 2018, and have enjoyed discussing them with you all! Keep reading to see which book is this month’s Indigo Teen Staff Pick!

For those hearing about Indigo Teen Staff Pick of the Month for the first time, it’s a program run by Chapters/Indigo Books & Music Inc. in which 100 staff members read a number of teen and YA books and then vote for their pick of the month! Each monthly pick is announced by Chapters/Indigo at the beginning of each month, and each of the picks are kept secret until then! Isn’t that exciting? Please be sure to use #IndigoStaffPicks if you share anything about this on social media, or if you want to show off your own copy of a Teen Staff Picks book (in connection to this)!

Spin the Dawn by Elizabeth Lim

You can read the synopsis below, and get your own copy
at a reduced price on the Chapters / Indigo website this month!

Title: Spin the Dawn
Author: Elizabeth Lim
Type: Fiction
Genre: YA, Fantasy
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers
Published: July 9, 2008

Maia Tamarin dreams of becoming the greatest tailor in the land, but as a girl, the best she can hope for is to marry well. When a royal messenger summons her ailing father, once a tailor of renown, to court, Maia poses as a boy and takes his place. She knows her life is forfeit if her secret is discovered, but she’ll take that risk to achieve her dream and save her family from ruin. There’s just one catch: Maia is one of twelve tailors vying for the job.

Backstabbing and lies run rampant as the tailors compete in challenges to prove their artistry and skill. Maia’s task is further complicated when she draws the attention of the court magician, Edan, whose piercing eyes seem to see straight through her disguise.

And nothing could have prepared her for the final challenge: to sew three magic gowns for the emperor’s reluctant bride-to-be, from the laughter of the sun, the tears of the moon, and the blood of stars. With this impossible task before her, she embarks on a journey to the far reaches of the kingdom, seeking the sun, the moon, and the stars, and finding more than she ever could have imagined.

Elizabeth Lim grew up on a hearty staple of fairy tales, myths, and songs. Her passion for storytelling began around age 10, when she started writing fanfics for Sailor Moon, Sweet Valley, and Star Wars, and posted them online to discover, “Wow, people actually read my stuff. And that’s kinda cool!” But after one of her teachers told her she had “too much voice” in her essays, Elizabeth took a break from creative writing to focus on not flunking English… But she always missed writing, and turned to penning stories when she needed a breather from grad school. One day, she decided to write and finish a novel — for kicks, at first, then things became serious — and she hasn’t looked back since. Elizabeth loves classic film scores, books with a good romance, food (she currently has a soft spot for arepas and Ethiopian food), the color turquoise, overcast skies, English muffins, cycling, and baking. She lives in New York City with her husband.