Ash

Ash

Malinda Lo.

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009

264pp.,pbk.,$9.99

ISBN 978-0340988374

Grades 8-12

Highly Recommended

Ash is an entrancing, lyrical and beautifully written fantasy. The author, Malinda Lo, explains that Ash is a retelling of the Cinderella story in a fantasy world that in some ways is a familiar one, but in one critical way is not. Ash is a lesbian retelling of Cinderella in which the heroine falls in love with a beautiful huntress instead of the prince. 

Lo masterfully portrays alternative lifestyles in such a manner that it does not take away from the captivating plot. The story does not revolve around her being a lesbian, and in fact it wasn't until quite late into the book  that I paused to consider that perhaps Ash had feelings for the huntress. What I found to be fascinating about this story was that Lo created a fantasy world in which homosexuality was completely normal. Lo explains that this allowed her to write Ash as a fairytale story, not as a coming out story.

Reviews and Awards for Ash

• Finalist for the 2010 William C. Morris YA Debut Award
• Nominated for the 2009 Andre Norton Award for Young Adult Science Fiction and Fantasy
• Finalist for the 2010 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Children’s Literature
• Finalist for the 2010 Lambda Literary Award (LGBT Children’s/Young Adult)
• Finalist for the 2010 Northern California Book Award(Children’s Literature)
• Finalist for the NCIBA 2010 Book of the Year (Teen Fiction)
• A Kirkus Best Young Adult Book of 2009
• A starred selection of the ALA’s 2010 Rainbow List
• Selected for the 2009 Locus Recommended Reading List
• Long-listed for the 2010 James Tiptree, Jr. Award
• Selected for the CCBC Choices 2010 list
• Selected for the New York Public Library’s 2010 Stuff for the Teen Age
• Selected for the CBC/Bank Street College of Education’s 2010 Best Children’s Books of the Year (PDF)
• Nominated for the 2011 Rhode Island Teen Book Award
• Selected for the Autumn ’09 Kids’ Indie Next List

 The Prequel

The Huntress, the companion novel to Ash.

Ash and Huntress are extremely powerful books that I would highly recommend adding to your YA collection as they give our LGBT students a voice. If you are interested in including more LGBT titles to your collection I have found that The American Library Association has one of the most comprehensive, reputable, and up to date Rainbow Books Bibliographies that I have come across.