5 YAs Featuring Student-Teacher Relationships

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Boy Toy In college romances, the teacher-student relationship is a common trope, used to instill a romantic boundary and infuse an otherwise legal pairing with a certain amount of taboo. In YA, however, things get a lot more complicated, and these stories can intersect with abuse, consent, legality, self-esteem, and sexual discovery. Here are five (okay, six) books that approach crossing the line in different ways.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Even When You Lie to Me, by Jessica Alcott
One of my sleeper favorites of the year so far, Alcott’s debut had me laughing out loud while sitting on the edge of my seat, waiting for things to blow up. I’d expected a really emotional, soul-searching journey, but what I got was so much better: an authentic teen voice belonging to a girl who just wants to feel her worth and get close with someone who makes her feel she stands out in the crowd. Both sexually and emotionally honest, this book is so much of what I love about YA, and does an excellent job examining The Line without ever leaping over it.

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Boy Toy

Barry Lyga

Paperback

$11.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Boy Toy, by Barry Lyga
Lyga might be best known for his terrifying I Hunt Killers series, but this important contemporary is definitely not to be missed. While most teacher-student books in any category feature nearly (if not actually) legal female students and male teachers, this one features a boy reflecting on the relationship he had with his teacher when he was twelve, prompted by her being released from prison as he’s embarking on a new relationship. Until now, he’s been trying to put that past behind him, but facing it, and understanding he was a victim of abuse, may be the only way he can have a real future.

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Where You Are

J.H. Trumble

Paperback

$18.00

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Where You Are, by J.H. Trumble
This is one I haven’t read yet, but I swear, at least once a month, my Twitter feed somehow turns into a J.H. Trumble rec-a-thon. This one features a high school senior named Robert who’s feeling lost and alone when his father is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, and ends up turning to the only person who seems to care: his calculus teacher, Andrew McNelis.

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Slammed (Slammed Series #1)

Colleen Hoover

4.8

Paperback

$14.99

$17.99

This item is currently out of stock online.

Notes From Your Bookseller

Slammed, by Colleen Hoover
Although this is actually one of the most successful novels of the New Adult category, the content helps it fit quite snugly in with its YA counterparts. Layken is a high school senior who’s just lost her father. Will is her attractive new neighbor, a slam poet…and, unwittingly to both of them when they hit it off, her teacher. Though they force themselves apart for the year, misfortune and tragedy, as well as their physical proximity and the friendship between their brothers, keep bringing them together. Genre-wise, this is indeed a romance, but Will’s nobility keeps things as kosher as possible. (For an NA romance that full-on embraces the taboo and contains a whole lot more sexual content, I highly recommend Leah Raeder’s Unteachable.)

Notes From Your Bookseller

Drowning Instinct, by Ilsa J. Bick
For those who love books that dance hard around moral gray areas, this is definitely a discussion-worthy one. Jenna Lord’s life hasn’t been an easy one, so when she sees a potential source of care and comfort in her new teacher, falling into a relationship with him almost seems natural. Though it’s both illicit and illegal, and both of them are keeping secrets, the way they seem to save each other from lives they barely feel are worth living makes the reader take a second glance, and at least examine whether the rules remain the same in a world where the villains might not be who we thought they were.

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The Black Shield: A Guest Post from Wilbur L. Cooper

In The Black Shield, reporter Wilbert L. Cooper explores the complex lives of Black cops living and working in Cleveland as part of the Black Shield organization. Read on for an essay from Wilbur L. Cooper about writing The Black Shield. When I talk about The Black Shield, I often tell people that I started writing it in 2020, the year of George Floyd's murder. I do this because the book is nominally about Black cops, and in the aftermath of Floyd's murder, there was a lot of talk about diversity as a panacea for the racial problems of American policing. Some people made the argument that the hiring of more Black cops would ensure that what happened to Floyd would never happen again. And it's true, I did spend 2020 talking to experts and historians, diving into police archives and reading studies. I did a lot of real journalism stuff. But if I’m being honest, I didn't start thinking about Black cops in 2020. I've been reflecting on the conflicting promise and plight of Black cops my whole life, because I was born into a family of Black cops. I've had family members in the Cleveland police department since the end of World War II up through the Black Lives Matter Era. And so I’ve been thinking about Black cops and what they mean and what they do since I was a child watching my mother, a strong Black woman named Gayle, don a blue uniform and a silver badge. Even as a little child, I desperately wanted to know who my mother transformed into when she went out into the world with a city-issued gun in her holster. And when there have been these visceral incidents of police violence like George Floyd or Tyre Nichols, I've wondered, What my mother's role could be in an institution like that? What does that killing have to do with the work of my father, my sister, my uncle and great uncles? To answer that question, I've been having talks with my family that I never had before, tracing their journeys into policing, as well as talks with their peers and Black cops from all across the country of various generations. So while The Black Shield encapsulates my own story, it's also filled with all of their testimony. Their witnessing for you from behind the blue wall is more harrowing than what you might hear from an activist who advocates for police abolition. For the readers who are still wondering if diversity can make policing work for Black folks, you will have a lot to think about when reading my book. But The Black Shield also addresses much bigger issues of family, assimilation, survival in America, and freedom. I hope that you all will go on that journey with me.