7 YAs That Take You to Art School

The Truth Commission, by Susan Juby
Out this month, The Truth Commission is a novel written in a wonderfully unconventional way, presented as a narrative nonfiction book complete with footnotes, illustrations, even notes written by the characters. It’s the class project of Normandy Pale, and offers layers upon layers for book nerds to freak out over. Normandy attends Green Pastures Academy of Art & Design, where, along with her best friends Dusk and Neil, she cofounds the Truth Commission, a club that helps students reveal the truths that everyone gossips about but won’t really talk about in the open, from sexual orientation to dark family secrets. But while in the pursuit of truth though, Normandy suddenly finds she has to “look a little closer to home,” examining herself, her friends, and her family, especially her secretive and eccentric sister, who has made a fortune turning her family into fodder for her graphic novel series.

The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy, by Kate Hattemer
So… best title ever, right? I mean, come on. Awesome. In The Vigilante Poets of Selwyn Academy, a reality TV show is being filmed at the Selwyn Arts Academy, a high school packed full of talented, artsy kids. And while the school is into it, with students competing for scholarships on the program, Ethan and his friends Luke, Jackson, and Elizabeth want to take it down: the program, For Art’s Sake, has no place in the art world, and it’s getting in the way of their education. To dismantle it, the brave poets work on their own epic poem that explains why For Art’s Sake is so awful, and start to unravel secrets and corruption among the school’s administration and faculty. There’s so much Ezra Pound in this book. So much. And that’s a wonderful thing.

Simon Says, by Elaine Marie Alphin
In Simon Says, readers meet Charles Weston, an absolutely brilliant young artist who signs up for a private arts high school just so he can meet a YA novelist, Graeme Brandt. But Graeme isn’t a teacher at the school, he’s a high school senior, a young prodigy of a writer. The title of the book comes from a line in Graeme’s book, claiming that everyone in the world is just playing a game of Simon Says, doing what people want them to do, repeating what they think they should. And Charles wants to learn how to break out of that routine, and start showing off the art he’s grown scared of revealing to the world.

Same Difference, by Siobhan Vivian
Tired of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Emily heads to Philadelphia to enroll in a special, invitation-only art program that’ll take up her summer. She wants a fresh start and to meet new friends, maybe find people who will understand her and her artwork. As someone who has made the move from New Jersey to Philadelphia, I can say that yes, Philadelphia does have all the answers, as well as all the cheesesteaks. But maybe not for Emily. She finds herself torn between her new social life and working on her art, her new friends and her old life, and starts to learn more about who she is and what she really wants.

Radiant Days, by Elizabeth Hand
Alright, time to explore a little bit of magic and fantasy in the art school YA novel genre. In Hand’s Radiant Days, two artists enter each other’s eras thanks to the power of their words and their art. One of them, Merle, is attending the Corcoran School of Art, until she’s whisked away from poverty and into a sophisticated art scene in Washington, D.C., 1978. The other artist? Arthur Rimbaud (which makes this a bit of a historical/fantasy/sci-fi novel, as Rimbaud is a real poet) as a teenager, on the brink of finally breaking out in France in 1870.

Zero, by Tom Leveen
Punk music! Salvador Dali quotes! Romance! There’s a lot to love in Tom Leveen’s Zero, a novel that introduces readers to Amanda “Zero” Walsh, an almost–art school attendee who finds herself taking courses at a nearby community college. See, Amanda got into an awesome art institute, and had her whole post–high school life planned out. Unfortunately, she doesn’t qualify for the scholarship that would actually get her there. With Zero’s low self-esteem, crumbling family, and loss of confidence regarding her art, it seems like there’s a lot in her way. Until along comes a new romance, along with a chance to grow and maybe get that confidence back.

See What I See, by Gloria Whelan
In Zero, our protagonist couldn’t afford her dream school due to missing out on a scholarship, and gets trapped at home. In See What I See, the issue of financial strain continues, only this time, our protagonist pushes on, because at least she has a place to stay near her dream school in Detroit. However, that place is living with her famous and reclusive artist father, Dalton, who she hasn’t seen in a decade. But she packs her bags and just shows up, ready to build some kind of relationship with her estranged father, no matter how awful he might be.