From Judy Blume to Edward Said, these are the writers that superstar YA author S.K. Ali loved reading
The Toronto writer shares six of her favourite books that led to her latest novel, Fledgling
Toronto author S.K. Ali was only 12 when she wrote a summer essay which prompted her teacher to ask at the time if she knew she was a "bonafide writer with a capital 'W.'"
She went on to be exactly that — a writer and an educator whose novels centre the honest experiences of joy, love and sorrow from the lens of young Muslim people.
Ali is mostly known for her thoughtful coming-of-age and romantic YA literature like Saints and Misfits, Love from A to Z and Love from Mecca to Medina. She has also ventured into children's books with her picture book The Proudest Blue and the middle-grade anthology she co-edited, Once Upon an Eid which won the Middle East Book Honor Award in 2020.
She will also serve as the judge of the 2025 First Page student writing challenge, which asks Canadian students to write the first page of a sci-fi novel set 150 years in the future.
Ali's latest novel explores a different genre to everything she has done before — dystopian science fiction. In Fledgling: The Keeper's Records of Revolution, the first of a YA duology, two earths are on the brink of self-destruction. When the dutiful Raisa of Upper Earth is arranged to be married to Lein, the Crown Prince of Lower Earth, Raisa obliges in the hopes of preventing further war. Lein's cousin and recently imprisoned Nada have a different idea: stop the royal wedding and spark a revolution. As tensions rise between both worlds, the paths to tyranny or peace become more and more blurred.
In an interview with CBC Books, Ali quoted another science fiction writer Patrick Ness as her reasoning for switching up genres. "He said it's because science fiction is where you go to explore the biggest ideas — it's the reason I wrote my newest title, Fledgling."
Throughout Ali's life, she has been influenced by the power of stories for and about young people. Reading nonfiction also played a key role in her life in terms of empowering her identity and her purpose as a writer.
These are the books that spoke to Ali in key moments throughout her life:
Taro and the Tofu by Masako Matsuno, illustrated by Kazue Mizumura
Originally published in 1962, Taro and the Tofu is a children's picture book about a young boy who learns the value of being honest. Taro is sent to buy tofu for his mother, he ventures out into the cold, (remove this sentence?) and when the shopkeeper gives him too much change, he has to make an important decision.
Masako Matsuno and Kazue Mizumura are the Japanese author and illustrators behind Taro and Tofu and many other children's books including A Pair of Red Clogs.
"Before Taro and the Tofu, as a seven-year-old, I thought that reading was decoding words on the page out loud perfectly so my teacher or parents could hear," said Ali. "Taro and the Tofu showed me that reading was even simpler: I just had to step inside the story and open my mind to the adventure to come."
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great by Judy Blume
Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great is a chapter book within Judy Blume's Fudge series. Sheila Tubman is figuring out who she is as a very young girl. When she is confident, she's Sheila the Great but when she feels scared, she feels small. After her family chooses to spend the summer in the country, Sheila is forced to face her fears, everything from creepy crawlies to swimming lessons.
Blume is an American writer of over 26 books for kids and teens. She is well-known for her books, Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret, Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing, Blubber and more. She was listed as one of Time Magazines 100 most influential people in the world in 2023.
Ali credits Blume as a major influence to her writing from a young age.
"Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great had a main character who's unapologetically herself and as a young writer, it felt like permission to write freely.
"Something about the cadence with which Judy Blume wrote stirred the embers in my writerly heart. My journals in middle school can attest to that, as they were all written as though I was a character in Blume's novels, observing my family, my home and school with a wry, sighing, style," said Ali.
The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley
The Autobiography of Malcolm X is a staple of American historical nonfiction, documenting the life and work of the revolutionary and human rights activist known as Malcolm X. Published in 1964, this autobiography details his legacy within the Black Muslim movement and his theories on the concept of an American Dream. Malcolm X speaks to the systemic racism within the West and the work he was doing to combat societal problems prior to his assassination in 1965.
Alex Haley was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer of the novel, Roots, which was based on his family's history of enslavement in America. Haley wrote The Autobiography of Malcolm X based on a collection of interviews they conducted before his death.
"As a young teen, this book was heart-and-mind-shifting. The courage of Malcolm X to live life with truth and according to principles of justice, even if the truths he believed yesterday were shown to be lies today, felt incomparable to any modern nonfiction I'd read up until that moment," said Ali.
"Reading work like that actually made me commit to writing about hard topics, including issues of justice, which I've followed through on in my YA novels."
Orientalism by Edward W. Said
First published in 1978, Orientalism is a seminal text in political theory in which the term "Orientalism" was coined by Palestinian-American scholar and activist, Edward W. Said. Through extensive study, Said critiques the widespread influence of imperialism on culture and politics in the West and the East. He maps out the differences between the East and the West, and how people within the Middle East, North Africa and Asia are particularly marginalized.
Said was a Palestinian-American writer, critic and activist. He published 22 books in his lifetime including The Question of Palestine, Covering Islam and Peace and Its Discontents. He was also a professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He died in 2003 in New York City.
"Reading the history Said traces of the imperialist conjuring of the Other, the lesser yet alluring Other, and how much of this rendering remains in Western post-colonial writings and imagery, equipped me with a way to approach my own writing of my communities," said Ali.
We are here, just observing and sharing our lives that we belong to, that we helm, that we live unapologetically.- S.K Ali
"I would decentre the external gaze and take my characters out of otherness and apply the Judy Blume treatment to them, to us: we are here, just observing and sharing our lives that we belong to, that we helm, that we live unapologetically."
The Disreputable Life of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
In this coming-of-age novel, a teenage girl at a boarding school evolves into a potential criminal genius. The Disreputable Life of Frankie Landau-Banks follows Frankie through two years of high school when she starts dating senior Matthew Livingston, who happens to be part of an exclusively male secret club. Determined to figure out what they're up to, Frankie sets herself on a path of mischief and brilliance.
E. Lockhart is an American writer of novels for young adults. She is well-known for the novel We Were Liars, which is set to be adapted for television in 2025. Her other books include Genuine Fraud, Fly on the Wall and The Boyfriend List.
Reading YA fiction like Lockhart's encouraged Ali to write in this genre.
"[Lockhart] made me even more sure that I wanted to write young adult literature, that it was a space in publishing wide open to works challenging the status quo."
"Lockhart is like Blume in that her writing is clear and straightforward, almost deceptively so, and picks up a lot of meaning and layers as the story moves along — packing a wallop at the end, resulting in a breathtaking reading experience," said Ali.
The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness
The Knife of Never Letting Go is the first book in the YA dystopian series, Chaos Walking. In his small town, Todd Hewitt is on the cusp of no longer being the only boy among only men, as women were killed by "the germ" years ago. When Todd senses that the town is keeping something from him, he escapes with his dog only to run into a girl? As the men of the town chase them down, Todd is left to unravel the mystery of his strange New World.
Patrick Ness is an American-British novelist and screenwriter. He is best known for his YA novels which include the Chaos Walking trilogy and A Monster Calls which won the Carnegie Medal in 2012.
This book was a reading experience that took me right back to my childhood.- S.K. Ali
"This book was a reading experience that took me right back to my childhood. I had the same feelings of discovering a new author and series: glee at having so much to look forward to, a desire to slow down so as not [to] have this one finish so fast, and that mind-opening experience that I realized reading was as a seven-year-old," said Ali, who was inspired by Ness' love of science fiction in writing her latest novel, Fledgling.
Ali's comments have been edited for clarity and length.
