Book Recommendations for Newsies Characters

I pretty much only talk about books on here, but I also really love musicals! One of my favorites is Newsies. I was ridiculously lucky in that I got to see it on Broadway a few weeks before it closed a few years ago, and it was amazing. (On a bookish note, one of the reasons I love it is that it introduced me to David Nasaw's books, but that's another story). I was so happy to find out that it would be filmed and shown in theaters, and seeing it again made me remember just how great it is.

I was thinking about whether I could find a way to fit it into a book blog post when I remembered a post that Emma @ Awkwordly Emma did (that I somehow can't find right now - I'll go back and edit this later if I can) where she recommended books to fictional characters. So I'm doing the same thing for Newsies characters!

For Jack Kelly, the leader of the strike, my first recommendation is I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN by Jandy Nelson. Jack's an artist, and this is the first book that comes to mind whenever I think about art. With art, though, I think the more obvious answer is comics! And for that, I have to go with HAWKEYE, the series that got me into comics. (With an honorable mention to MS. MARVEL, because I just can't talk about comics without mentioning Ms. Marvel.)

For Katherine Plumber, the reporter covering the strike and hoping that it'll be her big break, one book that comes to mind is one centering around another aspiring female reporter at the end of the 19th century - THESE SHALLOW GRAVES by Jennifer Donnelly. Jo Montfort's story has so much in common with Katherine's - though the former's is a bit darker - that I couldn't not include it. For a more contemporary read, I'd pick VIVIAN APPLE AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Katie Coyle, since Vivian goes to huge lengths to get answers about the unexplained Rapture-esque apocalypse.

Davey Jacobs, the brains behind (most of) the strike, seems like someone who likes fiction that gives him something bigger to think about. The books that really do that for me are the ones in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, especially the City Guards subseries. The first of these, GUARDS! GUARDS!, isn't my favorite, but you really can't go wrong with Discworld. Another book that really made me think is WILLFUL MACHINES by Tim Floreen, which raises some really fascinating questions about robots and what it means to be human.

I actually had kind of a hard time picking out books for Crutchie. I wanted to find books that really focused on friendship and family, but so many of them just didn't seem right. For an amazing friend group, though, you can't beat THE DARKEST MINDS series by Alexandra Bracken - such amazing characters who fit together so well! Then, I settled on one of my most recent reads: A LIST OF CAGES by Robin Roe, for the bond between Julian and Adam. Their interactions were my favorite parts of the book.

Did you see Newsies in theaters? What are some of your favorite musicals? Tell me in the comments!