Heather Maclean, author of Toward a Secret Sky, shows us the vibrant landscapes that inspired the settings for several YA novels.
YA: On Location
Visit the fantastic real-life settings of YA novels
Often where a novel is set is so integral to the story, it becomes almost a character itself. While fantasy worlds are nice to dream about, check out these amazing real-life locations in some of our favorite YA titles, including how they inspired the authors and some of their personal photographs.
The Scottish Highlands & London
‘Toward a Secret Sky’ by Heather Maclean
Honeymooning in Great Britain with my Scottish husband was the first time I ever left the United States, and I was blown away by the wildness and wonder of the country: the mist that rolls in without warning; the fifty different kinds of rain; the rugged beauty and harshness of everything. There’s something so magical about a tiny place that’s been occupied for thousands of years: every step you take, you’re walking on the bones of history, thousands of stories, both old and new.
I knew it was the perfect setting for my YA adventure romance, that it would add to the thrill of the story. In fact, I’m so passionate about the U.K. that to celebrate the release of Toward a Secret Sky, I’ve partnered with VisitLondon.com to give away a trip to London so a young reader can follow in Maren’s footsteps! (To enter, visit www.towardasecretsky.com).
(Photos: Heather Maclean)
Aberlady, Scotland
‘Wait for Me’ by Caroline Leech
Another author smitten with Scotland’s storytelling potential is native Caroline Leech. She set her YA debut Wait for Me, a World War II historical romance, on a farm near the village of Aberlady in East Lothian, Scotland. The village sits on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth, a major river estuary which lets out into the North Sea.
While the farmhouse of the book’s “Craigielaw Farm” now sits on a golf course, there was a real prisoner of war camp nearby in the 1940s. During the last year of the war, German and Italian prisoners were sent out to work on the land around the village. Only after the book was written did Leech discover that there had been romances between some of those prisoners and local girls, just as she’d written in her story.
(Photos: Caroline Leech)
Africa
‘City of Saints and Thieves’ by Natalie C. Anderson
Natalie C. Anderson’s YA thriller is set in Kenya and the Congo, places the author became intimately familiar with after having spent a decade working with NGOs and the UN on refugee issues in Africa. For years, she listened to the stories of people displaced by conflict, stories she couldn’t forget.
During one trip to Kenya, she decided to give voice to some of those experiences with the fictional story of a young girl whose mother is murdered and who must turn to thievery to survive. The lush landscape comes alive, alternating between friend and foe as protagonist Tiny travels back to her home village for answers.
(Photos: Natalie C. Anderson)
Russia
‘The Bear & The Nightingale’ by Katherine Arden
This fairy-tale infused novel takes place in the Russian wilderness which author Arden describes as the “perfect terrain for a novelist.”
“I chose to set my book in Russia because I had a lot of background knowledge to draw on; I had studied in Russia for nearly two years, I had a degree in Russian language,” she says. “I love the way the Russian culture (and Russian fairy tales in particular) seem to hover for a Western reader, right on the edge of familiar and strange,” she says.
(Photos: Katherine Arden)
Montana
‘The Edge of Everything’ by Jeff Giles
Spectacular locations don’t always have to be halfway around the world. Jeff Giles and his family had been going to his father-in-law’s ranch in northwest Montana for years when inspiration struck.
“The first idea I ever had for The Edge of Everything is what turned into the opening sequence: a teenage girl sees someone trying to kill someone else by drowning him in a hole in a frozen lake, and decides that she has to put a stop to it,” he says. “I immediately pictured the story unfolding in Montana because the landscape is so big, gorgeous and vast — and can be so scary when the weather turns ugly.”
Before the novel was finished, Jeff and his family relocated to the Flathead Valley. “Everywhere I went became part of the book and helped me shape the plot.”
(Photos: Jeff Giles)
When you’re plotting your next vacation, consider a book-inspired trip. It might just inspire you!
About the author
Heather Maclean, mother of three, is a Princeton graduate and the founder of Little Laureate, an award-winning educational children’s media company. Named one of the ’16 Best Entrepreneurs in America’ by Sir Richard Branson, she accompanied the adventurous business legend on a 50,000-mile trip around the world, alternately helping improve the lives of others (designing sustainable development initiatives in South Africa) and fearing for her own (rappelling out of a Black Hawk helicopter in a Moroccan sandstorm). Heather began her career at Disney, where she had the distinction of being the first person ever to answer Mickey Mouse’s email. When not castle hunting in her husband’s native Scotland, she and her clan happily reside in Michigan.