List

Category
Audience

Churro Stand

Karina N. González

From award-winning author-illustrator duo Karina N. Gonzálezand Krystal Quiles comes Churro Stand, a heartwarming picture book celebrating love, community, and the POP, SIZZLE, and CRUNCH of a perfect churro--inspired by the author's relationship with her own mother.

Everybody loves churros!

On a hot summer's day, Lucía and her brother accompany their mother to sell delicious, sugary churros on the bustling streets of New York City. But when a thunderstorm rolls in, and the customers are chased away, Lucía's mother must improvise with a little bit of magic and lots of amor.

View Details >>

Chunky

Yehudi Mercado

In this full-color middle grade graphic memoir for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Jerry Craft, Yehudi Mercado draws inspiration from his childhood struggle with his weight while finding friendship with his imaginary mascot, Chunky, as he navigates growing up in a working class Mexican-Jewish family.

Hudi needs to lose weight, according to his doctors. Concerned about the serious medical issue Hudi had when he was younger, his parents push him to try out for sports. Hudi would rather do anything else, but then he meets Chunky, his imaginary friend and mascot. Together, they decide to give baseball a shot.

As the only Mexican and Jewish kid in his neighborhood, Hudi has found the cheerleader he never had. Baseball doesn't go well (unless getting hit by the ball counts), but the two friends have a great time drawing and making jokes. While Hudi's parents keep trying to find the right sport for Hudi, Chunky encourages him to pursue his true love--comedy.

But when Hudi's dad loses his job, it gets harder for Hudi to chart his own course, even with Chunky's guidance. Can Chunky help Hudi stay true to himself or will this friendship strike out?

* A TLA Maverick Graphic Novel of the Year *



 

View Details >>

Sink or Swim

Veronica Agarwal


Summer is here! School’s out, the pool is open, and new adventures with friends await! But what happens when twelve year old Ty’s anxiety has other plans? From the world of Just Roll With It comes a boy-centric graphic novel about accepting yourself even when it’s a little scary.

Bouncing back from a broken arm should be no big deal—but when Ty spends a month off the swim team the thought of getting back in the water is suddenly not as fun as it used to be. 

After weeks of ignoring his friends, Ty isn't sure how to connect with them again in summer camp. They used to have swim team together but after so long without swimming he's out of shape and afraid of failing in front of them. With his friendships fracturing, will Ty be able to gain confidence in himself and fix everything before it's too late?

View Details >>

Soup for One

Ethan Long

Shoo, fly, shoo! One little fly thinks he’s getting a big bowl of hot soup all to himself. Little does he know, interlopers wait around every corner. Help him to count the unwelcome pals that join him for lunch—one after another after another—up to ten! Who will get the last slurp of soup? Does the ravenous chef have a chance against ten hungry flies? Or will the sneaky spider hiding on every page be the one to triumph?

Bright colors, sly humor, and a fun seek-and-find element are all contained within the pages of a durable, kid-friendly, paper-over-board format, making Soup for One a delectable picture book treat.

 

 

 

 

View Details >>

I Survived the Black Death, 1348 (I Survived #24)

Lauren Tarshis

The Black Death was a pandemic of unimaginable propotions, taking the lives of 75 - 200 million people worldwide. Lauren Tarshis's story of one girl surviving the plague pulses with terror, action, and hope.

 

The deadliest disease in the history of the world... Elsie dreams of becoming a brave warrior like her father, who is an archer fighting in England's war against France. But life isn't fair in 1348 Europe. Peasant girls like Elsie can't be archers or knights or anything exciting.

Then one day in the forest, Elsie and her best friend, Humphrey, discover a chest filled with stolen treasures -- and a dangerous secret. At last Elsie has a chance to prove that she's as brave as any knight.

Little does she know that a deadly illness -- the Black Death -- has begun its attack on England. It's already killed millions around the world.

And now it's come for Elsie.

New York Times bestselling author Lauren Tarshis tells the story of how one girl finds incredible hope amid illness and grief. Includes a section of nonfiction back matter with more facts and photos about the real-life event.

View Details >>

A Copycat Conundrum (The Misfits)

Lisa Yee

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • When San Francisco is under strange attacks—like earthquakes affecting only two city blocks at a time—who're you gonna call? An elite team of crime-fighting underdogs, that's who! The Misfits are on the case in this hilarious illustrated series!

“For any kid who’s felt like a misfit, this crackling adventure packs a wallop!” —Lincoln Peirce, creator of Big Nate

Oof! After solving the case of the Royal Rumpus, Olive Cobin Zang and her elite team of underdogs are on top of the world. As the awkward, crime-fighting Misfits, they’re acing every mission thrown at them from NOCK (aka No One Can Know, the covert agency they work for).

But when their classmate Zeke starts receiving threatening notes, the Misfits are stumped. They’re no strangers to danger, but this case is a total head-scratcher. Who would target kind, friendly Zeke . . . unless he’s not what he seems to be?

At the same time, unusual earthquakes start shaking up San Francisco just as priceless art goes missing, and the Misfits are called to investigate. Is it a coincidence that the city is under attack while Zeke is getting mysterious messages? Or is it all just a cover for a scheme bigger than any they’ve faced before?

For other Misfit adventures from Newbery Honoree Lisa Yee and Caldecott Medalist Dan Santat, don't miss The Misfits #1: A Royal Conundrum!

View Details >>

The Night School for Young Mystics

Maia Toll

The magic of the Night now made thrilling for a middle-grade mystic: Learn the basics about magic, divination, spells, rituals, and more in this enchanting and practical guidebook for middle grade mystics by award-winning author Maia Toll.



You, young Firefly, have been chosen to join into the Night School's esteemed program for the study of mysticism. Your teacher, Bea Marlowe, will guide you as you embark on five eye-opening, educational, and enlightening field trips to better connect with the magic of your Night self. From astrology and divination to creating rituals and spellcasting, middle-grade readers interested in magic and mysticism will delve into the mystical depths of both the Universe and the You-niverse--the mysteries that exist outside oneself, and those they will discover in their very core.



A very practical guide set within a creative fantasy school setting, young witches will learn the basics of a magical existence tfrom the author of The Night School and the Wild Wisdom series, Maia Toll. Including illustrations by Khoa Le, sidebars, and a glossary of unfamiliar terms, The Night School for Young Mystics promises to be a fantastical guidebook and a captivating read for middle graders interested in the world of magic and mysticism.

View Details >>

Ten Magic Butterflies

Danica McKellar

Learn at home with help from The Wonder Years/Hallmark actress, math whiz, and New York Times bestselling author Danica McKellar using her acclaimed McKellar Math books! Fairies, butterflies, and magic help to make this math-focused picture book positively enchanting! 

Join ten flower friends for a night of excitement that mixes a little math with a lot of magic. As each flower turns into a butterfly, children will discover different ways to group numbers to create ten, an essential building block of math, all while watching each flower's dream come true. (And keep an eye out for the adorable caterpillar who wishes he could fly, too!)

In this, the second book in the McKellar Math line, actress, math whiz, and New York Times bestselling author Danica McKellar once again sneaks in secret addition and subtraction concepts to help make your child smarter and uses her proven math success to show children that loving numbers is as easy as a wave of a wand and a BING BANG BOO! 

"[Danica McKellar's] bringing her love of numbers to children everywhere." --Brightly on Goodnight, Numbers

"Danica McKellar is now on a mission to make math fun for even the youngest of kids." --L.A. Parent Magazine

View Details >>

Thomas Paine and the Dangerous Word

Sarah Jane Marsh

"The mind once enlightened cannot again become dark."

As an English corset-maker's son, Thomas Paine was expected to spend his life sewing women's underwear. But as a teenager, Thomas dared to change his destiny, enduring years of struggle until a meeting with Benjamin Franklin brought Thomas to America in 1774-and into the American Revolution. 

Within fourteen months, Thomas would unleash the persuasive power of the written word in Common Sense-a brash wake-up call that rallied the American people to declare independence against the mightiest empire in the world. 

This fascinating and extensively researched biography, based on numerous primary sources, will immerse readers in Thomas Paine's inspiring journey of courage, failure, and resilience that led a penniless immigrant to change the world with his words.

View Details >>

The Librarian Who Measured the Earth

Kathryn Lasky

A perfect introduction to mathematical concepts for young readers, written by a Newbery honor-winning author!
This colorfully illustrated biography of the Greek philosopher and scientist Eratosthenes, who compiled the first geography book and accurately measured the globe's circumference, is just right for budding mathematicians, scientists, historians, and librarians! Filled with fascinating details about Eratosthenes's world (and in print since 1994), kids are sure to flip through the pages time and again.

View Details >>

Counting Creatures

Julia Donaldson

A gorgeous lift-the-flap counting book that pairs parent animals with their babies, from the bestselling author of Room on the Broom.

From a bat and its pup, to a frog and its twelve tadpoles, young readers will delight in counting each creature's babies and learning unusual scientific names for young animals. With rhyming text, lift-the-flaps and peekaboo holes, and a surprise search-and-find element, this is a read-aloud delight and preschool must-have.

* "Engaging, rewarding, and utterly delightful."—Kirkus, starred review
Indie Next List pick
CCBC Choices selection
 

View Details >>

You Are a Wildlife Warrior!: Saving Animals & the Planet

Bindi Irwin

World-renowned conservationist Bindi Irwin has a message for animal-loving kids: You can help protect the planet and all who call it home! Featuring exclusive Irwin family photos and animal fun facts.

Calling all Wildlife Warriors! Step inside the Australia Zoo and see what nature has to offer. There are lemurs and rhinos, kangaroos, and—of course—crocodiles.

On your tour, learn about these amazing animals and their habitats. Observe how they live and grow and all the ways we can protect them. Get inspired to take part in nurturing your own environment and all that inhabit it. Most important, discover the Wildlife Warrior within!

From the daughter of Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, comes an illustrated picture book encouraging readers to walk on the wild side and uncover their inner conservationists.

View Details >>

Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free

Alice Faye Duncan



 

Booklist starred review

Black activist Opal Lee had a vision of Juneteenth as a holiday for everyone. This true story celebrates Black joy and inspires children to see their dreams blossom. Growing up in Texas, Opal knew the history of Juneteenth, but she soon discovered that many Americans had never heard of the holiday. Join Opal on her historic journey to recognize and celebrate "freedom for all."

Every year, Opal looked forward to the Juneteenth picnic--a drumming, dancing, delicious party. She knew from Granddaddy Zak's stories that Juneteenth celebrated the day the freedom news of President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation finally sailed into Texas in 1865--over two years after the president had declared it! But Opal didn't always see freedom in her Texas town. Then one Juneteenth day when Opal was twelve years old, an angry crowd burned down her brand-new home. This wasn't freedom at all. She had to do something! But could one person's voice make a difference Could Opal bring about national recognition of Juneteenth Follow Opal Lee as she fights to improve the future by honoring the past.

Through the story of Opal Lee's determination and persistence, children ages 4 to 8 will learn:

  • all people are created equal
  • the power of bravery and using your voice for change
  • the history of Juneteenth, or Freedom Day, and what it means today
  • no one is free unless everyone is free
  • fighting for a dream is worth the difficulty experienced along the way

Featuring the illustrations of New York Times bestselling illustrator Keturah A. Bobo (I am Enough), Opal Lee and What It Means to Be Free by Alice Faye Duncan celebrates the life and legacy of a modern-day Black leader while sharing a message of hope, unity, joy, and strength.

View Details >>

Canto Contigo

Jonny Garza Villa

STONEWALL BOOK AWARDS – MIKE MORGAN & LARRY ROMANS YOUNG ADULT LITERATURE AWARD WINNER

When a Mariachi star transfers schools, he expects to be handed his new group's lead vocalist spot—what he gets instead is a tenacious current lead with a very familiar, very kissable face.

In a twenty-four-hour span, Rafael Alvarez led North Amistad High School’s Mariachi Alma de la Frontera to their eleventh consecutive first-place win in the Mariachi Extravaganza de Nacional; and met, made out with, and almost hooked up with one of the cutest guys he’s ever met. 

Now eight months later, Rafie’s ready for one final win. What he didn’t plan for is his family moving to San Antonio before his senior year, forcing him to leave behind his group while dealing with the loss of the most important person in his life—his beloved abuelo. Another hitch in his plan: The Selena Quintanilla-Perez Academy’s Mariachi Todos Colores already has a lead vocalist, Rey Chavez—the boy Rafie made out with—who now stands between him winning and being the great Mariachi Rafie's abuelo always believed him to be. Despite their newfound rivalry for center stage, Rafie can’t squash his feelings for Rey. Now he must decide between the people he’s known his entire life or the one just starting to get to know the real him.

Canto Contigo is a love letter to Mexican culture, family and legacy, the people who shape us, and allowing ourselves to forge our own path. At its heart, this is one of the most glorious rivals-to-lovers romance about finding the one who challenges you in the most extraordinary ways.

View Details >>

Sign Me Up

C. H. Williams

"Alyssa is an ice skater who prefers to skate alone. She lives in rural Alaska, where a quiet frozen lake is her happy place. But now she's moving to sunny, loud Los Angeles. As the new girl in town, Alyssa isn't sure if she'll ever fit in. When the local roller derby team takes Alyssa under its wing, she's not sure she wants to trade her ice skates and solitude for roller skates and teammates. Alyssa decides to leave her comfort zone. Will she find her place, or will the pace and volume of roller derby be too much to handle?"--Provided by publisher.

View Details >>

Dead Weight

Terry Blas

A YALSA 2019 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers

A hilarious story of a diverse group of young sleuths who ban together to solve a murder mystery while at a weight-loss camp. 

Deep in the Oregon wilderness sits Camp Bloom, a weight-loss camp where "overweight" teens can "get in shape." Jesse would rather be anywhere else, but her parents are forcing her to go. Noah isn't sure if he wants to be there, but it's too late to turn back. Tony is heartbroken at the thought of giving up his phone and internet. And Kate... well, she likes the hikes, at least. As far as these four teens are concerned, it's just another boring summer.

Until one night, when Jesse and Noah witness a beloved counselor's murder. The body's gone by the next morning, but a blurry photo leads to one clue—the murderer is one of the camp's staff members!

But which one? As Jesse, Noah, Kate, and Tony investigate, they quickly discover that everyone's got their secrets... and one of them would kill to keep theirs hidden.

View Details >>

House Party

justin a. reynolds

How many love stories can play out over the course of a single house party? Find out in this vibrant collaborative novel from ten bestselling and critically acclaimed authors:

Angeline Boulley • Jerry Craft • Natasha Díaz • Lamar Giles • Christina Hammonds Reed • Ryan La Sala • Yamile Saied Méndez • justin a. reynolds • Randy Ribay • Jasmine Warga

“An entertaining romp through a night of chaotic celebration and a bittersweet snapshot of teenagers transitioning from adolescence to adulthood.”—Shelf Awareness

The biggest event of the year is happening, and you’re invited! Join us for Florence Hills High School seniors’ last hurrah before graduation.


THE LOCATION: A megamansion in one of Chicago’s wealthiest suburban enclaves
THE HOST: DeAndre Dixon, aka FHHS’s golden boy
THE GUESTS: The populars, the jocks, the artists, and heck, even that one kid


Over a few wild, transformative hours, all the drama ensues. Kisses are swapped between old friends, new friends, and could’ve-sworn-they-were-enemies kind of friends. Relationships get tested. Animals roam free. Secrets are spilled. Add dope music that’s thumping, and there’s a good chance the whole neighborhood will be disrupted.

Told from interwoven perspectives, House Party offers a delightful snapshot of young adults getting ready to say goodbye to high school and hello to the next chapter in their lives—but not before they make their final night together one they’ll never forget!

View Details >>

Sunrise on the Reaping (a Hunger Games Novel)

Suzanne Collins

The phenomenal fifth book in the Hunger Games series!

 

When you've been set up to lose everything you love, what is there left to fight for?

 

As the day dawns on the fiftieth annual Hunger Games, fear grips the districts of Panem. This year, in honor of the Quarter Quell, twice as many tributes will be taken from their homes.

 

Back in District 12, Haymitch Abernathy is trying not to think too hard about his chances. All he cares about is making it through the day and being with the girl he loves.

 

When Haymitch's name is called, he can feel all his dreams break. He's torn from his family and his love, shuttled to the Capitol with the three other District 12 tributes: a young friend who's nearly a sister to him, a compulsive oddsmaker, and the most stuck-up girl in town. As the Games begin, Haymitch understands he's been set up to fail. But there's something in him that wants to fight . . . and have that fight reverberate far beyond the deadly arena.

View Details >>

Dragging Mason County

Curtis Campbell

*A White Raven List selection*

*A White Pine Award finalist*

*A Publishing Triangle Award winner*

A laugh-out-loud YA debut that examines the realities of small-town queer life and celebrates the transformative power of drag--perfect for fans of RuPaul's Drag Race and Pumpkin.

Peter Thompkin needs a public image overhaul. After a tense confrontation with one of the few other queer kids in his small-town high school, rumors about him are becoming more elaborate by the day. Meanwhile, his best friend Alan (aka teen drag queen Aggie Culture) is throwing Mason County's debut Drag Extravaganza. Although Peter is a self-described "dragnostic," he decides to help produce the show, hoping to prove that he isn't a self-hating gay. In the process, he finds himself facing down angry guard dogs, angrier bigots, and a very high-strung church lady. As backlash grows, Peter begins to wonder whether he's setting fire to his already damaged reputation and if his friendship with Alan will survive past curtain call.

At turns touching, sharply funny, and a little absurd, Dragging Mason County explores the pains and pleasures of queer community through one teen's journey to self-acceptance.

"A timely tale of friendship, self-acceptance, and the importance of proper contouring."--Kevin Christopher Snipes, author of Milo and Marcos at the End of the World

View Details >>

Pop

Gordon Korman

When Marcus moves to a new town in the dead of summer, he doesn't know a soul. While practicing football for impending tryouts, he strikes up an unlikely friendship with an older man. Charlie is a charismatic prankster—and the best football player Marcus has ever seen. He can't believe his good luck when he finds out that Charlie is actually Charlie Popovich, or "the King of Pop," as he had been nicknamed during his career as an NFL linebacker. But that's not all. There is a secret about Charlie that his own family is desperate to hide.

When Marcus begins school, he meets the starting quarterback on the team: Troy Popovich. Right from the beginning, Marcus and Troy disagree—about football, about Troy's ex-girlfriend, Alyssa, but most of all, about what's good for Charlie. Marcus is betting that he knows what's best for the King of Pop. And he is willing to risk everything to help his friend.

View Details >>

Box of Light Vol. 1

Seiko Erisawa

The critically acclaimed, spooky tale of a haunted convenience store.

A quiet convenience store at the crossroads between life and death. Its faint glow in the darkness draws in transient souls, pulling them closer to the final purchase they’ll ever make. Prepare for shadowy creatures, strange employees, and an air of dread in this delightfully creepy supernatural tale.

This beloved tale was awarded a top spot in both the Kono Manga wo Yome! and Kono Manga ga Sugoi! rankings in Japan.

View Details >>

Embrace Your Size

hara

What do you do when your body doesn't match the ideal shape as dictated by society? What do you wear when sweats seem to be the only clothes that fit you? How do you deal with the constant, overwhelming waves of criticism about your appearance from yourself and others? A love letter to anyone striving to embrace their size, this wonderfully illustrated, uplifting comic essay by a plus-size author chronicles her own journey with body positivity, what inspired her to change her mindset, and how she learned to love herself as she is.

View Details >>

Clown in a Cornfield

Adam Cesare



 

Bram Stoker Award Winner for Superior Achievement in a Young Adult Novel

In Adam Cesare's terrifying young adult debut, Quinn Maybrook finds herself caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress--that just may cost her life.

Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start. But what they don't know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half.

On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out of Kettle Springs as quick as they can.

Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It's a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown in a pork-pie hat, goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.

YALSA's Best Fiction for Young Adults Nominee

View Details >>

Prom Babies

Kekla Magoon

A compelling, multi-generational novel from the Coretta Scott King and Printz Honor-winning author of How It Went Down, Light It Up, and The Minus-One Club, Prom Babies chronicles the stories of three teen girls who become pregnant on prom night. Eighteen years later, their three babies, now high school seniors, are headed to prom and facing their own set of complicated issues and questions.

Mina, Penny, and Sheryl have the typical expectations of prom night in 2005: dresses, dancing, and of course some coming of age moments. None of them plans to get pregnant, but when all three do, they band together as they face decisions that have the power to shape the rest of their lives. 

In 2024, their three children--Blossom, Amber, and Cole--are high school seniors, gearing up to go to prom and facing some big decisions of their own. As they seek to understand who they are and who they want to be, they grapple with issues that range from consent to virginity, gendered dress codes, and the many patriarchal, heteronormative expectations that still come along with prom. 

A generation later, will this prom night change lives too?

View Details >>

Murtagh

Christopher Paolini

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Master storyteller and internationally bestselling author Christopher Paolini returns to the World of Eragon in this stunning epic fantasy set a year after the events of the Inheritance Cycle. Join Dragon Rider—and fan favorite—Murtagh and his dragon as they confront a perilous new enemy!
 
“Christopher Paolini is a true rarity.” —The Washington Post
 
The world is no longer safe for the Dragon Rider Murtagh and his dragon, Thorn. An evil king has been toppled, and they are left to face the consequences of the reluctant role they played in his reign of terror. Now they are hated and alone, exiled to the outskirts of society. 
 
Throughout the land, hushed voices whisper of brittle ground and a faint scent of brimstone in the air—and Murtagh senses that something wicked lurks in the shadows of Alagaësia. So begins an epic journey into lands both familiar and untraveled, where Murtagh and Thorn must use every weapon in their arsenal, from brains to brawn, to find and outwit a mysterious witch. A witch who is much more than she seems. 
 
In this gripping novel starring one of the most popular characters from Christopher Paolini’s blockbuster Inheritance Cycle, a Dragon Rider must discover what he stands for in a world that has abandoned him. Murtagh is the perfect book to enter the World of Eragon for the first time . . . or to joyfully return. 
 
Praise for Christopher Paolini:
“A spellbinding fantasy writer.” —The Boston Globe
“A breathtaking and unheard-of success.” —USA Today
“Make[s] literary magic.” —People

View Details >>

Ready Or Not

Andi Porretta

This “bright and bittersweet” (Rainbow Rowell, #1 New York Times bestselling author) graphic novel for fans of Jenny Han and This One Summer follows a group of friends in a post-graduation summer of adventures and offbeat dares.

With senior year finally behind them, Cassie and her three best friends are on their way to what’s next. Like their parents, the crew has always been inseparable: there’s Marcy, the artist, for whom style is self-expression and sarcasm is a love language; Aaron, the future lawyer, whose good humor balances out his competitive streak; Nico, the musician, whose flirtatiousness, obliviousness, and recent interest in a rising senior are becoming increasingly unbearable to Cassie; and of course, Cassie herself, the only one who doesn’t have her future all figured out.

This summer is their last chance to make memories together in New York City before everyone but Cassie scatters across the globe for college—and she’s determined to make the most of it. Her plan? They’ll spend August playing the game of dares and risks they invented as kids! From adventurous to outrageous, these dares will definitely make for an unforgettable summer. Even better, Cassie is hopeful they’ll help the group stay friends no matter what…because she is not ready for a future without them.

View Details >>

But Not Too Bold

Hache Pueyo

The Shape of Water meets Mexican Gothic in this sapphic monster romance novella wrapped in gothic fantasy trappings

The old keeper of the keys is dead, and the creature who ate her is the volatile Lady of the Capricious House⁠—Anatema, an enormous humanoid spider with a taste for laudanum and human brides.

Dália, the old keeper’s protégée, must take up her duties, locking and unlocking the little drawers in which Anatema keeps her memories. And if she can unravel the crime that led to her predecessor's execution, Dália might just be able to survive long enough to grow into her new role.

But there’s a gaping hole in Dália’s plan that she refuses to see: Anatema cannot resist a beautiful woman, and she eventually devours every single bride that crosses her path.

View Details >>

You'd Look Better as a Ghost

Joanna Wallace

National bestseller

“Refreshingly original and laugh-out-loud funny.” —Clare Mackintosh, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Party

A comic thriller following the trials and tribulations of Claire, a part-time serial killer, who is keen to keep her favorite hobby a secret—despite the efforts of a determined blackmailer

The night after her father's funeral, Claire meets Lucas in a bar. Lucas doesn't know it, but it's not a chance meeting. One thoughtless mistyped email has put him in the crosshairs of an extremely put-out serial killer. But before they make eye contact, before Claire lets him buy her a drink—even before she takes him home and carves him up into little pieces—something about that night is very wrong. Because someone is watching Claire. Someone who is about to discover her murderous little hobby.

The thing is, it's not sensible to tangle with a part-time serial killer, even one who is distracted by attending a weekly bereavement support group and trying to get her art career off the ground. Will Claire finish off her blackmailer before her pursuer reveals all? Let the games begin . . .

View Details >>

The Paris Novel

Ruth Reichl

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “mouthwatering” (The New York Times) adventure through the food, art, and fashion scenes of 1980s Paris—from the bestselling author of Save Me the Plums and Delicious!

“An enchanting and irresistible feast . . . As with a perfect meal in the world’s most magical city, I never wanted this sublime novel to end.”—Cynthia D’Aprix Sweeney, author of Good Company

A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Saveur, Food & Wine, Bookreporter, The Charlotte Observer

Stella reached for an oyster, tipped her head, and tossed it back. It was cool and slippery, the flavor so briny it was like diving into the ocean. Oysters, she thought. Where have they been all my life?

When her estranged mother dies, Stella is left with an unusual inheritance: a one-way plane ticket and a note reading “Go to Paris.” Stella is hardly cut out for adventure; a traumatic childhood has kept her confined to the strict routines of her comfort zone. But when her boss encourages her to take time off, Stella resigns herself to honoring her mother’s last wishes.

Alone in a foreign city, Stella falls into old habits, living cautiously and frugally. Then she stumbles across a vintage store, where she tries on a fabulous Dior dress. The shopkeeper insists that this dress was meant for Stella and for the first time in her life Stella does something impulsive. She buys the dress—and embarks on an adventure.

Her first stop: the iconic brasserie Les Deux Magots, where Stella tastes her first oysters and then meets an octogenarian art collector who decides to take her under his wing. As Jules introduces Stella to a veritable who’s who of the Paris literary, art, and culinary worlds, she begins to understand what it might mean to live a larger life.

As weeks—and many decadent meals—go by, Stella ends up living as a “tumbleweed” at famed bookstore Shakespeare & Company, uncovers a hundred-year-old mystery in a Manet painting, and discovers a passion for food that may be connected to her past. A feast for the senses, this novel is a testament to living deliciously, taking chances, and finding your true home.

View Details >>

Shark Heart

Emily Habeck

A New York Times Editors’ Choice
A USA TODAY Bestseller
A Booklist Editor’s Choice
A Goodreads Choice Award Nominee

A “beautifully written” (Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize–winning author of All the Light We Cannot See) debut novel of marriage, motherhood, metamorphosis, and letting go, this intergenerational love story begins with newlyweds Wren and her husband, Lewis—a man who, over the course of nine months, transforms into a great white shark.

For Lewis and Wren, their first year of marriage is also their last. A few weeks after their wedding, Lewis receives a rare diagnosis. He will retain most of his consciousness, memories, and intellect, but his physical body will gradually turn into a great white shark. As Lewis develops the features and impulses of one of the most predatory creatures in the ocean, his complicated artist’s heart struggles to make peace with his unfulfilled dreams.

At first, Wren internally resists her husband’s fate. Is there a way for them to be together after Lewis changes? Then, a glimpse of Lewis’s developing carnivorous nature activates long-repressed memories for Wren, whose story vacillates between her childhood living on a houseboat in Oklahoma, her time with her college ex-girlfriend, and her unusual friendship with a woman pregnant with twin birds. Woven throughout this “heart-wringing” (Adam Roberts, internationally bestselling author of Salt) novel is the story of Wren’s mother, Angela, who becomes pregnant with Wren at fifteen in an abusive relationship amidst her parents’ crumbling marriage. In the present, all of Wren’s grief eventually collides, and she is forced to make an impossible choice.

A sweeping love story that is at once lyrical and funny, airy and visceral, Shark Heart is an unforgettable, gorgeous novel about life’s perennial questions, the fragility of memories, finding joy amidst grief, and creating a meaningful life. This daring debut marks the arrival of a wildly talented new writer abounding with originality, humor, and heart.

View Details >>

Someone You Can Build a Nest In

John Wiswell

An NPR, Washington Post, Book Riot, Library Journal and Audible Best Book of 2024! 

One of the Best Books of the Year So Far from: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Polygon, LitHub, Bookpage, Crime Reads, and Geek Girl Authority

“This unusual queer romance is a heartfelt fable about disability and the possibility of reconciling conflicting needs through love and understanding.” —The Guardian 

"Sweetly furious, darkly funny, and gruesomely wholesome. It's a love story for the unloved, a happily-ever-after with a higher-than-average body count. I just adored it." —Alix E. Harrow, New York Times-bestselling author of Starling House

Shesheshen has made a mistake fatal to all monsters: she's fallen in love.

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by impolite monster hunters, she constructs a body from the remains of past meals: a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth. 

Badly hurt by the hunters, Shesheshen’s nursed back to health by Homily, a warm-hearted human. Homily is kind and would make a great co-parent: an ideal place to lay Shesheshen’s eggs so their young can devour Homily from the inside out. But as they grow close, Shesheshen realizes that eating her girlfriend isn’t an option.

Just as Shesheshen’s about to confess her identity, Homily reveals something else: she’s hunting a shapeshifting monster that supposedly cursed her family. Has Shesheshen seen it anywhere?

Shesheshen didn’t curse anyone, so now she has to figure out why Homily’s twisted family thinks she did. As Shesheshen’s hunt for the monster becomes increasingly deadly, the bigger challenge remains: learning how to build a life with, rather than in, the woman she loves.

A stealthily funny, slyly smart, and remarkably touching story. Its wisdom will creep up on you as surely as your affection for its monstrous main character.”—Veronica Roth, #1 New York Times-bestselling author of When Among Crows

View Details >>

Monthly in the Garden with My Landlord

Manga editor Asako Suga decides moving into a new home is just the thing she needs to get over a painful breakup with her toxic ex-girlfriend. She finds the perfect place for rentaffordable, spacious, lovely garden includedbut theres one catch. The house comes with a live-in landlord! Its disappointing enough that Asako cant have the single life she hoped for, but her cute landlord also seems to be hiding a big secret...Will living together bring them closer, or turn out to be more trouble than its worth?

View Details >>

Onyx Storm (Deluxe Limited Edition)

Rebecca Yarros

After nearly eighteen months at Basgiath War College, Violet Sorrengail knows there’s no more time for lessons. No more time for uncertainty.

Because the battle has truly begun, and with enemies closing in from outside their walls and within their ranks, it’s impossible to know who to trust.

Now Violet must journey beyond the failing Aretian wards to seek allies from unfamiliar lands to stand with Navarre. The trip will test every bit of her wit, luck, and strength, but she will do anything to save what she loves—her dragons, her family, her home, and him.

Even if it means keeping a secret so big, it could destroy everything.

They need an army. They need power. They need magic. And they need the one thing only Violet can find—the truth.

But a storm is coming...and not everyone can survive its wrath. 

The Empyrean series is best enjoyed in order.
Reading Order:
Book #1 Fourth Wing
Book #2 Iron Flame
Book #3 Onyx Storm

View Details >>

She's Not Sorry

Mary Kubica

"

An ICU nurse accidentally uncovers a patient's frightening past in this chilling thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of Local Woman Missing and Just the Nicest Couple.

 

Meghan Michaels is trying to find balance between being a single mom to a teenage daughter and working as a full time nurse. While on duty at the hospital one day, a patient named Caitlin arrives in a coma with a traumatic brain injury, having jumped from a bridge and plunging over twenty feet to the train tracks below.

 

But when a witness comes forward with shocking details about the fall, it calls everything they know into question. Was Caitlin pushed and if so, by whom and why?

 

Meghan has always tried to stay emotionally detached from her patients, but this time, she mistakenly lets herself get too close until she's deeply entangled in Caitlin's and her family's lives. Only when it's too late, does she realize that she and her daughter could be the next victims.

"

 

View Details >>

The Two Lives of Lydia Bird

Josie Silver

Two lives. Two loves. One impossible choice. From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Reese’s Book Club Pick One Day in December . . .
 
“I read The Two Lives of Lydia Bird in a single sitting. What a beautiful, emotional gift Josie Silver has given us.”—Jodi Picoult

Written with Josie Silver’s trademark warmth and wit, The Two Lives of Lydia Bird is a powerful and thrilling love story about the what-ifs that arise at life’s crossroads, and what happens when one woman is given a miraculous chance to answer them.
 
Lydia and Freddie. Freddie and Lydia. They’d been together for more than a decade and Lydia thought their love was indestructible. But she was wrong. On Lydia’s twenty-eighth birthday, Freddie died in a car accident.
 
So now it’s just Lydia, and all she wants is to hide indoors and sob until her eyes fall out. But Lydia knows that Freddie would want her to try to live fully, happily, even without him. So, enlisting the help of his best friend, Jonah, and her sister, Elle, she takes her first tentative steps into the world, open to life—and perhaps even love—again.
 
But then something inexplicable happens that gives her another chance at her old life with Freddie. A life where none of the tragic events of the past few months have happened.
 
Lydia is pulled again and again through the doorway to her past, living two lives, impossibly, at once. But there’s an emotional toll to returning to a world where Freddie, alive, still owns her heart. Because there’s someone in her new life, her real life, who wants her to stay.

View Details >>

Annie Bot

Sierra Greer

Named a Best Book of the Year by Scientific American, Harper's Bazaar and NPR. Named a Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of the Year by the Washington Post and Elle. Nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in Science Fiction.

"Provocative...a Frankenstein for the digital age...a rich text about power, autonomy, and what happens when our creations outgrow us." -- Esquire

"Unexpected and subtle...delicious and thought-provoking." -- New Scientist

For fans of Never Let Me Go and My Dark Vanessa, a powerful, provocative novel about the relationship between a female robot and her human owner, exploring questions of intimacy, power, autonomy, and control.

Annie Bot was created to be the perfect girlfriend for her human owner Doug. Designed to satisfy his emotional and physical needs, she has dinner ready for him every night, wears the pert outfits he orders for her, and adjusts her libido to suit his moods. True, she's not the greatest at keeping Doug's place spotless, but she's trying to please him. She's trying hard.

She's learning, too.

Doug says he loves that Annie's AI makes her seem more like a real woman, so Annie explores human traits such as curiosity, secrecy, and longing. But becoming more human also means becoming less perfect, and as Annie's relationship with Doug grows more intricate and difficult, she starts to wonder: Does Doug really desire what he says he wants? And in such an impossible paradox, what does Annie owe herself?

"Annie Bot is a book to hold close to your heart when the walls start closing in." -- Washington Post

View Details >>

Smoke Bitten

Patricia Briggs

Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shapeshifter, faces a threat unlike any other in this thrilling entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling series.

I am Mercedes Athena Thompson Hauptman. 
My only “superpowers” are that I turn into a thirty-five pound coyote and fix Volkswagens. But I have friends in odd places and a pack of werewolves at my back. It looks like I'm going to need them.

Centuries ago, the fae dwelt in Underhill—until she locked her doors against them. They left behind their great castles and troves of magical artifacts. They abandoned their prisoners and their pets. Without the fae to mind them, those creatures who remained behind roamed freely through Underhill wreaking havoc. Only the deadliest survived.

Now one of those prisoners has escaped. It can look like anyone, any creature it chooses. But if it bites you, it controls you. It lives for chaos and destruction. It can make you do anything—even kill the person you love the most. Now it is here, in the Tri-Cities. In my territory.

It won't, can't, remain. 

Not if I have anything to say about it.

View Details >>

Ranking of Kings

Deaf and non-speaking, Prince Bojji relies on himself and an outcast creature named Kage to fend off his brother's plot to take over the kingdom.

View Details >>

Not in Love

Ali Hazelwood

An Indie Next and a Hall of Fame LibraryReads Pick!

A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science—from New York Times bestselling author Ali Hazelwood.

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.

View Details >>

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers

Samuel Burr

A NATIONAL BESTSELLER • An extraordinary, gloriously uplifting novel about the power of friendship and the puzzling ties that bind us • "The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers takes readers along on Clayton [Stumper]'s quest to discover his roots, treating us to a literary mood boost about friendship and found family."—Real Simple
 
“A lovely read, warm, amusing and engaging.”—Alexander McCall Smith, bestselling author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency Series

Clayton Stumper might be in his twenties, but he dresses like your grandpa and fusses like your aunt. Abandoned at birth on the steps of the Fellowship of Puzzlemakers, he was raised by a group of eccentric enigmatologists and now finds himself among the last survivors of a fading institution.

When the esteemed crossword compiler and main maternal presence in Clayton’s life, Pippa Allsbrook, passes away, she bestows her final puzzle on him: a promise to reveal the mystery of his parentage and prepare him for life beyond the walls of the commune. So begins Clay’s quest to uncover the secrets surrounding his birth, secrets that will change Clay—and the Fellowship—forever.

The Fellowship of Puzzlemakers is pure joy, a story about love and family and what it means to find your people—no matter what age you are.

View Details >>

Murder Crossed Her Mind

Stephen Spotswood

The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice * The latest action-packed installment in the Nero Award-winning Pentecost & Parker Mystery series follows Lillian and Will tracking the suspicious disappearance of a woman who might have known too much. From the author of Fortune Favors the Dead and Murder Under Her Skin.

Vera Bodine, an elderly shut-in with an exceptional memory, has gone missing and famed detective Lillian Pentecost and her crackerjack assistant Willowjean "Will" Parker have been hired to track her down. But the New York City of 1947 can be a dangerous place, and there's no shortage of people who might like to get ahold of what's in Bodine's head. 

Does her disappearance have to do with the high-profile law firm whose secrets she still keeps; the violent murder of a young woman, with which Bodine had lately become obsessed; or is it the work she did with the FBI hunting Nazi spies intent on wartime sabotage? Any and all are on the suspect list, including their client, Forest Whitsun, hotshot defense attorney and no friend to Pentecost and Parker. 

The clock is ticking to get Bodine back alive, but circumstances conspire to pull both investigators away from the case. Will is hot on the trail of a stickup team who are using her name--and maybe her gun--for their own ends. While Lillian again finds herself up against murder-obsessed millionaire Jessup Quincannon, who has discovered a secret from her past--something he plans to use to either rein the great detective in . . . or destroy her. 

To solve this mystery, and defeat their own personal demons, the pair will have to go nose-to-nose with murderous gangsters, make deals with conniving federal agents, confront Nazi spies, and bend their own ethical rules to the point of breaking. Before time runs out for everyone.

View Details >>

Libertad

Bessie Flores Zaldívar

A queer YA coming-of-age set during the rigged Honduran presidential election

As the contentious 2017 presidential election looms and protests rage across every corner of the city, life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, churns louder and faster. For her part, high school senior Libertad (Libi) Morazán takes heart in writing political poetry for her anonymous Instagram account and a budding romance with someone new. But things come to a head when Mami sees texts on her phone mentioning a kiss with a girl and Libi discovers her beloved older brother, Maynor, playing a major role in the protests. As Libertad faces the political and social corruption around her, stifling homophobia at home and school, and ramped up threats to her poetry online, she begins dreaming of a future in which she doesn’t have to hide who she is or worry about someone she loves losing their life just for speaking up. Then the ultimate tragedy strikes, and leaving her family and friends—plus the only home she’s ever known—might be her only option.

View Details >>

Banned Book Club

Hyun Sook Kim

A Junior Library Guild Selection

"Highly recommended for readers passionate about activism." -- SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL, Starred Review

"Sure to inspire today's youthful generation of tenacious changemakers." -- BOOKLIST, Starred Review

"The messages of hope are universal." -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY, Starred Review

"A timely read about friendship amid chaos." -- NPR

"It's hard to imagine a world where Banned Book Club could be more relevant than it is right now." -- A.V. CLUB

When Kim Hyun Sook started college in 1983 she was ready for her world to open up. After acing her exams and sort-of convincing her traditional mother that it was a good idea for a woman to go to college, she looked forward to soaking up the ideas of Western Literature far from the drudgery she was promised at her family's restaurant. But literature class would prove to be just the start of a massive turning point, still focused on reading but with life-or-death stakes she never could have imagined.

This was during South Korea's Fifth Republic, a military regime that entrenched its power through censorship, torture, and the murder of protestors. In this charged political climate, with Molotov cocktails flying and fellow students disappearing for hours and returning with bruises, Hyun Sook sought refuge in the comfort of books. When the handsome young editor of the school newspaper invited her to his reading group, she expected to pop into the cafeteria to talk about Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Scarlet Letter. Instead she found herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club. And as Hyun Sook soon discovered, in a totalitarian regime, the delights of discovering great works of illicit literature are quickly overshadowed by fear and violence as the walls close in.

In BANNED BOOK CLUB, Hyun Sook shares a dramatic true story of political division, fear-mongering, anti-intellectualism, the death of democratic institutions, and the relentless rebellion of reading.

View Details >>

Youth to Power

Jamie Margolin

Climate change activist and Zero Hour founder Jamie Margolin offers the essential guide to changemaking for young people.

The 1963 Children's March in Birmingham, Alabama. Tiananmen Square, 1989. The 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests. March for Our Lives, and School Strike for Climate. What do all these social justice movements have in common?

They were led by passionate, informed, engaged young people.

Jamie Margolin has been organizing and protesting since she was fourteen years old. Now the co-leader of a global climate action movement, she knows better than most how powerful a young person can be. You don't have to be able to vote or hold positions of power to change the world.

In Youth to Power, Jamie presents the essential guide to changemaking, with advice on writing and pitching op-eds, organizing successful events and peaceful protests, time management as a student activist, utilizing social media and traditional media to spread a message, and sustaining long-term action. She features interviews with prominent young activists including Tokata Iron Eyes of the #NoDAPL movement and Nupol Kiazolu of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, who give guidance on handling backlash, keeping your mental health a priority, and how to avoid getting taken advantage of.

Jamie walks readers through every step of what effective, healthy, intersectional activism looks like. Young people have a lot to say. Youth to Power gives you the tools to raise your voice.
 

View Details >>

Bruised

Tanya Boteju

“A searing portrait of self-discovery; soulful and captivating.” —Kirkus Reviews

Whip It meets We Are Okay in this vibrant coming-of-age story about a teen girl navigating first love, identity, and grief as she immerses herself in the colorful, brutal, beautiful world of roller derby—from the acclaimed author of Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens.

To Daya Wijesinghe, a bruise is a mixture of comfort and control. Since her parents died in an accident she survived, bruises have become a way to keep her pain on the surface of her skin so she doesn’t need to deal with the ache deep in her heart.

So when chance and circumstances bring her to a roller derby bout, Daya is hooked. Yes, the rules are confusing and the sport seems to require the kind of teamwork and human interaction Daya generally avoids. But the opportunities to bruise are countless, and Daya realizes that if she’s going to keep her emotional pain at bay, she’ll need all the opportunities she can get.

The deeper Daya immerses herself into the world of roller derby, though, the more she realizes it’s not the simple physical pain-fest she was hoping for. Her rough-and-tumble teammates and their fans push her limits in ways she never imagined, bringing Daya to big truths about love, loss, strength, and healing.

View Details >>

Don't Read the Comments

Eric Smith

Divya Sharma is a queen. Or she is when she's playing Reclaim the Sun, the year's hottest online game. Divya--better known as popular streaming gamer D1V--regularly leads her #AngstArmada on quests through the game's vast and gorgeous virtual universe. But for Divya, this is more than just a game. Out in the real world, she's trading her rising-star status for sponsorships to help her struggling single mom pay the rent.

Gaming is basically Aaron Jericho's entire life. Much to his mother's frustration, Aaron has zero interest in becoming a doctor like her, and spends his free time writing games for a local developer. At least he can escape into Reclaim the Sun--and with a trillion worlds to explore, disappearing should be easy. But to his surprise, he somehow ends up on the same remote planet as celebrity gamer D1V.

At home, Divya and Aaron grapple with their problems alone, but in the game, they have each other to face infinite new worlds...and the growing legion of trolls populating them. Soon the virtual harassment seeps into reality when a group called the Vox Populi begin launching real-world doxxing campaigns, threatening Aaron's dreams and Divya's actual life. The online trolls think they can drive her out of the game, but everything and everyone Divya cares about is on the line...

And she isn't going down without a fight.

View Details >>

Big Jim and the White Boy

David F. Walker

A thrilling graphic novel reimagining of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn that follows Jim, an enslaved man on a journey towards freedom, and his sidekick, Huck, in the antebellum South—from the team behind the Eisner Award–winning The Black Panther Party.

WINNER OF THE AMERICAN LIBRARY ASSOCIATION’S ALEX AWARD • A BEST GRAPHIC NOVEL OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, School Library Journal, Library Journal

“A brilliant remix of history, politics, satire, and passion filtered through the comics medium by two masters of storytelling.”—John Jennings, Hugo Award–winning comics creator

Commonly regarded as one of the great American novels, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has captured the hearts and imaginations of readers since 1885. But since its publication, critics have rightfully condemned Mark Twain’s troubling portrayal of Black Americans as stereotypes and caricatures, with contemporary fans searching for a modern update to this iconic tale.

Big Jim and the White Boy is a radical retelling of this American classic, centering the experiences of Jim, an enslaved Black man in search of his kidnapped wife and children, along with his cheeky sidekick, Huckleberry Finn. Jim and Huck’s high-stakes adventures take them on an epic voyage across the antebellum South and Midwest, through Confederate war camps and runaway safe houses, into Old West standoffs, and on the road as covert Underground Railroad agents. Intertwined into the story of Jim and Huck are the stories of Jim’s descendants in the 1930s, 1980s, and 2020s, making this a multigenerational family epic as well as an adventure story. Big Jim and the White Boy takes readers on a journey through Jim and Huck’s past, present, and future, delving into their incredible friendship and years of adventures—a bond that transcends the gruesome racism of the Civil War era.

With compelling artwork and riveting storytelling, David F. Walker and Marcus Kwame Anderson push the boundaries of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in this incredible graphic novel, exploring the triumphs and tribulations of Jim and his family, and finally giving his due as a hero of American literature.

View Details >>

I Am Not Your Perfect Mexican Daughter

Erika L. Sánchez

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “stunning” (America Ferrera) YA novel about a teenager coming to terms with losing her sister and finding herself amid the pressures, expectations, and stereotypes of growing up in a Mexican American home.

“Alive and crackling—a gritty tale wrapped in a page-turner. ”—The New York Times

Perfect Mexican daughters do not go away to college. And they do not move out of their parents’ house after high school graduation. Perfect Mexican daughters never abandon their family.
 
But Julia is not your perfect Mexican daughter. That was Olga’s role.
 
Then a tragic accident on the busiest street in Chicago leaves Olga dead and Julia left behind to reassemble the shattered pieces of her family. And no one seems to acknowledge that Julia is broken, too. Instead, her mother seems to channel her grief into pointing out every possible way Julia has failed.
 
But it’s not long before Julia discovers that Olga might not have been as perfect as everyone thought. With the help of her best friend Lorena, and her first love, first everything boyfriend Connor, Julia is determined to find out. Was Olga really what she seemed? Or was there more to her sister’s story? And either way, how can Julia even attempt to live up to a seemingly impossible ideal?

View Details >>

The Incredible Story of Cooking

Benoist Simmat

For the first time, a graphic novel tells the story of humanity through the evolution of cuisine. From the discovery of fire to organic cooking, this book is aimed at all curious people and foodies. By the authors of Wine, A Graphic History. As soon as humans mastered fire, they invented cooking. Did you know that Sapiens invented steam cooking and freezing? That the Mesopotamians created soups, bread, beer, ovens? That gastronomy and tableware have been symbols of political power? These great discoveries changed the world, but also the way we eat. From America, the conquistadors brought spices, peppers, potatoes... Portuguese missionaries brought the frying technique to distant samurai who made the first tempuras. These are the beginnings of globalization. In the 19th century with the industrial revolution, " capitalist" cuisine emerged: it was the beginning of the food industry. In the 21st century, the organic and buy local movements are shown as a reaction against the harmful effects of this culinary and gastronomic standardization. To finish in style, find twenty-two recipes for dishes mentioned throughout our story that you can make at home!

View Details >>

The House on Mango Street

Sandra Cisneros

In celebration of the tenth anniversary of its initial publication, and with a new introduction by the author, here is Sandra Cisnero's greatly admired and best-selling novel of a young girl growing up in the Latino section of Chicago. Acclaimed by critics, beloved by children and their parents and grandparents, taught everywhere from inner-city grade schools to universities across the country, and translated all over the world, The House on Mango Street has entered the canon of coming-of-age classics even as it depicts a new American landscape. Sometimes heartbreaking, sometimes deeply joyous, The House on Mango Street tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn't want to belong - not to her run-down neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Esperanza's story is that of a young girl coming into her power, and inventing for herself what she will become. The San Francisco Chronicle has called The House on Mango Street "marvelous ... spare yet luminous. The subtle power of Cisnero's storytelling is evident. She communicates all the rapture and rage of growing up in a modern world." It is an extraordinary achievement that will live on for years to come.

View Details >>

Drifting Dragons 1

Taku Kuwabara

A Great Graphic Novels for Teens selection by the Young Adult Library Services Association!

Take to the skies with the scrappy crew of the airship Quin Zaza, as they hunt the fantastical giants that rule their world... DRAGONS!

LIFE IN THE CLOUDS

Mika is a draker on the airship Quin Zaza. He earns his livelihood hunting the whales of the sky--dragons! The beautiful beasts are flying treasure troves, providing food and materials, and the Quin Zaza is among the last draking vessels. Mika's not just a talented hunter; he's also a gourmand with a refined palette and a taste for the exotic. Between his duties aboard the ship, his ambitions as an eater, and his new job training the rookie dragon hunter Takita, Mika's days are never boring. But even with the lively crew of the Quin Zaza as his family, the nomadic life of a draker can be lonely and dangerous...

View Details >>

Killer House Party

Lily Anderson

★ "A hauntingly beautiful take on a classic horror story that will leave readers’ skin crawling in the best way possible." –Kirkus, starred review

★"There’s a compelling, critical undercurrent here that encourages readers to think about how ghost stories begin and what keeps them alive in cultural memory, but at its core, this is pure fun for horror fans, with sharply drawn teen characters, lively banter, and a deft balance between moments of comedy and genuine scares."–Booklist, starred review

From Printz Honor winning author Lily Anderson comes a young adult horror that follows Arden and her friends as their graduation party at an abandoned mansion turns into a bloody fight for survival. 

Red Solo cups? Check. Snacks? Check. Abandoned mansion full of countless horrors that won’t let you leave? Check.

The Deinhart Manor has been a looming shadow over town for as long as anyone can remember, and it's been abandoned for even longer. When the final Deinhart descendent passes, the huge gothic manor is up for sale for the first time ever. Which means Arden can steal the keys from her mom’s real estate office . . . It’s time for a graduation party that no one will ever forget.

Arden and her friends each have different reasons for wanting to throw the party to end all parties. But when the manor doors bar everyone inside and the walls begin to bleed, all anyone wants to do is make it out alive.

View Details >>

The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School

Sonora Reyes

A sharply funny and moving debut novel about a queer Mexican American girl navigating Catholic school, while falling in love and learning to celebrate her true self. Perfect for fans of Erika L. Sánchez, Leah Johnson, and Gabby Rivera.

Sixteen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers to be known for her killer eyeliner, not for being one of the only Mexican kids at her new, mostly white, very rich Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she’s gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way. 

After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend before transferring to Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: keep her brother out of trouble, make her mom proud, and, most importantly, don’t fall in love. Granted, she’s never been great at any of those things, but that’s a problem for Future Yami. 

The thing is, it’s hard to fake being straight when Bo, the only openly queer girl at school, is so annoyingly perfect. And smart. And talented. And cute. So cute. Either way, Yami isn’t going to make the same mistake again. If word got back to her mom, she could face a lot worse than rejection. So she’ll have to start asking, WWSGD: What would a straight girl do? 

Told in a captivating voice that is by turns hilarious, vulnerable, and searingly honest, The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School explores the joys and heartaches of living your full truth out loud.

View Details >>

X-Men: The Manga: Remastered, Vol. 1

Hiroshi Higuchi

A deluxe manga take on your favorite X-Men stories!

Jubilation Lee is a teenager with a secret: she’s a mutant, the next level of human evolution, and has fantastic powers. All she wants is a normal life with trips to the mall to get away from her parents, but when the mutant-hunting robots known as Sentinels come after her, that normal life is pushed out of her reach! Discover the X-Men—mutant heroes hated and feared by a world they’re sworn to protect—alongside Jubilee in this classic manga series!

X-Men: The Animated Series was a global sensation and the perfect introduction to Marvel’s mutants! The classic manga adaptation, unavailable for years, now finally returns to print! Newly remastered and presented in a deluxe edition, this is the ultimate X-Men collector’s item!

View Details >>

The Harrowing

Kristen Kiesling

In award-winning author Kristen Kiesling and illustrator Rye Hickman's YA graphic novel The Harrowing, a psychic teen hunts potential killers until she discovers the boy she loves is her next target.

Rowan Sterling should be worrying about normal teenage things like attending college and whether her best friend Lucas is maybe more than a friend. . . . Instead, she's having terrifying visions of blood and violence. As the premonitions increase in number and intensity, Rowan seeks her father's help, but instead finds herself drugged, kidnapped, and sent to a mysterious facility called Rosewood. It isn't long before Rowan discovers Rosewood isn't a boarding school or an asylum: it's a training center for teens with special abilities who are known as Harrows.

Harrows can view the actions of would-be murderers before they commit crimes, and the scientists at Rosewood believe it is their duty to use the Harrows' powers to make the world a safer place. When they are apprehended by a Harrow, imminent criminals, known as imcrims, are captured and indefinitely detained in a state of sedation. At Rosewood, the Harrows are taught how to identify, track, and apprehend imcrims.

Rowan is immediately drawn to Rosewood's mission; after all, she lost her mother to a random act of violence two years prior. However, some of the other Harrows question the treatment of imcrims--how can it be ethical to imprison people who haven't actually done anything yet?

Empowered by the skills she's acquired and ready to change the world, Rowan returns home, but when she reunites with Lucas, she has a vision of him shooting a man in cold blood. Now Rowan is questioning everything she learned at Rosewood--she refuses to believe Lucas is capable of murder--and sets out to protect him from the Harrows.

View Details >>

My Two Border Towns

David Bowles

A picture book debut by an award-winning author about a boy's life on the U.S.-Mexico border, visiting his favorite places on The Other Side with his father, spending time with family and friends, and sharing in the responsibility of community care.

Early one Saturday morning, a boy prepares for a trip to The Other Side/El Otro Lado. It's close--just down the street from his school--and it's a twin of where he lives. To get there, his father drives their truck along the Rio Grande and over a bridge, where they're greeted by a giant statue of an eagle. Their outings always include a meal at their favorite restaurant, a visit with Tío Mateo at his jewelry store, a cold treat from the paletero, and a pharmacy pickup. On their final and most important stop, they check in with friends seeking asylum and drop off much-needed supplies.

My Two Border Towns by David Bowles, with stunning watercolor illustrations by Erika Meza, is the loving story of a father and son's weekend ritual, a demonstration of community care, and a tribute to the fluidity, complexity, and vibrancy of life on the U.S.-Mexico border.
 

View Details >>

Super Boba Café

Nidhi Chanani

First in a series, Nidhi Chanani’s Super Boba Café is a sweet and magical middle-grade, full-color graphic novel about a secret teashop, an earthquake-causing monster, and an unforgettable summer.

In the fog-laden hills of San Francisco sits a sleepy independent boba café. Run by Jing Li and guarded by her kitty, Bao, it comfortably fades into the background. But inside the boba café, there’s a secret. Jing is the keeper of the monster of San Francisco. Each day she prepares one giant boba for nine hours to feed it.

When Jing’s granddaughter, Aria, comes to stay with her for the summer, she makes it her mission to turn the café around. Aria is quickly aided by Bao, who gives birth to eight perfect kittens. Aria spreads the news of the boba cat café on social media and overnight it is overrun with excited customers. Each day Nainai Li (Grandma Li) finds reasons to close the café, but the demand only increases.

When she opens, the hill monster is left hungry and small earthquakes begin to plague the city. When Aria secretly follows her nainai to the hill monster’s cave, she isn’t sure what awaits. Will Aria be able to reason with the monster, or will she become its new favorite meal? Or might she disturb its underground existence and cause the Big One?

View Details >>

The First Rule of Punk

Celia C. Pérez

A 2018 Pura Belpré Author Honor Book

The First Rule of Punk is a wry and heartfelt exploration of friendship, finding your place, and learning to rock out like no one’s watching. 

There are no shortcuts to surviving your first day at a new school—you can’t fix it with duct tape like you would your Chuck Taylors. On Day One, twelve-year-old Malú (María Luisa, if you want to annoy her) inadvertently upsets Posada Middle School’s queen bee, violates the school’s dress code with her punk rock look, and disappoints her college-professor mom in the process. Her dad, who now lives a thousand miles away, says things will get better as long as she remembers the first rule of punk: be yourself.
 
The real Malú loves rock music, skateboarding, zines, and Soyrizo (hold the cilantro, please). And when she assembles a group of like-minded misfits at school and starts a band, Malú finally begins to feel at home. She'll do anything to preserve this, which includes standing up to an anti-punk school administration to fight for her right to express herself!

Black and white illustrations and collage art throughout make The First Rule of Punk a perfect pick for fans of books like Roller Girl and online magazines like Rookie.

View Details >>

Skit-scat Raggedy Cat

Roxane Orgill

A swinging bio of young Ella Fitzgerald, who pushed through the toughest of times to become one of America’s most beloved jazz singers.

When Ella Fitzgerald danced the Lindy Hop on the streets of 1930s Yonkers, passersby said good-bye to their loose change. But for a girl who was orphaned and hungry, with raggedy clothes and often no place to spend the night, small change was not enough. One amateur night at Harlem’s Apollo Theater, Ella made a discovery: the dancing beat in her feet could travel up and out of her mouth in a powerful song —and the feeling of being listened to was like a salve to her heart. With lively prose, Roxane Orgill follows the gutsy Ella from school-girl days to a featured spot with Chick Webb’s band and all the way to her number-one radio hit "A-Tisket, A-Tasket." Jazzy mixed-media art by illustrator Sean Qualls brings the singer’s indomitable spirit to life.

View Details >>

A Dangerous Idea

Debbie Levy

One hundred years ago, a small-town science teacher ignited a nationwide debate over what students should learn in school--and who should decide.

* “Compelling.” -School Library Journal, starred review
* “Timely.” -Booklist, starred review
* “Insightful.” -Horn Book, starred review
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

In 1925, when Tennessee lawmakers banned the teaching of evolution in public schools, teacher John Scopes challenged the law--and set off a gripping circus of a legal battle. Two masterminds faced off in a blistering courtroom debate over creationism and natural selection, each armed with the books they believed belonged in classrooms. Celebrity politician William Jennings Bryan relied on the Bible to make his case, while legal luminary Clarence Darrow defended Charles Darwin's groundbreaking books On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man. Their clash would go down in history as the Scopes Monkey Trial.

A century later, here is the riveting truth of what happened and why it matters. For a nation still arguing about the books and ideas that young people should encounter, award-winning author Debbie Levy delivers an important, insightful and expertly-researched account of our history that illuminates the challenges we face today.

View Details >>

Impossible Possums

Justin Colón

Carl is bad. Bad to the bone. The only thing that would make being this bad even better would be someone to share it with. Cue the Possum Populator and a whole bunch of bad guys.

Perfect for fans of Despicable Me and Lilo & Stitch, this exceptionally goofy picture book stars aspiring villain Carl the possum, who is on a mission to create a like-minded conspirator.

Life as an aspiring villain is lonely for Carl the possum, so he's on a mission to create a like-minded conspirator. But when his Possum Populator arrives, it requires assembly (and villains don't have time for that). So, Carl tosses the instructions, leading to a series of outlandish mishaps and mounting frustration as the contraption pops out all the wrong creations.

Hilarious and imaginative, this picture book will have readers laughing and eager for more diabolical misadventures with Carl at the helm.

View Details >>

Table Titans Club

Scott Kurtz

Growing pains, game-play adventure, and 20-sided dice abound in this new graphic novel series about a middle school Dungeons & Dragons club from an Eisner and Harvey Award-winning cartoonist.

Valeria Winters has an easier time finding trouble than making friends. A fantasy-obsessed nerd with the legendary confidence—and temper—of a Valkyrie, Val promises her mom that things will be different at her new school. “No more fighting!”

As if by fate, she meets the Table Titans right away—Alan, Andrew, and Darius, who run the school’s tabletop gaming club. Finally, Val has found her own adventuring party! And even better . . . a place where she belongs.

So when the future of the club is threatened, Val makes it her personal quest to save the Table Titans. She’ll have to face the fire-breathing wrestling coach and popular girl Kate, who seems out for revenge. Revenge for what? Val has no clue.

As the quest grows more and more complicated, Val wishes she was like her peaceful druid Lulani from the Table Titans' campaign, whose calm voice always prevails. If she loses her cool in real life, Val might lose more than the Table Titans club. She'll have to roll a natural 20 in charisma to keep her new friends together. 

Set in the same universe as the Eisner Award-winning webcomic PvP, Scott Kurtz’s artwork blends zany, fantastical visuals with slice-of-life humor. For fans of fantasy and coming of age stories alike, Table Titans finds humor, heart, and adventure in a tale of friendship and finding your people.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
Named to Little Maverick Graphic Novel Reading List

View Details >>

The City ABC Book

Zoran Milich

Every large city is filled with sights and sounds and lots and lots of words. But have you ever looked at the city itself? At the shapes created by wood, concrete, metal and paint? A keen eye and a little inspiration are all it takes to discover a hidden alphabet among the architecture of a bustling metropolis. The City ABC Book features dramatic black-and-white photographs of urban landscapes with hidden letters boldly highlighted in red. Children will be inspired to take a second look at the world around them as their powers of observation are enhanced, and their imaginations are allowed to soar.

View Details >>

Dead Good Detectives

Jenny McLachlan

From the UK's bestselling author of the Land of Roar series comes this first book in a spooky, swashbuckling duology!

Sid Jones and her best friend, Zen, like to play in their local graveyard--but they never expected their ghostly games to suddenly turn real. When Sid accidentally frees the spirit of Ezekiel "Bones" Kittow, a pirate who died nearly three hundred years prior, he asks her to help him find his long-lost treasure so his soul can finally be at rest. The only problem? He can't remember where, or even what, the treasure is.

With nothing but a spectral hand-drawn map to help guide their search, Sid, Bones, Zen, and an annoyingly loud ghost parrot set out to complete their quest. But haunting their every step is Old Scratch, a creepy specter who runs the eerie graveyard prison keeping Bones, his crew, and many other spirits trapped. Old Scratch won't let Bones be free without a fight, and in the end, there may be much more sinister threats to face down. . . .

View Details >>

All the Colors of the Dark

Chris Whitaker

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of We Begin at the End comes a soaring thriller and an epic love story that “hits like a sledgehammer . . . an absolutely must-read novel” (Gillian Flynn, author of Gone Girl).

Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today 
The Boston Globe’s #1 Thriller/Mystery of 2024 So Far
A Best Book of the Year: Washington Post, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews

“Kept me frantically turning the pages and somehow made me cry at the end . . . Brava!”—Kristin Hannah, author of The Women

“Melds tense suspense with a powerful exploration of devotion, obsession, and love.”—People (Best New Books)

1975 is a time of change in America. The Vietnam War is ending. Muhammad Ali is fighting Joe Frazier. And in the small town of Monta Clare, Missouri, girls are disappearing.

When the daughter of a wealthy family is targeted, the most unlikely hero emerges—Patch, a local boy, who saves the girl, and, in doing so, leaves heartache in his wake.

Patch and those who love him soon discover that the line between triumph and tragedy has never been finer. And that their search for answers will lead them to truths that could mean losing one another.

A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each, Chris Whitaker has written a novel about what lurks in the shadows of obsession and the blinding light of hope.

View Details >>

All American Boys

Jason Reynolds

A 2016 Coretta Scott King Author Honor book, and recipient of the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children’s Literature. 

In this New York Times bestselling novel, two teens—one black, one white—grapple with the repercussions of a single violent act that leaves their school, their community, and, ultimately, the country bitterly divided by racial tension.

A bag of chips. That’s all sixteen-year-old Rashad is looking for at the corner bodega. What he finds instead is a fist-happy cop, Paul Galluzzo, who mistakes Rashad for a shoplifter, mistakes Rashad’s pleadings that he’s stolen nothing for belligerence, mistakes Rashad’s resistance to leave the bodega as resisting arrest, mistakes Rashad’s every flinch at every punch the cop throws as further resistance and refusal to STAY STILL as ordered. But how can you stay still when someone is pounding your face into the concrete pavement?

There were witnesses: Quinn Collins—a varsity basketball player and Rashad’s classmate who has been raised by Paul since his own father died in Afghanistan—and a video camera. Soon the beating is all over the news and Paul is getting threatened with accusations of prejudice and racial brutality. Quinn refuses to believe that the man who has basically been his savior could possibly be guilty. But then Rashad is absent. And absent again. And again. And the basketball team—half of whom are Rashad’s best friends—start to take sides. As does the school. And the town. Simmering tensions threaten to explode as Rashad and Quinn are forced to face decisions and consequences they had never considered before.

Written in tandem by two award-winning authors, this four-starred reviewed tour de force shares the alternating perspectives of Rashad and Quinn as the complications from that single violent moment, the type taken directly from today’s headlines, unfold and reverberate to highlight an unwelcome truth.

View Details >>

You Call this Democracy?

Elizabeth Rusch

A 2021 YALSA EXCELLENCE IN NONFICTION FINALIST

America is the greatest democracy in the world . . . isn't it? Author Elizabeth Rusch examines some of the more problematic aspects of our government but, more importantly, offers ways for young people to fix them.

The political landscape has never been so tumultuous: issues with the electoral college, gerrymandering, voter suppression, and a lack of representation in the polls and in our leadership have led to Americans of all ages asking, How did we get here?

The power to change lies with the citizens of this great country--especially teens! Rather than pointing fingers at people and political parties, You Call This Democracy? looks at flaws in the system--and offers a real way out of the mess we are in. Each chapter breaks down a different problem plaguing American democracy, exploring how it's undemocratic, offering possible solutions (with examples of real-life teens who have already started working toward them), and suggesting ways to effect change--starting NOW!

View Details >>

Canto Contigo

Jonny Garza Villa

When a Mariachi star transfers schools, he expects to be handed his new group's lead vocalist spot—what he gets instead is a tenacious current lead with a very familiar, very kissable face.

In a twenty-four-hour span, Rafael Alvarez led North Amistad High School’s Mariachi Alma de la Frontera to their eleventh consecutive first-place win in the Mariachi Extravaganza de Nacional; and met, made out with, and almost hooked up with one of the cutest guys he’s ever met. 

Now eight months later, Rafie’s ready for one final win. What he didn’t plan for is his family moving to San Antonio before his senior year, forcing him to leave behind his group while dealing with the loss of the most important person in his life—his beloved abuelo. Another hitch in his plan: The Selena Quintanilla-Perez Academy’s Mariachi Todos Colores already has a lead vocalist, Rey Chavez—the boy Rafie made out with—who now stands between him winning and being the great Mariachi Rafie's abuelo always believed him to be. Despite their newfound rivalry for center stage, Rafie can’t squash his feelings for Rey. Now he must decide between the people he’s known his entire life or the one just starting to get to know the real him.

Canto Contigo is a love letter to Mexican culture, family and legacy, the people who shape us, and allowing ourselves to forge our own path. At its heart, this is one of the most glorious rivals-to-lovers romance about finding the one who challenges you in the most extraordinary ways.

View Details >>

Fights: One Boy's Triumph Over Violence

Joel Christian Gill

A New York Times Best Graphic Novel of 2020
YALSA 2021 Great Graphic Novels for Teens
2021 Cartoonists Prize for Print Comics
2021 Eisner Awards Best Publication for Teens Nominee

Fights is the visceral and deeply affecting memoir of artist/author Joel Christian Gill, chronicling his youth and coming of age as a Black child in a chaotic landscape of rough city streets and foreboding backwoods.

Propelled into a world filled with uncertainty and desperation, young Joel is pushed toward using violence to solve his problems by everything and everyone around him. But fighting doesn’t always yield the best results for a confused and sensitive kid who yearns for a better, more fulfilling life than the one he was born into, as Joel learns in a series of brutal conflicts that eventually lead him to question everything he has learned about what it truly means to fight for one’s life.

"FIGHTS is somehow brutally raw, funny as hell, deeply sensitive and insightful in each panel." –– Nate Powell (March trilogy)

View Details >>

Homebody

Theo Parish

In their comics debut, Theo Parish masterfully weaves an intimate and defiantly hopeful memoir about the journey one nonbinary person takes to find a home within themself. Combining traditional comics with organic journal-like interludes, Theo takes us through their experiences with the hundred arbitrary and unspoken gender binary rules of high school, from harrowing haircuts and finally the right haircut to the intersection of gender identity and sexuality--and through tiny everyday moments that all led up to Theo finding the term "nonbinary," which finally struck a chord.

"Have you ever had one of those moments when all of a sudden things become clear...like someone just turned on a light?"

A whole spectrum of people will be drawn to Theo's storytelling, from trans or questioning teens and adults, to folks who devoured Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe or The Fire Never Goes Out by ND Stevenson, to any person looking to dive a little deeper into the way gender can shape identity. Throughout the book, Theo's crystal-clear voice reminds the reader that it's okay not to know, it's okay to change your mind, and it's okay to take your time finding your way home.

"We are all just trying to find a place to call our own. We are all deserving of comfort and safety, a place to call home."

View Details >>

Everything I Learned about Racism I Learned in School

Tiffany Jewell

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of This Book Is Anti-Racist and The Antiracist Kid, Tiffany Jewell, this YA nonfiction book, highlighting inequities Black and Brown students face from preschool through college, is the most important, empowering read this year.

From preschool to higher education and everything in between, Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School focuses on the experiences Black and Brown students face as a direct result of the racism built into schools across the United States.

The overarching nonfiction narrative follows author Tiffany Jewell from early elementary school through her time at college, unpacking the history of systemic racism in the American educational system along the way. Throughout the book, other writers of the global majority share a wide variety of personal narratives and stories based on their own school experiences.

Contributors include New York Times bestseller Joanna Ho; award winners Minh Lê, Randy Ribay, and Torrey Maldonado; authors James Bird and Rebekah Borucki; author-educators Amelia A. Sherwood, Roberto Germán, Liz Kleinrock, Gary R. Gray Jr., Lorena Germán, Patrick Harris II, shea wesley martin, David Ryan Barcega Castro-Harris, Ozy Aloziem, Gayatri Sethi, and Dulce-Marie Flecha; and even a couple of teen writers!

Everything I Learned About Racism I Learned in School provides young folks with the context to think critically about and chart their own course through their current schooling--and any future schooling they may pursue.

View Details >>

Allegedly

Tiffany D. Jackson

4 starred reviews!

Orange Is the New Black meets Walter Dean Myer’s Monster in this gritty, twisty, and haunting debut by Tiffany D. Jackson about a girl convicted of murder seeking the truth while surviving life in a group home.

Mary B. Addison killed a baby.

Allegedly. She didn’t say much in that first interview with detectives, and the media filled in the only blanks that mattered: a white baby had died while under the care of a churchgoing black woman and her nine-year-old daughter. The public convicted Mary and the jury made it official. But did she do it?

There wasn’t a point to setting the record straight before, but now she’s got Ted—and their unborn child—to think about. When the state threatens to take her baby, Mary’s fate now lies in the hands of the one person she distrusts the most: her Momma. No one knows the real Momma. But does anyone know the real Mary?

View Details >>

The Glass Scientists: Volume One

S. H. Cotugno

"A wickedly sharp adventure!" —ND Stevenson, New York Times bestselling creator of Nimona

The gothic worlds of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Frankenstein, and more collide in this graphic novel series about buried secrets, mad science, and misunderstood monsters. For fans of stylish reimaginings like Lore Olympus and gaslamp fantasies like The Night Circus!

London isn’t the safest place for mad scientists these days. After that whole ordeal with Frankenstein, angry mobs have gotten awfully good at hunting down monsters and wiping out anything they don’t understand. In fact, if it weren’t for one extraordinary young man, every out-of-the-box thinker would have been locked up . . . or worse.

That young man is none other than Dr. Henry Jekyll. He believes mad scientists would thrive if they could just fix their public image, which is why he founded the Society for Arcane Sciences, a place where like-minded eccentrics could come together to defy the laws of nature in peace.

But everything changes when a mysterious stranger arrives, bent on taking the Society in a radical new direction. With everyone turning against him, Jekyll’s life starts to spiral out of control, shattering all his carefully laid plans and threatening to expose his darkest secret—one that could destroy everything he has built from the inside out.

Volume One collects Chapters 1-7 of this thrilling, humorous, beloved webcomic, which is available in print for the first time ever. It also features a brand-new side story, a behind-the-scenes look at artwork, and more exclusive bonus content!

View Details >>

I Am Alfonso Jones

Tony Medina

The Hate U Give meets The Lovely Bones in this unflinching graphic novel about the afterlife of a young man killed by an off-duty police officer, co-illustrated by New York Times bestselling artist John Jennings.

Alfonso Jones can't wait to play the role of Hamlet in his school's hip-hop rendition of the classic Shakespearean play. He also wants to let his best friend, Danetta, know how he really feels about her. But as he is buying his first suit, an off-duty police officer mistakes a clothes hanger for a gun, and he shoots Alfonso.

When Alfonso wakes up in the afterlife, he's on a ghost train guided by well-known victims of police shootings, who teach him what he needs to know about this subterranean spiritual world. Meanwhile, Alfonso's family and friends struggle with their grief and seek justice for Alfonso in the streets. As they confront their new realities, both Alfonso and those he loves realize the work that lies ahead in the fight for justice.

Foreword by Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of the Equal Justice Initiative and author of Just Mercy

View Details >>

The Denim Diaries

Laurie Boyle Crompton

Laurie Boyle Crompton's coming of age in rural Pennsylvania and the New York City area in the 1970s and 1980s was anything but idyllic. In moving verse accompanied by diary-esque sketches, Crompton takes you along as she navigates relationships, plays the happy family at church despite discord at home, manages her mother's ambitions and her father's alcoholism, struggles with her self-image, and desperately tries to fit in at school by squeezing into too-tight designer denim.

Both heartwarming and heartbreaking, The Denim Diaries follows Crompton's journey through disordered eating and sexual assault to acceptance and recovery. Her vivid poems recall the highs and lows of a life filled with hardship and joy alike. At times both harrowing and humorous, this memoir brings new perspective to the importance of self-love and finding hope in the darkest of times.

View Details >>

Navigating With You

Jeremy Whitley

A charming POC-led WLW romance where two new friends hit the road in search of the missing volumes of their favorite manga.

Neesha Sparks is a disabled, vocal community activist with a passion for costume design. Gabby Graciana is an optimistic surfer - and, like Neesha, a new kid at school. When the two girls discover that they like the same manga series, Navigator Nozomi, they become more than just fellow new kids. But it was more than just having read the same book series--neither of them had finished it! Soon, they become new friends on a mission - to track down the remaining Navigator Nozomi books. This slice-of-life romance follows the two girls as they adventure across North Carolina to find each book, with their story intercut with the tales of Navigator Nozomi. Neesha and Gabby find more than just the books though—they find acceptance, friendship, understanding, and love.

View Details >>

Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love

Jared Reck

A sweet romantic story about donuts, food trucks, family, and first loves.

It's easy to look at high school senior Oscar Olsson and think: lost. He hates school, struggles to read, and wants nothing to do with college. But Oscar is anything but lost---he knows exactly what he wants and exactly how to get it. Oscar and Farfar, the Swedish grandfather who's raised him, run a food truck together selling rullekebab and munkar, and Oscar wants to finish school so he can focus on the food truck full-time.

It's easy to look at Mary Louise (Lou for short) Messinger and think: driven. AP everything, valedictorian in her sights, and Ivy league college aspirations.

When Lou hijacks Oscar's carefully crafted schedule of independent studies and blocks of time in the Culinary Lab, Oscar is roped into helping Lou complete her over-ambitious, resume-building service project-reducing food waste in Central Adams High School. While Lou stands to gain her Girl Scout Gold Award, Oscar will be faced with a mountain of uneaten school apples and countless hours with a girl he can't stand.

With the finish line in sight, a relationship he never expected, and festival season about to begin (for good), the unthinkable happens, and Oscar's future is anything but certain.

View Details >>

The Absinthe Underground

Jamie Pacton

An INSTANT National Bestseller! 

This lavish and decedent sapphic friends-to-lovers romantasy will leave fans of Moulin Rouge and Divine Rivals utterly enchanted!

“A romantic and thrilling story of ambition, magic, and peril.”—Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

After running away from home, Sybil Clarion is eager to embrace all the freedom the Belle Époque city of Severon has to offer. Instead, she’s traded high-society soirées for empty pockets. At least she has Esme, the girl who offered Sybil a home, and if either of them dared, something more. 

While Esme would rather spend the night tinkering with her clocks and snuggling her cats, Sybil craves excitement and needs money. She plans to get both by stealing the rare posters that crop up around town. But when she’s caught selling a poster by none other than its subject, Maeve, the glamorous girl invites Sybil and Esme to The Absinthe Underground, the exclusive club she co-owns, and reveals herself to be a Green Faerie, trapped in this world. 

Maeve wants to hire thieves for a daring heist in Fae and is willing to pay enough that Sybil and Esme never have to worry about money again. It’s too good of an offer to pass up, even if Maeve’s tragic story doesn’t quite add up, and the secrets could jeopardize everything the girls have so carefully built.

Jamie Pacton, author of The Vermilion Emporium, dazzles in this whimsical and daring romantic fantasy. Fans of Fae lore, slow-burn sapphic pining, and decadently magical worlds will find The Absinthe Underground as ensorcelling as a fairy delight.

View Details >>

Ghost Boys

Jewell Parker Rhodes

A heartbreaking and powerful story about a black boy killed by a police officer, drawing connections through history, from award-winning author Jewell Parker Rhodes.
An instant New York Times bestsellerAn instant IndieBound bestsellerThe #1 Kids' Indie Next PickA Walter Award winner 
Only the living can make the world better. Live and make it better.
Twelve-year-old Jerome is shot by a police officer who mistakes his toy gun for a real threat. As a ghost, he observes the devastation that's been unleashed on his family and community in the wake of what they see as an unjust and brutal killing.
Soon Jerome meets another ghost: Emmett Till, a boy from a very different time but similar circumstances. Emmett helps Jerome process what has happened, on a journey towards recognizing how historical racism may have led to the events that ended his life. Jerome also meets Sarah, the daughter of the police officer, who grapples with her father's actions.
Once again Jewell Parker Rhodes deftly weaves historical and socio-political layers into a gripping and poignant story about how children and families face the complexities of today's world, and how one boy grows to understand American blackness in the aftermath of his own death.


 

View Details >>

The Widely Unknown Myth of Apple & Dorothy

Corey Ann Haydu

Critically acclaimed author Corey Ann Haydu crafts a spellbinding tale following the modern-day descendants of ancient Greek gods--and how two young girls struggling against the weight of the family history end up becoming their own epic myth with large consequences.

If you could choose to be a god forever, would you do it? Every winter solstice, today's Earthly descendants of Greek gods, nymphs, and muses must visit Mount Olympus to preserve their near-godly status. Until Dorothy's mother refuses to go, sealing her fate and dying a human death shortly after. In retaliation, the gods release an ultimatum: return to the heavens as gods or live as humans on Earth. Everyone must now make a choice.

Dorothy is already at the bottom of the godly chain as the descendant of the infamous Pandora. Without her mother, the rest of Dorothy's world becomes quieter, stiller--and her grief threatens to consume her.

Apple, on the other hand, is the beloved descendant of Zeus and Hera. She is the most popular girl in school, and knows she must maintain a perfect facade, or risk ruining the family name.

The two girls couldn't be more different, but their mothers were best friends, and now they finally grow closer, too. Yet as the solstice nears, Apple's fear of losing Dorothy causes her to make a choice for herself and Dorothy that changes everything--and the consequences are great. Will the Apple and Dorothy be able to fix their friendship? Will they even choose the same path? Olympus or Earth?

View Details >>

Bird Count

Susan Edwards Richmond

The National Audubon Society's annual Christmas Bird Count stars in this charming picture book, just right for young community scientists, bird watchers, and nature aficionados.

A young girl and her mother participate as community scientists in the Christmas Bird Count. The girl is excited when Big Al, the leader of their team, asks her to record the tally this year. Using her most important tools―her eyes and ears―she eagerly identifies and counts the birds they observe on their assigned route around town. She and her team follow the rules, noting the time of day, the habitat, the birding ID techniques used for each sighting. 

Finally, they meet up with the other teams in the area to combine their totals for a Christmas Bird Count party and share stories about their observations. Sidebars tally up the birds they observe and record. This book introduces young readers to birdwatching with simple explanations of birdwatching techniques and clear descriptions of bird habitats. 

Stephanie Fizer Coleman's charming illustrations add color and context to a joyful story that's sure to inspire the nature lover in everyone. 

Back matter includes more information about all the birds featured in the book and about the Christmas Bird Count, the nation's longest-running community science bird project. 


Capitol Choices Noteworthy Books for Children and Teens
Parents’ Choice Silver Honor Award 
Mathical Honor Award
International  Literacy Association Primary Fiction Award
 

View Details >>

Kafka and the Doll

Larissa Theule

Based on a true story about Franz Kafka

Inspired by a true story, Kafka and the Doll recounts a remarkable gesture of kindness from one of the world's most bewildering and iconic writers. In the fall of 1923, Franz Kafka encountered a distraught little girl on a walk in the park. She'd lost her doll and was inconsolable. Kafka told her the doll wasn't lost, but instead, traveling the world and having grand adventures! And to reassure her, Kafka began delivering letters from the doll to the girl for weeks.

The legend of Kafka and the doll has captivated imaginations for decades as it reveals the playful and compassionate side of a man known for his dark and brooding tales. Kafka and the Doll is a testament to living life to the fullest and to the life-changing power of storytelling.

View Details >>

The Crossover

Kwame Alexander

New York Times bestseller ∙ Newbery Medal Winner ∙Coretta Scott King Honor Award ∙2015 YALSA 2015 Top Ten Best Fiction for Young Adults∙ 2015 YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers ∙Publishers Weekly Best Book ∙ School Library Journal Best Book∙ Kirkus Best Book

"A beautifully measured novel of life and line."--The New York Times Book Review

"With a bolt of lightning on my kicks . . . The court is SIZZLING. My sweat is DRIZZLING. Stop all that quivering. 'Cuz tonight I'm delivering," raps twelve-year-old Josh Bell. Thanks to their dad, he and his twin brother, Jordan, are kings on the court. But Josh has more than basketball in his blood--he's got mad beats, too, which help him find his rhythm when it's all on the line.
As their winning season unfolds, things begin to change. When Jordan meets a girl, the twins' bond unravels.Told in dynamic verse, this fast and furious middle grade novel that started it all absolutely bounces with rhythm and bursts with heart.

View Details >>

Wild About Books

Judy Sierra

OVER HALF A MILLION COPIES SOLD!

Winner of the E.B. White Read Aloud Award

It started the summer of 2002, when the Springfield librarian, Molly McGrew, by mistake drove her bookmobile into the zoo.

In this rollicking rhymed story, Molly introduces birds and beasts to this new something called reading. She finds the perfect book for every animal—tall books for giraffes, tiny ones for crickets. “She even found waterproof books for the otter, who never went swimming without Harry Potter.” In no time at all, Molly has them “forsaking their niches, their nests, and their nooks,” going “wild, simply wild, about wonderful books.” Judy Sierra’s funny animal tale coupled with Marc Brown’s lush, fanciful paintings will have the same effect on young Homo sapiens. Altogether, it’s more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

View Details >>

Crown

Derrick Barnes

Winner of the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers
A Newbery Honor Book
A Caldecott Honor Book
A Coretta Scott King Author Honor Book
A Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honor Book
An Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award Book
An Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Honor Book
A Society of Illustrators Gold Medal Book

Named one of the best books of 2017 by NPR, the Huffington Post, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the Horn Book Magazine, the News & Observer, BookPage, Chicago Public Library, and more

 

The barbershop is where the magic happens. Boys go in as lumps of clay and, with princely robes draped around their shoulders, a dab of cool shaving cream on their foreheads, and a slow, steady cut, they become royalty. That crisp yet subtle line makes boys sharper, more visible, more aware of every great thing that could happen to them when they look good: lesser grades turn into As; girls take notice; even a mother's hug gets a little tighter. Everyone notices.

 

A fresh cut makes boys fly.

 

This rhythmic, read-aloud title is an unbridled celebration of the self-esteem, confidence, and swagger boys feel when they leave the barber's chair--a tradition that places on their heads a figurative crown, beaming with jewels, that confirms their brilliance and worth and helps them not only love and accept themselves but also take a giant step toward caring how they present themselves to the world. The fresh cuts. That's where it all begins.

 

Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut is a high-spirited, engaging salute to the beautiful, raw, assured humanity of black boys and how they see themselves when they approve of their reflections in the mirror.

 

Educational resources for Crown can be found here.


 

View Details >>

Ketanji Brown Jackson

Jennifer Marino Walters

Born in Washington, DC, in 1970, and raised in Miami, Florida, Ketanji Brown Jackson developed an interest in law at an early age.

While in grade school, she sat with her father and watched him complete his law school assignments. And though some people, including a school guidance counselor, discouraged Ketanji from aiming high, she proved them wrong and graduated with honors from Harvard Law School after being named in high school as Most Likely to Succeed. She went on to make history by becoming the first Black woman to be confirmed to the United States Supreme Court in 2022.

View Details >>

Pretty Kitty

Karen Beaumont

A counting picture book in rhyme about a lonely old man whose heart is slowly melted by an ever-growing number of kitties hoping to find a home.

In this charming counting book, Pretty Kitty, a lonely old man discovers one kitty on his front step. But he does not want a kitty cat—scat! As the number of kitties grows, will the man find room in his heart—and home—for his new feline friends? 

A playful rhyming text makes this counting book perfect for sharing!

- GODWIN BOOKS -

View Details >>

Lou

Breanna Carzoo

Don't miss this humorous and heartwarming picture book by debut creator Breanna Carzoo about an unlikely everyday hero: a fire hydrant! Perfect for fans of The Good Egg and The Bad Seed.

Meet Lou. Lou has an important job . . . as the neighborhood toilet for dogs on their walks.

Useful as he may be, he gets the feeling that deep down inside, there might be more to him than that. He just doesn't seem to know exactly what yet. When disaster strikes, will Lou find out what he's made of and save the day?

From debut creator Breanna Carzoo comes a charming and funny story that reminds us to never let anyone--including yourself--hold you back from sharing your gifts with the world.

Kids will fall in love with Lou and his journey of self-discovery as he saves the day from a fire that breaks out in an apartment building nearby. You'll never be able to look at a fire hydrant the same way again!

View Details >>

Class Act

Jerry Craft

"Eighth grader Drew Ellis recognizes that he isn't afforded the same opportunities, no matter how hard he works, that his privileged classmates at the Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted, and to make matters worse, Drew begins to feel as if his good friend Liam might be one of those privileged kids and is finding it hard not to withdraw, even as their mutual friend Jordan tries to keep their group of friends together."--Provided by publisher.

View Details >>

Beautiful Ugly

Alice Feeney

“Her best book yet.” —Harlan Coben
The million-copy bestselling Queen of Twists Alice Feeney returns with a gripping and deliciously dark thriller about marriage. . . 
. . . and revenge.

Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life.

Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there. . . but his wife has disappeared.

A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible – a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.

Wives think their husbands will change but they don’t.
Husbands think their wives won’t change but they do.

“Magnetic and jaw-dropping.” —Mary Kubica, bestselling author
"Unforgettable." —Chris Whitaker, bestselling author

View Details >>

Seasparrow

Kristin Cashore

Make the harrowing journey home with Queen Bitterblue's sister and spy, in the fifth novel in the bestselling Graceling Realm series. 
Hava sails across the sea toward Monsea with her sister, the royal entourage, and the world’s only copies of the formulas for the zilfium weapon she saved at the end of Winterkeep. During the crossing, Hava makes an unexpected discovery about one of the ship’s crew, but before she can unravel the mystery, storms drive their ship off course, wrecking them in the ice far north of the Royal Continent. The survivors must endure a harrowing trek across the ice to make it back to Monsea. And while Queen Bitterblue grapples with how to carry the responsibility of a weapon that will change the world, Hava has a few more mysteries to solve—and a decision to make about who she wants to be in the new world Bitterblue will build.

View Details >>

Spider-Man: Stories from the Spider-Verse

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé

The Spider-Man you know is one of many. Meet ten Spider-Heroes in this new short story collection from acclaimed, best-selling authors writing across the Spider-Verse.

There is a Spider-Verse filled with Spider-Heroes, each on their own world: Spider-Punk, as adept at the guitar as he is at fighting crime. Spider-UK, who's juggling Eid celebrations and a super-villain threat to her London neighborhood. And Web-Weaver, whose latest fashion event is threatened by a citywide storm of hallucinations.

Some, like Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy, have already crossed from one universe to the next. Others are still discovering they're not alone. And now ten acclaimed best-selling authors, including New York Times bestselling authors Tui Sutherland, Frederick Joseph, and Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, and many more, tell the stories of these amazing Spider-Heroes--just as a mystery villain rises to threaten the entire Spider-Verse.

The full list of authors: 

Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
David Betancourt 
Preeti Chhibber
Steve Foxe
Frederick Joseph
Jessica Kim
Alex Segura 
Ronald L. Smith
Tui T. Sutherland
Caroline M. Yoachim

View Details >>

We Don't Have Time for This

Brianna Craft

"A necessary and inspirational read." --Booklist

Lemonade Mouth meets climate change activism in this enemies-to-lovers YA romance. A tied election throws two rival teen activists together to lead their school's environmental justice club, and they are taken by surprise when their clashes reveal deeper feelings hidden beneath their antagonism.

What's more romantic than saving the earth?

Two presidents. One club. A sizzling connection.

Isa Brown wishes her life would slow down. She doesn't want to leave for college. Not now that her dad finally gets to spend some time at home. Not now that she's finally been in one place for longer than a year. But nothing lasts forever. With wildfires ravaging her community and a new natural gas pipeline threatening her dad's job, the last thing Isa can do is relax. The school's environmental justice club seems like a promising way to make real change. If only her annoying co-president Darius would stop being such a control freak.

Darius Freeman can't stop hustling. If he does, how will he beat the other honors kids to be valedictorian? How will he get into the top schools in the country? How will he launch his political career? No. Darius can't stop, and the next step in his plan is leading the environmental justice club this year--putting on a policy summit and rounding out his college applications with a leadership role. But then Isa joins the club and becomes co-president. Is she the stumbling block on his road to success?

As Isa and Darius clash over the best way to lead the environmental justice club, deeper feelings emerge. About what's at stake for their communities if they can't figure out how to work together. And about the sparks they feel between them.

Will Darius and Isa figure out how to burn brightly together? Or will their flames leave nothing but ashes behind?

View Details >>

Codename: Sailor V 1

Naoko Takeuchi

Like Sailor Moon, Minako Aino is a normal 13-year-old schoolgirl until a fateful day when a white cat introduces himself to her and tells her she has the power to transform into the hero, Sailor V. Using a magic pen to transform, Sailor V fights the evil agents of the Dark Agency as she strives to protect the earth.

Codename: Sailor V, created by the author before she created the mega-popular Sailor Moon, has never before been available in the U.S. This books features:

- An incredibly accurate translation!
- Japanese-style, right-to-left reading!
- New cover art never before seen in the U.S.!
- The original Japanese character names!
- Detailed translation notes!

View Details >>

Batman: Year One

Frank Miller

In 1986, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli produced this groundbreaking reinterpretation of the origin of Batman—who he is, and how he came to be. Sometimes careless and naive, this Dark Knight is far from the flawless vigilante he is today. 

In his first year on the job, Batman feels his way around a Gotham City far darker than the one he left. His solemn vow to extinguish the town’s criminal element is only half the battle; along with Lieutenant James Gordon, the Dark Knight must also fight a police force more corrupt than the scum in the streets.

Batman: Year One stands next to Batman: The Dark Knight Returns on the mantle of greatest Batman graphic novels of all time. Timeless in its appeal, Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli’s masterpiece would stand apart from the crowded comics field even today.

This edition includes the complete graphic novel, a new introduction by writer Frank Miller and a new illustrated afterword by artist David Mazzucchelli. Completing this collection are over 40 pages of never-before-seen developmental material such as character and layout sketches, sample script pages, sketches, and more that pro-vide a glimpse into the making of this contemporary classic.

This volume collects Batman #404-407.

View Details >>

A Man and His Cat 01

Umi Sakurai

The top manga launch in Japan in the first half of 2018, A Man and His Cat was also voted one of the top ten manga of 2018 by Japanese bookstore employees nationwide. Having won hearts and topped charts in Japan, this hotly anticipated series about an older gentleman and his unique, adorable cat is available in English for the first time!

In the pet shop he calls home, a chubby, homely cat whiles away the hours listening to coos of delight from potential pet parents...but he knows it's not him they're fussing over. Even as his price drops with each passing day, no one spares the kitty a glance. Having all but given up on life, the feline dejectedly awaits his first birthday, when he'll officially be past his sell-by date. So when an older gentleman comes into the shop and wants to take him home, the kitten himself is most shocked of all! Will the man and the cat find what they're looking for...in each other?

View Details >>

In the Land of Leadale

Ceez

When Keina Kagami's life support accidentally gets cut off, she suddenly finds herself in the body of the high elf Cayna, her avatar in the VRMMORPG known as Leadale. But two hundred years seem to have passed from when she last logged in, and as she seizes this second chance at life in a world both familiar and strange, she'll have to figure out for herself just how much has changed in all that time...

View Details >>

I Love Him to Pieces

Evonne Tsang

St. Petersburg High school juniors Dicey Bell, a baseball star, and Jack Chen, who loves science and role-playing games, discover a mutual attraction when paired for a project, but on their first date, a zombie-producing fungus sends them on the run.

View Details >>

Night of the Living Cat Vol. 1

Hawkman

A new horror/comedy about adorable threats in a post-apocalyptic world!

A virus spreads across the world, transforming all humankind into wild, slavering, furry beasts: cats, to be precise. Those few survivors who remain human take refuge in the dark corners of the earth as they fight back against the feline horde. Kunagi, a man with no memory of his past yet a deep knowledge of cats, struggles to hold on with only his wits and a will to survive. Yet the virus transmits merely through cuddles, and Kunagi finds kitties so hard to resist! Is his willpower strong enough to withstand this hair-raising cat-tastrophe?

View Details >>

Brooms

Jasmine Walls

YALSA TOP 10 GREAT GRAPHIC NOVELS FOR TEENS



BEST OF THE YEAR:

Booklist · Kirkus · Polygon · Chicago Public Library · New York Public Library



3 STARS:

PW Booklist BCCB





Mississippi, 1930s. Magic simmering beneath the surface, kept in check by unjust laws and societal expectations. But for six extraordinary women, the roar of enchanted engines and the thrill of the forbidden broom race offer a chance to rewrite their destinies.





Meet Billie Mae, captain of the Night Storms racing team, and Loretta, her best friend and second-in-command. They''re determined to make enough money to move out west to a state that allows Black folks to legally use magic and take part in national races.



Cheng-Kwan - doing her best to handle the delicate and dangerous double act of being the perfect "son" to her parents, and being true to herself while racing.



Mattie and Emma -- Choctaw and Black -- the youngest of the group and trying to dodge government officials who want to send them and their newly-surfaced powers away to boarding school.



And Luella, in love with Billie Mae. Her powers were sealed away years ago after she fought back against the government. She''ll do anything to prevent the same fate for her cousins.



"Brooms" is a heart-pounding graphic novel soaring with magic, friendship, and rebellion. It''s a Fast and the Furious with broomsticks instead of cars, a historical spotlight on struggles silenced by time, and a celebration of the indomitable spirit that dares to defy the odds. Buckle up, witches and dreamers, for this ride is about to take flight.



P R A I S E



★ "Draws on the fantastical to amplify and confront issues of both the past and the present. The result is a heartfelt, gripping, and resonant story about power--how the majority wields it, and how marginalized groups reclaim it."

--Bulletin of the Center for Children''s Books (starred)



★ "Fascinating... Though readers will enjoy the dramatic racing scenes, this is truly a story about queer folk and people of color who have created a space where they can joyously and freely be themselves."

--Booklist (starred)



★ "Pulse-pounding broom races and comforting domestic sequences... An evocative Fast and the Furious-flavored graphic novel."

--Publishers Weekly (starred) 



"This is the queer, magical, broom-racing version of A League of Their Own that I didn''t know I was missing... The representation in this graphic novel is so diverse and among the best I think I''ve ever seen. It''s clear that Walls and Duvall put equal parts passion and research into this beautiful story. If you don''t read it, you''re missing out."

--Rachel Brittain, Book Riot



"A sweet, entertaining found-family story that weaves magic with historical injustice; recommended for teen graphic novel shelves.

--School Library Journal 



"Six witches get caught up in the excitement and danger of illegal broom racing in an alternate historical Mississippi... highlights the broadly diverse experiences of folks in the South... highlighting the fact that there has always been and will always be room for queer folks in our communities."

--Kirkus 



"[A] mix of exciting racing scenes, a story about overcoming the odds, and mesmerizing depictions of magic, plus some of the not-so-pretty parts of our country''s history, and it''s done in a way that is compassionate and uplifting."

--GeekDad



"Brooms Is Your Next Favorite Fantastical LGBTQIA+ Sports Story"

--The Mary Sue



"Brings vivid characters (queer, broom-racing witches) to life in an equally vivid setting."

--Gizmodo (io9)

View Details >>