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Mary Jane

Jessica Anya Blau

"The best book of the summer." -- InStyle

"I LOVED this novel....If you have ever sung along to a hit on the radio, in any decade, then you will devour Mary Jane at 45 rpm." —Nick Hornby

Almost Famous meets Daisy Jones & The Six in this "delightful" (New York Times Book Review) novel about a fourteen-year-old girl’s coming of age in 1970s Baltimore, caught between her straight-laced family and the progressive family she nannies for—who happen to be secretly hiding a famous rock star and his movie star wife for the summer.

In 1970s Baltimore, fourteen-year-old Mary Jane loves cooking with her mother, singing in her church choir, and enjoying her family’s subscription to the Broadway Showtunes of the Month record club. Shy, quiet, and bookish, she’s glad when she lands a summer job as a nanny for the daughter of a local doctor. A respectable job, Mary Jane’s mother says. In a respectable house.

The house may look respectable on the outside, but inside it’s a literal and figurative mess: clutter on every surface, Impeachment: Now More Than Ever bumper stickers on the doors, cereal and takeout for dinner. And even more troublesome (were Mary Jane’s mother to know, which she does not): the doctor is a psychiatrist who has cleared his summer for one important job—helping a famous rock star dry out. A week after Mary Jane starts, the rock star and his movie star wife move in.

Over the course of the summer, Mary Jane introduces her new household to crisply ironed clothes and a family dinner schedule, and has a front-row seat to a liberal world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll (not to mention group therapy). Caught between the lifestyle she’s always known and the future she’s only just realized is possible, Mary Jane will arrive at September with a new idea about what she wants out of life, and what kind of person she’s going to be. 

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The Nineties

Chuck Klosterman

An instant New York Times bestseller!

From the bestselling author of But What if We’re Wrong, a wise and funny reckoning with the decade that gave us slacker/grunge irony about the sin of trying too hard, during the greatest shift in human consciousness of any decade in American history.


It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. In the beginning, almost every name and address was listed in a phone book, and everyone answered their landlines because you didn’t know who it was. By the end, exposing someone’s address was an act of emotional violence, and nobody picked up their new cell phone if they didn’t know who it was. The 90s brought about a revolution in the human condition we’re still groping to understand. Happily, Chuck Klosterman is more than up to the job.

Beyond epiphenomena like "Cop Killer" and Titanic and Zima, there  were wholesale shifts in how society was perceived: the rise of the internet, pre-9/11 politics, and the paradoxical belief that nothing was more humiliating than trying too hard. Pop culture accelerated without the aid of a machine that remembered everything, generating an odd comfort in never being certain about anything. On a 90’s Thursday night, more people watched any random episode of Seinfeld than the finale of Game of Thrones. But nobody thought that was important; if you missed it, you simply missed it. It was the last era that held to the idea of a true, hegemonic mainstream before it all began to fracture, whether you found a home in it or defined yourself against it.
 
In The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman makes a home in all of it: the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan. In perhaps no other book ever written would a sentence like, “The video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was not more consequential than the reunification of Germany” make complete sense. Chuck Klosterman has written a multi-dimensional masterpiece, a work of synthesis so smart and delightful that future historians might well refer to this entire period as Klostermanian.

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The Limitless Sky

Christina Kilbourne

Rook and Gage live worlds apart — but somehow they must find a way to help one another survive.

Trapped in a life she didn’t choose, Rook struggles to find meaning in her appointed role as an apprentice Keeper of ArHK. Even though her mam soothes her with legends of the Outside and her da assures her there are many interesting facts to discover in the Archives, Rook sees only endless years of tracking useless information. Then one day Rook discovers historic footage of the Chosen Ones arriving in ArHK, and she begins to realize her mam’s legends are more than bedtime stories. That’s when Rook begins her perilous and heartbreaking search for the limitless sky.

Gage is also trapped. Living on the frontier line with his family, his is a life of endless moving and constant danger. As he works with the other scouts, Gage searches for the Ship of Knowledge to help his society regain the wonders of the long distant past, when machines transported people across the land, illnesses could be cured, and human structures rose high into the sky.

Will Rook and Gage escape the traps and perils that await them in order to save each other’s worlds? If they don’t, it could very well mean the end of humanity.

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This Place is Still Beautiful

XiXi Tian

Two sisters. A shocking racist incident. The summer that will change both of their lives forever.

Annalie and Margaret are sisters who agree on only one thing: that they have nothing in common.

Annalie is seventeen: sweet, content, and looking forward to a summer of flirting with the most popular boy in school.

Margaret is nineteen: ambitious, a warrior for social justice, and desperate to forget her ex-boyfriend in New York City.

When their family is the victim of a racial attack, Annalie tries to pretend it never happened - but Margaret wants to fight back. Suddenly their relationship - and all the ones around them - are hanging by a thread. And then a crushing secret threatens to tear them apart forever . . .

A beautiful and powerful story about family, identity and the secrets we keep, perfect for fans of Angie Thomas, Nicola Yoon, and Adam Silvera.

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The Sky We Shared

Shirley Reva Vernick

This young YA novel weaves little-known historical events into a thoughtful tale of two teens -- one American, the other Japanese -- whose wartime lives on opposite sides of the world lead them to discover that hate for an enemy leaves a heavy heart.

In southern Japan, Tamiko spends her time writing in her diary, dreaming of making theatrical costumes, and praying her brother Kyo makes it back from the war. She wishes she could be brave like him and help the war effort.

In rural Oregon, Nellie spends her time lying in the grass, studying the stars, and wishing for her pa to return from the war. She also wishes the boy next door, Joey, would talk to her again like he used to.

Soon the girls' lives become inextricably linked.

Tamiko and her classmates are brought to a damp, repurposed theater to make large paper balloons to help the military.

No one knows what they are for.

Nellie and her classmates ration food, work in salvage drives, and support their community.

No one knows what's coming.

Based on Japan's Project Fu-Go during the last stretch of World War II, The Sky We Shared uses the alternating perspectives of Nellie and Tamiko to depict the shared tragedies of two countries at war.

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TJ Powar Has Something to Prove

Jesmeen Kaur Deo

A charming rom-com about high school debater TJ Powar who—after becoming the subject of an ugly meme—makes a resolution to stop shaving, plucking, and waxing, and prove that she can be her hairy self and still be beautiful...but soon finds this may be her most difficult debate yet. Perfect for fans of Netflix’s Never Have I Ever.

When TJ Powar—a pretty, popular debater—and her cousin Simran become the subject of a meme: with TJ being the “expectation” of dating an Indian girl and her Sikh cousin who does not remove her body hair being the “reality”—TJ decides to take a stand.

She ditches her razors, cancels her waxing appointments, and sets a debate resolution for herself: “This House Believes That TJ Powar can be her hairy self, and still be beautiful.” Only, as she sets about proving her point, she starts to seriously doubt anyone could care about her just the way she is—even when the infuriating boy from a rival debate team seems determined to prove otherwise.

As her carefully crafted sense of self begins to crumble, TJ realizes that winning this debate may cost her far more than the space between her eyebrows. And that the hardest judge to convince of her arguments might just be herself.

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Exactly Where You Need to Be

Amelia Diane Coombs

With Florie's best friend Kacey set to head off to college, they decide to take a road trip to San Francisco, but when Florie's forever crush Sam volunteers to drive them, she will have to deal with her feelings and the romantic signals Sam is starting tosend.
 

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Murder for the Modern Girl

Kendall Kulper

Gatsby-era glamour, a swoon-worthy love story, and an indomitable heroine dazzle in this romp that captures the extravagance of the Roaring Twenties and the dangers of vigilante justice.

A ravishing young mind reader stalks the streets at night in kitten heels, prowling for men to murder.

A soft-spoken genius toils away in the city morgue, desperate to unearth the science behind his gift for shapeshifting.

It’s a match made in 1928 Chicago, where gangsters run City Hall, jazz fills the air, and every good girl’s purse conceals a flask.

Until now, eighteen-year-old Ruby’s penchant for poison has been a secret. No one knows that she uses her mind-reading abilities to target men who prey on vulnerable women, men who escape the clutches of Chicago “justice.” When she meets a brilliant boy working at the morgue, his knack for forensic detail threatens to uncover her dark hobby. Even more unfortunately: sharp, independent Ruby has fallen in love with him.

Waltzing between a supernaturally enhanced romance, the battle to take down a gentleman’s club, and loyal friendships worth their weight in diamonds, Ruby brings defiant charm to every spectacular page of Murder for the Modern Girl—not to mention killer fashion. An irresistible caper perfect for fans of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

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All Signs Point to Yes

Cam Montgomery

A literal star-studded anthology that delivers a love story for every star sign straight from the hearts of thirteen multicultural YA authors.

A haunted Aquarius finds love behind the veil. An ambitious Aries will do anything to stay in the spotlight. A foodie Taurus discovers the best eats in town (with a side of romance). A witchy Cancer stumbles into a curious meet-cute.

Whether it’s romantic, platonic, familial, or something else you can’t quite define, love is the thing that connects us. All Signs Point to Yes will take you on a journey from your own backyard to the world beyond the living as it settles us among the stars for thirteen stories of love and life.

These stories will touch your heart, speak to your soul, and have you reaching for your horoscope forevermore.

Contributors:

g. haron davis (Aries)
Adrianne White (Aquarius)
Cam Montgomery (Ophiuchus)
Tehlor Kay Mejia (Gemini)
Mark Oshiro (Libra)
Eric Smith (Scorpio)
Emery Lee (Pisces)
Byron Graves (Virgo)
Karuna Riazi (Cancer)
Roselle Lim (Taurus)
Alexandra Villasante (Capricorn)
Lily Anderson (Sagittarius)
Kiana Nguyen (Leo)

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It's All in How You Fall

Sarah Henning

A contemporary young adult romance about moving on, finding your place, and recovering after life falls apart.



Gymnast Caroline Kepler has three state balance beam titles, a new trick even most elites can't do, and chronic, undeniable back pain. While she might never be an Olympian, she has dreams of leveling up to elite, making Nationals, and competing in college. But when one epic face-plant changes all that and Caroline's back pain goes from chronic to career-ending, her dreams are shattered and her life is flipped upside down.



Enter Alex Zavala, a three-sport athlete who's both incredibly cute and incredibly off-limits. He offers to give Caroline a crash course in all the sports she's missed, and she has an offer for him in return: For every sport Alex teaches her, she'll play matchmaker for him. Deal done, Caroline "dates" new sports with Alex for the rest of the summer, which is loads more fun than wallowing in despair. Just as Caroline starts to see herself as more than her past athletic successes, she picks up something she didn't bargain for: a big fat crush on Alex.



Turns out life was way easier when it was just layout-fulls and beam burns....

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Together We Burn

Isabel Ibañez

Isabel Ibañez's Together We Burn is a lush, enchanting standalone fantasy inspired by medieval Spain, filled with romance, adventure and just the right amount of danger.

An ancient city plagued by dragons

Eighteen-year-old Zarela Zalvidar is a talented flamenco dancer and daughter of the most famous Dragonador in Hispalia. People come for miles to see him fight in their arena, which will one day be hers. But disaster strikes during one celebratory show, and in the carnage, Zarela’s life changes in an instant.

A flamenco dancer who must become a dragon hunter to save her family legacy

With the Dragon Guild trying to wrest control of her inheritance from her, Zarela has no choice but to train to become a Dragonador. But when the most talented dragon hunter left in the land -- the infuriatingly handsome Arturo Díaz de Montserrat -- withholds his help, Zarela cannot take no for an answer. Without him, her world will burn.

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Summer's Edge

Dana Mele

I Know What You Did Last Summer meets The Haunting of Hill House in this atmospheric, eerie teen thriller following an estranged group of friends being haunted by their friend who died last summer.

Emily Joiner was once part of an inseparable group—she was a sister, a best friend, a lover, and a rival. Summers without Emily were unthinkable. Until the fire burned the lake house to ashes with her inside.

A year later, it’s in Emily’s honor that Chelsea and her four friends decide to return. The house awaits them, meticulously rebuilt. Only, Chelsea is haunted by ghostly visions. Loner Ryan stirs up old hurts and forces golden boy Chase to play peacemaker. Which has perfect hostess Kennedy on edge as eerie events culminate in a stunning accusation: Emily’s death wasn’t an accident. And all the clues needed to find the person responsible are right here.

As old betrayals rise to the surface, Chelsea and her friends have one night to unravel a mystery spanning three summers before a killer among them exacts their revenge.

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Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches

Kate Scelsa

A witchy, atmospheric lesbian contemporary romance set in Salem--from the acclaimed author of Fans of the Impossible Life. Perfect for fans of Nina LaCour and Becky Albertalli.

Seventeen-year-old Eleanor is the last person in Salem to believe in witchcraft--or think that her life could be transformed by mysterious forces. After losing her best friend and first love, Chloe, Eleanor has spent the past year in a haze, vowing to stay away from anything resembling romance.

But when a handwritten guide to tarot arrives in the mail at the witchy souvenir store where Eleanor works, it seems to bring with it the message that magic is about to enter her life. Cynical Eleanor is quick to dismiss this promise, until real-life witch Pix shows up with an unusual invitation. Inspired by the magic and mystery of the tarot, Eleanor decides to open herself up to Pix and her coven of witches, and even to the possibility of a new romance.

But Eleanor's complicated history continues to haunt her. She will have to reckon with the old ghosts that threaten to destroy everything, even her chance at new love.

Improbable Magic for Cynical Witches is a romantic coming-of-age about learning to make peace with the past in order to accept the beauty of the present

themselves, to keep each other safe from those who don’t understand their quest to live for the impossible.

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Out of the Blue

Jason June

From Jason June, author of the breakout teen debut novel Jay's Gay Agenda, comes Out of the Blue, a stand-alone dual POV queer rom-com that asks if love is enough to change everything you've grown up believing. Perfect for fans of Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas and Deep Blue by Jennifer Donnelly.

Crest is not excited to be on their Journey: the month-long sojourn on land all teen merfolk must undergo. The rules are simple: Help a human within one moon cycle and return to Pacifica to become an Elder--or fail and remain stuck on land forever. Crest is eager to get their Journey over and done with. Humans are disgusting. They've polluted the planet so much that there's a floating island of trash that's literally the size of a country.

In Los Angeles with a human body and a new name, Crest meets Sean, a human lifeguard whose boyfriend has recently dumped him. Crest agrees to help Sean make his ex jealous and win him back. But as the two spend more time together, and Crest's perspective on humans begins to change, they'll soon be torn between two worlds. And fake dating just might lead to real feelings . . .

This sophomore novel from Jason June dives into the many definitions of the word home and shows how love can help us find the truest versions of ourselves.

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Flip the Script

Lyla Lee

In this simmering, joyous novel, I’ll Be the One author Lyla Lee delivers a tender romance set between two brave teens who decide that when the script isn’t working, it’s time to rewrite it themselves.

The first rule of watching K-dramas: Never fall in love with the second lead.

As an avid watcher of K-dramas, Hana knows all the tropes to avoid when she finally lands a starring role in a buzzy new drama. And she can totally handle her fake co-star boyfriend, heartthrob Bryan Yoon, who might be falling in love with her. After all, she promised the TV producers a contract romance, and that’s all they’re going to get from her.

But when showrunners bring on a new lead actress to challenge Hana’s role as main love interest—and worse, it’s someone Hana knows all too well—can Hana fight for her position on the show, while falling for her on-screen rival in real life?

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Private Label

Kelly Yang

The Devil Wears Prada meets Far from the Tree in New York Times bestselling author Kelly Yang's powerful love story about two teens searching for their place in the world.

Serene dreams of making couture dresses even more stunning than her mom's, but for now she's an intern at her mom's fashion label. When her mom receives a sudden diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, all that changes. Serene has to take over her mother's business overnight while trying to figure out what happened with her dad in Beijing. He left before she was born, and Serene wants to find him, even if it means going against her mom's one request--never look back.

Lian Chen moved from China to Serene's mostly white Southern California beach town a year ago. He doesn't fit in at school, where kids mispronounce his name. His parents don't care about what he wants to do--comedy--and push him toward going to MIT engineering early. Lian thinks there's nothing to stick around for until one day he starts a Chinese Club after school . . . and Serene walks in.

Worlds apart in the high school hierarchy, Serene and Lian soon find refuge in each other, falling in love as they navigate life-changing storms.

* Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection *

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My Mechanical Romance

Alexene Farol Follmuth

Opposites attract in this battle-robot-building YA romance from the NYT best-selling author of The Atlas Six.

Bel would rather die than think about the future. College apps? You’re funny. Extracurriculars? Not a chance. But when she accidentally reveals a talent for engineering at school, she’s basically forced into joining the robotics club. Even worse? All the boys ignore Bel—and Neelam, the only other girl on the team, doesn't seem to like her either.

Enter Mateo Luna, captain of the club, who recognizes Bel as a potential asset—until they start butting heads. Bel doesn’t care about Nationals, while Teo cares too much. But as the nights of after-school work grow longer and longer, Bel and Teo realize they've made more than just a combat-ready robot for the championship: they’ve made each other and the team better. Because girls do belong in STEM.

In her YA debut, Alexene Farol Follmuth, author of The Atlas Six (under the penname Olivie Blake), explores both the challenges girls of color face in STEM and the vulnerability of first love with unfailing wit and honesty. With an adorable, opposites-attract romance at its center and lines that beg to be read aloud, My Mechanical Romance is swoonworthy perfection.

A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

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I Heart You, You Haunt Me

Lisa Schroeder

Girl meets boy.

Girl loses boy.

Girl gets boy back...

...sort of.


Ava can't see him or touch him, unless she's dreaming. She can't hear his voice, except for the faint whispers in her mind. Most would think she's crazy, but she knows he's here.

Jackson. The boy Ava thought she'd spend the rest of her life with. He's back from the dead, as proof that love truly knows no bounds.

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Crank

Ellen Hopkins

YA. The complete "New York Times" bestselling Crank trilogy is now available with exclusive bonus content. This boxed set makes a perfect gift and features trade paperback editions of "Crank," "Glass," and "Fallout "with striking new covers and special bonus content, including an essay from author Ellen Hopkins on the true story behind "Crank "and an essay from her daughter, the real "Kristina." In "Crank "you'll meet Kristina--and Kristina will meet crank. Acting under the guise of her alter ego, Bree, Kristina explores drugs, sex, and her own dark side. A new mother struggling--and failing--to stay clean, Kristina's downward spiral continues in "Glass," and the outcome is chronicled in "Fallout," which follows the lives of three of her children. Ages 14+

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The Poet X

Elizabeth Acevedo

National Book Award and Golden Kite Award Honor Winner!

Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing New York Times-bestselling novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth.

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood. Ever since her body grew into curves, she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

But Xiomara has plenty she wants to say, and she pours all her frustration and passion onto the pages of a leather notebook, reciting the words to herself like prayers—especially after she catches feelings for a boy in her bio class named Aman, who her family can never know about.

With Mami’s determination to force her daughter to obey the laws of the church, Xiomara understands that her thoughts are best kept to herself. So when she is invited to join her school’s slam poetry club, she doesn’t know how she could ever attend without her mami finding out. But she still can’t stop thinking about performing her poems.

Because in the face of a world that may not want to hear her, Xiomara refuses to be silent.

“Crackles with energy and snaps with authenticity and voice.” —Justina Ireland, author of Dread Nation

“An incredibly potent debut.” —Jason Reynolds, author of the National Book Award Finalist Ghost

“Acevedo has amplified the voices of girls en el barrio who are equal parts goddess, saint, warrior, and hero.” —Ibi Zoboi, author of American Street

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Muted

Tami Charles

A ripped-from-the-headlines novel of ambition, music, and innocence lost, perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Jason Reynolds!

Be bold. Get seen. Be Heard.

For seventeen-year-old Denver, music is everything. Writing, performing, and her ultimate goal: escaping her very small, very white hometown.

So Denver is more than ready on the day she and her best friends Dali and Shak sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world, Sean "Mercury" Ellis. Merc gives them everything: parties, perks, wild nights -- plus hours and hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it.

Until they're not.

Denver begins to realize that she's trapped in Merc's world, struggling to hold on to her own voice. As the dream turns into a nightmare, she must make a choice: lose her big break, or get broken.

Inspired by true events, Muted is a fearless exploration of the dark side of the music industry, the business of exploitation, how a girl's dreams can be used against her -- and what it takes to fight back.

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Every Body Looking

Candice Iloh

A Finalist for the National Book Award

When Ada leaves home for her freshman year at a Historically Black College, it's the first time she's ever been so far from her family--and the first time that she's been able to make her own choices and to seek her place in this new world. As she stumbles deeper into the world of dance and explores her sexuality, she also begins to wrestle with her past--her mother's struggle with addiction, her Nigerian father's attempts to make a home for her. Ultimately, Ada discovers she needs to brush off the destiny others have chosen for her and claim full ownership of her body and her future.

"Candice Iloh's beautifully crafted narrative about family, belonging, sexuality, and telling our deepest truths in order to be whole is at once immensely readable and ultimately healing."--Jacqueline Woodson, New York Times Bestselling Author of Brown Girl Dreaming

"An essential--and emotionally gripping and masterfully written and compulsively readable--addition to the coming-of-age canon."--Nic Stone, New York Times Bestselling Author of Dear Martin

"This is a story about the sometimes toxic and heavy expectations set onthe backs of first-generation children, the pressures woven into the familydynamic, culturally and socially. About childhood secrets with sharp teeth. And ultimately, about a liberation that taunts every young person." --Jason Reynolds, New York Times Bestselling Author of Long Way Down

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The Black Flamingo

Dean Atta

Stonewall Book Award Winner * A Time Magazine Best YA Book Of All Time

A fierce coming-of-age verse novel about identity and the power of drag, from acclaimed poet and performer Dean Atta. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo, Jason Reynolds, and Kacen Callender.

Michael is a mixed-race gay teen growing up in London. All his life, he's navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican--but never quite feeling Greek or Black enough.

As he gets older, Michael's coming out is only the start of learning who he is and where he fits in. When he discovers the Drag Society, he finally finds where he belongs--and the Black Flamingo is born.

Told with raw honesty, insight, and lyricism, this debut explores the layers of identity that make us who we are--and allow us to shine.

In this uplifting coming-of-age novel told in accessible verse, Atta chronicles the growth and glory of Michael Angeli, a mixed-race kid from London, as he navigates his cultural identity as Cypriot and Jamaican as well as his emerging sexuality. (Publishers Weekly, An Anti-Racist Children's and YA Reading List)

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Long Way Down

Jason Reynolds

A Newbery Honor Book
A Coretta Scott King Honor Book
A Printz Honor Book
A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)
A Los Angeles Times Book Prize Winner for Young Adult Literature
Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature
Winner of the Walter Dean Myers Award
An Edgar Award Winner for Best Young Adult Fiction
Parents’ Choice Gold Award Winner
An Entertainment Weekly Best YA Book of 2017
A Vulture Best YA Book of 2017
A Buzzfeed Best YA Book of 2017

An ode to Put the Damn Guns Down, this is National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestseller Jason Reynolds’s fiercely stunning novel that takes place in sixty potent seconds—the time it takes a kid to decide whether or not he’s going to murder the guy who killed his brother.

A cannon. A strap.
A piece. A biscuit.
A burner. A heater.
A chopper. A gat.
A hammer
A tool
for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun. That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans. See, his brother Shawn was just murdered. And Will knows the rules. No crying. No snitching. Revenge. That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun. He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked. He knows who he’s after. Or does he? As the elevator stops on the sixth floor, on comes Buck. Buck, Will finds out, is who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun. Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded. And that’s when Will sees that one bullet is missing. And the only one who could have fired Shawn’s gun was Shawn. Huh. Will didn’t know that Shawn had ever actually USED his gun. Bigger huh. BUCK IS DEAD. But Buck’s in the elevator? Just as Will’s trying to think this through, the door to the next floor opens. A teenage girl gets on, waves away the smoke from Dead Buck’s cigarette. Will doesn’t know her, but she knew him. Knew. When they were eight. And stray bullets had cut through the playground, and Will had tried to cover her, but she was hit anyway, and so what she wants to know, on that fifth floor elevator stop, is, what if Will, Will with the gun shoved in the back waistband of his jeans, MISSES.

And so it goes, the whole long way down, as the elevator stops on each floor, and at each stop someone connected to his brother gets on to give Will a piece to a bigger story than the one he thinks he knows. A story that might never know an END…if WILL gets off that elevator.

Told in short, fierce staccato narrative verse, Long Way Down is a fast and furious, dazzlingly brilliant look at teenage gun violence, as could only be told by Jason Reynolds.

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We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire

Joy McCullough

From the author of the acclaimed Blood Water Paint, a new contemporary YA novel in prose and verse about a girl struggling with guilt and a desire for revenge after her sister's rapist escapes with no prison time.

Em Morales's older sister was raped by another student after a frat party. A jury eventually found the rapist guilty on all counts--a remarkable verdict that Em felt more than a little responsible for, since she was her sister's strongest advocate on social media during the trial. Her passion and outspokenness helped dissuade the DA from settling for a plea deal. Em's family would have real justice.

But the victory is short-lived. In a matter of minutes, justice vanishes as the judge turns the Morales family's world upside down again by sentencing the rapist to no prison time. While her family is stunned, Em is literally sick with rage and guilt. To make matters worse, a news clip of her saying that the sentence makes her want to learn "how to use a sword" goes viral.

From this low point, Em must find a new reason to go on and help her family heal, and she finds it in the unlikely form of the story of a fifteenth-century French noblewoman, Marguerite de Bressieux, who is legendary as an avenging knight for rape victims.

We Are the Ashes, We Are the Fire is a searing and nuanced portrait of a young woman torn between a persistent desire for revenge and a burning need for hope.

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White Rose

Kip Wilson

"In a searing indictment of silent complicity, White Rose shines a light on one remarkable young woman's insistence on the power of truth, no matter the cost. A timely call to resistance." - Joy McCullough, author of Blood Water Paint

"White Rose is a resonant testament to courage. In a time of horrific brutality, young people found a nonviolent way to resist. Told in the form of poetry, the story of their hopes is honored and brought back to life, still relevant today, when regimes that spread hatred are once again thriving, and words are our most powerful defensive weapon." - Margarita Engle, author of Newbery Honoree The Surrender Tree and 2017-2019 Young People's Poet Laureate.

"Both heart-wrenching and inspiring, Sophie Scholl's story, as retold by Kip Wilson in White Rose, is a stunning reminder to stand against evil, even when you stand alone. This is the kind of book that sticks in your heart long after you've finished. An incredible story of heroism incredibly told." - Mackenzi Lee, author of New York Times Bestseller The Gentleman's Guide to Vice & Virtue

"White Rose
is a deftly plotted, absorbing read. A bold tribute to a brave hero of the German resistance during World War II. Wilson's debut is a triumph!"
--Melanie Crowder, author of National Jewish Book Award finalist Audacity

"A graceful, moving portrait of a heroic young woman's defiant refusal to remain complicit with Nazi oppression." - Julie Berry, Printz Honor author of The Passion of Dolssa

A gorgeous and timely novel based on the incredible story of Sophie Scholl, a young German college student who challenged the Nazi regime during World War II as part of The White Rose, a non-violent resistance group.
Disillusioned by the propaganda of Nazi Germany, Sophie Scholl, her brother, and his fellow soldiers formed the White Rose, a group that wrote and distributed anonymous letters criticizing the Nazi regime and calling for action from their fellow German citizens. The following year, Sophie and her brother were arrested for treason and interrogated for information about their collaborators. This debut novel recounts the lives of Sophie and her friends and highlights their brave stand against fascism in Nazi Germany.

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Blood Water Paint

Joy McCullough

Haunting ... teems with raw emotion, and McCullough deftly captures the experience of learning to behave in a male-driven society and then breaking outside of it.--The New Yorker

I will be haunted and empowered by Artemisia Gentileschi's story for the rest of my life.--Amanda Lovelace, bestselling author of the princess saves herself in this one

A William C. Morris Debut Award Finalist
2018 National Book Award Longlist

Her mother died when she was twelve, and suddenly Artemisia Gentileschi had a stark choice: a life as a nun in a convent or a life grinding pigment for her father's paint.

She chose paint.

By the time she was seventeen, Artemisia did more than grind pigment. She was one of Rome's most talented painters, even if no one knew her name. But Rome in 1610 was a city where men took what they wanted from women, and in the aftermath of rape Artemisia faced another terrible choice: a life of silence or a life of truth, no matter the cost.

He will not consume
my every thought.
I am a painter.
I will paint.

Joy McCullough's bold novel in verse is a portrait of an artist as a young woman, filled with the soaring highs of creative inspiration and the devastating setbacks of a system built to break her. McCullough weaves Artemisia's heartbreaking story with the stories of the ancient heroines, Susanna and Judith, who become not only the subjects of two of Artemisia's most famous paintings but sources of strength as she battles to paint a woman's timeless truth in the face of unspeakable and all-too-familiar violence.

I will show you
what a woman can do.

★A captivating and impressive.--Booklist, starred review
★Belongs on every YA shelf.--SLJ, starred review
★Haunting.--Publishers Weekly, starred review
★Luminous.--Shelf Awareness, starred review

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The Truth Project

Dante Medema

"A heart-wrenching quest for identity every YA reader will relate to, and a deep dive into the meaning of family. --Ellen Hopkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Debut author Dante Medema explores the emotional fallout after a teenage girl discovers she is the product of an affair. Told through a series of poems, text messages, and emails, this contemporary YA is perfect for fans of Gaby Dunn and Allison Raskin.

Seventeen-year-old Cordelia Koenig intended to breeze through her senior project. While her peers stressed, Cordelia planned to use the same trace-your-roots genealogy idea her older sister used years prior. And getting partnered with her longtime crush, Kodiak Jones, is icing on the cake. All she needs to do is mail in her DNA sample, write about her ancestry results, and get that easy A.

But when Cordelia's GeneQuest results reveal that her father is not the person she thought he was, but a stranger who lives thousands of miles away, her entire world shatters. Now she isn't sure of anything--not the mother who lied, the man she calls Dad, or the girl staring back at her in the mirror.

If your life began with a lie, how can you ever be sure of what's true?

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Solo

Kwame Alexander

Solo by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess is a New York Times bestseller! Kirkus Reviews said Solo is, “A contemporary hero’s journey, brilliantly told.” Through the story of a young Black man searching for answers about his life, Solo empowers, engages, and encourages teenagers to move from heartache to healing, burden to blessings, depression to deliverance, and trials to triumphs.

Blade never asked for a life of the rich and famous. In fact, he’d give anything not to be the son of Rutherford Morrison, a washed-up rock star and drug addict with delusions of a comeback. Or to no longer be part of a family known most for lost potential, failure, and tragedy, including the loss of his mother. The one true light is his girlfriend, Chapel, but her parents have forbidden their relationship, assuming Blade will become just like his father.

In reality, the only thing Blade and Rutherford have in common is the music that lives inside them. And songwriting is all Blade has left after Rutherford, while drunk, crashes his high school graduation speech and effectively rips Chapel away forever. But when a long-held family secret comes to light, the music disappears. In its place is a letter, one that could bring Blade the freedom and love he’s been searching for, or leave him feeling even more adrift.

Solo:

  • Is written by New York Times bestselling author and Newbery Medal and Coretta Scott King Book Award-winner Kwame Alexander
  • Showcases Kwame’s signature intricacy, intimacy, and poetic style, by exploring what it means to finally go home
  • An #OwnVoices novel that features a BIPOC protagonist on a search for his roots and identity
  • Received great reviews from Publishers Weekly, School Library Journal, Booklist, and Kirkus.

If you enjoy Solo, check out Swing by Kwame Alexander and Mary Rand Hess.

 

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Chlorine Sky

Mahogany l. Browne

A novel-in-verse about a young girl coming-of-age and stepping out of the shadow of her former best friend. Perfect for readers of Elizabeth Acevedo and Nikki Grimes.

Mahogany L. Browne's debut YA ia an absolute masterpiece. It will leave you breathless. -Elizabeth Acevedo, New York Times bestselling author of The Poet X

She looks me hard in my eyes
& my knees lock into tree trunks
My eyes don't dance like my heartbeat racing
They stare straight back hot daggers.
I remember things will never be the same.
I remember things.

With gritty and heartbreaking honesty, Mahogany L. Browne delivers a novel-in-verse about broken promises, fast rumors, and when growing up means growing apart from your best friend.

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500 Words or Less

Juleah del Rosario

“Compelling.” —School Library Journal
“Moving.” —Publishers Weekly
“Poignant.” —Kirkus Reviews


A high school senior attempts to salvage her reputation among her Ivy League–obsessed classmates by writing their college admissions essays and in the process learns big truths about herself in this mesmerizing debut novel-in-verse, perfect for fans of Gayle Forman and Elizabeth Acevedo.

Nic Chen refuses to spend her senior year branded as the girl who cheated on her charismatic and lovable boyfriend. To redefine her reputation among her Ivy League–obsessed classmates, Nic begins writing their college admissions essays.

But the more essays Nic writes for other people, the less sure she becomes of herself, the kind of person she is, and whether her moral compass even points north anymore.

Provocative, brilliant, and achingly honest, 500 Words or Less explores the heartbreak and hope that marks the search for your truest self.

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Clap when You Land

Elizabeth Acevedo

In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people...

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance--and Papi's secrets--the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

And then, when it seems like they've lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

Great for summer reading or anytime! Clap When You Land is a Today show pick for "25 children's books your kids and teens won't be able to put down this summer!

Plus don't miss Elizabeth Acevedo's The Poet X and With the Fire on High!

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Tidesong

Wendy Xu

Perfect for fans of Studio Ghibli and The Tea Dragon Society, this is a magically heartwarming graphic novel about self-acceptance and friendship.

Sophie is a young witch whose mother and grandmother pressure her to attend the Royal Magic Academy—the best magic school in the realm—even though her magic is shaky at best. To train for her entrance exams, Sophie is sent to relatives she’s never met.

Cousin Sage and Great-Aunt Lan seem more interested in giving Sophie chores than in teaching her magic. Frustrated, Sophie attempts magic on her own, but the spell goes wrong, and she accidentally entangles her magic with the magic of a young water dragon named Lir.

Lir is trapped on land and can’t remember where he came from. Even so, he’s everything Sophie isn’t—beloved by Sophie’s family and skilled at magic. With his help, Sophie might just ace her entrance exams, but that means standing in the way of Lir’s attempts to regain his memories. Sophie knows what she’s doing is wrong, but without Lir’s help, can she prove herself?

* Featured on the Today Show * An SLJ Best Book of the Year * A Nerdist Best Comic of the Year * A Book Riot Best Book of the Year * A Mighty Girl's Best Book of the Year * An ALA Best Graphic Novel for Children *

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Tea for Two

Melody Mews

Itty prepares a royal tea party for her best friend, Luna Unicorn, in this ninth Itty Bitty Princess Kitty chapter book.

Itty and her best friend, Luna Unicorn, are picking ruby red berries when they meet some pegasuses! The pegasuses are honored to meet the princess and prepare her some delicious tea. Itty has such a good time that she goes to visit them again the next day. And the day after that. Pretty soon, Luna starts feeling left out. When Itty finally notices, how can she make it up to Luna? Then she has an idea…tea for two!

With easy-to-read language and illustrations on every page, the Itty Bitty Princess Kitty chapter books are perfect for emerging readers.

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A Soft Place to Land

Janae Marks

In this compelling and heartfelt mystery story, Janae Marks--author of the acclaimed bestselling From the Desk of Zoe Washington--follows a young girl reshaping her meaning of home. Perfect for fans of Erin Entrada Kelly and Rebecca Stead. Two starred reviews! A Project Lit Club Book Club Selection, S&L Lead Title, and Kids' Indie Next List Pick!

"Joyful. A book that kids will love." --Rebecca Stead, Newbery Medal-winning author of When You Reach Me

Joy Taylor has always believed home is the house she lived in her entire life. But then her dad lost his job, and suddenly, home becomes a tiny apartment with thin walls, shared bedrooms, and a place for tense arguments between Mom and Dad. Hardest of all, Joy doesn't have her music to escape through anymore. Without enough funds, her dreams of becoming a great pianist--and one day, a film score composer--have been put on hold.

A friendly new neighbor her age lets Joy in on the complex's best-kept secret: the Hideout, a cozy refuge that only the kids know about. And it's in this little hideaway that Joy starts exchanging secret messages with another kid in the building who also seems to be struggling, until--abruptly, they stop writing back. What if they're in trouble?

Joy is determined to find out who this mystery writer is, fast, but between trying to raise funds for her music lessons, keeping on a brave face for her little sister, and worrying about her parents' marriage, Joy isn't sure how to keep her own head above water.

"Squeezes your heart in such a special way." --Lisa Moore Ramée, author of A Good Kind of Trouble and Something to Say

"Readers will find hope in Joy's courage, ingenuity, and fierce dedication to her friends." --Kate Messner, author of Breakout and Chirp

"A timely story about connection, loss and the spaces we need to understand one and brave the other." --Paula Chase, author of Dough Boys and So Done

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Lotería

Karla Arenas Valenti

The turn of a card could change your destiny in this captivating middle grade adventure based on the Lotería card game and perfect for fans of Coco. While searching for her missing cousin, a young girl is transported to a mythical kingdom, becoming entangled in a perilous game of chance.

“A magical, philosophical tale rooted in Mexican lore.” —School Library Journal, starred review


In the hottest hour of the hottest day of the year, a fateful wind blows into Oaxaca City. It whistles down cobbled streets and rustles the jacaranda trees before slipping into the window of an eleven-year-old girl named Clara. Unbeknownst to her, Clara has been marked for la Lotería.
 
Life and Death deal the Lotería cards but once a year, and the stakes could not be higher. Every card reveals a new twist in Clara’s fate—a scorpion, an arrow, a blood-red rose. If Life wins, Clara will live to a ripe old age. If Death prevails, she’ll flicker out like a candle. 
 
But Clara knows none of this. All she knows is that her young cousin Esteban has vanished, and she’ll do whatever it takes to save him, traveling to the mythical Kingdom of Las Pozas, where every action has a price, and every choice has consequences. And though it seems her fate is sealed, Clara just might have what it takes to shatter the game and choose a new path.
 
Karla Arenas Valenti weaves an adventure steeped in magic and mythology—gorgeously illustrated by Dana Sanmar—exploring the notion of free will in a world where fate holds all the cards.

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Across the Desert

Dusti Bowling

One girl sets out on a journey across the treacherous Arizona desert to rescue a young pilot stranded after a plane crash in this gripping story of survival, friendship, and rescue from a bestselling and award-winning author.

Twelve-year-old Jolene spends every day she can at the library watching her favorite livestream: The Desert Aviator, where twelve-year-old “Addie Earhart” shares her adventures flying an ultralight plane over the desert. While watching this daring girl fly through the sky, Jolene can dream of what it would be like to fly with her, far away from her own troubled home life where her mother struggles with a narcotic addiction. And Addie, who is grieving the loss of her father, finds solace in her online conversations with Jolene, her biggest—and only—fan.

Then, one day, it all goes wrong: Addie's engine abruptly stops, and Jolene watches in helpless horror as the ultralight plummets to the ground and the video goes dark. Jolene knows that Addie won’t survive long in the extreme summer desert heat. With no one to turn to for help and armed with only a hand-drawn map and a stolen cell phone, it's up to Jolene to find a way to save the Desert Aviator. Packed with adventure and heart, Across the Desert speaks to the resilience, hope, and strength within each of us.

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Dessert Island

Ben Zhu

Ben Zhu's Dessert Island is an irresistible picture book about sharing and caring.

Monkey is on a dessert island. It is made of frosting, berries, and other delicious things.

Fox is on a desert island. It is made of dirt, rocks, and sand.

But as time goes on, their fortunes change, and Monkey and Fox discover that no animal is an island.

This wonderfully layered story has themes of consumption and conservation at its center, and wraps up with a sweet and satisfying ending.

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Dear Librarian

Lydia M. Sigwarth

When Lydia was five years old, she and her family had to leave their home. They hopped from Grandma's house to Aunt Linda's house to Cousin Alice's house, but no place was permanent. Then one day, everything changed. Lydia's mom took her to a new place — not a house, but a big building with stone columns, and tall, tall steps. The library.

In the library, Lydia found her special spot across from the sunny window, at a round desk. For behind that desk was her new friend, the librarian. Together, Lydia and the librarian discovered a world beyond their walls, one that sparkled with spectacular joy.

Paired with warm art by newcomer Romina Galotta and a foreword by Ira Glass, Dear Librarian is a "thank you" to anyone who has offered a child love and support during a difficult time.

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Chaiwala!

Priti Birla Maheshwari

A sensory celebration of family, food, and culture
When their train makes a 10-minute stop at the station in Jaipur, a young girl and her mother hurry to get in line for a cup of chai. While the girl waits for her mug of milky spiced tea, readers are treated to the sights, sounds, and smells of the Chaiwala's cart. The aroma of ginger, cardamom, cloves, and cinnamon sticks swirls in the air. Tea leaves rustle, milk bubbles, and the hot drink is poured back and forth until--clink!--the cups are filled and placed on the stand. With a biscuit and a rusk added to their order, it's time to find a spot to sit and enjoy!
Inspired by the author's childhood visits to India, Chaiwala! celebrates the pleasures of taking time for food, family, and tradition--even for a brief moment. Illustrated in lively cut-paper collages and filled with scrumptious sensory details, this book is just like a cup of chai--warm, comforting, and good to the last drop.

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Amos McGee Misses the Bus

Philip C. Stead

Hooray! Our good friends are back!

Amos McGee, a friendly zookeeper, is very considerate and always on time. But after a late night planning a surprise for all his friends, Amos is tired. So tired, in fact, that he falls asleep during breakfast and misses his bus to the zoo!

Now he knows he won't have time for the surprise he planned for his friends. Unless... perhaps his friends can step in and help him out.

Ten years after the phenomenally successful, Caldecott Medal-winning classic, A Sick Day for Amos McGee, we are reunited with the gang in a brand new, heartwarming story from acclaimed author Philip C. Stead and award-winning illustrator, Erin E. Stead.
.

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Susie B. Won't Back Down

Margaret Finnegan

Roll with It meets Absolutely Normal Chaos in this funny, big-hearted novel about a young girl “reminiscent of…Junie B. Jones” (School Library Connection) and her campaign for student council president, told through letters to her hero Susan B. Anthony.

Susie B. has a lot to say. Like how it’s not fair that she has to be called Susie B. instead of plain Susie. Or about how polar bears are endangered. Or how the Usual Geniuses are always getting picked for cool stuff over the kids like her with butterflies in their brain. And it’s because Susie B. has a lot to say about these very important things that she’s running for student council president!

If she’s president, she can advocate for the underdogs just like her hero and fellow Susie B., Susan B. Anthony. (And, okay, maybe the chance to give big speeches to the whole school with a microphone is another perk.) But when the most usual of Usual Geniuses also enters the student council race, Susie realizes this may be a harder won fight than she thought. Even worse, Susie discovers that Susan B. Anthony wasn’t as great as history makes it seem, and she did some pretty terrible things to try to help her own cause. Soon, Susie has her own tough decisions to make. But one thing is for sure—no matter what, Susie B. won’t back down.

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Stuntboy, in the Meantime

Jason Reynolds

A Schneider Family Award Honor Book for Middle Grade

From Newbery Medal honoree and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jason Reynolds comes a hilarious, hopeful, and action-packed middle grade novel about the greatest young superhero you’ve never heard of, filled with illustrations by Raúl the Third!

Portico Reeves’s superpower is making sure all the other superheroes—like his parents and two best friends—stay super. And safe. Super safe. And he does this all in secret. No one in his civilian life knows he’s actually…Stuntboy!

But his regular Portico identity is pretty cool, too. He lives in the biggest house on the block, maybe in the whole city, which basically makes it a castle. His mom calls where they live an apartment building. But a building with fifty doors just in the hallways is definitely a castle. And behind those fifty doors live a bunch of different people who Stuntboy saves all the time. In fact, he’s the only reason the cat, New Name Every Day, has nine lives.

All this is swell except for Portico’s other secret, his not-so-super secret. His parents are fighting all the time. They’re trying to hide it by repeatedly telling Portico to go check on a neighbor “in the meantime.” But Portico knows “meantime” means his parents are heading into the Mean Time which means they’re about to get into it, and well, Portico’s superhero responsibility is to save them, too—as soon as he figures out how.

Only, all these secrets give Portico the worry wiggles, the frets, which his mom calls anxiety. Plus, like all superheroes, Portico has an arch-nemesis who is determined to prove that there is nothing super about Portico at all.

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The Shape of Thunder

Jasmine Warga

An extraordinary new novel from Jasmine Warga, Newbery Honor-winning author of Other Words for Home, about loss and healing--and how friendship can be magical.

Cora hasn't spoken to her best friend, Quinn, in a year.

Despite living next door to each other, they exist in separate worlds of grief. Cora is still grappling with the death of her beloved sister in a school shooting, and Quinn is carrying the guilt of what her brother did.

On the day of Cora's twelfth birthday, Quinn leaves a box on her doorstep with a note. She has decided that the only way to fix things is to go back in time to the moment before her brother changed all their lives forever--and stop him.

In spite of herself, Cora wants to believe. And so the two former friends begin working together to open a wormhole in the fabric of the universe. But as they attempt to unravel the mysteries of time travel to save their siblings, they learn that the magic of their friendship may actually be the key to saving themselves.

The Shape of Thunder is a deeply moving story, told with exceptional grace, about friendship and loss--and how believing in impossible things can help us heal.

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The Secret of the Magic Pearl

Elisa Sabatinelli

Dive below the waves to where the real adventure begins.

Hector lives with his family at the Marina in an Italian coastal town where they organize tourist expeditions to explore the many wonders of the sea. Hector's dream is to become a deep-sea diver, just like his father. Then, one day, an unscrupulous entrepreneur opens a much newer center next door, forcing them to close their business. This man has a single purpose, to find the legendary Pearl in order to sell it and make money. Hector decides to find a way to thwart the plan and save what matters most to him: the sea, his family, and his dream.

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Queen's Favorite Witch #1

Benjamin Dickson

Elizabethan England is a time of superstition and strange goings on. If you have a problem, it’s common to go to a witch for help. And Queen Elizabeth I is no different...
When Daisy -- a precocious young witch -- learns of the death of the Queen's Royal Witch, she flies to London to audition as her replacement. But Daisy is from a poor family, and they don't let just anyone into the Royal Court. The only way into the palace is to take a job as a cleaner.
As Daisy cleans the palace, she draws the attention of Elizabeth's doctor (and arch-heretic) John Dee, who places her into the auditions -- much to the chagrin of her more well-to-do competitors. But Dee knows how dangerous the corridors of power have become, with dark forces manipulating events for their own ends. To him, Daisy represents a wild card -- one that may decide the fate of many.
With so many wanting her to fail, Daisy will need all her grit and determination to make it through these auditions -- not to mention a sense of daring and adventure...

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Paper Heart

Cat Patrick

In this companion to Tornado Brain, a moving tale of loss and healing comes full circle.

Tess has always understood her role in her family. She is supposed to be the "okay" one. The one no one has to worry about. But all Tess does is worry, constantly picking at her fingers every time a new worry arises. Still grieving her best friend's death, she is consumed by the fear that everything was her fault and her sadness that Colette is never coming back. Worse still, it seems like everyone else has found a way to move on, even her twin sister Frankie. When her mom decides a change of location might do her good, Tess finds herself on an airplane bound for her aunt's house in small town Wyoming and a summer vacation attending art camp.

Tess thinks she might never be able to move on from losing Colette but her quirky but determined cousin Kennedy and new friend Izzy are determined to help. When Tess becomes convinced that Colette's ghost might be haunting her, Kennedy and Izzy find new ways for Tess to make peace with the past and finally let go of the grief that has been haunting her heart.

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One Small Hop

Madelyn Rosenberg

Perfect for fans of Carl Hiaasen's classic Hoot, this humorous adventure story set in a not-so-distant future celebrates the important differences we can make with small, brave acts.

 

When Ahab and his friends find a bullfrog in their town -- a real, live bullfrog, possibly the last bullfrog in North America -- they have several options:A. Report it to the Environmental Police Force. Too bad everyone knows the agency is a joke.B. Leave it be. They're just a bunch of kids -- what if they hurt it by moving it?C. Find another real, live bullfrog on the black market. Convince their parents to let them bike to Canada. Introduce the two frogs. Save all of frogkind.Ahab convinces the rest of the group that C is their only real option. Because if they don't save this frog, who will? Their quest, which will involve fake ice cream, real frog spawn, and some very close calls, teaches Ahab that hope is always the logical choice and that science is always better with friends.With humor and empathy, acclaimed author Madelyn Rosenberg builds an all-too-imaginable future ravaged by climate change, where one kid can still lean on his friends and dream up a better tomorrow.

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Mary Anne's Bad Luck Mystery

Ann M. Martin

Mary Anne should never have thrown away that chain letter she got in the mail. Ever since she did, bad things have been happening to everybody in the Baby-sitters Club. With Halloween coming up, Mary Anne's even more worried-what kind of spooky thing will happen next? Then Mary Anne finds a new note in her mailbox: Wear this bad-luck charm, it says. OR ELSE. Mary Anne's got to do what the note says. But who sent the charm? And why did this person send it to Mary Anne? If the Baby-sitters don't solve this mystery soon, their bad luck might never stop!

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Long Distance

Whitney Gardner

From the creator of Fake Blood comes another exceptionally charming middle grade graphic novel about friendships both near and far, far away.

Vega’s summer vacation is not going well.

When her parents decide it’s time to pack up and leave her hometown of Portland, Oregon, behind for boring Seattle, Washington, Vega is more than upset—she’s downright miserable. Forced to leave her one and only best friend, Halley, behind, Vega is convinced she’ll never make another friend again.

To help her settle into her new life in Seattle, her parents send Vega off to summer camp to make new friends. Except Vega is determined to get her old life back. But when her cellphone unexpectedly calls it quits and things at camp start getting stranger and stranger, Vega has no choice but to team up with her bunkmates to figure out what’s going on!

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The List of Unspeakable Fears

J. Kasper Kramer

The War That Saved My Life meets Coraline in this “deliciously creepy” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) middle grade historical novel following an anxious young girl learning to face her fears—and her ghosts—against the backdrop of the typhoid epidemic.

Essie O’Neill is afraid of everything. She’s afraid of cats and electric lights. She’s afraid of the silver sick bell, a family heirloom that brings up frightening memories. Most of all, she’s afraid of the red door in her nightmares.

But soon Essie discovers so much more to fear. Her mother has remarried, and they must move from their dilapidated tenement in the Bronx to North Brother Island, a dreary place in the East River. That’s where Essie’s new stepfather runs a quarantine hospital for the incurable sick, including the infamous Typhoid Mary. Essie knows the island is plagued with tragedy. Years ago, she watched in horror as the ship General Slocum caught fire and sank near its shores, plummeting one thousand women and children to their deaths.

Now, something on the island is haunting Essie. And the red door from her dreams has become a reality, just down the hall from her bedroom in her terrifying new house. Convinced her stepfather is up to no good, Essie investigates. Yet to uncover the truth, she will have to face her own painful history—and what lies behind the red door.

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The Last Cuentista

Donna Barba Higuera

Winner of the John Newbery Medal
Winner of the Pura Belpré Award


TIME's Best Books of the Year
Wall Street Journal's Best of the Year
Minneapolis Star Tribune's Best of the Year
Boston Globe's Best of the Year
BookPage's Best of the Year
Publishers Weekly's Best of the Year
School Library Journal's Best of the Year
Kirkus Reviews' Best of the Year
Bank Street's Best of the Year
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
New York Public Library Best of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Cybils Award Finalist

From Pura Belpré Award winner and Newbery Medalist, Donna Barba Higuera--a brilliant journey through the stars, to the very heart of what makes us human.


"Gripping in its twists and turns, and moving in its themes - truly a beautiful cuento."--New York Times

"Clever and compelling . wonderfully subversive."--The Wall Street Journal

★ "This tale packs a wallop. Exquisite."--Kirkus Reviews (starred)

★ "Gripping, euphonious, and full of storytelling magic."--Publishers Weekly (starred)

★ "A strong, heroic character, fighting incredible odds to survive and protect others."--School Library Journal (starred)

Había una vez . . .

There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.

But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children - among them Petra and her family - have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.

Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet - and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard - or purged them altogether.

Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?

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Kiki Kallira Breaks a Kingdom

Sangu Mandanna

For fans of the Aru Shah and Serpent's Secret series, this action-packed fantasy-adventure sees a girl's drawings of Indian mythology spring to vivid life--including the evil god who seeks to enter the real world and destroy it.

Kiki Kallira has always been a worrier. Did she lock the front door? Is there a terrible reason her mom is late? Recently her anxiety has been getting out of control, but one thing that has always soothed her is drawing. Kiki's sketchbook is full of fanciful doodles of the rich Indian myths and legends her mother has told her over the years.

One day, her sketchbook's calming effect is broken when her mythological characters begin springing to life right out of its pages. Kiki ends up falling into the mystical world she drew, which includes a lot of wonderful discoveries like the band of rebel kids who protect the kingdom, as well as not-so-great ones like the ancient deity bent on total destruction. As the one responsible for creating the evil god, Kiki must overcome her fear and anxiety to save both worlds--the real and the imagined--from his wrath. But how can a girl armed with only a pencil defeat something so powerful?

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Journey Beyond the Burrow

Rina Heisel

A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD GOLD STANDARD SELECTION!

With the adventure of Avi’s Poppy series and the heart of A Wolf Called Wander, this charming and exciting middle grade adventure follows one mouse’s journey to save his baby brother from a sinister evil.

There are rules every mouse must follow if they’re to survive in the forest.

Tobin knows these guidelines by heart. After all, with one younger sibling, another on the way, and a best friend with a penchant for trouble-making, he needs to be prepared for anything.

But one stormy night, Tobin’s safe burrow is invaded by monstrous arachnids, and his baby brother stolen away. To save him, Tobin will have to do something he’s never done before: break the rules.

Drawing inspiration from the author’s work as a natural science documentarian, Journey Beyond the Burrow is as alive as the forest floor, where nature is unpredictable, occasionally frightening, and inspirational all the same.  

Includes a black-and-white illustrated front piece.

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FGTeeV Presents: Into the Game!

FGTeeV

It's game time! Press start on Into the Game, the awesome-packed, New York Times bestselling graphic novel adventure by YouTube's favorite family of gamers, FGTeeV!
 

The FGTeeV family gamers have played hundreds of games together. Which is why Moomy decides to make a new game called My Pet Fish. Just one problem: the game is SUPER boring. And one other problem: Moomy and Duddy accidentally got sucked into it-and now they're trapped!

It's up to the kids, Lexi, Mike, Chase, and Shawn, to jump into the gaming console and rescue their parents. But first, they have to battle their way through their favorite games until they find the one their parents are stuck in. Can the kids take on a vicious pack of vampire prairie dogs, flying doody diapers, some spooky ghouls, and one incredibly dull fish before Moomy and Duddy are bored to death

Game like never before in this exhilarating graphic novel adventure from YouTube sensation FGTeeV, with more than 11 million subscribers and over 11 billion views!

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Honest June: The Show Must Go on

Tina Wells

June can't tell a lie - and that made for a lot of drama even before she joined her school musical! Tween readers won't want to miss this relatable and magical new series. Honestly.

June has a hard time telling the truth when it isn't what people want to hear. But she's trying to be honest with herself, and auditioning for the school musical is a step in the right direction! It's what she wants -- even if her parents have other ideas.

But the drama is brewing offstage, too, and on the night of the play, June's secret blog is released to the whole school. ALL of the inner secrets that she's been desperate to keep to herself are unleashed! Will her friends and family forgive her for the lies? Or is her carefully-constructed life going to come crashing down?

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Embassy of the Dead: Hangman's Crossing

Will Mabbitt

Jake is in a race against time to foil a demon-riddled plot to destroy earth—what a way to start his new job at the Embassy of the Dead! The second book of this spookily funny trilogy.

In return for helping Stiffkey the ghost pass into the Afterworld, Jake Green has been awarded an official position at the Embassy of the Dead, a job he didn’t ask for and, to be honest, doesn’t necessarily want. But saying no to the Embassy isn’t really an option, so now Jake must journey even deeper into the mysterious world of ghosts. What should be a routine Undoing takes a turn when Jake overhears a plot to destroy the very fabric between the worlds of the living and the dead. Can he do the impossible and stop the terror that creeps in the Eternal Void? With the help of his ghostly gang—hockey stick–wielding Cora and Zorro the fox—he’s going to try. Hijinks from beyond the grave will tingle readers’ spines and tickle their funny bones as the Embassy of the Dead trilogy continues.

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A Glasshouse of Stars

Shirley Marr

“Heart-twisting and hopeful, bursting with big feelings and gentle magic.” Jessica Townsend, New York Times bestselling author of the Nevermoor series

A moving coming-of-age story about one girl’s bravery and imagination in the face of the unknown. Perfect for fans of Front Desk and Mañanaland.

Meixing Lim and her family have arrived at the New House in the New Land. Her parents inherited the home from First Uncle who died tragically and unexpectedly while picking oranges in the backyard. Her mama likes to remind Meixing the family never could have afforded to move here otherwise, so she should be thankful for this opportunity.

Everything is vast and unknown to Meixing in this supposedly wonderful place. She is embarrassed by her secondhand clothing, has trouble understanding her peers, and is finding it hard to make new friends. Meixing’s only solace is a rundown greenhouse, that her uncle called his glasshouse, at the far end of her backyard that inexplicably holds the sun and the moon and the secrets of her memory and imagination.

When her fragile universe is rocked by tragedy, it will take all of Meixing’s resilience and bravery to finally find her place of belonging in this new world.

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Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche

Nancy Springer

"A young girl who is empowered, capable, and smart...the Enola Holmes book series convey an impactful message that you can do anything if you set your mind to it, and it does so in an exciting and adventurous way."--Millie Bobby Brown

Enola Holmes is back! Nancy Springer's nationally bestselling series and breakout Netflix sensation returns to beguile readers young and old in Enola Holmes and the Black Barouche.


Enola Holmes is the much younger sister of her more famous brothers, Sherlock and Mycroft. But she has all the wits, skills, and sleuthing inclinations of them both. At fifteen, she's an independent young woman--after all, her name spelled backwards reads 'alone'--and living on her own in London. When a young professional woman, Miss Letitia Glover, shows up on Sherlock's doorstep, desperate to learn more about the fate of her twin sister, it is Enola who steps up. It seems her sister, the former Felicity Glover, married the Earl of Dunhench and per a curt note from the Earl, has died. But Letitia Glover is convinced this isn't the truth, that she'd know--she'd feel--if her twin had died.

The Earl's note is suspiciously vague and the death certificate is even more dubious, signed it seems by a John H. Watson, M.D. (who denies any knowledge of such). The only way forward is for Enola to go undercover--or so Enola decides at the vehement objection of her brother. And she soon finds out that this is not the first of the Earl's wives to die suddenly and vaguely--and that the secret to the fate of the missing Felicity is tied to a mysterious black barouche that arrived at the Earl's home in the middle of the night. To uncover the secrets held tightly within the Earl's hall, Enola is going to require help--from Sherlock, from the twin sister of the missing woman, and from an old friend, the young Viscount Tewkesbury, Marquess of Basilwether!

Enola Holmes returns in her first adventure since the hit Netflix movie brought her back on the national bestseller lists, introducing a new generation to this beloved character and series.

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Bridge of Souls (City of Ghosts #3)

Victoria Schwab

Victoria ("V. E.") Schwab, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, invites readers to haunted New Orleans in this third installment of her thrillingly spooky City of Ghosts series!

 

Where there are ghosts, Cassidy Blake follows . . .Unless it's the other way around?Cass thinks she might have this ghost-hunting thing down. After all, she and her ghost best friend, Jacob, have survived two haunted cities while traveling for her parents' TV show.But nothing can prepare Cass for New Orleans, which wears all of its hauntings on its sleeve. In a city of ghost tours and tombs, raucous music and all kinds of magic, Cass could get lost in all the colorful, grisly local legends. And the city's biggest surprise is a foe Cass never expected to face: a servant of Death itself.

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Boy-crazy Stacey

Ann M. Martin

Everyone's favorite baby-sitters are back -- with everyone's favorite trip to the beach!

It all started with Kristy's great idea and became a worldwide phenomenon! Now Kristy, Mary Anne, Claudia, and Stacey are back, with a fresh new look for a new generation of readers to discover.

The Pike family is taking a two-week vacation at the Jersey Shore, and Stacey and Mary Anne get to go along to help out! Two weeks of sun, sand -- and the cutest lifeguard Stacey has ever seen!

Mary Anne knows that Scott the lifeguard is way too old for Stacey, but Stacey is in love. How can Mary Anne help her friend -- without Stacey ending up with a broken heart?

Burst: One of the bestselling Baby-sitters Club titles of all time!

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Black Boy Joy

Kwame Mbalia

THE INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. FIVE STARRED REVIEWS

Celebrate the joys of Black boyhood with stories from seventeen bestselling, critically acclaimed Black authors
-including Jason Reynolds, Jerry Craft, and Kwame Mbalia!

?"Pick up Black Boy Joy for a heavy dose of happiness." -Booklist,starred review

Black boy joy is...

Picking out a fresh first-day-of-school outfit.
Saving the universe in an epic intergalactic race.
Finding your voice-and your rhymes-during tough times.
Flying on your skateboard like nobody's watching.

And more! From seventeen acclaimed Black male and non-binary authors comes a vibrant collection of stories, comics, and poems about the power of joy and the wonders of Black boyhood.

Contributors include- B. B. Alston, Dean Atta, P. Dj li Clark, Jay Coles, Jerry Craft, Lamar Giles, Don P. Hooper, George M. Johnson, Varian Johnson, Kwame Mbalia, Suyi Davies Okungbowa, Tochi Onyebuchi, Julian Randall, Jason Reynolds, Justin Reynolds, DaVaun Sanders, and Julian Winters

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Bad Kitty Camp Daze

Nick Bruel

Kitty’s life is really hard. Like really, REALLY hard. All she asks for is twenty-two hours a day to sleep and food to be delivered morning and night. But does she get it? No. And when Puppy and Baby get a little rambunctious during her naptime, Kitty gets bonked on the head and starts to believe she’s . . . a dog.

This new dynamic freaks out Puppy, so he’s sent away to Uncle Murray’s Camp for Stressed-Out Dogs to relax with other canine campers.

But guess who sneaks along?

Still believing she’s a dog, Kitty fits right in. That is until she and Uncle Murray encounter a bear, and then the feline claws come out.

Nick Bruel's Bad Kitty Camp Daze is perfect for any kid with or without camping experience.

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Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret.

Judy Blume

A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)

Margaret shares her secrets and her spirituality in this iconic Judy Blume novel, beloved by millions, that now has a fresh new look.

Margaret Simon, almost twelve, likes long hair, tuna fish, the smell of rain, and things that are pink. She’s just moved from New York City to Farbook, New Jersey, and is anxious to fit in with her new friends—Nancy, Gretchen, and Janie. When they form a secret club to talk about private subjects like boys, bras, and getting their first periods, Margaret is happy to belong.

But none of them can believe Margaret doesn’t have religion, and that she isn’t going to the Y or the Jewish Community Center. What they don’t know is Margaret has her own very special relationship with God. She can talk to God about everything—family, friends, even Moose Freed, her secret crush.

Margaret is funny and real, and her thoughts and feelings are oh-so-relatable—you’ll feel like she’s talking right to you, sharing her secrets with a friend.

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Ahmed Aziz's Epic Year

Nina Hamza

This hilarious and poignant tween debut about dealing with bullies, making friends, and the power of good books is a great next read for fans of Merci Suárez Changes Gears and John David Anderson.

Ahmed Aziz is having an epic year—epically bad.

After his dad gets sick, the family moves from Hawaii to Minnesota for his dad’s treatment. Even though his dad grew up there, Ahmed can’t imagine a worse place to live. He’s one of the only brown kids in his school. And as a proud slacker, Ahmed doesn’t want to deal with expectations from his new teachers.

Ahmed surprises himself by actually reading the assigned books for his English class: Holes, Bridge to Terabithia, and From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Shockingly, he doesn’t hate them. Ahmed also starts learning about his uncle, who died before Ahmed was born.

Getting bits and pieces of his family’s history might be the one upside of the move, as his dad’s health hangs in the balance and the school bully refuses to leave him alone. Will Ahmed ever warm to Minnesota?

* A Chicago Public Library Kids Best Book of the Year * A BookPage Best Book of the Year * Finalist for the Minnesota Book Award *

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The Accursed Vampire

Madeline McGrane

*Named a Rainbow Book List title*

A spooky and funny graphic novel perfect for fans of The Witch Boy and Real Friends

Dragoslava is a vampire kid. It has its perks, but sometimes being stuck as a kid forever can be a pain in the neck. And that’s not even the worst part. A few centuries ago, Drago was cursed by a witch. If they don’t complete every task she sets, they will be turned into worms.

When the witch wants a spellbook from Baneberry Falls, Drago sets off with their immortal friends. But mysteries await in this sleepy Midwestern town, and Drago must figure out if the keepers of the spellbook have a hidden agenda, like everyone else they’ve ever known.

One thing’s for sure: after this accursed mission, Drago’s immortal life will never be the same again!  

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Stacey's Extraordinary Words

Stacey Abrams

#1 New York Times bestseller and NAACP Image Award Winner! The debut picture book from iconic voting rights advocate and bestselling author Stacey Abrams is an inspiring tale of determination, based on her own childhood. 

Stacey is a little girl who loves words more than anything. She loves reading them, sounding them out, and finding comfort in them when things are hard. 

But when her teacher chooses her to compete in the local spelling bee, she isn’t as excited as she thought she’d be. What if she messes up? Or worse, if she can’t bring herself to speak up, like sometimes happens when facing bullies at school? 

Stacey will learn that win or lose . . . her words are powerful, and sometimes perseverance is the most important word of all. 

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Shy Willow

Cat Min

Willow is shy. VERY shy.

Her home is in an abandoned mailbox, and she'd rather stay put. Outside kids scream and soccer balls collide, trees look like monsters, and rain is noisy in a scary kind of way. It's much nicer to stay inside, drawing. But then a young boy drops a letter in Willow's mailbox: it's a note to the moon asking for a special favor. Willow knows that if she doesn't brave the world outside, the letter will never be delivered, and the boy will be heartbroken. Should she try? Can she?

Cat Min delivers a breathtakingly illustrated story about shyness, the power of empathy, and what it means to make a friend.

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Pinkie Promises

Elizabeth Warren

Polly knows she's strong and capable. But whenever she offers to help her uncle or brother or neighbor, they tell her: "That's not what girls do."

Then one day, Polly goes to a rally to meet a woman who's running for president, and they make a pinkie promise to remember all the things that girls do. Polly carries that promise with her at school, onto the soccer field, and even into an election for Class President! This inspiring story will encourage young readers to dream big.

Godwin Books

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Now What?

Brenda Faatz

The book title begs the question and the answers come through obstacles which become opportunities in this comical romp. Curiosity, frustration, imagination, and a unique perspective are at the heart of this tale about Lizzy, the protagonist from the "It's Just So" book series. Written in lyrical rhyme, we are taken on a little journey through a day that brings personal growth and the meeting of Luna, a new neighbor, who just moved from the Caribbean. Together, they color their way through adventures and embrace the concept of "living in the now" while being creative with what life presents.

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My Name Is Bana

Bana Alabed

A poignant picture book memoir from Bana Alabed, the seven-year-old Syrian girl from Aleppo whose messages to the world have turned her into a global symbol and advocate for refugee rights.

“I just want to live without fear.”Bana Alabed, Twitter, October 12, 2016

When seven-year-old Bana Alabed took to Twitter to describe the horrors she and her family were experiencing in war-torn Syria, her heartrending messages touched the world and gave a voice to millions of innocent children.

Written in Bana’s own words, this picture book offers a uniquely intimate child’s perspective on one of the biggest humanitarian crises in history. Bana has lost her best friend, her school, her home, and her homeland. But she has not lost her hope—for herself and for other children around the world who are victims and refugees of war and deserve better lives.

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Little Witch Hazel

Phoebe Wahl

An earthy and beautiful collection of four stories that celebrate the seasons, nature, and life, from award-winning author-illustrator Phoebe Wahl.

Little Witch Hazel is a tiny witch who lives in the forest, helping creatures big and small. She's a midwife, an intrepid explorer, a hard worker and a kind friend.

In this four-season volume, Little Witch Hazel rescues an orphaned egg, goes sailing on a raft, solves the mystery of a haunted stump and makes house calls to fellow forest dwellers. But when Little Witch Hazel needs help herself, will she get it in time?

Little Witch Hazel is a beautiful ode to nature, friendship, wild things and the seasons that only Phoebe Wahl could create: an instant classic and a book that readers will pore over time and time again.

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Keep Your Head Up

Aliya King Neil

Teach little ones that it’s okay to have a bad day in this brightly illustrated, gently affirmative picture book about keeping our heads up and letting things pass.

When a child wakes up late one day, it’s only the first in a series of things to go terribly awry. But the people around them show them that what’s important is being kind to yourself and getting through rough days. Because, after all, tomorrow is a fresh start.

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I Can Make a Train Noise

Michael Emberley

In this rhythmic read-aloud, all you need is an imagination to experience the thrill of a great train ride.

When a girl shouts "I can make a train noise, now!" her imagination transforms a coffee shop into a zooming train, and her words clickity-clack across the tracks and blare like a train horn.

In a flash, salt shakers and ketchup bottles become skyscrapers, and the girl's voice rattles along the tracks with "I can make a train noise I can make a train noise." Her voice whistles "Nowowwwwww!" The propulsive, rhythmic text that mimics train sounds is sure to captivate all kids, pair it with gorgeously detailed artwork and you have a read-aloud like no other.

Michael Emberley, is the author and artist of many acclaimed children's books, including most notably It's Perfectly Normal.

Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick is one of Ireland's most distinguished illustrators of books for children.


A BookPage Best Book of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection

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The Goody

Lauren Child

From Lauren Child, multi-award-winning, bestselling creator of Charlie and Lola, comes this touchingly funny tale of being GOOD, being BAD, and most importantly, being YOU!

 

Chirton Krauss is a good child -- the very goodest. He does everything he is told, when he is told. He even does good things without being told. He eats his broccoli, he goes to bed on time, and he never, ever sticks his finger up his nose. Meanwhile, Chirton's sister, Myrtle, is NOT quite as good. She stays up late, she never cleans out the rabbit's pen, and she drops her cocoa puffs all over the rug. But what will happen when Chirton Krauss decides that being the goody isn't always so good after all?

Bestselling and esteemed creator Lauren Child has beautifully crafted this charmingly fresh and humorous exploration of individuality and being yourself. Her vibrant illustrations celebrate the story of two siblings discovering who they are, and how liberating it is to move beyond labels and be their authentic selves. Lauren Child brings her creative talent and insight to this universal story that every child and parent will connect with and celebrate.

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Everybody in the Red Brick Building

Anne Wynter

A fresh, urban take on bedtime stories in the spirit of The House That Jack Built and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom, from debut author Anne Wynter and Caldecott Honoree Oge Mora.

Everybody in the red brick building was asleep. Until . . .

WaaaAAH!

Rraak! Wake up!

Pitter patter STOMP!

Pssheew!

A chain reaction of noises wakes up several children (and a cat) living in an apartment building. But it's late in the night, so despite the disturbances, one by one, the building's inhabitants return to their beds--this time with a new set of sounds to lull them to sleep.

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Dumpling Day

Meera Sriram

Savour a rhyming celebration of one of the world's most universal foods! Readers follow ten diverse families as they cook dumplings inside their homes in preparation for a neighbourhood potluck. Dumplings are added to plates one by one, encouraging children to count with each new addition. Authentic recipes for all the dumplings and a map showing their regions of origin are included in the endnotes.

Dumpling Day features dumplings from the following regions:

India

USA (Pennsylvania Dutch)

China (Cantonese)

Nigeria

Japan

Israel

Mexico

Syria

Russia

Italy

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The Traveling Camera

Alexandra S. D. Hinrichs

This poetic and beautiful picture book chronicles the travels of Lewis Hine, who used his camera to document child labor in the early twentieth century.

Stunning visuals and poetic text combine to tell the inspiring story of Lewis Hine (1874–1940), a teacher and photographer who employed his art as a tool for social reform. Working for the National Child Labor Committee, Hine traveled the United States, taking pictures of children as young as five toiling under dangerous conditions in cotton mills, seafood canneries, farms, and coal mines. He often wore disguises to sneak into factories, impersonating a machinery inspector or traveling salesman. He said, “If I could tell this story in words, I wouldn’t need to lug a camera.” His poignant pictures attracted national attention and were instrumental in the passage of child labor laws. The Traveling Camera contains extensive back matter, including a time line, original photos, and a bibliography.

Ages six to nine.

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She Heard the Birds

Andrea D'Aquino

Meet Florence Merriam Bailey, a pioneering birder and activist who changed the way we study birds forever, as told through the evocative collage style of artist Andrea D'Aquino.

As a young girl, Florence Merriam Bailey fell in love with the outdoors, especially birds, whose songs and flight captivated her. She listened, waited, and watched to better understand her feathered friends, and wrote many books, including one of the first field guides to American birds. Her work ultimately led to better protection for birds and to the scientific study of birds in nature instead of in a lab. She Heard the Birds, the latest book from A Life Made by Hand: The Story of Ruth Asawa author Andrea D'Aquino, brings to life the story of a woman ahead of her time. D'Aquino's striking full-page collages make each page a delight to read.

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The Rabbi and the Reverend

Audrey Ades

Kar-Ben Read-Aloud eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and text highlighting to bring eBooks to life!

When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech at the March on Washington, he did not stand alone. He was joined by Rabbi Joachim Prinz, a refugee from Nazi Germany, who also addressed the crowd. Though Rabbi Prinz and Dr. King came from very different backgrounds, they were united by a shared belief in justice. And they knew that remaining silent in the face of injustice was wrong. Together, they spoke up and fought for a better future.

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A Queen to the Rescue

Nancy Churnin

Henrietta Szold took Queen Esther as a model and worked hard to save the Jewish people. In 1912, she founded the Jewish women's social justice organization, Hadassah. Henrietta started Hadassah determined to offer emergency medical care to mothers and children in Palestine. When WWII broke out, she rescued Jewish children from the Holocaust, and broadened Hadassah's mission to include education, youth development, and women's rights. Hadassah offers free help to all who need it and continues its mission to this day.

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Photo Ark ABC

Debbie Levy

From armadillo to zebra, this enchanting picture book pairs the stunning photography of National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore with playful poems by New York Times best-selling author Debbie Levy to represent the letters of the alphabet and celebrate the diversity of the animal world.
This unique alphabet book is a dazzling journey through the animal kingdom. It invites children and their families to linger over Sartore's spectacular portraits of animals both familiar and little known, to look these incredible creatures in the eye and marvel at their shape, form, and expression. Each animal is showcased in an original poem by Levy, whose clever, quirky verse and exuberant wordplay will delight readers young and old. The photos are part of Sartore's mission to photograph all the animal species in human care, with special attention given to rare and endangered species.
A beautiful gift book for animal lovers of any age, and a very special read-aloud ABC book for young children.
More popular National Geographic gift books for animal lovers include:

  • Animal Ark by Joel Sartore and Kwame Alexander
  • Hey Baby! A Collection of Pictures, Poems, and Stories from Nature's Nursery
  • National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry
  • National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry
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National Geographic Kids Photo Ark Limited Earth Day Edition

Mary Rand Hess

Our planet's most beautiful and endangered animals come to life in this visually stunning picture book. The photos, by award-winning National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore, represent a lifelong project to make portraits of the world's endangered animals. They are paired with uplifting poetry and prose from Newbery award-winning author Kwame Alexander -- a talented dream team duo to craft a uniquely wonderful book. This special edition includes a free poster highlighting 50 endangered species to commemorate the 50th anniversry of Earth Day.

A howling wolf, a stalking tiger, a playful panda, a dancing bird -- celebrate the beauty, diversity, and fragility of the animal world in this lush picture book that pairs the stunning photography of National Geographic photographer Joel Sartore with the delicate mix of poetry and prose of Newbery award-winning author Kwame Alexander. Featuring more than 40 unique animal portraits, the pages invite kids to explore each creature's markings, textures, and attributes in stunning detail, while calling on all of us to enjoy and help protect each and every one. Three picture-packed gatefolds inside showcase even more familiar and exotic species. These images are part of Sartore's lifelong project to photograph every captive animal species in the world, with special attention given to saving endangered species.

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Miles Morales: Shock Waves (Graphic Novel)

Justin A. Reynolds

An original middle-grade graphic novel from Graphix starring Brooklyn's Spider-Man, Miles Morales, by bestselling author Justin A. Reynolds and Eisner nominee Pablo Leon!

 

Miles Morales is a normal kid who happens to juggle school at Brooklyn Visions Academy while swinging through the streets of Brooklyn as Spider-Man. After a disastrous earthquake strikes his mother's birthplace of Puerto Rico, Miles springs into action to help set up a fundraiser for the devastated island. But when a new student's father goes missing, Miles begins to make connections between the disappearance and a giant corporation sponsoring Miles' fundraiser. Who is behind the disappearance, and how does that relate to Spider-Man?A true middle grade graphic novel starring one of Marvel's most popular characters, bestselling author Justin A. Reynolds (Opposite of Always) and Eisner award-nominated artist Pablo Leon (Refugees) create a riveting story that will connect with new and well-versed comics readers alike.

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Legacy: Women Poets of the Harlem Renaissance

Nikki Grimes

From Children's Literature Legacy Award-winning author Nikki Grimes comes a feminist-forward new collection of poetry celebrating the little-known women poets of the Harlem Renaissance--paired with full-color, original art from today's most talented female African-American illustrators.

For centuries, accomplished women--of all races--have fallen out of the historical records. The same is true for gifted, prolific, women poets of the Harlem Renaissance who are little known, especially as compared to their male counterparts.

In this poetry collection, bestselling author Nikki Grimes uses "The Golden Shovel" poetic method to create wholly original poems based on the works of these groundbreaking women-and to introduce readers to their work.

Each poem is paired with one-of-a-kind art from today's most exciting female African-American illustrators: Vanessa Brantley-Newton, Cozbi A. Cabrera, Nina Crews, Pat Cummings, Laura Freeman, Jan Spivey Gilchrist, Ebony Glenn, April Harrison, Vashti Harrison, Ekua Holmes, Cathy Ann Johnson, Keisha Morris, Daria Peoples-Riley, Andrea Pippins, Erin Robinson, Shadra Strickland, Nicole Tadgell, and Elizabeth Zunon.

Legacy also includes a foreword, an introduction to the history of the Harlem Renaissance, author's note, and poet biographies, which make this a wonderful resource and a book to cherish.


Acclaim for One Last Word
A Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor winner
A New York Public Library Best Kids Book of the Year
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year, Middle Grade
A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, Nonfiction

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Hannah G. Solomon Dared to Make a Difference

Bonnie Lindauer

When Hannah G. Solomon looked around Chicago, the city where she was born, she saw unfairness all around her. Many people were poor and living in terrible conditions. Immigrants from other countries struggled to survive in their new home. Hannah decided to help change that. When she grew up, she founded the National Council of Jewish Women—the first organization to unite Jewish women around the country—and fought to make life better for others, especially women and children, in Chicago and beyond.

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A Dinosaur Named Ruth

Julia Lyon

For fans of Shark Lady and from the New York Times bestselling illustrator of Dr. Fauci comes the incredible true story of a girl who discovered dinosaur bones in her own backyard and, after years of persistence, helped uncover one of the most exciting paleontological discoveries of our time.

There’s an extraordinary secret hidden just beneath Ruth Mason’s feet. The year is 1905, and Ruth is a prairie girl living in South Dakota. She has no way of knowing that millions of years ago, her family farm was once home to scores of dinosaurs. Until one day, when Ruth starts finding clues to the past: strange rocks and rubble scattered all across her land. They’re dinosaur fossils—but she doesn’t know that yet, either. It will take many years of collecting these clues, and many, many questions, but Ruth’s curiosity will one day help uncover thousands of fossils all across her land.

New York Times bestselling illustrator Alexandra Bye’s vibrant illustrations bring to life this inspiring and exciting debut picture book from award-winning journalist Julia Lyon.

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Fergus and Zeke and the 100th Day of School

Kate Messner

"In their fourth adventure, classroom mice Fergus and Zeke--after a few false starts--jump into a creative project to help the kids mark the one hundredth day of school. Fergus and Zeke love being the class pets in Miss Maxwell's classroom, and they do everything the students do. But when the kids start collecting items and doing gym challenges and making projects to celebrate the one hundredth day of school, the mice can't seem to find a way to join in. One hundred miles is a very long distance when you're running on your spinny wheel. One hundred seconds is a very short time when you're trying to take a nap. Stacking one hundred wood chips makes a tower that tips and falls before you're even halfway done. And writing a story with exactly one hundred words means abandoning your characters in the middle of the action! Will these two classroom mice ever come up with the perfect project to celebrate the one hundredth day?"--Provided by publisher.

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Brighter by the Day: Waking Up to New Hopes and Dreams

Robin Roberts

From the beloved host of Good Morning America and New York Times bestselling author Robin Roberts, a guide to instilling hope and optimism into readers' lives, infusing their days with positivity and encouragement.



Over the last 16 years as the esteemed anchor of Good Morning America, Robin Roberts has helped millions of people across the country greet each new morning, gracing our screens with heart and humility. She has sought to bring a bit of positivity into each day, even in the most trying of times. Now, she shares with readers the guidance she's received, her own hard-won wisdom, and eye-opening experiences that have helped her find the good in the world and usher in light--even on the darkest days.



Drawing on advice and knowledge she gleaned from conversations with loved ones, spiritual practices, and life experiences, Robin offers a window into how she feeds her own mind, spirit, and soul and invites readers to do the same. With a deeply personal touch, she explains that just like any skill, optimism requires practice and demonstrates how we can shift our mindsets and give ourselves permission to let our best intentions take root and be true.



Full of profound insight and the compassion to meet readers wherever they are on their journey, this contemplative and uplifting read is a breath of fresh air that will bring a dose of joy into your daily life.

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Sea of Tranquility

Emily St. John Mandel

The award-winning, best-selling author of Station Eleven and The Glass Hotel returns with a novel of art, time, love, and plague that takes the reader from Vancouver Island in 1912 to a dark colony on the moon five hundred years later, unfurling a story of humanity across centuries and space.

“One of [Mandel’s] finest novels and one of her most satisfying forays into the arena of speculative fiction yet”
The New York Times


Edwin St. Andrew is eighteen years old when he crosses the Atlantic by steamship, exiled from polite society following an ill-conceived diatribe at a dinner party. He enters the forest, spellbound by the beauty of the Canadian wilderness, and suddenly hears the notes of a violin echoing in an airship terminal—an experience that shocks him to his core.

Two centuries later a famous writer named Olive Llewellyn is on a book tour. She’s traveling all over Earth, but her home is the second moon colony, a place of white stone, spired towers, and artificial beauty. Within the text of Olive’s best-selling pandemic novel lies a strange passage: a man plays his violin for change in the echoing corridor of an airship terminal as the trees of a forest rise around him.

When Gaspery-Jacques Roberts, a detective in the black-skied Night City, is hired to investigate an anomaly in the North American wilderness, he uncovers a series of lives upended: The exiled son of an earl driven to madness, a writer trapped far from home as a pandemic ravages Earth, and a childhood friend from the Night City who, like Gaspery himself, has glimpsed the chance to do something extraordinary that will disrupt the timeline of the universe.

A virtuoso performance that is as human and tender as it is intellectually playful, Sea of Tranquility is a novel of time travel and metaphysics that precisely captures the reality of our current moment.

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Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole

Susan Cain

In her new masterpiece, the author of the bestselling phenomenon Quiet reveals the power of a bittersweet outlook on life, and why we’ve been so blind to its value.
 
Bittersweet grabs you by the heart and doesn’t let go.”—BRENÉ BROWN, author of Atlas of the Heart
“Susan Cain has described and validated my existence once again!”—GLENNON DOYLE, author of Untamed
“A sparkling ode to the beauty of the human condition.”—ADAM GRANT, author of Think Again


ONE OF THE MOST ANTICIPATED BOOKS OF 2022—Oprah Daily, BookPage

Bittersweetness is a tendency to states of long­ing, poignancy, and sorrow; an acute aware­ness of passing time; and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world. It recognizes that light and dark, birth and death —bitter and sweet—are forever paired. 
 
If you’ve ever wondered why you like sad music . . . 
If you find comfort or inspiration in a rainy day . . . 
If you react intensely to music, art, nature, and beauty . . .
 
Then you probably identify with the bitter­sweet state of mind.
 
With Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an un­tapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she em­ploys the same mix of research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity, con­nection, and transcendence.
 
Cain shows how a bittersweet state of mind is the quiet force that helps us transcend our personal and collective pain. If we don’t acknowledge our own heartache, she says, we can end up inflicting it on others via abuse, domination, or neglect. But if we realize that all humans know—or will know—loss and suffering, we can turn toward one another. 
 
At a time of profound discord and personal anxiety, Bittersweet brings us together in deep and unexpected ways.

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The Diamond Eye

Kate Quinn

The New York Times bestselling author of The Rose Code returns with an unforgettable World War II tale of a quiet bookworm who becomes history’s deadliest female sniper. Based on a true story.

 

In 1937 in the snowbound city of Kiev (now known as Kyiv), wry and bookish history student Mila Pavlichenko organizes her life around her library job and her young son—but Hitler’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia sends her on a different path. Given a rifle and sent to join the fight, Mila must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper—a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her three hundredth kill makes her a national heroine, Mila finds herself torn from the bloody battlefields of the eastern front and sent to America on a goodwill tour.

 

Still reeling from war wounds and devastated by loss, Mila finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC—until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.

Based on a true story, The Diamond Eye is a haunting novel of heroism born of desperation, of a mother who became a soldier, of a woman who found her place in the world and changed the course of history forever.

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The Sign for Home

Blair Fell

When Arlo Dilly learns the girl he thought was lost forever might still be out there, he takes it as a sign and embarks on a life-changing journey to find his great love—and his freedom.

Arlo Dilly is young, handsome and eager to meet the right girl. He also happens to be DeafBlind, a Jehovah’s Witness, and under the strict guardianship of his controlling uncle. His chances of finding someone to love seem slim to none.

And yet, it happened once before: many years ago, at a boarding school for the Deaf, Arlo met the love of his life—a mysterious girl with onyx eyes and beautifully expressive hands which told him the most amazing stories. But tragedy struck, and their love was lost forever.

Or so Arlo thought.

After years trying to heal his broken heart, Arlo is assigned a college writing assignment which unlocks buried memories of his past. Soon he wonders if the hearing people he was supposed to trust have been lying to him all along, and if his lost love might be found again.

No longer willing to accept what others tell him, Arlo convinces a small band of misfit friends to set off on a journey to learn the truth. After all, who better to bring on this quest than his gay interpreter and wildly inappropriate Belgian best friend? Despite the many forces working against him, Arlo will stop at nothing to find the girl who got away and experience all of life’s joyful possibilities.

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Sicker in the Head: More Conversations About Life and Comedy

Judd Apatow

An all-new collection of honest, hilarious, and enlightening conversations with some of the most exciting names in comedy—from New York Times bestselling author and lifelong comedy nerd Judd Apatow.

“When I need to read an interview with a comedian while in the bathroom, I always turn to Judd Apatow for deeply personal insights into the comedic mind. Place one on your toilet today.”—Amy Schumer

No one knows comedy like Judd Apatow. From interviewing the biggest comics of the day for his high school radio show to performing stand-up in L.A. dive bars with his roommate Adam Sandler, to writing and directing Knocked Up and producing Freaks and Geeks, Apatow has always lived, breathed, and dreamed comedy.

In this all-new collection of interviews, the follow-up to the New York Times bestselling Sick in the Head, Apatow sits down with comedy legends such as David Letterman, Whoopi Goldberg, and Will Ferrell, as well as the writers and performers who are pushing comedy to the limits, and defining a new era of laughter: John Mulaney, Hannah Gadsby, Bowen Yang, Amber Ruffin, Pete Davidson, and others. In intimate and hilariously honest conversations, they discuss what got them into comedy, and what—despite personal and national traumas—keeps them going.

Together, they talk about staying up too late to watch late-night comedy, what kind of nerds they were high school, and the right amount of delusional self-confidence one needs to “make it” in the industry. Like eavesdropping on lifelong friends, these pages expose the existential questions that plague even the funniest and most talented among us: Why make people laugh while the world is in crisis? What ugly, uncomfortable truths about our society—and ourselves—can comedy reveal? Along the way, these comics reminisce about those who helped them on their journey—from early success through failure and rejection, and back again—even as they look ahead to the future of comedy and Hollywood in a hyper-connected, overstimulated world.

With his trademark insight, curiosity, and irrepressible sense of humor, Apatow explores the nature of creativity, professional ambition, and vulnerability in an ever-evolving cultural landscape, and how our favorite comics are able to keep us laughing along the way.

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Sari, Not Sari

Sonya Singh

This delightful debut rom-com follows the adventures of a woman trying to connect with her South Asian roots and introduces readers to a memorable cast of characters in a veritable feast of food, family traditions, and fun.

Manny Dogra is the beautiful young CEO of Breakup, a highly successful company that helps people manage their relationship breakups. As preoccupied as she is with her business, she’s also planning her wedding to handsome architect Adam Jamieson while dealing with the loss of her beloved parents.

For reasons Manny has never understood, her mother and father, who were both born in India, always wanted her to become an “All-American” girl. So that’s what she did. She knows next to nothing about her South Asian heritage, and that’s never been a problem—until her parents are no longer around, and an image of Manny that’s been Photoshopped to make her skin look more white appears on a major magazine cover. Suddenly, the woman who built an empire encouraging people to be true to themselves is having her own identity crisis.

But when an irritating client named Sammy Patel approaches Manny with an odd breakup request, the perfect solution presents itself: If they both agree to certain terms, he’ll give her a crash course in being “Indian” at his brother’s wedding.

What follows is days of dancing and dal, masala and mehndi as Manny meets the lovable, if endlessly interfering, aunties and uncles of the Patel family, and, along the way, discovers much more than she could ever have anticipated.

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Atomic Anna

Rachel Barenbaum

Atomic Anna is a dazzling work of ingenuity and imagination.”―Téa Obreht,National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author of Inland

From the author of A Bend in the Stars, an epic adventure as three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past.
 
Three brilliant women.
Two life-changing mistakes.
One chance to reset the future.


In 1986, renowned nuclear scientist, Anna Berkova, is sleeping in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl’s reactor melts down. It’s the exact moment she tears through time—and it’s an accident. When she opens her eyes, she’s landed in 1992 only to discover Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Molly, with her dying breath, begs Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster, to save Molly’s daughter Raisa, and put their family’s future on a better path.

In ‘60s Philadelphia, Molly is coming of age as an adopted refusenik. Her family is full of secrets and a past they won’t share. She finds solace in comic books, drawing her own series, Atomic Anna, and she’s determined to make it as an artist. When she meets the volatile, charismatic Viktor, their romance sets her life on a very different course.

In the ‘80s, Raisa, is a lonely teen and math prodigy, until a quiet, handsome boy moves in across the street and an odd old woman shows up claiming to be her biological grandmother. As Raisa finds new issues of Atomic Anna in unexpected places, she notices each comic challenges her to solve equations leading to one impossible conclusion: time travel. And she finally understands what she has to do.

As these remarkable women work together to prevent the greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century, they grapple with the power their discoveries hold. Just because you can change the past, does it mean you should?

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Cooking With Plant-Based Meat: 75 Vegan and Vegetarian Recipes For All Your Meaty Cravings

America's Test Kitchen

This must-have guide to cooking with today's new plant-based meats includes all the satisfying, sustainable recipes you actually want to eat.

Available everywhere from grocery stores to fast food chains, today's meat alternatives like Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat impressively replicate the taste and texture of meat. Now, the recipe experts at America's Test Kitchen show how to cook successfully with these modern meat mimickers—producing juicy, savory, meaty flavor—and transform them into a broad array of mouthwatering dishes that make sustainable meat-free eating feel luxurious.

We've tested our way through the plethora of meat alternatives so we could guide you to the tastiest and most reliable. Learn how to use them in 75 exciting dishes, including:

Snacks and apps: Meaty Loaded Nacho Dip, Jamaican Meat Patties, and Pan-Fried Dumplings.
Burgers and tacos galore: Grilled Smokehouse Barbecue Burgers, Double Smashie Burgers, Chorizo and Potato Tacos, and Crispy Fried Tacos with Almonds and Raisins.
Saucy pasta favorites: One-Pot Stroganoff, Weeknight Tagliatelle with Bolognese Sauce, Meatballs and Marinara, and Lion's Head Meatballs.
Fast and easy dinners: Quinoa Bowls with Meatballs, Green Beans, and Garlic Dressing; Meat-and-Bean Burritos; and Stuffed Zucchini with Spiced Meat and Dried Apricots.

Ever wondered how can you tell when plant-based meat has reached ideal doneness, or how to cope with sticking? You'll find the answers here to these questions and many more. And you'll discover cooking techniques that will keep you inspired long-term.

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Don't Worry: 48 Lessons on Relieving Anxiety from a Zen Buddhist Monk

Shunmyo Masuno

Discover why 90% of your worries won’t come true in this highly practical, internationally bestselling guide by the renowned Zen Buddhist author of The Art of Simple Living.

Think of a time when you were worried about something, but then you suddenly realized how insignificant it was. Isn’t it amazing how much lighter you felt? The key is to focus only on the here and now. By doing so, you free yourself from unnecessary anxiety, and your mind will be at peace. In Don’t Worry, you will learn to:


Lesson #1: stop comparing yourself to others—90% of your obsessions will disappear;
Lesson #4: remove unnecessary things from your life and make your life absolutely simple;
Lesson #10: stop seeking, stop rushing, stop obsessing;
Lesson #11: interpret things positively—you are the one to decide whether you are happy or not;
Lesson #14: stop taking in too much information;
Lesson #19: take a break from competition—it’s the Zen way of avoiding anxiety;
Lesson #24: act instead of worrying—things will definitely work out better.

By following this book’s 48 simple lessons—and taking to heart the nearly 30 zengo, or Zen sayings, quoted throughout—you’ll enjoy a calmer, more relaxed, more positive version of yourself.

A PENGUIN LIFE TITLE

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Four Treasures of the Sky

Jenny Tinghui Zhang

A propulsive and dazzling debut novel set against the backdrop of the Chinese Exclusion Act, about a Chinese girl fighting to claim her place in the 1880s American West

Daiyu never wanted to be like the tragic heroine for whom she was named, revered for her beauty and cursed with heartbreak. But when she is kidnapped and smuggled across an ocean from China to America, Daiyu must relinquish the home and future she imagined for herself. Over the years that follow, she is forced to keep reinventing herself to survive. From a calligraphy school, to a San Francisco brothel, to a shop tucked into the Idaho mountains, we follow Daiyu on a desperate quest to outrun the tragedy that chases her. As anti-Chinese sentiment sweeps across the country in a wave of unimaginable violence, Daiyu must draw on each of the selves she has been-including the ones she most wants to leave behind-in order to finally claim her own name and story.

At once a literary tour de force and a groundbreaking work of historical fiction, Four Treasures of the Sky announces Jenny Tinghui Zhang as an indelible new voice. Steeped in untold history and Chinese folklore, this novel is a spellbinding feat.

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The Lifeguards

Amanda Eyre Ward

"The bonds between three picture-perfect, viciously protective mothers are tested when their sons uncover a horrible crime in this provocative novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Jetsetters. In Austin's Zilker Park, vigilance and money are enough to keep one insulated from the world's problems and inconveniences. Here, three mothers-Whitney, Annette, and Liza-have grown thick as thieves, and so have their fifteen-year-old sons. While each of them has their own set of values and backgrounds, they share the belief that they can shelter their boys from an increasingly dangerous world. They've raised their families together, and their three sons are about to begin a carefree summer as lifeguards. Their friendship is unbreakable--as safe as the neighborhood where they've raised their sweet little boys. Until the body is found. One night, the three women have been chatting away, drinking wine, when their boys come back with a harrowing story about finding a young woman dead beside a swimming hole in the Greenbelt, a swath of hiking trails and dim wilderness areas that runs through their neighborhood. They swear they haven't done anything. They agree not to call the police-because who would want to cause a scene, to topple their fragile images and arouse suspicion? What choice do mothers have but to believe their sons? All families harbor secrets. Privately, none of them is sure that the boys are telling the truth. And with each woman questioning her son-and her friends' sons-each wonders how many lies they've told each other. The Lifeguards is a riveting, high-stakes novel about the secrets we tell to protect the ones we love-and how sometimes your closest neighbor and ally can become your most dangerous foe"--

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