March 7, 2025
In an alternate 1899, farm boy Solomon Hunt leaves home to seek his fortune, only to stumble into the adventure of a lifetime when he rescues a young genius showman from captivity in a sideshow. Together, the duo flees across Empire of America, performing for a living while evading a group of vicious pursuers. As the latter close in and vile secrets are revealed, the ragtag troupe reaches little Hollywood, California, where they present an explosive, groundbreaking performance intended to save them all. Robin Hood, move over. This fun, enthralling tale is the new gold standard for a merry […]
March 7, 2025
Walter and his musician father have always been inseparable as they traveled the country together. But this year, Walter is sent to live with his grandfather, in the town where Dad grew up, and start fifth grade all on his own. On his first day, Walter impresses the entire school with hilarious impersonations during the morning announcements. He finds himself tapped to try out for the school musical, but when his co-star unearths the true reason why Walter’s dad isn’t around, will Walter be able to face the music? Weirdly Walter is about unconditional love, forgiveness and how our heroes […]
March 7, 2025
High school senior Andrew Perrault finds refuge in the twisted fairytales he writes for Thomas Rye, the boy with perpetually ink-stained hands and hair like autumn leaves. Thomas, who creates macabre sketches of the monsters in Andrew’s wicked stories. But something strange is going on with Thomas. His abusive parents have mysteriously vanished, and he arrives at school with blood on his sleeve. Andrew follows Thomas into the off-limits forest one night and catches him fighting a nightmarish monster. Thomas’s drawings have come to life and are killing anyone close to him. To make sure no one else dies, the […]
March 7, 2025
Twelve-year-old sweat-averse Joey is psyched for his summer of relaxation and perfecting his butt-shaped indentation on the couch, although he wishes that his best friend, Xander, wasn’t always busy with his new cross-country team. But Joey’s summer plans are upended when his perfect older cousin Leo comes to stay at his house for the summer. The two have a tense history that goes back to the death of their Nonno. But now, Leo’s training to climb the highest mountain in California, and he wants Joey to do it with him. The plan is nuts—esp. since Leo has young-onset Multiple Sclerosis. […]
March 7, 2025
In this captivating debut YA graphic novel, two 8th-grade best friends become more than friends, which is great till entering high school complicates matters. Faced with early mornings, bullies and homework, Amber and Nico cling to each other, neglecting their friends. Then a sleepover literally turns into a dream. Will they ever want to wake up? First off, there’s no sex in this novel. It reads like a middle-grade story in which two friends with crushes on one another end up daring to confess romantic interest, which leads to a little kissing and hugging. Meanwhile, the reader gets to […]
March 7, 2025
Poor choices land four delinquent teens in summertime mandatory community service. Deemed good-for-nothing by those who judge, they label themselves The Nothing Club. The fast-paced and energetic novel is told from 15-year-old Grady’s humorous, often self-deprecating and sometimes insightful perspective. Anyone who likes an adventure story frequently interrupted by long diatribes about spirituality and religion, will enjoy this novel. Personally, I question trying to meld two very different approaches: the fast-paced, well-written, rollicking adventures of a group of disparate teens, and random, dragged-out, touchy-feely dialogues about everything from zodiac signs and Christianity to indigenous spirituality and meditation. It felt, […]
January 3, 2025
Crawford “Craw” Cope has anger issues. Or so they say. When Craw is sentenced to community service for hitting his father in the head with a baseball bat, he accepts his punishment without objection, knowing he’s actually lucky. If he weren’t the son of a famous former baseball player, he’d probably have gotten it a lot worse. So, Craw keeps his mouth shut and takes what life gives him. Like always. But when he arrives at community service, he meets Hannah Flores, a punk rock enthusiast trapped in the Ozarks with zero filter. As Craw navigates his own explosive home […]
January 3, 2025
After a first episode of psychosis lands him a stay in a psychiatric hospital, all 16-year-old Kai Lum wants to do is reclaim his life. But now that he’s back home, everything is different. He has medications to take, his dad is always hovering and everyone at school keeps staring at him. Kai’s determined not to let any of that distract him from proving he can make it as a chef. But finding his new normal is harder than Kai expects. His medications have side effects he doesn’t know how to control. His dad pushes him to accept more clinical […]
November 1, 2024
In 1963 Czechoslovakia, a hockey game could mean life or death. Ten-year-old Lukas and his brother Denys want nothing more than to play hockey. The family is poor, but hockey is the one bright light for the boys. Then their father, who works for a newspaper, is arrested. No one knows where he has been taken or when he might be coming home. Now Lukas and Denys realize they are being watched, too, and when the secret police promise them information about their father if they help throw a game against a visiting Soviet team, Lukas must make some difficult […]
November 1, 2024
A teenage psychic is drawn deep into the honeycomb of an abandoned hotel—and into a cat-and-mouse game with a predatory entity—in this supernatural horror novel. Everyone in Gypsum, Texas knows the Hotel Alvarado changes at night—especially Quinn. A teenage clairvoyant, he’s been having dreams about it… dreams that call him to its dark, abandoned halls. The hotel is a monument to the town’s more prosperous past, when celebrities flocked to the mineral spas and films were shot in the desert. The Great Depression killed all of that, it killed the Alvarado and frankly it killed Gypsum, too. Now, when the […]