August 4, 2023
“Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.” Muhammad Ali, one of the most revered―and controversial―figures of the 20th Century, immortalized those words with the beauty, strength and originality of his boxing style. Now, his epic story is retold in this striking graphic novel. Messenger showcases exactly why Ali became celebrated worldwide as “The Greatest.” Boxer, philanthropist and activist Muhammad Ali was one of the most photographed―and photogenic―figures in the history of sports. He demanded to be looked at and seen, and this epic captures his meteoric rise from Cassius Clay to Olympian and heavyweight champion of the world with […]
July 7, 2023
After his father returns from treatment for addiction, highschooler Vish is uncertain what the future holds. It doesn’t help that everyone seems to know about the family’s troubles, and they stand out doubly as one of the only brown families in town. When Vish is mistaken for a relative of the weird local bookseller and attacked by an unsettling pale man who seems to be decaying, he is pulled into the world of the occult, where witches live in television sets, undead creatures can burn with a touch, and magic is mathematical. Vish must work with the bookstore owner and […]
July 7, 2023
Heartstopper meets Crazy Rich Asians in this heartfelt, joyful paperback original rom-com that follows an aspiring chef who discovers the recipe for love is more complicated than it seems when he starts fake-dating a handsome new customer. Dylan Tang wants to win a Mid-Autumn Festival mooncake-making competition for teen chefs—in memory of his mom, and to bring much-needed publicity to his aunt’s struggling Chinese takeout in Brooklyn. Enter Theo Somers: charming, wealthy, with a smile that makes Dylan’s stomach do backflips. AKA a distraction. Their worlds are sun-and-moon apart, but Theo keeps showing up. He even convinces Dylan to be […]
June 2, 2023
Four years ago, five kids started a game. Not all of them survived. Now, at the end of their senior year of high school, the four survivors have reunited for one strange and terrible reason: They’ve been summoned by the ghost of the friend they left for dead. Together they return to the place where their friendship ended and restart the deadly game―an innocent card-matching challenge called Meido. A game without instructions. Once inseparable, the survivors now can’t stand each other, but the challenges demand they work together, think quickly and make sacrifices―blood, clothes, secrets, memories and worse. And once […]
June 2, 2023
From a very young age, Udoka Clendon has been pushed relentlessly by his family on a troubling pursuit for an athletic scholarship. Now he is burdened by expectations and self-doubt as he tries to reignite his passion for the game. This novel shows the trials and traumas of becoming fixated on a dream of sports stardom. It’s unusual to mix a sports story with scenes of what goes on behind closed doors in sports therapy. But Udoka is suffering serious self-doubts and needs help, and Dr. Feldbrook may offer just what he needs. The therapy sessions allow the reader to glimpse […]
June 2, 2023
Devastated by the loss of her older brother to cancer, Bugz returns to the place where she can always find solace and strength: the Floraverse. Over the past year, she has regained her position of power in that virtual world, and while the remaining Clan:LESS members still plot against her, she is easily able to overcome their attacks. Even better, she has been working secretly on a bot that will be both an incredible weapon and a source of comfort: Waawaate. With the Waawaate bot looking exactly like the brother she misses so much—even acting like him — Bugz feels […]
May 5, 2023
Daniel Valdez loves skateboarding with his friend, Gracie. Sometimes he even wonders if they can be more than friends. Then Gracie’s mother kills her two children before turning the gun on herself. As grief counselors swoop into his high school and the whole community reels from the horrific deaths, Daniel drowns in his own pain and disbelief. What is his life without Gracie in it? As Daniel works through his grief, he’ll need to find a way to move forward without leaving Gracie behind. I brought this book for a flight, planning to read and review it for YAdudebooks. It’s […]
May 5, 2023
It’s the summer before senior year, and Manny has just moved from Texas to the Bronx in New York City. Instead of hanging with friends and making spending money, Manny is forced to do menial tasks in his new home, a luxury condo his stepdad is managing, while stressing about starting over. Thankfully, he meets Sasha, who is protesting the building but turns out to be really cool. And he strikes up an unlikely friendship with Mr. Mueller, the building’s exterminator. Maybe life in the Bronx won’t be so bad. Then the nightmares begin. Manny swears he has roaches crawling […]
May 5, 2023
In the Remixed Classics series, authors from marginalized backgrounds reinterpret classic works through their own cultural lens to subvert the overwhelming cishet, white and male canon. This gothic young-adult remix of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde subverts the cishet white perspective of the original, starring a Black queer teen searching for the reason behind his best friend’s disappearance and the arrival of a magnetic stranger. Set in London, 1885, it features Gabriel Utterson, a 17-year-old law clerk who discovers that monsters of all kinds prowl within the London fog―and not all of them are out for blood. My Dear Henry […]
March 3, 2023
From an Edgar Award-winning author, this historical noir novel follows the life-changing summer of 16-year-old Joe Garbe as he discovers queer community in 1930s Chicago and gets caught up in the city’s crooked underbelly. In the summer of 1934, Joe Garbe arrives in Chicago with one goal: Earn enough money to get out of debt and save the family farm. Joe’s cousin sets him up with a hotel job, then proposes a sketchy scheme to make a lot more money fast. While running his con, Joe finds himself splitting time between Eddie, a handsome flirt on a delivery truck, and […]