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 […]
February 3, 2023
As an ally, you use your power—no matter how big or small—to support others. You learn, and try, and mess up, and try harder. In this collection of true stories, 17 critically acclaimed and bestselling YA authors get real about being an ally, needing an ally and showing up for friends and strangers. From raw stories of racism and invisible disability to powerful moments of passing the mic, these authors share their truths. They invite you to think about your own experiences and choices and how to be a better ally. There are no easy answers, but this book helps […]
February 3, 2023
Inspired by the lawless love story of Bonnie and Clyde, Jenna Voris’s heart-stopping tale of passion and crime will have readers seeing stars. Shane and Ava are a team. He steals the aircraft, she charms their mark and together they take what they need. Not even their distracting chemistry could get in the way. Until Shane is caught and left to rot on a prison moon. Now, freshly escaped from confinement and simmering with anger, he has his sights set on their biggest job yet. Cyrus just graduated from the flight academy with a shiny new position lined up reporting to a […]
February 3, 2023
Nick Pappas—a teenage boy with nascent superpowers—has his world turned upside down when he’s taken into witness protection after his superhero father is murdered on national television. But things are not what they appear to be in the small town to which he’s relocated. He soon discovers that not only is it populated with family members of super villains, but it’s also a prison and he’s considered one of its most dangerous inmates. He can’t be sure who to trust, and to make matters worse, he’s developing powers of his own—with no way to control them. This novel is pretty […]
February 3, 2023
There are no cheat codes for showmance. Seventeen-year-old gaymer Noah Mitchell has only one friend left: the wonderful, funny, strictly online-only MagePants69. After years playing RPGs together, they know everything about each other, except anything that would give away their real-life identities. And Noah is certain that if they could just meet in person, they would be soulmates. Noah would do anything to make this happen―including finally leaving his gaming chair to join a community theater show that he’s only mostly sure MagePants69 is performing in. Noah has never done anything like theater―he can’t sing, he can’t dance and he’s […]
January 6, 2023
Laz is a side-stepper: a teen with the incredible power to jump his consciousness to alternate versions of himself in parallel worlds. All his life, there was no mistake that a little side-stepping couldn’t fix. Until Laz wakes up one day in a cloning facility on a seemingly abandoned Earth. Laz finds himself surrounded by hundreds of other clones, all dead, and quickly realizes that he too must be a clone of his original self. Laz has no idea what happened to the world he remembers as vibrant and bustling only yesterday, and he struggles to survive in the barren […]
January 6, 2023
Some people dream of happily ever after, but all 17-year-old Josh Roberts wants is a roof over his head and for his little brother to be safe. Josh’s father has gone missing without a trace. Now Josh and his 9-year-old brother, Twig, are stuck living with Gran in her trailer. Problem is, Gran didn’t ask to take care of any kids, and she’s threatening to call Social Services unless Josh can find his dad. After paying off Gran to take in his little brother, Josh risks truancy and getting kicked off his basketball team to take to the streets and […]