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Candace, the Universe, and Everything by Sherri L. Smith features eighth grader Candace Wells who loves to draw. Her life intersects with that of 93-year-old Loretta Spencer and 53-year-old Professor Tracey Auburn because all three share a connection to locker 235 at Walden Elementary School. As it turns out, the top shelf of that locker was designed to accommodate a window in the sky in 1908 when Elizabeth Simpson, an avid bird watcher, visited with Ellis Monroe, the draftsman for the architect for the school, who arranged the design. Since then, birds fly in and out of knots and connect the three to a timeRead More →

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Something dark is afoot in Sanera, California, and four teens decide to solve the mystery. Let’s Split Up by Bill Wood features sensible Amber Grayson, quirky Jonesy with a high IQ, the track star Cameron who keeps the mood light, and a newcomer to town—the perceptive Buffy Allen who may be just a bit too interested in the case. These four sleuths are pressed into service after the deaths of football player Bradley Campbell and cheerleader Shelley Jones, who appear to have fallen victim to the Carrington Ghoul. Although the ghoul and the haunted Carrington Manor are urban legends, the eerily similar deaths between thatRead More →

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Whether through empathy or some other form of understanding, humans will frequently attempt to form a connection with others in order to perceive alternate life experiences and to consider how those experiences might differ from their own. When documentary filmmaker James Robinson writes his memoir about seeing and being seen, he seeks to build not only understanding but compassion and a more accurate representation of the disability experience in the media. Whale Eyes relates Robinson’s experience from childhood through young adulthood as he contends with a condition often referred to as strabismus. With his misaligned eyes, which can make such tasks as reading and playingRead More →

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In her novel for middle grade readers entitled What Happened Then, Erin Soderberg Downing writes about family and the generational trauma that gets passed down. Twelve-year-old Avery knows she’s best in small doses. “Every time I try to fade, I fail . . . and flare instead. In a crayon box of colors, I’m the shocking pink and laser lemon” (5). Although she wishes to be less exuberant and less talkative, she hasn’t yet mastered moderation. “I know I’m too much. Too loud, too annoying, too big for any room I step into. . . . I wish I could edit and refine myself, likeRead More →

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In her book House of Hearts, Skyla Arndt cleverly uses naming as a form of allusion and symbolism. This strategy emerges most obviously in names like Oleander and Violet. Arndt’s most often used word, however, is splayed. And after the death of her best friend Emoree Hale, Violet Harper’s grief is the most on display. Violet has “always lived in a black-and-white word, worshipped at the altar of knowledge, and kept [her] heart in a box under lock and key” (225); her bestie was the ray of sunshine to Violet’s own Eeyore mood. Both young women are from trailer park homes, but Em wanted moreRead More →

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Randy Ribay, an author who writes through the lens of experience as a Filipino, shares tremendous history in his novel Everything We Never Had. Telling his story from multiple perspectives, Ribay provides the reader with insight into the Manong Generation, the Watsonville riots, Stockton’s Little Manila, the Delano grape strike, the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship, the assassination of Benigno Aquino, Jr., and the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes during the COVID-19 pandemic. The story opens in 1929 when Francisco Maghabol is sixteen years old. Believing in the Land of Opportunity, Francisco comes to the United States from Manila in the Philippines by way of Japan toRead More →

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Written by Kate Marchant and illustrated by CJ Joaquin, Float is a humorous graphic novel about teen drama. Float’s protagonist is Waverly Lyons, who lives in Fairbanks, Alaska, but is visiting her Aunt Rachel in Florida. According to Waverly, Aunt Rachel is a “weird, colorful, not super put together . . . but charming” artist (15). Waverly, who considers herself “bad at most things,” describes herself as “the anxious offspring of two brilliant scientists who could never agree on anything” (13). Eventually, her parents divorce, and for the past ten years, Waverly has felt like deadweight being tossed between the two. Florida might just provideRead More →

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Molly X. Chang’s The Nightblood Prince features a royal love triangle complicated by a prophecy and politics. Set in a world inspired by ancient China and predicating a sequel, the novel explores gender roles, the reasons for war, and the process of identity formation.   Now seventeen, Fei Lifeng is destined to be the future Empress of Rong. Betrothed to Siwang and feeling like nothing more than a pawn in a quest for power, she hungers for choice, control, and freedom. Fei hopes that if she can kill a Beiying tiger during the season’s first imperial hunt, the emperor will be obligated to grant herRead More →

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With her graphic novel Free Piano (Not Haunted), Whitney Gardner uses her protagonist Margot to remind middle grade readers that self-worth cannot be measured by the number of followers a person achieves on social media platforms.  Furthermore, having followers doesn’t let you know if you’re good at something or not. Feeling abandoned since her mother works so much and her father is focused on his music career, Margot thinks if she’s famous, she’ll never have to be alone. When she finds a Prophet-5 synthesizer on the sidewalk, Margot decides to ask her dad to teach her how to play. However, he has determined that aRead More →