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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 →

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Although Your Final Moments by Jay Coles is a difficult book to read—given its focus on suicide and addictive behaviors—it is also beautiful in that its message affirms life and hope. Many of these messages derive from allusions to poetry, music, and literature. As Coles explores the lives of teens attending Center Grove High School, he reveals some complex truths about life, grief, death, depression, and those who succumb when they give up hope. Set in Indiana, the novel opens with one of these difficult truths: “Everyone you love the most will die. Your friends will die. Your family will die. One day you willRead More →

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In The House of Found Objects: A Bea Bellerose Mystery, Jo Beckett-King introduces middle grade readers to her twelve-year-old brainiac detective. When Bea’s parents travel to New Orleans for a conference, rather than allowing their daughter to remain in New Jersey, they send her to Paris to visit Aunt Juliette. Yet, Aunt Juliette, a journalist for a weekly news magazine in France, is too busy to play tour guide. And Grandma Sylvie, aka Mamie, is too burdened by her antiques business to share the sites. When Bea’s mom and dad first told her they were sending her to France, they’d made the trip sound likeRead More →

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Carter Peregrine lives in Sterling, North Carolina, with his mom and little brother, Martin. Carter’s FOMO has him addicted to screens, so when the boys join their father in Colorado for a skiing vacation during spring break, no screens allowed, Carter is certain he’ll miss out on the latest viral videos. While “babysitting” his younger brother on the bunny slope, Carter cheats and pulls out his phone. Entirely oblivious to his brother’s path, Martin plows into Carter, breaking both of Carter’s legs. Now what? Carter’s dad gives his son something to think about: “If you hadn’t been staring at your phone, you just might haveRead More →

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Targeted for middle grade readers, Blood in the Water by Tiffany D. Jackson features twelve-year-old Kaylani McKinnon. Given her focus on being strategic about #operationFREEDAD, Kaylani has no time for frivolity. So, when her mother suggests a summer of fun at the vacation home of a family friend in Martha’s Vineyard, this Brooklyn-based girl is resistant. After all, she has pre-law camp to consider if she hopes to get her wrongfully accused dad out of prison. When Kaylani arrives, she is even more certain that this place is not her jam. As the ferry docks in the town of Oak Bluffs, Kaylani feels like DorothyRead More →