S. R. Toliver

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Review of Abeni’s Song

Abeni’s Song by P. Djèlí ClarkIntermediate, Middle School    Starscape/Tor    336 pp.7/23    9781250825827    $19.99Paper ed.  9781250825841    $8.99e-book ed.  9781250825834    $11.99On Abeni’s twelfth birthday, a witch enters her village to give a grave warning: an evil is coming, and it’s too late to run. The adults prepare for an impossible battle as...
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Review of Conjure Island

Conjure Island by Eden RoyceIntermediate    Walden Pond/HarperCollins    320 pp.6/23    9780062899613    $19.99e-book ed.  9780062899620    $10.99Because her father is in the Air Force, eleven-year-old Delphinia Baker moves to a new state every year, making it difficult to form lasting friendships. Del is grateful for the one constant in her life: her grandmother....
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Review of Hamra and the Jungle of Memories

Hamra and the Jungle of Memories by Hanna AlkafIntermediate, Middle School    Harper/HarperCollins    400 pp.3/23    9780063207950    $19.99e-book ed.  9780063207974    $10.99Hamra has just turned thirteen, though no one in her family seems to have noticed. Due to COVID-19, her home country of Malaysia is under quarantine, leaving her mother working long hours...
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Review of Harvest House

Harvest House by Cynthia Leitich SmithHigh School    Candlewick    320 pp.4/23    9781536218602    $19.99e-book ed.  9781536227284    $19.99Theater kid Hughie Wolfe, one of the few Indigenous students at his high school, is disappointed when the fall play is cancelled. He sets his sights on a new project: a haunted house fundraiser at the...
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Review of The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía

The Enchanted Life of Valentina Mejía by Alexandra AlessandriIntermediate, Middle School    Atheneum    224 pp.2/23    9781665917056    $17.99e-book ed.  9781665917070    $10.99As a young girl, Valentina loved the Colombian legends her father told about the magical creatures inhabiting their country. Now that she’s twelve (“almost thirteen”), however, she finds the stories childish fantasies,...
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Review of Rebel of Fire and Flight

Rebel of Fire and Flight by Aneesa MarufuMiddle School, High School    Chicken House/Scholastic    384 pp.1/23    9781338802313    $19.99e-book ed.  9781338802337    $12.99Khadija is a brown-skinned sixteen-year-old girl ­living in the (fictional) realm of Ghadaea. Although her Ghadaean identity grants her a position in society’s highest racial caste, her identity as a girl...
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Review of We Are All So Good at Smiling

We Are All So Good at Smiling by Amber McBrideHigh School    Feiwel    304 pp.1/23    9781250780386    $18.99e-book ed.  9781250780393    $10.99This ambitious novel in verse uses magical realism and fairy-tale elements to explore clinical depression and highlight the various stages of grief. Whimsy is back at the hospital again, where she has...
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Review of MapMaker

MapMaker by Lisa Moore Ramée Intermediate, Middle School     Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins    320 pp.         g9/22     978-0-06-303942-1     $17.99e-book ed.  978-0-06-303944-5    $12.99 Walt and his family relocate to the boring town of Blackbird Bay the summer before seventh grade. His friends are back in L.A., and his twin...
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Review of The Weight of Blood

The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson High School     Tegen/HarperCollins    416 pp.         g9/22     978-0-06-302914-9     $18.99e-book ed.  978-0-06-302916-3    $12.99 Madison Washington has always been bullied because she’s skittish and quiet and dresses in 1950s attire. She tolerates the incessant taunting because she has more to...
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