Hope in the Valley by Mitali PerkinsMiddle School Farrar 304 pp.7/23 9780374388515 $17.99e-book ed. 9780374388508 $10.99The former orchard across from Pandita Paul’s home, dilapidated though it may be, holds a special place in the thirteen-year-old’s heart. It’s where she and her late mother used to spend time: “Ashar Jaiga, as...
Once in a Blue Moon by Sharon G. FlakeIntermediate, Middle School Knopf 336 pp.7/23 9780593480984 $17.99Library ed. 9780593480991 $20.99e-book ed. 9780593481004 $10.99In sparkling free verse, Flake delivers a rich and compassionate story of family love centered on forgiveness. Eleven-year-old James Henry and his twin sister, Hattie Mae, live with their...
How to Stay Invisible by Maggie C. RuddMiddle School Farrar 240 pp.6/23 9780374390334 $17.99e-book ed. 9780374390341 $10.99“Most people didn’t live in hollowed-out trees behind their middle school,” but twelve-year-old Raymond does. A seventh grader at River Mill Middle School in North Carolina, he had lived in a rented trailer with...
Wishing Season by Anica Mrose RissiIntermediate, Middle School Quill Tree/HarperCollins 240 pp.6/23 9780063258907 $18.99e-book ed. 9780063258921 $10.99When the school bus drops Lily off after the last day of fifth grade, four months after the death of her twin brother, Anders, her loneliness is so palpable that even the birds express...
Frontera by Julio Anta; illus. by Jacoby SalcedoMiddle School, High School HarperAlley/HarperCollins 240 pp.7/23 9780063054950 $26.99Paper ed. 9780063054943 $18.99e-book ed. 9780063054967 $11.99In this graphic novel with supernatural elements, high-achieving teenager Mateo has grown up in Phoenix, Arizona, and only learned recently that his family was undocumented. After the family’s deportation...
In the Tunnel by Julie LeeMiddle School, High School Holiday 304 pp.5/23 9780823450398 $18.99e-book ed. 9780823455294 $11.99This companion novel to Lee’s Brother’s Keeper tells the story of Kim Myung-gi and his family from the end of Japan’s occupation of Korea through Russia’s invasion to the start of the Korean War....
Picture Day by Sarah Sax; illus. by the authorMiddle School Knopf 288 pp.6/23 9780593306888 $20.99Paper ed. 9780593306871 $13.99Library ed. 9780593306895 $23.99e-book ed. 9780593306901 $8.99Tween relationships and identity development are the focus of this engaging contemporary graphic novel. It is middle-school picture day, and Viv is determined to make her mark....
I’d Rather Burn than Bloom by Shannon C. F. RogersHigh School Feiwel 320 pp.7/23 9781250845665 $19.99e-book ed. 9781250845672 $11.99When Marisol Martin’s mother, with whom she had a difficult relationship, dies in a car crash, Marisol and her family are plunged into grief they don’t know how to begin to process....
Those Pink Mountain Nights by Jen FergusonHigh School Heartdrum/HarperCollins 352 pp.9/23 9780063086210 $19.99e-book ed. 9780063086234 $10.99Kiki, who is Black and Cree, has been gone for five months when the book begins, and the police have stopped looking for her. Her friend and fellow First Nations, Métis, and Inuit Student Association...