Tiger Daughter by Rebecca LimMiddle School, High School Delacorte 192 pp.8/23 9780593648971 $17.99Library ed. 9780593648988 $20.99e-book ed. 9780593648995 $10.99Two “migrant kids”—first-generation immigrants to Australia from China—aspire to escape their dysfunctional lives and constricted futures by being accepted to a prestigious, government-funded high school. Wen Li Zhou, thirteen, and her best...
The Hurricane Girls by Kimberly Willis HoltIntermediate, Middle School Ottaviano/Little, Brown 288 pp.8/23 9780316326094 $16.99e-book ed. 9780316326285 $9.99During their first year attending middle school in New Orleans, Greer, Joya Mia, and Kiki become inseparable friends when they collaborate on a project interviewing neighbors and family members about the impact of...
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...
Nigeria Jones by Ibi ZoboiHigh School Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins 384 pp.5/23 9780062888846 $19.99e-book ed. 9780062888860 $12.99Sixteen-year-old Nigeria is expected to lead the youth of the Movement (which is “like a small African West Philly village in the big, white state of Pennsylvania”) and model what it means to be a...
Gossamer Summer by H. M. Bouwman Intermediate Atheneum 192 pp. 5/23 9781665912532 $17.99 e-book ed. 9781665912556 $10.99 It’s summer, and ten-year-old Jojo and her three sisters have to entertain themselves because their romance-novel writer mom has a book due (“Mom on deadline was not nearly as fun as Mom not...
Only Only Marisol Rainey by Erin Entrada Kelly; illus. by the authorPrimary, Intermediate Greenwillow 160 pp.5/23 9780062970480 $18.99e-book ed. 9780062970503 $10.99In her third adventure, Marisol (Maybe Maybe Marisol Rainey, rev. 5/21, and sequel) helps her friend Felix learn to ride a bicycle, navigates her best friend Jada’s jealousy that Marisol...