Gr. 9-12  Skye is a talented artist who can’t wait to attend art school after graduation. In the meantime, she loves making art, getting stoned, and partying with her friends. When Skye’s mother’s ex-boyfriend, Dan, a sleazeball in academic clothing, comes back into her world, Skye doesn’t know what to do. Dan is demanding and critical, and his presence chafes against the damage he inflicted on Skye when she was 12. As a result, Skye feels the need to abandon […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers

Gr. 8-12  High-school senior Kimi Nakamura is a whiz at whipping up “Kimi Originals” from thrift store clothing and fabric remnants, but her mother, a Japanese artist, wants Kimi to be a painter. When she drops her Advanced Fine Arts class, it ignites a terrible fight with her parents. Then an invitation arrives for Kimi to visit her grandparents in Kyoto, which she decides is the perfect opportunity to clear her head. Meeting her obaasan and ojiisan for the first […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers

Gr. 8-11  Fifteen-year-old Mia’s social-emotional plate is full. Her face is severely scarred from a car crash that killed her older sister; and her father, who has become withdrawn, is sending her to New York for the summer to stay with her estranged grandmother. On Mia’s first day working at an NYC diner, she is befriended by the owner’s granddaughter, Fig, a blue-haired girl her age who loves adventures. Fig’s friends welcome her, including the cute, artistic Cooper, whose past […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers

Gr. 9-12  For 16-year-old Lennon, everything must be in fives—taps on a doorknob, the number of times she flicks a light switch, etc. Life grows even more challenging when she moves across the country to live with her dad’s family in California. Next door, Kyler, a musician with a dark reputation, hides his face under a hoodie because he was disfigured in a childhood accident. When the two are paired for an English assignment, their lives change as they learn […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers

Gr. 9-12  In 2011, Shane Primaveri’s college life has been dismal. To reset her introverted life, she signs up for a semester in London and an internship with a magazine—and lies to her parents, who believe she’s pursuing her premed studies, not creative writing. Her life becomes wonderfully filled with taking weekend trips with her friends, updating her travel blog, writing for her classes, and embracing her internship. However, when Shane learns her crush has a girlfriend and her parents […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers

Gr. 7-12  Seventeen-year-old, swoonworthy Ashish Patel is the basketball star of Richmond Academy. Bummed after being dumped by his college girlfriend, he challenges his parents to make good on their constant threat to find him an Indian American girl to date. Their choice is Sweetie Nair, Piedmont High’s track star. When Ashish’s mother proposes the match, Sweetie’s mother adamantly insists that their children aren’t compatible—namely because Sweetie is fat. [Read More]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers

Gr. 7-10  Freshman Aurora “Rory” Campbell is a talented artist with uninspiring grades and an unrequited crush on Toby, the boy next door. She’s convinced he doesn’t notice her because he’s mooning over her sister Merrilee, the sophomore dynamo from Bookish Boyfriends: A Date with Darcy (2018). Though Toby’s nice to her, Rory ultimately feels ignored by him and her older sisters. When Rory’s lit class reads The Great Gatsby, she is put off by Gatsby’s overt pining for Daisy […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers

Gr. 8-11 Nick and June mean everything to each other, and they’ve created perfection inside an abandoned barn in their small community. Nick loves to paint, and June dreams of a future that includes college. But outside the barn, their lives are far from ideal. Nick’s family life is in shambles and he’s following his father’s criminal footsteps in the carjacking biz. Meanwhile, June confesses to hearing voices, which have grown louder and more frequent. [Read More]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers

Gr. 7-10 Sophomores Ivy and Harold are longtime besties. While Harold’s at Stanford’s “smart camp” for the summer, Ivy becomes addicted to VEIL, a new, artist-centric, anonymous social-media app—though she never posts her own art, for fear of rejection. When school starts, a vile anti-gay post changes the tone of the platform and affects everyone at school. By scrutinizing VEIL posts, Ivy figures out some users’ identities and, in an effort to lighten the atmosphere and support their art, she […]

Categories: Appeared in Booklist/ALA, Book Reviews, Young Adult Readers