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

Gr. 9-12  In a small Wisconsin town, life is uneventful until Violet arrives. Invited to Olivia’s sixteenth birthday party, she livens things up by suggesting the girls play Light as a Feather, Stiff as a Board. As Violet tells each girl’s violent death story, the girls chant and “levitate” the subject. What starts out as an innocent game turns into a paranormal string of events in keeping with Violet’s predictions, which McKenna desperately needs to prevent before she and her […]

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

Gr. 7-12  Seniors Kim and Teddy, William Henry Harrison High’s golden couple, are apparently done. Quitsville. Uncoupled. The source of this hot gossip, freshman Phil Spooner, finds himself in the spotlight after passing along the story with an embellishment or two. Immediately, the school splits into Team Kim and Teddy Bear. The breakup fever spreads, and by the time the prom committee must make a final decision on the theme, there are four wildly disparate ideas (and teams) dividing the […]

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

Gr. 9-12  Sophie would do anything for her best friend Peter, a talented musician in need of a kidney transplant. She believes that the two of them are destined to be in love, but events don’t go as she imagined after she donates a kidney to him. Now able to attend high school in lieu of homeschooling, Peter becomes interested in Chase, a classmate who invites him to join his band. While Peter’s interests broaden, Sophie is left to pick […]

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

Gr. 7-10  Estrella is a feisty 15-year-old living with her parents on a ranch in southern Texas. It’s 1931, and the Great Depression is in full swing. Her town is severely divided ethnically, and families of Mexican descent, though American citizens, are being rounded up and repatriated across the border. Following a protest that Estrella organizes, her home is burned, and she, her toddler brother, and mother are separated from her father while being transported to Mexico. They are thrown […]

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

Gr. 9-12  Sixteen-year-old Mellie is the ideal daughter for her conservative, religious family. But her perfect life changes one afternoon when she is raped in her own home. Too afraid to tell anyone, Mellie silently watches the waistband on her jeans grow tighter, convinced her pro-life parents would sentence her to having her rapist’s baby. Lise, Mellie’s classmate and former childhood friend, is an activist and works as an escort and shield for women against the constant group of protesters […]

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