From the Tops of the Trees

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Picture Book

Four years old and her whole life has been spent in a refugee camp in Thailand where Hmong families live after fleeing the Secret War in Laos.  Now Kalia is beginning to wonder about the space she lives in. She asks her father an important question, ” Is the...

Waking Romeo

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Science Fiction

Kathryn Barker’s Waking Romeo is a spectacularly genre-bending retelling of Romeo & Juliet asking the big questions about true love, fate, and time travel Year: 2083. Location: London. Mission: Wake Romeo. It’s the end of the world. Literally. Time travel...

Ain’t Burned All the Bright

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction

Prepare yourself for something unlike anything: A smash-up of art and text for teens that viscerally captures what it is to be Black. In America. Right Now. Written by #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Jason Reynolds. Jason Reynolds and his best...

Bad Girls Never Say Die

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction

Jennifer’s newest young adult novel, Bad Girls Never Say Die, is a gender-flipped reimagining of The Outsiders set in Houston, Texas in 1964 that wields the same feminist themes. Bad Girls Never Say Die is the perfect follow-up read for teens who read The Outsiders in...

Words in My Hands ( The )

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Science Fiction

Part coming of age, part call to action, this fast-paced #ownvoices novel about a Deaf teenager is a unique and inspiring exploration of what it means to belong. Set in an ominously prescient near future, The Words in My Hands is the story of Piper: sixteen, smart,...

Listen Layla

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction

Exploring the diaspora experience, race, politics, and identity, Listen, Layla is an own voices novel for young readers, bursting with passion, humor, and truth. What’s a queen to do when her summer plans go horribly wrong? A powerful, funny, and timely novel...

Barakah Beats

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction

For fans of The First Rule of Punk and Save Me a Seat, Barakah Beats is a sweet, powerful, and joyous novel about a Muslim girl who finds her voice on her own terms… by joining her school’s most popular boy band. Twelve-year-old Nimra Sharif has spent her...

Lost Language ( The )

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Realistic/Contemporary Fiction

The quest to save the words of a dying language – and to find the words to save what may be a dying friendship – lies at the heart of this exquisite verse novel. Sixth grader Betsy is the one who informs her best friend, Lizard, that thousands of the...

Imaginary

by | Nov 12, 2021 | Fiction

The story of a boy and his imaginary friend—told by the imaginary friend Zach should’ve outgrown his imaginary friend by now. He knows this. He’s 11, long past the days when kids are supposed to go on epic make-believe adventures with their invisible friends. But...