Today, she hates him.

It is the end of high school for Rowan, she has spent 4 years hating, and competing to be the best, against Neil. It all started with an essay contest that he won freshman year, and she hasn’t forgotten that loss. They have been rivals this whole time, forcing each other to do and be better for their entire high school career. Their rivalry has often forced them to work together, which both act like they hate every minute of. And now, it all comes down to who is named valedictorian.

After the valedictorian is named and before graduation day, the senior class has one last exciting thing to look forward to. HOWL, a city wide scavenger hunt in downtown Seattle organized by the Junior Class Officers, with a big cash prize to the winner. Rowan realizes this cash prize could help with college next year and it could be the one last thing to beat Neil at.

The Kingdom of Back is a historical retelling of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s real-life older sister, Nannerl Mozart, with heavy threads of fantasy. The story follows the young lives of the siblings growing up in a family whose future depends on the recognition of their family talent by the nobility.

Nannerl is at first the gem of the musical Mozart family until the genius other brother seeps out to steal the focus. It seems her talent cannot compete with his innate gift. As she feels more diminished, she turns to the fantasy world they had created. The prince of the Kingdom of Back becomes her focus as she drifts between the realness of the two worlds trying to find her place.

The story unveils itself easily as it follows Nannerl through to adulthood. The symbols and analogies presented in the Kingdom of Back creatively convey the emotion and thought processes of a young adult girl trying to find her way in a world with a domineering father and a child prodigy younger brother. A shift from her adventure-focused fantasy writing, Lu presents the story of a person coming to grips with her future by finding a way to deal with it.

This is an immigration story, a family drama, an LGBTQ romance, with a sci-fi plot, all in one YA novel. Marisol, the teenaged protagonist, flees El Salvador after her brother is killed and her sister is threatened. While escaping to the US fulfills a longtime dream of hers, the trade she has to make, taking on the grief and trauma of another girl, is the where the sci-fi plot comes in.

This is an intriguing, sad yet bitter sweet story.

A fantasy set in Greco-Roman times is told from five distinctive points of view from the five primary characters: A prince exiled from his kingdom, a ruthless killer known as the Pale Hand, a once-faithful leader torn between his duty and his heart, a reckless gambler with the power to find anything or anyone, and a dying girl on the verge of giving up. These characters are living in the chaos of the Age of Darkness that falls upon them after the Seven Prophets, who have guided humanity for generations, have disappeared.

Some readers may struggle with the multiple points of view and the parallel plots.

There Will Come a Darkness is the first book in the Age of Darkness series, followed by As the Shadow Rises, and concluding with Into the Dying Light. This series may appeal to fans of Throne of Glass, Children of Blood and Bone, and similar epic fantasies.

Goldstone, author of Unpunished Murder: Massacre at Colfax and the Quest for Justice, sets tells the history of African American voting, beginning with the Constitutional Convention and continuing through two Constitutional Amendments, two Reconstruction Acts, two Civil Rights Acts, three Enforcement Acts, and continues into the second decade of the 21st century with voter suppression efforts in several southern states. Written for a younger audience, with short chapters and an approachable narrative, make this an accessible book for school aged readers, as well as adults.

The book contains a detailed table of contents, primary source documents and photographs, a glossary, bibliography, extensive source notes, and an index. I recommend this book for middle and high school libraries.

Curse of the Divine in the final book in duology Ink in the Blood. The reader returns to the world of inklings, tattoo magic, and the evil deities Celia and Anya faced earlier. Now guilt ridden and saddened to live without Anya, Celia’s quest is to stop Diavala once and for all. When Celia learns that Diavala is now threatening Griffin, the plague doctor, pledges not to lose another person she loves to the evil deity.

The fantasy world Kim Smejkal created in The Ink in the Blood is explored with more depth in Curse of the Divine. This macabre YA fantasy may appeal to fans of The Young Elites series by Marie Lu.

This dark YA fantasy weaves together tattoo magic, faith, and theater. The main characters Celia and Anya are inkings for the religion of Profeta, and they use magic to tattoo followers with lovely images that are meant to represent the will of the Divine and lead the followers in the path that the Divine has for them. But as the years go by, the girls learn the truth about Profeta; that it is a false religion and that the lovely tattoos they have made take the freedom away from the followers. The young women set out on a journey to escape the oppressive religious sect and join a traveling performing company called Rabble Mob.
The two girls have a strong bond of friendship and they look out for one another as the story progresses. There are elements of LGBTQ, found family, and perseverance.

The book reminds me of another new YA fantasy, Circus Rose by Betsy Cornwell, and also Carnaval by

In this sequel to Kelly Yang’s novel, Front Desk, we continue the story of Mia, Lupe, and Jason. Mia and her family (and the other investors) now own the motel and are doing really well. They have had a great summer with Lupe and Mia running the front desk. In Kelly Yang’s first novel she tackled topics of colorism and racism, in this novel she takes on the topic of immigration as well as racism. Despite these topics being difficult to convey to elementary kids, Yang does it in a way that middle grade students can understand, empathize with, and learn from. I was very impressed with the amount of information presented and the ease at which Yang fit it into her story.

This novel surrounds a gubernatorial race in California and immigration legislation that would kick all illegal immigrants out of schools – including Mia’s best friend Lupe. Mia watches many of her classmates and Lupe shrink in fear and worry as their new 6th grade teacher talks about the legislation and tells them that racism doesn’t exist. Mia, who learned how powerful her voice is in the first novel, continues to use her writing to make change at the motel and in her community. They are faced with many challenges, including the motel possibly losing investors because Mia wrote ‘Immigrants Welcome’ on their Calavista Motel sign.

This is a fabulous story of friendship, integrity, empathy, and the power of voice.

The afterward of this novel also tells about the author’s own experience with similar legislation growing up in California. She talks about the quantitative and qualitative research she put into this book and that every hate crime which we read in the story is one that happened in real life.

I highly recommend adding this to your library, along with Front Desk.

This is a great story about how storyteller Zora Neale Hurston became the collector and teller of stories. The book follows Zora’s life from her childhood, where she got her love of oral storytelling, her mother passing away, her father remarrying, her leaving home at 14, getting educated and returning home to collect the stories she remembered from her past.

This book is illustrated by Jacqueline Alcantara and the illustrations in this book are fantastic. You can feel the energy that Zora Neale Hurston carried with her on her journeys and her story friends follow you through the illustrations. There are frogs in glasses, rabbits in hats, and foxes that you can find hiding in the pages of Zora’s story. The end papers at the end of the book offer an Author’s Note and additional reading sources to continue learning about the prolific storyteller.

This is a great addition to the biographies and stories in your classroom or library.

In Jules vs. The Ocean Jules, her mom and sister are having a beach day. Jules is so excited to build a sandcastle that will for sure impress her big sister, but the ocean has other plans. Every time Jules builds a castle, the ocean comes and destroys it. Jules gets frustrated, pulls herself together and keeps trying. Each time a wave comes and smashes her castle. She perseveres with her goal of building the “biggest, fanciest, most excellent castle” on the beach. And each time “SLAP” the ocean knocks the castle down. Eventually Jules’ big sister comes to help her build the castle and together they build a big, fancy, most excellent sand castle! But, once again CRASH the ocean slaps it down. Despite that Jules and her sister realize the most excellent part of the day was building it together, not the castle itself. The beach day ends with happy sisters after a great day, until Mom tells them really the moon is controlling the waves – now they’ll have to watch out for the moon!

Great illustrations add the fun nature of this story that everyone can relate to. This book could be used in the classroom for topics of perseverance, kindness, and just a fun read aloud.

Bear is so excited for the surprise party and he just can’t wait. The friends decorate and bake a cake. Bear is impatient and in his impatience he squishes the cake which makes bear sad. Bear’s friends comfort him and help him build a new cake to surprise Hare. The text is rhyming and the illustrations are colorful and bright.

A little beetle and a caterpillar are friends having a picnic and watching the moon on a cliff. One day the caterpillar is gone and the beetle is sad. Looking for its friend, it sees some red in the distance and sets off to look for its friend. In the illustrations, the reader can see that the caterpillar has built a chrysalis on the underside of the cliff out of view of the beetle. He encounters a crow and a frog, but it is not afraid. Once the beetle reaches the red, it sees that it was wrong. Soon a butterfly comes along and looks very familiar and it realizes that it is the friend.

The illustrations are black and white, but the caterpillar and butterfly are in red. The illustrations are striking in this story about friendship.

A little pig faces frustration again and again of not being able to do it yet. The pictures on the pages show the piglet’s frustration as riding without training wheels, flipping pancakes, playing violin, and completing a puzzle are tried without success. The book goes on to say that it takes patience to get to yet and to get there, you will make mistakes, but that is okay. The pictures are watercolor and add to the sweetness of the book. A great story for encouraging young ones to keep trying and not give up.