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Set in both New York and Pennsylvania prior to and during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stepping Off by Jordan Sonnenblick tells a story of human relationship dynamics. The novel’s primary characters are three sixteen-year-old youth who navigate issues like parental death, divorce, and friendship challenges. Ava Green, Chloe Conti, and Jesse Dienstag are best friends whose parents own summer homes in Pennsylvania where the official motto of the vacation-home community is “The Real World Isn’t Real.” Tall Pines Landing provides an escape from the crowds, traffic, pollution, endless noise, and pressures of school and jobs in New York. Although she has a tendency toward a pricklyRead More →

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Readers of Carl Hiassen or other books that focus on youth activism related to animals will likely enjoy Olive Blackwood Takes Action by Sonja Thomas. Behind the camera is Olive Blackwood’s happy place, a space where her anxiety eases and her nervous stomach relaxes some. An aspiring story writer and film director, Olive will turn thirteen in April, making her eligible to attend the Rose City Summer Film Camp. During the prestigious summer program, ten lucky students will get to produce a short film, from developing the screenplay to final editing. Olive’s mission is to choose the perfect story to film for her Rose CityRead More →

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Love Off the Record by Samantha Markum is a romantic comedy to rival the best beach books.  Although the book is mostly cotton candy fluff with palpable romantic tension, it gives a serious nod to all readers who have insecurities (all of us, am I right?), especially those who are weight conscious or who struggle with body image issues. Nathaniel Wellborn III (aka Three) and Éowyn Evans (aka Wyn) are freshmen at Ohio State University. Competitive adversaries, the pair share the ambition of securing the next position as a reporter for the college newspaper, Torch, on their way to someday being editor-in-chief. Preferring investigative journalismRead More →

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Readers who appreciate survival stories like Hatchet by Gary Paulsen will likely enjoy Flying Through Water by Mamle Wolo. Set in Tovime village in Ghana, Wolo’s novel shares the adventures of Sena who attends junior high, plays football, farms with his family, and dreams of escaping the toil and toll of poverty. He envisions “driving a sports car very day to a high school where students wore whatever they wanted, and talked to teachers however they liked, and fought and sang and shouted and danced in the corridors and flirted and kissed and played sports and never seemed to do any schoolwork” (48). Sena’s realityRead More →

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Everything We Never Said by Sloan Harlow tells a poignant story about domestic violence and the impacts of unmanaged anger. Harlow’s novel features Ella Graham, a senior at North Davis High School in Georgia. She is a living ghost girl after losing her best friend, Hayley Miller, in a car accident. Because Ella had been driving and had consumed a single beer, she blames herself for the accident and the loss of her friend. As Ella struggles to go on with her life, she finds solace in Hayley’s former boyfriend, Sawyer Hawkins, who is similarly suffering. Having also loved Hayley, Sawyer knows Ella’s pain. AsRead More →

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Winnie Nash Is Not Your Sunshine by Nicole Melleby tells the story of twelve-year-old Winnie who lives in Sea Bright, New Jersey. Although many young people might savor summertime at the beach with a grandmother, Winnie is not taking her eviction from the family home with a smile. In fact, she is afraid that any smile she takes is one less her mother will have. Winnie’s parents have decided that for the final trimester of this pregnancy, Winnie would not be around for any potential fall-out if another miscarriage occurs. After all, Winnie has been there “for every other time her mom said she wasRead More →

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A novel in verse, Wild Dreamers by Margarita Engle is dedicated to scientists and future scientists. It features two Cuban American youth: Leandro and Ana Tanamá, who take inspiration from Jane Goodall and other conservationists to protect the planet by rewilding. Rewilding efforts attempt to restore biodiversity. Seventeen-year-old Leandro fled Cuba at the age of seven with his family. His father drowned saving his son, so Leandro blames himself and has suffered from  uncontrollable attacks of dizzy panic ever since. His service animal, Cielo is a blue merle dog who shares her perspective intermittently in the novel. After living in Florida for a time, theRead More →

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When they encounter big feelings, young people often feel confused. What do they do with their anger, resentment, jealousy, or love? To help tweens better understand these overwhelming emotions that are capable of causing damage if not handled with care, Aida Salazar pens Ultraviolet. In particular, this novel in verse examines puberty, gender, first crushes, and rites of passage for young boys of color. It encourages a society that provides space to explore emotions, vulnerability, and hormonal confusion rather than burying them behind attitudes of being “macho” or “manning up.” Afraid of bees and plagued by other irrational fears, Elio Solis tries to understand hisRead More →

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Enrolled at Riverstone High School (RHS) in Ohio, Jasmine and Jackson Ghasnavi are the mixed race (half White, half Iranian) children of doctors. Jasmine is a senior who loves pottery, and Jackson’s passion is theatre. When their parents divorce, Jackson develops abandonment issues and Jasmine struggles to find a lasting relationship. Jackson helps his sister cope with her breakups by constructing breakup lists. At the recommendation of his therapist, Jackson also uses lists to cope with his own anxiety. These lists and teen relationship drama form the plot for Adib Khorram’s novel The Breakup Lists. As a former “theatre kid” himself, Khorram infuses his novelRead More →