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Set in Rabbit, Utah, When Giants Burn by Beth Vrabel tells the story of two tweens who know that feelings aren’t temporary like their school counsellor Mrs. Freid claims. Both Hayes and Gerty know that “sometimes feelings twist and tunnel. Sometimes they wrap themselves into every bit of a person, locking them into a place where nothing else can grow” (214). Afraid of losing his mother to addiction and a life of crime again, Hayes is struggling to form a relationship with his ex-con mother. Untethered and unable to forgive and forget her abandonment, Hayes wears his anger like armor. An independent and largely self-sufficientRead More →

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Readers of Rick Riordan, C.S. Lewis, or other writers of fantasy will likely find The Lion of Lark–Hayes Manor a delight! Under the influence of Aubrey Hartman’s pen, readers will join the journey of sixth grader Penelope Woodlock (Poppy) who makes a hasty and soon regrettable bargain with a water nymph who has been banished from the Old World. Possessing a vivid imagination, Poppy, a creative and passionate book-lover, moves from Virginia to Oregon with her historic preservationist parents and her brother Luc. As Poppy struggles to adapt to the new environment and to the social dynamics of middle school, she finds solace in booksRead More →

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A mixture of myths, legends, and folklore, Once There Was by Kiyash Monsef is an amazing book! A tapestry of James Herriot’s veterinarian expertise and Sherlock Holmes’ sleuthing, the book is simultaneously a fantasy and then a truth-telling narrative that reveals deeply philosophical truths. The leading lady in this drama is Marjan Dastani, an Iranian/American fifteen-year-old whose father is a veterinarian. Jamsheed Dastani, “a man of education and wisdom, a man of compassion, a man you’d trust with your pet” (12) is much more than the sum of those visible parts. This mysterious and haunted man is weighed down by secrets and a mission thatRead More →

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With their book The Agathas, Kathleen Glasgow and Liz Lawson present a spectacular mystery with a multitude of rich allusions to Agatha Christie. Told from the point of view of both Iris Adams and Alice Ogilvie, the novel is set in Castle Cove, California, a cozy coastal town where a person is either the served or the server and where the town seems curse with missing girls. Iris, who prefers to fly under-the-radar and has a “keep-to-myself-policy,” resents people like Alice–those who walk around like they live in a golden bubble. But after Alice stole an idea from one of her favorite mystery stories, disappearedRead More →

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With I Am Not Alone, Francisco X. Stork has penned a powerful and poignant story. His protagonist Alberto Bocel is an undocumented Mexican in the United States working in order to send money back to Ticul, Mexico, for his mother’s medical bills. Alberto endures symptoms of a mental condition that leaves him oscillating between a cloud of forgetfulness or battling the voice in his head. As a result, he feels broken. When Alberto is accused of murdering Mrs. Macpherson, he wonders if he is capable of such cruelty. Did the voice in his head—whom he has named Captain America—use his hands to commit murder? AtRead More →

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Being of mixed race makes it difficult to know which part of the self to defer to or which part takes precedence. This is Anna’s dilemma in Malia Maunakea’s middle grade novel, Lei and the Fire Goddess. Anna Leilani Kama’ehu is of both western and Hawaiian descent. She has struggled to believe that her grandmother’s traditional stories about gods and goddesses are anything more than just stories. Likewise, she isn’t sure she wants the responsibility thrust upon her: that she is the keeper of the family stories or móolelo. Now that’s she’s twelve, Anna thinks her visits with her grandmother in the Hawaiian town ofRead More →

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Dedicated to all readers who “stagger beneath the weight of expectations and emotions, The Third Daughter by Adrienne Tooley tells two parallel stories. One reveals the ambitions of the Warnou family; the other shares the reality of the Anders family. As much as this is a story about those who are born into wealth versus those who are not, it is also about the impact of power and privilege. It reveals the consequences of knowing and embracing one’s identity. Born the eldest in the royal family, Princess Elodie Warnou has been raised to be strong, calculating, and regal. Her mother taught her not only toRead More →

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Because Ronnie Riley believes that no one should feel alone for who they like or who they are, this nonbinary, neurodivergent author writes a book for tweens who might also need a safe place to discover themselves. Riley’s novel, Jude Saves the World features Dallas Knight, who is gay, and Jude Winters, who is nonbinary and lives with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The two twelve-year-olds share a “ride or die” friendship. When they welcome Stevie Morgan into their circle, challenges ensue. Another challenge for Jude—whose pronouns are they/them—is whether to share their identity with their grandparents. Jude’s mom says they’re not ready for thatRead More →

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Set in New Mexico, The Storyteller by Brandon Hobson features Ziggy Echota whose mother is a missing indigenous woman. Both of Cherokee descent, sixth grade Ziggy and his older sister Moon long to know what happened to their mother, so they begin a search in the desert with “Weird Alice” as their guide. On their journey, the two learn especially valuable lessons while the reader gains details of the Cherokee culture and its lore. As he searches, Ziggy encounters several Nunnehi, who are protectors and shape shifters. Among them are a fiddle-playing buzzard named Gus, a horse named Lampwick, and an armadillo named Andrew Jackson.Read More →