“Flawless girls” Anna-Marie McLemore

Rated 2 stars ** ARC. ebook. Feiwel & Friends (Macmillan Publishing). To be published May 24, 2024.

For years Isla, an intersex teen, has been tormented by her peers. She’s also tormented herself, wanting to be like her beautiful sister Renata. After spending most of her life trying to fit in, she and Renata enroll at the Alarie House. At this prestigious finishing school Isla is sure she’ll become a perfect girl. What she doesn’t know is that it’s also where monsters and nightmares live.

I was not a fan of the book, as there were too many fantastical things going on that distracted me. This is a book English teachers would want to tear up for its symbolism, leaving some readers like me scratching our heads in puzzlement that such symbolism existed where we saw only words and phrases.

I will leave it up to my readers, ages 16 and older, to decide if they want to read it or not.

 I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

“Spitting gold” Carmella Lowkis

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Atria Books (Simon & Schuster). To be published May 14, 2024.

It was April of 1866 and, for the past two years, Sylvie thought her former life as a medium was behind her. She and her sister Charlotte had earned their living pretending to banish or raise ghosts for money, learning everything from their parents. After a con gone wrong cost them their business and almost landed them in prison, she married a rich older man who took her away from her drunken, abusive father and the life of poverty she’d led. Though she felt guilty about leaving Charlotte, she needed to save herself and agreed to his request that she leave the life of a medium behind her forever.

One rainy day Charlotte surprised her by showing up at her home begging for help as their father was dying, there was no money, and she needed Sylvie. A rich family was eager to dispel a ghost who had been haunting them and, if successful, the payout would help Charlotte and her father. Sylvie knew what her husband had forbidden her to do but her love for Charlotte overcame her reluctance. Unfortunately, she’d soon find out that ghosts, as well as the living, can be revengeful. The peaceful life she’d led for the past two years was about to forever change.

I LOVED this book! I voraciously read it from cover to cover, eager to see what would next befall the sisters. The author’s research into life in 1866 France for the rich and those living on the outskirts of acceptable society was eye-opening.

Highly recommended for Adults.

 I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

“Thirsty” Jas Hammonds

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Roaring Book Press (Holtzbrinck Holdings Ltd.). To be published May 14, 2024.

Blake is getting ready to leave for college in a few months with her best friend Annetta and her girlfriend Ella. When she came out as a Lesbian four years ago her parents barely cared, though her father seemed disappointed. Though he’s Black her White mother never took an interest in Blake’s Blackness, leaving her to figure out how to manage her hair and find Black role models. When she was with Ella and her rich parents in their beautiful home, Blake could forget about her issues and pretend their wonderful life was hers.

Though she and Ella had been together for years Blake felt tremendous feelings of insecurity and doubt that had followed her since middle school. They only went away when she was drinking, so Blake drank a lot. When she was drunk, she became Big Bad Bee, loving how she became the life of the party.

The three of them are all pledging the Serena Society, an exclusive group of powerful women of color. Blake believes having them as role models will be her ticket to belonging. Unfortunately the more pressure she puts on herself to live up to Society standards during the pledging process, the more she drinks. Though others warn her she has a drinking problem, Blake assures them she’s fine. But is she really?

This story of a young woman’s struggles with alcohol, insecurity, doubt, and racial identity is why librarian S.R. Ranganathan once said many years ago “For every book there is a reader.” Thank you Jas Hammond for pouring your soul into “Thirsty”, opening up about your own struggles with alcohol through Blake’s actions. Young readers facing the same difficulties will know there is hope for them too.

Highly recommended for ages 15 and older.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

“The secret library” Kekla Magoon

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Candlewick Press. (To be published May 7, 2024).

Delia is almost 12 years old and misses her grandfather terribly. After he died, her mother is more determined than ever that Delia learns to become a proper businesswoman to eventually take over the family business. Delia doesn’t want to sit behind a desk with boring business work. She wants to have adventures but, without her grandfather, feels stifled and lonely. At the reading of his will he left her a brown envelope that her mother promptly locked away for her 21st birthday. With cunning and skill Delia retrieves the envelope from her mother’s locked safe and finds a letter from him as well as a mysterious map.

The map takes her to an abandoned field which turns into a magnificent, secret library. Inside Delia is directed to shelves filled with secrets from people across the centuries. Whenever she chooses a book, she goes on adventures in different times and places where she learns about her family’s history. She sees her dad alive, years before her parents got married, and also gets to see a side of her mother that she’d never seen in the past.

As Delia learns more about her family’s past, she becomes troubled as well as elated and proud. Her family held onto a lot of secrets on their way to becoming the Peteharrngton’s. She’ll have to draw on that strength to become the girl she wants to be, in order to change her present into her past.

I absolutely LOVED this book. It would make an excellent Newbery winning title. That’s how good it is. Well done, Kekla. Well done.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

“A better world” Sarah Langan

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. ebook. Atria Books (Simon & Schuster). Published April 9, 2024.

In a world set 70 years in the future, Earth’s resources have been destroyed by mankind’s many interferences. Air has become barely breathable, jobs and food are scarce, the weather doesn’t make sense, and people are constantly angry. Linda knows she and her husband can’t raise their fifteen-year-old twins much longer in this environment, so it seemed like a miracle when they were accepted to live in Plymouth Valley, a private, invitation-only company town where they will have a clean, healthy, and safe life. All they must do is follow the rules.

At first, they struggled to adjust but soon became regulars with strange rituals practiced by residents. As Linda began to investigate these rituals, she soon realized Plymouth Valley’s yearly Winter Festival held a frightening significance for the town. Though she begged her family to leave, no one was allowed to leave. Linda will have to do all she can to save them from the horrors she suspects before it’s too late.

This seemingly omniscient view of Earth’s future is appallingly on track based on how Earth’s resources have been abused over the centuries. One can only hope towns like Plymouth Valley don’t come into being, or our future as humans is forever lost.

Highly recommended for Adults.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.

“All boys aren’t blue” George M. Johnson

Rated 5 stars ***** First Square Fish (Farrar Straus Giroux, Macmillan). 2024. 304 p.

Open, raw, honest prose fills nonbinary George Johnson’s memoir through memories of growing up Black and Queer in a small New Jersey town. The love and support received from their parents, extended family members, and their beloved grandmother are also detailed. Reasons why they suppressed their identity as they sorted out what it meant to know they weren’t like other boys, as well as the oppression they felt as a member of the Black community, are also part of their story. Johnson wants teen readers who are Black and Queer to see themselves. As the title suggests, all boys are not the same because they are not all stereotypical blue. Some might be a little pink or an entirely different color and should be able to live freely.

Recommended for ages 15 and older.

I met George Johnson at a recent conference and was impressed because they are articulate, well-versed, a spitfire, and an advocate for their community. This is the #2 banned book in the United States due to its graphic content, but its message is important. Banning a book because it’s eyebrow raising content doesn’t measure up to a book banner’s point of view does a huge disservice to its intended audience. Erasing a book erases a reader’s identity, and no one deserves to be erased.

“And then, Boom!” Lisa Fipps

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. Nancy Paulsen Books (Penguin Random House). To be published May 7, 2024. 244 p.

Joe is in 6th grade with a mother who regularly disappears, leaving him with his grandmother. To understand the many changes in his life he uses comic book analogies, knowing change happens with “and then BOOM!” moments. Joe has had many of these, but the biggest came when his mother got arrested, his grandmother put her house up for bail money, but it had to be sold when his mom didn’t show up at court. Now homeless they lived in his grandmother’s car, struggling to find places to wash up and eat.

After a few weeks they found a rickety mobile home, but change came when his grandmother died. Joe’s mom returned but abandoned him. With no money or food, Joe ate the free breakfast and lunch at school plus his teacher’s snacks, but worried about the upcoming summer break. Two friends loaded him up with food before leaving for vacation, but it spoiled when the electricity was turned off. As days and weeks passed without eating, Joe was starving. Will he make it through the summer?

“And then BOOM!” is a heartbreaking story played out across this country, and the world, every day. In her foreword the author indicates Joe’s story is also her story, and she wrote it to let kids like Joe know they’re not alone. THIS is why books need to remain on shelves and not be banned. Every book has a reader who sees themselves, and that book could be the difference between life and death for them. This book would make an excellent middle school book club read, as students could discuss what each “and then BOOM!” moment meant to Joe as well as ways to help kids like him.

Highly recommended for ages 11-14.

“The moonlit vine” Elizabeth Santiago

Rated 5 stars ***** Tu Books (Lee & Low Books). 2023. 360 p. (Includes “Author’s note,” “Anacaona and Caonabo ancestry,” “Key moments in Puerto Rican history,” “Inspiring Boriqueños,” and “References.”)

The native Arawak lived in Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Haiti, and Jamaica, before Columbus and his conquistadores arrived. There are several theories on how they became known as Taíno including that they shouted “tayno,” meaning “good people,” to an incoming Spanish ship. Over the next 25 years their population was severely decimated through disease, massacre, and slavery, reducing their numbers from millions to 32,000 by the year 1514. It had been thought the Taíno were extinct, but a 2018 National Geographic article explained they assimilated and aren’t extinct because their DNA is found in living people – including yours truly.

Knowing this background information made “The moonlit vine” especially interesting as I read about fourteen-year-old Taína’s quest to defend herself and her family from injustices in their neighborhood and schools. Taína comes from a long line of proud Taíno women, direct descendants of Anacaona, a powerful leader murdered by Spaniards soon after Columbus’ arrival on Haiti. Anacaona gave an amulet and zemi to her daughter for protection, with instructions for them to be passed on through time to women in her family who would remember the knowledge of their proud past as their future power.

Over the centuries these precious artifacts and memories of their heritage were passed on until Taína received them from her grandmother. Though fearful at first, she soon learned of the powerful strength of her ancestors in a life-or-death situation.

I absolutely LOVED this book! Taína’s story, as well as historical chapters of women who came after Anacaona, kept me riveted.

Highly recommended for ages 14 and older.

“Mani Semilla finds her Quetzal voice” Anna Lapera

Rated 2 stars ** ARC. Levine Querido (Chronicle Books). Published March 5, 2024. 325 p.

Chinese-Filipino-Guatemalan American seventh grader Mani is sick of her mother dressing her in on-sale, ugly, baggy clothes, and of her family talking about her changing body as if she wasn’t there. Mani spends a lot of time wishing she could tell everyone what she really feels, but everything she wants to say is stuck in her head. Her grandmother talks about the Quetzal birds of Guatemala and tells her she needs to get a Quetzal voice, but Mani’s desperation to become a woman and figure out how to speak her mind is overly consuming.

Life at school is also chaotic, as boys routinely sexually harass girls and film their exploits for social media. If someone is brave enough to complain, teachers and administration accuse them of inviting bad behavior. Girls get punished while boys walk away, free to continue their lewd actions. As a result Mani doesn’t dare tell anyone what happened to her. Incident after incident builds until, like a volcano, Mani finally explodes. When she does, there is no stopping her.

I understand the feminist storyline the writer wanted to share, along with the need for readers to understand middle school sexual harassment, but I thought too much time was spent describing what Mani couldn’t say. I was bored with these constant descriptions and kept putting the book down. I wasn’t in a hurry to finish until I got to the last 40 or so pages because Mani finally spoke. Now I was interested enough to read until the end. The book could have been at least 150 pages shorter, and would have held my attention better, if Mani had gotten her voice a lot earlier.

Though I didn’t care for it, I will leave it up to readers ages 13 and older to decide if you want to read it or not.

“Uprising” Jennifer A. Nielsen

Rated 5 stars ***** ARC. Scholastic Press (Scholastic). 356 p. (Includes period photographs, and “Author’s note.”) To be published March 5, 2024.

Lidia Janina Durr Zakrzewski was born in Poland and, when Germany invaded Poland in 1939 to start World War II, she was 15 years old. She had always been a strong-willed child, her father’s favorite, and the bane of her mother’s existence. When he left home to fight for Poland, she was devastated. Within a short time the Nazis took away their house, her beloved piano, and the money her father had left them to survive. Lidia, her older brother, and her mother struggled to put food on the table and to keep a roof over their heads.

After Poland fell, the mistreatment of Jews became something Lidia saw on a regular basis. Forced to move to a squalid neighborhood, the bedroom window of their apartment overlooked the Warsaw Ghetto. There, she noticed Jews starving and being sent to concentration camps. Lidia did her best to sneak food into the Ghetto, knowing that being caught would mean instant death.

Lidia’s anger against the occupation of her country stoked a fire in her to join the Polish resistance. Her brother was a member but, despite his objections, she joined. She survived harrowing near-death experiences, multiple injuries, battles, and more in her determination to free Poland. “Uprising” is her story.

Lidia might be an unknown name to many but, after reading Nielsen’s carefully researched book and viewing the period photographs, she will not stay unknown. Lidia’s story deserves to be told, as her bravery saved the lives of hundreds of innocent people.

Highly recommended for ages 15 and older.