Debuts are highlighted in pink.

Annotations are sourced from GoodReads, Amazon and Publisher’s Weekly.

JANUARY 

1 Jan Farah Rocks Fifth Grade by Susan Muaddi Darraj (Author), Ruaida Mannaa (Illustrator). Stone Arch Books
Farah and her best friend, Allie Liu, are getting excited to turn in their applications to the Magnet Academy, where they both hope to attend sixth grade. But when new girl Dana Denver shows up, Farah’s world is turned upside down. As Dana starts bullying Farah’s little brother, Samir, Farah begins to second-guess her choice to leave him behind at Harbortown Elementary/Middle School. Determined to handle it on her own, Farah comes up with a plan–a plan that involves lying to those closest to her. Will her lies catch up with her, or can Farah find a way to defeat the bully and rock fifth grade?

7 Jan Scavenge the Stars #1 by Tara Sim. Disney Hyperion.
When Amaya rescues a mysterious stranger from drowning, she fears her rash actions have earned her a longer sentence on the debtor ship where she’s been held captive for years. Instead, the man she saved offers her unimaginable riches and a new identity, setting Amaya on a perilous course through the coastal city-state of Moray, where old-world opulence and desperate gamblers collide.

Amaya wants one thing: revenge against the man who ruined her family and stole the life she once had. But the more entangled she becomes in this game of deception—and as her path intertwines with the son of the man she’s plotting to bring down—the more she uncovers about the truth of her past. And the more she realizes she must trust no one…

7 Jan All the Days Past, All the Days to Come by Mildred D. Taylor. Viking.
In her tenth book, Mildred Taylor completes her sweeping saga about the Logan family of Mississippi, which is also the story of the civil rights movement in America of the 20th century. Cassie Logan, first met in Song of the Trees and Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, is a young woman now, searching for her place in the world, a journey that takes her from Toledo to California, to law school in Boston, and, ultimately, in the 60s, home to Mississippi to participate in voter registration. She is witness to the now-historic events of the century: the Great Migration north, the rise of the civil rights movement, preceded and precipitated by the racist society of America, and the often violent confrontations that brought about change. Rich, compelling storytelling is Ms. Taylor’s hallmark, and she fulfills expectations as she brings to a close the stirring family story that has absorbed her for over forty years. It is a story she was born to tell.

7 Jan Brave. Black. First. : 50 African American Women Who Led the Way by Cheryl Hudson and Erin K. Robinson. Crown.
Published in partnership with curators from the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, this illustrated biography compilation captures the iconic moments of fifty African American women whose heroism and bravery rewrote the American story for the better.
They were fearless. They were bold. They were game changers.

7 Jan Clean Getaway by Nic Stone. Crown.
Set against the backdrop of the segregation history of the American South, take a trip with New York Times bestselling Nic Stone and an eleven-year-old boy who is about to discover that the world hasn’t always been a welcoming place for kids like him, and things aren’t always what they seem–his G’ma included.

7 Jan Leaving Lymon (companion to Finding Langston) by Lesa Cline-Ransom. Holiday House.
Lymon’s father is, for the time being, at Parchman Farm–the Mississippi State Penitentiary–and his mother, whom he doesn’t remember all that much, has moved North. Fortunately, Lymon is being raised by his loving grandparents. Together, Lymon and his grandpops share a love of music, spending late summer nights playing the guitar.
But Lymon’s world as he knows it is about to dissolve. He will be sent on a journey to two Northern cities far from the country life he loves–and the version of himself he knows. In this companion novel to the Coretta Scott King Honor wining Finding Langston, readers will see a new side of the bully Lymon in this story of an angry boy whose raw talent, resilience, and devotion to music help point him in a new direction.

7 Jan The Light Between Us by Andrew Fukuda. Tor Teen.
In 1935, ten-year-old Alex Maki from Bainbridge Island, Washington is disgusted when he’s forced to become pen pals with Charlie Lévy of Paris, France―a girl. He thought she was a boy. In spite of Alex’s reluctance, their letters continue to fly across the Atlantic―and along with them, the shared hopes and dreams of friendship. Until the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the growing Nazi persecution of Jews force them to confront the darkest aspects of human nature. From the desolation of an internment camp on the plains of Manzanar to the horrors of Auschwitz and the devastation of European battlefields, the only thing they can hold onto are the memories of their letters. But nothing can dispel the light between them.

7 Jan Love Boat, Taipei by Abigail Hing Wen. HarperCollins. Cis/Het Romance.
@abigailhingwen
“Our cousins have done this program,” Sophie whispers. “Best kept secret. Zero supervision.”
And just like that, Ever Wong’s summer takes an unexpected turn. Gone is Chien Tan, the strict educational program in Taiwan that Ever was expecting. In its place, she finds Loveboat: a summer-long free-for-all where hookups abound, adults turn a blind eye, snake-blood sake flows abundantly, and the nightlife runs nonstop. But not every student is quite what they seem.

7 Jan A Love Hate Thing by Whitney D. Grandison. Inkyard. HeterRomance
wheadee (IG)
When Tyson Trice finds himself tossed into the wealthy coastal community of Pacific Hills, he’s ready for the questions, the stares and the feeling of not belonging. Not that he cares. After recovering from being shot and surviving the rough streets of Lindenwood, he doesn’t care about anyone or anything, much less how the rest of his life will play out.
Golden girl Nandy Smith has spent most of her life building the pristine image that it takes to fit in when it comes to her hometown Pacific Hills where image is everything. After learning that her parents are taking in a troubled teen boy, Nandy fears her summer plans, as well as her reputation, will go up in flames.

Now with Trice living under the same roof, the wall between their bedrooms feels as thin as the line between love and hate. Beneath the angst, their growing attraction won’t be denied. Through time, Trice brings Nandy out of her shell, and Nandy attempts to melt the ice that’s taken Trice’s heart and being. Only, with the ever-present pull back to the Lindenwood streets, it’ll be a wonder if Trice makes it through this summer at all.

7 Jan Shadowshaper Legacy (the Shadowshaper series) by Daniel José Older. Arthur A. Levine Books.
Sierra is determined to protect her own in the coming conflict, even if that means keeping secrets from them. But a deal with Death by one of Sierra’s ancestors has far-reaching consequences in the battles of the present, and as old fates tangle with new powers, Sierra will have to harness the Deck of Worlds and confront her family’s past if she has any hope of saving the future and everyone she loves. Only doing so will mean following the magic to places the shadowshapers have never gone before . . . and may never return from.

7 Jan This Book Is Anti-Racist: 20 lessons on how to wake up, take action, and do the work by Tiffany Jewell and Aurélia Durand. Frances Lincoln Children’s Books. Woke Work Book
@tiffanymjewell
After examining the concepts of social identity, race, ethnicity, and racism, learn about some of the ways people of different races have been oppressed, from indigenous Americans and Australians being sent to boarding school to be “civilized” to a generation of Caribbean immigrants once welcomed to the UK being threatened with deportation by strict immigration laws.

This book is written for EVERYONE who lives in this racialized society—including the young person who doesn’t know how to speak up to the racist adults in their life, the kid who has lost themself at times trying to fit into the dominant culture, the children who have been harmed (physically and emotionally) because no one stood up for them or they couldn’t stand up for themselves, and also for their families, teachers, and administrators.

7 Jan Woven in Moonlight by Isabel Ibañez. Page Street Kids. Bolivian speculative historical fiction.
@IsabelWriter09
Ximena is the decoy Condesa, a stand-in for the last remaining Illustrian royal. Her people lost everything when the usurper, Atoc, used an ancient relic to summon ghosts and drive the Illustrians from La Ciudad. Now Ximena’s motivated by her insatiable thirst for revenge, and her rare ability to spin thread from moonlight. When Atoc demands the real Condesa’s hand in marriage, it’s Ximena’s duty to go in her stead. She relishes the chance, as Illustrian spies have reported that Atoc’s no longer carrying his deadly relic. If Ximena can find it, she can return the true aristócrata to their rightful place.

She hunts for the relic, using her weaving ability to hide messages in tapestries for the resistance. But when a masked vigilante, a warm-hearted princesa, and a thoughtful healer challenge Ximena, her mission becomes more complicated. There could be a way to overthrow the usurper without starting another war, but only if Ximena turns her back on revenge―and her Condesa.

14 Jan Black Girl Unlimited by Echo Brown. Henry Holt. Fantastical Autobiography
@helloechobrown
Echo Brown is a wizard from the East Side, where apartments are small and parents suffer addictions to the white rocks. Yet there is magic . . . everywhere. New portals begin to open when Echo transfers to the rich school on the West Side, and an insightful teacher becomes a pivotal mentor.
Each day, Echo travels between two worlds, leaving her brothers, her friends, and a piece of herself behind on the East Side. There are dangers to leaving behind the place that made you. Echo soon realizes there is pain flowing through everyone around her, and a black veil of depression threatens to undo everything she’s worked for.

14 Jan Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore. Feiwel and Friends.
Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.

Five centuries later, a pair of red shoes seal to Rosella Oliva’s feet, making her dance uncontrollably. They draw her toward a boy who knows the dancing fever’s history better than anyone: Emil, whose family was blamed for the fever five hundred years ago. But there’s more to what happened in 1518 than even Emil knows, and discovering the truth may decide whether Rosella survives the red shoes.

14 Jan From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks. Katherine Tegen Books (releases as The Faraway Truth/ UK edition. 5 Mar) MG Crime Mystery
@JanaeMarksBooks
Zoe Washington isn’t sure what to write. What does a girl say to the father she’s never met, hadn’t heard from until his letter arrived on her twelfth birthday, and who’s been in prison for a terrible crime?A crime he says he never committed.
Could Marcus really be innocent? Zoe is determined to uncover the truth. Even if it means hiding his letters and her investigation from the rest of her family. Everyone else thinks Zoe’s worrying about doing a good job at her bakery internship and proving to her parents that she’s worthy of auditioning for Food Network’s Kids Bake Challenge.
But with bakery confections on one part of her mind, and Marcus’s conviction weighing heavily on the other, this is one recipe Zoe doesn’t know how to balance. The only thing she knows to be true: Everyone lies.

14 Jan Infinity Son (Specters) by Adam Silvera. HarperTeen
Growing up in New York, brothers Emil and Brighton always idolized the Spell Walkers—a vigilante group sworn to rid the world of specters. While the Spell Walkers and other celestials are born with powers, specters take them, violently stealing the essence of endangered magical creatures. Brighton wishes he had a power so he could join the fray. Emil just wants the fighting to stop. The cycle of violence has taken a toll, making it harder for anyone with a power to live peacefully and openly. In this climate of fear, a gang of specters has been growing bolder by the day.

Then, in a brawl after a protest, Emil manifests a power of his own—one that puts him right at the heart of the conflict and sets him up to be the heroic Spell Walker Brighton always wanted to be. Brotherhood, love, and loyalty will be put to the test, and no one will escape the fight unscathed.

14 Jan Saving Savannah by Tonya Bolden. Bloomsbury.
Set against the backdrop of the press for women’s rights, the Red Summer, and anarchist bombings, Saving Savannah is the story of a girl and the risks she must take to be the change in a world on the brink of dramatic transformation.

14 Jan Say Her Name by Zetta Elliott. Disney/Jump At The Sun.
Inspired by the #SayHerName campaign launched by the African American Policy Forum, these poems pay tribute to victims of police brutality as well as the activists insisting that Black Lives Matter. Elliott engages poets from the past two centuries to create a chorus of voices celebrating the creativity, resilience, and courage of Black women and girls.

17 Jan Maximillian and the Curse of the Fallen Angel by Xavier Garza. Cinco Puntos.
Maximilian’s been nuts about lucha libre his whole life. But he’s not just a nerdy middle schooler―three years ago, he discovered that he’s part of lucha libre royalty! His uncle is the most famous luchador, the Guardian Angel. But now, the masked hero is facing a wild new wrestler who might just topple him from his lucha libre throne. The Fallen Angel may be the most reckless and arrogant wrestler the Guardian Angel has ever had to face, and he’s no longer in his prime. Age affects everyone, even the man behind the celebrated mask. Max, being next in the royal line of luchadores, thinks he might have to take over as the Guardian Angel sooner than he’d ever dreamed!

21 Jan Given by Nandi Taylor. Wattpad Books. SFF @nandi_taylor
Yenni has never been this far from home. With only her wits, her strength, and her sacred runelore, the fierce Yirba warrior princess is alone in the Empire of Cresh. It’s a land filled with strange magics and even stranger people―all of whom mistrust anyone who’s different. But Yenni will prove herself, and find the cure for her father’s wasting illness. She will not fail. No one warned her about the dragons. Especially not about him.
Yet there is something powerful and compelling about the violet-black dragon known as Weysh. In human form he’s muscular, beautiful―and completely infuriating. What kind of arrogant creature claims a stranger as his Given; as his destined mate? Yenni is no man’s―or dragon’s―plaything. But other magics must be at work here, because Weysh might just be her best hope at finding the answers she seeks. Only now Yenni can’t tell if she’s fighting an attraction to a dragon . . . or fighting fate itself.

21 Jan The Iron Will of Genie Lo by F. C. Yee. Amulet
Genie Lo thought she was busy last year, juggling her academic career with protecting the Bay Area from demons. But now, as the Heaven-appointed Guardian of California, she’s responsible for the well-being of all yaoguai and spirits on Earth. Even the ones who interrupt her long-weekend visit to a prestigious college, bearing terrible news about a cosmos-threatening force of destruction in a nearby alternate dimension.

The goddess Guanyin and Genie’s boyfriend, Quentin Sun Wukong, do their best to help, but it’s really the Jade Emperor who’s supposed to handle crises of this magnitude. Unfortunately for Genie and the rest of existence, he’s gone AWOL. Fed up with the Jade Emperor’s negligence, Genie spots an opportunity to change the system for the better by undertaking a quest that spans multiple planes of reality along with an adventuring party of quarrelsome Chinese gods. But when faced with true danger, Genie and her friends realize that what will save the universe this time isn’t strength, but sacrifice.

21 Jan Not So Pure and Simple by Lamar Giles. Harper Teen.
Del has had a crush on Kiera Westing since kindergarten. And now, during their junior year, she’s finally available. So when Kiera volunteers for an opportunity at their church, Del’s right behind her. Though he quickly realizes he’s inadvertently signed up for a Purity Pledge.

His dad thinks his wires are crossed, and his best friend, Qwan, doesn’t believe any girl is worth the long game. But Del’s not about to lose his dream girl, and that’s where fellow pledger Jameer comes in. He can put in the good word. In exchange, Del just has to get answers to the Pledgers’ questions…about sex ed.

With other boys circling Kiera like sharks, Del needs to make his move fast. But as he plots and plans, he neglects to ask the most important question: What does Kiera want? He can’t think about that too much, though, because once he gets the girl, it’ll all sort itself out. Right?

21 Jan Strong Voices: FIfteen American Speeches Worth Knowing by Tonya Bolden, Cokie Roberts and Eric Velasquez. HarperCollins.
Strong Voices includes a foreword by #1 New York Times bestselling author and celebrated journalist Cokie Roberts, as well as a timeline in the back of the book, along with letters to the reader from Tonya Bolden and Eric Velasquez.

28 Jan Almost American Girl: An Illustrated Memoir by Robin Ha. Balzer+Bray.
For as long as she can remember, it’s been Robin and her mom against the world. Growing up as the only child of a single mother in Seoul, Korea, wasn’t always easy, but it has bonded them fiercely together. So when a vacation to visit friends in Huntsville, Alabama, unexpectedly becomes a permanent relocation—following her mother’s announcement that she’s getting married—Robin is devastated. Overnight, her life changes. She is dropped into a new school where she doesn’t understand the language and struggles to keep up. She is completely cut off from her friends in Seoul and has no access to her beloved comics. At home, she doesn’t fit in with her new stepfamily, and worst of all, she is furious with the one person she is closest to—her mother.
Then one day Robin’s mother enrolls her in a local comic drawing class, which opens the window to a future Robin could never have imagined.

28 Jan Diamond City by Francesca Flores. Wednesday Books. YA SFF @FFloresAuthor
DIAMOND CITY: built by magic, ruled by tyrants, and in desperate need of saving. It is a world full of dark forces and hidden agendas, old rivalries and lethal new enemies. To claim a future for herself in a world that doesn’t want her to survive, Aina will have to w in a game of murder and conspiracy―and risk losing everything.

FEBRUARY

1 Feb Mary and the Trail of Tears: A Cherokee Removal Survival Story (Girls Survive) by Andrea L Rogers. (Author) and Matt Forsyth (Illustrator). Stone Arch Books. MG Cherokee Historical Fiction @AndreaLRogers
Twelve-year-old Mary and her Cherokee family are forced out of their home in Georgia by U.S. soldiers in May 1838. From the beginning of the forced move, Mary and her family are separated from her father. Facing horrors such as internment, violence, disease, and harsh weather, Mary perseveres and helps keep her family and friends together until they can reach the new Cherokee nation in Indian Territory. Featuring nonfiction support material, a glossary, and reader response questions, this Girls Survive story explores the tragedy of forced removals following the Indian Removal Act of 1830.

4 Feb King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender. Scholastic.
Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family. It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy-that he thinks he might be gay. “You don’t want anyone to think you’re gay too, do you?”

But when Sandy goes missing, sparking a town-wide search, and King finds his former best friend hiding in a tent in his backyard, he agrees to help Sandy escape from his abusive father, and the two begin an adventure as they build their own private paradise down by the bayou and among the dragonflies. As King’s friendship with Sandy is reignited, he’s forced to confront questions about himself and the reality of his brother’s death.

1 Feb You and Me and Misery by Rayel Louis-Charles. West 44 Books
Gin, who has recently accepted that she is a lesbian and is heartbroken by her first breakup, befriends a classmate who is battling bulimia and abuse from his father. Ages 14–17.

4 Feb Powwow Summer by Nahanni Shingoose. Lorimer
Part Ojibwe and part white, River lives with her white mother and stepfather on a farm in Ontario. Teased about her Indigenous heritage as a young girl, she feels like she doesn’t belong and struggles with her identity. Now eighteen and just finished high school, River travels to Winnipeg to spend the summer with her Indigenous father and grandmother, where she sees firsthand what it means to be an “urban Indian.”

On her family’s nearby reserve, she learns more than she expects about the lives of Indigenous people, including the presence of Indigenous gangs and the multi-generational effects of the residential school system. But River also discovers a deep respect for and connection with the land and her cultural traditions. The highlight of her summer is attending the annual powwow with her new friends. At the powwow after party, however, River drinks too much and posts photos online that anger people and she has her right to identify as an Indigenous person called into question. Can River ever begin to resolve the complexities of her identity — Indigenous and not? 

4 Feb Deathless Divide (Dread Nation #2) by Justina Ireland. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray.
Nothing is easy when you’re a girl trained in putting down the restless dead, and a devastating loss on the road to a protected village called Nicodermus has Jane questioning everything she thought she knew about surviving in 1880’s America.

What’s more, this safe haven is not what it appears – as Jane discovers when she sees familiar faces from Summerland amid this new society. Caught between mysteries and lies, the undead, and her own inner demons, Jane soon finds herself on a dark path of blood and violence that threatens to consume her. But she won’t be in it alone.

4 Feb Yes No Maybe So by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed. Balzer+Bray.
YES
Jamie Goldberg is cool with volunteering for his local state senate candidate—as long as he’s behind the scenes. When it comes to speaking to strangers (or, let’s face it, speaking at all to almost anyone), Jamie’s a choke artist. There’s no way he’d ever knock on doors to ask people for their votes…until he meets Maya.
NO
Maya Rehman’s having the worst Ramadan ever. Her best friend is too busy to hang out, her summer trip is canceled, and now her parents are separating. Why her mother thinks the solution to her problems is political canvassing—with some awkward dude she hardly knows—is beyond her.
MAYBE SO
Going door to door isn’t exactly glamorous, but maybe it’s not the worst thing in the world. After all, the polls are getting closer—and so are Maya and Jamie. Mastering local activism is one thing. Navigating the cross-cultural romance of the century is another thing entirely.

4 Feb LOVE, SUGAR, MAGIC: A Mixture of Mischief by Anna Meriano, illustrated by Mirelle Ortega. Walden Pond Press.
It’s spring break in Rose Hill, Texas, but Leo Logroño has a lot of work to do if she’s going to become a full-fledged bruja like the rest of her family. She still hasn’t discovered the true nature of her magical abilities, and that isn’t the only bit of trouble in her life: Her family’s baking heirlooms have begun to go missing, and a new bakery called Honeybees has opened across town, threatening to run Amor y Azúcar right out of business. What’s more, everyone around her seems to have secrets, and none of them want to tell Leo what’s going on.

But the biggest secret of all comes when Leo is paid a very surprising visit—by her long-lost Abuelo Logroño. Abuelo promises answers to her most pressing questions and tells Leo he can teach her about her power, about what it takes to survive in a world where threats lurk in the shadows. But can she trust him?

4 Feb Scammed (Vale Hall #2) by Kristen Simmons. Tor Teen.
Brynn Hilder is living a life she never dreamed possible: She lives in a mansion, getting a top-rate education at Vale Hall. She has friends and an almost-boyfriend. Anything she wants, she can have.

The only catch? To stay in this life, she has to help the director of Vale Hall take down the bad guys of Sikawa City by collecting secrets and running cons. Getting everything she wants and fighting evil doesn’t seem like such a bad deal. The thing is, she’s not so convinced anymore that Dr. Odin is really going after bad people after all. And the friends and almost-boyfriend that have made her life so different are all liars and con artists—so can she trust that any of it is real?

4 Feb Snapdragon by Kat Leyh. FirstSecond.
When a girl befriends the town witch, she discovers the strange magic within herself.

4 Feb Planet Omar by Zanib Mian, illus. by Nasaya Mafaridik. Hodder.
Starring Omar, an imaginative Muslim boy, in this second book in the series.

4 Feb Leader of the Pack (Stig and Tilde #2)  by Max de Radiguès. Nobrow.
In the second volume of this hit YA graphic novel series, adventurous twin siblings Stig and Tilde uncover shocking secrets while fighting to survive on a mysterious island.

5 Feb Find Your Voice: A Guided Journal for Writing Your Truth by Angie Thomas. Balzer and Bray. Aspiring writers are taken from idea to draft, featuring writing prompts, tips, and more.

5 Feb The Dragon Egg Princess by Ellen Oh. HarperCollins.

In a tale inspired by Korean lore, a young ranger must save an ancient magical forest where his father and a princess disappeared.

11 Feb Arcade and the Fiery Metal Tester (Coin Slot series) by Rashad Jennings. Zondervan.
In no time flat, Arcade is tested lik.e never before to use the Triple T token’s powerful ways to outsmart a bully, find a place for his best friend to live, and spy on some pesky villains from the 1900s. Meanwhile, sister Zoe thinks controlling the token is nothing but a path to disaster. One thing’s for sure, the token continues its flashing and pulsing. And elevator doors continue to transport Arcade, Zoe, and their friends to meet different people in strange locations—people who will challenge them, teach them, and inspire them to grow in patience and compassion.

And just as a trip through a fiery furnace is necessary to purify gold, the token leads Arcade through superheated situations to test the purity of his heart.

11 Feb Cloak of Night (Circle of Shadows #2) by Evelyn Skye. HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray.
The stakes are higher and even more personal for Sora—not only must she stop a seemingly indestructible Prince Gin, but she must also unravel the secrets of ryuu magic before it is too late for nearly everyone she loves. And as Sora, Daemon, Fairy, and Broomstick face dangerous obstacles at every turn, the greatest challenge may be discovering who they truly are, and what, if anything, they are capable of.

11 Feb No True Believers by Rabiah York Lumbard. Crown.
Salma Bakkioui has always loved living in her suburban cul-de-sac, with her best friend Mariam next door, and her boyfriend Amir nearby. Then things start to change. Friends start to distance themselves. Mariam’s family moves when her father’s patients no longer want a Muslim chiropractor. Even trusted teachers look the other way when hostile students threaten Salma at school.

After a terrorist bombing nearby, Islamaphobia tightens its grip around Salma and her family. Shockingly, she and Amir find themselves with few allies as they come under suspicion for the bombing. As Salma starts to investigate who is framing them, she uncovers a deadly secret conspiracy with suspicious ties to her new neighbors–but no one believes her. Salma must use her coding talent, wits, and faith to expose the truth and protect the only home she’s ever known–before it’s too late.

11 Feb. If Only You Knew by Prerna Pickett. Swoon Reads. @prernapickett
Corey has just been released from jail, and all he wants is a new beginning. But when his former gang comes knocking, Corey agrees to vandalize the home of Kent Hopper, the prosecutor who put him away.

To erase the guilt she carries from getting away with a crime, Tessa spends most of her nights riding her motorcycle. When she catches Corey destroying her father’s car, she doesn’t see a criminal: She sees a way to finally right her own wrongs. So instead of turning Corey over to the police, she convinces her father to give Corey a second chance.

11 Feb Who Did It First? 50 Politicians, Activists, and Entrepreneurs Who Revolutionized the World by Jay Leslie (Author), Alex Hart (Editor), Nneka Myers (Illustrator) Henry Holt & Co.
With both well-known figures and lesser-known heroes, this book is a celebration of the inspiring innovators who braved uncharted waters to pave the path for future generations.

11 Feb Turtle Under Ice by Juleah del Rosario. Simon Pulse.
Rowena feels like her family is a frayed string of lights that someone needs to fix with electrical tape. After her mother died a few years ago, she and her sister, Ariana, drifted into their own corners of the world, each figuring out in their own separate ways how to exist in a world in which their mother is no longer alive.

But then Ariana disappears under the cover of night in the middle of a snowstorm, leaving no trace or tracks. When Row wakes up to a world of snow and her sister’s empty bedroom, she is left to piece together the mystery behind where Ariana went and why, realizing along the way that she might be part of the reason Ariana is gone.

11 Feb The New David Espinoza by Fred Aceves. HarperTeen.
David Espinoza is tired of being messed with. When a video of him getting knocked down by a bully’s slap goes viral at the end of junior year, David vows to use the summer to bulk up— do what it takes to become a man—and wow everyone when school starts again the fall. Soon David is spending all his time and money at Iron Life, a nearby gym that’s full of bodybuilders. Frustrated with his slow progress, his life eventually becomes all about his muscle gains. As it says on the Iron Life wall, What does not kill me makes me stronger.

As David falls into the dark side of the bodybuilding world, pursuing his ideal body at all costs, he’ll have to grapple with the fact that it could actually cost him everything

11 Feb This Train Is Being Held by Ismée Williams. Amulet Books.
When private school student Isabelle Warren first meets Dominican-American Alex Rosario on the downtown 1 train, she remembers his green eyes and his gentlemanly behavior. He remembers her untroubled happiness, something he feels all rich kids must possess. That, and her long dancer legs. Over the course of multiple subway encounters spanning the next three years, Isabelle learns of Alex’s struggle with his father, who is hell-bent on Alex being a contender for the major leagues, despite Alex’s desire to go to college and become a poet. Alex learns about Isabelle’s unstable mother, a woman with a prejudice against Latino men. But fate—and the 1 train—throw them together when Isabelle needs Alex most.

11 Feb Mulan: Before the Sword by Grace Lin. Disney Press. A young Mulan sets out on a magical quest.

18 Feb I’m Gonna Push Through by Jasmyn Wright, illus. by Shannon Wright. Atheneum.
Inspired by a mantra written for her third-grade students, Jasmyn Wright’s uplifting call to “push through” is an invitation to young readers to announce their own power and to recognize and reaffirm that of others, regardless of setbacks. Her empowering words not only lift children up, but show them how to lift themselves up and seize their potential.

18 Feb Birdie and Me by J.M.M. Nuanez. After the mother of two siblings dies and their uncles try to provide a home for them, the family members come to understand one another.

18 Feb With A Star In My Hand: Rubén Darío, Poetry Hero by Margarita Engle. Atheneum Books.
As a little boy, Rubén Darío loved to listen to his great uncle, a man who told tall tales in a booming, larger-than-life voice. Rubén quickly learned the magic of storytelling, and discovered the rapture and beauty of verse.

18 Feb Of Curses and Kisses (St. Rosetta’s #1) by Sandhya Menon. Simon Pulse.
For Princess Jaya Rao, nothing is more important than family. When the loathsome Emerson clan steps up their centuries-old feud to target Jaya’s little sister, nothing will keep Jaya from exacting her revenge. Then Jaya finds out she’ll be attending the same elite boarding school as Grey Emerson, and it feels like the opportunity of a lifetime. She knows what she must do: Make Grey fall in love with her and break his heart. But much to Jaya’s annoyance, Grey’s brooding demeanor and lupine blue eyes have drawn her in. There’s simply no way she and her sworn enemy could find their fairy-tale ending…right?

18 Feb The Blossom and the Firefly by Sherri L. Smith. Penguin Teen.
Japan 1945. Taro is a talented violinist and a kamikaze pilot in the days before his first and only mission. He believes he is ready to die for his country . . . until he meets Hana. Hana hasn’t been the same since the day she was buried alive in a collapsed trench during a bomb raid. She wonders if it would have been better to have died that day . . . until she meets Taro. A song will bring them together. The war will tear them apart. Is it possible to live an entire lifetime in eight short days?

25 Feb We Unleash the Merciless Storm by Tehlor Kay Mejia. HarperCollins/Tegen.
In this nail-biting sequel to Tehlor Kay Mejia’s critically acclaimed fantasy novel We Set the Dark on Fire, La Voz operative Carmen is forced to choose between the girl she loves and the success of the rebellion she’s devoted her life to.

25 Feb Rebelwing by Andrea Tang. Razorbill. SSF @atangwrites
Set in a wonderfully inventive near-future Washington, D.C., this hilarious, defiant debut sparkles with wit and wisdom, deftly exploring media consumption, personal freedoms, and the weight of one life as Pru, rather reluctantly, takes to the skies.

25 Feb The Sound of Stars by Alechia Dow. Inkyard. Fantasy Alien Roadtrip Adventure
@alechiawrites
Seventeen-year-old Janelle “Ellie” Baker survives in an Ilori-controlled center in New York City. With humans deemed dangerously volatile because of their initial reaction to the invasion, emotional expression can be grounds for execution. Music, art and books are illegal, but Ellie breaks the rules by keeping a secret library. When a book goes missing, Ellie is terrified that the Ilori will track it back to her and kill her.

Born in a lab, M0Rr1S was raised to be emotionless. When he finds Ellie’s illegal library, he’s duty-bound to deliver her for execution. The trouble is, he finds himself drawn to human music and in desperate need of more. They’re both breaking the rules for the love of art—and Ellie inspires the same feelings in him that music does.

25 Feb Northwest Resistance (Girl Called Echo #3) by Katherena Vermette. High-Water Press.
Northwest Resistance follows Echo Desjardins and her travels through time. Going back to 1884, Echo finds herself in the thick of a new Métis resistance led by leader Louis Riel, who has returned from exile to resist encroaching forces from the East and to ensure his people’s rights are honoured. For Echo, the experience is empowering, focusing her own identity and giving her the strength to confront the challenges in her life.

25 Feb The Everything I Have Lost by Sylvia Zéleny. Cinco Puntos Press.
12-year-old Julia keeps a diary about her life growing up in Juarez, Mexico. Life in Juarez is strange. People say its the murder capital of the world. Dad’s gone a lot. They can’t play outside because it isn’t safe. Drug cartels rule the streets. Cars and people disappear, leaving behind pet cats. Then Dad disappears and Julia and her brother go live with her aunt in El Paso. What’s happened to her Dad? Julia wonders. Is he going to disappear forever? A coming-of-age story set in today’s Juarez.

MARCH

3 Mar Anna K: A Love Story by Jenny Lee. Flatiron. A love story!
@jennyleewrites
Dazzlingly opulent and emotionally riveting, Anna K: A Love Story is a brilliant reimagining of Leo Tolstoy’s timeless love story, Anna Karenina—but above all, it is a novel about the dizzying, glorious, heart-stopping experience of first love and first heartbreak.

3 Mar Black Brother, Black Brother by Jewell Parker Rhodes. Little, Brown.
Two brothers, one who presents as white, the other as black, train for a fencing competition at their school.

3 Mar Changing the Equation: 50+ US Black Women in STEM by Tonya Bolden. Abrams.
Tonya Bolden explores the black women who have changed the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) in America. Including groundbreaking computer scientists, doctors, inventors, physicists, pharmacists, mathematicians, aviators, and many more, this book celebrates more than 50 women who have shattered the glass ceiling, defied racial discrimination, and pioneered in their fields. In these profiles, young readers will find role models, inspirations, and maybe even reasons to be the STEM leaders of tomorrow.

3 Mar Chaos Curse (Kiranmala and the Kingdom Beyond #3) by Sayantani DasGupta and Vivienne To. Scholastic. Prince Lal has been spirited away to, of all places, Parsippany, so Kiranmala must leave the the Kingdom Beyond and return home to rescue him; but reality seems to be wavering around her because something is causing a dangerous disruption in the multiverse, and she must face the disturbing prophecy about her own role in the approaching conflict between good and evil–not to mention her own growing feelings for Prince Neel.

3 Mar Every Reason We Shouldn’t by Sara Fujimura. Tor Teen. After Olivia’s Olympic figure-skating dreams end, she falls for a speed skater training at her family’s ice rink.

3 Mar How To Make Friends With the Sea by Tanya Guerrero. FSG. MG Fiction; disabilities
@guerrerotanya
Pablo is homesick.
He’s only twelve years old, but he’s lived in more countries than he can count. After his parents divorced, he and his mother have moved from place to place for years, never settling anywhere long enough to call it home. And along the way, Pablo has collected more and more fears: of dirt, of germs, and most of all, of the ocean.
Now they’re living in the Philippines, and his mother, a zoologist who works at a local wildlife refuge, is too busy saving animals to notice that Pablo might need saving, too. Then his mother takes in Chiqui, an orphaned girl with a cleft lip―and Pablo finds that through being strong for Chiqui, his own fears don’t seem so scary.
He might even find the courage to face his biggest fear of all…and learn how to make friends with the sea.

3 Mar The Kingdom of Back by Marie Lu. G.P.Putnam’s Sons. Tells of musical prodigy Nanneri Mozart, older sister of Wolfgang, and the dangerous lengths she’ll go to make history remember her.

3 Mar Mañanaland by Pam Muñoz Ryan. Scholastic. Will Max’s discovery of a family secret involving a network of people who guide refugees to safety lead him to his absent mother?

3 Mar Prairie Lotus by Linda Sue Park. Clarion Books. Hanna, who is half-Asian and half-white, dreams of becoming a dressmaker while navigating prejudice in her town in 1880.

3 Mar Salty, Bitter, Sweet by Mayra Cuevas. Blink.
Isabella tries to piece her life back together following the death of her Cuban abuela and the divorce of her parents.

3 Mar Wicked as You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic#1) by Rin Chupeco. Sourcebook Fire. Years after the evil Snow Queen desolated the magical kingdom of Avalon, Prince Alexei, his friend Tala, and a ragtag band, inspired by the appearance of the Firebird, try to reclaim their land.

4 Mar Efrén Divided by Ernesto Cisneros. After American-born Efrén’s undocumented mother is deported across the border to Mexico, he tries to reunite his family.

4 Mar Imagine Me (Shatter Me #6) by Tahereh Mafi. HarperCollins. This concludes the Shatter Me series, as Juliette—who now goes by Ella—and Warner do whatever it takes to bring down the Reestablishment.

4 Mar We Are Totally Normal by Rahul Kanakia. Harper Teen. Nandan’s perfect plan for junior year goes awry after he hooks up with a guy for the first time.

10 Mar Harley in the Sky by Akemi Dawn Bowman. Ink Road. A multiracial teen risks everything to follow her dreams of becoming a trapeze artist by joining the circus.

10 Mar A Phoenix First Must Burn by Patrice Caldwell. Viking Books
Evoking Beyoncé’s Lemonade for a teen audience, these authors who are truly Octavia Butler’s heirs, have woven worlds to create a stunning narrative that centers Black women and gender nonconforming individuals. A Phoenix First Must Burn will take you on a journey from folktales retold to futuristic societies and everything in between. Filled with stories of love and betrayal, strength and resistance, this collection contains an array of complex and true-to-life characters in which you cannot help but see yourself reflected.

10 Mar Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You: A Remix of the National Book Award-Winning Stamped from the Beginning by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. Little Brown Books. Reveals the history of racist ideas in America, and inspires hope for an antiracist future.

10 Mar Woke: A Young Poet’s Call to Justice by Mahogany L. Browne, Elizabeth Acevedo & Olivia Gatwood, illustrated by Theodore Taylor III. Roaring Brook Press.
Historically poets have been on the forefront of social movements. Woke is a collection of poems by women that reflects the joy and passion in the fight for social justice, tackling topics from discrimination to empathy, and acceptance to speaking out.

15 Mar Pop Flies, Robo-Pets, and Other Disasters by Suzanne Kamata, illus. by Tracy Nishimura Bishop. Red Chair Press. After living in Atlanta for three years, a Japanese boy returns to his homeland to discover that his old friends are suspicious of his new foreign ways.

17 Mar Dragon Hoops by Gene Luen Yang. First Second. The author turns the spotlight on his life, his family, and the men’s varsity basketball team at the high school where he teaches.

17 Mar Silverworld by Diana Abu-Jaber. Crown Books for Young Readers.
Sitti, Sami’s Lebanese grandmother, has been ill for a while, slipping from reality and speaking in a language only Sami can understand. Her family thinks Sitti belongs in a nursing home, but Sami doesn’t believe she’s sick at all. Desperate to help, Sami casts a spell from her grandmother’s mysertious charm book and falls through an ancient mirror into a world unlike any other.

Welcome to Silverworld, an enchanted city where light and dark creatures called Flickers and Shadows strive to live in harmony. But lately Flickers have started going missing, and powerful Shadow soldiers are taking over the land. Everyone in Silverworld suspects that Shadow Queen Nixie is responsible for the chaos, which is bad enough. But could Nixie be holding Sami’s grandmother in her grasp too? To save Sitti and Silverworld, Sami must brave adventure, danger, and the toughest challenge of all: change.

17 Mar Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim. Kokila. MG Comic Fiction
@jesskimwrites
On the outside, Yumi Chung suffers from #shygirlproblems, a perm-gone-wrong, and kids calling her “Yu-MEAT” because she smells like her family’s Korean barbecue restaurant. On the inside, Yumi is ready for her Netflix stand-up special. Her notebook is filled with mortifying memories that she’s reworked into comedy gold. All she needs is a stage and courage.

Instead of spending the summer studying her favorite YouTube comedians, Yumi is enrolled in test-prep tutoring to qualify for a private school scholarship, which will help in a time of hardship at the restaurant. One day after class, Yumi stumbles on an opportunity that will change her life: a comedy camp for kids taught by one of her favorite YouTube stars. The only problem is that the instructor and all the students think she’s a girl named Kay Nakamura–and Yumi doesn’t correct them.

17 Mar Who Got Game?: Baseball: Amazing but True Stories! by Derrick Barnes and John John Bajet. Workman Publishing.
Who Got Game?! Baseball celebrates the unheralded, unrecognized, and forgotten — but no less remarkable — people and stories that are integral to the history of the game.

Barnes’ first nonfiction book (and the first in a sports series) celebrates the unheralded, unrecognized, and forgotten — but no less remarkable — people and stories that are integral to the history of the game. He shines a spotlight on 45 fascinating baseball records, personalities, and anecdotes rarely mentioned in popular baseball lore.

24 March Brown Girl Ghosted by Mintie Das. Versify
Violet Choudhury may be part of the popular clique at school, but as one of a handful of brown girls in a small Illinois town, all she really wants to do is blend in and disappear. Unfortunately for her, she’s got a knack for seeing spirits, including the dead—something she’s tried to ignore all her life. But when the queen bee of Violet’s cheerleading squad ends up dead following a sex tape that’s not as consensual as everyone wants to believe, Violet’s friends from the spirit world decide it’s the perfect time for Violet to test her skills and finally accept the legacy of spiritual fighters from whom she’s descended. Her mission? Find the killer.

24 Mar The Only Black Girls in Town by Brandy Colbert. Little, Brown
Beach-loving surfer Alberta has been the only black girl in town for years. Alberta’s best friend, Laramie, is the closest thing she has to a sister, but there are some things even Laramie can’t understand. When the bed and breakfast across the street finds new owners, Alberta is ecstatic to learn the family is black-and they have a 12-year-old daughter just like her. Alberta is positive she and the new girl, Edie, will be fast friends. But while Alberta loves being a California girl, Edie misses her native Brooklyn and finds it hard to adapt to small-town living. When the girls discover a box of old journals in Edie’s attic, they team up to figure out exactly who’s behind them and why they got left behind. Soon they discover shocking and painful secrets of the past and learn that nothing is quite what it seems.

24 Mar Thorn by Intisar Khanani. HarperTeen
Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life, but when her mother betroths her to a powerful prince in a distant kingdom, she has little hope for a better future. Until Alyrra arrives at her new kingdom, where a mysterious sorceress robs her of both her identity and her role as princess—and Alyrra seizes on the opportunity to start a new life for herself as a goose girl.

But as Alyrra uncovers dangerous secrets about her new world, including a threat to the prince himself, she knows she can’t remain silent forever. With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds, and ultimately must decide who she is and what she stands for.

24 Mar A Wish in the Dark by Christina Soontornvat. Candlewick.                               This fantasy inspired by Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables explores issues of privilege, protest, and justice.

31 Mar Summer in the City by Fracaswell Hyman. Sterling Books.                                      Mango must confront homesickness, insecurity, and the all-important question of what it means to be a good friend—especially when you’re far away from the people you love. Sequel to Mango Delight.

APRIL

7 Apr Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi. Rick Riordan Presents. War between the devas and the demons is imminent, and the Otherworld is on high alert. When intelligence from the human world reveals that the Sleeper is holding a powerful clairvoyant and her sister captive, 14-year-old Aru and her friends launch a search-and-rescue mission. The captives, a pair of twins, turn out to be the newest Pandava sisters, though, according to a prophecy, one sister is not true.
During the celebration of Holi, the heavenly attendants stage a massage PR rebranding campaign to convince everyone that the Pandavas are to be trusted. As much as Aru relishes the attention, she fears that she is destined to bring destruction to her sisters, as the Sleeper has predicted. Aru believes that the only way to prove her reputation is to find the Kalpavriksha, the wish-granting tree that came out of the Ocean of Milk when it was churned. If she can reach it before the Sleeper, perhaps she can turn everything around with one wish.
Careful what you wish for, Aru.

7 Apr Crossing the Farak River by Michelle Aung Thin. Annick Press. After the Myanmar army destroys her village, Hasina wonders who she can trust in this novel about the persecution of the Rohingya people.

7 Apr Ghost Squad by Claribel A. Ortega. Scholastic. MG fantasy/action DEBUT
@Claribel_Ortega
Shortly before Halloween, Lucely and her best friend, Syd, cast a spell that accidentally awakens malicious spirits, wreaking havoc throughout St. Augustine. Together, they must join forces with Syd’s witch grandmother, Babette, and her tubby tabby, Chunk, to fight the haunting head-on and reverse the curse to save the town and Lucely’s firefly spirits before it’s too late.

7 Apr Gotham High by Melissa de la Cruz, illus. by Thomas Pitilli. DC Ink. After Bruce Wayne befriends Selina Kyle, the future Catwoman, a kidnapping rattles their school.

7 Apr Into the Tall Grass by Loriel Ryon. McElderry. SFF DEBUT
@LorielRyan
Yolanda Rodríguez-O’Connell has a secret. All the members of her family have a magical gift—all, that is, except for Yolanda. Still, it’s something she can never talk about, or the townsfolk will call her family brujas—witches. When her grandmother, Wela, falls into an unexplained sleep, Yolanda is scared. Her father is off fighting in a faraway war, her mother died long ago, and Yolanda has isolated herself from her best friend and twin sister. If she loses her grandmother, who will she have left?

When a strange grass emerges in the desert behind their house, Wela miraculously wakes, begging Yolanda to take her to the lone pecan tree left on their land. Determined not to lose her, Yolanda sets out on this journey with her sister, her ex-best friend, and a boy who has a crush on her. But what is the mysterious box that her grandmother needs to find? And how will going to the pecan tree make everything all right? Along the way, Yolanda discovers long-buried secrets that have made their family gift a family curse. But she also finds the healing power of the magic all around her, which just might promise a new beginning.

7 Apr Love, Love by Victoria Chang. Sterling Children’s Books. A Taiwanese American girl contends with school bullies, probes the mystery of her sister’s illness, and finds validation on the tennis court.

7 Apr Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know by Samira Ahmed. Soho Teen. On holiday in Paris, a teen learns the story of a 19th century Muslim woman who crossed paths with famous artists.

7 Apr One Earth: People of Color Protecting Our Planet by Anuradha Rao. Orca Books. Profiles 20 environmental heroes of color from around the world.

8 Apr We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly. Greenwillow Books. In 1986, siblings await the launch of the space shuttle Challenger as they struggle with their own anxieties.

14 Apr Box: Henry Brown Mails Himself to Freedom by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by Michele Wood. Candlewick. Relays the story of this man who shipped himself out of slavery.

14 Apr Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko. Amulet. Afrofuturism DEBUT
@jifueko
A girl raised in isolation stars in this fantasy about loyalty, fate, and the lengths we’re willing to go to for those we love.

14 Apr This Is My Brain in Love by I.W. Gregorio. Little, Brown Books. Romance blossoms when high school junior Jocelyn Wu teams up with new intern Will to save her family’s failing restaurant.

14 Apr When Stars Are Scattered by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed, illus. by Jamieson and Iman Geddy. Dial Books. This graphic novel chronicles Mohamed’s experiences growing up in a refugee camp in Kenya with his non-verbal younger brother.

14 Apr What Lane? by Torrey Maldonado. Nancy Paulsen Books.                                          Hold on tight as Stephen swerves in and out of lanes to find out which are his–and who should be with him.

21 April Banned Book Club by Kim Hyun Sook, Ryan Estrada and Hyun-Ju Ko. Iron Circus Press.
When Kim Hyun Sook started college in 1983 she was ready for her world to open up. After acing her exams and sort-of convincing her traditional mother that it was a good idea for a woman to go to college, she looked forward to soaking up the ideas of Western Literature far from the drudgery she was promised at her family’s restaurant. But literature class would prove to be just the start of a massive turning point, still focused on reading but with life-or-death stakes she never could have imagined.

This was during South Korea’s Fifth Republic, a military regime that entrenched its power through censorship, torture, and the murder of protestors. In this charged political climate, with Molotov cocktails flying and fellow students disappearing for hours and returning with bruises, Hyun Sook sought refuge in the comfort of books. When the handsome young editor of the school newspaper invited her to his reading group, she expected to pop into the cafeteria to talk about Moby Dick, Hamlet, and The Scarlet Letter. Instead she found herself hiding in a basement as the youngest member of an underground banned book club. And as Hyun Sook soon discovered, in a totalitarian regime, the delights of discovering great works of illicit literature are quickly overshadowed by fear and violence as the walls close in.

21 Apr Lifting as We Climb: Black Women’s Battle for the Ballot Box by Evette Dionne. Viking.
An eye-opening book that tells the important, overlooked story of black women as a force in the suffrage movement–when fellow suffragists did not accept them as equal partners in the struggle.

21 Apr The Silence of Bones by June Hur. Feiwel and Friends. Bloody YA Historical Mystery DEBUT
@WriterJuneHur
1800, Joseon (Korea). Homesick and orphaned sixteen-year-old Seol is living out the ancient curse: “May you live in interesting times.” Indentured to the police bureau, she’s been tasked with assisting a well-respected young inspector with the investigation into the politically charged murder of a noblewoman.

As they delve deeper into the dead woman’s secrets, Seol forms an unlikely bond of friendship with the inspector. But her loyalty is tested when he becomes the prime suspect, and Seol may be the only one capable of discovering what truly happened on the night of the murder. But in a land where silence and obedience are valued above all else, curiosity can be deadly.

28 Apr All Boys Aren’t Blue by George M. Johnson. Memoir manifesto DEBUT
@IamGMJohnson
Both a primer for teens eager to be allies as well as a reassuring testimony for young queer men of color, All Boys Aren’t Blue covers topics such as gender identity, toxic masculinity, brotherhood, family, structural marginalization, consent, and Black joy. Johnson’s emotionally frank style of writing will appeal directly to young adults.

28 Apr A Breath Too Late by Rocky Callen. Henry Holt. After death fictional epistolary
@rocky_writes
Seventeen-year-old Ellie had no hope left. Yet the day after she dies by suicide, she finds herself in the midst of an out-of-body experience. She is a spectator, swaying between past and present, retracing the events that unfolded prior to her death. But there are gaps in her memory, fractured pieces Ellie is desperate to re-assemble. There’s her mother, a songbird who wanted to break free from her oppressive cage. The boy made of brushstrokes and goofy smiles who brought color into a gray world. Her brooding father, with his sad puppy eyes and clenched fists.

28 Apr The Compton Cowboys (young readers’ ed.) by Walter Thompson- Hernandez. HarperCollins. Adaptation of the account of nine young black men and one woman from California who found purpose through raising and riding horses.

28 Apr Incendiary (Hollow Crown #1) by Zoraida Córdova. Disney Hyperion. In this series starter, a girl in Inquisitionera Spain is determined to avenge a lost love.

28 Apr Ryan Hart #1: Ways to Make Sunshine by Renée Watson. Bloomsbury. Launches a series about a black girl who makes the best out of setbacks, and her adventurous, loving family.

MAY

1 May Noor Inayat Khan (Choose Your Own Adventure Spies) by Rana Tahir. Chooseco.
YOU are the world’s first Princess Spy and Britain’s first Muslim war heroine, Noor Inayat Khan. You grew up in a life of luxury, but when World War II begins, your dreams of traveling the world and helping people are quickly changed, and you leave your easy life of royalty behind to spy for the Resistance as a British secret agent. Did the lessons of your royal life prepare you for the realities of war?

5 May Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo. HarperTeen
Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people… In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

5 May Keep It Together, Keiko Carter by Debbi Michiko Florence. Scholastic.
Seventh grader Keiko is caught in the middle when her two best friends have a falling out.

5 May The Mermaid the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall. Candlewick Press
A desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial daughter find a connection on the high seas in a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic

5 May Once Upon an Eid: Stories of Hope and Joy by 15 Muslim Voices by S. K. Ali and Aisha Saeed. Amulet
Once Upon an Eid is a collection of short stories that showcases the most brilliant Muslim voices writing today, all about the most joyful holiday of the year: Eid! Eid: The short, single-syllable word conjures up a variety of feelings and memories for Muslims. Maybe it’s waking up to the sound of frying samosas or the comfort of bean pie, maybe it’s the pleasure of putting on a new outfit for Eid prayers, or maybe it’s the gift giving and holiday parties to come that day. Whatever it may be, for those who cherish this day of celebration, the emotional responses may be summed up in another short and sweet word: joy. The anthology will also include a poem, graphic-novel chapter, and spot illustrations.

5 May Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. Rick Riordan Presents.
Sal Vidon creates wormholes. But Sal’s father, a calamity physicist, is trying to shut down all the wormholes Sal creates, because Papi thinks they are eroding the very fabric of our world. All of Papi’s efforts are in vain, however, because a Gabi from another universe has gone rogue and is popping up all over the place, seeking revenge for the fact that her world has been destroyed. While Sal and Gabi work together to keep both Papi and Rogue Gabi under control, they also have to solve the mystery of Yasmany, who has gone missing from school. Could it have something to do with the wormhole in the back of his locker?

5 May Santiago’s Road Home by Alexandra Diaz. Simon and Schuster.
A boy gets detained by ICE while crossing the border from Mexico to the U.S.

5 May Shuri: A Black Panther Novel by Nic Stone. Scholastic.
First in a new series featuring Shuri, the teenage princess and martial artist from the Marvel Universe’s Black Panther comics and film.

8 May Ambush by Hongcheng Yu. Reycraft Books.
In this true story, after the fall of the Qin Empire, the Chu and Han Kingdoms and their illustrious warlords battle for control of China.

9 May Running by Natalie Sylvester. Clarion Books. Fiction
@NataliaSylv
Senator Anthony Ruiz is running for president. Throughout his successful political career he has always had his daughter’s vote, but a presidential campaign brings a whole new level of scrutiny to sheltered fifteen-year-old Mariana and the rest of her Cuban American family, from a 60 Minutes–style tour of their house to tabloids doctoring photos and inventing scandals. As tensions rise within the Ruiz family, Mari begins to learn about the details of her father’s political positions, and she realizes that her father is not the man she thought he was. But how do you find your voice when everyone’s watching? When it means disagreeing with your father—publicly? What do you do when your dad stops being your hero? Will Mari get a chance to confront her father? If she does, will she have the courage to seize it?

12 May American as Paneer Pie by Supriya Kelkar, Aladdin
When a racist incident rocks Lekha’s community, Lekha realizes she must make a choice: continue to remain silent or find her voice before it’s too late.

12 May Dear Universe by Florence Gonsalves. Hospital volunteer Brendan helps Chamomile deal with the stress of senior year and of caring for her terminally ill father.

12 May Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender. Balzer+Bray
Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after.

When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages—after publicly posting Felix’s deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned—Felix comes up with a plan for revenge. What he didn’t count on: his catfish scenario landing him in a quasi–love triangle. . . But as he navigates his complicated feelings, Felix begins a journey of questioning and self-discovery that helps redefine his most important relationship: how he feels about himself.

12 May The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar. Page Street Kids. MG Lesbian Competitive Romance
@adiba_j
Nishat doesn’t want to lose her family, but she also doesn’t want to hide who she is, and it only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life. Flávia is beautiful and charismatic, and Nishat falls for her instantly. But when a school competition invites students to create their own businesses, both Flávia and Nishat decide to showcase their talent as henna artists. In a fight to prove who is the best, their lives become more tangled―but Nishat can’t quite get rid of her crush, especially since Flávia seems to like her back.

As the competition heats up, Nishat has a decision to make: stay in the closet for her family, or put aside her differences with Flávia and give their relationship a chance.

12 May Private Lessons by Cynthia Salaysay. Candlewick
@cyntaur
After seventeen-year-old Claire Alalay’s father’s death, only music has helped her channel her grief. Claire likes herself best when she plays his old piano, a welcome escape from the sadness — and her traditional Filipino mother’s prayer groups. In the hopes of earning a college scholarship, Claire auditions for Paul Avon, a prominent piano teacher, who agrees to take Claire as a pupil. Soon Claire loses herself in Paul’s world and his way of digging into a composition’s emotional core. She practices constantly, foregoing a social life, but no matter how hard she works or how well she plays, it seems impossible to gain Paul’s approval, let alone his affection. Author Cynthia Salaysay composes a moving, beautifully written portrait of rigorous perfectionism, sexual awakening, and the challenges of self-acceptance. Timely and vital, Private Lessons delves into a complicated student/teacher relationship, as well as class and cultural differences, with honesty and grace.

12 May Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang, illus. by Gurihiru. DC Zoom.
In this tale based on the 1940s Adventures of Superman radio show, the hero battles the KKK.

12 May The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas. FSG. MG Animal Whisperer Fantasy.
@acuevaswrites
All Nestor Lopez wants is to live in one place for more than a few months and have dinner with his dad. When he and his mother move to a new town to live with his grandmother after his dad’s latest deployment, Nestor plans to lay low. He definitely doesn’t want to anyone find out his deepest secret: that he can talk to animals. But when the animals in his new town start disappearing, Nestor’s grandmother becomes the prime suspect after she is spotted in the woods where they were last seen. As Nestor investigates the source of the disappearances, he learns that they are being seized by a tule vieja―a witch who can absorb an animal’s powers by biting it during a solar eclipse. And the next eclipse is just around the corner… Now it’s up to Nestor’s extraordinary ability and his new friends to catch the tule vieja―and save a place he might just call home.

12 May We Free the Stars (Sands of Arawiya #2) by Hafsah Faizal. FSG
Zafira is the Hunter, braving the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those who defy his autocratic father, the sultan. She must hide her identity. He mustn’t display compassion. But when both embark on a quest to uncover a lost magic artifact, Zafira and Nasir encounter an ancient evil long thought destroyed—and discover that the prize they seek may be even more dangerous than any of their enemies. In We Free the Stars, Zafira and Nasir must conquer the darkness around—and inside of—them.

15 May The Wall of Willows (Magic Mirror #4) by Luther Tsai and Nury Vittachi. Scholastic.
Two time traveling adventurers attempt to save a prince from a death order erroneously issued by his father.

19 May We Are Not from Here by Jenny Torres Sanchez. Philomel Books. Three friends make a desperate journey from Guatemala through Mexico in search of a better life in the U.S.

26 May The Dream Weaver by Reina Latkes Alegre. Simon & Schuster. MG fiction
@ReinaLuzAlegre
Zoey comes from a family of dreamers. From start-up companies to selling motorcycles, her dad is constantly chasing jobs that never seem to work out. As for Zoey, she’s willing to go along with whatever grand plans her dad dreams up—even if it means never staying in one place long enough to make real friends. Her family being together is all that matters to her. So Zoey’s world is turned upside down when Dad announces that he’s heading to a new job in New York City without her. Instead, Zoey and her older brother, José, will stay with their Poppy at the Jersey Shore. At first, Zoey feels as lost and alone as she did after her mami died. But soon she’s distracted by an even bigger problem: the bowling alley that Poppy has owned for decades is in danger of closing!

After befriending a group of kids practicing for a summer bowling tournament, Zoey hatches a grand plan of her own to save the bowling alley. It seems like she’s found the perfect way to weave everyone’s dreams together…until unexpected events turn Zoey’s plan into one giant nightmare. Now, with her new friends counting on her and her family’s happiness hanging in the balance, Zoey will have to decide what her dream is—and how hard she’s willing to fight for it.

26 May The Gilded Ones (Deathless) by Namina Forna. Delacorte. West African inspired fantasy.
@NaminaForna
Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs. But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat. Knowing the dangers that lie ahead yet yearning for acceptance, Deka decides to leave the only life she’s ever known. But as she journeys to the capital to train for the biggest battle of her life, she will discover that the great walled city holds many surprises. Nothing and no one are quite what they seem to be–not even Deka herself.

26 May Parachutes by Kelly Yang. Katherine Tegen Books
They’re called parachutes: teenagers dropped off to live in private homes and study in the United States while their wealthy parents remain in Asia. Claire Wang never thought she’d be one of them, until her parents pluck her from her privileged life in Shanghai and enroll her at a high school in California.

Suddenly she finds herself living in a stranger’s house, with no one to tell her what to do for the first time in her life. She soon embraces her newfound freedom, especially when the hottest and most eligible parachute, Jay, asks her out. Dani De La Cruz, Claire’s new host sister, couldn’t be less thrilled that her mom rented out a room to Claire. An academic and debate team star, Dani is determined to earn her way into Yale, even if it means competing with privileged kids who are buying their way to the top. But Dani’s game plan veers unexpectedly off course when her debate coach starts working with her privately. As they steer their own distinct paths, Dani and Claire keep crashing into one another, setting a course that will change their lives forever.

31 May Junior’s Dream/El sueño de Junior by Rodolfo Valier Alvarado. Pinata Books.
Alvarado shares a bilingual account of his family’s travels from Mexico to West Texas to find work.

31 May Wishbone by Anna Christina García. Pinata Books.
weaves together the stories of two women tormented by bullies: an overweight teen and her grandmother at a younger age.

31 May Holly Hernandez and the Death of Disco by Richie Narvaez. Pinata Books.
Holly is determined to discover who killed a teacher and clear the name of a classmate.

JUNE

2 June Beyond Me by Annie Donwerth- Chikamatsu. Atheneum
This novel-in-verse views the aftershocks of Japan’s 2011 earthquake and tsunami through the eyes of a girl. Ages 8–12

2 Jun Imaginary Borders (Pocket Change Collective) by  Xiuhtezcatl Martinez (Author), Ashley Lukashevsky (Illustrator). Penguin Workshop.
In this personal, moving essay, environmental activist and hip-hop artist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez uses his art and his activism to show that climate change is a human issue that can’t be ignored.

2 June It’s Girls Like You, Mickey by Patti Kim. Atheneum
Mickey navigates the pitfalls, heartbreaks, and triumphs of seventh grade.

2 June A Song Below Water by Bethany C. Morrow. Tor Teen
Tavia is already at odds with the world, forced to keep her siren identity under wraps in a society that wants to keep her kind under lock and key. Nevermind she’s also stuck in Portland, Oregon, a city with only a handful of black folk and even fewer of those with magical powers. At least she has her bestie Effie by her side as they tackle high school drama, family secrets, and unrequited crushes.

But everything changes in the aftermath of a siren murder trial that rocks the nation; the girls’ favorite Internet fashion icon reveals she’s also a siren, and the news rips through their community. Tensions escalate when Effie starts being haunted by demons from her past, and Tavia accidentally lets out her magical voice during a police stop. No secret seems safe anymore―soon Portland won’t be either.

2 June A Song of Wraiths & Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown. Balzer + Bray
@rosiesrambles
In this duology debut inspired by West African folklore, a princess and a refugee are on a course to murder each other.

2 June Way to Rio Luna by Zoraida Córdova. Scholastic
Danny finds a mysterious book containing a map to the enchanted land where he believes his runaway older sister awaits him.

2 June You Should See Me In A Crown by Leah Johnson. Scholastic. Lesbian RomCom
@byleahjohnson
Liz competes against the new girl in school for the prom queen scholarship Liz desperately needs for college. Ages 12–18.

9 June All the Things We Never Knew by Liara Tamani. Greenwillow.
From the moment Carli and Rex first locked eyes on a Texas high school basketball court, they both knew it was destiny. But can you truly love someone else if you don’t love yourself? A glance was all it took. That kind of connection, the immediate and raw understanding of another person, just doesn’t come along very often. And as rising stars on their Texas high schools’ respective basketball teams, destined for bright futures in college and beyond, it seems like a match made in heaven. But Carli and Rex have secrets. As do their families.

9 June Sky Island (Trot & Cap’n Bill Adventures) by Amy Chu, illus. by Janet K. Lee. Viking Books For Young Readers.
School’s out and Trot and Cap’n Bill are looking forward to a carefree summer of surfing. But trouble surfaces when Grandpa hooks a message in a bottle while fishing. Clia, the Sea Siren princess, and Anko, King of the Sea Serpents, need their help: Merla, their Sea Siren friend, has been kidnapped!

9 June You Brought Me the Ocean by Alex Sanchez, illus. by Julie Maroh. D.C. Comics
Jake Hyde, the future Aqualad, embraces his true self and his superpowers.

16 June Brother’s Keeper by Julie Lee. Holiday House. MG Historical fiction.
https://www.julieleeauthor.com/
Inspired by true events, this book relays the story of Sora and her family, who live under strict rule in 1950 North Korea.

16 June Call Me American (Adapted for Young Adults): The Extraordinary True Story of a Young Somali Immigrant by Abdi Nor Iftin. Delacorte

This memoir follows Somalian Iftin’s journey into young adulthood, providing an intimate account of modern immigration as civil war forces the family to flee to safety.

16 Jun I’ll Be the One by Lyla Lee. Katherine Tegen Books. YA K-Pop RomCom
@literarylyla
Skye Shin has heard it all. Fat girls shouldn’t dance. Wear bright colors. Shouldn’t call attention to themselves. But Skye dreams of joining the glittering world of K-Pop, and to do that, she’s about to break all the rules that society, the media, and even her own mother, have set for girls like her.

She’ll challenge thousands of other performers in an internationally televised competition looking for the next K-pop star, and she’ll do it better than anyone else. When Skye nails her audition, she’s immediately swept into a whirlwind of countless practices, shocking performances, and the drama that comes with reality TV. What she doesn’t count on are the highly fat-phobic beauty standards of the Korean pop entertainment industry, her sudden media fame and scrutiny, or the sparks that soon fly with her fellow competitor, Henry Cho. But Skye has her sights on becoming the world’s first plus-sized K-pop star, and that means winning the competition—without losing herself.

16 June The Invincible Summer of Juniper Jones by Daven McQueen. Wattpad
Armed with two bikes and an unlimited supply of root beer floats, Ethan and Juniper set out to find their place in a town that’s bent on rejecting them. As Ethan is confronted for the first time by what it means to be Black in America, Juniper tries to help him see the beauty in even the ugliest reality, and that even the darkest days can give rise to an invincible summer.

16 June Jake the Fake Keeps His Cool by Craig Robinson and Adam Mansbach illus. by Keith Knight. Crown
In the third in this series of hybrid novels, which began with Jake the Fake Keeps It Real, Jake has finally put an end to his fake-ster ways but must contend with becoming the middle child when his mother announces she’s pregnant.

23 June Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee. Page Street Kids.
Sirscha Ashwyn comes from nothing, but she’s intent on becoming something. After years of training to become the queen’s next royal spy, her plans are derailed when shamans attack and kill her best friend Saengo. And then Sirscha, somehow, restores Saengo to life.

Unveiled as the first soulguide in living memory, Sirscha is summoned to the domain of the Spider King. For centuries, he has used his influence over the Dead Wood―an ancient forest possessed by souls―to enforce peace between the kingdoms. Now, with the trees growing wild and untamed, only a soulguide can restrain them. As war looms, Sirscha must master her newly awakened abilities before the trees shatter the brittle peace, or worse, claim Saengo, the friend she would die for.

23 June Hunted by the Sky (The Wrath of Ambar #1) by Tanaz Bhathena. Farrar, Strauss and Giroux
New series about identity, class struggles, and romance, set in a world inspired by medieval India. Dangerous circumstances have brought Gul and Cavas together at the king’s domain in Ambar Fort… a world with secrets deadlier than their own.

27 June The Colours that Blind by Rutendo Tavengerwei. Hot Key Books.
Thirteen-year-old Tumirai lives with his protective big brother, Mkoma in Harare, Zimbabwe. He’s the first albino kid ever to have attended his school and constantly feels like an outsider. When his brother is invited to go travelling for work, Tumirai goes to stay with their grandmother, Ambuya Thandie. She is scarred, in more ways than one, but her memory is a treasure trove – and her stories of Zimbabwe’s war for independence are a long, long way from the history Tumirai has heard before.

30 June 10 Things I Hate About Pinky (Dimple and Rishi #3) by Sandhya Menon.
In this companion to When Dimple Met Rishi, Ashish’s friends Pinky and Samir pretend to date in order to achieve their individual goals—with disastrous results.

30 June Julieta and the Diamond Enigma by Luisana Duarte Armendáriz. Tu Books.
https://luisanaduarte.com/
@nanerias
When a diamond goes missing from the Louvre, nine-year-old Julieta cracks the case.

JULY

1 July Opium and Absinthe by Lydia Kang. Lake Union Publishing.

Tillie can’t bring herself to believe vampires exist. But with the hysteria surrounding her sister’s death, the continued vampiric slayings, and the opium swirling through her body, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for a girl who relies on facts and figures to know what’s real—or whether she can trust those closest to her.

2 July Interview with The Vixen (Archie Horror #2) by Rebecca Barrow. Scholastic
Everyone knows the characters from Riverdale: popular Archie Andrews, sophisticated Veronica Lodge, girl-next-door Betty Cooper, and angsty Jughead Jones. But this is not the Riverdale you know and love. Something twisted has awoken in the town with pep. Inspired by the iconic Archie Horror comics, this reimagined universe takes the grittiness of the TV show and adds a paranormal twist.

7 July Cinderella is Dead by Kalynn Bayron. Bloomsbury. Lesbian post-Cinderella SFF
@KalynnBayron
It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.

Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew.

6 July Forever This Summer by Leslie C. Youngblood. Little, Brown,
From the author of Love Like the Sky comes the story of a girl named Georgie whose family moves to a small town in Louisiana to take care of her great-aunt. There, Georgie helps out at a once-famous diner that served celebrities like the Jackson 5 and the Supremes and becomes friends with Markie, a foster kid with a limb difference and a big attitude.

7 July  The Damned (The Beautiful #2) by Renée Ahdieh. G. P. Putnam’s Sons.
Following the events of The Beautiful, Sébastien Saint Germain is now cursed and forever changed. The treaty between the Fallen and the Brotherhood has been broken, and war between the immortals seems imminent. The price of loving Celine was costly. But Celine has also paid a high price for loving Bastien. Still recovering from injuries sustained during a night she can’t quite remember, her dreams are troubled. And she doesn’t know she has inadvertently set into motion a chain of events that could lead to her demise and unveil a truth about herself she’s not quite ready to learn. Forces hiding in the shadows have been patiently waiting for this moment for centuries. And just as Bastien and Celine begin to uncover the danger around them, they learn their love could tear them apart.

7 July Not Your All-American Girl by Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan- Long Shang. Scholastic.
Coauthors Madelyn Rosenberg and Wendy Wan-Long Shang return to the 1980s world of Sydney Taylor Honor Book This Is Just a Test with this laugh-out-loud coming-of-age story.

7 July Unravel the Dusk (The Blood of Stars #2) by Elizabeth Lim. Knopf
Maia Tamarin’s journey to sew the dresses of the sun, the moon and the stars has taken a grievous toll. She returns to a kingdom on the brink of war. The boy she loves is gone, and she is forced to don the dress of the sun and assume the place of the emperor’s bride-to-be to keep the peace.

But the war raging around Maia is nothing compared to the battle within. Ever since she was touched by the demon Bandur, she has been changing . . . glancing in the mirror to see her own eyes glowing red, losing control of her magic, her body, her mind. It’s only a matter of time before Maia loses herself completely, but she will stop at nothing to find Edan, protect her family, and bring lasting peace to her country.

7 July The Voting Booth by Brandy Colbert. Disney Hyperion.
When Marva sees Duke turned away from their polling place, she takes it upon herself to make sure his vote is counted. She hasn’t spent months doorbelling and registering voters just to see someone denied their right. And that’s how their whirlwind day begins, rushing from precinct to precinct, cutting school, waiting in endless lines, turned away time and again, trying to do one simple thing: vote. They may have started out as strangers, but as Duke and Marva team up to beat a rigged system (and find Marva’s missing cat), it’s clear that there’s more to their connection than a shared mission for democracy.

7 July We Free the Stars (Sands of Arawiya) by Hafsah Faizal.
After the battle on Sharr that closed We Hunt the Flame, Zafira and Nasir return to a ghostly Sultan’s Keep, low on resources and allies alike. The dark forest has fallen, but the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of the Night’s return. As Nasir fights to command the dark power in his blood, Zafira fights against a very different darkness festering through her bond with the Jawarat.

14 July  Diana and the Island of No Return (Wonder Women Adventures) by Aisha Saeed.
In the first of three high-octane, breathtaking Wonder Woman Adventures, Princess Diana finally gets the chance to prove her worth as a warrior and save not just her friends and family but their entire way of life. As long as she can make it out alive herself.

14 July Something to Say by Lisa Moore Ramée. Balzer+Bray
Janae must find her voice in order to fight for her beliefs and her first real friendship.

14 July Songs of the Seven Gelfing Clans (Jim Henson’s the Dark Circle) by J. M. Lee. Penguin.
Many thrine ago, a Song-Teller sought to explore the world of Thra and uncover the secrets of the Gelflings throughout the Seven Clans. Venture back in time with photos, sketches, and art from Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance in this exclusive, collectible book for Dark Crystal fans everywhere.

21 July Pedro’s Yo-Yos: How a Filipino Immigrant Came to America and Changed the World of Toys by Roberto Peñas, illus. by Carl Angel
It can spin and roll, leap and twirl. You can stretch it between your hands or swing it between your legs. The tricks you can do with one are nearly endless. No wonder the yo-yo is one of the most successful toys ever made! And its popularity began with a Filipino immigrant seeking a better life in the US.

21 July The Shadow of Kyoshi by F.C. Lee. Amulet
Kyoshi’s place as the true Avatar has finally been cemented—but at a heavy cost. With her mentors gone, Kyoshi voyages across the Four Nations, struggling to keep the peace. But while her reputation grows, a mysterious threat emerges from the Spirit World. To stop it, Kyoshi, Rangi, and their reluctant allies must join forces before the Four Nations are destroyed irreparably. This thrilling follow-up continues Kyoshi’s journey from a girl of humble origins to the merciless pursuer of justice still feared and admired centuries after becoming the Avatar.

21 July Ten Things I Hate about Pinky (Dimple and Rishi #3) by Sandhya Menon. Simon Pulse.
Pinky Kumar wears the social justice warrior badge with pride. From raccoon hospitals to persecuted rock stars, no cause is too esoteric for her to champion. But a teeny-tiny part of her also really enjoys making her conservative, buttoned-up corporate lawyer parents cringe.

21 July The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez by Adrianna Cuevas. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
@acuevaswrites
All Nestor Lopez wants is to live in one place for more than a few months and have dinner with his dad.
When he and his mother move to a Texas to live with his grandmother after his dad’s latest deployment, Nestor plans to lay low. He definitely doesn’t want anyone to find out his deepest secret: that he can talk to animals.
But when the animals in his new town start disappearing, Nestor’s grandmother becomes the prime suspect after she is spotted in the woods where they were last seen. As Nestor investigates the source of the disappearances, he learns that they are being seized by a tule vieja- a witch who can absorb an animal’s powers by biting it during a solar eclipse. And the next eclipse is just around the corner.

21 July The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson. Ace. Feminist Fantasy
@alexhwrites
In the lands of Bethel, where the Prophet’s word is law, Immanuelle Moore’s very existence is blasphemy. Her mother’s union with an outsider of a different race cast her once-proud family into disgrace, so Immanuelle does her best to worship the Father, follow Holy Protocol, and lead a life of submission, devotion, and absolute conformity, like all the other women in the settlement.

But a mishap lures her into the forbidden Darkwood surrounding Bethel, where the first prophet once chased and killed four powerful witches. Their spirits are still lurking there, and they bestow a gift on Immanuelle: the journal of her dead mother, who Immanuelle is shocked to learn once sought sanctuary in the wood.

Fascinated by the secrets in the diary, Immanuelle finds herself struggling to understand how her mother could have consorted with the witches. But when she begins to learn grim truths about the Church and its history, she realizes the true threat to Bethel is its own darkness. And she starts to understand that if Bethel is to change, it must begin with her.

28 July City of Secrets by Victoria Ying. Viking. Steampunk fantasy
@victoriaying
A lonely orphan boy is guarding a secret in a puzzle-box of a building when he befriends the daughter of the building’s owner. Protecting the secret thrusts the friends into a world of thuggish villains, secret societies, and murder and mayhem.

28 July This Is My America by Kim Johnson. Random House. Antiracist fiction
@KCjohnsonwrites
Every week, seventeen-year-old Tracy Beaumont writes letters to Innocence X, asking the organization to help her father, an innocent Black man on death row. After seven years, Tracy is running out of time–her dad has only 267 days left. Then the unthinkable happens. The police arrive in the night, and Tracy’s older brother, Jamal, goes from being a bright, promising track star to a “thug” on the run, accused of killing a white girl. Determined to save her brother, Tracy investigates what really happened between Jamal and Angela down at the Pike. But will Tracy and her family survive the uncovering of the skeletons of their Texas town’s racist history that still haunt the present?

28 July Treasures of the Twelve (The Twelve #2) by Cindy Lin. HarperCollins
Usagi and the fabled Heirs of the Twelve work together to find ancient relics in order to rescue Usagi’s sister.

AUGUST

4 Aug The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed. Simon & Schuster
Set in 1992 Los Angeles, this coming-of-age debut novel explores issues of race, class, and violence through the eyes of a wealthy Black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King Riots.

4 Aug Don’t Ask Me Where I’m From by Jennifer de Leon, illus. by Elena Garnu  Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books
First-generation American Latinx Liliana is done trying to fit in at her nearly all white school.

4 Aug Eva Evergreen, Semi Magical Witch by Julie Abe. Little, Brown Books. MG Fantasy
@julieabebooks
When she lands in the tranquil coastal town of Auteri, the residents expect a powerful witch, not a semi-magical girl. So Eva comes up with a plan: set up a magical repair shop to aid Auteri and prove she’s worthy. She may have more blood than magic, but her “semi-magical fixes” repair the lives of the townspeople in ways they never could have imagined. Only, Eva’s bit of magic may not be enough when the biggest magical storm in history threatens the town she’s grown to love. Eva must conjure up all of the magic, bravery, and cleverness she can muster or Auteri and her dreams of becoming a witch will wash away with the storm.

4 Aug The Girl and the Ghostby Hanna Alkaf. HarperCollins.
Retells a Malaysian folk tale in which a lonely girl, Suraya, inherits from her grandmother a pelesit, a ghostly demon, who proves to be a good companion, bringing both danger and hope.

4 Aug Lizard in a Zoot Suit by Marco Finnegan. Graphic Universe
Los Angeles, 1943. It’s the era of the Zoot Suit Riots, and Flaca and Cuata have a problem. It’s bigger than being grounded by their strict mother. It’s bigger than tensions with the soldiers stationed nearby. And it’s shaped like a five-foot-tall lizard. When a lost member of an unknown underground species needs help, the sisters must scramble to keep their new friend away from a corrupt military scientist–but they’ll do it in style. Cartoonist Marco Finnegan presents Lizard in a Zoot Suit, an outrageous, historical, sci-fi graphic novel.

4 Aug The Magic in Changing Your Stars by Leah Henderson. Sterling Children’s Books. Magic tap shoes transport Ailey to 1930s Harlem, where he meets another young dancer, his grandfather.

4 Aug More than Just A Pretty Face by Syed Masood. Little, Brown. HeteRomCom
@syedmmasood
Danyal Jilani doesn’t lack confidence. He may not be the smartest guy in the room, but he’s funny, gorgeous, and going to make a great chef one day. His father doesn’t approve of his career choice, but that hardly matters. What does matter is the opinion of Danyal’s longtime crush, the perfect-in-all-ways Kaval, and her family, who consider him a less than ideal arranged marriage prospect.

When Danyal gets selected for Renaissance Man, a school-wide academic championship, it’s the perfect opportunity to show everyone he’s smarter than they think. He recruits the brilliant, totally-uninterested-in-him Bisma to help with the competition, but the more time Danyal spends with her…the more he learns from her…the more he cooks for her…the more he realizes that happiness may be staring him right in his pretty face.

4 Aug Sia Martinez & the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland. Simon Pulse. MG intergalactic border crossing
@poet_raquelvgil
It’s been three years since ICE raids and phone calls from Mexico and an ill-fated walk across the Sonoran. Three years since Sia Martinez’s mom disappeared. Sia wants to move on, but it’s hard in her tiny Arizona town where people refer to her mom’s deportation as “an unfortunate incident.”

Sia knows that her mom must be dead, but every new moon Sia drives into the desert and lights San Anthony and la Guadalupe candles to guide her mom home. Then one night, under a million stars, Sia’s life and the world as we know it cracks wide open. Because a blue-lit spacecraft crashes in front of Sia’s car…and it’s carrying her mom, who’s very much alive. As Sia races to save her mom from armed-quite-possibly-alien soldiers, she uncovers secrets as profound as they are dangerous in this stunning and inventive exploration of first love, family, immigration, and our vast, limitless universe.

4 Aug G.O.A.T. – Serena Williams : Making the Case for the Greatest of All TIme by Tami Charles. Sterling Children’s Books.

4 Aug She Was the First! The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm by Katheryn Russell-Brown, illus. by Eric Velasquez.
Biography of educator, activist, and politician, Shirley Chisholm.

7 Aug Muse Curse: The Cassandra Curse by Chantel Acevedo.Balzer+Bray
A Cuban-American girl who discovers that she’s one of the nine muses of Greek mythology.

11 Aug Challenger (Contender #2) by Taran Matharu. Feiwel & Friends.
Cade Carter and his friends have survived the qualifying round of the mysterious overlords’ twisted games, decimated by the loss of so many of their comrades during the fight. But they have no time to mourn, for the next round of trials is about to begin. When the group discovers that their next foe will be even more ferocious than the last, Cade leads them on a quest out into their strange new world to find anything that might give them an edge. But what they find in the wilds could prove to be even more dangerous than the impending battle.

11 Aug Facing the Sun by Janice Lynn Mather. Simon & Schuster
In this Caribbean-set story, four friends experience unexpected changes in their lives during the summer when a hotel developer purchases their community’s beloved beach.

11 Aug A Place at the Table by Saadia Faruqi and Laura Shovan. Clarion Books.
Sixth graders Sara and Elizabeth could not be more different. Sara is at a new school that is completely unlike the small Islamic school she used to attend. Elizabeth has her own problems: her British mum has been struggling with depression. The girls meet in an after-school South Asian cooking class, which Elizabeth takes because her mom has stopped cooking, and which Sara, who hates to cook, is forced to attend because her mother is the teacher. The girls form a shaky alliance that gradually deepens, and they make plans to create the most amazing, mouth-watering cross-cultural dish together and win a spot on a local food show. They make good cooking partners . . . but can they learn to trust each other enough to become true friends?

11 Aug Star Daughter by Shveta Thakrar. HarperTeen. Hindu inspired YA Fantasy
@ShvetaThakrar

18 Aug Bee Fearless: Dream Like a Kid by Mikaila Ulmer. Putnam
Fifteen-year-old lemonade entrepreneur and one of TIME Magazine’s Top 30 Most Influential Teens, Ulmer shares her advice for life and business in this memoir.

18 August Dating Makes Perfect by Pintip Dunn. Entangled Teen
The Tech sisters don’t date in high school. Not because they’re not asked. Not because they’re not interested. Not even because no one can pronounce their long, Thai last name—hence the shortened, awkward moniker. But simply because they’re not allowed. Until now.

25 Aug Darius the Great Deserves Better by Adib Khorram. Dial Books.
Darius Kellner is having a bit of a year. Since his trip to Iran this past spring, a lot has changed. He’s getting along with his dad, and his best friend Sohrab is only a Skype call away. Between his first boyfriend, Landon, his varsity soccer practices, and his internship at his favorite tea shop, Darius is feeling pretty okay. Like he finally knows what it means to be Darius Kellner.

Then, of course, everything changes. Darius’s grandmothers are in town for a long visit while his dad is gone on business, and Darius isn’t sure whether they even like him. The internship isn’t what Darius thought it would be, and now he doesn’t know about turning tea into his career. He was sure he liked Landon, but when he starts hanging out with Chip–soccer teammate and best friend of Trent Bolger, epic bully–well, he’s just not so sure about Landon anymore, either.

25 Aug Elatsoe by Darcie Little Badger and Rovina Cai. Levine Querido.
Elatsoe lives in this slightly stranger America. She can raise the ghosts of dead animals, a skill passed down through generations of her Lipan Apache family. Her beloved cousin has just been murdered, in a town that wants no prying eyes. But she is going to do more than pry. The picture-perfect facade of Willowbee masks gruesome secrets, and she will rely on her wits, skills, and friends to tear off the mask and protect her family.

25 Aug Now That I’ve Found You by Kristina Forest. Roaring Brook
Following in the footsteps of her überfamous grandma, eighteen-year-old Evie Jones is poised to be Hollywood’s next big star. That is until a close friend’s betrayal leads to her being blacklisted . . .

25 August Where Dreams Descend (Kingdom of Cards) by Janella Angeles. Wednesday Book. Fantasy duology
@janella_angeles
In a city covered in ice and ruin, a group of magicians face off in a daring game of magical feats to find the next headliner of the Conquering Circus, only to find themselves under the threat of an unseen danger striking behind the scenes. As each act becomes more and more risky and the number of missing magicians piles up, three are forced to reckon with their secrets before the darkness comes for them next. The Star: Kallia, a powerful showgirl out to prove she’s the best no matter the cost. The Master: Jack, the enigmatic keeper of the club, and more than one lie told. The Magician: Demarco, the brooding judge with a dark past he can no longer hide. Where Dreams Descend is the startling and romantic first book in Janella Angeles’ debut Kingdom of Cards fantasy duology where magic is both celebrated and feared, and no heart is left unscathed.

SEPTEMBER

1 Sept Arcade and the Dazzling Truth Detector by Rashad Jennings. Zonderkidz
In this fourth and final book in the Coin Slot Chronicles series by former NFL running back Jennings, questions about the mysterious Triple T Token will finally be answered.

1 Sept Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson. Nancy Paulsen Books.
When his retired pro-football star father’s behavior starts changing atfer a career of head injuries, ZJ and his family must adjust to their new reality.

1 Sept The Black Kids by Christina Hammonds Reed. Simon and Schuster.
Issues of race, class, and violence come to live through the eyes of a wealthy Black teenager whose family gets caught in the vortex of the 1992 Rodney King riots in Los Angeles.

1 Sept Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas. Macmillan. YA paranormal Latinx trans fiction @aidenschmaiden
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free. However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school’s resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He’s determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

1 Sept Dating Makes Perfect by Pintip Dunn. Entangled Teen.
Sisters star in this romantic comedy about dating while navigating overbearing parents.

1 Sept Flamer by Mike Curato. Henry Holt.
The author draws on his own experiences in his debut graphic novel about a boy navigating a path of self-discovery and acceptance.

1 Sept Like Spilled Water by Jennie Liu. Carolrhoda Books
When her brother dies suddenly, Na realizes how little she knew him—and that he wasn’t the only one with secrets.

1 Sept Micah: The Good Girl (Flyy Girls #2) by Ashey Woodfolk. Penguin Workshop.
The second book in the Flyy Girls series follows “good girl” Micah Dupree, whose life is turned upside down when her brother unexpectedly dies.

1 Sept Never Look Back by Lilliam Rivera. Bloomsbury
This contemporary retelling of the Greek Orpheus and Euridyce myth features Afro-Latinx characters in the Bronx.

1 Sept Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam. Balzer+Bray
This novel-in-verse centers on a boy who is wrongfully incarcerated.

1 Sept Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher. GP Putnam’s Son
In 2032 America, a girl and her brother must escape a xenophobic government to find sanctuary.

1 Sept  The Shadow Crosser (Storm Runner trilogy) by J.C. Cervantes. Rick Riordan Presents.
Zane and his friends embark on their most treacherous mission yet–a mission that, with one blunder, could change history as we know it, and worse, destroy the universe.

1 Sept Tales of the Feathered Serpent #1: Rise of the Halfling King by David Bowles, illus. by Charlene Bowles. Cinco Puntos
This series opener retells a Mayan myth about a half-magic, half-human boy who uses ancient spells and his wit to overcome epic trials. Ages 8–13.

1 Sept We Are Not Free by Traci Chee. HMH Books
intertwines the stories of 14 second-generation Japanese-American teens  who were incarcerated during WWII.

8 Sept Beauty Mark: A Verse Novel of Marilyn Monroe by Carole Boston Weatherford. Candlewick.
A biography Marilyn Monoe’s turbulent life.

8 Sept Beast Boy (Teen Titans) by Kami Garcia, illus. by Gabriel Picolo.
Garfield Logan has spent his entire life being overlooked. Even in a small town like Eden, Georgia, the 17-year-old with green streaks in his hair can’t find a way to stand out–and the clock is ticking. Senior year is almost over.

8 Sept The Bookweaver’s Daughter by Malavika Kannan. Tanglewood Press.
In this story of magic, lore, and female friendship set in the ancient Indian kingdom of Kasmira, Reya must protect her father’s secret in order to guard his life.

8 Sept Charming as a Verb by Ben Philippe. Balzer+Bray.
When Henri’s classmate Corinne uncovers his less-than-honest side, she blackmails him into helping her change her image at school.

8 Sept Lupe Wong Won’t Dance by Donna Barba Higuera. Levine Querido.
Lupe needs an A in all her classes—including gym—in order to meet her favorite pitcher, Fu Li Hernandez, who is Chinacan/Mexinese just like her.

8 Sept Star Wars the High Republic: A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland, illus. by Petur Antonsson. Disney Lucasfilm Press.
When a transport ship is ejected from hyperspace during a galaxy-wide disaster, a new Jedi and her friends are stranded on a jungle moon.

8 Sept The Summer of Everything by Julian Winters. Duet Books
Comic book geek Wesley Hudson excels at two things: slacking off at his job and pining after his best friend, Nico. Advice from his friends, ‘90s alt-rock songs, and online dating articles aren’t helping much with his secret crush. And his dream job at Once Upon a Page, the local used bookstore, is threatened when a coffeeshop franchise wants to buy the property. To top it off, his annoying brother needs wedding planning advice. When all three problems converge, Wes comes face-to-face with the one thing he’s been avoiding—adulthood.

15 Sept Awesome Asian Americans: 20 Stars Who Made America Amazing by Phil Amara and Oliver Chin, illus. by Juan Calle. Immendium.
20 individuals from diverse backgrounds are profiled, including Mindy Kaling, Bruce Lee, the Rock, and Chrissy Teigen.

15 Sept Amazing Women of the Middle East: 25 Stories from Ancient Times to Present Day by Wafa’ Tarnowska, illus. by Margarida Esteves et al. Crocodile Books.
Profiles of accomplished women from the Middle East. Ages 9–14.

15 Sept Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro. Tor Teen.
Xochital is destined to wander the desert alone, speaking her troubled village’s stories into its arid winds. Her only companions are the blessed stars above and enimagic lines of poetry magically strewn across dusty dunes. Her one desire: to share her heart with a kindred spirit.

15 Sept Furia by Yamile Saied Méndez. Algonquin.
An Argentinian soccer-star must put everything on the line—even her love interest—to follow her dreams.

15 Sept Grown by Tiffany D. Jackson. Katherine Tegen Books
Before there was a dead body, Enchanted was an aspiring singer, struggling with her tight knit family’s recent move to the suburbs while trying to find her place as the lone Black girl in high school. But then legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots her at an audition. And suddenly her dream of being a professional singer takes flight.

Enchanted is dazzled by Korey’s luxurious life but soon her dream turns into a nightmare. Behind Korey’s charm and star power hides a dark side, one that wants to control her every move, with rage and consequences. Except now he’s dead and the police are at the door. Who killed Korey Fields?

15 Sept K-Pop Confidential by Stephan Lee . Point.
A Korean American girl travels from New Jersey to Seoul in hopes of debuting in a girl group at the same K-pop company behind the most popular boy band on the planet.

15 Sept The Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar. Scholastic/Levine.
In this novel-in-verse, a Latinx girl learns to hold on to hope while in a family detention center for migrants and refugees.

15 Sept Legendborn (Legendborn #1) by Tracy Deonn. Margaret K. KcElderry Books.
The mage’s failure reveals Bree’s own, unique magic and unlocks a buried memory with a hidden connection: the night her mother died, another Merlin was at the hospital. Now that she knows there’s more to her mother’s death than what’s on the police report, Bree will do whatever it takes to find out the truth, even if that means infiltrating the Legendborn by becoming one of their initiates. But when the Legendborn reveal themselves as the descendants of King Arthur and his knights and explain that a magical war is coming, Bree has to decide how far she’ll go for the truth and whether she should use her magic to take the society down—or join the fight.

15 Sept Séance Tea Party by Reimena Yee. Random House Graphic.
Lora recruits Alexa, the ghost who haunts her house, to help her stay a kid forever.

15 Sept The True Definition of Neva Beane by Christine Kendall. Scholastic.
The dictionary of words that Neva compiles helps her make sense of the world, her changing body, friendships, and her struggling family

15 Sept Turning Point (So Done #3) by Paula Chase. Greenwillow Books.
Rasheeda and Monique see their friendship threatened when Sheeda catches the eye of Monique’s older brother.

15 Sept A World Together by Sonia Manzano. National Geographic Kids.
The actor who played Maria on Sesame Street examines different cultures while celebrating what unites us.

22 Sept A Crown So Cursed (The Nightmare Verse) by L. L. McKinney. Imprint
Alice is doing her best to recover from her last boss battle, but members of her crew start having these… dreams. And they’re all the same dream: visions of a dark past―and an even darker future. It seems the evil in Wonderland may not be as defeated as they’d hoped. When word spreads of an encroaching army of Nightmares unlike any ever seen, Alice finds she may have to step between the coming darkness and the mortal world once more. But this time is different. This time, the monsters aren’t waiting for her on the other side of the Veil.

22 Sept Early Departures by Justin A. Reynolds. Katherine Tegen Books.
Jamal’s best friend doesn’t know that he died, and that he’s about to die… again.

22 Sept Every Body Looking (Ada #1) by Candice Iloh. Dutton Books.
Told entirely in verse, Ada’s story encompasses her earliest memories as a child, including her abuse at the hands of a young cousin, her mother’s rejection and descent into addiction, and her father’s attempts to create a home for his American daughter more like the one he knew in Nigeria.

The present-tense of the book is Ada’s first year at Howard University in Washington D.C., where she must finally confront the fundamental conflict between who her family says she should be and what her body tells her she must be.

22 Sept How It all Blew Up by Arvin Ahmadi. Viking Books.
Amir always knew that coming out to his Muslim family would be messy—but he didn’t think it would end in an airport interrogation room.

22 Sept Maya and the Rising Dark by Rena Barron. Maya searches for her missing father, who is guardian of the veil between our world and the Dark world.

22 Sept Miss Meteor by Tehlor Kay Mejia and Anna-Marie McLemore. HarperTeen.
There hasn’t been a winner of the Miss Meteor beauty pageant who looks like Lita Perez or Chicky Quintanilla in all its history. But that’s not the only reason Lita wants to enter the contest, or why her ex-best friend Chicky wants to help her. The road to becoming Miss Meteor isn’t about being perfect; it’s about sharing who you are with the world—and loving the parts of yourself no one else understands. So to pull off the unlikeliest underdog story in pageant history, Lita and Chicky are going to have to forget the past and imagine a future where girls like them are more than enough—they are everything.

22 Sept Smash It! (Smash It #1) by Francina Simone. Inkyard
Liv’s role in a hip-hopera high-school production of Othello leads to a journey of self-empowerment.

22 Sept The Silvered Serpents (The Gilded Wolves) by Roshani Chokshi. Wednesday Books.
As hidden secrets come to the light and the ghosts of the past catch up to them, the crew will discover new dimensions of themselves. But what they find out may lead them down paths they never imagined.

22 Sept Vampires Never Get Old: Tales with Fresh Bite by Zoraida Córdova and Natalie C. Parker. Imprint
A collection of 11 vampire stories by an array of YA authors.

29 Sept Dear Justyce by Nic Stone. Crown
Incarcerated teen Quan writes letters to Justyce, the protagonist of Stone’s Dear Martin, about his experiences in the U.S. juvenile justice system.

29 Sept Everything Comes Next: Collected and New Poems by Naomi Shihab Nye. Greenwillow Books.
This compilation includes never-before-published poems.

29 Sept Historically Inaccurate by Shay Bravo. Wattpad Books
After her mother’s deportation last year, all Soledad “Sol” Gutierrez wants is for her life to go back to normal. Everything’s changed―new apartment, new school, new family dynamic―and Sol desperately wants to fit in. When she joins her community college’s history club, it comes with an odd initiation process: break into Westray’s oldest house and steal . . . a fork?

There’s just one problem: while the owners of the house aren’t home, their grandson Ethan is, and when he catches Sol with her hand in the kitchen drawer, she barely escapes with the fork intact. This one chance encounter irrevocably alters her life, and Sol soon learns that sometimes fitting in isn’t as important as being yourself―even if that’s the hardest thing she’s ever had to do.

29 Sept Saucy by Cynthia Kadohata, illus. by Marianna Raskin. Atheneum.
Being a quadruplet can make it hard to stand out from the crowd. Becca’s three brothers all have something that makes them…them. Jake has his music and dancing, Jammer plays hockey, and K.C. thinks they’re all living in a simulation and doesn’t see the point of doing much of anything. Becca is the only one with nothing to make her special. But when she finds a tiny, sick piglet on the side of the road, Becca knows this is it. This is her thing.

29 Sept Shine by Jessica Jung. Simon Pulse
For seventeen-year-old Korean American Rachel Kim, the answer is almost everything. Six years ago, she was recruited by DB Entertainment—one of Seoul’s largest K-pop labels, known for churning out some of the world’s most popular stars. The rules are simple: Train 24/7. Be perfect. Don’t date. Easy right? Not so much.

29 Sept Skyhunter by Marie Lu. Roaring Brook Press.
In this fantasy set in a world broken by war, the only hope against evil lies with a team of young warriors who are willing to sacrifice everything to save what they love.

29 Sept Unexpected Super Spy (Planet Omar) by Zanib Mian, illus. by Nasaya Mafaridik. Hodder Children’s Books.
Omar’s amazing imagination brings the second story in his adventures to life as he navigates more of life’s ups and downs. From sibling brawls to speaking to the scary principal and becoming a community activist, bold illustrations and cheeky dialogue show how Omar perseveres through serious and silly adversity.

OCTOBER

6 Oct Apple (Skin to the Core) by Eric Gansworth. Levine Querido. The author recounts his life as part of an Onondaga family living among Tuscaroras, and of Native people in America, including the damaging legacy of government boarding schools.

6 Oct Becoming Muhammad Ali by Kwame Alexander and James Patterson, illus. by Dawud Anyabwile. Little, Brown/Patterson. Authorized by and written in cooperation with the Muhammad Ali estate, this biographical novel follows young Ali⁠—Cassius Clay⁠—before he became one of the greatest sports heroes of all time.

6 Oct Blazewrath Games by Amparo Ortiz. Page Street Kids. In an alternate contemporary world, people compete with dragons in an international sports tournament.

6 Oct The Boys in the Back Row by Mike Jung. Levine Querido. Best friends Matt and Eric hatch a plan for one big final adventure together before Eric moves away

6 Oct Class Act by Jerry Craft. Quill Tree. In this companion to Newbery-winning graphic novel New Kid, Jordan’s friend Drew has struggles of his own at Riverdale Academy Day School.

6 Oct Dragon Mountain by Katie and Kevin Tsang. Sterling Children’s Books. In this fantasy series debut, four new friends at a language and culture camp in China open a crack in an ancient mountain.

6 Oct Girl Giant and the Monkey King by Van Hoang. Roaring Brook Press. A girl who just wants to fit in makes a deal with the Monkey King, a deity and trickster.

6 Oct The Mirror: Broken Wish by Julie C. Dao. Disney Hyperion. Sixteen-year-old Elva has a secret. She has visions and strange powers that she will do anything to hide. She knows the warnings about what happens to witches in their small village of Hanau. She’s heard the terrible things people say about the Witch of the North Woods, and the malicious hunts that follow. But when Elva accidentally witnesses a devastating vision of the future, she decides she has to do everything she can to prevent it. Tapping into her powers for the first time, Elva discovers a magical mirror and its owner—none other than the Witch of the North Woods herself. As Elva learns more about her burgeoning magic, and the lines between hero and villain start to blur, she must find a way to right past wrongs before it’s too late.

6 Oct The Shadow Mission by Shamim Sarif. HarperTeen. In the sequel to The Athena Protocol, Jessie heads to Pakistan to take down the man whose actions spurred the founders of her female spy ring to create a secretive squad.

6 Oct A Thousand Questions by Saadia Faruqi. Quill Tree Books. Two girls navigate a summer of change and family upheaval in Karachi, Pakistan, as they become friends and begin to understand their cultural differences.

6 Oct Tristan Strong Destroys the World (Tristan Strong #2) by Kwame Mbalia. Disney/Riordan. Just back from a victorious but exhausting adventure in Alke, the land of African American folk heroes and African Gods, Tristan Strong must rescue his grandmother, who has been abducted by a mysterious villain bent on revenge.

6 Oct Twins by Varian Johnson, illus. by Shannon Wright. Graphix. When twins and best friends Maureen and Francine Carter start sixth grade, Francine becomes Fran and expresses interest in activities and clothes that will set her apart from her sister, who is content with how things are.

6 Oct The Unexplainable Disappearance of Mars Patel by Sheela Chari. Walker Books US. Kids are disappearing from a school in this tech-filled sci-fi adventure based on the podcast of the same name.

13 Oct All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team by Christina Soontornvat. Candlewick. Details the 2018 rescue of a boys’ soccer team that was trapped in a Thailand cave.

13 Oct The Bad Boy and the Tomboy by Nicole Nwosu. Wattpad Books. Romance is the last thing on Macy’s mind, until Cedric Cahill—the one boy she’s ever crushed on—asks her out on a date.

13 Oct Come On In by Adi Alsaid. Inkyard Press. The heartbreaks and triumphs of immigration are explored through stories by YA authors who are themselves immigrants and the children of immigrants.

13 Oct Concrete Kids (Pocket Change Collective) by Amyra León. Penguin Workshop. This short collection of verse drawns from the life of a young Black woman who has been aware from an early age of the obstacles facing her growing up in foster care in New York City. She wrestles here with questions of self, family (chosen and birth), belonging, and hope.

13 OctDaughters of Jubilation by Kara Lee Corthron Simon Schuster.  A Black teen’s magical talents awaken as she tries to find her place among a family of similarly gifted women.

13 Oct The Fallen Hero (The Dragon Warrior) by Katie Zhao. Bloomsbury USA Kids. Faryn sets off on a daring quest to convince the Monkey King to join forces with her, one that will take her to new places–including Diyu, otherwise known as the Underworld–where she’ll run into new dangers and more than one familiar face. Can she complete her mission and save the brother she loves, no matter the cost?

13 Oct Fantastic Tales of Nothing by Alejandra Green and Fanny Rodriguez. Katherine Tegen Books. This is a graphic novel tale of Nathan, an ordinary human (or so he thinks) living an ordinary life (or so he wishes). Everything changes when he meets Haven, a mysterious creature who is neither human nor volken. Oh, and the two of them are being chased by volken mercenaries—a grumpy wolf named Bardou and a delightful crow named Sina.

13 Oct Long Way Down: The Graphic Novel by Jason Reynolds, illus. by Danica Novgorodoff. Atheneum/Dlouhy. Reynolds’s Newbery Honor, Printz Honor, and Coretta Scott King Honor–winning novel has been adapted in graphic novel format with artwork by Navgorodoff.

13 Oct The Magic Fish by Trung Le Nguyen. Random House Graphic. Korean American Tien tries to find a way to tell his parents, who struggle with their English, that he is gay.

13 Oct This Is All Your Fault by Aminah Mae Safi. Feiwel and Friends. When Rinn, Daniella, and Imogen clock into work at Wild Nights Bookstore on the first day of summer, they’re expecting the hours to drift by the way they always do. Instead, they have to deal with the news that the bookstore is closing. Before the day is out, there’ll be shaved heads, a diva author, and a very large shipment of Air Jordans to contend with.

13 Oct Yara’s Spring by Jamal Saeed and Sharon McKay. Annick Press. Amid the violence of the Arab Spring in Aleppo, Yara embarks on a journey to safety and freedom.

15 Oct The Deep Blue Between by Ayesha Harruna Attah. Pushkin Children’s Books. Twin sisters Hassana and Husseina’s home is in ruins after a brutal raid. But this is not the end but the beginning of their story, one that will take them to unfamiliar cities and cultures, where they will forge new families, ward off dangers and truly begin to know themselves. As the twins pursue separate paths in Brazil and the Gold Coast of West Africa, they remain connected through shared dreams of water. But will their fates ever draw them back together?

20 Oct Cane Warriors by Alex Wheatle. Anderson Press. Two teenage slaves in 1760 Jamaica join other enslaved people in the rebellion that is now known as Tacky’s War.

20 Oct Flying Over Water by N.H. Senzai and Shannon Hitchcock. Scholastic Press. Two girls—one a Muslim fleeing civil war, the other an American—must examine their beliefs and the true meaning of friendship in the midst of the president’s 2017 Muslim ban.

20 Oct Foreshadow: Stories to Celebrate the Magic of Reading and Writing YA by Nova Ren Suma and Emily X.R. Pan. Algonquin Young Readers. The thirteen stories anthologized here were originally released via the buzzed-about online platform Foreshadow. Ranging from contemporary romance to mind-bending fantasy, the Foreshadow stories showcase underrepresented voices and highlight the beauty and power of YA fiction. Each piece is selected and introduced by a YA luminary, among them Gayle Forman, Laurie Halse Anderson, Jason Reynolds, and Sabaa Tahir.

20 Oct The Last Mirror on the Left by Lamar Giles, illus. by Dapo Adeola. Versify. In this sequel to The Last Last-Day-of-Summer, the Legendary Alston Boys bring a fugitive to justice in a world that mirrors their own but has its own rules to play by.

20 Oct My Heart Underwater by Laurel Flores Fantauzzo. Quill Tree Books. After Corazon’s mother catches her kissing her female teacher, she’s sent to the Philippines to live with a half-brother she barely knows.

20 Oct Rebel Sisters (War Girls #2) by Tochi Onyebuchi. Razorbill. The battles are over, but the fight for justice has just begun in this sequel to War Girls, in which Ify is now 19 and living in the Space Colonies as a high-ranking medical officer, when a mysterious virus breaks out among the children of the colonies.

20 Oct When We Were Infinite by Kelly Loy Gilbert. Simon Schuster. Beth and her close-knit group of friends make a pact to protect one of their own when Beth witnesses an act of violence in his home.

25 Oct Off Track by Tamika Gibson Blouse Skirt Books. Runners Kayla and Joel hope to represent their home of Trinidad and Tobago at the regional games, where they could compete against the Caribbean’s finest for life-changing opportunities, including a shot at the Olympics.

27 Oct Kingston and the Magician’s Lost and Found by Rucker Moses, illus. by Theo Gangi. G. P. Putnam’s Sons. A young magician must find his missing father, who took all of Echo City, Brooklyn’s magic with him when he disappeared. When Kingston finds a magic box his father left behind as a clue, he knows there’s more to his father’s disappearance than meets the eye.

27 Oct Measuring Up by Lily Lamotte, illus. by Ann Xu. HarperAlley. Newly arrived in Seattle, Cici enters a cooking contest hoping to use the prize money to bring her Taiwanese grandmother to the U.S. for a birthday celebration.

27 Oct One Real American: The Life of Ely S. Parker, Seneca Sachem and Civil War General by Joseph Bruchac. Abrams. Biography of Ely S. Parker who became President Grant’s Commissioner of Indian Affairs.

27 Oct Peacemaker by Joseph Bruchac. Dial Books. An Iroquois boy rethinks his calling after witnessing the arrival of a mystical figure with a message of peace, in this novel based on the creation of the Iroquois Confederacy.

27 Oct Small History of a Disagreement by Claudio Fuentes, trans. by Elisa Arnado, illus. by Gabriela Lyon. Greystone Kids. On the first day back at school after the holidays, a group of classmates notice a construction crane parked next to the old monkey puzzle tree. The school principal says the tree will be cut down to make room for new science classrooms and computer labs. The classmates are divided, with some in favor of innovation, and others calling for the protection of the thousand-year-old tree. As they protest, march, fight, and strike, one teacher offers a solution: Why not hold a debate? The principal agrees, and at the end of the debate, a student vote will end the disagreement, once and for all—or will it?

NOVEMBER

3 Nov Serena Says by Tanita S. Davis. (HarperCollins/Tegen
After Serena’s best friend abandons her for someone new, Serena finds her voice through vlogging and learns to speak out, even though she can’t pause, edit, or delete in real life.

17 Nov These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong. Margaret K. McElderry Books.
Set in 1920s Shanghai, this retelling of Romeo and Juliet involves rival gangs and a monster in the depths of the Huangpu River.

DECEMBER

1 Dec Never After: The Thirteenth Fairy by Melissa de la Cruz. Roaring Brook Press.
In this series debut, a hero of Filomena’s favorite book series appears and insists she accompany him back into his fairytale world, which is ruled by an evil queen.

1 Dec Heiress Apparently (Daughters of the Dynasty) by Diana Ma. Amulet Books
Gemma Huang is a recent transplant to Los Angeles from Illinois, having abandoned plans for college to pursue a career in acting, much to the dismay of her parents. Now she’s living with three roommates in a two-bedroom hovel, auditioning for bit roles that hardly cover rent. Gemma’s big break comes when she’s asked to play a lead role in an update of M. Butterfly filming for the summer in Beijing. When she arrives, she’s stopped by paparazzi at the airport. She quickly realizes she may as well be the twin of one of the most notorious young socialites in Beijing. Thus kicks off a summer of revelations, in which Gemma uncovers a legacy her parents have spent their lives protecting her from—one her mother would conceal from her daugher at any cost.

1 Dec A Sky Beyond the Storm (Ember in the Ashes) by Sabaa Tahir. Razorbill.
The long-imprisoned jinn are on the attack, wreaking bloody havoc in villages and cities alike. But for the Nightbringer, vengeance on his human foes is just the beginning.At his side, Commandant Keris Veturia declares herself Empress, and calls for the heads of any and all who defy her rule. At the top of the list? The Blood Shrike and her remaining family.

Laia of Serra, now allied with the Blood Shrike, struggles to recover from the loss of the two people most important to her. Determined to stop the approaching apocalypse, she throws herself into the destruction of the Nightbringer. In the process, she awakens an ancient power that could lead her to victory–or to an unimaginable doom. And deep in the Waiting Place, the Soul Catcher seeks only to forget the life–and love–he left behind. Yet doing so means ignoring the trail of murder left by the Nightbringer and his jinn. To uphold his oath and protect the human world from the supernatural, the Soul Catcher must look beyond the borders of his own land. He must take on a mission that could save–or destroy–all that he knows.

15 Dec Mighty Justice (young readers ed.): The Untold Story of Civil Rights Trailblazer Dovey Johnson Roundtree by Dovey Johnson Roundtree and Katie McCabe, adapted by Jabari Asim. Roaring Brook Press.
Raised in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the height of Jim Crow, Dovey Johnson Roundtree felt the sting of inequality at an early age and made a point to speak up for justice. She was one of the first Black women to break the racial and gender barriers in the US Army; a fierce attorney in the segregated courtrooms of Washington, DC; and a minister in the AME church, where women had never before been ordained as clergy. In 1955, Roundtree won a landmark bus desegregation case that eventually helped end “separate but equal” and dismantle Jim Crow laws across the South.

22 Dec Segregated Skies: One Pilot’s Trailblazing Journey to Rise Above Racial Barriers by Michael H. Cottman. National Geographic Kids.
This gripping narrative follows Harris’s turbulent path to become the first African American commercial airline pilot in the U.S., presented against the backdrop of race riots, landmark civil rights legislation, and the lingering racial injustice of the 1960s. It’s the story of a man who fought social injustice the only way he knew how-by succeeding.