All Shayla wants is to stay out of trouble and survive 7th grade with her two best friends at her side. When a police officer is found "not guilty" after shooting a black man in the back, Shayla has some choices to make.

This starts out feeling like a "Rick Riordan presents" book, but becomes so much more. Lily and her family move to take care of her sick grandmother, her halmoni. Lily starts seeing a Tiger that no one else can see. Lily's halmoni stole something from the tigers long ago and Lily needs to make a deal with the tiger, which leads to new friendships and adventures.

Fantastic! This is a companion to New Kid. It focuses on Jordan's friend, Drew. Both boys are some of the only kids of color at a private school. Drew deals with girls touching his hair, navigating between sitting with the older black kids or his friends from his grade at lunchtime, and the difference in economic situations between his family and other kids at his school. Each chapter makes reference to other books in a clever way. At the end, Jerry Craft lists other books that are "easter eggs" throughout his book.

This historical fiction book is set in the time of Sputnik and the space race, but is mostly about women in baseball. Katy is a great pitcher and plays baseball with the boys whenever she can. A man recruits her for Little League tryouts, but she is barred from playing because she is not a boy. Katy's mom and sisters are amazing barrier breakers in their own rights and great characters. Katy does a lot of research to find out the history of women in baseball and Klages includes more information about these women in the back of the book.

Twelve year old Lydia is really uncomfortable about how boys and men are reacting to her changing body. She finds her mom's boyfriend really creepy and notices how strangers feel free to take up her space at a baseball game. She doesn't find help at school from the adults, but finds a way to find her voice.

Ms. Marvel is awesome. Her parents are Islamic immigrants to the U.S. from Pakistan and expect her to act like a Pakistani girl, rather than an American girl. If that isn't enough tension, add into it Ms. Marvel's brand new superpowers that she tries to keep secret from everybody. Trying out new superpowers is difficult, as is being a teenager.

Jenna can see the date of someone's death when she looks in their eyes. This causes her not to get close to people or want to look at other people. Then she is standing near the London Eye and notices that everyone has the same "number" and that it was that date. She runs out of there as fast as she can, becoming a suspect in the bombing that took place. An adventure ensues.

Jillian's baby sister is born deaf, and her family does not know how to handle that. Jillian has a crush on a deaf boy she met in a fandom online. As she gets to know him, she realizes how hard it is not to ask stupid questions and not to hurt people. She also notices the racism in her own extended family and learns to confront it at the holiday dinner table- better than any of the adults do.

A story about speaking up- mostly when an older person does something that makes you feel "icky". This book does a great job of weaving a fun mystery with this serious topic together.

Mia used to be a gymnast, until the "accident". Now she doesn't even want to think about gymnastics and is instead focusing on helping at her grandmother's grasshopper farm. Strange things are happening that could ruin her grandmother's business. Messner masterfully balances the plot of the mystery, Mia's struggles to speak up, and fleshing out the characters.

Maleeka is relentlessly teased at school, not only for her good grades and her hand-made clothes, but for the darkness of her skin. When a new teacher arrives at school who has a white birthmark across her dark skin, Maleeka is sure there will be trouble for her, too. She is surprised by Miss Saunders’ attitude. Can Maleeka be proud of the skin she’s in, like Miss Saunders?

Nick Hall loves soccer, and hates words. His dad has written a dictionary and makes Nick read from it everyday. Nick has an amazing vocabulary that shows up in his poems that make up this story. Nick's family is going through some big trauma that many readers will relate to.

This is a fresh look at the Cinderella story. Cinder is a cyborg, which is looked down on by society. She lives in New Beijing in the far future when Earth's biggest worry is the Lunars who are descendants from the first colonists on the moon. Plot twists and subterfuge abound. (Toni read the first three books in this series in 4 days. That's how good it is!)

April didn’t mean to start the fire. She wasn’t even the one who broke the vase. She had absolutely no intention of becoming the only person who knows that Gabriel Winterborne, the missing-and-presumed-dead billionaire, is neither missing nor dead and is actually living in the basement of Winterborne House, sharpening his swords and looking for vengeance.

Oh what a painful, but wonderful book to read. Last winter, Trent played a pick up game of hockey that changed his life. He hit another kid in the chest with the hockey puck, accidentally. The boy had a heart disorder that no one knew about and he died. Trent is dealing with his own feelings of guilt, which he most often channels as anger. The whole small town knows all about the accident and most of his friends dropped him, or he dropped them.

This is a fun mix between a dystopian society that has castes and a princess story. America Singer is from a lower caste (a 5), but has fallen in love with a six, which is forbidden. At the same time, America is entered into the Selection, a competition to look for a wife for the prince. Complicated, yet fun, you will want to read the rest of the series to find out what happens.

here was a very smart pair of inventors in the 1880s that invented solar technology to run lots of amazing machines. They left a cipher for someone in the future to solve and people have been trying for over 100 years in order to find a treasure. Tess and her twin Theo live in building built by the famous twins, but now an evil real estate developer has purchased their building and they, and all of the tenants have 30 days to get out. If Tess and Theo and their friend Jaime solve the puzzle, will they be able to save their building?

Little Charlie is in a tight spot- his dad just died in a freak accident, the crops are going to be taken to pay off debts, and the foreman on the plantation next store says that his dad owed him a . lot of money. To pay off the debt, Charlie travels with the foreman to retrieve $3000 that was stolen from the family who owns the plantation. Turns out that $3000 is not in cash, but in the form of slaves who have run away. Charlie struggles to do the right thing and not get killed in the process.

Ivy is trying to figure out who she is, and why she has no interest in boys, like her friends. Then a tornado destroys her house and much of the town. Her life is upended, but she gets to know some new people, including a woman who is about to marry her girlfriend. Most of the characters make some big mistakes and hurt each others feelings at one point or another, but that is how life is.

Snap brings some abandoned baby possums to "the witch" in the woods which leads to great growth and changes for both of them. Magical realism and some LGBTQIA+ themes make this graphic novel really fun.

King's older brother Khalid died suddenly at the age of 16 and King is convinced he has become a dragonfly. He keeps this secret from his parents who are grieving in their own ways. Middle school is confusing on top of all of his grief. One of his best friends, a girl, "Likes" King, but he doesn't know if he likes her, or girls, romantically. A good story about family, acceptance, grief and love.

Nick and Eryn are twins. The book starts with their mother announcing that she is getting remarried and, intriguingly, Eryn and Nick will never have to meet their step-siblings. Eryn and Nick become obsessed about these additions to the family that they are not allowed to meet. The mystery gets deeper and takes completely unexpected turns.