Book Mail: 24 New Books to Check Out

Now is the time of the year where I can see the glimmer of summer ahead of me (like, far ahead still, but I can see it) and know I’ll be able to make a bigger dent in my book mail than I have been making (she writes, despite having read 33 books last month). Always grateful to all the publishers who send me so many books to consider for coverage on Teen Librarian Toolbox. All finished copies of books go back out the door eventually to find new homes where they will be appreciated.
All descriptions from the publishers.

Just Us, Platypus! by Michelle L. Brown, Rayanne Vieira (Illustrator) (ISBN-13: 9781631637704 Publisher: North Star Editions Publication date: 01/01/2024 Series: Kangaroo’s Big World, Ages 5-7)
When Kangaroo falls into the river on her daily hop, she startles an animal with a flat bill. But it’s not her friend Duck. In fact, it’s a creature she’s never seen before. Sharp claws . . . brown, shiny fur . . . could she have discovered a River Monster?
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Kangaroo is one small animal in a big, wonderful world, and each day brings a new adventure. Playful, rhyming text and lively imagery help beginning readers follow along as Kangaroo explores her world and makes friends along the way.

Ta-da, Koala! by Michelle L. Brown, Rayanne Vieira (Illustrator) (ISBN-13: 9781631637827 Publisher: North Star Editions Publication date: 01/01/2024 Series: Kangaroo’s Big World, Ages 5-7)
Kangaroo is bored, and none of her Outback friends can play. So, she tries boxing by herself, making a sand queen, and looking for her lost boomerang. While searching, she crashes into Koala’s branch. Here is the boredom buster she’s been seeking! But sleepy Koala just wants to finish his nap and be left alone. Can Kangaroo convince him to be her friend?
Kangaroo is one small animal in a big, wonderful world, and each day brings a new adventure. Playful, rhyming text and lively imagery help beginning readers follow along as Kangaroo explores her world and makes friends along the way.

Blue Stars: Mission One: The Vice Principal Problem: A Graphic Novel by Kekla Magoon, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Molly Murakami (Illustrator) (ISBN-13: 9781536204995 Publisher: Candlewick Press Publication date: 03/05/2024, Ages 8-12)
Two everyday superheroes set out to save the world—starting with their school—in an exciting new middle-grade graphic series from two award-winning authors and a debut illustrator.
When cousins Riley Halfmoon and Maya Dawn move to Urbanopolis to live with their activist grandma, they get off to a rocky start. Outgoing Riley misses her Muscogee cousins but is sure that she and Maya will be instant BFFs. Meanwhile, introvert Maya misses her parents, on active duty in Japan, and just wants some space to herself. At school, Maya joins Robotics Club and Riley bonds with fellow gymnasts. Just when they start to feel at home, their school culture is threatened by an influential foe in disguise. Joining student council feels like a way to help, so both cousins toss their hats in the ring for sixth-grade class president. But when they realize what they’re up against—money, power, and lies—they quickly shift from competition to cooperation, joining forces as superheroes. Riley is savvy with people; Maya is a whiz with gadgets. In no time, this dazzling duo is off to save the day! Relatable and rich in themes of family, community, and compromise, the Blue Stars series will entertain and empower, inspiring readers to be the stars they are.

The Boy Lost in the Maze by Joseph Coelho, Kate Milner (Illustrator) (ISBN-13: 9781536236415 Publisher: Candlewick Press Publication date: 03/26/2024, Ages 12-17)
From the UK Children’s Laureate comes a spellbinding YA novel in verse blending the ancient myth of Theseus and the Minotaur with the quest of a modern-day teen in search of his father.
Theo, a seventeen-year-old London schoolboy with a single mother, is desperate to track down the father who left them, whom he scarcely remembers. At school he discovers Greek mythology and the ancient story of Theseus, a fatherless son driven on a similar search. As Theo focuses on Theseus in a series of poems he composes, it becomes clear the two journeys echo each other in uncanny ways. Theseus must conquer his enemies—a psycho Cyclops, a tree-bending murderer, a monstrous pig—while Theo is tricked and double-crossed, confronting obstacles ranging from a search-agency scam artist to a depraved lawyer. Poet Joseph Coelho brilliantly interweaves the boys’ stories, following them through dangers, horrors, and false successes, revealing that Theo must be as resourceful and strong as his mythical hero. In a unique twist, readers are asked to take a role in picking which option the heroes should pursue when facing choices on their path to manhood. The two alternating stories, along with stories from the Minotaur’s perspective, fuse into one in a riveting climax, as the protagonists meet in the heart of the labyrinth.

Exclusion and the Chinese American Story by Sarah-SoonLing Blackburn (ISBN-13: 9780593567647 Publisher: Random House Children’s Books Publication date: 03/26/2024 Series: Race to the Truth, Ages 10-12)
Until now, you’ve only heard one side of the story, but Chinese American history extends far beyond the railroads. Here’s the true story of America, from the Chinese American perspective.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection
If you’ve learned about the history of Chinese people in America, it was probably about their work on the railroads in the 1800s. But more likely, you may not have learned about it at all. This may make it feel like Chinese immigration is a newer part of this country, but some scholars believe the first immigrant arrived from China 499 CE—one thousand years before Columbus did!
When immigration picked up in the mid-1800s, efforts to ban immigrants from China began swiftly. But hope, strength, and community allowed the Chinese population in America to flourish. From the gold rush and railroads to entrepreneurs, animators, and movie stars, this is the true story of the Chinese American experience.

Made Glorious by Lindsay Eagar (ISBN-13: 9781536204674 Publisher: Candlewick Press Publication date: 04/02/2024, Ages 14-18)
In a vicious, delicious contemporary novel inspired by Shakespeare’s Richard III, the lauded author of The Family Fortuna lifts the curtain on a high school thespian who’ll stop at nothing to land the lead.
Rory is an antihero for the ages. Like Shakespeare’s Richard III, she confides in her audience, telling us exactly the lengths she’ll go to to secure the leading role in Bosworth Academy’s senior musical, confessing without shame that she is charming and conniving and brutally ambitious, that we will watch and root for her even as she manipulates and endangers those around her. And we do. Perhaps it’s because we don’t want to believe that she’s as relentless as she claims. Rory is an underdog, after all, a scholarship kid teased for her weight. Surely there will be redemption? Surely our dread and patience will be rewarded? Intricately plotted with an ingenious narrative that blends multiple viewpoints with script excerpts and an original musical score, Lindsay Eagar’s whip-smart, precision-crafted, and gleefully compulsive page-turner taps into the dark side of high school theater production. A diabolically good read, it forces our complicity as we wince and cheer for an arresting drama queen who just can’t help going full-tilt nasty in the pursuit of her dreams.

The Wrong Way Home by Kate O’Shaughnessy (ISBN-13: 9780593650738 Publisher: Random House Children’s Books Publication date: 04/02/2024, Ages 10-13)
Twelve-year-old Fern believes she’s living a noble life—but what if everything she’s been told is a lie? This is a huge-hearted story about a girl learning to question everything—and to trust in herself.
Fern’s lived at the Ranch, an off-the-grid, sustainable community in upstate New York, since she was six. The work is hard, but Fern admires the Ranch’s leader, Dr. Ben. So when Fern’s mother sneaks them away in the middle of the night and says Dr. Ben is dangerous, Fern doesn’t believe it. She wants desperately to go back, but her mom just keeps driving.
Suddenly thrust into the treacherous, toxic, outside world, Fern thinks only about how to get home again. She has a plan, but it will take time. As that time goes by, though, Fern realizes there are things she will miss from this place—the library, a friend from school, the ocean—and there are things she learned at the Ranch that are just…not true.
Now Fern will have to decide. How much is she willing to give up to return to the Ranch? Should she trust Dr. Ben’s vision for her life? Or listen to the growing feeling that she can live by her own rules?

The Darkness Rises by Stacy Stokes (ISBN-13: 9780593327692 Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group Publication date: 04/09/2024, Ages 14-17)
A gripping speculative thriller perfect for fans of Lauren Oliver and Ginny Myers Sain, about one girl with the power to see death before it happens—and the terrible consequences she faces when saving someone goes wrong.
SOMEONE WANTS REVENGE…
Whitney knows what death looks like. Since she was seven, she’s seen it hover over strangers’ heads in dark, rippling clouds. Sometimes she can save people from the darkness. Sometimes she can’t. But she’s never questioned if she should try. Until the unthinkable happens—and a person she saves becomes the perpetrator of a horrific school shooting.
Now Whitney will do anything to escape the memory of last year’s tragedy and the guilt that gnaws at her for her role in it. Even if that means quitting dance—the thing she loves most—and hiding her ability from her family and friends. But most importantly, no one can know what really happened last year.
Then Whitney finds an ominous message in her locker and realizes someone knows her secret. As the threats pile up, one thing becomes clear—someone wants payback for what she did. And if she’s going to survive the year, she must track down whoever is after her before it’s too late.

We’re Never Getting Home by Tracy Badua (ISBN-13: 9780063217805 Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers Publication date: 04/16/2024, Ages 13+)
HBO’s Insecure meets Dazed and Confused in this messy, tender YA novel about a friendship breakup, set against the backdrop of a chaotic night at a music festival, from rising talent Tracy Badua.
Jana Rubio and her best friend, Maddy Parsons, have an epic senior year finale queued up: catching their favorite band at the Orchards, an outdoor music festival a two-hour drive away. When a blowup over Maddy’s time-sucking boyfriend exposes a rift that may have already been growing between them, Jana calls off their joint trip and gets a lift to the festival from her church friend Nathan…only to realize Maddy and her boyfriend are along for the ride, too.
All Jana wants is to enjoy the concert and get home as soon as possible. But then Nathan loses his car keys crowd-surfing, and it’s up to Jana and Maddy to find them. As they navigate stolen phones and missing friends, scale Ferris wheels and crash parties, the two of them are forced to reckon with the biggest obstacle of all: repairing their friendship.
Will Jana and Maddy find their way home—and also back to each other?

The Merciless King of Moore High by Lily Sparks (ISBN-13: 9781635830965 Publisher: North Star Editions Publication date: 04/23/2024, Ages 14-18)
When the adults of Brockton, Connecticut, morphed into gigantic, bloodthirsty monsters nine months ago, the students at Jefferson High barricaded themselves inside their school. Now eighteen-year-old Kay Kim is one of the Student Council members trying to keep her classmates from starving.
Kay has no poker face and can’t keep her mouth shut when she knows she’s right, so when she accidentally learns a secret that threatens the delicate power balance at Jefferson, she’s dragged out of the school in the dead of night and dumped in the middle of town in a secret assassination attempt.
But when a raiding party of cheerleaders from crosstown rival Moore High comes to her rescue, Kay finds herself among ruthless, hard-partying road warriors who have adopted the feudal trappings of a once-popular video game. Life at Moore is violent and cliquish, but everyone is thriving—everyone, that is, who survives the kingdom’s periodic monster hunts. For Moore’s beloved King Max demands only two things: absolute fealty and that everyone at Moore help kill the “dragons.”
If Kay wants to survive, she must be granted asylum at Moore—which means slaying dragons, not asking the wrong questions, and navigating the rival factions, love triangles, and political intrigues at court. But when Kay discovers a deadly secret that reaches all the way to Jefferson, her inability to hide the truth might spark the revolution that burns both schools to the ground.

The Queens’ English: The Young Readers’ LGBTQIA+ Dictionary of Lingo and Colloquial Phrases by Chloe O. Davis (ISBN-13: 9781665926867 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers Publication date: 04/30/2024, Ages 10-18)
This young readers adaptation of The Queens’ English is a nonfiction illustrated reference guide to the LGBTQIA+ community’s contributions to the English language.
This playful, richly illustrated visual dictionary is the perfect book for anyone who has ever wondered about the origin of phrases like “boi,” “drag,” or “demisexual,” the history of the word “queer,” and the wonderfully diverse, wide-ranging histories that have contributed to LGBTQIA+ culture and vocabulary.
Drawing from traditions as divergent as the ancient poet Sappho to the underground ball scene of the 1980s, from the Stonewall Riots to RuPaul’s Drag Race, this glossary is a colorful compendium—and a celebration of every king, queen, butch, femme, trans, folx, and enby who has shaped the history, identity, and limitless imagination of queerness.

The Ballad of Darcy and Russell by Morgan Matson (ISBN-13: 9781481499019 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers Publication date: 05/07/2024, Ages 14-18)
From New York Times bestselling author Morgan Matson comes a sweeping romantic novel about love, fate…and that one night that can change everything.
Darcy believes in love at first sight.
Even though it’s never happened to her, she’s spent her whole life waiting for that perfect, magical moment. But right now, her life is anything but perfect. In the aftermath of a music festival, she’s stranded at a bus station until morning—the day before she leaves for college. Her phone is dead, she has no cash, and she’s convinced nothing good can come of this night…but then she meets Russell.
Russell. Cute and nice, funny, and kind. She knows this is the moment—and the guy—she’s been waiting for. And they have until sunrise to walk and talk and connect.
Over the course of this one fateful night—filled with football field picnics, night swimming, and escape-artist dogs—Darcy and Russell’s lives will change forever. They’ll discover things they never imagined about each other…and about themselves.
But can you really know someone after only a handful of hours? Is it possible to fall in love in just one day?
And is it worth saying hello…when you know you’re destined for a goodbye?

True Colors by Abby Cooper (ISBN-13: 9781662620614 Publisher: Astra Publishing House Publication date: 05/07/2024, Ages 10-13)
Turning Red meets The Giver in this novel about a town where everyone agrees to think positively—but one girl, whose emotions manifest as colors, can’t hide her true feelings.
In Serenity, Minnesota, everyone looks on the bright side, and that’s on purpose: to live in this town, people have to agree to talk positively and only focus on the good things in life. For twelve-year-old Mackenzie Werner, who has the rare gift of her emotions showing up as a colorful haze around her body, this town seems like the perfect place; she’ll never face the embarrassment of a grumbly grapefruit smog if everyone and everything is set up to be happy. But when a documentary maker comes to town and starts asking questions, Mackenzie, overwhelmed with emotion, can’t hold her haze back—and it explodes onto the whole town. Now everyone has their own haze, revealing their real feelings. As Mackenzie learns that emotions go beyond surface level, the whole town must reckon with what it means now that these true colors are on display.

Sunday Money by Maggie Hill (ISBN-13: 9781647426569 Publisher: She Writes Press Publication date: 05/14/2024, Ages 13-18)
It’s 1971, but for Claire Joyce and girls’ basketball, it might as well be 1871. Stilted rules (three-bounce dribbling, two roving players for full-court games, and uniforms that include bloomers) set their play unfairly apart from the boys’ basketball Claire’s older brother John has trained her in.
Basketball is the only constant in Claire life, and as she enters her teen years the skills she’s cultivated on the court—passing, shooting, and faking—help her guard against the chaos of an alcoholic mother, an increasingly violent younger brother, and the downward spiral her beloved John soon finds himself unable to climb out of. Deeply cut from the cloth of the Catholic Church, Brooklyn’s working class, and the limited expectations her world has for girls, Claire strives to find a mirror that might reflect a different, future self. Then Title IX bounces on the scene. Suddenly, girls’ basketball becomes explosive, musical, passionate, and driven—and if Claire plays it just right, it just might offer a full ride to a previously out-of-reach college.
Sunday Money follows Claire as she narrates her way through 1970s Brooklyn, hustling on and off the court and striving to break free of the turmoil in her home and the rulebook “good” girls are supposed to follow.

Now, Conjurers by Freddie Kölsch (ISBN-13: 9781454951599 Publisher: Union Square & Co. Publication date: 06/04/2024, Ages 14-18)
NOW PAY ATTENTION, BECAUSE ALL THE DETAILS MATTER.
November 1999. North Dana, Massachusetts.
Nesbit Nuñez discovers the partially devoured body of Bastion Attia: star quarterback, secret witch, and Nesbit’s even-more-secret boyfriend.
No one knew why brilliant, gentle Bastion lived his life by a seemingly arcane set of rules, including a strange manner of speech and an inability to say his own name.
Now the remaining members of North Coven—Nesbit, Dove, Drea, and Brandy—vow to get answers. Nothing can prepare them for what they uncover: Bastion had been locked in a terrifying battle of wits and wills with something living deep beneath an ancient mausoleum in the local
cemetery.
North Coven must confront the red-gloved monster that took piece after piece of Bastion, that he fought until his last breath. Not knowing that Bastion left behind the key to its destruction . . .
Now, Conjurers is a wildly original, spine-chilling YA debut about queer found family and a love that outlasts death.

Dead Girls Talking by Megan Cooley Peterson (ISBN-13: 9780823457014 Publisher: Holiday House Publication date: 06/11/2024, Ages 14-17)
The town of Wolf Ridge calls him The Smiley Face Killer. Bettina Holland calls him her father.
Everyone knows Bettina’s father was the one who murdered her mother a decade ago. It’s the subject of podcasts, murder tours, and even a highly anticipated docuseries. But after growing up grappling with what that means, a string of copycat murders forces Bett to answer a harder question: What if he didn’t?
Old-money Bett must team up with the only person willing to investigate alongside her: bookish goth girl Eugenia, the mortician’s daughter, who everyone says puts the makeup on corpses. Can this “true crime princess” unmask a murderer who’s much closer to home than she ever imagined?
Gritty, gripping, and propulsive from page one, Dead Girls Talking is a ride for readers who love to see girls get their hands dirty as they claw their way to the truth. Peterson’s knife-sharp thriller cuts deep, with a wicked sense of humor, a wire-taut atmosphere, and a deadly serious approach to bigger issues of justice and female anger.

Sleep Like Death by Kalynn Bayron (ISBN-13: 9781547609765 Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Publication date: 06/25/2024, Ages 13-18)
Cinderella is dead, but Snow White fights on . . .
New York Times bestselling author Kalynn Bayron makes her highly anticipated return to the realm of fairy tales with this thrilling twist on the classic story of Snow White.
Princess Eve was raised with one purpose: to destroy the Knight, an evil sorcerer who terrorizes Queens Bridge with his wicked magic. Her own unique magic—the ability to conjure weapons from nature—makes her a worthy adversary. Far too many of subjects of Queens Bridge have been devastated by the Knight’s trickery.
As she approaches her seventeenth birthday, Eve is ready to battle. But her mother, Queen Regina, has been acting bizarrely, talking to a strange mirror alone every night. Then a young man claiming to be the Knight’s messenger appears and shares a shocking truth about Eve’s past. Unsure of who to trust or what to do next, Eve must find the courage to do what she’s always done: fight. But will it be enough to save her family and her queendom?

The Sinister Secrets of the Fabulous Nothings by Sean Ferrell, Graham Carter (Illustrator) (ISBN-13: 9781645951865 Publisher: Pixel + Ink Publication date: 06/25/2024 Series: The Sinister Secrets #2, Ages 10-12)
Technological wonders and terrors combine to weave an enchanting tale of finding your own way to belong in the second book in the sweeping Sinister Secrets series.
It’s been thrilling for Noah having the crew of the Abbreviated stuffed in his odd-twisting home. After spending a life being lonely, he finally feels like he has a family. But sailors are meant to be at sea, and now Noah’s terrified that they’ll leave him alone once more. He wishes he had the answer to solve this latest predicament.
And then the strangest things start happening in the city of Liberty. Under cover of darkness, people’s greatest wishes start to come true. But what begins as the marvelous realization of dreams soon morphs to ghoulish nightmare . . . and only Noah seems to be able to see the chimeras for what they really are. What’s more, the infiltration may all be his fault.
Now Noah must use his cunning to save Liberty once more. But how do you battle an invisible threat? And what will it cost him?
Accompanied by vibrant black and white illustrations, the stunning second book in the Sinister Secrets series reunites old friends for new challenges in a quest brimming with eerie mystery, adventure, and an aching desire to find a space in the world.

Joined at the Joints by Marissa Elle (ISBN-13: 9780823456215 Publisher: Holiday House Publication date: 07/02/2024, Ages 14-17)
When baking-obsessed Ivy meets a boy who shares her rare diagnosis, sparks fly outside of the kitchen for the first time in her life!
Chronically ill seventeen-year-old Ivy has stayed in watching the Food Network all summer—pies are better than people, and they don’t trigger her social anxiety. So when her (also) chronically ill mom and sister cook up a plan to get Ivy out of the house and into a support group, Ivy doesn’t expect to say more than a few words.
And she certainly doesn’t expect Grant. Grant is CUTE: class-clown cute, perfectly-messy-hair cute, will-always-text-you-back cute. There’s an instant connection between them. He has the same diagnosis as her—juvenille rheumatoid arthritis—and he actually understands Ivy’s world.
But just because he understands Ivy’s pain doesn’t mean he can take it away. And she wishes he could—because it’s getting worse. Ivy has always tried her best to appear pain-free, but between treatment plans, symptom management, and struggling with medical self-advocacy, being sick feels more and more difficult. Will Ivy’s delicious new romance pan out? Can she keep up the façade, for him and for the world… or should she be brave and let it go?
Marissa Eller serves up a sweet, satisfying romcom that tackles the realities of chronic illness—and coming-of-age milestones from friend breakups to first kisses—with wry humor, tons of heart, and a huge helping of honesty. Nuanced, poignant, and deeply enjoyable, readers will fall for Eller’s voice in this compelling debut that offers all the right ingredients.

Age 16 by Rosena Fung (ISBN-13: 9781773218335 Publisher: Annick Press, Limited Publication date: 07/02/2024, Ages 12-17)
“Moving and emotional.” —Victoria Ying, Harvey Award–winning author of Hungry Ghost
“Crucial.“—Deb JJ Lee, creator of In Limbo
“Beautiful“—Fiona Smyth, illustrator of Sex Is a Funny Word
A powerful coming-of-age graphic novel about how mothers and daughters pass down—and rebel against—standards of size, gender, race, beauty, and worth.
Guandong, 1954 Sixteen-year-old Mei Laan longs for a future of freedom, and her beauty may be the key to getting it. Can an arranged marriage in Hong Kong be the answer to all her problems?
Hong Kong, 1972 Sixteen-year-old Lydia wants nothing more than to dance and to gain approval from her mother, who is largely absent and sharply critical, especially about the way she looks. Maybe her way to happiness is starting over in Toronto?
Toronto, 2000 Sixteen-year-old Roz is grappling with who she wants to be in the world. The only thing she is certain of is that if she were thinner, things would be better. How can she start living her life, instead of just photographing it?
When Roz’s estranged por por abruptly arrives for a seemingly indefinite visit, three generations are now under one roof. Delicate relationships are suddenly upended, and long suppressed family secrets begin to surface.
Award-winning creator of Living with Viola Rosena Fung pulls from her own family history in her YA debut to give us an emotional and poignant story about how every generation is affected by those that came before, and affect those that come after.
Content Warning: body image, disordered eating.

Clara Poole and the Wrong Way Up by Taylor Tyng (ISBN-13: 9781645951629 Publisher: Pixel + Ink Publication date: 07/09/2024, Ages 8-12)
Soaring to the top is one thing. Staying there is quite another. The warm and the winning second book in the engrossing middle grade adventure Clara Poole series.
Fresh off winning WOOBA’s One-Hundredth Air Race, Clara Poole should be flying high, but she’s feeling more uncertain than ever. After a summer of negative publicity, she arrives at Air Academy unsure if she even deserves to be there, to train as an aeronaut alongside her new friends . . . only to discover that there are several conditions to her acceptance.
But that becomes the least of her problems when a series of strange accidents throw her and her friends’ safety into question. Circumstances shift from bad to worse when the school’s headmaster goes missing, hurling the academy into disarray and under the iron-grip control of Assistant Head of School, Cyprian Hunt. Friends become enemies, and enemies friends as Clara tries to keep herself out of trouble. But trouble may the one thing she can’t avoid.
With humor, heart, and more death-defying feats that you can imagine, Clara Poole and the Wrong Way Up is a stunning second novel that explores how the journey to get what you want is perhaps more important than the goal itself.

The Loudest Silence by Sydney Langford (ISBN-13: 9780823456246 Publisher: Holiday House Publication date: 07/30/2024, Ages 14-17)
Two disabled queer teens find belonging in this poignant platonic love story about singing, signing, and solidarity.
Sixteen-year-old Casey Kowalski once dreamed of becoming a professional singer. Then the universe threw her a life-altering curveball—sudden, permanent, and profound hearing loss—mere months before her family’s cross-country move from Portland to Miami. Now, faced with the dual challenges of starting over at a new high school and learning to navigate the world as a Deaf–Hard of Hearing person, Casey is mourning the loss of her music while trying to conceal her hearing loss from her new schoolmates.
Soccer captain Hayden González-Rossi is facing challenges of his own. Three generations of González men have risen to stardom on the soccer field, including Hayden’s older brother, who just became Inter Miami CF’s hottest new recruit. Hayden knows his family expects him to follow in their footsteps, but he has a secret: all he wants is to quit the soccer team and pursue a career on Broadway. If only his Generalized Anxiety Disorder didn’t send him into a debilitating spiral over the thought of telling his family the truth.
Casey and Hayden are both determined to hide who they really are. But when they cross paths at school, they end up bonding over their shared love of music and their mutual feeling that they don’t quite belong, and the secrets come spilling out. Their intimate friendship is the beating heart of this dual-perspective story featuring thoughtful disability representation, nuanced queer identities, and a lovably quirky supporting cast.

Not Nothing by Gayle Forman (ISBN-13: 9781665943277 Publisher: Aladdin Publication date: 08/27/2024, Ages 10+)
“The book we all need at the time we all need it.” —Katherine Applegate, Newbery Award–winning author of The One and Only Ivan
In this middle grade novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Gayle Forman, a boy who has been assigned to spend his summer volunteering at a senior living facility learns unexpected lessons that change the trajectory of his life.
To say Alex has had it rough is an understatement. His father’s gone, his mother is struggling with mental health issues, and he’s now living with an aunt and uncle who are less than excited to have him. Almost everyone treats him as though he doesn’t matter at all, like he’s nothing.
So when a kid at school actually tells him he’s nothing, Alex snaps, and gets violent. Fortunately, his social worker pulls some strings and gets him a job at a nursing home for the summer rather than being sent to juvie. There, he meets Josey, the 107-year-old Holocaust survivor who stopped bothering to talk years ago, and Maya-Jade, the granddaughter of one of the residents with an overblown sense of importance.
Unlike Alex, Maya-Jade believes that people care about what she thinks, and that she can make a difference. And when Alex and Josey form an unlikely bond, with Josey confiding in him, Alex starts to believe he can make a difference—a good difference—in the world. If he can truly feel he matters, Alex may be able to finally rise to the occasion of his own life.

The Sherlock Society by James Ponti (ISBN-13: 9781665932530 Publisher: Aladdin Publication date: 09/03/2024 Series: The Sherlock Society #1, Ages 8-12)
In the tradition of Nancy Drew, four kids and one grandfather in Miami tackle a decades-old mystery in this first book in the action-packed and funny Sherlock Society middle grade series from New York Times bestselling, Edgar Award–winning author James Ponti!
Siblings Alex and Zoe Sherlock take their last name as inspiration when choosing a summer job. After all, starting a detective agency has to be better than babysitting (boring), lawn mowing (sweaty), or cleaning out the attic (boring and sweaty). Their friends Lina, an avid bookworm, and Yadi, an aspiring cinematographer, join the enterprise, and Alex and Zoe’s retired reporter grandfather offers up his sweet aquamarine Cadillac convertible and storage unit full of cold cases.
The group’s first target is the long-lost treasure supposedly hidden near their hometown Miami. Their investigation into the local doings of famed gangster Al Capone leads them to a remote island in the middle of the Everglades where they find alarming evidence hinting at corporate corruption.
Together with Grandpa’s know-how and the kids’ intelligence—plus some really slick gadgets—can the Sherlock Society root out the conspiracy?
Filed under: new books

About Amanda MacGregor
Amanda MacGregor works in an elementary library, loves dogs, and can be found on BlueSky at @amandamacgregor.bsky.social.
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You’ve got lots of good books I’d be interested in reading. I’m really interested in Exclusion and the Chinese American Story because my daughter is adopted from China.