Wide-Eyed Reader

Title:  Dear Martin Author:  Nic Stone Category:  YALSA's Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Justyce is an intelligent boy in his senior year of high school at a private, highly acclaimed school. That doesn't matter, though, when one night he finds himself the victim of racial profiling when he was simply trying to get his drunk girlfriend home. Even months later, Justyce suffers from painful memories of handcuffs being snapped around his wrists and the fear he felt that night. In an attempt to combat this racial injustice, Justyce begins to write letters to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and tries to "live like" him when he can. However, the more time goes on, the more Justyce notices racial microaggressions everywhere at his predominantly white school, and he can't sit by and let it happen, not after what he experienced. Dear Martin is such a powerful book, much like Long Way Down . Its characters feel real, like kids that really exist in many communities all over

Title:  Spin the Dawn Author:  Elizabeth Lim Category:  Free Choice Maia desperately wants to be a tailor like her father before her, and is acknowledged as the only one of her siblings to have inherited her father's sewing ability. After a war tears apart her country, killing two of her brothers and leave another with severe injuries, her father is summoned to the palace to compete for the position of Royal Tailor to the Emperor's soon-to-be wife, Lady Sarnai, who doesn't want to marry him at all. However, as Maia's father is older and her brother is injured, Maia is the only member of the family able to actually go. So, she disguises herself as a boy and journeys to the palace. With the help of magic scissors passed down from her grandmother, Maia wows the judges of the competition, but Lady Sarnai has one more surprise in store: she challenges Maia to make three dresses, made of the sun, moon, and stars. Taking the court enchanter, Edan, with her, Maia has to travel

Title:  Zenith Author:  Sasha Alsberg & Lindsay Cummings Category:  Free Choice Androma Racella is a criminal and a bounty hunter, known to many only as the Bloody Baroness. She travels the galaxy with her crew, refusing to return home, where she knows she faces certain death. However, the past catches up with Andy, and her ship is captured by her ex - Dex, a legal bounty hunter working for the leader of her home planet, and who comes with an offer: help him rescue the general's son, or be put to death. Andy accepts, and the galaxy, she finds, will never be the same. I will admit that I did not enjoy this book. The characters were rather annoying, and I found the story to be convoluted. The villain of the story was the most interesting character, and I did not appreciate that. However, I can see teens liking this novel. I would use it in a library setting in celebration of science fiction and space travel, as this story deals heavily in such topics. I think teens will enjoy the

Title:  A Curse So Dark and Lonely Author:  Brigid Kemmerer Category:  State Book Award Rhen, Prince of Emberfall, was cursed on his eighteenth birthday to become a monster at the end of the season if he cannot find a girl who loves him - over and over again. He and his captain of the guard, Gray, are trapped in a timeloop of the same fall season until the curse can be broken. However, the enchantress is getting bored, and wants to end this game once and for all. So it's up to Harper, a girl with cerebral palsy from Washington, D.C., to help Rhen break the curse before his country falls to ruin and invasion. The real question is: can Harper even begin to love him? I love fairytales, though Beauty & the Beast isn't a favorite of mine. However, I really enjoyed this retelling! Kemmerer's use of the timeloop, as well as introducing a main character with cerebral palsy, are so great to see and truly make this classic tale her own. I also liked watching the romance. For teen

Title:  With the Fire on High Author:  Elizabeth Acevedo Category:  Realistic Fiction Emoni is a senior in high school, raising her three-year-old daughter while attending classes and dreaming about becoming a chef after graduation. She's an amazing cook, everyone who tries her food agrees, and she has the talent with tastes needed to do the work. When a class at her high school taught by a professional chef and featuring a class trip to Spain is announced, Emoni has to choose whether she can go - and work harder than ever to be able to afford it I've read one other novel by Acevedo - The Poet X  - and I've loved both stories. Acevedo is skilled at creating realistic characters and stories, and relates them in such an honest, refreshing way. With the Fire on High  was a great read, and it made me very hungry with all the talk about food! I think this could be an interesting book to use in a teen program about cooking, as it is such a big part of the story, and I think teens

Title:  Girl in the Blue Coat Author:  Monica Hesse Category:  Historical Fiction Hanneke lives in Amsterdam in 1943, surviving by smuggling black market goods to wealthy clients in order to provide for her mother and disabled father. She's good at what she does, though she has never taken the time to dig past the black market trade into the revolution she knows is happening under the noses of the German invaders now occupying her city. However, when one client asks Hanneke to find a teenage Jewish girl she was hiding, Hanneke's drive to solve the mystery leads her straight to the heart of the revolution, and to finally see the pain that is being caused all over Amsterdam. I am very glad that I read this novel! I've read a great deal of WWII fiction, though none besides this one set in Amsterdam, and I found it interesting to get a peak into life in the city during German occupation. I found Hanneke to be a little self-centered at times, but I loved seeing her growth. I thi

Title:  Long Way Down Author:  Jason Reynolds Category:  Verse Will's beloved older brother Shawn was shot and killed yesterday. The two boys have been close for years, since their dad died, and Will's been on the streets long enough to know how this goes: if your brother gets murdered, you find out who did it and pay back the favor. So Will takes his brother's gun and gets into the elevator from his seventh-floor apartment, certain he knows who did this and that he can do what he has to. Until ghosts begin getting on the elevator with Will, ghosts from his past, from Shawn's past, and they have questions for him. Questions he needs to consider before he gets off this elevator. Wow, this book was moving. I first heard about it several months before taking this course, and it was at the top of my to-read list since, so I'm very glad for the opportunity to finally read it. I found Reynolds' poetry to be well-done, a quick read, and with just the right amount of im

Title:  Honor Girl Author:  Maggie Thrash Category:  Graphic Novel This graphic memoir follows Maggie, a fifteen-year-old girl, at an all-girls' summer camp in the mountains. Maggie isn't as boy-crazy as some of her fellow campers, and has never even kissed a boy, honestly. However, after a lice check performed by one of the counselors, Maggie finds herself startlingly attracted to the older girl - Erin. She tries to keep this to herself, but that's hard to do in an Appalachian summer camp in the 1990's, and Maggie finds herself watched by camp staff closer than she'd like. I did not find the art in this graphic novel very engaging, personally, though the story was a good one to read. Thrash is a comic artist, but I found that hard to believe given the quality of art in Honor Girl . However, I will not deny that her story is important to young girls, especially those who, like Thrash, are from the south. She's honest in her depiction of that summer, and the conf

  Title:  The Silence Between Us Author:  Alison Gervais Category:  Disabilities Title When Maya, who is deaf, moves across the country with her mom and younger brother, she is dismayed to learn that she has to attend a hearing high school, not a school for the deaf like she did in before. She needs an interpreter to go to every class with her, and none of the other kids know sign language, her main mode of communication, though she's good at lipreading. When a popular boy named Beau takes the time to learn sign language in order to become friends with Maya, she's surprised, though takes his friendship - and even romance? - in stride in order to pursue her dreams after high school. While the plot is not something I would have chosen to read on my own, I found myself enjoying this novel. Maya is a relatable character, and as the author is also deaf, there is a great deal of intentionality and accuracy put into this novel. I did greatly enjoy this. I would use this novel with tee

  Title:  The 57 Bus Author:  Dashka Slater Category:  YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults title On a bus trip home from school, the skirt of agender teenager Sasha was set on fire by another teen, Richard. The two did not know each other, and went to different schools. Richard and his friends, who dared him to set Sasha's skirt on fire, thought it was funny that they looked like a boy dressed as a girl, and Richard impulsively caused damage. He did not intend for Sasha to be hurt as badly as they were. This book covers the lives of both teenagers before the incident, Sasha's recovery in the hospital, and the court case that followed, as Richard was charged with hate crimes for his actions. I must admit, I had not heard of this event before choosing this book to read this semester, and I found it very interesting. Through reading the book, I feel like I gained an understanding of both Sasha and Richard, and how nuanced things like this are. I feel that this book cou

  Title:  Damsel Author:  Elena Arnold Category:  Speculative Fiction In order to ascend to the throne after the death of his father, Prince Emory must journey to a faraway land, slay a dragon, and rescue a maiden - not an easy task, but one he accomplishes. His rescued bride, Ama, wakes on the journey home with no memories at all - her name is given to her by the Prince, and he tells her that she is his destiny, and that her past does not matter. But, once reaching the palace, Ama cannot stop wondering about her past. As the weather grows colder and her wedding to Emory approaches, she contracts a strange illness only helped by extreme warmth, and slowly, piece by piece, Ama figures out her past and who she is. This book was fun and easy to read, and I greatly enjoyed it. I found Ama's story to be one of pain, but one that showed her resilience. I loved how Arnold used common fantasy tropes to say something, rather than just to fit into the genre, and I'm very glad I read it.

  Title:  The Nickel Boys Author: Colson Whitehead Category:  Alex Award Title Elwood is an intelligent, driven black boy growing up in Tallahassee, Florida in the 1960's, where he lives with his grandmother and attends school. When he is given the opportunity to attend classes at a university a drive away from his home, he hitchhikes to class, an innocent choice that lands him with a conviction helping to steal a car and sentenced to a "reform school" called the Nickel Academy. Elwood quickly realizes that the Nickel Academy is less a school and more a torture chamber, and only his friendship with another boy named Turner keeps him going through his time there, despite their very differing views. I had read Whitehead's novel The Underground Railroad  before reading this one, but I feel that The Nickel Boys hit far harder. This book was tough to read at times, though is no less important for this. The Nickel Boys  was inspired by a true story of an actual reform schoo

Title:  Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda Author:  Becky Albertalli Category:  Book v. Movie Assignment Simon Spier is a perfectly normal teenage boy in his small town outside of Atlanta - except for the fact that he's gay, and very much in the closet. It's all right, though, because he's been anonymously communicating with a boy from his school who is also gay, using the names "Jacques" and "Blue" to hide their identities. However, when another student with a crush on one of Simon's friends finds Simon's emails to Blue and threatens to expose him, Simon is forced to help this student with his crush, a task he greatly dislikes. After a falling out and Simon refusing to help the blackmailer, his secret is exposed, and Blue goes silent. I feel this book is rather important, especially for young closeted kids. It's less of a coming-out story, which is common in queer media, and more of a story of high school drama that happens to have a gay main

  Title:  The Beast Player Author:  Nahoko Uehashi (translated by Cathy Hirano) Category:  Printz Award Title Elin is only a girl of ten when her mother is sentenced to death for failing in her sacred duty of caring for the Toda, water serpents used in battle by their military. Elin tries to rescue her mother from death, but at the last moment her mother saves her, using a strange ability to transport her far away. There, Elin is taken in by a elderly beekeeper, who quickly takes to the intelligent, curious girl as his own child. Elin is good with animals, and fascinated by the beautiful Royal Beasts that live in the wild - enough to journey to a special school to learn to care for them when she is of age. It is here that Elin discovers a secret, one that could change the world - she can communicate with the Royal Beasts, and form bonds with them that no one else has been able to. As Elin's own desire to let the animals be free wars with the desire of the royalty to use them for wa

  Title:  Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe Author:  Benjamin Alire Sáenz Category: LGBTQ+ Aristotle, who goes by Ari, and Dante aren't who you would expect to be friends. Ari's angry, conflicted about his feelings and the fact that his older brother is in prison for years and his parents refuse to talk about it. Dante's intelligent, and a little strange--at least, he has no other friends. But through spending together, the boys grow close one summer, their lives change, and they begin to feel a deeper connection. I loved this book far more than I expected to. It has actually been on my to-be-read list for several years, as I'd heard praise for it, so I was glad to get the chance to read it--and I was blown away! Ari and Dante are two fully realized characters whose emotional journeys are so fraught, Ari's especially, that I think teens will have no choice but to relate to them. I think this book could be a great Pride Month read, and also be

  Title: Black Horses for the King Author: Anne McCaffrey Category:  Author Assignment Black Horses for the King  follows Galwyn, a young runaway from his uncle's ship who meets Lord Artos--whom we know as King Arthur of legend--and uses his skill with horses to aid Artos in finding strong horses to bear his men in battle. Galwyn is skilled with horses, as his now-deceased father was a horse trader, and the boy loved the animals, so it isn't odd when Artos hires Galwyn to work as a groom and trainer for his fine black horses. In the process, Galwyn learns to care from horses and helps to perfect the horse-sandal, an invention that would later become known as the horseshoe. While McCaffrey's writing style is easy to read and understand, obviously geared towards a younger YA audience, I quite enjoyed it. I didn't feel that she "dumbed down" anything, showing a respect for the young audience. I also quite liked her character work, as Galwyn is easy to root for, a