Review: Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

Gender Queer
Maia Kobabe
Lion Forge Comics
Published May 28, 2019

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About Gender Queer

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, GENDER QUEER is here.

Maia’s intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and … Continue reading

Review: Better Must Come by Desmond Hall

Better Must Come by Desmond Hall

Better Must Come
Desmond Hall
Atheneum
Published June 4, 2024

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About Better Must Come

Barely Missing Everything meets American Street in this fiercely evocative, action-packed young adult thriller that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate.

Deja is a “barrel girl”—one of the Jamaican kids who get barrels full of clothes, food, and treats shipped to them from parents who have moved to the US or Canada to make more money. Gabriel is caught up in a gang and desperate for a way out. When … Continue reading

Review: Where Was Goodbye? by Janice Lynn Mather

Where Was Goodbye by Janice Lynn Mather

Where Was Goodbye?
Janice Lynn Mather
Simon & Schuster
Published April 30, 2024

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About Where Was Goodbye

A teen girl searches for closure after her brother dies by suicide in this breathtaking novel from the author of Learning to Breathe and Facing the Sun.

Karmen is about to start her last year of high school, but it’s only been six weeks since her brother, Julian, died by suicide. How is she supposed to focus on school when huge questions Why is Julian gone? How could she have missed seeing his pain? Could she have helped him?

When a … Continue reading

Review: The Girl in the Window by Lindsey Hobson

The Girl in the Window by Lindsey Hobson

The Girl in the Window
Lindsey Hobson
Publisher
Published

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About The Girl in the Window

When Izzy breaks a window in the creepy house next door, her summer plans suddenly go from playing baseball in the backyard to doing yard work for mysterious Mr. Johnson to pay for the damage. Just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, she encounters a ghost girl with a cryptic HELP ME.

As Izzy begins to unravel the mystery surrounding the girl’s death, she discovers a whole new meaning to being friends… forever.

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Review: Northranger by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo

Northranger by Rey Terciero and Bre Indigo

Northranger
Rey Terciero
Illustrated by Bre Indigo
HarperTeen
Published June 6, 2023

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About Northranger

In this swoony and spooky teen summer romance graphic novel set on a Texas ranch, sixteen-year-old Cade Muñoz finds himself falling for the ranch owner’s mysterious and handsome son, only to discover that he may be harboring a dangerous secret.

Cade has always loved to escape into the world of a good horror movie. After all, horror movies are scary–but to Cade, a closeted queer Latino teen growing up in rural Texas–real life can be way scarier.

When Cade is sent to spend the … Continue reading

Review: One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome

One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline-Ransome

One Big Open Sky
Lesa Cline-Ransome
Holiday House
Published March 5, 2024

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About One Big Open Sky

Three women narrate a perilous wagon journey westward that could set them free—or cost them everything they have—in this intergenerational verse novel that explores the history of the Black homesteader movement.

1879, Mississippi. Young dreamer Lettie may have her head in the stars, but her body is on a covered wagon heading westward. Her father, Thomas, promises that Nebraska will be everything the family an opportunity to claim the independence they’ve strived for over generations on their … Continue reading