Review: Don’t Look Back by Achut Deng and Keely Hutton

Don't Look Back: A Memoir of War, Survival, and My Journey to America by Achut Deng and Keely Hutton cover shows a landscape with a sky barely at sunrise. Over that is an image of a girl's face so that the sky shows through it.

Don’t Look Back: A Memoir of War, Survival, and My Journey to America
Achut Deng and Keely Hutton
Farrar, Straus, & Giroux

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About Don’t Look Back

In this propulsive memoir from Achut Deng and Keely Hutton, inspired by a harrowing New York Times article, Don’t Look Back tells a powerful story showing both the ugliness and the beauty of humanity, and the power of not giving up.

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Review: If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come by Jen St. Jude

If Tomorrow Doesn't Come by Jen St. Jude

If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come
Jen St. Jude
Bloomsbury YA
Published May 9, 2023

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If Tomorrow Doesn’t Come

WE ARE OKAY meets THEY BOTH DIE AT THE END in this YA debut about queer first love and mental health at the end of the world-and the importance of saving yourself, no matter what tomorrow may hold.

Avery Byrne has secrets. She’s queer; she’s in love with her best friend, Cass; and she’s suffering from undiagnosed clinical depression. But on the morning Avery plans to jump into the river near her college campus, the world discovers there are only nine days left to an asteroid … Continue reading

Review: It Looks Like Us by Alison Ames

It Looks Like Us by Alison Ames

It Looks Like Us
Alison Ames
Page Street Kids
Published September 13, 2022

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About It Looks Like Us

The remote terror of THE THING meets the body horror of WILDER GIRLS in this fast-paced Antarctic thriller.

Shy high school junior Riley Kowalski is spending her winter break on a research trip to Antarctica, sponsored by one of the world’s biggest tech companies. She joins five student volunteers, a company-approved chaperone, and an impartial scientist to prove that environmental plastic pollution has reached all the way to Antarctica, but what they find is something much worse… something that looks human.

Riley has anxiety–ostracized by the … Continue reading

Review: MacKenzie’s Last Run by Gayle Rosengren

MacKenzie's Last Run by Gayle Rosengren

MacKenzie’s Last Run
Gayle Rosengren
HenschelHaus Publishing
Published September 1, 2022

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About MacKenzie’s Last Run

Thirteen-year-old MacKenzie (Mac) Lawrence secretly blames himself for his father’s death in a mall shooting. In his grief and guilt, he has pulled away from everyone, even his twin sister Tessa. When their mother announces her plans to remarry barely two years after Dad’s death Mac is furious and runs away in an attempt to force her to break off the engagement.

Unfortunately, nothing goes as Mac plans. He ends up seriously injured, miles from home, unable to reach out for help, while clues he inadvertently left behind suggest he’s been kidnapped—possibly by Mom’s fiancé—and … Continue reading

Review: At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp

At the End of Everything
Marieke Nijkamp
Sourcebooks Fire
Published on January 25, 2022

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About At the End of Everything

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of THIS IS WHERE IT ENDS comes another heartbreaking, emotional and timely page-turner that will keep you on the edge of your seat.

The Hope Juvenile Treatment Center is ironically named. No one has hope for the delinquent teenagers who have been exiled there; the world barely acknowledges that they exist.

Then the guards at Hope start acting strange. And one day…they don’t show up. But when the teens band together to make … Continue reading

Review: The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline

The Marrow Thieves
Cherie Dimaline
Dancing Cat Books
Published May 22, 2017

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About The Marrow Thieves

In a futuristic world ravaged by global warming, people have lost the ability to dream, and the dreamlessness has led to widespread madness. The only people still able to dream are North America’s Indigenous people, and it is their marrow that holds the cure for the rest of the world.

But getting the marrow, and dreams, means death for the unwilling donors. Driven to flight, a fifteen-year-old and his companions struggle for survival, attempt to reunite with loved ones and take refuge from the … Continue reading