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Who’s fighting against ONYEKA & THE ACADEMY OF THE SUN? by Tọlá Okogwu (MG book review)

May24
book cover of Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun, by Tola Okogwu. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

People in their British town look at her in 2025 and just see voluminous hair, not Onyeka the person…

When the middle-schooler saves her best friend from drowning at the swimming pool – with her hair – Mum finally admits that Onyeka is a Solari with psychokinetic superpowers inherited from her missing father, whose enemies chased Mum and Onyeka out of Nigeria.

Her uncontrolled powers are making her dreadfully sick, so back to the world’s tech capital of Lagos they go, so Onyeka can learn how to harness her Ike at the Academy of the Sun, and Mum can search for her father.

The Solari come to the Academy as children and secretly train to use their powers for the good of their country, so Onyeka is already behind her age-mates. Is that why her roommate Adanna is so grumpy at her?

Holographic rooms, AI teachers, physical training so each Solari can master their own type of Ike – Enhancer, Emitter, Transformer, or Psionic – and someday become Protectors. Hassan and Niyi become her friends as she tries to learn fast.

But Onyeka gets sicker every time she uses her Ike, Mum is suddenly out of contact, and Rogues with Ike powers attack the Academy!

Who’s this Dr. Naomi who worked with her father at their research lab?
Has the Academy director taught them honestly about how the Solari came to be?
Will Onyeka survive to her birthday next month?

Fast-paced, heart-stopping adventure in this debut novel, followed by book 2 in the series: Onyeka and the Rise of the Rebels (more info here) on 30 May 2023, same day as the paperback edition of book 1 in the USA.

What superpower would you choose?
**kmm

Book info: Onyeka and the Academy of the Sun (Onyeka, book 1) / Tọlá Okogwu. Margaret K. McElderry Books, hardcover 2022, paperback 2023. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

K is Kyr battling in space for vengeance and SOME DESPERATE GLORY, by Emily Tesh (YA book review) #A2Z

Apr13
book cover of Some Desperate Glory, by Emily Tesh. Published by Tordotcom | recommended on BooksYALove.com

“While we live, the enemy shall fear us.”

They’re the last true humans, hidden in a hollow asteroid, living on scant food, training for vengeance after Earth was obliterated by the alien Majo.

Genetically-enhanced Kyr expects the other teen girls to train for combat with her focused ferocity, so they’ll be placed on a battleship instead of being trapped in the nursery as breeding stock.

Only her brother Mags is a stronger warrior, yet he is sent on a suicide mission to a planet of Majo-cooperating humans, and the Commander assigns Kyr to her worst nightmare.

Desperate to save Mags and herself, Kyr enlists the help of his tech-savvy friend and crush Avi to escape their fates by using the recently-captured Majo ship and its alien pilot Yiso.

Away they flee, to the same planet that their big sister defected to, the planet that the supreme Majo leader will soon visit…coincidence?

The history relentlessly drilled into Kyr gets a reboot, a shadow engine of subreality makes their toughest training sims seem like babies’ play, and the young people have only a short time to help Yiso keep things from getting worse.

And then time twists… and twists…

Who’s the hero here?
How can anyone gay survive in a society where reproduction is paramount?
What other ways could Kyr’s life have turned out?

In the future, as now, different views of the same events bring conflict as well as opportunities for peace.

What “fact” of history learned in childhood have you unlearned?
**kmm

Book info: Some Desperate Glory / Emily Tesh. Tordotcom, 2023. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

In a world GONE DARK, the prepper skills she longs to forget may save them, by Amanda Panitch (YA book review)

Nov17
book cover of Gone Dark, by Amanda Panitch. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books /Simon & Schuster | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Forget how she got away,
just think of the future,
till it all goes dark.

Zara and her mom have a better life in southern California, five years gone since they escaped from her father’s survivalist compound back east.

Computer games instead of skinning squirrels? What teen girl wouldn’t leave behind such a hard life? But her father’s voice still echoes that the world is ending soon… no wonder Zara has panic attacks.

Then the sporadic power outages become a nationwide blackout, and civilized behavior vanishes, just like Dad predicted. When a huge stranger barges into their darkened house and calls for Zara by name, the 17 year old knows it’s time to leave.

Unable to get Mom to safety, Zara and her best friends head away from the coast, trying to outrun the threatening stranger and avoid danger on the road.

A Mormon fortress welcomes them, but can they ever leave?
More people join the group as they travel – can they stay safe together?
If they reach the hidden compound, can they survive its border traps?

This future where the electric grid fails large-scale could be tomorrow, just like the difficulties that Zara and friends endure in a world gone dark.

What’s your emergency plan for disasters?
**kmm

Book info: Gone Dark / Amanda Panitch. Margaret K. McElderry Books /Simon & Schuster, 2022. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

They must find more LITTLE MONARCHS, butterflies vital for humanity’s survival! by Jonathan Case (Middle Grade graphic novel review)

Jun14
book cover of Little Monarchs, by Jonathan Case. Published by Margaret Ferguson Books / Holiday House | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Sun-sickness wiped out mammals,
some humans survive underground,
can any ever see daylight again?

By 2101, only two people on Earth can survive sunshine – young Elvie and scientist Flora who’s caring for the 10 year old while Elvie’s parents travel onward as the team perfects a cure for sun-sickness.

Monarch butterflies carry the needed ingredient on their wings, so Flora and Elvie follow their migration south along what used to be the western USA, scavenging from former cities, foraging wild foods, and avoiding known underground settlements.

Elvie documents nature and schoolwork in her journal, while Flora tests and retests ways to make larger quantities of the monarch wing-scale medicine that prevents sun-sickness.

After an earthquake, they find a small boy near an abandoned settlement, so Flora gives him a dose of medicine and they keep going. Elvie left behind a note and some medicine, in case anyone returns to look for little Sito.

Wow, his family does follow them and wants to travel along – safety in numbers, right? Right?!?

This outstanding graphic novel documents their perilous journey to meet up with Elvie’s parents, as well as the natural wonders and survival skills that she records in her journal.

In our time, monarch numbers are dropping dramatically, so planting native milkweed along their migration route can make up for some habitat loss.

Do monarchs migrate through your region?
**kmm

Book info: Little Monarchs / Jonathan Case. Margaret Ferguson Books / Holiday House, 2022. [author site] [book site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Your front-row seat to excitement with dramatic audiobooks – free!

Jun9

We’re at the halfway point of this summer’s SYNC season – have you set up your free SORA shelf yet? Find out more in the SYNC FAQs.

The free download time for each thematic pair of professionally produced audiobooks is Thursday through Wednesday. If you miss that window, check your local public library or independent bookstore for highlighted titles.

Big thanks to participating audiobook publishers who give us 99 years to listen to these great adventures and true stories through SORA.

And now, the curtain rises – it’s time for present and future drama with two full-cast recordings of stage plays!

CD cover of Paradise, by Laura Maria Censabella | Read by Medalion Rahimi, Jeff Marlow. Published by L.A. Theatre Works | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Paradise (free Sora download 6/9-15/2022)
by Laura Maria Censabella | Directed by Anna Lyse Erikson | Read by Medalion Rahimi, Jeff Marlow
Published by L.A. Theatre Works

A shy, brilliant Muslim student challenges her high school science teacher with a mysterious past to help design a scientifically accurate experiment to measure the effects of love on teenagers’ minds and bodies.

Questions of faith, science, trust, and culture affect their search for answers and for truth. Listen to a conversation with the director at https://soundcloud.com/latheatreworks/paradise-bonus-content-a-conversation-with-laura-maria-censabella.

https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/206957/paradise-by-laura-maria-censabella-read-by-medalion-rahimi-jeff-marlow/

image of swirling lines from http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/mondays-throughout-the-day-17164159
CD cover of Tangent Knights 1: Caprice of Fate, by Christopher L. Bennett | Read by Richard Rohan, Elaine Yuko Qualter, Bianca Bryan, and a Full Cast. Published by Graphic Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Tangent Knights 1: Caprice of Fate (free Sora download 6/9-15/2022)
by Christopher L. Bennett | Read by Richard Rohan, Elaine Yuko Qualter, Bianca Bryan, and a Full Cast
Published by Graphic Audio

In 2046, New Avalon’s all-pervasive technology is controlled by one woman. When advanced nanotech armor invades her own daughter Cory, Herrera tries to control Cory and make her into a hero against tangent parallel Earths.

But this fan of Japanese tokusatu fighting games has her own ideas about being a superhero. As Caprice, she and peacekeeper Tangent Knights will fight against cyborgs brought from other dimensions by her mother! (first in a series) Check out the audio trailer at https://youtu.be/O7jygJ5qDl0.

https://www.audiofilemagazine.com/reviews/read/203852/tangent-knights-1-caprice-of-fate-by-christopher-l-bennett-read-by-richard-rohan-elaine-yuko-qualter/

What play would you like to hear as an audiobook?
**kmm

divider clipart http://www.clipartpanda.com/clipart_images/mondays-throughout-the-day-17164159

WELCOME TO DWEEB CLUB & video of their future!? by Betsy Uhrig (MG book review)

Jan27
book cover of Welcome to Dweeb Club, by Betsy Uhrig. Published by Margaret McElderry Books / Simon & Schuster | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Youngest kids in the school now,
gotta find your place all over again,
“Join a club” they say, “it’ll be fun…”

Being the first to sign up for a new club means that Jason and other seventh graders get to choose how things go, right?

Hmmm… H.A.I.R. Club isn’t about hair care at all (half the kids leave the first meeting) – its members are the only ones allowed to view the new state-of-the art security system at Flounder Bay Upper School, Maine.

Their first task – find out who is stealing all the croutons from the school cafeteria.

So they watch the late night security recordings and see a skunk heading down the hall. Then, at exactly midnight, the cafeteria is filled with high school kids – how did they get in?

A few more viewings and the eight Club members discover that those teenagers are them, five years in the future – how is this possible?

And none of them really like how their future selves behave – what can they do about that?

After a liquid + security laptop accident, the Club seeks help from Jason’s techie uncle who’s mystified by the programs on the security system – really?!?

Are they really seeing recordings from their own futures?
Why would a skunk seek out croutons?
Who donated the security system anyway?

One humane skunk trap, midnight stakeout missions, the continuous mocking of Jason’s bratty little sister – upper school is definitely different than elementary school! (except that last part, of course)

If offered a chance to see into your own future, would you?
**kmm

Book Info: Welcome to Dweeb Club / Betsy Uhrig. Margaret McElderry Books / Simon & Schuster, 2021. (author site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

BLOOD LIKE MAGIC, by Liselle Sambury – her witch test will destroy love or family! (YA book review)

Jan17
book cover of Blood Like Magic, by Liselle Sambury. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Safety is staying in her family home,
facing the forces outside is her fate…
how can she balance the magic required?

Oh yes, her extended family is exasperating on a day-to-day basis, but 16-year-old Voya knows they love her and that she’d do anything to keep them safe in mid-21st century Toronto.

Now the Trinidadian-Canadian teen pleads for a second chance to claim her Calling as a witch, through a task to be set by her ancestor.

But this task is brutal, far beyond what anyone in her extended family experienced in their Calling – ‘destroy her first love.’

Time is of the essence as Voya must fall in love with someone and then eliminate them…or her little sister will die, and her entire family will lose its long-held magic!

Love match via genetic blood test?
Cozying up to a rival magic family?
Surely there must be another way…

Find this great YA debut at your local library or independent bookstore now. The series continues with Blood Like Fate in August 2022.

What would you sacrifice to keep your family safe?
**kmm

Book Info: Blood Like Magic (Blood Like Magic, book 1) / Liselle Sambury. Margaret K. McElderry Books (S&S), 2021. (author site) (publisher site) Review copy & cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Fake fossil? Frightening future? Audiobooks tell the tales!

Jul16

A famous fossil hoax revealed. A flooded future foretold. Escape from your everyday world with this week’s free audiobooks from AudioSYNC, courtesy of their publishers.

With the free Sora app on your phone or tablet, you can use the links below to download either or both books and keep them on your Sora shelf to read now or later.

CD cover of FAKE, by Eric Simonson | Read by Kate Arrington, Coburn Goss, Francis Guinan, Alan Wilder, Larry Yando. Published by L.A. Theatre Works | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Fake (download free, 16-22 July 2020)

by Eric Simonson. Read by Kate Arrington, Coburn Goss, Francis Guinan, Alan Wilder, Larry Yando. Published by L.A. Theatre Works.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is involved in the mystery of the Piltdown Man, whose skull was hailed as the ‘missing link’ of human evolution when discovered in 1914.

This elaborate hoax was debunked in 1953 – but who planted the detailed fake fossil in England? Why did they try to hoodwink the scientific community?

CD cover of New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson | Read by Suzanne Toren, Robin Miles, Peter Ganim, Jay Snyder, Caitlin Kelly, Michael Crouch, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Christopher Ryan Grant, Robert Blumenfeld, Published by Hachette Audio | recommended on BooksYALove.com

New York 2140 (download free, 16-22 July 2020)

by Kim Stanley Robinson. Read by Suzanne Toren, Robin Miles, Peter Ganim, Jay Snyder, Caitlin Kelly, Michael Crouch, Ryan Vincent Anderson, Christopher Ryan Grant, Robert Blumenfeld. Published by Hachette Audio

Rising sea levels have made NYC streets into canals, yet the Big Apple’s people survive in the 22nd century, the higher above the water, the better.

In one apartment building, the detective greets the reality star heading for her airship, the day trader seeks market advantages, two orphan boys stay out of sight, and the coders on the rooftop are getting close to a big discovery… a dangerous discovery!

How do we know something is real and true? How can we help create the future we want?
**kmm

W for HOW WE BECAME WICKED, by Alexander Yates (YA book review)

Apr27
book cover of How We Became Wicked, by Alexander Yates. Published by Caitlyn Dloughy/Atheneum | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Safe in their domed towns,
from the zing-sting of plague-bringer Singers,
but not from the secrets, deadly secrets!

Turned into a Wicked cannibal by an insect’s sting! No wonder rich investors fled to this remote resort on the rocky Atlantic coast, fortified it with domes and tunnels and walls and supplies aplenty.

Those turned Wicked by sting or breath or blood look human and are so polite, asking first if they may rip off your arm to eat it – only their inability to answer a certain question unmasks them as no longer True.

Natalie’s grandfather is Wicked, and there are only so many places to lock up a clever cannibal on small Puffin Island – how long can she and her parents keep him at bay?

Years pass and children become few in Goldsport, as the radio voice reminds True families that on a certain night a youngster may be stung by Singers and become immune to the Vex, but no guarantees…

The island lighthouse starts working after years of darkness, a Wicked woman at the Goldsport gate knows Astrid’s father, and the town archives reveal things that teens Astrid and Hank aren’t supposed to see.

Can anyone really become Vexed, infected yet remaining True?
What happened in the little town near Goldsport as the Wickedness advanced?
What happens when the blue spray doesn’t chase the Singers away anymore?

Trying to wall out what you don’t want…has that ever worked?
**kmm

Book info: How We Became Wicked / Alexander Yates. Caitlyn Dloughy Books/ Atheneum, 2019. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

A is for Ash, saving the world again: OTAKU, by Chris Kluwe (book review)

Apr1
book cover of Otaku, by Chris Kluwe. Published by Tor Forge | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Saving the world is easy for Ash and her team,
they do it in-game with ease and flair…
Now, can they save the real world?

After the Water Wars, CCA’s iron religious fist forces unbelievers into overcrowded Ditchtown, stilted above drowned Miami, and the Game is their best escape.

To pay for Mom’s care, Ashley courier runs at double-speed, hoping her brother can stay out of trouble, saving just enough to rent in-Game hapticwear.

As Ashura the Terrible, her team dominates the Game leaderboard by skill and sword and rocket maneuvers, ignoring racial and sexual threats posted on the ‘Net, staying a jump ahead of those who want their secrets.

Suddenly, they are caught in a real war between theocrats who believe their own prophecies and technocrats who worship their devices and data.

Now, it’s up to this team of young women stop a humanity-ending chain reaction in real time, outside the Game, with just one life left.

+++++
Read an excerpt of Otaku at the publisher’s website here.

How do you decide what’s really worth fighting for?
**kmm

Book info: Otaku / Chris Kluwe. Tor Forge Books, 2020. [author Twitter] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.