Lakota teen must escape THUNDEROUS magical world! by Smoker, Peeterse & Deforest (YA Graphic Novel review)

Jun18
On book cover of graphic novel Thunderous, a Native American teen crouches on cliff top amid lightning, ready to spring upward, Behind her is gigantic silhouette of wolf's head with snarling mouth, a flying raven, and dimming sun. By ML Smoker and Natalie Peeterse.

Off the rez,
in the city –
new school! New friends?

Aiyana is happy for a new start in town, even if her grandmother recounts Lakota tales when the teen would rather be on social media.

Her younger cousin Kola loves those traditional tales and makes comics of them; for him, their South Dakota reservation will always be home.

On a field trip to sacred Black Elk Mountain, the popular girls make fun of Kola and dare Aiyana to take a selfie from the high tower as a storm approaches.

A crash of thunder and she falls into a magical place where Raven counsels that only wise Iktomi the Spider can send her home.

Uh-oh, bargaining with that trickster gives Aiyana only 2 days to get to the Badlands or be trapped here forever!

With no GPS, how will she find her way?
Can she trust any of the other animals she meets?
Does she remember enough of Grandmother’s tales to properly greet Iktomi?

This Native-created graphic novel uses color to great effect, with dark purples and blues for the storm (and Raven’s attempts to slow down Aiyana’s journey) and warm clear colors as she meets the animals long-beloved by her people. Includes an area map and Lakota glossary.

What other tricksters in traditional stories do you know?
**kmm

Book info: Thunderous / M.L. Smoker & Natalie Peeterse; art by Dale Deforest; colors by Adriano Augusto, Wendy Broome, Lisa Moore, Omi Remalante Jr. Curiosity Books/ Dynamite Entertainment, 2022. [M.L. Smoker info https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/ml-smoker] [Natalie Peeterse site https://nataliepeeterse.com/] {artist site https://daledeforest.squarespace.com/] [publisher site https://www.dynamite.com/htmlfiles/viewProduct.html?CAT=DF-Thunderous or https://shop.scholastic.com/teachers-ecommerce/teacher/books/thunderous-9781338877748.html] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

ALICE ECLAIR, SPY EXTRAORDINAIRE: Recipe For Trouble! by Sarah Todd Taylor (MG book review)

Jun17
A young French teen girl in red hat runs alongside a steam train at night, followed by a white cat. Above them is series title Alice Eclair, Spy Extraordinaire in a puff of pink smoke, below them is the book title A Recipe for Trouble, by Sarah Todd Taylor

Code-breaking,
puzzle solving,
spy training?

When she’s not making intricate creations of sugar and chocolate for Maman’s bakery, Alice follows mysterious messages through Paris – puzzles, secretive package exchanges. So much like the tasks set by her late Uncle Robert, gone for two years now.

The 13 year old goes undercover as a maid to retrieve microfilm from a spy and is most surprised at who she delivers it to!

Aha! The spy will be traveling on the luxurious Sapphire Express to the coast, carrying documents that will endanger brave French agents if they reach their destination – Alice must find a way to be on that train…

Her pastry-making skills get her on board, a chance encounter with a lively British teen girl gives her a potential ally, and she watches all the first-class passengers for clues – only a few days to figure it all out.

Twin dancing brothers are nervous when a fancy resort is mentioned, a glamorous woman insists that the pianist play only her sheet music, and a professor is taking mysterious notes.

Who is the spy?
Can Alice recover the papers?
Can she keep her job on the train while she tries?

As Europe watches Germany with great worry in the mid-1930s, a young spy-in-training must decide who to trust and what her true mission is. Followed by A Spoonful of Spying, A Sprinkling of Danger, and A Dash of Daring, as Alice’s amazing adventures continue.

Have you ever traveled on an overnight train?
**kmm

Book info: Alice Eclair, Spy Extraordinaire: Recipe for Trouble / Sarah Todd Taylor. Nosy Crow, 2025. [author site https://sarahtoddtaylor.com/alice-eclair-spy-extraordinaire/] [publisher site https://nosycrow.us/product/alice-eclair-spy-extraordinaire-a-recipe-for-trouble/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Her past lives, her SOULMATCH now, no future? by Rebecca Danzenbaker (YA book review)

Jun16
Book cover of Soulmatch, by Rebecca Danzenbaker, features a porcelain bust of a young woman with her eyes closed, elaborately adorned with many flowers, golden crown, and velvet choker with large pink jewel.

Control and power,
self-determination and destiny,
past and future…

The test must be wrong! Of course she has past lives on record, just like everyone else in these days of peace, two centuries after World War Three!

Like every 18 year old, Sivon reports for her kirling, when her soulid is matched with its past lives whose inheritance can provide a great start to this life.

Hopefully, she isn’t a Bad Soul, immediately marched to prison to finish her past self’s sentence! Or worse yet, be Flavinsky who commits suicide immediately after their kirling – 11 times so far…

Whoa, how can this be? Sivon is a New Soul, no soulid match at all, no past lives, no heritage or inheritance! She renames herself Carrefour from her new soulid, echoing the x in circle she always dreams, but others say Creature – a miracle, a messiah, a menace to all society?

The Prime Minister wants her to work on his re-election team, prompted by his nearly-18 nephew Janus, and will guard her artist mother’s safety.

Her bodyguard Shepherd’s soulmate is due to be kirled soon – their love has endured across many lifetimes. She can’t be attracted to him, she can’t!

What secrets lurk in The Fringe lands, among those who don’t trust kirling or the government?
Will she ever be safe again, ever have a soulmatch?
Are the ones calling her Creature the prophets?

Trust her instincts, guard her heart, seize her power – advice from the Institute is so hard to follow!

Do you believe in soulmates?
**kmm

Book info: Soulmatch / Rebecca Danzenbaker. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2025. [author site https://www.rebeccadanzenbakerbooks.com/] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Soulmatch/Rebecca-Danzenbaker/9781665963701] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Bedtime reading, if you dare… NIGHT STORIES: FOLKTALES FROM LATIN AMERICA, by Liniers (Graphic Novel)

Jun11
Book cover of Night Stories: Folktales from Latin America, shows a brother and sister in their bunk bed flying across the night sky above roads, trees, and hills, with author name Liniers and introduction by David Bowles below them.

Danger on the river,
in the town,
on the pampas!

One night in their bunk beds, a brother and sister are telling each other scary stories from folktales they’ve heard.

There’s the one about the mermaid and the pink dolphin in the Amazon River – that’s Iara, Mother of the water.

And beware the Witch-Owl of the Mexico borderlands – when this bruja calls your name, you know that your death is near!

On the pampas grasslands of South America, the Evil Light threatens to steal travelers’ souls – is it the gates of Hell opening a crack?

“As you read these stories, you will get at thrill from them. You might feel scared. But I hope you will keep in mind all the layers of meaning they contain,” says writer David Bowles in the heavily researched introduction “Why We Tell Tales” (pg. 6).

More about each folktale is found in the notes at the end of this entertaining and chilling graphic novel. Available in Spanish as Cuentos de noche: Relatos de Latinoamérica.

What’s your favorite folktale from the Western Hemisphere?
**kmm

Book info: Night Stories: Folktales from Latin America / Liniers; introduction by David Bowles. Toon Graphic, 2024. [about the author/artist https://www.lambiek.net/artists/l/liniers.htm] [publisher site https://www.toon-books.com/store/p330/Night_Stories%3A_Folktales_from_Latin_America_by_Liniers.html ] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

MINNOW, who speaks for the orcas in peril! by Willie Poll & Emily Graceanna Pearson (MG Graphic Novel review)

Jun10
A large orca and a First Nations girl with fish tail swim beneath the nighttime waves, a city silhouetted against hills behind them and graphic novel title Minnow, by Willie Poll & Emily Graceanna Pearson below.

Called to the sea,
concerned about its creatures,
what can she do?

As Minnow walks the Vancouver shoreline, picking up trash on the beach as she always did with her grandmother, the grieving young teen is certain that an orca just offshore is following her. But that can’t be true – orcas stay in deeper safe waters, right?

Mom takes her to the aquarium, where the fish follow Minnow as she walks along their huge tanks and the sea lions flee in the middle of feeding time – very strange.

There she meets Celia, new here from the Great Lakes. When they use the aquarium’s equipment to listen to the captive orca there, Celia hears screeches and clicks, but Minnow hears words!

Their summer times together include days at the beach, where Minnow’s feet turn to flippers in the water and her eyes become as black and deep as an orca’s – what is happening?

Minnow’s mom tells her the ancestral story of this gift handed down by countless generations of grandmothers – the ability to communicate with water creatures and the responsibility to speak for them to the human world.

Gran has been missing for 74 days, last seen at the proposed pipeline site on the shoreline, but investigating the disappearance of indigenous women isn’t a priority for Canadian authorities.

Time to find Gran’s journal and decide how a pair of young women can help the remaining group of orcas, before it’s too late!

This debut graphic novel by First Nations author and illustrator duo celebrates the power of community and connections for change.

Which sea creature would you like to hear speaking to you?
**kmm

Book info: Minnow / Willie Poll; art by Emily Graceanna Pearson. Medicine Wheel Publishing, 2026. [author site https://www.williepoll.com/] [illustrator site https://emilygraceannapearson.ca/about/] [publisher site https://shop.medicinewheelpublishing.com/en-us/products/minnow1] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

In the coffeeshop, there’s always STEAM & people (mostly human), by Shaenon K. Garrity & Emily Holden (Graphic Novel review)

Jun9

Townsfolk and students,
coffee and conversations,
pastry and personalities.

Ruby’s a great coffeeshop employee. She’s also an experimental young adult transhuman created in secret university lab nearby, but only the scientists she escaped from know that.

So many interesting people come to the coffeeshop – Annie the hat who speaks in cryptic sentences, Zev who says pants are a CIA plot, the cute girl always reading comics (co-worker Mira’s crush).

Ruby decides that love must be the “success condition” that makes someone happy, so she designs a data analyzer in the storage room and begins finding romantic matches among townspeople, including her harried boss Lynn, and nudging them together in the coffeeshop.

Meanwhile, the secret lab has mercenaries searching for RB-8, considered a top-level danger threat to humanity!

The more people who become happily paired up, the grumpier Mira gets, especially when she finds Ruby’s machine and fusses at her about invasion of privacy.

Mira already knows that Comic Book Girl is perfect for her, so she and Ruby comb through hints from romantic comedies and concoct a double-date plan involving new regular customer Ward.

But Ruby’s machine shows troubling information about Ward, and the mercenary agents are closing in!

Will Ruby get taken back to the lab?
How can her coffeeshop family protect her?
What really makes someone human?

This graphic novel is drawn by a different artist in a different world than the author’s Dire Days of Willowweep Manor (recommended here https://booksyalove.com/?p=12249) and Nefarious Nights of Willowweep Manor (https://booksyalove.com/?p=15087 ), all three great fun.

Does your favorite coffeeshop know your order by heart?
**kmm

Book info: Steam / Shaenon K. Garrity; illustrated by Emily Holden; inks by Sam McInnis; colors by Monica Nguyen-Vo. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2026. [author site https://www.shaenon.com/] [illustrator site https://emily-holden.com/steam] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Steam/Shaenon-K-Garrity/9781534495852] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Competing and playing: THE ORIGINS OF SPORTS, by Sekaninova, Velcovky, & Ilcik (kids nonfiction book review)

Jun4
Book cover of The Origins of Sports, surrounded by badminton shuttlecocks. golf clubs, ski poles, helmets, ice skates, racquets, mitts, and many different sport balls

Running and kicking,
throwing and batting,
many sports have long histories.

“This book is not about the first to the finish line. It is about who started things. It is about those who felt that playing was more important than winning.” (pg. 1)

In prehistory, running fast and throwing accurately meant survival. Celebrating a strong mind and a strong body, the Ancient Greeks insisted on education and began the Olympic Games.

Swimming has been a life skill and sport for over 900,000 years, we know from very ancient cave paintings! The first manuals on how to swim appeared in 1534.

Skiing developed from Stone Age snowshoes, with the first written records of skiing in China in 206 BCE. New technologies led to professional skiing, snowboarding, and snurfing.

On ice, people first glided with their feet on skates made of bone, then went faster with steel blades. Did you know that ballet dancer Jackson Haines invented figure skates in the 19th century?

With game elements from Egypt, Greece, Native peoples of Canada, France, and England, the first ice hockey matches were played by Canadian university students in the 1870s, who introduced a goaltender and set the rules.

Scotland is called the home of golf, but similar games with a club and ball were played in ancient Rome, China, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

Ball-kicking games played in the Roman Empire, China, and Japan led to soccer, rugby, and football – each with their own rules about ball shape, scoring, time, field markings, and whose hand can touch the ball.

Keeping a feathered ball in the air has been a game for over 2000 years, whether using hands or feet or a paddle or a racket; badminton with feathery shuttlecock and tennis with rubber ball and heavier racket.

Basketball began in 1891 by James Naismith as a year-round indoor sport. Soon after, W.G. Morgan invented volleyball as an indoor winter sport with less running.

Baseball in its modern form was developed in the USA, echoing bat and ball games played in ancient Egypt and England from the 14th century.

Which sport is your favorite?
**kmm

Book info: The Origins of Sports / Stepanka Sekaninova & Tom Velcovsky; illustrated by Matej Ilcik; translated by Andrew Oakland. Albatros, 2023. [publisher site https://www.albatrosbooks.com/book/the-origins-of-sports/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher, via Publisher Spotlight.

Summer of new friends, new enemies, THE ENDLESS GAME, by J. D. Amato & Sophie Morse (MG Graphic Novel)

Jun3
A tween boy looks back as he runs in front of his friends, while others on hillside ride bikes & are lookouts. On hills behind them rise towers with different flags, on either side of book title The Endless Game. Graphic novel written by J D Amato, art by Sophie Morse

His family moved again!
What’s there to do around here?
Oh, capture the flag – all summer!

Lakeside is divided by more than the stream running through the middle of town. For 75 years, the Uphill versus Downhill feud has been channeled into the kids’ summer-long game of Capture the Flag, with each side having a ‘castle’ and a king and a flag and a jail.

When Fred moves to the Illinois town in 1998, his frazzled mom with baby forces the quiet middle schooler to go outside and meet neighbor kids who introduce him to the game which is still going on because no one has ever captured the flag.

The Council of homeschooled kids is neutral and sets the rules: no adult help allowed, tagged kids stay in the other side’s jail from 11 a.m. till the evening streetlights come on every day for the rest of the summer or until rescued!

Downhillers know that cheater Uphill king Jamie caused their king Mike to get sent away for the summer, so they want Uphill to lose more than ever.

While Fred waits for his dad to get transferred from their old town, he’s busy making new friends, learning what skills he’s good at (or not), and trying to help Downhill finally win the game!

Travel Lakeside’s woods and streets with resourceful tweens in this graphic novel of cooperation, competition, and confidence.

What’s your favorite outdoor summer game?
**kmm

Book info: The Endless Game / J. D. Amato; art by Sophie Morse. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2026. [author & illustrator interview https://smack-dab-in-the-middle.blogspot.com/2026/05/interview-with-jd-amato-and-sophie.html] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Endless-Game/J-D-Amato/9781665927154] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Be sweet, be silly, ALWAYS BE MY BIBI, by Priyanka Taslim (YA book review)

Jun2
A Bangladeshi-American teen girl wearing large earrings, many bracelets and bright neck-scarf holds a glass of tea and winks over her heart-shaped rosy sunglasses in front of a terraced hillside and the book title Always Be My Bibi, by Priyana Taslim.

No phone, no fun, no boys,
bummer summer ahead –
until big sister’s big news!

Bibi the flirty fashionista tries to get around Abbu’s archaic rule about her not dating until older sister Halima is married, but the rising senior got caught going to prom and now is grounded for the summer.

Suddenly, big sis and Sunny announce their plans to marry this summer, in both families’ hometown in Bangladesh, and stay there! Is she giving up her dream of being an environmental lawyer?

Abbu is a famed entrepreneur in their Bangladeshi-American Muslim community in New Jersey, but the undisputed royalty in his hometown is Sunny’s family with their tea garden and resort here. So stiff, so formal, even the groom-to-be’s younger brother…

Despite their differences, Bibi and Sohel agree that their siblings aren’t right for each other and scheme to break them up, before it’s too late.

Oooh, a date with Sunny’s rich friend Akash is thrilling! Of course, they are properly chaperoned at all times, just like Halima and Sunny until their wedding.

Why aren’t Sunny and Sohel as close as Bibi and Halima are?
Why is Bibi beginning to enjoy being around Sohel at the tea gardens that he cares for so much?
Is it too late to stop making the engaged couple unhappy with each other?

When her beloved grandmother reveals a secret from her own university days, Bibi wants to solve the mystery, with Sohel’s help…

Releasing in paperback today! (6/2/26)

Got a favorite family wedding story?
**kmm

Book info: Always Be My Bibi / Priyanka Taslim. Salaam Reads, 2025. [author site https://priyankataslim.com/always-be-my-bibi/ ] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Always-Be-My-Bibi/Priyanka-Taslim/9781665901130] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Yes, indeed BLACK HISTORY IS YOUR HISTORY! by Taylor Cassidy (YA nonfiction & memoir review)

May28
Book title Black History is Your History is encircled by hand-drawn portraits of noteworthy Black men and women, below author's name Taylor Cassidy

Angelou and Hurston,
Banneker and Jemison,
the who and the how and the why.

Based on her popular TikTok series “Fast Black History,” Taylor Cassidy presents the stories of 12 important Black people in US history, some of whom should be much better known.

Chapter titles spotlight each person’s legacy, like actress “Cicely Tyson and why good representation matters.”

We meet Ledger Smith, who roller skated from Chicago to D.C. in 1963 to attend the March on Washington and encourage others to go, too.

Gordon Parks overcame many obstacles to become a noted photographer of everyday Black life, segregation, and the Civil Rights Movement.

Each chapter includes a very personal “Taystory” section where the author relates experiences in her young life where she called upon lessons learned from these Black heroes to deal with her emotions and others’ expectations.

Whose example inspires you?
**kmm

Book info: Black History is Your History / Taylor Cassidy; illustrated by Adriana Bellet. Atheneum / Simon & Schuster, 2025. [author site https://www.instagram.com/taylorcassidyj/] [illustrator site https://jeezvanilla.com/] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Black-History-Is-Your-History/Taylor-Cassidy/9781665957700] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.