Tag Archive | self-image

S is for Sun and Rook, SPELL BOUND in magical emergencies! by F.T. Lukens (YA book review) #A2Z

Apr22
book cover of Spell Bound, by F.T. Lukens. Published by Margaret K. McElderry Books | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Magic is real – fact.
Cars still don’t fly – sad.
You’ve got magic or not – great or so, so sad.

Just-graduated Edison misses his late grandmother’s magic and needs a job, so he asks the most powerful sorcerer in the city, Antonia Hex. Because her magic fries out electronics, the owner of Hex-a-Gone cursebreaking services hires the tech-savvy 16 year old, dubbing him Rook.

The non-magical teen has invented a secret device that displays the spell-powering ley lines that only magic-wielders should be able to see. Antonia isn’t a fan of the Consortium that makes all the magical rules, so this is…interesting. But according to teenage Sun, ever-clad in black and apprentice to sorcerer Fable, that Spell Breaker device is going to get Rook into big trouble.

Rook and Sun see each other on big jobs where Antonia and Fable must (grudgingly) work together to fix things like singing mice in apartment walls. And meet for coffee while Sun finishes their summer school homework before apprentice hours with Fable. And venture to his grandmother’s house together, Spell Breaker in hand…

Can Antonia really teach magic to Rook?
Will the Consortium find out?!?
What did happen to her last apprentice?

Chapters by Rook and by Sun recount the growing fondness between the teens, in contrast to the deepening feud between Antonia and Fable, with the Consortium’s iron fist ever-looming over all. (watch out for that enchanted doormat with a bad temper)

Just published! Modern-day magic by the author of In Deeper Waters (more here) and So This is Ever After (recommended here) – anything they write, I want to read!

If you could cast just one spell, what would you choose?
**kmm

Book info: Spell Bound / F.T. Lukens. Margaret K. McElderry Books/ Simon & Schuster, 2023. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

R is for romance, fake – but THIS TIME IT’S REAL! by Ann Liang (YA book review) #A2Z

Apr21
book cover of This Time It's Real, by Ann Liang. Published by Scholastic Press | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Another year, another school,
another place to not fit in –
just keep writing…

Little sister is adapting fine to their new school, but moving back to China after many years away for Mom’s consulting career is really tough for high school senior Eliza – just keep writing…

When her adorably perfect boyfriend must exit the shadows “protecting his privacy” so social media readers can have more of their romantic interludes, Eliza is aghast.

No way that will happen since the 17 year old invented him for her school blog entry!

That writing opened the door to a prestigious online magazine’s internship, so somehow she’s got to make him really real, have cute adventures in Beijing together, snap some filtered photos, and keep the story going during their senior year.

Desperate, she pleads with Caz Song at school – if the popular model/actor will step in as her dream sweetheart, she’ll help him write the college application essays demanded by his over-busy parents.

How will they pull it off without endangering Caz’s contract obligations?
Can she convince their classmates and her best friend Zoe back in California that it’s a real relationship?
Is Mr. Perfect movie star actually a little lonely?

This adventure/relationship might not follow her outline or his script! Counting down to their big television interview…

How would you write your own happily-ever-after?
**kmm

Book info: This Time It’s Real / Ann Liang. Scholastic, 2023. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

O is for on campus, starting college at FIRST-YEAR ORIENTATION! edited by Eric Smith & Lauren Gibaldi (YA book review) @A2Z

Apr18
book cover of First-Year Orientation, edited by Eric Smith & Lauren Gibaldi. Published by Candlewick Press | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Move-in day,
time for goodbyes and hellos –
your new life after high school begins!

Welcome to Rolland College, home of the Owls! Many first-year students (we don’t say freshman anymore) come from other states or countries to this small New Jersey institution, which is a hometown fixture for a few.

This year’s entering class includes marching band buddies and theater stars (on stage and behind the scenes), a football player with brains and brawn, former child actors trying to escape rerun fame, youth with helicopter parents or a missing family member or a big secret…

Through these 16 short stories by YA authors and an actress, we meet students who are first in their family to attend college and those following relatives’ footsteps at Rolland, young people who want to reinvent themselves or finally get to show their true selves.

Get ready for dorm drama, an emotional support rabbit, a crack in the universe, and campus ghosts in these stories by Adi Alsaid * Anna Birch * Bryan Bliss * Gloria Chao * Jennifer Chen * Olivia A. Cole * Dana L. Davis * Kristina Forest * Lauren Gibaldi * Kathleen Glasgow * Sam Maggs * Farah Naz Rishi * Lance Rubin * Aminah Mae Safi * Eric Smith * Phil Stamper.

I love how main characters in one story appear in others as the first-years and returning students at this fictitious college rush to and from orientation, the student organizations fair, welcome parties, and the much-anticipated live concert… a kaleidoscope of encounters and emotions.

Just published this month in hardcover and paperback! From the editors of short story anthology Battle of the Bands, another look at a single day from multiple perspectives by several YA authors – recommended here.

What “how I got here” story do you tell on your first day in a new place?
**kmm

Book info: First-Year Orientation / edited by Eric Smith & Lauren Gibaldi. Candlewick Press, 2023. [Eric’s site] [Lauren’s site] [publisher site] Review copy via Edelweiss and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

N is for the dangerous NIGHT RIDE – can she stop it? by J. Anderson Coats (MG book review) #A2ZN

Apr17
book cover of Night Ride, by J. Anderson Coats. Published by Atheneum Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

For the chance to stay near her favorite of the King’s horses, Sonnia dares to become a stable hand at the racetrack.

Some coins will go to help her family on the poor side of town, some saved for her dream of buying Ricochet.

Another stable worker is a girl? Great! They’re actually junior jockeys in training? Wow! They get to exercise the messenger fleet horses by riding them through the woods and meadows every afternoon? Even better!

Her big brother’s teasing ways prepared her for working with boys, but not for their reckless night riding on the King’s fleet horses, with bets placed…

Sonnia’s first pay, reduced by room and board fees, is much less than she promised to her father, even keeping none back toward Ricochet – will he make her return home to the family pony ride business?

Ricochet is moved into the fleet stables and can now be ridden in the peril-filled Night Ride! Harm to a horse is punished severely by the King. Who at the racetrack can help her stop this before Ricochet is injured?

Will Sonnia’s love for Ricochet help keep all the fleet horses safe or will it hurt the young riders who care for them at the racetrack?

A girl and a horse and a chance to do what’s right…

By the author of R is for Rebel, recommended here, and The Wicked and the Just (more here).

When have you turned away from the crowd, for the right reasons?
**kmm

Book info: Night Ride / J. Anderson Coats. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2021 hardcover, 2022 paperback. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

L is LOVE RADIO: advice, music, more? by Ebony LaDelle (YA book review) @A2Z

Apr14
book cover of Love Radio, by Ebony LaDelle. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Someday, he’ll be a hip-hop DJ and radio host.
Someday, she’ll be a noted writer on New York’s literary scene.
These days, maybe they can find time to find each other…

Sharing relationship advice on the radio is a highlight of Prince’s senior year, so very full of helping his mom who has multiple sclerosis and caring for his 6-year-old brother Mook.

Dani has an iron-clad plan for getting out of Detroit: be accepted to a great college in NYC, earn her Master of Fine Arts in writing, and become an author who changes the world.

As their paths cross for the first time since middle school, Prince thinks he might have a chance with his long-time crush, but Dani is intent on her exit plan. She does give him three dates to change her mind about starting a relationship – just three.

Sweet, thoughtful dates – interspersed with her flashbacks to an awful incident some months ago and his mom’s medical needs and…

Can you schedule falling in love?
When is a relationship past recovering?
What about a friend who lets you down one time too many?

Told in alternating chapters by the two teens, including transcripts of Prince’s radio shows and Dani’s unsent letters to noted Black women authors as she struggles with writer’s block on her all-important admissions essay.

What love song would you play to ease someone’s heartache?
**kmm

Book info: Love Radio / Ebony LaDelle. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2022. [author site] [author video] [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.

J is Jade and growing up and WHAT THE JAGUAR TOLD HER, by Alexandra V. Mendez (MG book review) #A2Z

Apr12
book cover of What the Jaguar Told Her, by Alexandra V. Mendez. Published by Levine Querido | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Jade didn’t want to leave Chicago and her friends and her abuela, but Mom’s new job with TV news in Atlanta is a big deal.

Thankfully, the first person she meets at private school is Chloe who explains things and introduces her to other 8th graders.

Little sister Katerina favors their Mexican-American mom, while Jade got her blonde hair and freckles from Dad, the professional gardener.

Walking the woodland path home from school, Jade meets an old man who tells stories like Abuela, about the early people of Mexico. Itztli’s tales fuel Jade’s drawings, moving her beyond pencil and notebook paper to vivid colors and deepest shadows that reflect their history and drama.

Chloe encourages her to practice with the cross-country runners, and Jade is thrilled to qualify for the team! If only the young woman could be confident about flirting and wearing makeup like her friends…

When Abuela must come stay with them, Jade learns more of their family history, painting the stories like Itztli does. Did her grandmother see animals in the obsidian mirror like Mom did? What will Jade glimpse there now?

Did Itztli look like a jaguar when she first saw him?
Will she see Chloe’s cute big brother at the high school during cross-country practice?
Wait, Mom is on TV reporting from New York City, where planes just flew into the Twin Towers…

This novel of magical realism starts in 2001, yet goes far back into ancient history with Itztli’s vivid stories as strong as oak trees, as nourishing as corn.

What story from your family starts furthest from where you are now?
**kmm

Book info: What the Jaguar Told Her / Alexandra V. Mendez. Levine Querido, 2022. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

G is for Graham, seeking RARE BIRDS, friendship, and answers, by Jeff Miller (MG book review) #A2Z

Apr8
book cover of Rare Birds, by Jeff Miller. Published by Union Square Kids | recommended on BooksYALove.com

In Mom’s Florida hometown for the summer, waiting…

She and 11-year-old Graham have gone from hospital to hospital as doctors try to fix her heart condition – this is the final stop, the last chance, waiting for a transplant.

They’ll stay with Mom’s long-time friend Dom who stored her keepsakes, like her birding journal, even though his son Nick isn’t keen on sharing a room with Graham.

Graham does make a friend his age in the hospital – Lou knows its ins and outs as she’s there with her dad.

Lou lives near Dom’s house, so during their non-hospital time, they learn to handle a canoe and explore the waterways, looking for the birds in Mom’s journal, finding the places that Mom and his late father went during high school.

Can they sight the rare Snail Kite and win the youth birdspotters’ contest?
Why doesn’t Nick want to help with his dad’s house painting business?
Will Mom’s time in this hospital turn out okay?

Friendship and family, learning new things and making new goals – a summer to make memories.

What’s the most unusual creature you’ve ever seen in the wild?
**kmm

Book info: Rare Birds / Jeff Miller. Union Square Kids, 2023. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

F is Martha Freeman’s TRASHED! as a young detective aims to solve the perfect crime (MG book review) #A2Z

Apr7
book cover of Trashed! by Martha Freeman. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

Planning a mouse’s funeral,
a long-lost souvenir teacup reappearing,
his best friend’s mom going on a date – lots happening in 11-year-old Arthur’s life these days!

He and little sister Ramona (mouse owner) live with their parents above the Boulder thrift store founded by his grandparents, and that’s where the teacup showed up. Grandpa recognized his favorite rock band’s cartoon bear mascot on it right away – but who brought it into the store?

The mouse is back, as a ghost now called Watson – maybe here to be helpful?

Arthur hopes that Watson’s ghostly stealth and observational skills help solve the teacup mystery and why store-worker Randolph dislikes Officer Bernstein and where the confidential consignment items file went.

Did someone bring items for the store to sell that were actually stolen?!
How could the thief snatch so many things from people’s homes without anyone noticing?
Will Grandpa’s prejudice make him accuse the wrong person?

If Arthur can figure out why best friend Veda is mad at him, maybe she can help him and Watson solve “the perfect crime” in this entertaining mystery by the author of Noah McNichol and the Backstage Ghost (recommended here).

What’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever bought (or sold)?
**kmm

Book info: Trashed! / Martha Freeman. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2023. [author site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

D = Is she a good animator or just DRAWN THAT WAY? by Elissa Sussman & Arielle Jovellanos (YA book review) #A2Z

Apr5
book cover of Drawn That Way, by Elissa Sussman; illustrations by Arielle Jovellanos. Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers | recommended on BooksYALove.com

The greatest animation director in the world is offering a summer internship – Hayley is so excited to be chosen to work with other teens on producing short films and maybe get a real job at BB Gun Films.

She’s been so inspired by Beckett’s magical, Oscar-winning film based on his son Bear’s imagination that she follows all his advice on their craft – what will the so-private genius be like in person?

Four films, four teams, all the leadership roles given to boys, including Bear himself who seems really bored with everything – not fair! Away from the studio, Bear seems a nice enough guy, reluctantly dragged into the program when his long-divorced dad discovered he can draw so well.

At least Hayley’s BB mentor is a woman, but she warns that this studio is as much an “old boys’ club” as the others and that women in animation have to work much harder to get work, let alone get credit for it.

Truth! Their team director takes credit for Hayley’s script, then lies about it in front of Beckett himself who chastises Hayley and puts her on Bear’s team as ‘his muse’ – stating bluntly that the Jewish girl was among the interns chosen “for diversity.”

After following Beckett’s advice for so long, Hayley is utterly stunned – is she really as talented as she thinks she is?

Bear believes in Hayley’s talents and reminds her that the animation business never promised to be fair. Being with Bear in the evenings alone – that’s more than fair.

The few other girls in the program are equally angry about their team leaders’ lack of leadership, and Hayley has an idea – why don’t they make their own short-short film too?

Working wild hours outside their team projects, the young women create Hayley’s girl and golem story that Beckett said no one could relate to – can they sneak it into the final showcase?

Time to aim for that glass ceiling and break through!

When has someone denied your proven talents?
**kmm

Book info: Drawn That Way / Elissa Sussman; illustrations by Arielle Jovellanos. Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2021, paperback 2022. [author site] [illustrator site] [publisher site] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.