Tag Archive | teens

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.

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.

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.

Who is MAKING WAVES now?! tween cruise ship drama, by Lee Heart (MG book review)

May20
Silhouetted against the ocean and setting sun, a tween girl with ponytail and tween boy are talking on cruise ship deck, below book title Making Waves by Lee Heart.

First the beautiful wedding,
now the cruise all together –
it’ll be perfect, right?

Since their widowed mom and her divorced dad started dating, Hannah and Lucy have constantly teased Emma.

Now they’re all on a cruise in the Caribbean to bond as a family after the wedding. The twins mock Emma’s enthusiasm for all the ship’s activities and that she’s taller at 12 than they are at 13, but she tries to take it in stride.

Oh, the cutest boy dances with Emma at the bon voyage party! Hopefully they can spend some time together, but it’s a such a huge ship…

Their parents tell the girls to stick together in the evenings and absolutely no Teen Club, but Hannah and Lucy go there anyway!

Emma makes friends at Kidz Korner and sees Justin a few times – only a few days to figure out if he likes her or is just being polite.

Why is Lucy being so mean to her?
Do the twins always disobey their mom?
Will she ever get to spend some time with Justin?

The ship is sailing smoothly, but Emma’s life isn’t!

Has your family been on a cruise together?
**kmm

Book info: Making Waves (a Spotlight Sprinkles book) / Lee Heart. Simon Spotlight, 2026. [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Making-Waves/Lee-Heart/Spotlight-Sprinkles/9798347103584] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Y is for THE MANY MISFORTUNES OF EUGENIA WANG, by Stan Yan (MG Graphic Novel) #A2Z

Apr29
A column of flames roars upward against a black background with gray images of her family, friends, and dog. In front of the flames, a tween Chinese-American girl wearing glasses clings to a PE climbing rope, looking anxiously upward at book title The Many Misfortunes of Eugenia Wang, graphic novel by Stan Yan.

Only turn 13 once!
Can’t her party be on her birthday?
Bad luck, bad luck!!

Eugenia loves drawing and wants comics camp as her 13th birthday present, but her stereotypical Chinese-American mother says no art, only study hard, play violin, become a doctor or lawyer.

And she can’t even have her party on her actual birthdate because the Cantonese words for ‘four’ sound like death, so April 4th is doubly cursed, according to Mom.

Eugenia and bestie Keisha decide to have a party on 4/4 at her friend’s house (with K’s dads’ permission) for their classmates, including cute Enrique (swoon).

After a concussion in PE class, Eugenia keeps having a terrible nightmare of fire and disaster. Each time it hits her – day and night – the terrible vision’s scope shows her more and more people dying, even her annoying little brother and her dog, then she draws comics of it in her sleep! Is a spirit trying to warn her? A demon?

Yes, she will get to summer art camp, even if she has to use her own money and the nightmare comic as portfolio piece!

As the days before her birthday march on, Eugenia tries to figure out what the nightmare is telling her and how she can save her family and friends and pet from the disaster it foretells!

Don’t miss the debut author/artist’s notes in the back of this red-hot graphic novel!

What was your most memorable birthday party?
**kmm

Book info: The Many Misfortunes of Eugenia Wang / words and art by Stan Yan. Atheneum Books for Young Readers, 2025.[author/artist site https://www.stanyan.me/] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Many-Misfortunes-of-Eugenia-Wang/Stan-Yan/9781665943321] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

S is THE BLOSSOMING SUMMER, safe from war, finding herself, by Anna Rose Johnson (MG fiction book review) #A2Z

Apr22
A dark-haired young teen girl wearing a 1940s short-sleeved plaid dress stands on a windy hillside above a sparkling lake beneath a sunny blue sky with high white clouds as well as military airplanes. She holds a bouquet of flowers tightly against herself with her elbow as she looks left, into the wind.

Separation and reunion.
Travel amid war!
Secrets…big family secrets.

Fleeing the London blitz in 1940, Rosemary’s parents gather up the children from relatives’ homes across England and take them to America, to stay with the grandmother in Wisconsin they’ve never met. After three years apart, the 13 year old wants to be a good big sister, but isn’t sure how.

From rationing and blackout curtains to a gigantic house and gardens straight from her dreams! She’s relieved and happy, until she meets their snooty same-age cousin (not one pimple – how unfair) and is treated like a child by Aunt Ann.

Dad left this beautiful place on purpose, changed his last name – why didn’t he ever tell them that his family was French and Indian?!

Grandmother is determined to win the flower and vegetable show at the county fair – will local boy Jacob lose his gardener’s job if Rosemary and her brothers help out?

As they work in the gardens, Grandmother teaches Rosemary about traditional Objiwe plants and their names in Anishinaabemowin – could her family be transplanted here as easily as the tiny violet plant that she brought from her best friend’s garden in England?

Maybe Dad will help them in the garden and canoe with them on the lake and become happy here by county fair time… during this lovely summer, even as war’s shadows come closer.

By the Native American author of The Luminous Life of Lucy Landry, recommended here: https://booksyalove.com/?p=14384 .

What’s your favorite garden plant?
**kmm

Book info: The Blossoming Summer / Anna Rose Johnson. Holiday House, 2025. [author site https://annarosejohnson.com/the-blossoming-summer/] [publisher site https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777259/the-blossoming-summer-by-anna-rose-johnson/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

L is LOVE AT SECOND SIGHT & supernatural danger! by F.T. Lukens (YA fiction) #A2Z

Apr14
In front of school lockers, a pale teen boy with growing-out dyed blond hair whispers to a taller dark-haired teen boy with claw-like fingernails, on book cover of Love at Second Sight, by F. T. Lukens

A vision in moonlight,
a muddy field,
a murder about to happen!

Human teen among paranormal classmates, Cam is glad that he and best friend Al (witch) will be back together at the new high school, nervous about seeing his crush Mateo (werewolf), still sad that big brother Aiden purposely vanished a few months ago.

Caught in a sprite vs. werewolf melee, the sophomore crashes headfirst into lockers and is pulled from the pile-up by a girl whose touch throws him into a vision – of a wounded girl being attacked with a knife!

Not telling his anti-paranormal parents about his glimpse of the future, Cam asks Al to quietly find out more and agrees with them to carefully test his clairvoyant abilities.

There’s no escaping his new truth: he can indeed see the future, and he goes to school with a murderer!

A viral video of Cam’s next vision being proven true catches his parents’ attention; he hears them whispering about what went wrong with his big brother…

Now all the paranormal factions in town are eager to ally with Cam, the first seer in a century – so many feuds between them…

Ooh, invited to a cookout at Mateo’s! < swoon >

Will he have to always wear gloves to prevent unwanted visions?
How does Cam decide which faction to join?
Can he and his new friends stop that girl’s murder?

Fantasy-mystery-paranormal-romance releases in paperback today! (April 14, 2026)

By the author of magical, adventurous, affirming tales In Deeper Waters (my recommendation https://booksyalove.com/?p=12378), So This is Ever After (https://booksyalove.com/?p=12989), Spell Bound (https://booksyalove.com/?p=13689), and Otherworldly (https://booksyalove.com/?p=14421).

Which paranormal neighbor would you like to have?
**kmm

Book info: Love at Second Sight / F. T. Lukens. Margaret McElderry Books, hardcover 2025, paperback 2026. [author site https://www.ft-lukens.com/] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Love-at-Second-Sight/F-T-Lukens/9781665950947] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

B is A BITE OF PEPPER, young vampire finding herself, by Balazs Lorinczi (YA Graphic Novel) #A2Z

Apr2
On roof's edge near a streetlamp, a seated dark-haired girl wearing a bat-winged backpack looks back at a standing blonde girl who watches a leashed vampire puppy chase butterflies in the sky, on book cover of graphic novel A Bite of Pepper, by Balazs Lorinczi.

Skateboarding,
loving on her pup,
does she have to lock in her future already?

As a born-vampire, teen Pepper isn’t immortal – yet. Once she takes a bride (any gender) and they turn together, their age and appearance will be set… forever.

Despite her mom’s pressure to choose, she’s not ready yet, not grown into her true self. Just-younger half-brother Jeb may defy tradition and turn immortal first – the upcoming human-vampire Gala is when many announce their brides and turn each other.

Meeting college art student Ana is refreshing – she really appreciates Pepper’s skateboarding talent and adores immortal puppy Shroom. Pepper’s mom hires her to work in the family bookshop, so the pair happily get to spend more time together.

Ana’s art class illustration project of Pepper’s amazing skateboard tricks is turned into an edgy skateboard brand by Jeb, who looks to the rich vampires’ Human Relations Council for start-up funding.

Will the Council help if neither Jeb nor Pepper are full vampires yet?
Does Ana really like Pepper for herself or just as a skateboard model?
Do they all have to become real adults right now!?

In a human and vampire world where B+ juice keeps vampires healthy without human blood, Pepper has to decide how much of her self she’ll let others control.

Lorinczi portrays his characters in pink, black, and lavender rather than the usual black and red.

Other “non-traditional” vampire books you’d recommend?
**kmm

Book info: A Bite of Pepper / Balazs Lorinczi. Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2025. [author/illustrator site https://balazslorinczi.carrd.co/] [publisher site https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/A-Bite-of-Pepper/Balazs-Lorinczi/9781665970464] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.

Amid the pandemic’s first autumn, THERE IS A DOOR IN THIS DARKNESS, if she can find it! by Kristin Cashore (YA fiction)

Jun24
Book cover of There Is a Door in This Darkness, by Kristin Cashore. A maze with several entrances encloses and surrounds the words of the title on a background of streaky cloudy sky.

Seven people, one apartment,
one pandemic, college deferred –
who is she anymore?

Wilhelmina’s best friends and their families are in a Covid-pod together without her, and the Boston teen misses them enormously. She can always sense where people are in a building, and text messages just aren’t the same.

Her gap year has turned into running all the errands and trying to keep her younger siblings at bay while Mom and Dad work from home; her Aunts (actually great-aunts) are now here too, missing late Aunt Frankie as much as Wilhelmina does.

Tomorrow “your doughnut will be stale!” a fortune-teller tells her from 6 feet away. “Trust Wil-helm-ina” sparkles the message she sees parachuting from the snowy sky while walking in the cemetery for solitude; well-masked classmate James saw a white owl drop it!

The next day, she chooses just-fried doughnut from James’ Italian-Chinese-American family’s bakery – somehow, it is stale…

She sees James in the cemetery again, and he’s glowing at the edges. The Temperance tarot card that Frankie gave her long ago changes to “Trust Ray” in sparkles. Huh?!

What if the aunts’ mail ballots don’t arrive from Pennsylvania in time?
Could she really drive them home as the pinched nerves in her neck and arm flare with pain?
Why is James now in her recurring Aunt Frankie dream?

Chapters for each day of her pivotal week in November 2020 alternate with those filled with wonderful memories of childhood and teen summers spent with the Aunts at their lovely rural Pennsylvania home.

These strands of past and present story weave together satisfyingly and realistically and a bit magically as Wilhelmina navigates the current crisis to find herself at last.

This contemporary work of magical realism by the author of the Graceling fantasy epics is now available in paperback and definitely deserves your reading attention.

Where were you during November 2020, before the vaccines were available?
**kmm

Book info: There Is A Door In This Darkness / Kristin Cashore. Dutton Books /Penguin, hardcover 2024, paperback 2025. [author site https://kristincashore.com/books/there-is-a-door-in-this-darkness/] [publisher site https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/313481/there-is-a-door-in-this-darkness-by-kristin-cashore/] Review copy checked out from my local public library; cover image courtesy of the publisher.

She was SWINGING INTO HISTORY! Toni Stone: Big-League Baseball’s First Woman Player, by Karen L. Swanson & Laura Freeman (nonfiction picturebook)

May28
Book cover of Swinging Into History: Toni Stone: Big-League Baseball's First Woman Player, by Karen L. Swanson; illustrated by Laura Freeman. Against backdrop of a large baseball among scattered stars, a Black woman wearing a Clowns team baseball uniform reaches up to catch a baseball in mitt on her left hand.

Oh, how she loves baseball!
But her parents keep saying no…
how will she make it to the Major Leagues?

Tomboy longed to play baseball, but her parents tried to keep the tween busy at their Black hair salon instead. Thankfully, their parish priest convinced them to let her play on the church team in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Persistence got her into a summer baseball camp into where good coaching polished her skills. An excellent fielder, accurate thrower, and astounding batter, Tomboy began trying out for semi-pro teams at 15!

Moving to California, changing her name to Toni, and playing several years in front of scouts for pro teams, she was finally signed to the New Orleans Creoles of the Negro minor leagues.

But playing in the 1950s Jim Crow southern states was doubly hard for Toni, always forced to enter stadiums through the “colored” door and often harassed for being a woman in a man’s game.

Finally, she got called-up to the Indianapolis Clowns of the Negro American League – the first woman to play for any Major League Baseball team!

“Worked hard for my dream, gave up a lot, but my dream came true: playing baseball with the big boys,” Toni said – big boys like Satchel Paige and Willie Mays.

Toni lived to see the her name listed among the 75 Negro Leagues players honored at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, where a baseball field is dedicated to her memory.

Includes a timeline of the Negro Leagues, civil rights history, and Toni’s career, a bibliography, and extensive author’s notes about the racism and gender discrimination that Toni endured while playing ball.

Which women athletes are you watching today?
**kmm

Book info: Swinging Into History: Toni Stone: Big-League Baseball’s First Woman Player / Karen L. Swanson; illustrated by Laura Freeman. Calkins Creek, 2024. [author site https://www.karenlswanson.com/] [illustrator site https://www.lfreemanart.com/] [publisher site https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/742890/swinging-into-history-by-karen-l-swanson-illustrated-by-laura-freeman/] Review copy and cover image courtesy of the publisher.