Reviews written by Kim Baccellia, Staff Reviewer

Colorful celebration of what Pride means shown through LGBTQA+ role models. This picture book starts with the historical background of some leaders who fought for their rights at Stonewall. There's a breakdown of what LGBTQA means. The book also shows how celebrities, sports figures,...

What worked: Stranger Things meets Stephen King. Only in this novel, it's a twelve-year-old boy who gets sucked into a supernatural pinball machine. There are tons of late 80s/early 90s references throughout this novel. Basically, though it's a novel about friendships and what one would do to help a friend...

Lou is biracial-half white and half Metis/Michif and works the summer at her uncle's ice cream shack. She just broke up with Wyatt and wonders why she didn't feel anything whenever they were together. Add to this her biological father has just been released from prison and is insisting on...

What worked: Engaging collection of fantasy short stories that celebrate Black girl protagonists. These stories include takes on historical past like Roanhorse's inspiration of an all Black settlement in the early 1900s. Other stories include Acevedo's twist on a slave rebellion in 1951 Hispaniola. There's also ones with witches...

Izzy's not too excited to go on a Bermuda cruise with her family. While on deck she meets Jade, who is impulsive and livens up the otherwise boring cruise. Then Jade goes missing. Izzy tries to find out what happened to her friend, but no one will listen. Later, Izzy...

What worked: True story of Kip Tiernan and her message of compassion and empathy for the homeless. This story moved me so much. It starts when Kip was young and helped her grandmother in a soup station during the Great Depression. Kip learned from her grandmother to have compassion for...

What worked: Chilling, horror story of racism, bullying, and what happens at a small town's first integrated prom. Jackson shows us a biracial teen who is bullied and who finds she has a secret power. Maddy's life includes a father who forces her to pray to be like the...

Seventeen-year-old Pie isn't like any other girl. She's invisible. Pie and her mother have constantly been on the run. Because no one can see them, they live in others' houses unseen. Then one day her mother disappears, leaving Pie alone. When she overhears one of the residents mentioning a party,...

Thirteen-year-old Danny Timmons looks up to Jack Bailey after he saved two children during a storm. But there's more to Jack than meets the eye. The author shows readers a multi-layered character whose secrets hide a truth about his father. Danny finds out that not all battles are won...

After submitting a DNA test as a 'joke', eighteen-year-old Chloe Chang finds she's a match to a family in Korea. A family she didn't know about. What happens next is a whirlwind first-class trip to Seoul, Korea where she is introduced to the family of her dead father. At first,...

What worked: Fresh, exciting story set in Seoul, Korea. All the glory of Korean culture, food, and the countryside is shown in great detail. You can't help but be swept away! I'm a huge fan of K-dramas right now and this book gives readers this...

What worked: Engaging horror tale of a teen who insists he was bitten by a monster and the fall-out that follows. I'm a huge fan of Hutchinson's books. This novel addresses sensitive topics like homophobia, disorder eating, gaslighting, and self-harm. But mostly it's a story that addresses the trauma of...

What worked: Lyrical, heartbreaking historical where magic and reality merge. Based on a true event, readers are transported to 1950s Budapest and meet Csilla. She lives a complacent life with her aunt, a survivor of Auschwitz, counting down the days until they can flee the country. She longs to break...

What worked: Powerful, evocative tale told in verse that is heartwrenching at times but still filled with hope. Fifteen-year-old Rima Marin is a 'natural' child. This means she is illegitimate and is shunned by others, including her father and the church. Rima lives with her abuela and mother as squatters...

What worked: Engaging fantasy of a girl who struggles with her magical ability. After the death of her beloved grand-mere, fifteen-year-old Sylvie leaves her small village, searching for a teacher to help guide her with her gift. The novel goes over how the women in Sylvie's family are known as...