Reviews written by Ashley Sickora

Middle school is awkward enough but try starting over without your best friend, with social anxiety, and in a body that refuses to blend in. That’s Bunny’s life! After a truly chaotic first day, think: tripping, crashing into the cute boy, and starting a cafeteria...

Lydia and Killian? Absolute emotional wrecking balls! She’s battling the Corrupter’s pull, he’s trying to hold everything together, and I was just sitting there like please, can they catch a break?! Then you’ve got Teriana and Marcus, juggling betrayal, guilt, impossible choices, and still somehow...

We Won’t All Survive by Kate Alice Marshall is a survival thriller that wastes no time sinking its teeth in. We meet Mercy Gray, still reeling from the scars both physical and emotional of a mall shooting she narrowly survived. When she signs up for a high-stakes reality show hosted...

This joyful picture book shines a spotlight on an unsung hero of every school day the bus driver! Mr. Jay isn’t just steering the bus, he’s wrangling chaos with rhymes, humor, and heart. From pony poo to pesky swans, nothing keeps him from getting his crew safely to school. ...

Leena’s life goal? A huge, picture-perfect family the kind you see in feel-good holiday movies, where everyone shows up in matching sweaters and argues lovingly over pie. Instead, it’s always just been her and her young single mom, holding it down solo-style. So when Leena gets a surprise call from...

Esmer’s life gets flipped upside down when her sister falls victim to a creepy curse, and suddenly she’s thrown into the mysterious and kinda spooky Dream Realm ruled by the Shadow Bringer, a prince with some serious secrets. What I loved here was how the...

This is a compelling coming-of-age story that follows 16-year-old Carly Klein, who is honest, witty, vulnerable, and everything you would expect of someone her age. The story talks about some heavy themes, self-discovery, the yearning for connection, and the consequences of deception. The writing is beautiful and it really gives...

Lou is a restless girl from Texas who decides she’s over her old life. Before she takes off, she has her best friend shave her head half for convenience, half because she’s ready to become New Lou! Then she defers college and jumps onto a celebrity musician’s world tour as...

Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom by Allan Wolf is part wild adventure, part eco-disaster, part pirate mystery.and 100% heart. In Junius Leak and the Spiraling Vortex of Doom, we follow 12-year-old Junius, a water-obsessed, highly sensitive kid spending the summer in Louisiana. He’s hoping to figure out...

Graciela in the Abyss by Meg Medina was a whole experience. Imagine falling into a magical, eerie, totally surreal world that feels like a mix of Latin American folklore, emotional therapy, and one long, trippy fever dream and that’s Graciela in the Abyss. Graciela aka...

Living with his terrible uncle, trying to outrun trouble, and then stumbling across a forgotten 1950s robot town that feels equal parts magical and melancholy. Add in a lonely widow, stolen books, and robots waiting to power back on, and suddenly I was emotionally compromised for the third time in...

Twelve-year-old Luna moves from sunny Cali to her grandma’s old house in Virginia to talk about a big change! But when she finds her mom’s nature journals and goes on a quest to spot a real luna moth (yep, that’s what she’s named after), she starts to see her new...

I just tore through Outside by Jennifer L. Holm and it gave me that delicious, creeping sense of what if everything you’ve been told is a lie? From the very first line Whatever you do, don’t leave home I was hooked. Razzi has lived her...

The Free State of Jax by Jennifer A. Nielsen completely charmed me. Jax Averett has had what you could call a spectacular streak of bad luck living with an uncle and aunt who barely know his name and cousins who make every day miserable. So when he floats a raft...

Wiggling Words by Kate Rolfe pulled me in and honestly, I was charmed before I even turned the first page. Being lost in a forest of letters felt instantly familiar. Who hasn’t tripped over words, whether we’re learning them for the first time or navigating tricky ones as grown-ups? I...