A sweet, simple, beautifully illustrated picturebook perfect for social emotional learning with little ones.

This was a fascinating, surreal take on America’s history of racist medical experiments. Something in the tone and/or pacing felt off for me, like it was going for something it didn’t quite execute, but that could partly be due to the audio format.

I was hoping to feel encouraged and supported by this book, but I think it might not have been written for me. It’s as if it was trying to do too many things at once- be a memoir and journalism, educate outsiders and commiserate with insiders- and it ended up reading more as a litany of reasons that it sucks to be sick or disabled. This tone made it hard to pick up and it took me nearly three months to read it. It definitely wasn’t what I needed, but I could see it being of informative value to some.

“She was on a journey. She wasn’t gay or straight or even bisexual. And it didn’t matter. How she felt was personal, hers. How she felt belonged to her.”

A WORLD BETWEEN is a nuanced, warm, honest, endearing novel told over 13 years from two perspectives: Eleanor Suzuki’s and Leena Shah’s. It is the story of their whirlwind college romance, deep friendship, and everything that follows after. I was sucked in immediately by the mid-aughts college nostalgia, but I stayed for the complex characters, the evolution of their relationship, and the deep, insightful writing. Both Eleanor and Leena were full of such realistic yet endearing quirks, hang ups, and limits that all somehow made me love them more. I felt personally invested in this story, and even defensive of the characters and their individual journeys, in a way that I haven’t for a long time. I very much look forward to reading whatever Hashimoto writes next.

What a ride! I could not put this book down. It was a page turner that had me on the edge of my seat while also having some profound reflections on love, family, identity, and the narratives we carry with us throughout our lives. I didn’t love American Marriage so I wasn’t sure how I would feel about this one, but I’m so glad I picked it up. A quick read with so many layers.

EVERY BODY LOOKING is a YA novel in verse about trauma and joy and religion and family and identity and college and dance and relationships and boundaries and liberation. It manages to takes on all these themes, in the limited word count of verse, while also weaving one big thread throughout: learning to fully know and trust oneself, body and heart. Ada is going through this process, and healing from sexual abuse and various other traumas, during her first semester in college. This could easily be a really heavy read and triggers do abound, but I found Iloh to be masterful at balancing very painful flashbacks and their aftermath with beautiful moments of self-discovery, joy, and freedom.

One aspect of the book that really stood out to me as a post-religious person was the connection between Ada’s Christian upbringing and her struggle to listen to and exist fully in her body. Iloh’s analysis of how the Christian theology around distrusting the flesh and dying to ourselves creates an unhealthy relationship to one’s body and intuition is so sharp yet subtle. This is a connection I am just beginning to make at 33 with a therapist, so to see it written about so clearly in a book for teens just made my heart burst. This is just one of the many layers of Ada’s story, and one of the many ways young people may see themselves in her journey. I have so much love and admiration for everything Iloh is doing here.

I love what Mbalia is doing with folktales and making them accessible and fresh for kids now. Also the metaphors and characters and setting are brilliant and complex without being heavy. I hear the second one touches on mental health a lot so I’m very excited to see what the author does there.

I’m usually not a huge historical fiction person but I didn’t struggle with this book at all. Other reviewers have mentioned it’s a slow read but I found that the setting of 1950’s Chinatown in San Francisco and the lesbian culture at the time to be fascinating and kept me riveted. The author did a great job of balancing these two cultures and how a young Chinese American girl might feel divided by these parts of her identity. The love story was really sweet and the ending touching, realistic, and poignant.

A mystical, modern exploration of the Indian Removal Act, the Trail of Tears, and how past is present, particularly for one Cherokee family many generations later. Vivid and gut-wrenching, with moments of warmth and satire.

A refreshing and multifaceted look at bisexuality, mental illness, and sibling relationships. The author has a clear respect for teens as readers. The characters and story are nuanced and three dimensional. Definitely has earned a place in YA collections for years to come.