Melissa McAvoy

Sonnenblick, Jordan. Stepping Off. Scholastic, 06/2024. 336pp. Fiction. Trade $19.99. 978-1-339-02317-5. GRADES 7–10. OUTSTANDING.      As sixteen-year-old Jesse’s reality becomes increasingly fraught, the escapist draw of his favorite place—the lake community in Pennsylvania—becomes ever more powerful. There he can avoid magnet-school pressures and his parents’ failing [continue reading]

Safina, Carl. Owls in Our Yard: The Story of Alfie. Norton, 06/2024. 48pp. Nonfiction. Trade $18.99. 978-1-3240-5319-4. GRADES Kindergarten–5. HIGH ADDITIONAL.     A half-dead owlet is adopted by a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, who is also an award-winning nature writer. Dozens of outstanding photographs and daily proximity [continue reading]

Le, Vanessa. Last Bloodcarver, The. Roaring Brook, 03/2024. 384pp. Fiction. Trade $19.99. 978-1-2508-8152-6. Paper $12.99. 978-1-2503-6269-8. GRADES 8–12. LOW ADDITIONAL.       Nhika lives on society’s margins, isolated by prejudice and personal loss. Captured and sold to a wealthy family, she finds herself at the center of a [continue reading]

Donnelly, Jennifer. Beastly Beauty. Scholastic, 05/2024. 336pp. Fiction. Trade $18.99. 978-1-3388-0944-2. GRADES 9–12. HIGH ADDITIONAL.          A young thief, trapped inside a cursed castle, is the unwilling guest of a beautiful, yet distant noblewoman, her creepy ladies-in-waiting, and her loyal servants. Confident in his good looks [continue reading]

Compestine, Ying Chang. Growing Up Under a Red Flag: A Memoir of Surviving the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Xinmei Liu, Illus. Rocky Pond, 05/2024. 40pp. Picture Book. Trade $19.99. 978-0593533987. GRADES 1–4. HIGH ADDITIONAL. A young girl’s account of how the Cultural Revolution transformed her life. Striking, full-page, [continue reading]

Anderson, Ferin Davis. Wildfire: The Culture, Science, and Future of Fire. Addl. Creator Stephanie Sammartino McPherson. Twenty-First Century, 04/2024. 144pp. Nonfiction. PLB $38.65. 978-1-7284-2400-2. GRADES 7–12. HIGH ADDITIONAL.           Catastrophic fires grab the headlines, but the villainization of fire ignores indigenous and scientific knowledge of its [continue reading]

Blackburn, Sarah-SoonLing. Exclusion and the Chinese American Story. Race to the Truth. Random House/Crown, 03/2024. 288pp. Nonfiction. Trade $12.99. 978-0-593-56764-7. Paper $8.99. 978-0-593-56763-0. GRADES 5–8. LOW ADDITIONAL. What is the story of Chinese American history told from a Chinese American perspective? In an effort to expand the narrative [continue reading]

Polak, Monique. Remember This: The Fascinating World of Memory. Valéry Goulet, Illus. Orca, 03/2024. 96pp. Nonfiction. Trade $26.95. 978-1-4598-3412-5. GRADES 5–7. UNSATISFACTORY. Thirteen chapters packed with intriguing information and diverting examples attempt to explain how memories work, what happens in the brain, why some things are [continue reading]