Melissa McAvoy

Marrin, Albert. When Forests Burn: The Story of Wildfire in America. Knopf, 03/2024. 256pp. Nonfiction. Trade $24.99. 978-0-5931-2173-3. GRADES 8–12. HIGH ADDITIONAL. You might think a book about wildfire would start with flames, and it does, but before the story gets going our conversational narrator [continue reading]

Lee, Stacey. Kill Her Twice. G.P. Putnam, 04/2024. 400pp. Fiction. Trade $19.99. 978-0-593-53204-1. GRADES 7–12. ADDITIONAL. In 1932 teenaged Gemma Chow, like many Angelenos, burns with a spirit of reinvention, but with her dad ill and her mother expecting, practical matters rule until Gemma, and [continue reading]

Scurlock, Fenley. Down to Business: 51 Industry Leaders Share Practical Advice on How to Become a Young Entrepreneur. Addl. Creators Jason Liaw. Random House, 03/2024. 416pp. Nonfiction. Trade $19.99. 978-0-593-65159-9. PLB $22.99. 978-0-593-65160-5. GRADES 5–10. HIGH ADDITIONAL.    Two fifteen-year-old friends and award-winning entrepreneurs interview fifty-one diverse innovators, executives, [continue reading]

Nhuyēn, Trang. Chang and the Elephant. Jeet Zdūng, Illus. Translation help from Vietnamese by Hoãng Duy. Saving H’Non. Dial, 10/2023. 128pp. Graphic. Trade $23.99. 978-0-5934-0673-1. Paper $13.99. 978-0-5934-0672-4. GRADES 4–7. OUTSTANDING. A young Vietnamese wildlife conservationist, Chang, helps save an abused Asian elephant named H’non from a lifetime of cruel servitude. [continue reading]

Boulley, Angeline. Warrior Girl Unearthed. Henry Holt, 05/2023. 396pp. Fiction. Trade $19.99. 978-1-2507-6658-8. GRADES 8–12. OUTSTANDING.      Looking forward to a lazy “2014 Summer of Slack” spent fishing, sixteen-year-old underachieving Perry Firekeeper-Birch instead finds herself stuck in an internship at the tribal museum, and unexpectedly [continue reading]

Moss, Marissa. Spying on Spies: How Elizebeth Smith Friedman Broke the Nazis’ Secret Codes. Marissa Moss, Illus. Abrams, 03/2024. 224pp. Biography. Trade $19.99. 978-1-4197-6731-9. GRADES 7–12. OUTSTANDING.         In her long life breaking codes and thus saving millions of lives, Elizebeth Friedman had to suffer a lot of [continue reading]

Boughton, Simon. Wild River and the Great Dam, The: The Construction of the Hoover Dam and the Vanishing Colorado River. Christy Ottaviano, 03/2024. 256pp. Nonfiction. Trade $19.99. 978-0-316-38074-4. GRADES 7–12. OUTSTANDING.           One of the largest infrastructure projects in the world, the Hoover Dam transformed [continue reading]

Tabor, Cory R. Fox Has a Problem. Cory R. Tabor, Illus. My First I Can Read. Balzer +Bray, 08/2023. [32]pp. Reader. Trade $17.99. 978-0-0632-7791-5. Paper $5.99. 978-0-0632-7792-2. GRADES Preschool–2. OUTSTANDING. Fox has a problem and [continue reading]