In a devourable debut, Stringfield cooks up a decadent romance between an ambitious Black American drama student and the pragmatic son of a Parisian chocolatier. Whitney Curry arrives in Paris for her semester at an international arts high school with a plan: complete her one-woman musical about legendary vaudeville performer and activist Josephine Baker and check off every item on her “Epic Parisian Bucket List.” Unfortunately, Whitney’s French tutor, “grouchy smart-ass” Thierry Magnon, proves distracting. Thierry reluctantly agrees to help her navigate the city, but his perspective of Paris challenges both Whitney’s list of essential experiences and her idealized version of the place that offered Baker and other Black American artists refuge. As she warms to Thierry, Whitney must decide whether to cling to her plans or embrace the real Paris—and the complicated boy introducing her to it. Conversational first-person narration and sometimes reckless yet entertaining antics from Whitney form the bedrock of this rom-com, which incorporates expected genre tropes without relying on them for sustained interest. Though romance drives the plot, Stringfield enriches the novel via Whitney’s broadening experience of global Black culture. Ages 12–up. Agent: Suzie Townsend, New Leaf Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

A high school freshman launches a campaign for female body hair acceptance, ostensibly as support for a friend with polycystic ovary syndrome, in this uneven feminist drama by Cary (the When I Grow Up, I’m Going to Play for series). After classmates mock her best friend Frankie Smith for her facial hair, 15-year-old Evia Birtwhistle starts a Hairy Girls Club and encourages peers to wear fake mustaches to raise awareness of sexist attitudes toward female body hair. Frankie rejects the club (“It’s like you’re taking what happened to me and making a massive joke out of it”), and bullies start including Evia in their taunting. As the HGC gains traction and more hot boys see her “avec-mustache,” Evia wonders whether her club has ruined both her friendship with Frankie and her chances of finding love. Continual pressuring of Frankie to support the HGC by Evia undercuts Evia’s hard-won moments of self-revelation. Boistrous humor adds levity to empathetic depictions of Frankie’s growing body autonomy as well as Evia’s awareness of the sexist conditioning behind female hair removal and her own fraught body image. Evia is Greek; Frankie reads as white. Ages 12–up. Agent: Rachel Hamilton, Ben Illis Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

Ribay (Patron Saints of Nothing) examines masculinity and familial trauma via four generations of Filipino teens’ alternating perspectives in this emotionally resonant tale. In 2020 Philadelphia, Enzo Maghabol’s anxiety makes him feel like his head is full of “murder hornets.” Their buzzing gets worse when he learns his estranged grandfather will be moving in with his family during the pandemic. Banned from playing football for his Denver school due to his strict father’s approach to education, Chris becomes absorbed by the sociopolitical struggles in 1983 Philippines when he begins researching his ancestry, something his father would rather forget. Emil struggles to support himself and his mother while his absent father fights for farm workers’ rights in 1965 Stockton, Calif. After emigrating from the Philippines to Watsonville, Calif., in 1929, Francisco finds his dreams of a fresh start waylaid by the hard labor and racial violence he endures in his daily life. Compact storytelling richly layered with Filipino American culture and history provides the backdrop for each father-son relationship as the Maghabols confront personal and familial expectations in both past and present narratives. Ages 12–up. Agent: Beth Phelan, Gallt & Zacker Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

Roach explores class differences and unbalanced power dynamics in this expertly paced debut thriller. Gay 16-year-old Lucille Preston knows almost nothing about her private investigator mother. So, when her mother is called by a mysterious Pierce Anselm, it’s the first time Lucy has ever seen her cool composure crack; the pair’s discovery of Pierce’s corpse at the base of a roller coaster shatters it. While uncovering her mother’s history with the Anselms—a wealthy family of amusement park tycoons—Lucy becomes entangled with teen Audrey Nelson, also gay, who was at the scene of the crime. As Audrey endeavors to clear her name of Pierce’s death and Lucy digs up more of her mother’s past, it soon becomes clear that the danger is far from over. Whether it’s revenge or a cover-up they’re after, the Anselms will stop at nothing to achieve it. Roach’s profound prose teems with strong depictions of character relationships—including an opposites-attract sapphic romance and multiple mother-daughter bonds—set against the moody backdrop of an abandoned amusement park. Lucy describes her mother’s skin as a “soft brown” while hers is “as pale as my dad’s”; Audrey reads as white. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jay Mandel, WME. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

A clandestine crush and Luciferian curse threaten to rupture a tight-knit group of Massachusetts boys in this sprawling queer horror novel by Norton (Hopepunk). Unassuming Aidan Cross—who has a “personality like wet socks”—has feelings for close friend Kai. Unable to confess his crush to Kai or vent his emotions to the other half of his friend group—snarky Zephyr and intelligent Terrance—the 13-year-old instead pours his feelings into a private journal. After his notebook ends up inside a nearby haunted house, Aidan hopes to use his friends’ ill-advised sleepover at the house to retrieve it without them noticing. During their excursion, the crew begins to tease apart a gruesome local legend, and Aidan’s journal catches the attention of one of the resident specters. When some of the contents of his notebook are made public, Aidan, petrified of losing his friends, scrambles to solve the centuries-old mystery to reclaim the book before his private thoughts ruin his friendships forever. Though the overlapping layers of both the curse’s backstory and the boys’ social lives lend to an overcrowded plot, the core protagonists’ goofy humor makes for an endearing and wholesome adventure. Terrence reads as Black; other characters cue as white. Ages 10–up. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

Faced with an impending move from their Australian hometown of West Hobart, two girls form a friendship across time in this white-knuckled climate survival tale. Nyx lives in a Tasmania that’s “gritty and dry... the ancient forests gone, along with regular snow fall.” Grieving her mother’s death, she’s frustrated with her always-angry father, who wants to start a new life elsewhere. Seeking solace, Nyx climbs her beloved towering pine (“the only surviving bit of green out here”), scribbles a discontented note, and shoves it in a knothole. Bea, who’s navigating a similar situation, visits the tree, writes her own note, and finds Nyx’s missive as she goes to hide her letter. Using the tree to communicate, the two girls try to meet up, but eventually realize that Bea lives in 2023, while Nyx is in 2093. Even stranger, Bea’s actions can affect outcomes in Nyx’s ravaged world—and possibly save her new friend. Vivid prose by Lim (Tiger Daughter) and Gordon (the Wordspinners series) evokes a grimly realistic world informed by contemporary issues surrounding climate change. The girls’ experiences with bullying, online escapism, and grief throughout add further emotional depth to this dual-timeline narrative. Nyx is “brown and freckled and dusty”; Bea reads as white. Ages 8–13. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

A Black tween with a supernatural gift determines to banish a terrifying specter from her new town in this hair-raising, American South–set horror novel by Strong (Eden’s Everdark). After fleeing a wicked ghost in Las Vegas, Wednesday Thomas and her artist mother travel to Alton, Ga., where Wednesday was born. Now the seventh grader is enrolled in Noble Middle School and living in her nana’s family home, “which doesn’t look haunted.” Wednesday tries hard not to stand out, but her attempts are dashed when she makes a spectacle at lunch after discovering that she can see ghosts—and that her school is haunted. While navigating her newfound powers, Wednesday learns that she is protected by Lodestar, a “guiding light” that prevents Wednesday and her family from being possessed by spirits. As Halloween creeps closer, she’s approached by classmates­—each of whom has their own secrets—who invite Wednesday to be part of their covert paranormal mystery-solving group, the Dead Club. Strong uses tight plotting, fully fleshed out characters, and eerie and empathetic prose to examine themes of legacy and friendship, and deliver a smartly conceived mystery. Ages 8–12. Agent: Patrice Caldwell, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

Orphaned at age four, Rosa Mundi has been raised by her aunt and uncle, cruel people who have dampened her spirit over the years by locking her in her room at night and proving more interested in promoting their artificial lawn business than caring for a child. Her only friend is Balthazar, an enigmatic, helpful black cat. Now 11, she’s taken by her aunt and uncle to Venice, where they plan to expand their business. Upon arrival, they abandon Rosa at a hotel run by a family that only speaks Italian. Short on funds and alone in a foreign country, Rosa must find a way to fend for herself. But when the street cats of Venice come to her aid, she discovers an innate power and a new sense of belonging. McKay (The Swallows’ Flight) employs dream logic and surrealist imagery reminiscent of Roald Dahl to blend fairy tale whimsy with aching portrayals of adolescence. Over-the-top characters, lush descriptions, and casual incorporations of magical elements buoy the sometimes fraught scenarios that Rosa finds herself in as she contends with street thieves, unfamiliar customs, and the realities of being brought up by neglectful relatives. Main characters are white and Italian. Ages 8–12. Agent: Molly Ker Hawn, Bent Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

Having recently moved to the same military base, two Black former friends work together to unravel a top-secret mission that could spell doom for one of their parents. Thirteen-year-old military kid Ike Pressure prefers video games to playing sports, something that drove a wedge between him and estranged friend Eesha Webb. Following Ike’s discovery of strange footprints in a secure area of the Mercury, Nev., military base, and a shortwave radio in his mother’s room that transmits mysterious messages, he recruits Eesha—the only other person he knows on the compound—to uncover what Ike’s mother has been hiding about her new job. Their efforts are consistently thwarted by enigmatic men in black, authorities who investigate UFOs and aliens. Fearing for his mother’s safety, Ike endeavors to do whatever it takes to protect her. The action-driven plot is ripe with suspense and adventure as Ike and Eesha investigate the mystery, encountering myriad unexpected foes along the way. Smith (Where the Black Flowers Bloom) crafts a warm and inviting tale of reimagined futures, friendship, bravery, and environmentalism with a futuristic twist that will have readers rallying behind the intrepid protagonists of this hopeful story. Ages 8–12. Agent: Molly Ker Hawn, Bent Agency. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink

Her whole life, a formless ghost has haunted seventh grader Sadie Rivera, violently preventing her from making friends—when Sadie befriends classmate Anna, Anna dies under mysterious circumstances caused by Sadie’s ghost. Having moved with her father from Arizona to the small Idaho town where she was born, Sadie determines not to make another friend, until she meets charismatic Mal, whose presence somehow keeps the ghost at bay. Initially, Sadie is happy to have a friend without invoking the ghost’s wrath, but her relationship with Mal gradually grows toxic: Mal is jealous when Sadie bonds with others and encourages her to pull increasingly cruel pranks on their classmates. Sadie must now make a choice: forge her own path despite her fears or remain in Mal’s destructive thrall. Mejia (the Paola Santiago series) utilizes myriad horror elements to explore grief, anxiety, and depression, as well as dissociation and suicidal ideation. Though the central twist is heavily telegraphed, and Mal is somewhat underdeveloped, Sadie’s journey toward self-acceptance is unflinching yet encouraging in this spine-tingling ode to the bravery it takes to heal. Sadie is half white and half Mexican; other characters cue as white. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/17/2024 | Details & Permalink