Using an effusive cartoon version of himself as a guide, Weinberg (Washer and Dryer’s Big Job) joins forces with dog Waldo to lead readers along a delightfully meandering journey that gives new meaning to “color commentary.” He begins by explaining foundational color principles, a vivid analogy always at the ready, as when he likens the sky to an “everything bagel wrapped around the earth” to describe the brilliance of sunrises and sunsets. Illustrated via sketches, clip art, and collage, this thorough, fanciful work explores the technology and global nuances of eight colors—red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, and black—and features encounters with artists such as Yayoi Kusama, shown in a polka-dotted red room, and Kerry James Marshall, who discusses pigments for painting Black Americans’ skin (“Blackness can have complexity. Depth. Richness”). Weinberg also delves into numerous color backstories, such as the origin of piuri, “also called Indian yellow,” and the significance of the pink triangle in queer history. Color-making activities (such as creating pink dye from avocados) and a host of additional insights and information conclude, making it clear that color is a subject Weinberg just can’t quit. Ages 6–10. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Thirteen-year-old Tara Gimmel believes that she can do anything. But when she’s enrolled in a “special academic program to challenge high-performing students” and promoted straight to high school, Tara is faced with a new, terrifying reality she doesn’t feel prepared for. She quickly learns that high school is nothing like the teen dramas she’s watched. Worse, when she encounters her older sister and best friend Isla at school, Isla adopts a persona Tara doesn’t recognize. Then Tara is partnered with classmate Libby for a Greek mythology project, and quickly develops a crush. Her constant internal monologue, which is depicted in rich red hues, is only interrupted by conversations she’s having IRL, a mechanism that often results in hilarious—and embarrassing—scenarios. Using borderless panels teeming with cartoon illustrations rendered in ink with a limited color palette to quickly alternate between Tara’s real life and her internal thoughts, Hunsinger (My Parents Won’t Stop Talking) explores what it’s like to be an especially inexperienced fish out of water in this vibrant, comedic character sketch. Character skin tones match the white of the page, with blue hues connoting varying shades. Agent: Molly O'Neill, Root Literary. Ages 8–up. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Khan (Drawing Deena) and Zerrougui team up to deliver a distinguished attestation to the power of sport. Upon moving from Tampa to Milwaukee, Pakistani and Indian American high school freshman Aliya Javaid enrolls in Peace Academy, an Islamic school, and joins the basketball team, hoping to make friends while playing a game she loves. Initial losses spur intensive training before the team begins to triumph. Local media soon take notice, but reporters’ interests lie less in the team’s performance and more in their hijab uniforms. The girls endeavor to take control of the narrative: “If they ask random things, bring it back to basketball. This is a basketball story.” Khan provides contextualizing information for non-Muslims via the girls’ interactions with Puerto Rican coach Jess, as Jess in turn educates opposing coaches about the team’s uniforms, and prioritizes religious practices, allowing a break during practice for Maghrib; vividly saturated artwork invites readers into the evening prayer in a wordless spread that transitions to diagonal panels indicating movement and connection in the following gametime action. It’s an uplifting graphic novel that celebrates female Muslim athletes and highlights how the teens’ faith, sport, and relationships intersect. Ages 8–12. Author’s agent: Matthew Elblonk, DeFiore & Co. Illustrator’s agent: Paloma Hernando, Einstein Literary Management. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

In this semi-autobiographical debut, Fox combines middle school angst with giggle-inducing humor to deliver a wholesome graphic novel romp. Left alone following her best (and only) friend Blair’s move from Indiana to Boston, sixth grader Coco attempts to make new friends. It’s only after she literally falls into a group of girls that Coco begins to learn—via trial and error—how to obtain and be a good companion. Joining the Owls basketball team, Coco befriends star player Maddie, who constantly belittles Coco and their teammates. During a sleepover, Coco suffers heartbreak when her crush Tami reveals she likes the team’s mascot and jeopardizes her long-distance friendship with Blair by lying about why she can’t call Blair that night. When Maddie, furious at being upstaged by Coco in the semifinal, reveals Coco’s crush and her own careless remarks about her teammates, Coco must reconsider who her real confidants are and whether she has been acting like a friend to the people closest to her. Fox renders Coco’s anxiety as eerie flame-like tendrils sprouting from the edges of pages, highlighting through the on-point visuals the emotional turbulence of adolescence. Frenetically designed characters are portrayed with varying skin tones. Ages 8–12. Agent: Charlie Olsen, InkWell Management. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Lindell (Blackward) packs big issues into the small space of a sedan in this heartwarming graphic novel that examines the aftermath of divorce. Lonnie’s mother always says that he and his older sister Nicole are “young, gifted, and Black.” Though the siblings turn the phrase into a tongue-in-cheek inside joke, Lonnie has been feeling small, angry, and alone ever since his parents divorced and his father moved out. To curtail taunting from his classmates about his parents’ split, Lonnie insists that his father pick him up from a corner far from school. Throughout this humorous novel, Lonnie and his father struggle to connect, which the creator depicts in a series of car-ride conversations. Annoyed by a homophobic comment from his father, Lonnie comes out as bisexual, an event that signals a turning point for father and son as they navigate their shifting relationship post-divorce. Their triumphs and missteps are equal parts awkward and tender, a dynamic that’s amplified by Lindell’s simple yet expressive digital drawings, which render Lonnie’s inner thoughts via monochrome line art that change color according to his mood. Ages 8–12. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

A newly out lesbian navigates her blossoming queer relationship as well as a complicated dynamic with her ex-boyfriend in Horne’s engaging debut. Even though 17-year-old Alana Lucas came out, very little has changed between her and her former boyfriend, and now just best friend, Gray, though their friend circle has begun excluding her in subtle ways. When Tal transfers from Portland, Maine, to their Bangor high school for senior year, Alana half-heartedly agrees to go along with Gray’s glacially slow plan to ask her out, despite her immediate attraction to the newcomer. After struggling to understand Tal’s signals, it finally clicks for Alana when Tal kisses her at a party. Keeping the budding relationship secret from Gray torments Alana and strains their relationship, even as it helps her rethink her friends’ tepid acceptance of her sexuality and allows her to tentatively explore queer community-building. But when a crisis calls Tal back to Portland, Alana’s choice to not immediately join her cascades into a messy fallout. Snarky humor buoys depictions of fraught, realistic relationships in this winning story of believably flawed teenagers contending with issues of first love and first heartbreak. Characters read as white. Ages 14–up. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Sequestered contestants vie for millions in this fiendishly clever thriller, the first in a spinoff series from Barnes’s Inheritance Games saga. After a sprawling inaugural event, the second annual Grandest Game—a “mind-twisting” competition run by Tobias Hawthorne’s four grandsons and Avery Grambs, the teen who inherited the eccentric billionaire’s fortune—promises to be a more intimate affair. While cloistered on a private island, eight individuals must race against the clock—and one another—to solve increasingly elaborate puzzles. Many of the players have secrets. Some have diabolical intent. All will do whatever it takes to win. Barnes’s kaleidoscopic third-person narrative rapidly cycles between three contenders, amplifying tension and creating drive. Familiarity with the previous books will lend resonance to certain plot and character developments, but baffling brainteasers, flagrant flirtation, and witty repartee earn the sustained interest of readers old and new. The cast is ethnically diverse. Ages 12–up. Agent: Elizabeth Harding, Curtis Brown. (July)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

At risk of repeating sophomore year, anxious Black 16-year-old Niarah Holloway must spend the summer completing her capstone project and making up PE credits. A doomsday prepper and self-proclaimed weird kid, Niarah decides to use her project as an excuse to work on Camp Doom, the detached garage she plans to convert into a bunker. With her summer plans locked in, she doesn’t anticipate encountering Latinx graduating senior Mac, cofounder of the hiking group Color Outside, which Niarah is forced to join to earn her PE credits. Mac offers to help Niarah with Camp Doom, leading to many spirited debates regarding preparing for the end of the world vs. living in the moment, and as the two grow closer, Niarah becomes more aware of Mac’s imminent move from L.A. for college. Now, she must reckon with the possibility of losing the first glimmer of joy she’s felt in a long time. In a narrative that teems with hope, nihilism, and strong anti-capitalist themes, Adia (There Goes the Neighborhood) pays homage to the “boiling cauldron of terror we live in” via a scorching blend of realistic teenage snark and achingly earnest prose. Sex-positive messaging throughout adds further depth to this already potent romance. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Five years ago, Lia Peartree and her family fled from their home, Brier Hall, after enduring months of escalating paranormal activity and psychological terror. In the ensuing chaos, her older sister Avery vanished without a trace. Now 18, Lia feels burdened by the time she’s spent contending with whispered rumors and dead-end investigations regarding Avery’s whereabouts, as well as by her complicated relationship with her other older sister Ali, who is navigating substance dependency. When Ali returns to Brier Hall in a last-ditch effort to find Avery, Lia follows, refusing to lose a second sister. Reconnecting with her childhood best friend and crush, 18-year-old Rafferty Pierce, Lia sets out to save Ali and, in confronting the house that destroyed her family, discovers that the past is not quite as buried as it seems. Strychacz (Starling) wields poetic prose to weave an atmosphere of creeping horror throughout the alternating first-person-present introspection and second-person flashback chapters. While characters are unevenly developed and some scares fail to land, Strychacz delivers a solid gothic horror that explores the lingering effects of trauma and the lasting power of family bonds. The Peartrees and Raff cue as white. Ages 12–up. Agent: Taylor Martindale Kean, Full Circle Literary. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink

Mann (LeBron James vs. Michael Jordan) centers Vinegar Hill, a Black neighborhood in segregated 1930s Charlottesville, Va., in this sweet tale about 10-year-old Allie’s plans to find love for her single mother. With her best friend Jewel, Allie hatches a plot she dubs Man-for-Mama. Certain that any man with taste will fall for Mama once they have a bite of her famous chicken and dumpling recipe, the friends set out in search of a potential suitor. Allie’s top choice is Mr. Johnson, the owner of a local antique store who went to school with Mama. Unfortunately for Allie, however, her band teacher Mr. Coles—the uncle of her “NOT-friend” Gwen—is interested in courting Mama. When Mama proves receptive to Mr. Coles’s advances, Allie leaps into action, determined to play matchmaker for Mama and Mr. Johnson. The extensively researched setting provides a sensorial backdrop against which an amiable cast navigates low-stakes conflict. Characters are named after real historical figures, as discussed in an author’s note, which also details Mann’s desire to write stories about “communities pulling together, of people persevering for the sake of the children.” Further resources conclude. Ages 8–11. (Aug.)

Reviewed on 05/10/2024 | Details & Permalink