When teenager Mona Starr finds herself spiraling into a depression, her best friend persuades her to begin seeing a therapist. Mona does more than see a therapist. She takes an active role in her own healing journey by meditating, journaling about her thoughts and feelings, and analyzing how her mind works with the help of a therapist. Young Mona’s visceral struggles are translated into images so deftly that people who have experienced mental illness will take comfort in the knowledge that they are not alone. Those who have not experienced mental illness will find this book a rare window into the inner world of people who have.
The visual language in The Dark Matter of Mona Starr avails itself of the most common school supplies found in students’ backpacks (i.e., graphite pencil, black pen, graph paper, and yellow highlighter). This palette will be recognizable to high-school-notebook-doodlers past and present. Such pedestrian materials might be overlooked by many artists, but when deployed with the level of imagination and skill possessed by Laura Lee Gulledge, they result in mind-blowing images. Beautiful graphite illustrations, lovingly blended to create soft textures, are meticulously inked in black for sharp detail. Juxtaposed with cover-to-cover depressive grayscale, highlighter-yellow is used sparingly throughout the book to convey the magical healing powers of love, friendship, creativity, and self-compassion.
I especially love how this book is both a moving story and a practical guide! In the back of the book Gulledge’s personal Self-Care Plan is laid out in detail, and beside it, a companion note-catcher in which readers can figure out a self-care plan of their own.
“Witches are born, not taught.” But is this really true? In this fast-paced adventure, Coco, a young girl with an obsession with magic, will stop at nothing to find out!
When Coco spies on a real witch casting a spell, she learns spells are not told or written – They are drawn. Trying some for herself has disastrous consequences though, setting Coco off on a journey to learn magic that she always dreamed of, but for reasons she could have never imagined. Seen as an outsider by others, Coco tries her hardest to make things right, but seems to find trouble at every turn.
Will Coco ever master the art of magic? Will she win the acceptance and friendship of other witches? Will she ever see her family again?
You’ll have to see for yourself!
I’ve always been a fan of Erin Bowman. She writes amazing science fiction and some of the only historical fiction (westerns) I actually enjoy reading. Dustborn combines all of the world building and action from her previous books into one story. Delta, lives in a world where everything is sun scorched and desert. Rivers and lakes just have small amounts of muddy water to survive on. Dust storms can rise up at anytime and if you get caught in one, you’re most likely going to end up dead. When Delta has take her dying sister to the nearest healer everything in her life takes a sudden turn. After her visit she finds herself without a sister and a newborn baby instead. When she finally makes it back to her village she finds everyone murdered or gone. Determined to find her family Delta sets off only to be captured and hauled off to the General’s fortress. Little does Delta know that the map tattoo she has on her back holds more secrets than she could ever imagine. In order to survive and save her family Delta must discover the secrets hidden in her tattoo before the General and his men.
In this YA thriller with a Native teen at its center, Firekeepers Daughters opens upon a small Canadian town over the border from the U.S., embedded with indigenous culture, yet still discriminatory and separate, and above all a small town hiding dark secrets. Daunis, a fierce hockey player, sister and friend, bridges the divide in her own family between white and Anishinaabe kwe (Ojibwe woman). After making tough decisions to choose family over her college careers after a series of tragedies, Daunis finds a bright spot in charming Jaime, a new to town hockey star. All is not as it seems however, when she witnesses a tragic murder, discovers the depth of drug use and trafficking in her town, and reluctantly joins the FBI as an undercover source.
Drawing on her connections in town and her Ojibwe knowledge, Daunis slowly begins uncovering secrets of the small town, secrets she begins to wish she did not know. But she presses on for the sake of helping her community despite impending danger. As the threats and death count grows, Daunis must dig deep into the heart of what it means to be a strong Anishinaabe kwe and survive, despite all the odds stacked against her.
In our day-to-day lives, what keeps us going? What motive force drives all of our everyday actions, and what would happen if that force were to disappear? In Sycthe, by Neil Shusterman, we explore a world in which Death-that quiet inevitability that drives us to relish each day-has been vanquished.
Hundreds of years ago, the world in Scythe developed regenerative nanites capable of healing any injury. They also created the Thunderhead, an all-knowing, all-regulating A.I consciousness capable of storing all of human knowledge and, therefore, solving all of humanities problems. When humanity forfeited control to the Thunderhead, they seemingly catapulted themselves into a futuristic utopia. Beyond death, beyond poverty, beyond true harm of any kind, society fostered for Hundreds of years.
And yet, this Utopian world had one catch: in a world populated entirely by immortals, they needed some way to curb population.
This is where Scythes come in. Scythes are Thunderhead-ordained agents as deadly as their namesakes, tasked with culling the human population. Scythes are able to act with impunity, and as the sole agents tasked with maintaining population the Thunderhead cannot interfere with their actions. And so, we have people who’s job is to kill, encouraged to do so with impunity.
But with a population of people with no fear of death-and therefore no stakes-the world continues to turn, seemingly unbothered by the robed agents of death who glide through their midsts.
Scythe follows two ordinary teens chosen as apprentice-Scythes, and the journey they must take in order to give their world what it truly needs.
Emerald Green concludes the Ruby Red Trilogy, by Kerstin Gier, three imaginative and romantic novels featuring time travelers, Gwen and Gideon, and a cast rife with villains and heroes. Even though it is, as Xemerius the ghostly gargoyle exclaims, time for a showdown, there is plenty of action on the way to the novel’s final resolution.
For those who have followed the series, the dispute between heroine Gwen and her catty cousin Charlotte, which includes a battle for the affections of the handsome Gideon, is gently resolved. Gideon emerges as not only a swashbuckler, but a gentleman, who shows consideration for both the lovelorn girls. Gwen realizes that where there is a winner, there is also a loser, and she feels compassion for her often adversarial cousin, and yes, a touch of guilt for coming first in Gideon’s affections.
The romantic scenario increases by two, as Gwen’s good friend, Lesley, forms an attachment to Raphael, who seriously rivals his brother, Gideon, in both good looks and charm.
On the sinister side, the true character of the evil Count Saint-Germain resurfaces and with a vengeance. Swordplay ensues, and there are injuries and deaths on both sides of the conflict between time travelers and the Count. The original stolen chronograph (the time machine) is found, the circle is closed (guess by who), and good, after a struggle, prevails over evil, leaving satisfaction in the hearts and minds of devoted readers.
A romance with a supernatural twist that Yoon uses to pose a critically important question to the reader. So just when you are having the most fun enjoying the story suddenly, a gut punch. How would you answer?
Evie, a high school senior, is upset about her parents’ divorce and especially its cause, his father’s new fiancé. She gathers up all her old paperback romances to donate to her local library — no more reading about love! While donating, she acquires a crazy new skill; she can see the past, present and future end of the relationship between people she sees kissing. This talent only underscores how angry Evie is about loss. How to lose this talent? Competitive dancing, of course! While she learns to dance, Evie also has to decide how much else she wants to learn about love and loss.
Jessie is a middle-school-aged boy from Canada who travels with his parents to The Philippines to attend the funeral of his clairvoyant Lola (grandmother). While staying at the family’s ancestral home, he becomes reacquainted with his cousins, one of whom (Jon Jon) died tragically at some point prior to this visit. Jessie struggles to understand and appreciate his ability to see ghosts–a talent his living Filipino cousin Maritess has always longed to have inherited from their Lola. Maritess imparts all of her knowledge on the subject to Jessie in the hopes he will embrace his gifts, and stop hiding them.
Earnest Or’s smooth and minimal illustrations are sepia-toned from start to finish, giving the story a memory-like quality. The clean lines used for the sweet-faced characters and serene settings lie in stark contrast to the gory visions of decimated corpses that appear to Jessie (and Jessie alone). I especially appreciated how real the relationships felt. For example, the cousins must reestablish their bonds after a long absence, and do so. And in a spooky scene about Jessie and Maritess in the woods at night, his dad is in the background keeping his grief-stricken uncle company (and giving Jessie’s Aunt a much-needed break from her husband’s drinking).
The family’s bonds are tested again and again, not only by time and distance, but by a plethora of adversity like trauma, grief, substance abuse, and cultural clashes. Through it all, they are there for each other even when they part.
Seventeen-year-old Aderyn, “Ryn,” has the unique problem of being young for a gravedigger — and that the dead won’t stay dead. After her parents’ passing, Ryn supports herself and her siblings by managing the recently deceased of the village of Colbren, as her father did before her. Colbren sits at the edge of a forest full of old magic, which stretches beyond the memory of anyone alive now to see it — that is until Ellis, a young apprentice mapmaker from the Prince’s court, arrives to survey it for himself.
As long as anyone has known, the occasional risen corpse, known as a “bone house,” has kept to the forested lands, never venturing into Colbren. Bone houses had become such rare sightings that many doubted their existence, though Ryn knows them all too well. Upon the mysterious new arrival of Ellis to Colbren, the bone houses begin attacking with a new ferocity, venturing farther past the limits of the forest and into town than ever before.
To stop the onslaught of bone houses, Ryn and Ellis know the journey must take them on a path more treacherous than either of them bargained for, deep into the heart of the forest, into the dark secrets of the past.
Do you love graphic novels with authentic female leads and true stories of teens finding their ways? “Almost American Girl” by Robin Ha is a must read! Chronicling the author’s move from South Korea to the US in the 90’s, a teenager forced by her mother to adapt to an entirely new world. Entering the US as a non native speaker in the rural south, her struggles are daily and similar to the average teen–trouble fitting in and wearing the right clothes–to other much deeper and more unique struggles of someone trying to make their way in a new country. In a twist that resonates with many teens, Robin at last finds her niche drawing comics, and through this discovery also connects with her true self and community.
