*STARRED REVIEW "Greet the sun, bold and bright! Tiny hands up!" In star-studded sleeves, two raised brown arms exuberantly face the golden, warming rays, ready to start a new day filled with discovery, growth and, of course, much fun. Mommy and Daddy join the radiant...
Last Boat Out of Shanghai has four stories at once personal and universal As the child of two refugees, Helen Zia can speak to the effects of displacement, separation, and the personal costs of survival, adaptation, and reinvention. As an advocate for Asian American and other minority communities,...
"Beyond this door,” Rina Ayuyang warns as she guides readers to her suburban Pittsburgh childhood home, “lies a story of dread and woe, despair and sadness.” But no, turn the page, and amid technicolor walls, carpets, and toys strewn everywhere, she admits, “I’m kidding. It’s...
Vast open water. An overcrowded boat. A horrific storm. A girl plunges backwards into the violent waves. Wishing, dreaming of rescue, Amina conjures happier moments playing hide-and-seek. “I am right here, Mama,” she thinks. She remembers making dolmas, salty like seawater – and tears. She...
*STARRED REVIEW For those of us in need of a few hours of joyful catharsis, listen up. Despite a narrative driven by impending separation, the gratifying delight is well worth the tears. Narrator George Blagden effortlessly embodies this charming man-and-beast love story, so guilelessly gentle as...
In just over a week, Seattle’s population will temporarily expand with tens of thousands of librarians (and other literary obsessives). Talk about a convergence of brains, guts, dedication, faith – and unconditional love of knowledge! Because that’s what it takes to be a librarian in...
*STARRED REVIEW Already a best-selling fantasy YA author (the Shatter Me series), Tahereh Mafi firmly roots herself in familiar reality with her latest, a can’t-turn-away timely story about teens falling in love despite intolerant peer pressure, difficult family situations, and vast cultural divides. Sixteen-year-old Shirin has switched...
“The world’s falling apart,” young Olive sighs under a starry sky. “Some think it’s coming together,” the chancellor reminds her as she guides Olive home through the forest, subduing an angry beast midway. Cloaked in layers, her face obscured in hooded darkness, the chancellor protects...
“I myself am astonished at what’s happening to me,” God – yes, that God – confesses. “I’m the same ...
*STARRED REVIEW They meet at age 7. Young-sook and her mother are working their garden; Mi-ja crouches among the sweet-potato plants, desperate to eat. They are on Korea’s Jeju Island, “known for its Three Abundances of wind, stones, and women, it was also acknowledged for lacking...
The final title in two-time National Book Award-nominated Jason Reynolds’ popular Track tetralogy (Ghost, Patina, Sunny, Lu) is the third of the series voiced by the author’s childhood friend and anointed collaborator Guy Lockard. Meet “Lucky Lu,” “Lookie Lu,” “Lu the Lightning Bolt,” who’s co-captain...
“Dear Diary” started because Sunny's father wanted him to be "more hushy-hushy" than "yelly-yelly." Writing gave Sunny a place "to put the noise…whenever [he] needed to, which was all the time except for when [he] was running or sleeping." Sunny's a gifted runner yet being...
Sixteen-year-old Tiffany Sly’s mother has just died of cancer when she’s sent from Chicago to Simi Valley, CA, to live with a father she’s never met. At her massive new home, she’s greeted by a white stepmother and four half-sisters because Dr. Anthony Stone’s away...
Mr. Jha, who not so long ago comfortably supported his family on a monthly salary equivalent to $200, sells his website for $20 million. That titular windfall transforms his life, along with those of his family and friends. Money – who has it, how it’s...
An Orchestra of Minorities by Chigozie Obioma With the 2015 debut of The Fisherman, The New York Times rejoiced: “Chigozie Obioma truly is the heir to Chinua Achebe.” Almost four years later, his sophomore title – hitting shelves today – doesn’t disappoint. The story seems familiarly simple: a man...
*STARRED REVIEW “My mom is an immigrant so she speaks English with an accent,” Yiyun Li’s son introduces her to his kindergarten class. “Thank you my dear,” she responds, “but I still make a living by writing in English.” Despite significant literary accolades, hers is not...
White, not black, is the color of mourning in Han Kang’s home country of South Korea, as well as other parts of Asia. This latest from Han, whose The Vegetarian was the 2016 Man Booker International Prize winner, is a meditative exploration of the limitless...
Twelve-year-old Jordan wanted to go to art school, but instead, his parents enroll the seventh grader in "one of the best schools in the entire state." Although his father expresses concern about Riverdale Academy Day's glaring lack of diversity, his mother insists that with Jordan's...
Venus Black gets straight As, has never gotten drunk, smoked pot, or skipped a class. She’s also a 13-year-old murderer, sent to juvenile lock-up for shooting her stepfather. Within days, her younger half-brother Leo – “[he] has what [their mother] Inez calls ‘developmental issues’” –...
Spanish novelist Arturo Iturbe transforms real-life Holocaust survivor Dita Kraus into 14-year-old Edita Adler, forcibly sent to Auschwitz with her parents. She’s assigned to Block 31, a wooden hut where the children of the ignominiously named “family camp” are sent to be “entertained” while parents...
