English 12+ Tropes Breaking the Fourth Wall Gothic Romance Stories Sci-Fi Heroines Shaenon K. Garrity & Christopher Baldwin summary I love a good self-aware book, and Willoweep (a graphic novel) has this in spades. It begins with our main character dramatically reading her book report, much to her stern teacher’s dismay. She’s ordered to explore…
Search Results for: young adult
Made in Korea
English & Korean YA Korean-American Identity Small Business Family Responsibility Social-Emotional Learning Relationships Sarah Suk summary Valerie Kwon and her cousin Charlie run an incredibly successful student business selling Korean beauty products. Valerie is desperate to prove to her family that she’s just as capable and business-savvy as her older sister, and take her grandmother…
Blood Like Magic
English YA Fantasy Magic Witches Black Culture & Identity Community CW: Blood, Sacrifice, Violence Liselle Sambury summary When you see this title, know that blood is very prevalent within the book. It’s the root of all magic, and used with intent for spells. It also denotes when a witch can be Called by ancestors and…
Sweet & Bitter Magic
english MG & Up fantasy witchcraft LGBTQ+ relationships magic adventure Adrienne Tooley summary This is a great fantasy novel with LGBTQ relationships (normalized throughout the society), and most importantly, the strife experienced doesn’t come from homophobia but from dark magic. Tamsin is an incredibly powerful witch, but was banished for using dark magic to save…
Peace, Love, and Pasta: A Celebration of Family
English All Family Cooking Chosen Family Bilingual Books Turkish summary Pasta, food of the masses. Delightful, buttery, easy to share (sometimes). Diving into Scott Conant’s most recent book Peace, Love, and Pasta (from Abrams Books) made one thing clear: he values family above all else. This got me thinking about all types of family, chosen…
Code Name Badass: The True Story of Virginia Hall
English YA Historical Figures WWII Spy French Resistance Disability Feminism Heather Demetrios summary Okay so uhh Virginia Hall is the most badass person I’ve ever read about. Not only is being a spy pretty much the coolest (& most dangerous) job I could think of having, but Virginia accidentally shot her own ding dang foot…
The Wild Ones & a Love of Dessert
English YA Feminism Sci-Fi Fantasy BIPOC Narratives Anger Chosen Family Magic Love CW: Mentions of assault Nafiza Azad summary This. Book. Is. Everything. When a publicist got in touch and told me about The Wild Ones, I was instantly hooked. A roving band of girls that weaponize their screams in retaliation for the times they’ve…
Antiracism: An Introduction
English YA & Up Politics History White Supremacy Antiracism Alex Zamalin Summary: I bought this book a few months ago, for a very specific reason. You see, last summer, when all the protests were taking place, I was thrilled. Beyond elated that people seemed to finally care what I had devoted my academic career to….
Abrams Dinner Party & a YA Read!
English YA (13+) Food/Cookbooks LGBTQ+ Relationships Sex Positive YA Romance Humor summary Cheese. One of the best substances in the world. In my opinion, the more a cheese tastes like a barnyard the better. When I got the book Cheese, Sex, Death from Abrams Books as the next installment of #AbramsDinnerParty it was obviously a…
Puberty & Menstruation
English Middle Grades Bodies summary I have a couple of books for that that can help tackle conversations with topics surrounding those awkward puberty years. Thinking back on being that age makes me cringe. Too many hormones, no one knows what’s happening and we have ALL the feelings about it. If you’re scrambling to find…
