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#GGN2019 Nominees Round Up, October 11 Edition

Published October 11, 2018

Stephen McCranie’s Space Boy, vol. 1 by Stephen McCranie
Dark Horse Books
Publication Date: July 3, 2018
ISBN: 978-1506706481

Amy has lived her life on a far away mining colony, but when her dad loses his job, the family must return to planet Earth, a place Amy has only read about and seen through the media. To do this she must be in cryogenic sleep for thirty years. When she and her family arrive, they must navigate a new and different world, and one that does not contain Amy’s best friend Jemmah, who is now an adult back on the mining colony. Amy also has synesthesia, which gives her the ability to attach flavors to people. Her mom is mint and her dad is like hot chocolate. At her new school she meets a boy who has no flavor. She is both scared and curious. How will she survive in this strange new Earth? Will she ever be able to reconnect with Jemmah?

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, October 10 Edition

Published October 10, 2018

Catwoman: Soulstealer by Sarah J. Mass,  narrated by Julia Whelan
Audio Published by Listening Library
Publication date: August 7, 2018
ISBN: 978-0525595410

I have never been a fan of DC Comics, home of the Batman universe.  While my fellow second graders idolized Adam West from the campy 1960s television show featuring the Caped Crusader, I was small but my scorn was huge; the only Batman movie I have seen more than a half hour of is the Lego version.  Similarly, while I know the teens who talk to me about their favorite books clamor for more Sarah J. Maas, I have to admit I have only read (listened to) one title, as a professional assignment.  So I popped the first disc of Catwoman: Soulstealer, written by Sarah J. Maas and narrated by Julia Whelan, into my car CD player with minimal expectations; it was the only new audiobook I had with me for a long drive.   What I discovered was a production that had me sitting at the gas pump with the car running for an extra minute or two, just to get to the end of a chapter.

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#QP2019 Nominees Round Up, October 9 Edition

Published October 9, 2018

Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition, An Up and Out Collection by Julia Kaye
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 9781449489625

Some people chronicle their lives in written journals, but for artist Julia Kaye expressing her emotions on the page came in a different form. When she started her gender transition in 2016, she found a way to chronicle her journey through the art of webcomics. This inspirational true life adventure follows all the ups and downs she went through during that time.

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#BFYA2019 Nominees Round Up, October 5 Edition

Published October 5, 2018

Isle of Blood and Stone by Makiia Lucier
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Publication Date: April 10, 2018
ISBN: 978-0544968578 

King Ulises has been on the throne for one year, the throne intended for his older brothers who were murdered years ago, along with his father, by emissaries of a rival kingdom. His friend Elias lost his mapmaker father in the same attack. When Ulises’ cousin Mercedes comes across a strange map that seems to have been drawn by Elias’ father, the three friends suspect there is more to the story than they have been told, and leave on a quest to uncover the riddles hidden in the map.

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#GGN2019 Nominees Round Up, October 4 Edition

Published October 4, 2018

Orphans, Vol. 1: The Beginning by Roberto Recchioni and Emiliano Mammucari
Lion Forge
Publication Date: June 26, 2018
ISBN: 978-1942367178

When an energy beam strikes the Earth, it kills a sixth of the world’s population. It was clearly an act of war by an alien planet. A scientist and a colonel gather together many of the surviving orphaned children to turn them into soldiers to invade the alien planet. The training is difficult and not everyone will survive, but after several years, they have created an elite force of soldiers. When they invade the planet they find a strange alien life form that has the ability to appear out of nowhere and kill without the use of weapons. The reader follows six orphans, all from Spain, as they figure out what they are dealing with and how to survive in this harsh environment, while protecting each other too. Each of the three chapters in this volume go back and forth between the original devastation of Earth, the training camp and the current invasion.

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#AA2019 Nominees Round Up, October 3 Edition

Published October 3, 2018

I Have Lost My Way by Gayle Forman, narrated by Sunil Malhotra, Michael Crouch, and Nicole Lewis
Audio Published by Listening Library
Publication Date: March 27, 2018
ISBN: 978-0525636274

I Have Lost my Way by Gayle Forman follows the story of three young adults: Freya, Harun, and Nathaniel in New York City who have each lost something or someone who was inherit to their identity. Brought together by an accident, their stories are woven together and their losses and secrets are slowly revealed to one another through the course of a single day. The story is told from each of the characters’ perspective.

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#QP2019 Nominees Round Up, October 2 Edition

Published October 2, 2018

Like Never and Always by Ann Aguirre
Tor / Tor Teen
Publication Date: July 17, 2018
ISBN: 9780765397614   

In an instant the lives of Liv, her best friend Morgan, and their boyfriends are forever changed when they are in a tragic car accident. Liv survives but when she awakens in the hospital she quickly realizes she has woken up in Morgan’s body. There is no going back because “Liv” died in the accident. Adapting to Morgan’s life isn’t easy as she has to adjust to living in a mansion, a new unlikely boyfriend (who just so happens to be the brother of Liv’s boyfriend) and of course, a scandalous mystery to solve that brings to question how much Liv really knew about her best friend.

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#BFYA2019 Nominees Round Up, September 28 Edition

Published September 28, 2018

Dear Rachel Maddow by Adrienne Kisner
Macmillan / Feiwel Friends
Publication Date: June 25, 2018
ISBN: 978-1250146021 

After starting out as a class assignment, but turning into an unsent e-mail journal, Brynn Harper begins emailing Rachel Maddow as she works through her feelings while dealing with the death of her brother and a heated school election.

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#GGN2019 Nominees Round Up, September 27 Edition

Published September 27, 2018

Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition by Julia Kaye
Andrews McMeel Publishing
Publication Date: May 1, 2018
ISBN: 978-1449489625

It took Julia years to understand herself as a trans individual and that she needed to transition in order to be happy. As a way to help herself and others, she decided to create a graphic diary of the first year of her transition and openly share her experiences. From exhilarating moments where sales people happily help her with discovering new body care products to a family member who will no longer acknowledge her, Julia chronicles the complexity of her everyday feelings in these straightforward yet powerful comic strips.

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