Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2022) Nominations Round-Up, Summer

Each quarter, the Selected Lists teams compile the titles that have been officially nominated to date. These books have been suggested by the team or through the title suggestion form, read by multiple members of the team, and received approval to be designated an official nomination. At the end of the year, the final list of nominations and each Selected List’s Top Ten will be chosen from these titles.


Across the Tracks: Remembering Greenwood, Black Wall Street, and the Tulsa Race Massacre. By Alverne Ball. Art by Stacey Robinson. Abrams/Megascope, $15.99 (9781419755170).

Greenwood—also known as Black Wall Street—was a bustling district in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with many successful Black-owned businesses. In 1921, a white mob descended on Greenwood, destroying businesses and devastating the community. One hundred years later, Across the Tracks pays homage to Greenwood.

Alone. By Megan E. Freeman. 2020. Penguin Random House/Crown, $17.99 (9780593176399).

Maddie finds herself completely, totally alone when she wakes up from a secret sleepover and discovers that everyone was evacuated overnight from her town, her state, and maybe her whole half of the country. She has to survive natural disasters, the elements, looters, wild animals, and her own crushing loneliness.

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Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2022) Featured Review of Don’t Stand So Close to Me by Eric Walters

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Don’t Stand So Close to Me by Eric Walters
Orca Book Publishers
Publication Date: September 22, 2020
ISBN: 978-1459827875

Eighth graders Quinn, Isaac, and Reese are excited about their upcoming spring dance, preparing for tests and projects, and planning their spring breaks in March 2020 when the developing COVID-19 pandemic changes things. Their families are affected in key ways and the students shift to online classes. As they’re all feeling disconnected and strange, Quinn has an idea for a way to bring her friends and the community together.

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Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2022) Featured Review of Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson

Yesterday is History by Kosoko Jackson
Sourcebooks Fire/ Sourcebooks
Publication Date: February 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1492694342

After a life-saving liver transplant, Andre Cobb gains the ability to time travel. He finds himself tethered to a young man named Michael who he meets in the year 1969, and the two quickly fall into a deep romantic relationship. Back in 2021, the family of Andre’s liver donor shares the news that they too are time-travellers, and they task their son Blake with teaching Andre about his new skill. The two share an obvious attraction, but Andre must first figure out what he wants out of life before he can choose which partner to love.

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