Olivia Abtahi – The Hub

Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2023) Featured Review of Azar On Fire by Olivia Abtahi

Azar On Fire by Olivia Abtahi

Narrated by Alex McKenna

Books on Tape | Listening Library

Publication Date: August 23, 2022

ISBN:9780593610305

Azar Rossi’s Freshman year of high school has been virtually silent. Her classmates think she’s just quiet, but in reality, Azar’s voice has the croaky rasp of a chain smoker. Due to an extreme case of colic as a baby, Azar’s vocal cords are shredded and talking is quite painful. But Azar has big dreams of being a famous songwriter and when an accident in a school janitorial closet somehow leads to Azar putting together an act for a city-wide teenaged Battle of the Bands, she thinks her dreams may finally be coming true.

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2022) Nominations Round-Up, Fall

BFYA Fall Roundup Art — Due to the large number of nominees, not all titles are shown here. See full list below.

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.

The City Beautiful. By Aden Polydoros. Harlequin/Inkyard Press, $19.99 (9781335402509).

Amidst the glitz and glamour of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, Alter Rosen, a gay, Jewish, Romanian immigrant teen, becomes possessed by the dybbuk of his murdered friend and must avenge the deaths of his friend and a growing number of other local Jewish boys.

Curses. By Lish McBride. Penguin Random House/G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, $18.99 (9781984815590).

When Merit refuses to marry a prince, she is cursed to live as a beast. Tevin’s family runs cons on rich girls, but when his mom runs afoul of the beast she trades him for her freedom. This fresh, gender-bent Beauty and the Beast retelling examines what “beastly” really is.

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2022) Featured Review of Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi

Perfectly Parvin by Olivia Abtahi
Penguin Random House / G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: May 18, 2021
ISBN: 978-0593109427

Parvin Mohammadi can’t wait to start high school after a magical summer at the beach with her first-ever boyfriend — but when he dumps her on the first day of high school in front of her friends for being “too loud,” Parvin hatches a scheme to become the perfect rom-com girl so hunky sophomore Matty Fumero will ask her to homecoming. Parvin will do whatever it takes to suppress her loud, hairy, flashy, prank-obsessed self and live her high school dream, even if the boy she’s growing closer to in her Farsi classes seems to like those things about her.