Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2023) Featured Review of Kiss and Tell by Adib Khorram

Kiss and Tell by Adib Khorram
Penguin Young Readers Group
Publication Date: March 22, 2022
ISBN: 9780593325261

Hunter is a member of the internationally beloved boy band Kiss and Tell, on their first North American tour. He’s also the only queer member of the band, and going through his first breakup. A messy, public breakup, after his ex posts their texts online. As if that’s not enough, he’s contending with The Label creating and controlling his image of the perfect queer teen role model, and a budding romance with another musician on the tour. Homophobia is present in the text, though never condoned.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2023) Featured Review of Kiss and Tell by Adib Khorram

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

roundup header image

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.

Ace of Spades. By Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé. Macmillan/Feiwel & Friends, $18.99 (9781250800817). 

Ambitious queen bee Chiamaka and loner scholarship kid Devon are the only Black students at school. That’s all they have in common until an online bully going by the name “Aces” starts spilling all their secrets. Chiamaka and Devon will have to join forces to bring Aces down—or lose everything.

Bad Witch Burning. By Jessica Lewis. Penguin Random House/Delacorte Press, $17.99 (9780593177389). 

Katrell’s ability to converse with the dead has been earning her enough money to help her mom pay bills and buy food. When she makes a startling discovery about her abilities around the same time she receives a dire warning to stop using her magic, Katrell is faced with an impossible decision.

Barry Squires, Full Tilt. By Heather Smith. 2020. Penguin Random House Canada/Penguin Teen, $17.99 (9780735267466). 

After watching a performance of Irish step dancers, Barry Squires decides he was meant for tap shoes. The trick will be convincing everyone around him to give him a chance.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2022) Nominations Round-Up, Winter

Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2022) Featured Review of Sway With Me by Syed M. Masood

Sway with Me Cover Art

Sway With Me by Syed M. Masood
Hatchette/Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Publication Date: November 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-0316492416 

Being homeschooled by his nearly 100-year-old great grandfather (Nana) has left seventeen-year-old Indian American Arsalan with an impressive vocabulary and not an ounce of cool. Considering that Nana doesn’t likely have many years left on this earth, Arsalan comes to the conclusion he needs to get engaged. Not married, just engaged. He just wants a guarantee that he won’t be left alone when Nana dies. So he makes a deal with Beenish, whose stepmother is the “premier matchmaking aunty of the Greater Sacramento Area” and so presumably knows something about the matchmaking process. Beenish agrees to set him up with someone if he will be her dance partner for her sister’s upcoming wedding. A wedding — Arsalan soon discovers — that Beenish wants to end before it happens, primarily through choreographing an outrageously inappropriate dance that will be sure to offend her sister’s in-laws-to-be.

Continue reading Best Fiction for Young Adults (#BFYA2022) Featured Review of Sway With Me by Syed M. Masood

Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2021) Nominees Round Up, September 1 Edition

Click here to see all of the current Quick Picks nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales
Wednesday Books / St. Martin’s Publishing Group
Publication Date: March 3, 2020
ISBN: 9781250315892

Ollie’s summer in North Carolina turns into a semi-permanent adventure when he and his parents stay on into the fall to help his ailing aunt (who is dying of cancer) to take care of her family. Collinswood High is not nearly as progressive as his previous school in California, but senior Ollie is determined not to hide his sexuality from his peers. His summer crush and brief fling, Will Tavares, materializes at the school as a popular but closeted jock, and while Ollie pins his hopes on rekindling their spark, he is faced with the decision to be true to himself or accept a hidden romance in order to experience the excitement of first love.

Continue reading Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers (#QP2021) Nominees Round Up, September 1 Edition

Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2021) Nominees Round Up, June 24 Edition

Click here to see all of the current Amazing Audiobooks nominees along with more information about the list and past years’ selections.

Layoverland cover art

Layoverland by Gabby Noone; narrated by Sophie Amoss
Publisher: Recorded Books
Release date: 01-21-20
ISBN: 978-1984836120

Continue reading Amazing Audiobooks (#AA2021) Nominees Round Up, June 24 Edition