New Releases

New Releases

Posted onAuthorK. Imani Tennyson

Sometimes in dark moments books can allow us to escape to other worlds, other times and lift our spirits. Here are three new releases this week to help give us comfort during this dark time.

There are five different hands on the cover of this book. Several of them are holding something to write with and are journaling. Two of the hands are open as if to hold something. There are calendars, photos, and other bits of paper around the edges.When We Become Ours: A YA Adoptee Anthology edited by Shannon Gibney & Nicole Chung
Harper Teen

Two teens take the stage and find their voice. . . A girl learns about her heritage and begins to find her community. . . A sister is haunted by the ghosts of loved ones lost. . . There is no universal adoption experience, and no two adoptees have the same story. This anthology for teens edited by Shannon Gibney and Nicole Chung contains a wide range of powerful, poignant, and evocative stories in a variety of genres. These tales from fifteen bestselling, acclaimed, and emerging adoptee authors genuinely and authentically reflect the complexity, breadth, and depth of adoptee experiences. This groundbreaking collection centers what it’s like growing up as an adoptee. These are stories by adoptees, for adoptees, reclaiming their own narrative.

A young man with short slightly curly brown hair stands facing a young girl with longer wavy dark hair. There is a giant dna strand between them.The Search for Us by Susan Azim Boyer
Wednesday Books

Two half-siblings who have never met embark on a search together for the Iranian immigrant and U.S. Army veteran father they never knew.

Samira Murphy will do anything to keep her fractured family from falling apart, including caring for her widowed grandmother and getting her older brother into recovery for alcohol addiction. With attendance at her dream college on the line, she takes a long shot DNA test to find the support she so desperately needs from a father she hasn’t seen since she was a baby.

Henry Owen is torn between his well-meaning but unreliable bio-mom and his overly strict aunt and uncle, who stepped in to raise him but don’t seem to see him for who he is. Looking to forge a stronger connection to his own identity, he takes a DNA test to find the one person who might love him for exactly who he is―the biological father he never knew.

Instead of a DNA match with their father, Samira and Henry are matched with each other. They begin to search for their father together and slowly unravel the difficult truth of their shared past, forming a connection that only siblings can have and recovering precious parts of their past that have been lost. Brimming with emotional resonance, Susan Azim Boyer’s The Search for Us beautifully renders what it means to find your place in the world through the deep and abiding power of family.

The background is a night sky filled with fireworks. There is a young woman sitting on the ground in a long skirt. She's holding a camera and looking up. There is a young man sitting on a giant flower up in the air near lanterns. He seems to be drawing or writing on a tablet. They are both smiling. There are also other lit up objects around them. It looks a little like a travel brochure.Sleepless in Dubai by Sajni Patel
Amulet Books

In this hate-to-love teen rom-com from the author of My Sister’s Big Fat Indian Wedding, Nikki, an aspiring photographer, accompanies her family on a trip to Dubai to celebrate the five days of Diwali in style. It should be the trip of a lifetime, if Yash, the boy next door–with whom Nikki has a rocky history–weren’t on board. Oblivious to the tension, Nikki’s matchmaking family encourages Nikki to get better acquainted with Yash. Turns out a lot can change on a 12-hour flight beyond just continents. But can betrayals and conflicting ambitions be set aside long enough for the two teens to discover the true meaning of the Festival of Lights?