We’re closing out February with five new books! Which ones have caught your attention?
The Boyfriend Launcher by RaeChell Garrett
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
When soccer star Dru Eason’s longtime crush Kai finally asks her out, she can’t say no. She also can’t say yes. Not when she knows things with him will end just as they have with all of her exes. They’ll date, break up, and in a matter of days he’ll become someone else’s perfect boyfriend.
Because Dru is The Boyfriend Launcher.
To buy time to figure out why this keeps happening, Dru negotiates a no-dating pact with her team for the duration of the playoffs–twenty-four days. Then she asks Winston Portis, one of her best friends, to secretly fake-date her. Maybe after some feedback on what it’s like being her boyfriend, she can take her chance with Kai and keep him far away from the launchpad.
But is twenty-four days enough time to uncover her issues? Or is it just long enough for Dru to wonder: Has she been overlooking the perfect boy, or is she just launching Winston for the next girl? And is she finally brave enough to take a shot at finding out?
Daybreak, Vol. 2 by Moosopp
WEBTOON Unscrolled
It’s the start of a new year and maybe the start of something more.
Marcus has a crush, and Cog is completely unprepared for the hijinks that follow. Hopefully in their efforts to grow closer, they can brighten each other’s day.
It’s senior year and Marcus and Cog, two students from different friend groups, just started hanging out. Between Marcus making lunch for Cog, Cog walking Marcus home, and accidental paper-eating incidents, they start to see one another in a new light.
Over the course of movie nights and shopping trips, Marcus and Cog start spending even more time together over the winter break. So much so that everyone thinks that they’re boyfriends already. That might not be true…yet…but it might just be on the horizon.
This volume collects episodes 48 to 107 of the endearing WEBTOON comic with over 100 million reads, Daybreak.
Just Between Us by Adeline Kon
Dial Books
Lydia Chen knows how good she is on the ice. Technically perfect, she’s been the one to beat since her debut years ago.
Except now, something is missing in her performances—a spark that’s been gone for a while. Between the constant training, appealing to sponsors to fund her, and the pressure to perform, Lydia’s passion for skating has disappeared.
When her rival Elaine Yee starts training at the same rink, Lydia’s struck by the emotion in Elaine’s routines and unwillingly finds herself getting closer to her as they compete for a spot in the Olympics.
As the tension between them comes to a head, Lydia’s about to find out how a competitor can become an ally and figure out how to feel alive on the ice again.
The Light That Blinds Us by Andy Darcy Theo
Simon Pulse
After a childhood haunted by disturbing hallucinations of the Shadow Man, Alexis Michaels’s only comfort is the blue amulet he’s had since before he can remember. Now, the visions have gone, and Alexis craves a normal life. But when a trip to Stonehenge unites him with three other teens carrying similar gems, they are all plunged into a hidden world of power-wielding Elementals: chosen ones, who are destined to save the world from an eternal night.
Now Alexis and his companions must venture on a perilous quest, facing tests of love, loss, and loyalty. But a dark past plagues Alexis as they prepare to defeat an adversary more ominous than they could imagine, and a looming secret threatens to corrupt the mission, their lives, and Alexis’s mind.
Onward: 16 Climate Fiction Short Stories to Inspire Hope edited by Nora Shalaway Carpenter
Charlesbridge
This inspiring collection of sixteen short stories is packed with fascinating characters and settings that illuminate current and possible changes to our planet and how humanity responds.
Included here is prose, verse, and personal essays from a wide range of authors diverse in ethnic background, geographic location, and socioeconomic status. A few tales:
Shayta cares for a tiny green plant in a futuristic world where Earth has become a barren, over-farmed landscape fraught with dirt storms.
Hana and her father travel by catamaran to the farthest place from land in the entire world—only to discover a giant, floating carcass of trash and a few other surprises.
William and his family want to protect an endangered fish from a potential dam on a river that’s flowed through their land for generations . . .
There’s also a section where readers can find concrete and practical steps to help curtail the global climate crisis, including resources specific for every story. There’s even a section specifically “For the Severely Overwhelmed.”
This young adult anthology cultivates deep hope and stunning resilience—what we all need in order to make life on Earth more sustainable for us all.