New Releases

New Releases

Posted onAuthorCrystal
Book covers of Medicine Wheels, Bad Queer, and Breakout. Each are described individually in images within the post.

There are so many books I’m excited for today! I’m also thankful to Heartdrum because I already have Medicine Wheels and it’s awesome so far. I’ll be reviewing it soon.

The book cover of Goldenborn. A young Black woman is centered. She has braids and hoop earrings. She is holding an oval mask that is mostly golden with some other colors. She has short sleeves and there are drawings of some sort on her arms. The phrase "Love, lies, and legacy--all tangled in a trickster's web" is just to the right of her face.Goldenborn by Ama Ofosua Lieb
Scholastic

Akoma Addo has one rule: don’t get too close to the supernatural.

Ever since a blazing orb of light left her father in a coma, she’s buried herself in her secret job investigating magical crimes in San Francisco’s AfricaTown — just enough to keep her grief at bay. But when a body turns up in a pool of molten gold and ash, Akoma’s pulled into something much bigger — and far more dangerous. At the center of it all is Anansi, the trickster god of stories, who makes her an impossible offer: help him catch a killer and awaken the ancestral magic buried deep in her blood… and in return, he’ll give her a chance to bring her father back. To take the deal, Akoma will have to lie to everyone she loves and embrace the very power she’s spent years trying to deny. And as her connection grows with Xander, the new guy in town with secrets of his own, Akoma must decide who she can trust — especially when she’s no longer sure she can even trust herself. Rooted in Ghanaian mythology and packed with mystery, danger, and slow-burning romance, Goldenborn is a gripping fantasy about legacy, lies, and what it really means to rewrite your story.

Book cover of The Heirs has a tag line at the bottom Nothing brings a family together quite like murder. The cover has a black background with a golden title. There are lots of items above and below the title. They mostly have a golden, brown or red color. There are chess pieces, some bird shaped scissors and broken teacup and sever paintbrushes, some buttons, a key and part of a stringed instrument.The Heirs by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé
Feiwel & Friends

Five prodigies, one dead father, a mansion full of suspects…

Octavius the Maestro.
Fola the Brain.
Bilal the Olympian.
Perdita the Artist.
Romeo the Failure.

These are the five heirs of the illustrious billionaire Leontes Button. Adopted and viciously trained with their father’s infamous “Button Method” to prove his hypothesis for creating prodigies—child geniuses—the Button siblings have had no choice but to be brilliant according to their father’s impossibly high standards.

Until he is murdered at his annual Prodigy Ball.

Now, all who attended the ball are required to stay in the Button Manor while the police investigate. But the officers have their work cut out for them—each of the Button siblings has something to hide, but The Heirs aren’t the only ones with secrets. After all, Leontes Button was especially good at making enemies. . .

Book cover of the Secret World of Briar Rose. A young pale woman with lots of blond hair is holding a red rose at her chest. Her eyes are closed. From her head is coming sunflowers, a waterfall and lots of nature.Secret World of Briar Rose by Cindy Pham
Kokila

One hundred years have passed since the last heir of Gyldan fell into eternal slumber and doomed the once-mighty kingdom to poverty and invasion. At least, that’s what the fairy tales claim.

Corin is a jaded thief who doesn’t believe in fables, even when she searches Gyldan’s underground tunnels to find her younger sister, Elly, who ran away to find the sleeping princess in hopes of a better life. Corin’s conviction is challenged when she discovers the ruins of the ancient castle, maintained by beings from the kingdom’s golden age, who protect a hidden portal into Princess Amelia’s subconscious. Following Elly’s voice, Corin jumps in the portal and seals the entry behind her.

Inside the lush world of Amelia’s dreams, the sisters reunite for a new adventure as they meet Briar Rose, Amelia’s whimsical alter ego, and Malicine, a sharp-tongued demon with a gift for magic. But as they explore ice castles, sunflower mazes, and star-filled oceans, Corin suspects Briar Rose is hiding darker secrets behind her “perfect” paradise – and that there are some things her subconscious can’t bury forever.

Book cover for medicine wheels. A young man with light brown skin and shoulder length brown hair is carrying a skateboard with the wheels facing out. On the bottom the board is covered in the colors red, yellow, black and white in fourths. There is also a circle in the center that has the same colors and the outside edge of the circle has white on the edge of the yellow, yellow on the red, red on the black, and black on the white. The young person is wearing a red and black plaid shirt over a tshirt and has a beaded necklace. Behind him is another medicine wheel. On the yellow portion red words say ride, crash, rise.Medicine Wheels by Byron Graves
Heartdrum

When Bryce’s mom walks out on her abusive boyfriend and back into jail for breaking her probation, he’s left facing the summer of his junior year with no parents, no phone, and only the clothes on his back.

With nowhere to call home, Bryce crashes at his grandparents’ house on Wolf Creek reservation. Wolf Creek is full of memories and old friends—including Robbie and Mikayla, who hang out at the local skate park.

Skateboarding reminds Bryce of his late dad: carefree, riding like he could fly. If Bryce could learn to ride like that, he’d take his crew to the top of the skateboarding championship at the end of the summer, and finally prove he’s not a loser, especially to the online-famous, captivating Mikayla. Summer is looking up, even as he’s falling on his face.

But when a fresh loss takes Bryce down, he’ll need to learn to lean on his Ojibwe community to get back on the board. Only then can he discover his father’s real legacy—and the true meaning of unconditional love.

Book cover of Bad Queer. The cover is a light brand with purple for the title and green for the author's name. There is a blackberry up by the title. In the center is a dark brown skinned young person with short wavy dark hair that has golden tips. They are wearing a green beanie and have large blackberries all around them. They have a gold ring in their note. They are wearing a pink button up shirt and a golden medallion or piece of of jewelry near the collar.Bad Queer by Gayathiri Kamalakanthan
Faber & Faber Children’s

I feel invincible.
Like I could run and run
and never stop for breath.

I feel a power in me
I didn’t know I had.

The power to speak,
to say what I need.

Surya knows exactly who they are. Coming out as non-binary to their queer parents and best friend? A total non-event. Catching feelings for Blessing – the boy in drama club whose smile makes their heart race? That’s trickier.

As their final year of school unfolds and the two of them grow closer, Surya starts to question: Does Blessing really see them? Or just a version of them that doesn’t exist? They’d ask their best friend for advice, but she’s busy falling in love too. . .

With gorgeous illustrations throughout, Bad Queer draws us deeply into queer friendship, family secrets, and the necessary act of loving yourself. Perfect for fans of Alice Oseman, Dean Atta, and Sarah Crossan.

This is a love letter to queer futures – tender, curious, and fiercely alive.

Illustrated cover of Breakout. The dark silhouette's of two people are standing at what seems like a swimming pool with read spread through the middle. They are holding hands. There dark palm tree silhouettes agains a starry dark sky.Breakout by Dhonielle Clayton, Tiffany B. Jackson, Nic Stone, Angie Thomas, Ashley Woodfolk, and Nicola Yoon
Quill Tree

For Thurgood Marshall Academy’s best and brightest–five friends who’ve been thick as thieves since kindergarten–this spring break is all about forgetting: they want nothing more than to wash away last year’s tragedy, and the human-shaped hole it left in their friend group.

It’s a hole the new kid, Anthony Brooks, seems to fit right into. So when he invites the Five to join him on a private island for a week at his dad’s luxury resort, they agree with zero hesitation. No one’s counting on a freak tropical storm swooping in and killing the vibe. And speaking of killing, they’re also ill-prepared for the mounting collection of dead bodies… including (another) one of their own.

As their dream trip unravels, everything they tried to leave behind–secrets, lies, betrayals, dead best friends–seems to be washing up on the shore of their lives for everyone to see. Will any of them make it out alive?

Book cover for the ocean would paint me blue. The background is a dark raspberry and there are golden brown details in decorations around an oval of blue. At the bottom of the oval is a young woman with a magenta scarf around her head. She has her eyes closed. Above her in the blue are jellyfish, a fish, a ray, and some starfish. There are a few leaves around the outside edges. There are also shells at the spaces on the oval that would be north, south, east, and west if labeled.The Ocean Would Paint Me Blue by Zoulfa Katouh
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Seventeen-year-old Jihad Dabbagh has always seen life with a heightened sense for colors, one of many magical blessings the women in her family possess. But Jihad’s gift changes depending on her mood. When depression sets in, the world is a colorless oasis, and in the wake of her mother’s sudden death, the world has become a permanent shade of grey. Broken by tragedy, Jihad’s family doesn’t believe her color loss. Her father sends her to the elite Braxton Academy to finish her senior year. There, Jihad’s name and hijab put a target on her back. Her haven comes in the form of an old sketchbook carved from a tree in her hometown in Syria — a country she only knew through her mother’s stories. Jihad hasn’t picked up a brush in over a year, but finds herself channeling the colors of her hurt, pain, and grief as she paints the story of her mother’s journey in Syria. When graffiti of that same mural starts magically popping up all over New York, her art goes viral and the world takes notice, the threat of legal consequences is imminent. To reclaim her voice, Jihad will have to paint a new future for herself and Braxton, guided by the resilience of her mother’s story.

A brown skinned young man with short dark hair is standing at the front of a car. His hands are in his pockets. He's wearing a white t-shirt and monarchs are flying in front of him and behind him. The background is orange.Monarchs in the Wild by Israel Moya
Lee & Low Books

In the summer of 1994, seventeen-year-old Cal ”California” Garcia can’t seem to escape the gossip and horrified looks of his fellow La Sombra residents. They judge him on nothing more than the long scar on his face, his beat up ’68 Mustang, and always being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Cal constantly feels like he’s been set up to fail. His father left his family after the tragic accident that gave him his scar. His mother spends all her time at church, enchanted by the words of a crooked pastor. And his new-old Mustang brings more trouble and chaos than it’s worth. Everything about being in La Sombra tells him he is and always will be a nothing. But as his senior year is coming to an end, his life is turned drastically upside down. Out by the railroad tracks, Cal finds Nora, valedictorian Nora, fallen off a bridge. The monarch butterflies stitched onto her jeans are seared into his memory forever. Having found her body, Cal becomes a person of interest in Nora’s suspicious death.

As Cal tries to escape suspicion, an opportunity for a way out of La Sombra emerges from nowhere, and Cal is forced to choose his own fate. Will Cal finally decide who he is and where he wants to be? Or will he let circumstance choose for him and live his life as just another statistic in a farm-worker town?