New Releases

New Releases

Posted onAuthorAudrey
Collage of the book covers for Age 16 and Not About A Boy. Both covers are described individually within the post.

We’ve got four titles on our radar for today! Which ones do you want to get your hands on?

Illustrated cover for Age 16. The cover looks like it has a pile of photographs stacked on top of it. The one that takes up most of the frame is a composition of three teenage girls, presumably representing Guangdong 1954, Hong Kong 1972, and Toronto 2000. The girl in the center is a simple black line art style. She wears a simple sleeveless dress and has a corsage on her wrist. She is glancing at the viewer while the wind blows her hair away from her face. The two girls behind her are larger, depicted from the shoulders up, one in pink and one in blue, so that the center girl's dress is a gradient of pink, purple, and blue. The three cityscapes fill in along the bottom of the three girls.Age 16 by Rosena Fung
Annick Press

A powerful coming-of-age graphic novel about three generations of mothers and daughters passing down and rebelling against standards of gender, race, beauty, size, and worth, for fans of Mariko Tamaki. Sixteen-year-old Roz is preoccupied with normal teenage navigating high school friendships, worrying about college, and figuring out what to wear to prom. When her estranged Por Por abruptly arrives for a seemingly indefinite visit, the already delicate relationship between Roz and her mother is upended. With three generations under one roof, conflicts inevitably arise and long suppressed family secrets rise to the surface. Told in alternating perspectives, Age 16 shifts seamlessly between time and place, exploring how this pivotal year in adolescence affects three women in the same family, from Guangdong in 1954 to Hong Kong in 1972, and Toronto in 2000. Award-winning creator of Living with Viola Rosena Fung pulls from her own family history in her YA debut to give us an emotional and poignant story about how every generation is affected by those that came before and affect those that come after.

Illustrated cover of Not About A Boy. A Black teenage girl is looking at the viewer with an exhausted expression. She is lying her head on top of her hands, like she is lying on her side. Her long, curly hair frames her face. Her eyes are a bit red, and her face is flushed, like she has been crying. The background is a medium blue, white lighter blue lines across it, like waves.Not About a Boy by Myah Hollis
Harper Teen

Euphoria meets Girl in Pieces in this coming-of-age story of a girl trying to put a grief-stricken past behind her, only to be startled by the discovery of a long-lost sister who puts into question everything she thought she knew.

Amélie Cœur has never known what it truly means to be happy.

She thought she’d found happiness once, in a love that ended in tragedy and nearly sent her over the edge. Now, at seventeen, Mel is beginning to piece her life back together. Under the supervision of Laurelle Child Services, the exclusive foster care agency that raised her, Mel is sober and living with a new family among Manhattan’s elite. It’s her last chance at adoption before she ages out of the system and she promised, this time, she’ll try.

But a casual relationship with a boy is turning into something she never intended for it to be, causing small cracks in her carefully constructed walls. Then the sister she has no memory of contacts Mel, unearthing complicated feelings about the past and what could have been.

As the anniversary of the worst day of her life approaches, Mel must weather the rising tides of grief and depression before she loses herself, and those close to her, all over again.

Illustrated cover of The Second Chance of Darius Logan. A Black teenage boy stands on the edge of a roof in a sky scraper-filled city. He is wearing a t-shirt, jeans, and an unzipped hoodie in various shades of blue, gray, and yellow. His head is tilted slightly up while he stands with his hands in his pockets. It seems to be night time in the city, though there is some yellow light that might be the rising or setting sun. The Second Chance of Darius Logan by David F. Walker
Scholastic Press

Darius Logan is far from a hero. Since his parents were killed, he has spent most of his life navigating foster homes and shelters, abandoned neighborhoods and decaying buildings. All Darius knows is survival. Life was hard enough, but now he finds himself being hunted by the police after a drug deal he never should have been involved in goes bad. And when they catch him, Darius is positive he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.

But in place of a long prison sentence, Darius is handed an opportunity almost too good to be true: the chance to get away from his circumstances by joining the Second Chance program of the Super Justice Force, a league of people with special powers who strive to do good and protect the world from harm. Darius soon discovers a strength he never knew he possessed, but evil forces manifest and threaten to destroy everything he holds dear. Will Darius be able to save the world when he faces a deadly–and all too familiar–enemy?

This incredibly powerful YA debut by Eisner award-winning author David F. Walker, dives into matters of social justice and identity, courage and second chances, in a world where heroes loom large and what seems ordinary is anything but.

Illustrated cover for We Don't Have Time For This. Two Black teenagers hold a white banner with the title scrawled across it in black. Behind them is a crowd of protesters holding environmentally themed signs. The boy is neatly dressed in a lightly blue button down, dark blue jeans, an brown shoes. He has short, dark brown hair, and is wearing glasses. The girl is more casually dressed, with an orange checkered-flannel, light blue shirt and jeans, and white shoes. Her curly hair has pink streaks in it. The two of them are glancing at each other.We Don’t Have Time for This by Brianna Craft
Disney Hyperion

Lemonade Mouth meets climate change activism in this enemies-to-lovers YA romance. A tied election throws two rival teen activists together to lead their school’s environmental justice club, and they are taken by surprise when their clashes reveal deeper feelings hidden beneath their antagonism.

What’s more romantic than saving the earth?

Two presidents. One club. A sizzling connection.

Isa Brown wishes her life would slow down. She doesn’t want to leave for college. Not now that her dad finally gets to spend some time at home. Not now that she’s finally been in one place for longer than a year. But nothing lasts forever. With wildfires ravaging her community and a new natural gas pipeline threatening her dad’s job, the last thing Isa can do is relax. The school’s environmental justice club seems like a promising way to make real change. If only her annoying co-president Darius would stop being such a control freak.

Darius Freeman can’t stop hustling. If he does, how will he beat the other honors kids to be valedictorian? How will he get into the top schools in the country? How will he launch his political career? No. Darius can’t stop, and the next step in his plan is leading the environmental justice club this year—putting on a policy summit and rounding out his college applications with a leadership role. But then Isa joins the club and becomes co-president. Is she the stumbling block on his road to success?

As Isa and Darius clash over the best way to lead the environmental justice club, deeper feelings emerge. About what’s at stake for their communities if they can’t figure out how to work together. And about the sparks they feel between them.

Will Darius and Isa figure out how to burn brightly together? Or will their flames leave nothing but ashes behind?