We have three titles we’re watching for today and one that we missed from last week that we were happy to discover over the weekend.
Today:
An Embroidery of Souls by Ruby Martinez
Knopf Children
Jade Aguilar can stitch beauty and brilliance into existence—unravel life itself. Like her mother, she’s a thread speaker in the queendom of Mérecal, where their rare gift can be used only in service of the Crown. When her mother, the master thread speaker, goes missing amid a spree of unusual deaths, the queen orders Jade to find her or be conscripted into a life of servitude.
Lukas Keller, a boy with a heart as bright as the universe, is desperate to save his family from the clutches of poverty. He gets caught up with a vicious gang and is forced to do the one thing he swore he would never do: seek the help of a thread speaker.
Jade and Lukas form a mistrustful alliance. As Mérecal descends into chaos, it’s clear there is something monstrous on the hunt. Jade and Lukas cling to each other for survival—and perhaps . . . something more.
In her spellbinding debut, Ruby Martinez weaves a wildly romantic, heart-pounding mystery set against the backdrop of Mexican and German lore.
Split the Sky
Little, Brown Books for Young Readers
Fifteen-year-old Lala Russell is doing a bad job at being a Black girl. She has social justice fatigue, and she doesn’t want to join the Black Alliance Club at her school (even though she agrees with them). A gifted cellist, she’s focused on leaving her small town and accomplishing her goals and dreams. But Lala has also inherited another gift, her grandmother Sadie’s gift of foresight. She has visions of the future—and they always come true.
In Davey, the Texas sundown town she lives in, there is growing tension, as a Black organization attempts to diversify the nearly all-white part of town. Amidst violent protests, Lala has a vision. In it, a Black teenage boy is shot in the chest by a white homeowner. Now Lala has a mission: find the boy and save him.
But Grandma Sadie has a vision too. After the boy’s murder, a wave of protests breaks out. And the outrage over the casual and frequent slaying of unarmed Black children will result in unprecedented change. Change that won’t happen if the vision is altered. Lala is faced with an existential question—can she allow herself to sacrifice one life to, in turn, save many? And if so, whose life will she choose?
Blood Moon by Britney S. Lewis
Page street Kids
Mirabella Owens grew up with legends of wolves that traveled to her midwestern town to protect humans from vampires. Of a werewolf that fell in love with one of the undead, unraveling a blood-soaked history. But Mira stopped believing in those fairy tales years ago. She stopped believing in a lot of things after her mom left without a trace when she was only thirteen.
As Mira begins her freshman year at Lakeland University, she’s ready to leave the past behind her. Only the past isn’t finished with her yet. Strange animal attacks are occurring around campus, reopening cold cases tied to her mother’s disappearance. And the only person who seems to know anything is Julian Santos, the boy who is hell-bent on getting Mira to leave campus for reasons she can’t begin to understand. But Mira refuses to let him keep his secrets, not when the truth is the difference between life and death.
Mira will have to accept that there is much more to the old town myths, and her growing feelings for Julian, than she ever could have anticipated. And as the Blood Moon rises, she will come to know a world that will shatter her past and change her future.
The One We Missed Last Week:
Champion: A Graphic Novel by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Raymond Obstfeld, illustrated by Ed Laroche
Ten Speed Graphic
Monk Travers is the star basketball player on his high school team. Confident about his future as an NBA player, he doesn’t see the point in caring much about school, let alone his community. But his world is about to change—big time!
After getting caught graffitiing his team’s rival school, Monk comes to the awful realization that his actions have put his place on the team—and his future—in jeopardy. He’s taken by surprise when his coach offers him an unorthodox way to atone: completing a report on the life of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
Monk is ecstatic. He knows all Kareem’s records and stats. He smugly announces that the project will be a snap, but his excitement is short-lived when Coach tells him that the project is not about Kareem’s basketball career—it’s about his life as an advocate for change.
As Monk grudgingly begins his research, he discovers a history of struggles, conflicts, frustrations, and violence that he’d never been aware of, awakening a passion for social justice that rivals Kareem’s own.