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Moving Verse Novels for Young Readers: A Sea of Lemon Trees and Octopus Moon

Posted on April 8, 2026 by Katy K.

I picked both of these books up because of the awards – honors for both the Newbery and the Pura Belpre awards for A Sea of Lemon Trees and a Schneider Family Award for representation of disability for Octopus Moon. If you don’t read books because of awards, read them because they are heartfelt stories of kids going through tough times, which poetry is able to express better than prose.

Cover of A Sea of Lemon Trees by María Dolores Águila.

A Sea of Lemon Trees by María Dolores Águila. Roaring Brook Press, 2025. ISBN 978-1250342614. Read from a library copy.

The cover also reminds me a bit of Freewater, with the serious boy’s face surrounded by nature, and like Freewater, it’s a story of a boy facing extreme prejudice. While Freewater is pure fiction based on historical events, A Sea of Lemon Trees is based on a real boy and his real situation, in Lemon Grove California, 1930-1931. 12-year-old Roberto Alvarez is the youngest of his family, growing up in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood of Lemon Grove where most of the adults work in the lemon orchards – the sea of lemon trees. When the local elementary school decides to segregate and send the Mexican children to school in a barn, the parents and children refuse to cooperate, leading to an escalating battle. This is a novel in verse, with time to get to known Roberto and his love of learning, his family and friends, and the community. All the while, the tension ratchets up, until Roberto finds himself the only one able to stand up for what is right. This is a heartfelt story, and I hope that the ease of reading the poetry will draw young readers into it. I enjoyed it, anyway, and was happy to see an author’s note explaining the situation and a bibliography for further reading.

Octopus Moon by Bobbie Pyron. Nancy Paulsen Books, 2025. ISBN 978-0593616291. Read ebook on Libby.

Pearl has lots of things she used to love – running with her dog, skateboarding, movie nights with her best friends Rosie and Mia, going to the beach near their home on the Gulf of Mexico, and spending time at the aquarium where her mother works. Lately, though, as fifth grade approaches, all the things that used to make her happy take more energy than she has. As her grades slip and she drops out of activities she once loved, her mother takes her to a therapist, Dr. Jill, who works with Pearl to help her identify her depression and devlop tools and skills to work through it. This is a story that had a high potential to be didactic, but as we’re in Pearl’s head and the language is lyrical, filled with metaphors of sea creatures and the ocean, it is instead deeply personal. It also really helps that Pearl is not a lone person with Issues plopped into a group of people without problems who are all artificially understanding or obstinately refuse to acknowledge what Pearl is going through. Rosie and Mia both have issues at home that they’re working through; Pearl figures out that her beloved grandfather also has depression; family and friends try to understand and be helpful and sometimes fail. The book ends hopefully and realistically and absolutely made me cry more than once along the way. (Maybe don’t read this on your breaks at work right before going out to work with the public as I did.) Major characters read as white. An author’s note about her own childhood struggles with undiagnosed depression and a list of resources round out the book.

For other middle grade books about kids dealing with depression, try Zia Erases the World by Bree Barton and Drifters by Kevin Emerson – and let me know if you know of any others.

Enchanting Fantasy Romance: Enchanting the Fae Queen, The Keeper of Magical Things, and Cinder House

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Katy K.

Folks, the world is still really rough out there – I’m sure you’ve noticed. And while I’m also spending more time than I used to reading the news and contacting my representatives, these book about finding love and hope in the midst of war, failure, and even murder are just what I need. Maybe they’ll be what you need, too.

Cover of The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong

Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis. Bramble, 2026. ISBN 978-1250359612. Read from a library copy (because my pre-ordered copy was delayed.)

It was only a year, but I was still waiting very hopefully for this sequel to Wooing the Witch Queen. Our tale continues with the second Queen of Villany, Lorelei, Queen of Balravia. As a half-fae who was forced to leave Faery as a child to take her place as heir to her father’s kingdom, Lorelei is determined that her kingdom will be a safe place for its magical citizens. Her journey to the throne was not an easy one, but she’s covered her sharp intelligence with smiles and glitter and the loneliness born of loss and betrayal with numerous short-term lovers. Over the past seven years she’s built up a steady rivalry with the High General of the Empire’s army, Gerard de Moireul. He has never been known to engage in any kind vice – no drinking, gambling, or lovers – and Lorelei can’t stop needling him. But Gerard has his own painful history and reasons for his unbending loyalty to the Empire. At the end of Wooing the Witch Queen (spoiler) she kidnapped him. Of course she has a plan to make him realize how corrupt his emperor is – but could that years-long non-relationship ever turn into anything else?

The story here has a layer of froth – or, more aptly, glitter, across it, as in addition to the literal glitter that Lorelei scatters around her, Lorelei has planned to win Gerard over to her cause by making them pair up in a magical contest – something meant to be light-hearted. Many parts of the story are frothy and glittery – but there is depth to the story as well, as Lorelei and Gerard both must revisit deeply held emotions from childhood to move on with life in the present day. And, as is to be expected with Stephanie Burgis, there is a flipping of gender roles both in general – here, the rake and the virgin, the rule breaker and the rule follower – and in the spicy scenes in particular (no spoilers from me there.) This continues to be a series that I plan to reread. Now I just need to wait for next year for the final book, Melting the Ice Queen, to come out.

The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong. Narrated by Natalie Naudus. Ace/Penguin Audio, 2025. ISBN 978-0593815946. Listened to audiobook on Libby.

Certainty came from a small village to the Mage School full of hope that she would become a full mage and be able to pay her brother’s apprenticeship fees to the apothecer. Years later, though, her agemates have all graduated and she’s left still a novice – able to sense what magic is, but not able to cast her own spells. But when her ability actually does save the day in an emergency, she’s sent on a mission with a full mage only a little older than she is. Mage Aurelia is tall, beautiful, and extremely talented – even if she always eats alone. Certainty and Mage Aurelia will need to accompany several spelled wagons full of minor magical artifacts to Shpelling, the most non-magical village in the kingdom, to keep even their minor magic from spilling over and creating a magical emergency. Once there, they’ll need to organize and catalog it – all without antagonizing the villagers. But wealthy city-born Mage Aurelia can’t seem to help condescending to the villagers and shutting Certainty out, while Certainty is supposed to let her be the one in charge. It will take time and a good deal of compromise to save the situation… time which both allows the two of them to get to know each other a good deal better, and for rival government to object to the plan in general.

This is lovely cozy fantasy. Yes, the villain is obvious, and yes, we know that Cert and Aurelia will end up together from the cover. It did take the two of them a while to get to know each other, and there were still many accidental emotional injuries along the way, as they came from very different backgrounds in many different way. And I just really liked watching Certainty come into her own, realizing that her own small talen can be used in powerful ways. This also had a good supply of quirky villagers, cats, and drinking of tea, in addition to garlic being served in a hilarious variety of preparations. Both main characters and the villagers read as white to me. Overall, I liked it slightly better than The Teller of Small Fortunes, and I liked that one enough to want to read this one.

Cinder House by Freya Marske. Read by Anna Burnett. Tordotcom, 2025. ISBN 9781250341716. Listened to audiobook on Libby.

Cinder House is a Cinderella remix with a decidedly less cozy vibe than the previous stories, as Ella and her father are both murdered by Ella’s stepmother at the beginning of the book. Ella, though, comes back as a ghost, which in this world means she’s anchored to and part of the house. She’s only able to touch things in the house, so that her stepmother and stepsisters can still use her as a servant, punishing her by damaging the house if she tries to disobey. It’s a grim existence indeed, until Ella discovers a way to push the bounds of her imprisonment with letters and late night walks, allowing her to develop a friend by correspondence, attend the ballet and grow fond of its regulars, befriend a crotchety fairy, and have thoughts outside of the drudgery. When a three-night ball is announced, she’s willing to bargain a great deal for a chance at the life she lost so young.

This is a novella, just five hours long on audio, has a surprising amount of nuance. While, for example, we never come to like Ella’s stepmother, as the story progresses, we learn enough to be able to understand why she makes the choices she does. The story also resists an easy or conventional happy ending, finding something melancholy and happy-ish to suit a ghost. I haven’t read many Cinderella retellings that have stuck with me, but this one I think will.

Posted in Adult, Audiobook, books, Fantasy, Print, Romance | Tagged book blogging, book reviews, book-review, books, Cinderella, fairies, fairy tales, Fantasy, fantasy romance, fiction, Freya Marske, ghosts, Julie Leong, reading, Romance, Stephanie Burgis | Leave a comment

Teen Romance and Adventure: Until the Clock Strikes Midnight and Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar

Posted on March 19, 2026 by Katy K.

Here are two stories of teens falling in love – one magical, one contemporary – that both have bi heroines searching for their place in the world with some fun and adventures along the way. Also, both use the always-fun “only one bed” romance trope.

I don’t remember how I heard about Until the Clock Strikes Midnight, only that I’d enjoyed Alechia Dow’s middle grade books Just a Pinch of Magic and The Cookie Crumbles (with Tracy Badua.) I do remember reading a review of Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar from Kasey at The Story Sanctuary – who I now see also read Until the Clock Strikes Midnight. In any case, thank you so much to Kasey for the recommendations – I really enjoyed both of these books!

Cover of Until the Clock Strikes Midnight by Alechia Dow

Cover of Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar by Anahita Karthik

Until the Clock Strikes Midnight by Alechia Dow. Read by Ozzie Jacobs and James Fouhey. Feiwel & Friends, 2026. ISBN 978-1250375773 Listened to audiobook on Libby.

Darling is a fairy, the first one to graduate from the Mortal Outcomes Academy. She’s determined to become a Guardian, even if the rest of the Academy thinks she’s too flighty, too focused on glitter, and too free with her magic to guarantee happily-ever-afters for mortals. So when she’s assigned to find a happily ever after for Lucy, a lonely bookstore owner, she’s determined to succeed and gain the spot on the Mortal Outcomes Council. She didn’t know that she’d be assigned opposite Calamity, a Misfortune assigned to the same mortal, vying for the same reward but trying to assure that Lucy has an ordinary ever after, as Misfortunes believe that’s more stable and less prone to collapse than a happy ever after. They’re supposed to work in secret – but when they blow each other’s covers, Darling and Calam agree to give each other a fair chance and pretend to be engaged, looking for a job in Lucy’s bookstore. But can they give each other that fair chance? And will working together so closely intensify their competition or lead to greater understanding of their differing philosophies?

This is extremely frothy and fun on the surface – aptly compared to Brandy’s 1997 Cinderella with its diverse cast and multiple romances – Lucy clearly in love with another woman. But Darling and Calam both have deeper family and personal issues, including Darling dealing with mental health issues that she takes medicine for but tries to hide. Romance tropes here include enemies to lovers, fake engagement, and only one bed. So very much fun! So many teen fantasies tend towards Drama over comedy that I’m having a hard time thinking of another fantasy that felt more rom-com than heavy, but you could also try Gwen & Art Are Not in Love by Lex Croucher.

Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar by Anahita Karthik. Harper, 2026. ISBN 9780063341142. Read from a library copy.

18-year-old Krishna spent high school ticking things off her life goals checklist, all with the goal of getting into John Hopkins University to study to be a doctor. Now graduated from high school, she has one last summer in India, which her family left a decade ago, to catch up on standard teen goals like going to parties and most importantly, having her first kiss. She is about to kiss her summer-long crush, Amrit, at a party the night before she goes back to the US when things go horribly and embarrasingly wrong. Then, her flight back home is cancelled, giving her three more days in India. She can either hang out alone with her grandmother (the cousins she’s close with all having timed their visits to match hers) – or take an epic road trip north from Mumbai to Goa to meet Amrit at his cousin’s wedding and have a second chance at their botched kiss. That last is the obvious choice – but it means making nice with her cousin Priti so that Priti can convince her best friend Rudra to drive. Krishna and Priti were best friends when Krishna lived in India, but the distance soured their friendship and now they can’t get along at all. Krishna knows next to nothing about Rudra, only that he’s quiet and rumored to be hopelessly in love with Priti.

Spending several days in a car together, though, makes being enemies with Priti much more difficult. And it forces Krishna to really notice Rudra for the first time – good-looking, kind, and with a drive towards music that matches her passion for medicine. But falling for Rudra might irreparably damage the repair she’s doing to her relationship with Priti – and what about charming and handsome Amrit, the one she’s driving all this way to see? Along the way, discovering that Priti might be trying to reconnect with an ex, Krishna and Rudra resolve to do whatever it takes to give Priti a shot at her own happily-ever-after.

This is absolutely a romance with a happy ending, forced proximity, a single bed, and some really delightfully steamy kissing. There are lots of references to music and descriptions of beautiful scenery – I just now looked up the Spotify playlist for the book, but you can listen to it while you read. Anahita Karthik is Indian-British, not Indian-American, which showed in just a few vocabulary choices, but that’s a small issue. Though the central relationship here is straight, Krishna is bi and there is other LGBTQIA representation in the story. I really liked that Krishna and Priti working on rebuilding their friendship was just as important as the romance, and that getting closer with Rudra also helped Krishna understand her cousin.I’d also been expecting a big reveal towards that end that Amrit, the original love interest, had some Wickham-like flaw to make him unsuitable and was very pleasantly surprised that the author didn’t handle it that way.

For more romance starring Indian-American teens, try When Dimple Met Rishi and the other books in Sandhya Menon’s series, as well as Drizzle, Dreams, and Lovestruck Things by Maya Prasad. For another take on the teen romance, look at American Road Trip by Patrick Flores-Scott.

Posted in Audiobook, books, Fantasy, Print, Realistic, Romance, Teen/Young Adult | Tagged Black fantasy, book reviews, books, fairies, fiction, India, LGBTQ, reading, road trips, teen fantasy, teen romance | Leave a comment

Buzzworthy Historical Books for Young Readers: Red River Rose, Where Only Storms Grow, and The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli

Posted on March 12, 2026 by Katy K.

Here are three recent and much-talked about middle grade historical fiction titles. Red River Rose is just coming out this month (March 2026) and has gotten multiple starred reviews. The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli won a Newbery Honor award, while Where Only Storms Grow won a Schneider Family Award Honor.

Red River Rose by Carole Lindstrom. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2026. ISBN 978-1547612482. Review copy kindly provided by the publisher.

It’s 1885 in the land of the Métis. Rose has grown up here, in the Red River Valley, where her ancestors have lived for generations. Now, though, there are whispers that Canada wants to take over their land – give most of it to settlers and charge rent to the people who have been living on it forever. There are several options for further actions being talked over by the adults – the priests encouraging going along with this peacefully, Louis Real suggesting peaceful insistence on independence, and others in the community suggesting armed resistance. Rose, first seen in the 2025 picture book The Gift of the Great Buffalo, is not one to sit around and wait, nor is she willing to go with an option that would take her family away from their house and the grave of her baby brother. Over the course of the book, Rose’s priorities shift from trying to get her mother to allow her to go hunting (and then actually being able to shoot an animal) and finding time to spend with her friends away from her little sister to actively working to save her community from attacks. That in turn will require Rose to give up some of her own prejudices and work alongside more people in the community. Red River Rose pulls us into an important time and place that I haven’t seen covered in fiction for any age before, with a spirit and energy that will draw young readers in.

Where Only Storms Grow by Alyssa Colman. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2025. ISBN 978-0374392789. Read ebook on Libby.

It’s 1935 on a small Oklahoma farm. Twins Joanna and Howe used to be close to each other, but lately things have been off. Joanna is left out because her doctor has recommended that she limit physical activity to avoid damaging her back because of her scoliosis. Howe has discovered a new love for poetry that he’s keeping hidden from the fmaily. The increasing number of dust storms has made their farm produce less and less, so when their uncle and cousins lose their next-door farm, Howe and Joanna’s father goes to California to look for work along with them. In their absence, both twins discover new strengths. Joanna is offered a job at the Red Cross hospital in town, where victims of a measles epidemic and dust pneumonia are treated. A friendly nurse there identifies Joanna’s strengths in helping in medical situations and shows her that scoliosis doesn’t need to be debilatating. Howe is the only one who will talk to a goverment researcher trying to test methods to stop the dust storms and soil loss. Then, the biggest dust storm of all hits.

Even though I’ve enjoyed Alyssa Cole’s books in the past, I somehow missed this one last year. I was quite surprised to see a book about scoliosis on the Schneider Family Award list this year – I have never seen one, and since I have scoliosis and had to wear a brace all through high school, you’d think I would have noticed. I was horrified at the way Joanna was told to treat it at the beginning, and then -spoiler alert – very relieved as her knowledge and physical strength improves. The nursing assistant role was a good way to give her more agency in a historically accurate way, and I appreciated having Howe be the one to love poetry. This is a solid book that should hold up well with classic books like Karen Hesse’s Out of the Dust, even if I will always have a soft spot in my heart for Dust Girl, Sarah Zettel’s fantasy take on the Dust Bowl.

The Nine Moons of Han Yu and Luli by Karina Yan Glaser. HarperCollins, 2025. ISBN 9780063284432. Read from a library copy.

I’d somehow missed reading any of Karina Yan Glaser’s popular Vanderbeeker books, though I think I should fix that soon. I checked this out after it won the Newbury Honor, figuring that historical fiction with a slight fantasy element is right up my alley. In parallel stories, two 11 year olds find themselves taking on major roles to help their families as they fall on exceptionally hard times. In 731 in Chang-An, capital of Tang Dynasty China, a plague is spreading. First Han Yu’s younger sister, apprenticed to a healer, falls sick, then the rest of his family. When they are all quarantined, Han Yu has to find a way to save them himself. The two things he has in his favor are his strange affinity with animals, who naturally flock to him and protect him, and the skills he’s learned at his father’s steamed bun stall. Meanwhile, in 1931 in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Luli’s beloved family restaurant and the Silk Road Gift Store run by their friend on the main floor is failing. The money to make their mortgage payments in short supply as no one can afford to eat out. Her parents tell her they have things under control, but Luli can’t believe their comforting words and is willing to do anything to save her beloved restaurant and the building that houses it. The viewpoints alternate between the short chapters, which nearly all end on cliffhangers. Both children survive both with their own spunk and tenacity, but also with the help of friends and animals. Luli has a street dog who looks remarkably like Han Yu’s, her neighbors, and friends from her Catholic school, while Han Yu has a trio of magpies, some loyal camels, and a poet who befriends him on the road – as well as more mysterious companions that Han Yu doesn’t see himself. The Silk Road Gift Shop also has a length of painted silk reportedly from the Tang Dynasty, a physical link to Han Yu’s time. Steamed buns, or bao, also play an important role in both story lines – which led me down a rabbit hole of looking at gluten-free steamed bun recipes. This is a beautiful look at two times of collaboration between cultures at the same time as massive upheaval, filled with adventure, friendship, and hope.

Posted in books, Historical, Middle Grade, Print | Tagged award winners, book reviews, book-review, books, fiction, Great Depression, historical fiction, Indigenous, Métis, medieval China fiction, middle grade fiction, middle grade historical fiction, Native American, Newbery Award, reading, Schneider Family Award, youth fiction | Leave a comment

Guest Post: Isabelle Knight on “Why Middle Grade?”

Posted on March 8, 2026 by Katy K.

Today, dear readers, it is my pleasure to bring you a guest post from indie middle grade fantasy author Isabelle Knight. Without further ado, here she is!

“Why middle-grade?”

Cover of Enchantria: Guardian's Heir by Isabelle Knight.

It’s a question I’ve often asked myself. Why is it that I keep coming back for middle-grade stories? What is it about middle-grade books, like Greenglass House, Nevermoor, or Harry Potter, that I love so dearly?

There are many, many different reasons, I think. Middle-grade is fun. It is whimsical and playful and full of hope. It is full of themes like friendship, bravery, found family, and much, much more. It’s also wonderfully accessible for younger readers looking to get into longer stories.

But I think the main reason I love writing middle-grade so much is that middle-grade is brave.

Which might sound like a strange way to describe it. But I don’t really know any better word to do so.

When you’re a middle-grade aged reader (that is, 9 to 13), that’s when you start to learn so much more about yourself. You start to realize just how big the world is. You start asking questions about who you are and who you want to be. Questions like, “Where do I belong? Where is ‘home’, really? How do you hold on to hope, even through the darkest times?”

And middle-grade gets to tackle all these big questions and all sorts of other hard issues in the world, without losing hope. It explores things like grief and injustice and yet it still keeps the whimsy and adventure of a child. It shows us that the world can be dark and yet there is also light and hope for a better future. Which I do believe is an important message to have, especially today.

And even if you’re just looking for a fun, lighthearted read to escape from the world, middle-grade has that too! It has things like dragon taxis, imps who love embroidery, and wizards who get turned into blobs of glop! (Which are actually real things I’ve read in middle-grade books.)

That’s why I think middle-grade (and children’s fiction in general, really) is such a delightful age group to read and why it is a genre that is so very close to my heart.

And if you are looking for some middle-grade reads to get started with, here are some of my all-time favorites! (I will try to keep this list as contained as I possibly can so you don’t end up with a mile-long list.)

Cover of Greenglass House by Kate Milford

Cover of Wicked Marigold by Caroline Carlson

Greenglass House by Kate Milford: This is a beautifully cozy middle-grade book set in wintertime at a smuggler’s inn. It is filled with mystery and all sorts of different plot threads and stories that you really have to listen closely to to decipher. Such a perfect read for winter!

Wicked Marigold by Caroline Carlson: This book is absolutely hilarious! It follows the adventures of Princess Marigold, who, in the shadow of her perfectly good older sister, decides to run away to be wicked. But she soon gets tangled up a plot that goes horribly wrong and now must race to fix it. It is so funny and so full of hope and light, and it is a middle-grade read I have gone back to whenever I need a laugh.

Honey Butter by Millie Florence: This is such a sweet, short middle-grade read that follows seven-year-old Jamie Johnson, who is obsessed with collecting paint cards. It follows her adventures through the summer as she befriends the mysterious girl next door, and it is just so sweet and whimsical! It’s a short read as well, which makes it perfect for a middle-grader who might be a reluctant reader.

Lianna and the Hombit by Valinora Troy: This book is so full of magic and friendship, and it might have some of the most eerie villains I’ve ever read about! The book follows 13-year-old Lianna who, after the death of her father, is sent to the distant land of Nivram, which is every bit as horrible as she expected. When she meets a magical birdlike creature called a hombit, the two agree to help each other with their missions, but their plan goes awry and invokes the family curse. It is a thrilling adventure (that somehow also feels cozy, with how well-built the world is) that I have re-read and re-read so many times.

Impossible Creatures by Katherine Rundell: This is a beautiful middle-grade read. It has magical creatures, a world of magic and wonder, and Rundell’s writing style is so very deep while still keeping the whimsy and adventure of middle-grade. It follows Christopher Forrester, who discovers a secret cluster of islands (the Archipelago) where magical creatures still live. He soon meets Mal, a girl pursued by a killer, and embarks on a life-changing adventure to save the glimourie, the magical life force that sustains all the creatures of the Archipelago.

There are a great deal more middle-grade books out there, but those are some of my absolute favorites that I’ve re-read over and over again. It is a genre that is so full of whimsy and wonder, and that is what I really try to bring to the table with my own middle-grade series: humor and adventure mixed with bravery and hope, for readers of all ages. 🙂

Isabelle Knight is the middle-grade fantasy author of the Enchantria series, which she began writing at age ten and published during her middle school years. A lifelong book and cat lover, she now resides somewhere in a book-filled apartment, surrounded by an unimaginable number of stuffed pandas and enough books to start her own bookstore. When she’s not writing about creepy shadows, daring heroines, and magical adventures, she’s talking about books, writing, and other writerly ramblings on her blog at https://springfallschronicle.com/ and YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@isabelleknightbooks/.

Thanks so much, Isabelle! It looks like we have very similar taste in books. Best of luck with your ongoing writing adventures!

Posted in books, Fantasy, Middle Grade | Tagged book blogging, book blogs, book-review, books, Fantasy, guest posts, Middle Grade, Middle Grade Fantasy, reading, youth fantasy | Leave a comment

Magic and Secrets: The Ink Witch, Farrah Noorzad and the Realm of Nightmares, and Scarlet Morning

Posted on February 26, 2026 by Katy K.

Here are three fantasy books where kids uncover secrets and find that solving their personal problems might just help the larger world as well.

Cover of The Ink Witch by Steph Cherrywell

Cover of Farrah Noorzad and the Realm of Nightmares by Deeba Zargarpur

The Ink Witch by Steph Cherrywell. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2025. ISBN 978-0316585941. Read ebook on Libby.
Becca has had a lot of fights with her mother about how boring she is, managing a run-down hotel in a dead-end town, and not even letting Becca do afterschool activities like theater. (Becca’s dad is out of the picture, since he thought he had a son and wants nothing to do with the daughter Becca knows she is.) Things get much more interesting than Becca expected when three magical things pop up: a troll named Oddvar living in the ice machine behind the hotel, an aunt she’d never heard of – Malatrice – who uses ink magic to curse her mother into a trance to get her to sign something – and her mother’s familiar, a tarantula named Natalya. It turns out that Becca is a witch, from a family of witches, and has just grown into her ability to see magical beings, even if she doesn’t yet have control over the magical ink in her that will let her cast spells.
However, as often as Becca got mad at her mother, having her in a zombie-like state where she only does exactly what she’s told is much, much worse. Natalya tells Becca that she can help her gather the ingredients to make a potion to reverse the spell. Doing so will require a lot of traveling – a harrowing journey by car, with Becca giving her mother step-by-step instructions for driving. Finding things like mermaid eggs and troll teeth involves learning more about the larger magical community and witches’ role in it, so that Becca is never able to be as wholly excited by her newfound abilities as she otherwise might be. I really appreciated how Becca being trans is handled here – it’s clearly had a big effect on her life, and she has some initial doubts at the beginning regarding puberty as the usual beginning of magical abilities. But no one on page ever questions that Becca is a girl, and the bulk of the story is just a charming and thoughtful adventure with an ending I didn’t see coming. This was a delight, and I’m so glad that the Stonewall Award Honor led me to find it.

Farrah Noorzad and the Realm of Nightmares by Deeba Zargarpur. Labyrinth Road, 2025. ISBN 9780593564455. Read from a library copy.
It’s been several months since Farrah, her half-brother Yaseen, and her half-jinn friend Idris saved the court of the jinn kings in Farrah Noorzad and the Ring of Fate. Farrah hasn’t heard from any of them since and misses her father and the jinn realm, so that when she gets a summons to the djinn realm, she eagerly accepts – only to find herself under arrest. This pits her “quick trip” against her promise to be there for her mother and to spend spring break with her best friend. But things are going wrong in the jinn kingdom once again. The only way to prove her innocence is to pose as a student at the jinn academy – which would be fun, if only she didn’t have to hide who she really is, and if trying to figure out what really is going wrong didn’t go so clearly against all the rules she’s supposed to be following. Plus, there’s a small matter of a prophecy she’s given – and then told not to resolve. This time, as the title suggests, the journey will Farrah and her team to the realm of the King of Nightmares. The adventure is clearly not over by the end of the book, and I am just a teensy bit nervous that book three hasn’t been announced yet.

Scarlet Morning by ND Stevenson. Quill Tree Books, 2025. ISBN 978-0063210349. Read from a library copy.
Like nearly everyone else, I adored Lumberjanes, Nimona, and the new She-Ra, so I was thrilled to see ND Stevenson’s first venture into a prose middle grade novel. Viola and Wilmur have lived on the desolate island of Caveat for as long as they can remember, surrounded by shipwrecks trapped by drifts and floes of salt as thick as ice. Once they had a caretaker and the hope that someday their parents might find them, but now they have neither. Their caretaker impressed two things on them before she vanished: beware of the pirate Scarlet Morning – who killed the beautiful Queen Hail Meridian – and never let anyone take great book filled with brass gears and dials that stays hidden under her bed. But with both Wilmur and Viola now in their teens and no sources of food on the island, when a ship captain named Cadence Chase bursts into their cabin in the middle of a salt storm looking for their book, they have to take their chance to escape. Even if the ship looks suspiciously like a pirate ship, when all the pirates were supposed to have been wiped out 15 years earlier.
The narrative splits and comes back together, changing perspectives between Viola and Wilmur, with snatches of scenes from the past and pages from the mysterious book. The world of Dickerson’s Sea – dying, drowning in salt, and barely navigable – is deep, but I never felt mired in backstory, especially as we know that our main characters don’t know what happened to make their current world barely liveable. While there is plenty of swashbuckling, running from unknown enemies, and fighting off of monsters, there’s also introspection as our characters figure out their place in the world, on top of major themes of young people forced to survive in a world that the adults who came before them left in shambles. All of this is enlivened by Stevenson’s grayscale comic-style illustrations every few pages, with both full-page pieces and smaller spot illustrations. I felt like I had to wait forever for this book to be available at my library, but now I have to wait for September for the next book, Evening Gray, to come out.

Posted in books, Fantasy, Middle Grade, Print, Reviews | Tagged award winners, book reviews, book-review, books, djinn, Fantasy, fiction, LGBTQ, Middle Grade, pirates, reading, Stonewall Award, witches, youth fantasy | 2 Comments

Crossing Magical Borders: 3 Middle Grade Fantasies

Posted on February 18, 2026 by Katy K.

Join any of these three kids from our world as they find their way across the border to worlds of magic.

Cover of The Forgotten Summer of Seneca by Camryn Garret

Cover of Vanya and the Wild Hunt by Sangu Mandanna

The Forgotten Summer of Seneca by Camryn Garret. Read by Renika Williams-Blutcher. Abrams/Recorded Books, 2025. ISBN 978-1419773334 – This book was recommended by Jenna @ Falling Letters. Since her father’s death,12-year-old Rowan is no longer excited about spending the summer in New York City with her Aunt Monica. Still, she finds some comfort in taking pictures with his old film camera. This helps her to notice a shimmering portal in the middle of Central Park – which transports her to a magically isolated Seneca Village. There she meets a slightly younger girl, Lily, and learns that the mostly Black population of this tiny village lives with magic but without modern conveniences like electricity. In trying to solve the mystery of a missing older girl, Rowan dives into research about what’s known of the historical Seneca Village, adopts a cat, and starts living her life in the present again. There are a lot of different story strands weaving together here into a satisfying whole story with a sympathetic and believable main character.

Vanya and the Wild Hunt by Sangu Mandanna. Roaring Brook Press, 2025. ISBN 978-1250899835 – Indian-British Vanya, who has ADHD in addition to living in a mostly white town, has never felt like she fits in. She spends a lot of time with the collection of books that talk to her in the special corner of her parents’ bookstore, especially as she knows her mother has secrets that she won’t tell Vanya. The plot heats up quickly as Vanya comes home one day to find that both her parents have been attacked by a monster that looks like something out of a storybook. Before she quite knows what’s happened, Vanya is bundled off to live with her parents’ (married) best friends, Jasper and Roman, and to attend the magic school she never knew her went to, located in a beautiful mountain valley in India. Despite missing her parents, Vanya finds that she fits in better here than at home, with other neurodivergant kids to befriend, more interesting and relevant class that help her mind want to focus, and even more talking books. Auramere trains people to fight the monsters from legends all around the world, and though it seems like a paradise, the boundaries that keep these monsters out are weakening. Even the monsters are coming to warn Auramere of a force they’re frightened of – the Wild Hunt. Naturally, Vanya’s personal interests and history lead her to finding clues to the mystery of what’s going on with the Wild Hunt before the adults who tell her they’ve got it covered. Like Kiki Kallira, Vanya and the Wild Hunt is an excellent mix of adventure and the inner life of a neurodivergant kid. I loved Vanya, her sassy familiar, the way the adults were allowed to be loving and imperfect, and the mix of global mythology.

Nox Winters and the Stygian Serpent by Rochelle Hassan. Narrated by Jacob McNatt. HarperCollins, 2025. ISBN 978-0063314627 – Nox Winters returns in this sequel to Nox Winters and the Midnight Wolf. In that book, Nox journeyed to the magical Nightwood, saved his twin brother Noah with the help of Noah’s new friend Thea, defeated the Keeper of Night, and learned some family secrets he really didn’t want to know. Some months later, Nox does not want anything to do with the Nightwood – especially not talk about it with Noah or Thea. But the Nightwood is literally in his blood and there is only so long that Nox can resist the messages calling for his return. With one of the previous Keepers in exile, animals in the Nightwood can no longer die normally, so that zombie-like dead animals are walking out of the Nightwood and into the regular world. This situation is not just frightening for the humans in the regular world, but disastrous for the small village in the Nightwood that relies on the animals for food. When Nox gets a call for help he can’t ignore, all three of them head into the Nightwood to solve the problem. This is an adventurous journey with many enemies and challenges – but it also requires Nox to reevaluate his relationships with Noah, Thea and the Nightwood itself.

Posted in books, Middle Grade | Tagged African-American, book reviews, book-review, books, dark fantasy, Fantasy, fiction, Indian-British, magical schools, Middle Grade, portal magic, reading, youth fantasy | Leave a comment

2025 in Review – My Favorite Books

Posted on February 5, 2026 by Katy K.

Here is my annual list of books that I rated at 9 or above. I rate most books I really enjoy as 8, but since that list would be over 100 books, I feel the need to limit myself.

Here is my standard disclaimer about rating books:

“I have never liked doing a public scale rating of books – the librarian in me would rather describe what’s in the book and let you decide if it sounds good for you. But I do give books number ratings on my own private spreadsheet. I shamelessly borrowed the Book Smugglers’ 10-point rating system for this, where 0 is “I want my time and my money back”, 5 is “meh” and so on. For my purposes, 7 is a book I enjoyed, 8 is one I loved and 9 is one I really, really loved. 10 only gets given out retrospectively to books I find myself re-reading and thinking about a lot – a true personal classic.”

Middle Grade

The cover of The Gate, the Girl and the Dragon by Grace Lin.

Cover of Max in the Land of Lies by Adam Gidwitz

The Gate, the Girl, and the Dragon by Grace Lin
Max in the Land of Lies by Adam Gidwitz
Silverborn: the Mystery of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Cover of The Library of Unruly Treasures by Jeanne Birdsall

Cover of The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell. Illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie.

The Library of Unruly Treasures by Jeanne Birdsall. Illustrated by Matt Phelan.
The Poisoned King by Katherine Rundell. Illustrated by Ashley Mackenzie
All the Blues in the Sky by Renée Watson

Teen

Cover of Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le

Cover of Brownstone by Samual Teer and Mar Julia.

Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen
Brownstone by Samual Teer and Mar Julia.
Coffeeshop in an Alternate Universe by C.B. Lee

Cover of Memories of Ash by Intisar Khanani

Sunbolt by Intisar Khanani
Memories of Ash by Intisar Khanani
Debts of Fire by Intisar Khanani (Alas for my saying I’d write a longer review of this series!)

Heartstopper v. 3 by Alice Oseman
Heartstopper v. 4 by Alice Oseman
Heartstopper v. 5 by Alice Oseman

Cover of Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman

Nick and Charlie by Alice Oseman
Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko. Read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt
Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko. Read by Joniece Abbott-Pratt

Cover of Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley

Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley
Tangleroot by Kalela Williams

Adult

Cover of Emily Wilde's Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett

All is Bright by Llinos Cathryn Thomas – I bought this cozy sapphic Advent-calendar romance novella set in Wales for myself and will probably reread it every year.
Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett
A Honeymoon of Grave Consequence by Stephanie Burgis

Cover of A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher

A Sorceress Comes to Call by T. Kingfisher.
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar

Somewhere Beyond the Sea by TJ Klune
Spear by Nicola Griffith
The Listeners by Maggie Stiefvater

A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathrall
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis

Cover of Time of the Cat by Tansy Raynor Roberts

Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
Time of the Cat by Tansy Raynor Roberts
See No Stranger by Valarie Kaur

Cover of Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer

Cover of The Elements of Baking: Making Any Recipe Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free or Vegan by Katarina Cermelj

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
The Elements of Baking: Making Any Recipe Gluten-free, Dairy-free, Egg-free or Vegan by Katarina Cermelj
Patty Lyons’ Knitting Bag of Tricks by Patty Lyons

Rereads

Legendborn by Tracy Deonn.
Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn
Oathbound by Tracy Deonn.

Cover of Heartstopper v. 1 by Alice Oseman

Heartstopper v. 1 by Alice Oseman
Heartstopper v. 2 by Alice Oseman
Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford.

Cover of Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley
Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien
Wundersmith: the Calling of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend

Cover of Accidental Demons by Clare Edge

The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

Accidental Demons by Clare Edge
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal

Cover of Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis

Claws and Contrivances by Stephanie Burgis. Read by Emma Newman
Snowspelled. The Harwood Spellbook 1 by Stephanie Burgis
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune – Read this time for a book club, but appeared very near Claws and Contrivances in my 2023 favorites list, too.

Posted in books, Lists | Tagged Best Books of 2025, bibliography, book blog, book blogs, book lists, book-review, books, Favorite Books, Favorite Books of 2025, fiction, literature, reading | 2 Comments

Monthly Reading Round-Up Middle Grade-Adult: December 2025

Posted on January 23, 2026 by Katy K.

Happy December! Here are some mostly quick takes on the books I read in December – so many good books! I hope your winter season is filled with lots of cozy reading.

Picture Books

Cover of Every Monday Mabel by Jashar Awan

Cover of All You Can Be With ADHD by Penn and Kim Holderness. Illustrated by Vin Vogel

Every Monday Mabel by Jashar Awan – A small child goes through her very careful routine every Monday morning, culminating in sitting in her chair by the window just in time to watch the garbage truck go by. I purchased this for a young nephew and can see why this is on so many end-of-the-year favorites lists.
All You Can Be With ADHD by Penn and Kim Holderness. Illustrated by Vin Vogel. Little, Brown and Company, 2025 – This rhyming picture book welcomes kids to the ADHD clubhouse, going over how bad a diagnosis can feel, some of the many problems experienced by people with ADHD, and also its strengths and some famous people who have it. The book is astonishingly detailed in its descriptions given how little text there is, while staying upbeat. As the mother of two ADHDers, I teared up at just how much this book gets it. The illustrations are also a lot of fun, showing kids of diverse skin colors, with sneaky ninjas and squirrels in almost every picture.

Early Chapter

Cover of Jo Jo Makoons: the Used-to-Be Best Friend by Dawn Quigley

Jo Jo Makoons: the Used-to-Be Best Friend by Dawn Quigley. Illustrated by Tara Audibert. Heartdrum, 2021
Jo Jo Makoons: Fancy Pants by Dawn Quigley. Illustrated by Tara Audibert. Heartdrum, 2022
Jo Jo Makoons: Snow Day by Dawn Quigley. Illustrated by Tara Audibert. Heartdrum, 2023

Do early chapter books count towards my Indigenous author reading goal for the year? Even if the trio only counts as a single book, I’d been meaning to read these since they came out, as they’re by Dawn Quigley, who would have been one of our keynote speakers at the sadly-canceled KidLitCon of 2020. Jo Jo is a spirited and irrepressible 7-year-old living on a fictional Ojibwe reservation. Though she’s full of energy and means well, she misreads social cues to a degree that has people constantly shaking their heads at her, making her fit in well with classic early chapter book heroines like Junie B. Jones. Jo Jo’s stories are funny and heartfelt and shine a light on her Ojibwe culture , including words in Ojibwemowin and traditions like bringing food to elders and children playing inclusive games. Spirited and cartoony pictures for Tara Audibert add to the kid appeal. I wouldn’t read more of the series just for myself, but I’ll certainly recommend them to kids looking for fun realistic books for this age.

Middle Grade

Cover of Super Great Kids' Stories by Kim Normanton

Super Great Kids’ Stories by Kim Normanton. Bloomsbury, 2025. Read from an ARC provided by the publisher – I’ve never listened to the podcast of the same name, but I do love a good collection of folktales. This is a solid collection of international stories from five continents and Oceania, many though not all retold by storytellers from that region of the world and each section illustrated by an artist from that region. The stories are meant to be read aloud with someone, with full color art and dynamic text throughout, as well as tips for the storyteller such as suggested voices or traditional story openings from that part of the world. There are also some insert circles with backgrounds on the story for listeners. I could wish that all of the storytellers came from the background the story is from, but the stories are solid and I appreciate that the backmatter includes information on the storytellers and where they found each of the stories they told. There were only a few pages of full-color art in the ARC that I saw, but it is beautiful, and I’m sure the finished version is even better.
Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien. HarperCollins, 1999. Growing up, my family had an older edition called The Father Christmas Letters. I’ve talked before about how much I loved it and how it influenced my perception of Santa growing up. This year, I read through the letters again. This newer edition includes more of the personal notes to Tolkien’s children and the full images of all the original letters in their beautiful calligraphy, as well as the letters typed out for easier reading. I wish the book designers hadn’t put so many decorative images behind the typed text, but I still love the letters themselves.
Ghosts of Greenglass House by Kate Milford. Read by Chris Henry Coffey. Recorded Books, 2017 – Another Christmas reread, and still a delight.

Teen

Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley. Read by Isabella Star LaBlanc. Henry Holt, 2025. This latest book by the author of Firekeeper’s Daughter takes place mostly in 2009, 5 years after the events of that book and before Warrior Girl. Lucy Smith was raised by her white Catholic father and told that her unknown mother was Italian. After he dies, though, she’s thrown into the foster care system. In the present day the story starts with Lucy living on her own, knowing she’s being followed but not precisely by whom. One very clearly Native Mr. Jameson comes to meet her there, telling her she is Native American and that he can help her find her family. But can a young woman battered by her past trust a stranger, even a seemingly well-meaning one? This is a mystery/thriller, with explosions and all kinds of foster care-system ickiness. I chose to listen to it to hear the Anishinabemowin that I figured would be there pronounced, but I think I am too sensitive to listen to thrillers as I found myself just anxious a lot. I am pretty wimpy that way, though, and this book has characters I really believed in, as well a look into how the foster care system exploits Native children in particular. Daunis and Jamie are bigger characters here that they were in Warrior Girl Unearthed, which I appreciated. Highly recommended.
Escape from St. Hell by Lewis Hancox. Graphix, 2024 – This was my kid’s pick at a recent bookstore trip. They’ve already read it at least twice and wanted me to read it as well. This is an honest account of YouTuber Hancox’s post-high school life, as he starts university and spends a lot of energy trying to figure out what it means to be a man and what kind of man he wants to be. At the same time, he’s failing to notice the effects his self-absorption is having on his friends and on the rest of his life. The topic is pretty serious, but the drawings are fun, as are regular side bars with his anxiety levels and man points, and interruptions with advice from his current self. This is the sequel to Welcome to St. Hell, which my teen also enjoyed but I have yet to read.
Angelica and the Bear Prince by Trung Le Nguyen. Random House Graphic, 2025 – I’m always excited to see a fairy tale retelling – and this beautifully illustrated graphic novel remix was as thoughtful as I’d expect from Trung Le Nguyen. It tells the story of “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” as presented in a children’s play, alternating with the story of Jelly (the Angelica of the title) as she works through burnout from overcommitment and grief over losing her grandmother. Her biggest comfort is sending messages to someone writing for the lead of her local theater’s signature play, Per the Bear from The Bear Prince. But who is actually writing for the account? So many common issues – I was going to say teen issues, but dealing with burnout, grief, friendships, and finding a safe space to let go of your image are issues relevant to everyone. I’m trying to recall if I’ve read another “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”-based story since East by Edith Pattou – have you?

Adult

The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal. Tor, 2018 – A reread. I don’t see much about my emotional response in my review from the first time I read it, but I was tearing up a lot this time around, and still laughing out loud at parts.
Behooved by M. Stevenson. Bramble, 2025 – I went into this expecting a really light and fluffy romantasy. And yes, it has a lot of laugh-out-loud moments and a few steamy scenes – but it’s also the story of two people forced into a political marriage who are nonetheless determined to do the best they can by their different countries. Duchess Bianca knows she was sent to marry Crown Prince Aric of the neighboring kingdom both to prevent war and because her parents consider her too weak to be worth keeping at home because of her chronic health condition. Prince Aric isn’t at all a fan of hers – but was also told that his bookish ways made him unfit for the crown. When Bianca accidentally turns him into a horse in an attempt to protect him from an assassin on their wedding night, it seems like this will make things even worse. But it’s just a first step…
Wyrde and Wayward by Charlotte E. English. Frouse Books, 2019. Purchased ebook. – This Regency fantasy was my first book from this Lamplighter’s Discord author. Gussie Werth has the dubious honor of being one of the very few members of the notorious Werth family not to have a Wyrde – a magical skill that could be something as inconvenient as being able to turn into a Gorgon or something slightly more useful, like being able to freeze someone temporarily. Gussie is long past old enough to be married, but has never been permitted to leave the family estate, so she’s actually somewhat excited when she’s kidnapped by the family of a woman who used to be her grandmother’s best friend. Magic, mayhem, and complicated families filled with quirky people abound in this witty story that hints at the possibility of romance to come. I’ve saved the second book to my wishlist, though I’m trying to make myself wait until I read more of the first books I’ve saved to my ereader before I go out buying more.

Daughter of the Merciful Deep by Leslye Penelope. Read by Shayna Small. Redhook, 2024 – Jane Edwards had such a traumatic experience when she and her father and sister were forced to leave their town in the 1920s that she hasn’t been able to talk since, relying on sign language and writing. A decade later, they’ve made a new home in all-Black Awenasa, founded by a formerly enslaved man who saved for decades to build a safe place for his family and others like them. But “progress” is coming for them, as a new dam will flood their town. Jane isn’t sure what to think – but when she sees a man she remembers dying violently in her old life walking in and out of the river while staying dry, her curiousity insists that she investigates. This will upend her beliefs, force her to revise her opinions of her past self, and step out of her fear. It’s filled with small-town personalities, ancient African gods, and fantastical other worlds. Shayna Small does a beautiful job bringing the voices of the characters and the time period to life, with accents ranging from Southern to African.
Chai and Cat-tales by Lynn Strong. Independently published, 2024. Purchased ebook – This came up in a cozy fantasy sale, and I am not one to resist tales of magic, tea, and cats, particularly when it comes with a Middle Eastern setting and disability rep. This is a trio of stories from the perspectives of three different people, including a mostly nonverbal stray kitten. The whole thing is heart-warming in the best way, and I was delighted to see that the sequel is on Hoopla… though see my earlier statement about my ereader being full of unread first books.
The Mimicking of Known Successes by Malka Older. Tor, 2023 – I asked a librarian friend at my home library for recommendations for one of my niblings, which I then checked out to read first. I wasn’t able to buy it for the nibling, but I did very much enjoy reading it. This is a sapphic gaslamp sci-fi mystery, which sounds like way too many adjectives but works together quite delightfully as a scholar of Old Earth and a probably spectrum-y investigator pair up to solve a missing persons case on Jupiter, while reviving their university romance. I’ve been having a problem with series, but I read the first two nearly together and have the third book on my shelf already.

Time Anxiety : the Illusion of Urgency and a Better Way to Live by Chris Guillebeau. Crown Currency, 2025. ISBN 978-0593799550 – Do you ever feel like there isn’t enough time in the day to do everything you need to do? (That would be me, every day.) Or that time is running away from you and you’re sure there’s something more important that you should be doing with your life right now? Most of us, it turns out, feel at least one of these nearly all the time. This book looks at how to cut down what you feel you need to do and really look at your priorities to help you feel more satisfied and less anxious. It’s one that I’d probably need to use as a long-term project to get the most benefits out of, but it was still helpful as a one-time thought exercise.
It Rhymes with Takei by George Takei, Steven Scott, Justin Eisinger, and Harmony Becker. Top Shelf Productions, 2025 – George Takei stayed closeted for years, fearing for his career and safety. Here, he returns with the same team that put together They Called Me Enemy to tell his life story through the lens of his coming out, his gay identity, and the political activism that has been part of his life from the beginning. I had a little trouble getting going with this, but once he joined Star Trek I was hooked and kept wanting to share anecdotes with anyone around. My love also read and enjoyed this.
10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-tech World by Jean M. Twenge. Atria Books, 2025 – I know I’m not the only one who struggles with a teen who’s on their phone all the time and is much more depressed than before they got the phone. I put this on hold as soon as I saw it in the library’s new book email. And… I have some mixed feelings. Dr. Twenge presents a lot of evidence for the benefits of keeping technology away from kids and teens as long as possible – waiting until high school to give them phones, giving them dumb phones at first, keeping tech out of the bedroom, and balancing all the time restrictions and parental controls with more real-life experiences like driving, jobs, and in-person time with friends. It’s all good stuff, but hard to implement when I already have a 16-year-old, and her hard-and-fast rules are hard to align with our normal coaching parenting style. I did successfully limit screen time over break, though, with positive results once the initial protests died down.

As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts – what have you been reading lately? Have you read any of these books yourself?

Posted in Adult, Audiobook, books, Fantasy, Graphic Novel, Historical, Lists, Middle Grade, nonfiction, Print, Realistic, Romance, Sci-Fi, Teen/Young Adult | Tagged ADHD books, Black fantasy, book blog, book bloggers, book reviews, book-review, books, Fantasy, fantasy romance, fiction, historical romance, Indigenous, LGBTQ, LGBTQ memoir, Michigan books, monthly round-up, reading, Romance, science fiction, tea books, youth fantasy, youth fiction | 3 Comments

alibrarymama

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Teen

Adult

Rereads

Monthly Reading Round-Up Middle Grade-Adult: December 2025

Picture Books

Early Chapter

Middle Grade

Teen

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