In both of these Cybils-nominated books, our young protagonists need to create found family to survive the obstacles put in front of them, whether those are from an apocalyptic solar flare in The Flicker or curses come to life in Wishbone.

The Flicker by H.E. Edgmon. Feiwel & Friends, 2024. ISBN 978-1250873972. Read from a library copy. Ebook available on Libby.

The Flicker is what people call the solar flare that happened a year ago, burning the earth and wiping out most life.  Stepsisters Millie and Rose had been living in a dugout in Appalachia with their parents, baby brother, and dog – but when their parents die one after another and their water source runs dry, they have to leave.  Millie sets out to find her grandmother, a Seminole elder whom she is sure will know better than anyone how to create a better relationship with the land.  Rose, on the other hand, would rather look for the Sanctuary, a group her father believed would be safe to live with and whose secret location is transmitted over radio, infrequently and in code.  

The two stepsiblings have never really liked each other, but are united in their love for baby Sammy, and so reluctantly leave together.  But before they get far at all, they run into a group of former theater camp kids and their counselor, traveling around in an old school bus on salvaged gas, trying to survive and find peoples’ families.  Everyone always needs to look out for the members of the Hive, former employees of a large tech company who now hoard all available resources and will stop at nothing to take anything remaining.  Will Millie and Rose be able to trust each other and their new companions, the Lost Boys and keep everyone safe and fed?  Is Millie’s grandmother still alive?  Will they be able to find a safe place?  

Chapters alternate between Rose and Millie’s points of view, all told in a recognizably Appalachian voice.  We’re drawn deeply into their feelings and their stories, as Millie wants to use the Flicker as a way to return to more Indigenous ways of living in relationship with the Earth and Rose begins to wonder if she really feels like a girl.  It’s a tense post-apocalyptic story that still leaves room for love, found family, and wonder.  This is an excellent choice for those worried about where our current climate crisis and the distribution of power in the US might lead us. You could pair this with Little Monarchs by Jonathan Case or the more intense YA book The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline.

Wishbone by Justine Pucella Winans. Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2024. ISBN 978-1547612574. Read from a library copy. 

Ollie DiCosta is constantly angry and constantly in trouble.  He’s angry that his best friend dumped him since he came out as trans, angry at his parents for always fighting, angry that it’s okay for people to hurt him but not okay for him to fight back.  He and his teen sister Mia frequently go to the beach to picnic away from their parents – and as the story begins, Ollie hears a kitten meowing for help.  Chasing the sound, he finds himself in a backwards version of the beach – all in grayscale, where everything moves backwards and even the lettering on signs is backwards.  Ollie barely escapes a terrifying man whose joints bend the wrong way and who has smoke coming out of his eyes – but he has the kitten, whom he names Wishbone because it has two tails.  

It first seems like a dream come true when a chance wish spoken aloud in Wishbone’s presence comes true – but Ollie and Mia soon learn that Wishbone’s wishes don’t come free.  A wish for a package of cat toys results in the cute new boy next door’s package going missing, while bigger wishes cause much bigger things to go wrong in other people’s lives.  Still – Ollie and Mia have had it rough their whole lives.  Don’t they deserve to have things go their own way for once, no matter the cost?  It’s only when people in the normal world start smoking from the eyes and Ollie finds himself drawn into the Backwards Place more and more often that he realizes that things are going badly wrong.  Along the way, Ollie might just start to trust a few people other than Mia, making friends with some other queer kids from his school.  

This so accurately captures Ollie’s strong feelings of injustice, shared by so many middle school kids in particular.  It’s bound up in a story of increasing tension, but also increasing self-awareness. While there is just the mildest of middle school romances here, Ollie finding a balance of how to stand up for himself appropriately and find a community are key parts of the story. This is a great one for cat lovers, as Wishbone is essential to the plot and a very, very cute kitty. The way the other sinister world intrudes gradually and more frequently into the real world also reminded me of Coraline by Neil Gaiman and Nightmare House by Sarah Allen.