Table of contents for May 2023 in Booklist Reader

Behold the Many. By Lois-Ann Yamanaka. 2006. Picador. A mystical and, at times, macabre world unfolds in Yamanaka’s tale of three sisters afflicted with tuberculosis, which is ravaging Hawaii. Only Anah survives, and she is haunted by the ghosts of her lost family. The Codebreaker’s Secret. By Sara Ackerman. 2022. MIRA. In alternating story lines about the only female codebreaker assigned to Hawaii in 1943 and a journalist covering the celebrity-studded opening of a luxury resort in 1965, Ackerman brings the lush and rugged beauty of the islands to life along with the complexities of cultural and class divides and the mysterious disappearances of two young women. The Color of Air. By Gail Tsukiyama. 2020. HarperVia. Lives reconverge under pressure in 1935, in Hilo, Hawaii. Koji, a once legendary sugarcane…

Advanced Parenting: Advice for Helping Kids Through Diagnoses, Differences, and Mental Health Challenges. By Kelly Fradin. 2023. Grand Central/Balance. Drawing on her years of experience as a complex-care pediatrician, Fradin provides an outstanding guide for parents seeking authoritative, commonsense help with the skills and strategies required to support children with serious, complicated, and chronic health challenges. Fat Talk: Parenting in the Age of Diet Culture. By Virginia Sole-Smith. 2023. Holt. This paradigm-shifting book gathers journalist Sole-Smith’s findings from countless studies and journals and her own career-spanning interviews to flip the script on diet culture and anti-fat bias as she covers topics ranging from myths about fatness to how diet culture manifests within family units and the influences of youth sports and social media on kids’ perception of their bodies. The…

The Celebrants by Steven Rowley (G.P. Putnam’s Sons) This story of four lifelong friends going through the challenges of middle age will make the reader feel like they know each character intimately by the end. And even when tragic events occur, there is still humor and a lot of heart. Highly recommended for readers looking for a light read with emotional depth. —Elizabeth I., DeKalb County Public Library System NoveList read-alike: This Time Tomorrow/Emma Straub The Senator’s Wife: A Novel by Liv Constantine (Bantam Books) After her husband was murdered, Sloane never expected to find happiness, but she did…with Whit, who was married to her husband’s killer. Whit considerately hires an aide for Sloane, who has a chronic illness, to help her recover from major surgery. But as she suffers…

Older Alone out Here. By Riley Redgate. 2022. Disney/Hyperion. Gr. 9–12. Only 53 children make it onto Lazarus, a prototype generation ship, when a cataclysmic volcanic eruption finally renders Earth uninhabitable. With limited resources and without the rest of the fleet, the survivors cope with fear, grief, and distrust while weighing the resilience they’ll need to survive. The Darkness outside Us. By Eliot Schrefer. 2021. HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen. Gr. 9–12. Ambrose and Kodiak, teen astronauts representing countries on opposites sides of a global cold war, are paired on a mission to Titan to rescue Ambrose’s sister. Though their relationship is initially chilly, they have to put their heads together when their ship begins malfunctioning. Mars One. By Jonathan Maberry. 2017. Simon & Schuster. Gr. 8–11. Tristan has been training his entire life…

Death Note. By Tsugumi Ohba. Art by Takeshi Obata. Tr. by Tetsuichiro Miyaki. 2005–11. Viz Media. (12 vols.). The omnipotent Death Note bestows genius high-school student Light Yagami the power to control death. Initially, he just rids the world of the most heinous criminals. But that’s not enough, especially as his power grows with the assistance of Ryuk, the Death Note’s Shinigami (“death god”). Murder rates rocket, but Light’s ultimate utopian vision means he won’t let anyone or anything stand in his way. Helter Skelter: Fashion Unfriendly. By Kyoko Okazaki. Art by the author. 2013. Vertical. Meet Liliko, a supermodel made possible with the latest scientific (and illegal) enhancements. She’s been carved, sculpted, assembled by “Mama,” but Liliko is no malleable, voiceless shell. And she’s determined to enjoy her public…

Fiction Beware the Woman. By Megan Abbott. Putnam. A newly married woman and her husband travel to visit his father on Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, where they are greeted with hospitality until a health scare has her questioning if it’s cabin fever or something worse. Chain-Gang All-Stars. By Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah. Pantheon. Adjei-Brenyah’s buzzy debut novel, following his short story collection, Friday Black (2018), is a kaleidoscopic look at a future in which prisoners compete in gladiator-like competitions for their freedom. The Chateau. By Jaclyn Goldis. Atria/Emily Bestler. A girls’ trip in picture-perfect Provence turns deadly in this debut thriller. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home. By Lorrie Moore. Knopf. Moore’s first novel in over a decade spans centuries and introduces ghosts, a journal, and dying loved ones…

Young Brave Girl: Clara and the Shirtwaist Makers’ Strike of 1909. By Michelle Markel. Read by Lesa Lockford. 2014. 9min. Dreamscape. K–Gr. 3. The inspiring story of a teenage immigrant who helped advocate for better pay and shorter hours for factory workers a century ago. Night Flight: Amelia Earhart Crosses the Atlantic. By Robert Burleigh. Read by Laura Hamilton. 2012. 22min. Live Oak. Gr. 1–4. Sound effects and a narration that ranges from tense to jubilant bring the famed aviator’s travels to vivid life for young readers. Soldier for Equality: José de la Luz Sáenz and the Great War. By Duncan Tonatiuh. Read by David DeSantos. 2019. 1hr. Dreamscape. Gr. 2–5. Wartime sound effects and alternating cheerful and dramatic music help convey the story of Tejano Luz’s journey from battlefield…

These books—for middle readers, older readers, and those in transition between the two—look at moments from our collective history that have been buried, suppressed, or are in need of correction. While it is by no means a comprehensive list, the titles here, categorized loosely by subject, represent the essentials to have on hand as we broaden our minds and resources. Civil Rights & Racial Justice Black Birds in the Sky. By Brandy Colbert. 2021. HarperCollins/Balzer+Bray. Gr. 8–12. The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, while widely overlooked in history books, has more recently become a part of historical discussions. Here, Colbert contextualizes the massacre against America’s legacy of racism and demands accountability from her readers. Picking Up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket. By Carey Newman…

The Bear’s Garden. By Marcie Colleen. Illus. by Alison Oliver. 2020. Macmillan/Imprint. PreS–Gr. 1. Inspired by a Brooklyn community plot, this story tells of a young girl who tends seeds in an empty city lot with the help of her stuffed bear. Arresting cut-paper illustrations show the lot blooming into a lovely neighborhood garden. The Garden. By Gwendolyn Hooks. Illus. by Shirley Ng-Benitez. 2018. Lee & Low. K–Gr. 2. A group of children learns about urban gardening in this beginning reader. New to the area, Lily visits a local garden, where a neighbor takes her under his wing, teaching her and her friends about growing fruits and vegetables. Harlem Grown: How One Big Idea Transformed a Neighborhood. By Tony Hillery. Illus. by Jessie Hartland. 2020. Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman. K–Gr.…

Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor. By Steven Greenhouse. 2019. Knopf. Greenhouse looks back to the tragic Triangle Shirtwaist Company fire, FDR’s Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, and the impact of sit-down strikes, while assessing the dramatic decline of labor unions and considering new workers’ movements. Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World. By Joshua B. Freeman. 2018. Norton. Freeman follows the growth of factories to today’s sprawling “behemoths,” tracing the evolution of manufacturing processes and working conditions and contrasting factories’ undeniable benefits with their negative social and environmental impacts. Beyond $15: Immigrant Workers, Faith Activists, and the Revival of the Labor Movement. By Jonathan Rosenblum. 2017. Beacon. Rosenblum sets the first successful $15-minimum-wage battle in Seattle-Tacoma International…

Girls Burn Brighter. By Shobha Rao. 2018. 11.5hr. Macmillan. Rao’s debut novel, about the disparate lives of two Indian girls, finds the ideal narrator in Nankani. She’s consistently effective in individuating her dual protagonists while displaying impressively subtle adaptations for the diverse cast, from a powerless father to an angry mother-in-law, from a helpful airport stranger to a brutally abusive pimp. Lucky Boy. By Shanti Sekaran. 2017. 16.5hr. Books on Tape. Roxana Ortega and Nankani volley narration as two mothers of the same Lucky Boy, desperate to mother well, mother consistently, or mother at all. Ortega and Nankani perform with careful sensitivity, presenting appropriate multilingual accents that aurally confront the shifting definitions of what it means to be American today. The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias.…

Bandoola: The Great Elephant Rescue. By William Grill. Illus. by the author. 2022. Flying Eye. Gr. 3–6. Kate Greenaway–recipient Grill brings readers a beautifully illustrated story of two men and an elephant brought together by the teakwood industry in nineteenth-century Myanmar. Close-Up on War: The Story of Pioneering Photojournalist Catherine Leroy in Vietnam. By Mary Cronk Farrell. 2022. Abrams/Amulet. Gr. 6–9. Farrell blends Leroy’s experiences in wartime Vietnam with historic details and fascinating insights into the world of freelance news photography. Quotes, letters, and photos by Leroy appear throughout. Free at Last: A Juneteenth Poem. By Sojourner Kincaid Rolle. Illus. by Alex Bostic. 2022. Union Square Kids. Gr. 1–4. Soulfully illustrated in a momentous style, this picture book celebrates Rolle’s 2004 poem. Lyrical verses flow with a steady cadence, relating…

Every so often, a book comes along that does the impossible: it lives up to the hype. The 2023 Printz Award winner was also crowned with the 2022 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature and the Boston Globe–Horn Book Award. But more than that, Sabaa Tahir’s All My Rage is a book about and for teenagers, a book that treats the trials (and their aftermath) of its characters with the utmost care, crafting a story that feels tender and wholly real. The tight, multivoice narrative tells the story of Salahudin, a teenager in California; his mother, Misbah, dying of kidney disease; and the family motel that Sal so desperately wants to save. Elsewhere, Sal’s former friend Noor lives with the uncle who’s been all she has since an earthquake…

Older Imogen, Obviously. By Becky Albertalli. Harper/Balzer+Bray. Gr. 9–12. Albertalli’s latest explores identity and sexuality through the story of high-school senior Imogen, ally extraordinaire, who begins to question her hetero self as she supports queer friend Lili. The Isles of the Gods. By Amie Kaufman. Knopf. Gr. 7–12. A high-seas adventure touched with magic and political intrigue is the latest from Kaufman, one half of the authorial team behind the popular Illuminae Files series. Liar’s Beach. By Katie Cotugno. Delacorte. Gr. 8–11. This modernization of an Agatha Christie classic, set on Martha’s Vineyard, features a teenage girl as Hercule Poirot and a house full of secrets. Magic Has No Borders. Ed. by Samira Ahmed and Sona Charaipotra. HarperTeen. Gr. 8–12. This anthology of short stories, inspired by South Asian folklore…