The Rose Bargain

It’s 1848, and cruel fae queen Mor has ruled London for centuries, allowing each of her subjects to make a single bargain with her. Most young women do so during their debutante season, trading something of value—a body part, a memory, a talent—in exchange for a quality that will boost their marriageability.

Bad Badger: A Love Story

Septimus is a fastidious, solitary badger living in a little cottage by the sea. Because he has spots instead of typical badger stripes on his nose, prefers the seaside to the traditional forest habitat of badgers, and likes drinking tea and listening to opera, he considers himself a “bad badger.” Sometimes he wonders if he even is a badger.

How to Reach the Moon

In the summer, Emilio (Latino) leaves the city and travels past a landscape of pointed mountains to the forest, where his abuelo lives in a house among the trees. There they eat dinner outside by lantern light, and afterward, in the dark, Abuelo treats Emilio to fantastical stories. Seeing the moon in the sky one night, Emilio asks whether it is “true that the moon has a face we never see.” In fact, it “has many faces!” says Abuelo.

Come Home to My Heart

In small, conservative Fisherton, South Carolina, high school seniors Gloria (white) and Xia (Chinese American/white) have little in common. Gloria is a devout Baptist who tries to control her same-sex attraction by limiting herself to five minutes per day on her blog, where she adds photos of girls and then scrupulously clears her browser history, knowing her dad will check it later. A social outcast and closeted lesbian, Xia is simply hanging on until she can escape her parents and small-town life for the more diverse, queer, and intellectual crowds in college.

Will’s Race for Home

After decades of backbreaking, thankless sharecropping work in Texas, Will’s father, who was enslaved as a child, is “grim and dull,” and Will longs for a closer relationship with him. When they hear of the Oklahoma Land Rush, they recognize it as the chance of a lifetime. With a wagon of supplies pulled by their mule, Belle, Will and his dad join thousands of others racing to stake out their own land.

All Better Now

What if a disease could make people happier and kinder? Crown Royale (CR) is a virus that kills one out of every 25 people infected. But the majority who contract it not only recover but also feel contentment in the aftermath.