A well-rounded anthology of loosely connected short stories explores the excitement, trepidation, and (sometimes literal) magic of first-year orientation at fictional Rolland College.
YA Fiction
Stars in Their Eyes
Maisie and her mom are attending Maisie’s first fancon, where 14-year-old Maisie (brown-skinned) is looking forward to meeting her favorite actor on her favorite show, Midnight Girls. Like Maisie, Kara Bufano is an above-the-knee amputee with a prosthetic leg.
Nigeria Jones: A Novel
Sixteen -year-old Haitian American Nigeria Jones has been raised inside her father’s small, insular, radical Black Power Movement, which emphasizes self-actualization outside white systemic oppression.
Greymist Fair
Based on a number of lesser-known Grimm’s Tales as well as “Hansel & Gretel,” this atmospheric, immersive novel has a setting that feels old-world European, including most characters reading as white, while embracing 21st-century sensibility regarding love and identity.
Warrior Girl Unearthed
Sixteen-year-old Perry Firekeeper-Birch isn’t thrilled to be a summer Kinomaage program intern. Unlike her twin sister, Pauline, she doesn’t have big college dreams but does need to repay Aunt Daunis for car repairs.
Enter the Body
Four of Shakespeare’s young female characters–Lavinia, Cordelia, Ophelia, and Juliet –have died countless times on stage and will do so countless more, because that is how their stories are written. Until now.
Stateless
Stella North, 17 (white), the only female contestant in Europe’s first air race for young people, represents Britain; she prefers no one know she escaped the Russian Revolution as a young child.
An Arrow to the Moon
A star-crossed story of family, identity, and fate set in 1991 beautifully blends a realistic romance with mesmerizing magical realism.
Rust in the Root
Laura Black, 17, left her small Pennsylvania hometown in 1937 for New York City with the goal of obtaining her mage license and becoming a baker to the stars.
The Most Dazzling Girl in Berlin
This beautifully realized novel in verse succeeds on every level–as a work of historical fiction vividly bringing the past to life, as a love story, as a story about overcoming one’s personal fears, and as a work illuminating chilling parallels between Germany in the early 1930s and western society today.