Bryce’s mom has struggled with alcohol and holding down a job since his dad’s death several years earlier. When things blow up with her latest boyfriend, she takes off, leaving Bryce and an unpaid motel bill behind. Bryce (Ojibwe) goes to his paternal grandparents’ trailer home on the Wolf Creek Reservation in Minnesota, where he stays for the summer.
YA Fiction
Beth Is Dead
Louisa May Alcott’s March sisters are reimagined as their 21st-century doppelgangers in a contemporary mystery triggered by their father’s latest novel, titled Little Women. His readers are intrigued to learn that the characters are modeled on his real-life daughters and incensed that he chose to kill one off at the book’s end.
Winter White: A Modern Retelling of Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale
Pia and Max (white) live with their controlling father on a remote Maine farm, isolated from the outside world. Their father sells eggs and wool in town, but when he falls and breaks his leg, the deliveries fall to Pia. Pia relishes the opportunity to get off the farm, even if she’s confused by the wads of cash her father’s customers hand over in exchange for the modest wares.
Best of All Worlds
When Xavier Oak (white), his father, and his pregnant stepmother, Nia (Haitian Canadian), wake up one morning, everything at their family lake cottage is as expected—except that it’s now in a completely unfamiliar location. Frightened and dumbfounded, the Oaks explore their now-rural surroundings and find that they are trapped within an invisible dome several miles in diameter.
Sisters in the Wind
A gripping thriller told in dual time periods explores the personal and generational trauma of Lucy, who in 2005 has just aged out of the foster care system. When an attorney, Jamie, tracks her down to tell Lucy that her Ojibwe maternal relatives have been searching for her, Lucy is confused and on edge. She also knows that she’s being pursued—the reader doesn’t yet know why—and plans to run, until a pipe bomb badly fractures her leg.
Skipshock
En route to a new boarding school in Dublin after she was caught trying to pawn her father’s old watch, Margo (white) finds herself traveling to a world she didn’t know existed. On the train with her is Moon, a boy Margo’s age with a crescent moon tattoo on his face.
If I Could Go Back
When she turns 18, high-school track star Aaliyah contacts her parents, Lena and Quincy, despite knowing that her stubborn but steadfast Grandpa Joe will be furious.
And the Trees Stare Back
In 1980s Estonia, Soviet forces still occupy the country, but Estonians are feeling more freedom to speak out in protest. This political landscape frames the uncanny story of Vik, whose younger sister, Anna, disappeared five years ago, when the two of them sneaked into the bog despite having been warned of its danger. Vik’s life is a shadow of what it once was … and then Anna reappears. Vik is stunned and joyous—until she realizes that Anna is still five years old.
Beasts
With the arrival of predatory creatures known simply as “the beasts” comes the collapse of society. With their mother dead—killed by a beast—13-year-old Abdi and his little sister, Alva, are on the move, searching for food and making their way toward the island where their father is working.
Lady’s Knight
When blacksmith’s daughter Gwen, a talented metalworker in her own right, joins the annual jousting tournament as “Sir Gawain,” she only hopes to prove to herself that she’s as skilled as any male knight. Enter bold, clever Lady Isobelle, whose hand in marriage has been promised to whomever wins.