Tre Brun is entering his sophomore year of high school on the Red Lake Ojibwe reservation in Minnesota.
YA Fiction
Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute
Celine Bangura and Bradley Graeme, Afro-British teens living in Nottingham, are former best friends who fell out in early adolescence.
Saints of the Household
Brothers Jay and Max, 11 months apart … live with their mother, who is Bribri (Indigenous Costa Rican), and their physically abusive white dad. The two live on high alert, and because their dad is much less likely to hurt their mom if one of them is around, they make sure she’s alone with him as little as possible.
I’d Rather Burn Than Bloom
Marisol’s mom died following a car accident that happened after she and Marisol had a huge fight. Marisol, 16, blames herself and has been out of control ever since, fixated on her failures as a daughter, especially how she and her mom (Filipina) always fought and how she didn’t say goodbye to her mom as she lay dying at the hospital.
First-Year Orientation
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.
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.