Dulce Castillo has a lot going for her. Being educated at a private high school for criminology, Dulce’s intuition has helped her compete at the head of her class in the yearly murder mystery test. When this year’s test turns into a real murder investigation, Dulce has to put her past grievances behind to follow her natural instincts on the path to reveal the killer. Many people associated with J. Everett High School have possible motives. In battling her own assumptions of people, Dulce will learn that the connections between people are more complicated and twisted than she imagined.

Lauren Munoz’s pace for this book clips along. Characters are put into precarious situations, surprising the reader as to who will be the final suspect. Overall, the story is farcical, but still entertaining because the reader will want Dulce to succeed in solving the case, in getting retribution for a previous wrong, and in getting the guy of her desires. This book is recommended as an additional purchase for middle or high school students who like a quick teen-based Law and Order/NCIS escape.

Helena Hawoode Henry is brilliant in her choice of character names, words, and the book’s title, Last Chance Live!. She masterfully threads together the story of Eternity, a death row teenager waiting… Waiting in an interrogation room only to be “hoodwinked ‘ into confessions. Waiting for the opportunity to participate in the reality show that could save her life if, for once in her life, she wins. If only to visit what, Disneyland, a place that Eternity longed for—a place of belonging, happiness, and community.

Haywood Henry’s storytelling is both poetic and more like nonfiction. Inner-city dialogue and vivid descriptions make the characters real. One could almost shudder to taste the institutionalized prison food described. Because the writing wraps the reader into the story, when Eternity admits to committing a horrible crime, her humanity challenges the reader to examine oneself and ask the question, ‘Does my life have enough value to be forgiven?’

Spoiler alert: Last Chance Live! will leave readers longing for ‘the happy ending’. But true to the author’s style. And be sure to read the Author’s Note, which provides hope and a challenge to take part in change.

Review written by Sidney Frazier-Barker, edited by Kristi Bonds

Will Eisner: A Comics Biography, written by Stephen Weiner and Dan Mazur is about the man, the myth, the legend who created the genre of graphic novels devoured by millions today. The book begins with “Billy’s” immigrant parents meeting in New York City early in the 20th century. Racism, constantly moving to new homes, and financial struggles shaped his childhood. According to our authors, it was during Eisner’s childhood that literature diverged on two paths: respectable and the “pulps”. Eisner was introduced to the pulps by a neighbor. More fast-paced and perhaps more lurid, Eisner’s imagination took off in the form of sketching. To help his family during the Depression, he began selling newspapers, and in newspapers, he discovered the comics. A high school art class gave him the confidence to ask to work for his high school newspaper. This also led to a new friend who introduced him to the concept of selling his talents, putting out daily comic strips, and inventing comic books sold at newsstands. This was the beginning of Eisner’s fame.

Authors Weiner and Mazur enrich the story in unique ways. They detail exactly how comics were physically put onto a newspaper back in the day with printing plates. They display how Eisner and his fellow business partner shift from creating pulps to jumbo comics, including hiring more people and building a drawing system to keep production smooth, and knowing when to say no to a deal that took away the creator’s copyright of the work.

People recognized Eisner as a pioneer after he came back to his art in the early 1970s. Entire books with full-length drawn stories that bookstores didn’t have a name for were given the name “Graphic Novels”. Weiner and Mazur weave their words and drawings into a detailed biography of Eisner, using the ‘illustrated novel’ style that Eisner himself invented. Perhaps without realizing the irony, students who pick this up will realize that they are learning the ‘origin story’ of the genre. And if they make it to the end, they will see that Eisner’s success is because he chose to do what he loved.

The Secret Astronomers is a gift to the curious mind and the reluctant reader. Jessica Walker’s creativity will intrigue anyone who opens to the first page, a note: “Find the oldest book in the Green Bank High School Library. Hidden inside are the secrets that are being left behind forever. If you’re smart enough to figure out the message, then you have a right to know why a small town in the middle-of-nowhere West Virginia is the center of intelligent life in the known universe.” A mystery?, a science reference book?, a challenging puzzle?, extraterrestrials? crop circles? pages missing from the old book? page to discover sticky notes, 3×5 note cards, and scraps of paper taped on EVERY page. The adventure begins.

Two teenagers attending a high school in rural West Virginia carry on written conversations that are tucked into the yellowed pages of a book published in 1888, and identified as ‘the oldest book in the school library’. One has lived in Green Bank since birth, the other, new in town, having moved from San Francisco, to live with grandparents after a parent’s death.

The two writers are at the library at different times. They both have found the old book. They never divulge their real names. They share details of their lives sparingly. They try to solve the challenge taped to the first page inside the cover. They discover much about themselves and each other by writing the notes that they tuck into the pages of the old astronomy book.

Walker’s artwork, and possibly the publisher’s creative team, make this look like a very old textbook from a back shelf in the school library, complete with doodles on the page edges and notes tucked into random pages. But wait, the title on the cover has been blacked out and changed. Hmm, we wonder what it was before.

The story emerges slowly and comfortably, then, all of a sudden, the direction changes. Something unexpected. Soon after, something else is discovered that changes the trajectory several times, revealing different clues. 

Walker creates this feeling of eavesdropping on the lives of the two teens. Teen slang, witty drawings and doodles, and enough twists and turns to keep the reader engaged through to the end make this “novel in notes” an entertainingly good read.

In a world of magic doors to escape your world and scribing spells that can kill, Maeve has quietly lived by a false name and without her parents for almost half of her life. Never staying in one place for very long became a way of survival — if people found out who her father was, she too would be killed. Maeve’s father was a scriptomancer, specially trained in the art of magical messages to be couriered to other worlds. While most believe he unleashed a vine that poisons on contact and decimated most in his society, including himself, Maeve knows her father would not use his magic in dark ways. Her life’s mission is to clear his name, and her path to do so involves becoming a scriptomancer, too. Emily Taylor’s world-building is divine, with descriptive details that enhance the pace. Maeve is wickedly smart, which pairs well with her sarcastically supportive crush of a boy, Tristan. Got readers who say they don’t like fantasy? Give them this!

Herve Bourhis’s fifty year pop culture chronicle of all things British would be the perfect gift for an ex-pat living abroad, a Briton on the homefront or those of us who feel weirdly drawn to the English way. Covering the years 1962-2022, Bourhis graphic novel format gives the first full page to that year’s musical influencer for each year and the subsequent three pages become a patchwork quilt of pictures and text in primary colors of blue, red, yellow, black, white, and peachy-pink that relaying an array of British influence. Almost all musicians are names most people would recognize: The Beatles, The Who, The Rolling Stones, Queen, Sex Pistols, The Beegees, The Cure, Pet Shop Boys, Oasis, Amy Winehouse, Radiohead, Adele, Dua Lipa. On page 2 of each year’s focus, musical influences as well as worldly influences on musicians are highlighted as well as 5 more British albums for that year. Page 3 is a patchwork of British factoids for the year that are runners-up to the winner of the biggest British influencer taking center-stage on page 4. For example, in 2021 the winner was Astra Zeneca because of its creation of the anti-covid vaccine “Vaxzevria”. Herve’ Bourhis handi-work with in sketching really make the book pop. They are so spot on and yet so British at the same time, ending so apropro with “God save the King” as the final kiss to this passion project he undertook during the covid pandemic when he couldn’t make his bi-yearly trips to England that he had enjoyed for close to thirty years.

Students of traditional American Literature courses are presented with letters and diary entries of the colonial period and perhaps the study of The Crucible, the latter of which always gave them pause. To the Bone will illicit the same response. It is based on the factual account of a Virginia colony during “The Starving Time” from 1609-1610. Ellis, a servant to a gentleman named Henry Collins and his pregnant wife, takes readers through the fall and winter, as she struggles with the expectations put upon her — to not be wicked by only doing what Mr. Collins asks, including not wanting Jane romantically. It is also the story of Powhatan’s Confederacy becoming frustrated by the English invaders. A harsh, and at times gruesome, life, Ellis hopes to find her father, if only she could leave the fort. She builds tenacity in dealing with physical and mental torture get her further than most of the colonists, but will she survive the winter? Alena Bruzas writing is curt. Short sentences in short paragraphs echo the tight grip Ellis fought against. Realistic fiction readers will likely enjoy this historical fiction account if the worst aspects of survival and humanity don’t shock them away. More likely, it will keep them reading all the way through the author’s note at the end.

Catie Carlson’s senior year was going to be a well-deserved success.  Her family had struggled since her dad passed away.  Then her stepmother, whom she loves, decided that their best option was to move to Salt Lake City, Utah to temporarily live with her sister’s Morman family.  In addition to abiding by strict rules, Catie needed to get a job.  Luckily, she lands a job that she loves and begins a friendship with a co-worker that drives the narrative.  She’ll teach him how to get the girl crush he’s had for years while he’ll teach her how to speak Mandarin, which is her father’s native tongue.  As Catie tries to figure out who she is in this new city, she constructs a small web of lies along the way.  While stressful for Catie, a reader knows from the beginning where this is going to end up.  In fact, the final ending happens so fast, it is as if an editor emailed the author to wrap it up quickly.  The beautiful cover will sell this book, and most readers will make a quick read of it.  This is an additional purchase for school and public libraries.   

Justine was born with a birth defect that required major surgery and years of painful therapies to stretch one of her legs. The trauma that remains has shaped her current choices as a nineteen-year-old now going by the name Elisabeth. Self-worth, trust of others, and fear of the future are all themes every young adult contemplates as the enter the world on their own.  But Elisabeth still sees herself as horribly broken, not worthy of success and love.  Instead of going to college, she escapes to a small Wisconsin community, living the life of a recluse.  When a once-in-a lifetime snowstorm hits, the local sheriff does a wellness-check to make sure Elisabeth has the supplies she needs.  His presence is the best medicine Elisabeth could receive.  Alternating between her childhood and now, readers will witness a young woman who is trying to figure out who she wants to be after her trauma. Has she been deceived by others to make her into the woman she is today, or is she deceiving herself?  With cover recommendations from John Green and Markus Zusak, Allison Sweet Grants debut novel will be well-read in high school and public libraries. 

If you love magic, romance, thrill and adventure, The Notorious Virtues is for you. The heir to a country with great wealth and prestige, Nora will discover that her mother’s death wasn’t accidental. Counsins August and Lotte also have bloodlines to the throne and reasons for wanting it. To determine the future leader, a battle of magic ensues. Alwyn Hamilton alternates between each girls’ points of view and readers should become very familiar with each character as the tension builds. The depth of detail in the magic itself could be its selling point but cliffhanger chapter endings will propel readers quickly. Even after 497 pages, waiting for the sequel will be hard for many. Recommended for all libraries.