Even before you dive into In Case I Go Missing, author R. N. Swann maintains a bit of a mystery about herself.  Although the publisher provides a picture of her in the inside jacket cover, she publishes exclusively under her pen name and initials, R. N. Swann. Her unabbreviated first and middle names have not been publicly disclosed or shared in her official biographies.

For those who enjoy reading young adult mystery novels, this 385-page, wide line spacing typeset is a quick read and lives up to its reviews: “Early praise from Kirkus Reviews calls the novel “immersive and tightly plotted,” while School Library Journal deems it “a compelling story that succeeds by focusing as much on the emotional toll of grief and betrayal as it does on the mystery.” 

Feeny Allen’s best friend, a seventeen-year-old amateur detective, Sarah Vincenty, has disappeared under mysterious circumstances. A who-done-it mystery, Sarah had been a girl “obsessed” with solving big cold cases in the town where she lives.  Feeny finds a binder that Sarah titled, “In Case I Go Missing.”  In the binder, eight names are listed as possible suspects in an investigation Sarah was conducting — these same names Feeny believes were responsible for Sarah’s disappearance. Secrecy, conflict, threats, and the occasional curse word push the plot along. Divided into three parts, each chapter reveals more and more clues.  Written more like a diary, bouncing between dialog and recollections of Sarah’s from the past few years, it is a fast-paced, easy read, with wider line spacing and larger font, which should appeal to reluctant readers who will want to find out what happened to Feeny.

-Richard Bender, edited by Kristi Bonds

Taylor Cassidy’s Black History is Your History is the most accessible collective biography for young adults. Cassidy’s grew her voice as a TikTok influencer, starting her series “Fast Black History” at the height of the pandemic. Having grown up with check-the-box lessons in January and February of Black history (like 90% of US students in the early 2000s), Cassidy wanted to take the real education she received from her parents and her desire as a kid to watch more about Black history (rather than read about it in books) to the vertical screen. Her outstanding success there gave Cassidy the inspiration to write this book, a dive into the lives of twelve Black Americans (Claudette Colvin, Benjamin Banneker, Ida B. Wells, Zora Neal Hurston, Gordon Parks, Ledger Smith, Tommie Smith, Cicely Tyson, Maya Angelou, Patrick Kelly, Marsha Johnson and Mae Jemison) across time who have pushed her to go on, be strong, and make their mark on the world. During each chapter, Cassidy breaks ranks to have her own “Taystory”–a vignette where she ties her life to the history she’s exploring. During the Taystory in Cecily Tyson’s chapter, Cassidy sums up the theme of this collective biography with this thought: “…being Black didn’t mean fitting into stereotypes and avoiding interests that didn’t fit into a box someone else made for me” (118). These vignettes, as well as all of her 2020s authentic slang, will make middle and high school students wish all of their history lessons were so lively and empowering. Cassidy truly loves writing about history, perhaps as much as talking about it online, as shown when a Benjamin Banneker letter from the 1700s is modernized into a rap in the style of the Hamilton musical (27). Her positive messaging runs throughout: “Remember that every little thing about you is a breath of fresh air for someone. Your quirks are the intricate engravings of your identity” (137). These 185 pages of an 8.5 x 5.5 book will be devoured by most. Highly Recommended!

If you like competitive fight scenes like The Hunger Games, kick-ass female protagonists who can rise to the occasion more than they ever thought they could, and a plot full of twists that will bring frustration as well as appreciation of the author’s cleverness, Liselle Sambury’s A Mastery of Monsters is your next adventurous read. Our main character, August, is mad at the world because her mother and brother have gone missing. She doesn’t seem as upset about her mother, but her brother is her rock. While on their college campus trying to find him, she gets attacked by a weird creature, foreshadowing her path for the next 575 pages. Slide that little attack to the side, because August soon meets Virgil. The vibe is real, but he has an alternative motive to befriend her — he needs a partner who will fight on his behalf to literally save his life.

There is a ton more world-building in this darker, monster-driven fantasy. August will connect with a secret society, and her mother and brother’s disappearances will be tied in with a mastery of monsters she never knew existed.

Even though August speaks her mind and doesn’t take crap from anyone, teen angst is less the focus than August learning to be confident in herself and realizing she can handle it all, physically and mentally. The challenge competitions make chapters fly by, but it takes a minute to get to those scenes. The second book in this trilogy was released on August 26th, and it sounds like the physical challenges will continue to entertain.

Speculative fiction master Neal Shusterman must have had a lot of fun pulling together his Mindworks collection of short stories. While he admits in the Introduction that they are all from smaller, previously printed story collections through a different publisher, this is a proud papa’s showcase of 42 different offspring of his creative love affair with the sci-fi dystopia genre in one place, including two stories at the end from his best-selling world of Scythe. All of the stories have been revised to reflect current technology and societal pressures, and many are meant to keep your brain scared of the premise long after you’ve read the last words. A stuffed teddy bear who comes to life because the parents of a young girl are too focused on themselves to love their daughter. A boy who befriends a girl who only wants a friend, only to try to trap her because the same thing once happened to him. A soup so fantastical that it turns people into zombie eaters of it. A story of trust to find the perfect way to live and love in a cozy cabin for two. The path a reader walks to witness where Schusterman’s mind went when writing these stories is just as entertaining as the stories themselves. Not every story will land. Great debate could be had in college lit. classes as to why one is far better than another. But Shusterman fans will cleave onto this collection for all time. It was a smart move for Simon and Schuster to offer Shusterman the opportunity to pull these visions together. It is well worth the purchase to enhance any short story collection, to place on a shelf next to other Shusterman fiction books, and/or to give as a gift for readers who also appreciate how to spice up the possibilities of what may be real- the “things may just be weird” aspect of the dull dreams life brings. Highly recommended!

What if you could just swap your old body for a new one? In Anabelle Gage’s world of Caimor, people can do that, but it’s expensive. Ana’s body –her chassis– is failing her, and using her magic is the last thing she wants to do to illegally obtain a new one, but she must live. This one misdeed will entrap her in a web of IOUs, but it will push her to develop more charisma and confidence, something that her own family did nothing to instill. Periodically, chapters will be told from the point of view of other people in Ana’s life, with more chapters voiced by Wes/Nell, her trainer/possible romantic interest/nemesis. The real focus of the storyline is that of the corrupt society she lives in, not the trans romances that are developing. In fact, the body-swapping is a simple and effective way to represent the fact that body type does not control gender. It is not surprising that the book has received so many high reviews, with anticipation for the sequel in early 2027.

As a former high school English teacher, I have a place for fall in my chronologically set mind for the fall tying back to the early colonial days in America. Salem’s witch trials always made students pause as they learned how hard life was and how “wicked” people could be. In To the Bone, Ellis is hopeful of a new life in America, where she’ll work for a family for a time and be able to live freely in the new lands. But James Fort is much rougher than she imagined. In the spring and summer, Ellis consoles herself by taking care of the babe in the family she works for as well as finding a small queer romance, supremely forbidden in Colonial America. However, as the food rations dwindle and crops wither for lack of irrigation, Master and Mistress Collins both behave in selfish, survival-of-the-fittest ways that make this dark historical fiction surprising. Everyone will want Ellis to make it through the winter, and she has the inner drive to do it, including living in conditions no one would dream of today. Based on true events, readers will be reminded that early American settlers endured much, and our Indigenous custodians of the land had every right to be skeptical of their reason to want to stay. Still, as Ellis’s journey becomes more and more treacherous, readers become further sucked in and become chilled to the bone.

If you love the maple syrupy-sweet romances of fall on the Hallmark Channel, you will love Falling Like Leaves! Ellis is going into her senior year as a super-motivated, college- and career-focused force of nature. But the winds shifted violently as her mother uproots her from her NYC haunts to the quaint town of Bramble Falls. Instead of interning at a prestigious firm, her fall will be spent doing volunteer projects while sipping autumn-themed coffee drinks whipped up by the hottest barista, who will become her secret crush. Of course, they won’t get along at first. What fun is there if there isn’t the chase? Slowly, Ellis will learn the reason why her mother left town for the countryside, and she will need to decide if the city life of Columbia University is really what she wanted all along. Rather than the super spicy romances that have been flooding the market, this is just the right amount of tension and tastiness to make most readers swoon. Grab your lattes, drop into a comfy position, and drink up Falling Like Leaves by Misty Wilson.

Yulieta Lopez has a passion for the things she loves that she’s kept tamed for a long time as she fills the role of a diligent daughter, smart student, and steadfast friend. A theater nerd, as her junior year begins, she tries out for the lead in the school’s version of Our Town. Despite having the best audition of her life, the conservative teacher’s choice for lead will begin a chain reaction of events that allows Yulieta to have a voice that will reach much further than the school’s stage audience. Written in verse, the author leaves a note on this structure as a preface, encouraging readers to really enjoy the structure because there’s prose and scenes written like a play script as well — multifaceted, just like Yuli. The variety of relationships in Yuli’s life also brings depth to a novel that, on its surface, might seem like an easy read. Worldly lessons that art is activism and finding ways to do activism with the talents that you naturally have are life lessons not only for Yuli but for those connected to her, especially when her favorite teacher gets ensnared in a book-banning campaign by the school board. Yuli will not be seen as the angry black girl but as the self-determined, fully realized young adult who can play many parts even if she never steps foot on a stage again.

High school senior Pernell has a lot on his mind—scratch that, he has the whole world at 3x the speed on his mind, constantly, and has his whole life. And for the third summer in a row, now 1999, Pernell is back in summer school to get his English credit. But this time is going to be different. He aspires to be Cyper King, the best freestyle rapper at the school. His brain is on fire with words and rhymes, which should make any summer school teacher excited to teach him, except Ms. Harding, the teacher who failed him the first three times. Luckily, Pernell has support. His friend, Electra, and his parents are exactly the safety net he needs as he takes two steps forward and one step back multiple times in this six-week course. Told in a “neuro” mix of script-like dialogue, free verse, and rap, Idris Goodwin flexes his own literary prowess with humorous 90’s throwbacks and deft name-drops to present a young man who is smart, witty, and learning that his brain is just fine–he just needs a few supports. The only drawback is the portrayal of the English teacher. Maybe since this is set in the 1990’s, there can be grace, but teachers today would not act as she did. This author had hoped for a better restoration of the relationship and feels it paints all teachers in the same light. Couldn’t there have been at least one positive interaction with the English teacher or any other summer school or regular teacher, just one? The cover art is amazing, and it will be a quick pick for many readers at both the middle and high school levels.

In A Most Perilous World, award-winning author Kristina Gaddy invites readers to walk in the shoes of four famous abolitionists’ descendants. George Garrison, son of William Lloyd Garrison, Lewis Douglass, son of Fredrick Douglass, have well-documented fatherly figures. Lucy Kim, daughter of Miller McKim, a state presidents of an anti-slavery association, and Charolette Forten, granddaughter of a successful businessman in the free and living in the free state of Massachusetts, would make a name for themselves in this time. Gaddy sets the stage with over 50 historical documents and imbues the pages with life by interweaving first-hand accounts from personal journals and letters as these young adults share what they witnessed and felt between 1854 and 1872. Readers are rewarded with four behind-the-scenes passports, each chapter jumping to a different voice, in a chronological journey of the events leading up to, during, and after the Civil War. This is a fictional account that has endnotes, a bibliography, and an index of a nonfiction text. Kristina Giddy clearly wrote this as a work of love for the truth of the time period, bringing the unique and authentic voices of George, Lewis, Lucy, and Charlotte to life. Not only is this a great read for teens, but it would make an amazing text for a U.S. History class. Highly recommended for school and public libraries.