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.

Sana is a high school senior who prides herself on finding the best in every situation. And every love story should have a happy ending, including her mother’s flower business on Love Street, which is facing financial difficulties. In fact, Sana loves all things that have to do with love. Loving is her epitome of happiness. So when she decides that all businesses will benefit from doing a rebranding of Love Street with a community event that she’ll organize with others, including the handsome but annoying Miles, who doesn’t fall head-over-heels in love with Sana’s cheesy ideas, Farah Heron has set the stage for haters to become lovers in this swoony story. Slowly, Miles will melt, but Sana will have other adulting lessons to learn, including that her parents’ love story wasn’t all that she assumed. Readers get a full-throttle Hallmark movie in 300 pages. If love is your cup of tea, Meet Me on Love Street has all the rose-hips, sugar, and a tiny bit of spice to make you go ahhhhh!

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.