Abigail Haas weaves a web with past and present narration of days in Anna Chevalier’s life, surprising readers with the twisty roads during Anna’s trial for the death of her best friend, Elise. Anna is on a spring break trip with Elise and others when Elise is murdered. Haas plays on readers’ empathy for the main character during the flashbacks thrown between accounts in the trial. She keeps readers second-guessing who the murder is — could it really be Anna after all? What teens will like is the mystery, the lies and the love triangle. My hunch is that the love triangle had more time devoted to it but editorial cuts were taken as Haas’s focus is on Anna’s psyche overall. Can she handle the pressure? Does she deserve to be on trial? Ominously re-titled from its original Dangerous Girls published in 2013, I’ll Never Tell’s new cover will probably hook new readers who like mystery.

The obligatory selfie – do you send it or not? Olivia meets Elm online and their connection is all about movies. They discover they are both fanatics and regularly watch movies together at the same time while in different locations just to be able to critique them together. When Elm finally sends a selfie, Olivia panics, using her friend Carrie’s image instead of her own. How would Elm ever find out…except when they accidentally meet up. Leah Konen’s misrepresented identity story is daftly creative. Clearly a lover of cinema herself, Konen adds little twists and turns, including cheeky chapter titles, to peak interest. Fans of Susan Colasanti and Joan Bauer will like this innocent romance as it weaves through happy, messy and scary to love.

Filled with historical references spread throughout the book to emphasize his points, from the printing press to television and the internet you are made aware of the impact on news and it’s spread.

Miller discusses how real news works and what is “responsible” journalism, including a discussion of a mistake vs created fake news.  He points to the ease, with the internet, that any person can now be a reporter through all the different venues – YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, etc. His warnings include that responsible journalism begins with each one of us knowing our sources and checking facts. He tells us not to be the spreader of fake news.

Additionally, Miller asks readers to stop and think about what affects the news: Language, beliefs, money, political motives, humor, sarcasm, cynicism, culture, expectations, propaganda, conspiracy theories, bias, and etc. Well organized, colorful and timely, this little book reminds us of all of these effects both as a listener/reader as well as a reporter, spreader of news.  Food for thought for each of us, this is a highly recommended title for middle and high school libraries!

Voices:  The Final Hours of Joan of Arc by David Elliott is quick to read with different characters’ viewpoints given of how they saw events using different styles of poetry. This book was illustrative for modern times, especially for the LGBTQ+ community as Joan of Arc did not fit into the traditional women’s role of medieval France and although she did great things for her country, was later persecuted for her different perspective of gender. In the early 1400s and France is losing its territory to England.  Joan of Arc chooses to do what is right for France by leading an army.  Meanwhile, she tells her parents that she doesn’t want to marry and dresses like a man.  Joan of Arc is cheered for her military victories by whole communities. However, everything changes after she meets Prince Charles VII who himself is not meeting the proper role of a prince at that time to lead the military.  Both Joan of Arc and Prince Charles VII defy what they were born to be in medieval France. She cross-dresses as a warrior and refuses to wear a dress. He is gentle and not sure what to do. Prince Charles VII is shocked when she presents to him the first time in royal court wearing a tunic, doublet, and hose.  And while Joan was a military official, she is quoted in this text to say “I was born to lead and to inspire, not to maim and kill.” The vocabulary in this text might be challenging as there are a lot of great words like sesquipedalian, someone who uses long words.  Highly recommended for ages 12 and up, for its historical value, knowledge of poetry styles, and entertainment.

Shaun David Hutchinson is witty and this quick, directness of jokes comes through in every character in The Past and Other Things that Should Stay Buried, his 8th young adult novel. Told in alternating voices between two best friends, readers 1st meet Dino. Dino seems confident. He’s discovering how much he really likes his new boyfriend. He knows he’s good at his job — preparing bodies for funerals — but doesn’t want to make it his future living and keep the family DeLuca and Son’s business. And he’s wanting to let go of his former best friend, July. July also appeared to be confident. A theater star in their high school, July’s world was about July and occasionally Dino, her best friend a year ago. But then they fought. And then July died. And now Dino needs to prepare her body and finally let her go…until she undies. Dino and July spend the next few days trying to figure out less about how and more about why she came kinda back though still stinking and rotting away. Dino and July must figure out a few more aspects of their friendship before each can let go of the other and let life return to normal. Discussions the two have around sexuality are honest and real and more importantly, don’t overshadow the real themes of the novel. Still overwhelmingly far-fetched, Hutchinson’s one-liners are laugh-out-loud funny as readers witness Dino and July maturing as individuals and once again as friends. Recommended for high school audiences.

The book Orphaned by Eliot Schrefer is an enjoyable book told from the perspective of a young female gorilla Snub, set in the Paleolithic Era. She lives a normal gorilla life with her mother, brother, and others until her family is torn apart from a volcanic eruption that separates them. She is left as the protector of her baby brother, Breath.  As Snub is searching for her family she finds a “not gorilla” that walks on two legs and was exiled by her family. Together, Snub, Breath and Orphan, the “not gorilla”, create a bond that is amazing without spoken communication. The vivid and descriptive details in this text help you to feel a connection with the characters. There are times that it is difficult to understand what is being described due to it not coming from the human perspective but during Snub’s perspective, there is excitement to turn the page each time to see what would happen next. Be prepared for some laughing and crying during this book. Recommend for anyone seventh grade and up, readers who like animals would definitely love this book but it would also push students to see “a world” far different than their own.

With the prophecy of the end-of-the world in three months and the expected Departure of the New World Society followers, a tender story of sibling love and individual persistence is woven in Come November, Katrin Van Dam’s first young adult novel.  Rooney’s mother is an avid follower of Everett, leader of the New World Society, which believes that humans have destroyed the overpopulated Earth through climate change and overconsumption. Extraterrestrials beings will come on November 18th to take believers to a new planet to start a more pure society.

Rooney’s senior year angst of college and a boyfriend is minor to her anxiety about money for food or her embarrassment about her “crazy” mother.  Real life issues are a heavy responsibility for a young woman who just wants to dream of a better life in the normal world. The sense of love and duty to her brother and the hope of a different life are the sustaining themes of this book.  It is an entertaining, valuable read for a young adult navigating the challenges of daily life with the possibility of creating their future through perseverance and education. Rooney’s mother’s situation is unusual but Rooney’s role of responsibility and struggle is very relatable for teenagers today.

What happens to a person when the negative side of their personality does everything in its power to overtake the side that barely keeps the person sane? Ella Black suffers from dissociative identity disorder. Bella, her evil twin, comes to life when Ella gets stressed. Bella has progressively made Ella do more violent things, which scare Ella each time. When her parents whisk her away from school mid-day to temporarily move to Rio, she assumes it is because they have figured out she has this disorder which she has been hiding from everyone. But more lies and truths will unfold in this fast-paced, unpredictable novel, totally ingratiating the reader until the last comments at the end. Ella is a believable character, which makes the story all the more twisted. Speaking of twisted, the last few dramatic scenes hit hard, literally. This reader thoroughly enjoyed Emily Barr’s writing and will look to pick up a few more of her works.

It’s the start of a new school year and Kate Bailey is hesitant to be in her podcasting class that she signed up for just because her best friend Alana wanted her to. Sure enough, super shy Kate is picked by the teacher to be one of the co-hosts for the podcast which will focus on giving advice to people who email or call in anonymously. While she discovers that she’s pretty good at giving advice, she also discovers that she likes the guy her best friend is crushing on even though Kate is trying hard to get them together. While readers will see this developing way before the characters themselves, Kasie West also throws in a few other twists to keep readers wondering. Will the text message from Kate’s ex-boyfriend make a difference? Will the sudden interest from Kate’s nemesis change the course of Kate’s feelings? Slightly oh-my, this flirty girl novel will definitely find fans in the 7th – 10th grade level.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading The Grand Escape:  The Greatest Breakout of the 20th Century by Neal Bascomb.  This book details the life of prisoners of war kept by Germany in World War 1 and their attempts to escape prison camps.  What makes this book entertaining is the range of characters with their shenanigans who tended to treat these escapes like a game.  One was even disappointed when he was returned to his own country before the war was over because he wanted to see if his escape plan devised with two other prisoners would work.   It is noted that many of the prisoners were very intelligent and adventuresome, as it tends to describe officers, including pilots who were shot down and then surrounded by Germans.   So given their sudden confinement, these prisoners tended to act like mischievous children with plans that included using molasses that resulted in solitary confinement, and stealing tools to help them in their endeavors.  They also found productive ways to spend their time such as learning new languages which aided in escaping. To make escaping Germany even more difficult, the German people were encouraged to turn in suspected escaping prisoners.  Other tactics by the Germans was to send captured escaping prisoners to different camps and to use strict military officers to oversee them. The illustrations contain actual war souvenirs such as telegrams, photographs, and propaganda.  If I could change one thing about this book, I would have put the map of Germany and surrounding areas at the front of the book rather than on page 217. The book ends with what happened to the British prisoners when the war ended, including reunions and teaching younger military recruits how to cope in case of capture.  Overall, this book made it easy to understand the actual lives of military men kept as prisoners during wartime on a very personal level. I highly recommend this book for all types of students.