Reviews written by Kristie Lowry, Promotions Manager

Alex describes himself as a kid who plays with "what ifs" while other kids are playing with dogs, and that feeling of not fitting in anywhere leads him to sneak out of his family's home one night so that he can burn his secrets. While making his way to the...

Mason Buttle can't read all that well. And he sweats a lot. And writing isn't something he can do either. But Mason Buttle is a good friend, he loves his family, he's kind to dogs, and he tells the truth. When his best friend Benny dies, Mason does his best...

The year is 1941, and Gusta and her father board a bus to make their way to Springdale, Maine so that Gusta can spend time with her grandmother--and then Gusta's father, August Neubronner, disappears just as men search the bus looking for a fugitive. That fugitive is Gusta's Papa. ...

Jin's grandparents own a bodega in Harlem, and she likes to watch people from her out-of-the-way quiet nook and write her observations in a special notebook. Alex spends as much time as she can helping the needy in the neighborhood as she tries to hide the fact that her parents...

The year is 1957, and Katy Gordon is a fifth grade girl who just wants to play baseball. She's worked her way into being accepted on the field by the boys in her neighborhood thanks to her pitching arm and skill with the bat. With her short hair tucked into...

Denis died when he was 7, and he's getting along just fine in Port Haven--the place where souls hang out while they're still being remembered by the living. Once those on Earth stop thinking about them, the dead souls move on to the next step in their process. Denis's twin...

Lucy Callahan was struck by lightning at age 8 and became a math genius as a result. Her diagnosis is called acquired savant syndrome, and she also has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). To say that she's different than other kids her age is an understatement, but now she's 12, and her...

MILLA TAKES CHARGE by Erin Soderberg is the first in a new series from Disney and Random House Children's Books called the Daring Dreamers Club. The book features a group of five fifth grade girls who are placed in an advisory group lead by the school's music teacher, Ms. Bancroft....

Gerta Rausch didn’t know she was Jewish until she and her father were taken from their home in the middle of the night, packed into a train’s freight car, and taken to Theresienstadt. Papa and Gerta’s step-mother, a famous opera singer, had sheltered Gerta by homeschooling her and immersing her...

Lucas Nelson loved Emmy Martin, but he waited until a week before he died of cancer to tell her that. Emmy had loved Lucas for years, but she kept quiet out of respect for their friendship, her friendship with Lucas's sister, and her belief that he only thought of her...

Bryan Bliss starts WE'LL FLY AWAY with a quote from the legendary anti-death penalty activist, Sister Helen Prejean. "It is easy to forgive the innocent. It is the guilty who test our morality. People are more than the worst thing they've ever done." That quote sets the...

Francis is hanging out alone during lunchtime at school--as he does--when a girl who is not appropriately dressed for the weather sits with him. He's worried that she is going to be cold, and he offers her some tea. She's shocked to learn that he can see and hear her...

College life is rarely (if ever) simple, and in Kiley Roache's FRAT GIRL, Cassie Davis makes things even harder on herself by tying her full-ride scholarship to an elite school to a controversial secret research project: Cassie becomes a pledge at a fraternity, and she documents everything that happens over...

Danny Cheng appears to have it all--a tight-knit group of friends, a full ride to his school of choice, artistic talent, and parents who adore him. Danny Cheng also has a lot of secrets, and those secrets, though buried deep, keep him awake at night. Danny's parents, it turns out,...

Spencer feels like an outsider. His mom left the family when he was five. His dad and brother exclude him as they bond over competitive sports and the outdoors. He's teased mercilessly by kids who think he's a freak thanks to the tics that come with Tourette's Syndrome. And he's...