Real, Not Perfect is a book that will definitely stir up feelings of hope and optimism in your soul. Tessa, an only child, seems to have a perfect life. She has good grades, she is adored by her parents, and she is active in her swim team and in church group. But, it all falls apart when she finds out her parents are divorcing, her best friend moves away, and she gets stuck in an unbearable drama class. She soon makes friends in her drama class that help her see the brighter side of life.
In the graphic novel Smile, Raina finds out that she needs braces, and she is scared. She does not want braces, but her friend, who has braces, comforts her and tells her everything will be fine. Well, turns out everything was fine until that night at the Girls Scout meeting. Raina raced to the car, but fell and broke her two front teeth. I guess she will be needing braces after all. Raina goes through a lot in this book and it is filled with twists and turns and ups and downs.
Blade Morrison’s life seems perfect. He’s a skilled guitarist with a famous musician for a father, and he has plenty of money and girls to choose from. But despite this, Blade feels lost. The one girl he truly cares for can’t be seen with him. His father’s face covers the tabloids. And ever since his mother passed away, he doesn’t seem to fit in with the rest of his family. Solo explores Blade’s search for identity through poetry, following his quest for love and belonging.
The Henna Wars has amazing characters, POC, and LGBTQ+ representation. This is about how Nishat doesn’t want to hide who she is, but she doesn’t want to lose her family. It only gets harder when a childhood friend, Flavia, comes back into her life and Nishat falls for her. When a competition invites students to create businesses, both Nishat and Flavia choose to do Henna.
Family, food, and friends are the heart of Somewhere Between Bitter and Sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp. The story alternates narrators starting with Pen who struggles with telling her parents that she would rather run her father’s restaurant, Nacho’s, than live out the dreams her parents have for her future. At Nacho’s, everyone is family, including newcomer Xander who wants to discover the secret of his father’s disappearance while keeping his immigrant status under cover.
Hurricane Harvey in the news raises the relevance of this novel to a category five. The fact that we're bringing Julie Murphy--one of the best contemporary realistic fiction authors in the country--to town for a Meet the Author visit means you must put this book on your radar. I listened to the audio version. It's fantastic. The narrator is a perfect fit for Ramona's voice.
Janner, Igiby, Tank, and their disabled sister Leeli are gifted children living in a cottage above the Dark Sea of Darkness. But even with their gifts and the help of their mother and former pirate grandfather, they still struggle to survive as the evil Fangs of Dang pursue them and take over the land by killing anyone who stands in their way. For these children are not only special, but the Fangs believe they hold the secret to finding the legendary jewels of the former king.
In Ponyboy’s world, there are only 2 kinds of people: greasers and socs. A soc has money, power, and privilege, and can get away with practically anything. But a greaser always lives on the outside, and needs to watch his back if he doesn’t want to get beat up by a group of socs. Ponyboy is a greaser, and has always been proud of it, and fights against gangs of socs to help his fellow greasers.
Told from the point-of-view of 10-year-old Kenny, it's really his big brother Byron who's the hero of this funny, emotional sucker-punch of a novel. Byron, thirteen, is a juvenile delinquent--a black sheep--according to Kenny, and pretty much everyone else in the so-called "Weird Watsons" family. But in the end it's Kenny who helps Byron overcome his depression over witnessing tragic events during a trip to visit their grandmother in Birmingham, Alabama during the height of the struggle for Civil Rights.
Lacy believes that magic and science can work side by side. She is a skilled botanist that can harness the power of plants. When her father dies, she tries to stay with her step-mother that believes in good and healing magic. But she always feel the pull of her persuasive and powerful mother who brings out the darkness in her, stripping everything light and kind. Her mother forces Lacy to accompany her to Sacramento, and it is not long before the old darkness resurfaces.
