Maya Aziz is an Indian-American Muslim teen who dreams of attending film school in New York City and being free from parental expectations for their good Indian daughter.  A good portion of this book portrays Maya’s relationship with boys. Dating is not allowed in Muslim families and especially with a non-Muslim so she must keep the romance from her parents. Her parents’ protectiveness becomes even stronger when a horrific terrorist crime is attributed to a Muslim (who did not do it) with the same last name.  The community Maya has grown up in is suddenly consumed with fear, bigotry and hatred.
Islamophobia is rampant and Maya’s dreams are in danger of being crushed.  Will she find the strength to move on? “These terrorists are the antithesis of Islam. They’re not Muslim. Violence has no place in religion, and the terrorists are responsible for their own crimes, not the religion and not us.”
Read this book and be aware that many young Muslim women who reviewed this book on Goodreads were upset with the representation of Maya as a Muslim.  

Tessa's Picks
7-8th grade, Contemporary fiction, Issues fiction, Character driven
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 Nine students. Three bloodsports. One deadly weekend.
Creepy, seriously creepy. With a British accent. Greer MacDonald, scholarship student, does not fit into the exclusive atmosphere of St. Aidan’s boarding school for the elite. She knows this and tries to keep a low profile. Then she receives a mysterious invitation with three words embossed upon on it: huntin' shootin' fishin'. It refers to a weekend at the country manor of Henry de Warlencourt, the most popular and wealthy boy at S.T.A.G.S.
Arriving at Henry’s ancestral home, Greer realizes the only adults are the servants who do Henry’s bidding. The other guests are Henry’s clique known as “The Medievals” as they distain all modern technology calling it “savage.” Two other outsiders have been invited along with Greer; Shafeen Jadeja (“Punjabi playboy”) and Chanel Ashford (“Carphone Chanel”).
 Each day is to be devoted to one of the three blood sports on the invitation. As each becomes progressively dark and twisted, Greer realizes that she and the other misfits have become the prey. 
This is a top notch psychological thriller. Murder, mayhem and madness! You won’t be able to put it down. Warning…not for the faint of heart!

Tessa's Picks

7-8th grade, Contemporary fiction, Fast paced, Horror

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Addie Webster was kidnapped eight years ago. In the meantime, her father has become the president of the United States. Now she is sixteen and she’s back.  Some in the administration find this suspicious; what effect did her captors have on her?
Her childhood friend Darrow Fergusson is the son of the current chief of staff at the Whitehouse. He is manipulated by a national security advisor into finding out if she could be a threat.  What really happened to her in the compound? Is she a victim or a weapon?  The flash backs to the past eight years only confuse.
This is a page turner!  So much intrigue, plot twists and surprises in this political thriller.  And what an ending!




Tessa's Picks
6-8th grade, Contemporary fiction, Fast paced

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 "I call her my mom when I'm talking to her or anyone else, but in my head I call her my person because there have been too many mommies and they all have different faces that blend together in my brain until they're one ugly face that doesn't make sense and some of them were nice but others weren't very nice and they're all gone now anyway and Person says she's here forever."
Person is what Flora calls her current and promised to be forever mom.  She and her brother Julian have been in foster care since they were very young. They have no memory of a biological mom and are convinced that they were not born like other children.  Flora’s inability to trust and Julian hoarding food under his bed are clues to their former lives. When their therapist suggests revisiting past foster homes, Emily (Person), Flora and Julian take a journey that is both heart-wrenching and healing.
How do you build trust and reassure that love is forever? As we meet past foster families both good and not so good, Emily is a constant source of love and wisdom.  The resilience of these children will touch your heart.  
There are many kinds of families in this book; two moms, mixed race, foster, divorced and adopted. While there is love and kindness there is also emotional trauma. Things don’t magically get better but the healing has begun and you feel that facing problems will help the hurt.
This is an endearing book that will make you laugh and cry.  You want to gather this family in your arms.
 
Tessa's Picks
5th-8th grade, Character driven, Contemporary fiction, Family life, Issues fiction, Tear jerker

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“My true name,” he said, “ . . . is SUN WUKONG.” A cold wind passed through the open window, rustling my loose papers like tumbleweed. “I have no idea who that is,” I said.”… His jaw dropped. Thankfully his teeth were still normal-size.
“You’re Chinese and you don’t know me?” he sputtered. “That’s like an American child not knowing Batman!”
“You’re Chinese Batman?”
Turns out Sun Wukong is the Monkey King of Chinese legend and has come to earth to rid the planet of some nasty demons…around 120 of them. And Genie Lo is the reincarnation of a super powerful weapon that he used in the past.  Sarcastic and feisty, Genie is not going to be an inanimate object but in order to save her world she has to join forces with Quentin (aka Sun Wukong). Putting aside her aspirations for Harvard and her mad volleyball skills, the two fight the hellspawn unleashed by a spiteful demon.
This action packed battle adventure is hilarious.  Although the demons are horribly ghoulish, they are more funny than frightful. Balancing friends, family and school while averting the apocalypse can’t be easy but Genie does it with wicked humor.  Even the budding romance with Quentin (he even has a real monkey tail)  is chuckle worthy. 
This is just so much FUN!

Tessa's Picks
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7th-8th grade, Adventure, Contemporary fiction, Fantasy, Mythology, Fast paced

This is a powerful , touching story about discovering who you are, finding your place in the world and learning to love who you turn out to be.  It deals with a lot of heavy issues: rape, sexual abuse, sexuality, gender identity and victim-blaming in such a sensitive and meaningful way.
 The main character Mara is trying to recover from a trauma she has never shared with anyone not even her twin brother Owen with whom she is so close.  When Owen is accused of raping his girlfriend, her best friend Hannah, what is she to believe? 
All the characters in this book are so deeply crafted you feel you know them.  Hannah is not a girl who would make this up so why is she being blamed by her classmates?  How could Mara’s beloved brother have done such a horrible thing?
But Mara knows the truth and her support of Hannah is strong and real. Hannah is not ruled by what has happened and she faces the world with strength and resilience.  These girls are powerful.
Mara’s ex-girlfriend Charlie is genderqueer and struggling to find the courage to express who she really is. They were also best friends and grieve over being apart. Together they struggle to evolve their relationship while dealing with their emerging identities.
I loved this book and the power that each character finds in themselves and in their friendships.  This is a beautiful and stunning book that will touch you and make you wiser.
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“Sweetie, this will blow over. It’s a misunderstanding. You know your brother”.
“You keep saying that”.
“Saying what?”.
“That it’s a misunderstanding. That I know Owen. But...Mom, I know Hannah, too”.

“What do we do?” What’s going to happen to Owen? And Hannah... we can’t just not listen to her. You’ve always said that we have to listen to girls no matter—“
“He’s ours, Mara, Mom says, a kind of quiet fury edging her words. He’s my son. And we love him. That’s what we do”. 

 Tessa's Picks
​8th grade, Contemporary fiction,Character driven, Issues fiction, Friendship, LGBTQ

Success to Jade means living her neighborhood, taking every opportunity.  Like accepting a scholarship to a mostly white private school.  Like joining “Women to Women” a mentorship program for “at-risk” girls. Meaning black girls like her from a bad neighborhood. It feels wrong, especially when her mentor Maxine does not understand her. Maxine is black and successful and she grew up wealthy. This class division seems to be a road block in their relationship.
Jade describes herself as a bigger girl and you cringe when she is harassed because she doesn’t fit someone’s standard of beauty.
“And this makes me wonder if a black girl’s life is only about being stitched together and coming undone, being stitched together and coming undone. I wonder if there’s ever a way for a girl like me to feel whole. Wonder” 
“I don’t know what’s worse. Being mistreated because of the color of your skin, your size, or having to prove that it really happened.
Jade's powerful voice explores identity, friendships and self-worth in this compelling coming of age book.  
 
Tessa's Picks
 
6th-8th grade, Character driven, Friendship, Issues fiction, People of color
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  There have always been secrets in Danny Cheng’s family.  When he finds a taped-up box in his father’s closet, it is more than old photos and letters; there is a file on a powerful Silicon Valley family.  A high school senior who has early acceptance to the prestigious Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Danny becomes obsessed with figuring out the past.  His parents immigrated to the states from China to Texas and then moved in the middle of the night without warning to California. And changed their last name. He experiences a new emptiness for the sister he never knew about who died young.  How do all these clues connect?
Danny’s friends who attends a mostly Asian-America high school in Cupertino, are all very real and memorable. Harry Wong is the perfect combination of nice, handsome, and smart and the two have a deep and meaningful friendship. Harry’s girlfriend Regina Chan has known Danny forever.  The book made me long for a sequel just to find out what the future will be for these young people.
As the one-year anniversary of a tragedy that shook this friend group approaches, Regina publishes the school newspaper as a memorial and lands them all in trouble.  Danny’s family begins to unravel as an accident brings them into the public eye. 
This story grabs you and just won’t let go as the pieces fall into place yet the unexpected still happens.  The ending literally made me gasp out loud. Themes of love, loyalty, family, immigration and friendship are beautifully woven in this moving book.

“Because if you're tangled up in someone else, if your futures are tied that way, if that's real and if you know when it happens - then it means you know who you belong to, and you know whose fates are tied to yours, whether you like it or planned it or not, whether they still exist in the same world with you or they don't, and I think that's where everything begins and ends. I think that's everything.” 
 
Tessa's Picks, 8th grade, Character driven, Contemporary Fiction, Family life, Issues Fiction, Friendship, People of color, Romance, LGBTQ
 

​Ballet is a delicate and graceful dance, but the dancers are strong, hard, and fiercely competitive. Nowhere is this more true than at the American Ballet Conservatory. The top ballet academy attracts dancers that are more concerned with being the best than being happy. They will push their bodies and their relationships to the limits to get the lead, and if they have to take someone else down to get to the top, so be it.

This is high drama full of frenemies and betrayal. The characters are well-rounded though. An entertaining read.

Tiny Pretty Things by Sona Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton​


Erica's Picks
8th & up
​tags: contemporary fiction, issues fiction, mental illness, people of color