Book Reviews
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What’s My Superpower: Discovering Your Unique Talents
He wants to save humanity but hasn’t found his powers. Can one young boy unlock his hidden gifts and help his household of heroes?
Deshaun Prime longs to join in his daring family’s superhero feats. But while Dad is really strong, Mom is lightning-fast, and Sister can fly, he has no idea what his own abilities could be. And though he’s tried to copy their amazing skills… nothing seems to work!
Scared he doesn’t have a special gift; Deshaun takes his parents’ advice to simply do whatever comes naturally. And when he remembers his love for math and construction, his fingers start to fly as he builds a mighty robot!
Will Deshaun’s clever brain be the secret to helping his superpowered relatives save the world?
From authors Delanada Coleman, Terrence Coleman and illustrated by Bowen Jiang for Readers 8-12.
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Target Practice: (Cleopatra in Space #1) A Graphic Novel
A funny, action-packed graphic novel featuring a young Cleopatra who’s transported to the future and learns it’s up to her to save the galaxy.
When Cleo finds a mysterious tablet that zaps her to the far, really far future, she learns of an ancient prophecy that says she is destined to save the galaxy from the tyrannical rule of the evil Xaius Octavian. She enrolls in Yasiro Academy, a high-tech school with classes like algebra, biology, and alien languages (which Cleo could do without), and combat training (which is more Cleo’s style).
With help from her teacher Khensu, Cleo learns what it takes to be a great leader, while trying to figure out how she’s going to get her homework done, make friends, and avoid detention!
From author Mike Maihack for Readers 8-12.
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Sophie Washington: Code One
GIRL POWER!
Xavier Academy is having a computer coding competition with a huge cash prize!
Sixth grader Sophie Washington and her friend Chloe can’t wait to enter with their other classmates, Nathan and Toby. The only problem is that the boys don’t think the girls are smart enough for their team and have already asked two other kids to work with them.
Determined to beat the boys, Sophie and Chloe join forces with classmates Mariama, Valentina, and “brainiac,” Rani Patel, to form their own all-girl team called “Code One.” Computer coding isn’t easy, and the young ladies get more than they bargain for when hilarious mishaps stand in their way.
It’s girls versus boys in the computer coding competition as Sophie and her friends work day and night to prove that anything boys can do girls can do better!
From author Tonya Duncan Ellis for Readers 8-12.
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Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Real-Life Tales of Black Girl Magic (Volume 4)
Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls: 100 Real-Life Tales of Black Girl Magic, edited by award-winning journalist Lilly Workneh with a foreword by #BlackGirlMagic originator CaShawn Thompson, is dedicated to amplifying and celebrating the stories of Black women and girls from around the world; features the work of over 60 Black female and non-binary authors, illustrators, and editors; is designed to acknowledge, applaud, and amplify the incredible stories of Black women and girls from the past and present; and celebrates Black Girl Magic around the world.
Amongst the women featured from over 30 countries are tennis player Naomi Osaka, astronaut Jeanette Epps, author Toni Morrison, filmmaker Ava DuVernay; aviator Bessie Coleman, Empress Taytu Betul, journalist Ida B. Wells, and many other inspiring leaders, champions, innovators, and creators.
For Readers 6 and up.
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Super Puzzletastic Mysteries: Short Stories for Young Sleuths from Mystery Writers of America
Bestselling author Chris Grabenstein and the Mystery Writers of America bring together twenty peerless puzzles—from bestselling authors such as Peter Lerangis, Stuart Gibbs, Lauren Magaziner, Kate Milford, and, of course, Grabenstein himself—in an anthology of mystery short stories that invite readers to try to unravel the riddles themselves.
From tales of hapless superheroes and stolen squirrel monkeys to murderous triplets and haunted basements, these thrilling, puzzling, and hilarious cases have one thing in common—YOU get a chance to be the detective before the author reveals the solution.
With twenty never-before-published mystery stories, this collection will leave young detectives sleuthing for more!
For readers 8-12.
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Sophie Washington: The Snitch
Should Sophie Stand Up to the School Bully or Become a Snitch?
There’s nothing worse than being a tattletale…
That’s what 10-year-old Sophie Washington thinks until she runs into Lanie Mitchell, a new girl at school. Lanie pushes Sophie and her friends around at their lockers and even takes their lunch money. If they tell, they are scared the other kids in their class will call them snitches and won’t be their friends.
And when you’re in the fifth grade nothing seems worse than that. Then a classmate gets seriously injured and Sophie needs to make a decision: fight back, or snitch?
By author Tonya Duncan Ellis for Readers 7-13.
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Keeper of the Lost Cities
In this riveting series opener, a telepathic girl must figure out why she is the key to her brand-new world before the wrong person finds the answer first.
Twelve-year-old Sophie has never quite fit into her life. She’s skipped multiple grades and doesn’t really connect with the older kids at school, but she’s not comfortable with her family, either. The reason? Sophie’s a Telepath, someone who can read minds. No one knows her secret—at least, that’s what she thinks…
But the day Sophie meets Fitz, a mysterious (and adorable) boy, she learns she’s not alone. He’s a Telepath too, and it turns out the reason she has never felt at home is that, well…she isn’t. Fitz opens Sophie’s eyes to a shocking truth, and she is forced to leave behind her family for a new life in a place that is vastly different from what she has ever known.
But Sophie still has secrets, and they’re buried deep in her memory for good reason: The answers are dangerous and in high-demand. What is her true identity, and why was she hidden among humans? The truth could mean life or death—and time is running out.
From author Shannon Messenger for Readers 8-12.
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I Speak Boy
A phone-obsessed twelve-year-old girl, frustrated by the cryptic boys in her life, discovers a magic app that can read boys’ thoughts.
After a matchmaking attempt for her best friend, Harper, goes wrong, Emmy is fed up. Why are boys so hard to figure out? But then something amazing happens–she wakes up with a new app on her phone: iSpeak Boy! Suddenly Emmy has the information every girl wants to know–the super-secret knowledge of how boys think . . . and who they like!
Now Emmy is using her magical app to make matches left and right. But can she use it to help Harper, the only person who doesn’t seem to buy into Emmy’s “gift”? And when her secret gets out and the app ends up in the wrong hands, can Emmy figure out how to undo the damage she’s caused?
By author Jessica Brody for Readers 10 and up.
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Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky
Seventh grader Tristan Strong feels anything but strong ever since he failed to save his best friend when they were in a bus accident together. All he has left of Eddie is the journal his friend wrote stories in. Tristan is dreading the month he’s going to spend on his grandparents’ farm in Alabama, where he’s being sent to heal from the tragedy.
But on his first night there, a sticky creature shows up in his bedroom and steals Eddie’s notebook. Tristan chases after it–is that a doll?–and a tug-of-war ensues between them underneath a Bottle Tree. In a last attempt to wrestle the journal out of the creature’s hands, Tristan punches the tree, accidentally ripping open a chasm into the MidPass, a volatile place with a burning sea, haunted bone ships, and iron monsters that are hunting the inhabitants of this world.
Tristan finds himself in the middle of a battle that has left black American folk heroes John Henry and Brer Rabbit exhausted. In order to get back home, Tristan and these new allies will need to entice the god Anansi, the Weaver, to come out of hiding and seal the hole in the sky. But bartering with the trickster Anansi always comes at a price.
Can Tristan save this world before he loses more of the things he loves?
For Readers 8-12.
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Ways to Make Sunshine
Ryan Hart has a lot on her mind–school, self-image, and especially family. Her dad finally has a new job, but money is tight. That means some changes, like selling their second car and moving into a new (old) house. But Ryan is a girl who knows how to make sunshine out of setbacks. As her brother says when he raps about her, she’s got the talent that matters most: it’s a talent that can’t be seen, she’s nice, not mean!
Ryan is all about trying to see the best in people, to be a good daughter, a good sister, a good friend. But even if her life isn’t everything she would wish for, when her big brother is infuriating, her parents don’t quite understand, and the unexpected happens, she always finds a way forward, with grace and wit. And plenty of sunshine.
From author Renée Watson for Readers 7-10.
