Perfectly inspiring! A moving take on privilege and poverty, education and ignorance. Authors Florence and Scrimger take a hopeless situation and show the many ways people can come together to make a change, fighting cruelty with patience and understanding. Great for young readers who feel overwhelmed by today's problems.

Cecil for the win! A timid, lonely but loveable kid at a new school trying to figure out who he can trust and who will accept him for who he is, Cecil ends up being the hero of his own story. The way he sifts through all the advice of friends and family and then finds his own way to stand up for himself is heartwarming and inspiring. A sure hit for middle-grade graphic novel readers!

One of the sweetest, most heartbreaking, and hopeful graphic novels you will ever read! Debbie Fong weaves magic from tiny corn mazes, ancient sporks, giant melons, and a fortune-telling peach, and the climactic scene of Pia making her wish at an underground lake will literally bring you to tears. Grab a copy but don't lend it to anyone, cause you will never get it back.

Somewhere in Kelly Yang's heart is a secret well from which she pulls up endless supplies of humor, compassion, bravery, and hope. The latest Mia Tang installment, TOP STORY, serves up all four in bucketloads. But now there's a fifth element: romance. Yes, Mia's been hit with the lovebug (or teen crush bug) and it might be her biggest challenge yet. Meanwhile, though, she's still taking on the powers that be, training her journalist's instincts on the struggles of modern day Chinatown and the horrors San Francisco and the U.S. visited on Chinese immigrants through the centuries. And she and her friends prove, once again, there's nothing kids can't accomplish when they join forces.

Funny, moving, and utterly true! (Except maybe the roller coaster scene--which, if it's based on actual author experience, ranks as one of the most terrifying childhood memories you could ever have.) Ray Xu combines story-telling and artwork brilliantly, creating in Kevin Lee a character as memorable as Jordan Banks (NEW KID), Jin Wang (AMERICAN BORN CHINESE), or Greg Heffley (DIARY OF A WIMPY KID).

A quirky, fun and ultimately moving fantasy involving 2 great middle school characters bonding over everything from broken friendships to dragons, comets, mysteries, and the strangest alien lifeforms since the tribbles in Star Trek.

This is not your grandmother's Valkyrie story! A pulsing, passionate novel with great characters, a driving plot, and some fascinating twists on the old Norse legends. Yes, Champion of Fate is one of those books that will keep you up very late at night reading and leave you begging for more by the end.

ADIA KELBARA AND THE CIRCLE OF SHAMANS kept me up all night and smiling all the next day! The perfect combination of magic, mystery, mythology and humor, with a main character who's brave and smart but also precariously balanced between good and evil. The story ends in a satisfying way but with the promise of more adventures to come. Which is great, because I'd follow Adia into as many stories as Isi Hendrix can write for her.

Loved this one even more than Firekeeper’s Daughter (which I also loved)! Perry is such a great main character--smart, daring, passionate, sometimes reckless. And the details about the theft and collecting of indigenous artifacts, bones, etc., and the work of getting them returned to their tribes is not only educational (for us non-native people) but incredibly moving. We feel Perry's anger and frustration with an intensity way beyond the usual reader/main-character sympathy--an amazing feat given how foreign these issues are to most non-indigenous readers. Angeline Boulley is truly one of the best young adult novelists writing today.

Love this mash-up of the Monkey King story with other myths! Readers will love the clean, comical illustrations and humorous dialog, and Monkey King's mix of bravado and compassion will make him a hit with both kids and adults. (Plus, it has the cutest Cerberus you've ever seen.)

A deeply affecting story about a girl struggling with all she and her family lost in a California wildfire. Great friend and family dynamics with strong tie-ins to discussions about climate change. A must-have for any school, library or bookstore.

A shining tale of fear and courage! Lucy Landry lives as much in her imagination as in the real world. But how do you navigate the real world, real families, real love, when you've spent the better part of your life isolated from all of those things? Anna Rose Johnson packs a lot into this slim story, and the results are truly luminous.