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Hopeless in Hope
By Wanda John-Kehewin. 2023
We live in a hopeless old house on an almost-deserted dead-end street in a middle-of-nowhere town named Hope. This is…
the oldest part of Hope; eventually it will all be torn down and rebuilt into perfect homes for perfect people. Until then, we live here: imperfect people on an imperfect street that everyone forgets about.For Eva Brown, life feels lonely and small. Her mother, Shirley, drinks and yells all the time. She&’s the target of the popular mean girl, and her only friend doesn&’t want to talk to her anymore. All of it would be unbearable if it weren&’t for her cat, Toofie, her beloved nohkum, and her writing, which no one will ever see.When Nohkum is hospitalized, Shirley struggles to keep things together for Eva and her younger brother, Marcus. After Marcus is found wandering the neighbourhood alone, he is sent to live with a foster family, and Eva finds herself in a group home.Furious at her mother, Eva struggles to adjust—and being reunited with her family seems less and less likely. During a visit to the hospital, Nohkum gives Eva Shirley&’s diary. Will the truths it holds help Eva understand her mother?Heartbreaking and humorous, Hopeless in Hope is a compelling story of family and forgiveness.
Sweetness in the Skin: A Novel
By Ishi Robinson. 2024
A delicious debut novel about a young Jamaican girl who tries to bake her way to a better life in…
France. Pumkin Patterson lives in a tiny two-room house in Kingston, Jamaica, with her grandmother, who wants to improve the family’s social standing; her Aunt Sophie, who wants to take Pumkin with her to a new life in Paris; and her mother, Paulette, who wants to keep her at home out of spite.When Aunt Sophie decides to move to France for work, she promises to send for her niece in one year’s time. All Pumkin has to do is pass her French entrance exam so she can attend school there. But when Pumkin’s grandmother dies—the household’s fortunes take a turn for the worse.Somehow, Pumkin must find a way to raise the money to take her French exam. In a moment of ingenuity, she decides to turn her passion for baking into a true business. Selling batches of sweet-potato pudding, coconut drops and chocolate cakes, Pumkin begins raising the money she needs. But when her mother finds out that Pumkin wants to leave, she does all she can to sabotage her daughter’s plans.Sweetness in the Skin is a funny and heartbreaking story about a young girl figuring out who she is, what she is capable of—and where she truly belongs.
The Space between Here & Now
By Sarah Suk. 2023
Perfect for fans of They Both Die at the End and You’ve Reached Sam, this gripping, atmospheric YA novel follows…
a teen with a mysterious condition that transports her to the past when she smells certain scents linked to specific memories.Seventeen-year-old Aimee Roh has Sensory Time Warp Syndrome, a rare condition that causes her to time travel to a moment in her life when she smells something linked to that memory. Her dad is convinced she’ll simply grow out of it if she tries hard enough, but Aimee’s fear of vanishing at random has kept her from living a normal life.When Aimee disappears for nine hours into a memory of her estranged mom—a moment Aimee has never remembered before—she becomes distraught. Not only was this her longest disappearance yet, but the memory doesn’t match up with the story of how her mom left—at least, not the version she’s always heard from her dad.Desperate for answers, Aimee travels to Korea, where she unravels the mystery of her memories, the truth about her mother, and the reason she keeps returning to certain moments in her life. Along the way, she realizes she’ll need to reconcile her past in order to save her present.From acclaimed author Sarah Suk comes an aching, powerful exploration of memory, grief, and the painful silences we must overcome to discover our truest selves.
Tig
By Heather Smith. 2024
A new, heartwarming middle-grade story from the critically acclaimed author Heather Smith featuring Tig, a young girl struggling to find…
peace within herself and in her new family. For fans of Rebecca Stead, Wendy Mass and Lynda Mullaly Hunt.After months of living without electricity or parents, Tig and Peter are forced to move in with their Uncle Scott and his partner, Manny. The transition from down-and-out to picture-perfect isn't easy, especially in pristine Wensleydale with the idyllic couple and their beautiful home.Tig, with Peter's support, decides to make their new life messy, starting with daily arguments and her plans to become a competitive cheese racer. She'll run circles around her new guardians, outrun a wheel of cheese, and leave the past buried in her dust. But things don't always go as planned, and Tig must decide what to truly leave behind in order to move forward.
Asking for a Friend
By Ronnie Riley. 2024
Eden Jones has exactly three friends. And they're all fake.From a web of lies and social anxiety to true friendship…
and queer joy; this is the wonderful second book from the author of the Indies Introduce and Indie Next List pick, Jude Saves the World.Why go through the stress of making friends when you can just pretend? It works for Eden and their social anxiety... until their mom announces she's throwing them a birthday party and all their friends are invited.Eden's "friends," Duke, Ramona, and Tabitha, are all real kids from school... but Eden's never actually spoken to them before. Now Eden will do whatever it takes to convince them to be their friends--at least until the party is over.When things start to go better than Eden expects, and the group starts to bond, Eden finds themselves trapped in a lie that gets worse the longer they keep it up. What happens if their now sort-of-real friends discover that Eden hasn't been honest with them from the very beginning?Author Ronnie Riley creates a world full of queer joy and all the ups and downs of true friendship.
Call Me Al
By Wali Shah, Eric Walters. 2024
Key Selling Points Ali is an eighth-grade student trying to to do it all—get good grades, fit in with his…
friends, get the girl and satisfy his parents—all while struggling to deal with the anti-Muslim racism around him. Writing poetry helps. If only his father wasn't set against it. Call Me Al deals with what it's like to be an immigrant (Ali and his family immigrated from Pakistan when he was little), racism (from peers and the world at large), balancing family versus friends' expectations, first crushes, being from a lower-income household, being Muslim and finding forgiveness for those who hurt you. Features a relatable male protagonist who discovers spoken-word poetry as an outlet for his feelings. Also makes clear the relationship between poetry and hip-hop. Co-authored by the power duo of veteran writer Eric Walters and renowned poet and motivational speaker Wali Shah, who has based this character's struggles with choosing between studying science (for his parents) and writing poetry (for himself) on his own experiences.