Little Princes: One Man's Promise to Bring Home the Lost Children of Nepal

Written by: Conor Grennan

First line: It was well after nightfall when I realized we had gone the wrong way.

Why you should read this book: In order to mitigate the "unrepentantly self-indulgent" nature of his plan to spend a year traveling the world partying and rubbing up against strange women, Conor Grennan schedules a two-month stint volunteering at an orphanage in Nepal. To his surprise, he falls in love with the orphans of Little Princes, who call him "Brother" and have mastered the art of the tackle-hug, and feels compelled to return to Nepal after his grand tour. When learns that most of the children aren't truly orphans, and some of them have vanished, he dedicates himself to recovering the lost ones and tracking down all the families who thought they were sending their kids to a better life, combatting Maoist rebels, war, poverty, bureaucracy, the cold, knee pain, inclement weather, language barriers, lack of medical care, and a diet consisting almost entirely of white rice and lentils. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You believe empathy is a weakness. 

Nana & Kaoru volume 1

Written by: Ryuta Amazume

First line: Show me the back, too.

Why you should read this book: Kaoru is a perverted slacker who spends most of his time and money on BDSM porn and Nana is the student council top-of-the-class overachiever, the object of Kaoru's fantasy and completely out of his league. When the guidance counselor tells Nana she needs to relax on the same day that Nana finds the bondage costume Kaoru bought in her exact size, the two embark on a personal journey of growth through fetish, with loser Kaoru developing confidence as a master and Nana finding release from stress through their depraved "breathers." This is a sweet, softcore BDSM romance.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're offended by how other people get off. 

Mr. Knocky

Written by: Jack Ziegler

First line: The three o'clock bell had just rung and I was running all over the schoolyard, yelling at the top of my lungs.

Why you should read this book: Mr. Knocky is a socially challenged old man who terrifies the local children with his weird and boring stories, which are presented without solicitation in the middle of the kids' games. One day, Mr. Knocky gets hit in the head with a snowball and ends up flat on his back in the snow. The kids are terrified, and when it turns out Mr. Knocky is OK, they are much more accepting of his presence and don't find his stories so weird and boring. 

Reverie

Written by: Ryan La Sala

First line: This is where it happened. 

Why you should read this book: I think, at its core, it's a metaphor about maladaptive daydreaming, the kind where it's so easy to escape into your dissociative fantasy world that your coping mechanism becomes more real to you than the real world, and begins to impact your real life and all your relationships, but it's also a YA queer fantasy, so the daydreams are very, very real and if the characters can't control them, it could be the end of life as we know it. Kane doesn't have any real memories of the night he supposedly crashed his car and burned down a local landmark, but, as he heals, he starts to realize that he's missing a lot of memories, mostly those pertaining to close friendships he doesn't remember having, but also that he was the leader of a group of teens with superpowers and that other worlds are creeping out of people's imaginations and taking over reality. Kane has to figure out who to trust and who to protect, and to defeat a magical drag queen who wants to use him to create another world in place of the one Kane calls home. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It took me a while to get into it.

Sold

Written by: Patricia McCormick

First line: One more rainy season and our roof will be gone, says Ama.

Why you should read this book: Despite her stepfather's gambling addiction, Lakshmi and her mother are getting along pretty well, and Lakshmi is excelling in school and looking forward to one day being married, but following a drought and a flood and heavy gambling losses, she is determined to take a job as a maid in the city, so she can send money home and give her mother a real roof. Unfortunately, the auntie who promises to find her paying work sells Lakshmi into sexual slavery in another country, and she becomes a prisoner in brothel, forced to perform sex work to survive. As she comes to understand more about her circumstances, she must tease apart the lies that control her from the truth that might set her free. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's a novel about a 13-year-old girl being sex trafficked. It's not happy. 

Uncle Tom's Children

Written by: Richard Wright

Firstline: My first lesson in how to live as a Negro came when I was quite small.

Why you should read this book: This collection features five short stories and one biographical essay written early in the author's career. These pieces all describe the inherent terror of the Jim Crow south and the way it victimized Black people in twentieth century America, with violence and murder featuring prominently among the arsenal of tools used by segregationists to enforce social control. These are dangerous, frightening stories about a zero-sum game that is always fixed in favor of the house, wonderfully written with deep insight and wisdom, but difficult to read in terms of the suffering of the characters.

Why you shouldn't read this book: There aren't really any happy endings and four of the stories have absolutely brutal endings. 

The Tryout

Written by: Christina Soontornvat and Joanna Cacao

First line: Breathe... Just breathe...

Why you should read this book: This is a memoir that recounts the trauma of the author's experience. As one of two students of color in her suburban school, Christina has more than the usual reservations about starting middle school, but when she and her best friend Megan decide to try out for the cheerleading squad, she begins to develop a little optimism and self-esteem. Cheerleading is a lot of work, and as she trains, Christina starts to feel Megan slipping away from her, even as she develops a greater understanding of her own cultural heritage and her parents' struggles as a mixed-race couple. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think more things ought to be popularity contests. 

Where the Weird Things Are: An Ocean Twilight Zone Adventure

Written by: Zoleka Filander and Patricia Hooning

First line: A voice wakes me up. 

Why you should read this book: The journey of a small, anthropomorphic robot from the surface of the ocean, through the pelagic zone, and down to the benthic zone showcases a number of unusual marine species. As the robot, Mesobot, encounters each creature it learns of the interesting qualities that allows it to survive in its world, while the Mesobot begins to question whether its own unique properties are special and interesting until discovering that its purpose is educational and it is indeed a very special robot. Based on the real journey of the real Mesobot, this book also includes a lovely appendix offering further information about the robot and all the animals it meets. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You prize conformity.

The Republic of Salt

Written by: Ariel Kaplan

First line: It was three nights until the New Year, and in the mountains north of Mazik Rimon, Naftaly Cresques was lying on the ground beside two old women and a Mazik who was mostly dead. 

Why you should read this book: The second novel in the Mirror Realm cycle, this doorstop of a fantasy novel picks up pretty much where the last one left off, with Naftaly and his crew in the Mazik land and Toba and the now-mortal Asmel back in the human world, and all of them knowing that if they can't stop Tarses from taking over both realms it's not going to go so well for anyone. Arduously, all the characters must travel to Zayit, outwitting enemies, finding surprising allies, eating lentils, and learning more about magic, especially as it pertains to part-mortal magicians. The pacing is good, so that the story keeps moving forward in a Lord of the Rings Kind of way, even though it takes everyone a very long time to get where they're going. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: Due to its structure and the way Naftaly's powers work, it's kind of obvious precisely how the book is going to end (hint: a cliffhanger). 

Not Quite a Ghost

Written by: Anne Ursu

First line: The house stood a little apart from the rest of the block, as if it did not quite fit in. 

Why you should read this book: Violet Hart is already dealing with that strange uncertainty that accompanies the transition from elementary to middle school and the questions of whether the people you've been friends with your entire life will remain your friends once puberty commences, and now her mom and stepdad have decided to purchase this really creepy house so she can have her own room, even if that room is in the extra creepy attic. This isn't quite a ghost story, although there's definitely something like a ghost in the house, but it draws most of its spookiness from its discussion of undiagnosed chronic illness and its use of symbols and themes from Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper." Anyone who's ever been accused of malingering when they felt awful or been gaslit by "friends" who had turned against them will understand what Violet is going through in this well-paced and clever story.

Why you shouldn't read this book: If you still haven't gotten a diagnosis, it might be a bit frustrating.