Deadendia: The Broken Halo

Written by: Hamish Steele

First line: Dude, it's home time.

Why you should read this book: Once again I have managed to acquire the second book in a series when I thought I was getting the first book, but in this case, at least, I had seen the Netflix adaptation and was familiar with the characters and able to basically follow the plot, even though I don't think the first season of the Netflix show gets through the entire first novel, and I probably have a lot of spoilers for season two now. What's going on here is young adults who care about each other not talking because it's easier than confronting their past choices, and also there are hella demons spoiling for a fight and manipulative angels and also one character cannot seem to keep her soul inside her body, which is occasionally useful but mostly kind of annoying. Fun and unique fantasy fiction that's much more serious and meaningful than the cartoony style of the artwork conveys.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It's not the first one in the series; that book is called Deadendia: The Watcher's Test.

Beast Boy Loves Raven

Written by: Kami Garcia and Gabrial Picolo

First line: Note to self, Four months ago I lost my foster mom and my memory on the same horrible night. 

Why you should read this book: Nothing much is riding on this lightweight meet cute story about two teens with superpowers whose paths cross while they are both looking for help from the same mysterious benefactor, but if you want to see Beast Boy and Raven fall in love, I guess this is it. Playing tourists in Tennessee, Beast Boy manages to romantically pursue the reticent Raven without being obnoxious or disrespectful or creepy or making any one of the million missteps that teenage boys in heat tend to make about emotionally distant goth girls, until they are both kidnapped by evil scientists, which can only facilitate their trauma bonding. With the help of their superpowers, Raven's sister, and Beast Boy's friend, they are able to escape from a facility that is not in way equipped to contain people like them.

Why you shouldn't read this book: Basically zero suspense in regard to where this romantic attraction is heading.

In the Beautiful Country

Written by: Jane Kuo

First line: I am leaving the only home I've ever known.

Why you should read this book: Anna's parents want to leave Taiwan and immigrate to America so she can have a better life, but once she arrives, Anna questions how the "Beautiful Country" can ever provide her with a better life than she had at home when her parents must work constantly at their failing restaurant, she doesn't speak the language or understand the customs, and some racists seem determined to hurt the family until they give up and return to Taiwan. But Anna has no choice but to keep moving forward, until eventually she makes some friends and her parents figure out the magic formula for success in a new home. Written in the form of a long prose poem, this is a fast, emotional, and personal story that brings the modern immigrant experience to life.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think being polite to bullies will make them stop.

Becoming

Written by: Michelle Obama

First line: When I was a kid, my aspirations were simple.

Why you should read this book: These are the memoirs of First Lady, Michelle Obama, wife of the forty-fourth president of the United States of America, who considers herself an ordinary person on an extraordinary journey, despite the fact that vast majority of human beings simply wouldn't be capable of undertaking most of the things she has accomplished so far in life. From her beginnings as a driven child on the South Side of Chicago to the day she and her husband left the White House, she describes, with candor and humor and seriousness, her life experience and her full range of emotions, how she fell in love with her husband, how she evolved as a mother, how she dealt with the hatred and ugliness she encountered in the public sphere, and how she kept herself and her family together throughout. Echoing her husband's message of hope, augmented with her own sense of realism, this is an enjoyable and mostly uplifting autobiography of a very interesting life.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You are interested in the life of Michelle Obama.

When Women Were Dragons

Written by: Kelly Barnhill

First line: Greetings, Mother— I do not have much time.

Why you should read this book: Over the course of a few hours in 1955, when Alex was still a little girl, hundreds of thousands of women suddenly, and, apparently, of their own volition, turned into large, beautiful, fearsome dragons (often devouring their male oppressors in the process) and flew away, leaving behind children, family, and the smouldering remains of their homes. Alex's mother isn't among the dragons, but her aunt is, and "dragon" becomes an especially dirty word, even as Alex's younger orphan cousin (who Alex is told in no uncertain terms has always been her sister) seems fascinated with a subject that no one ever, ever discusses. This novel by an award-winning fantasy author harnesses the power of women who are larger on the inside than the are on the outside, who have swallowed their rage for too long, and who are still realizing how much power they possess. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You might not find much to enjoy if you're some kind of misogynist.

Between Shades of Gray: The Graphic Novel

Written by: Ruta Sepetys (adapted by Andrew Donkin and Dave Kopka)

First line: They took me in my nightgown.

Why you should read this book: This brutal and heart-rending story tells of the treatment of Lithuanian people by Russian invaders before and during World War II. I just grabbed it off the shelf without realizing it was a graphic novelization of a traditional novel, and such books often have to leave out a lot of details, but this work was terrifying enough to make me cry dozens of times in the brief span it took me to consume. Lina, her mother, and her younger brother are packed into livestock cars and shipped to Siberia, where they spend years being abused and nearly worked to death.

Why you shouldn't read this book: It is very, very hard to read: the bad things that happen are so awful, and the good things are so small and infrequent and don't seem to compensate for what Lina and her family and friends go through.

Manuelito

Written by: Elisa Amado and Abraham Urias

First line: This story just happened to me earlier this year.

Why you should read this book: A realistic (but apparently fictional) account of a child traveling to America to seek refuge from violence in his home country. Manuelito's parents are afraid he will be kidnapped and forcibly inducted into a violent gang in Guatemala, they send him, along with his best friend, to his aunt in America, accompanied by an unscrupulous coyote, or human trafficker. The journey is difficult, the coyote is useless, Manuelito's experience at the American border is inhumane, and this is a story that needs to be understood by any fools railing against immigrants.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're one of those assholes who decided to buy a gun and patrol the Mexican border.

The Wild Party

Written by: Joseph Moncure March (drawings by Art Spiegelman)

First line: Queenie was a blonde, and her age stood still,/And she danced twice a day in Vaudeville.

Why you should read this book: As far as I am concerned, this is the best poem anyone's ever written about anything; it just happens to be about love, lust, jealousy, booze, the jazz age, theater people, and the human condition, and also it rhymes. Like, imagine if The Great Gatsby and the musical Chicago got drunk and had a one-night-stand and their baby was more beautiful than either of them had ever aspired to be and also depicted people as they actually are and actually behave, that's The Wild Party. It's a relentless, fast-paced journey into the psyche of the artistic temperament and the passions that keep it ebbing and flowing like the moon's pull on the ocean. occasionally sweeping the not-so-innocent bystander out to sea.

Why you shouldn't read this book: With frank discussions of sex and sexuality and even a few words about race, this nearly 100-year-old book was once considered too controversial to see print.

Ghost

Written by: Jason Reynolds

First line: Check this out.

Why you should read this book: It's been three years since Castle Crenshaw's father "lost it," and since then, Castle, who wishes people would call him Ghost, has been sliding into his own anger and giving his impulse control free rein, until the day he randomly decides to prove that he's faster than the fastest kid on an extra-curricular track team. Suddenly, he's a member of the team and being asked to uphold a higher standard of behavior than his mother, who works full time and goes to nursing school, can enforce. As running takes on greater and greater importance in his life, Ghost finds that he wants to hold himself to a higher standard as well; he just doesn't know if he can.

Why you shouldn't read this book: What his father does is PTSD-inducing; might not be appropriate for younger or more sensitive readers.

New Kid

Written by: Jerry Craft

First line: This is how I feel every single day of my life, like I'm falling without a parachute.

Why you should read this book: What Jordan wants to is to go to a school that offers an enhanced art education, or at least to stay in the local school where he knows everyone; what Jordan is getting, at his mother's insistence, and despite his own and his father's misgivings, is to go to a private prep school where he's one of three Black kids in his grade. As the year unfolds, he begins to make friends with all different kinds of other kids while navigating microaggressions from students and teachers alike, trying to maintain his credibility in his own neighborhood, and learning how to handle bullies and weirdos and his own insecurity. A fast-paced year later, Jordan really is a new kid, one who can stand up for himself and others and still be kind, even when that kindness hasn't necessarily been earned.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You already have a closet full of salmon-colored polo shirts and shorts.