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.