Zay must now finish his junior year at Broadlawn Alternative School, which is located hours away. The day he finds out he has to move in with his aunt and uncle (who live near Broadlawn), his white father is released from prison. Zay isn’t happy about Keith’s release; he feels betrayed by Ma for not […]
The women of Delilah Bea’s family are cursed: Anyone who falls for one of them will immediately forget their beloved. Delilah is determined to break the curse during her Calling, during which she has six months to successfully complete a quest or lose her magic forever. But when a stranger named Kieran Pelumbra turns up […]
Waking up to the first snowfall of the year, Chiyoko wants to build a snowman, but Papa says there’s no time. Today, they’ll be going to the misogura, a wooden barn, to learn the family business of making miso. Throughout the day, Chiyoko and Papa clean the tubs, cook rice, sprinkle powder to make kōji […]
It’s been 27 years since Karl left his native city of Ters, Albania, for a better life in Greece and, ultimately, America. The death of his father has brought him back home, however, and he finds a city just as riddled with contradictions as it was when he left. Ters is a city in which […]
It was sci-fi writer William Gibson who said that the future is already here; it’s just very unevenly distributed. Kobie, a contributing editor at Wired and the futures editor at PC Pro, would probably agree, as she romps through a series of gee-whiz ideas for machines that have failed to fulfill their much-hyped promise. The […]
On an environmentally devastated Earth, Leah and Rachel Silverton, orphaned sisters born a year apart who can pass for identical twins, struggle to get by. Leah has severe asthma, but each year the government offers 16-year-olds the opportunity to try out for a chance to live in the Floating City on Venus. Only 50 boys […]
Rather than construct narratives for their 20 randomly ordered selections, Pintos and Iannuzzi toss pithy fact bits and spot images across each spread around a full body portrait, with inconspicuous arrows here and there to link related items. Though at least systematic when it comes to providing range maps, typical sizes and weights, conservation status, […]
Newly 15-year-old Cat really wants her new girlfriend, Morgan, to get along with her friends, but they’re just not gelling. English Cat is part of the fashion-conscious, makeup-wearing group surrounding her school’s queen bee, Siobhan, while Irish Morgan hangs with an edgier, goth-leaning cohort. To make matters worse, Morgan and Siobhan are both running for […]
A racially diverse group of students draw owls for an art assignment. Belle’s depiction is especially praised for its lifelike quality and the wise nature behind the owl’s eyes. Little do Ms. Rio or the other students know that Belle has firsthand knowledge of owls. Belle and Mom are unhoused; Belle tells readers that one […]
It’s almost Pongal, the Tamil harvest festival, and this year, 10-year-old Malar is especially excited. Her cousins Priya, 11, and Kamal, 6, are traveling all the way from their home in Seattle to Pori, the coastal Indian village where Malar and her family live. Although Malar is determined to be a “super-host,” her cousins don’t […]