Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor I can’t believe it took me so long to read Nnedi Okorafor! I can see why everyone raves about her whenever talking about diverse SFF done right. Akata Witch is about a twelve-year old girl named Sunny, who discovers she has magical powers and can see the future reflected in a candle’s flickering flames. Sunny has always felt different from other kids–she has albinism and because of this has been ostracized her whole life. But when Orlu, a boy fro

Nest by Esther Ehrlich Nest by Esther Ehrlich is a literary upper middle grade to lower YA novel (read: “tween novel”) about a young girl named Naomi, or “Chirp,” living in 1970s Cape Cod and what happens to her family when her mother, Hannah, is diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Chirp is obsessed with birds and copes with her family situation by birdwatching and through her growing friendship with Joey, a boy living across the street who also wants to escape his own trouble

I was having kind of a bad day, and this book cheered me right up! The premise is what drew me to the novel: Eighth-grader Rachel Lee helps her mother with her housecleaning business, only to find out that she has to clean house for some of the meanest kids at school, but the bonus is she learns some of their secrets along the way. The story is light and breezy, with a believable friendship and lighthearted tween romance. But there are heavier themes here—that of divorce and