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<\/a>A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Mahogany L. Browne<\/p>\nGrief, pain, hope, and love collide in this short story collection.<\/em><\/p>\n In New York City, teens, their families, and their communities feel the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the fear and loss, these teens and the adults around them persevere with love and hope while living in difficult circumstances:<\/em><\/p>\n From award-winning author Mahogany L. Browne comes a poignant collection of interconnected prose, poems, and lists about the humanity and resilience of New Yorkers during the Covid-19 pandemic.<\/em> – Crown Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n Twelve short stories in verse by bestselling and award-winning authors that explore the highs and lows of love \u2013 romantic, platonic, familial, and self-love.<\/em><\/p>\n Love can be many things \u2013 all-consuming, fleeting, vengeful, selfless, toxic, uplifting, and always, a core part of the teen experience that leaves an indelible mark. This enchanting, genre-crossing anthology delivers something for every reader with unique characters, global settings, and a dazzling mixture of myth, historical, speculative, and contemporary fiction.<\/em><\/p>\n With the turn of a page, get swept away by unexpected love blooming between two princes from enemy Mesoamerican nations in the 15th century, who\u2019d rather make music rather than war; cheer for a timid bearded lady who was shunned by her family and runs away to find belonging and safety at the circus during the 1800s experience the heartbreak of saying goodbye to a beloved pet; breathlessly watch a myth unfold as a siren bound to the water falls in love with a winged forest spirit, their love seemingly impossible from the start. Root for a girl who emerges from grief and battles with chronic pain to discover how to love herself and life again.<\/em><\/p>\n Love is complicated, and this anthology embraces the messiness and the joy of all kinds of love. Contributors include:<\/em><\/p>\n Nancy Paulsen Books<\/p>\n This historical novel in prose and verse tells the story of a deadly secret hiding in plain sight and of the women\u202fwho risk everything to provide care for those with nowhere else to turn, perfect for fans of Blood Water Paint and The Lost Apothecary.<\/em><\/p>\n Early Seventeenth-Century Rome<\/em> Penelope Ross has always felt like a passenger in her mother\u2019s fairytale – until the night of her 17th birthday, when she is forced to enter her own.<\/em><\/p>\n After a text from her estranged mother rips her away from a night with friends, Penny is forced into a kaleidoscope of memories locked inside the dark labyrinth of her childhood home. As Penny wanders between present and past\u2014prose and verse\u2014she must confront her mother’s opioid addiction to mend her fractured past. But the house is tricky. The house is impossible. It wants her to dig up the dead to escape. And as Penny walks through herself to find herself, she is not sure she has the courage to free the light she trapped inside.<\/em> – Feiwel & Friends<\/p>\n One Step Forward is a compelling debut YA historical fiction novel in verse about Matilda Young\u2014the youngest American suffragist imprisoned for picketing the White House to demand women\u2019s right to vote.<\/em><\/p>\n Raised in a politically divided family, Matilda wondered if she could be as courageous as her older sister who fought for suffrage. Joining the radical protest movement came with plenty of risk. Women were routinely scorned, harassed, arrested\u2014and worse. And taking a stand for her rights could tear her family apart.<\/em><\/p>\n Told in powerful verse, One Step Forward follows Matilda’s coming-of-age journey as she takes her first step into action. Amid the backdrop of World War I, Matilda\u2019s story vividly highlights the extreme mental, physical, and emotional battles faced by the protestors leading up to the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment. It also reveals the bravery, hard work, and spirit of the women who paved the way for future generations to use their voices and votes.<\/em> – Versify<\/p>\n From award-winning, New York Times bestselling author Ibi Zoboi comes her groundbreaking contemporary fantasy debut\u2014a novel in verse based on Caribbean folklore\u2014about the power of inherited magic and the price we must pay to live the life we yearn for.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cOur new home with its<\/em><\/p>\n thick walls and locked doors<\/em><\/p>\n wants me to stay trapped in my skin\u2014<\/em><\/p>\n but I am fury and flame.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Fifteen-year-old Marisol is the daughter of a soucouyant. Every new moon, she sheds her skin like the many women before her, shifting into a fireball witch who must fly into the night and slowly sip from the lives of others to sustain her own. But Brooklyn is no place for fireball witches with all its bright lights, shut windows, and bolt-locked doors.\u2026 While Marisol hoped they would leave their old traditions behind when they emigrated from the islands, she knows this will never happen while she remains ensnared by the one person who keeps her chained to her magical past\u2014her mother.<\/em><\/p>\n Seventeen-year-old Genevieve is the daughter of a college professor and a newly minted older half sister of twins. Her worsening skin condition and the babies\u2019 constant wailing keep her up at night, when she stares at the dark sky with a deep longing to inhale it all. She hopes to quench the hunger that gnaws at her, one that seems to reach for some memory of her estranged mother. When a new nanny arrives to help with the twins, a family secret connecting her to Marisol is revealed, and Gen begins to find answers to questions she hasn\u2019t even thought to ask.<\/em><\/p>\n But the girls soon discover that the very skin keeping their flames locked beneath the surface may be more explosive to the relationships around them than any ancient magic.<\/em> – Versify<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n
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<\/a>All the Love Under the Vast Sky<\/a><\/strong><\/em> edited by Kip Wilson<\/p>\n\n
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<\/a>Everything is Poison<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Joy McCullough<\/p>\n
\nFor as long as she can remember, Carmela Tofana has desperately wanted one thing: to be allowed behind the counter of her mother\u2019s apothecary in Campo Marzio, Rome. When she turns sixteen, she\u2019s finally allowed into the inner sanctum: the workroom where her mother, Giulia Tofana, and two assistants craft renowned remedies for their customers. But for every sweet-smelling flower extract in the workroom, there\u2019s another potion requiring darker ingredients. And then there\u2019s Aqua Tofana, the apothecary\u2019s remedy of last resort for husbands who are just as deadly as any disease. In all Carmela\u2019s years of wishing to follow in her mother\u2019s footsteps, she never realized one tiny vial could be the death of them all.<\/em> – Dutton Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The House No One Sees<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Adina King<\/p>\n
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<\/a>One Step Forward<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Marcie Flinchum Atkins<\/p>\n
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<\/a>(S)kin<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Ibi Zoboi<\/p>\n