Lifeboat 5

“A captivating…thrilling adventure story that shows the power of friendship, hope, and forgiveness.” —Lauren Tarshis, author of the I Survived series In the wake of Lifeboat 12 comes a “gripping, harrowing” (Publishers Weekly) World War II novel-in-verse by acclaimed author Susan Hood about two very real girls who clung together for dear life when their evacuee ship was torpedoed, their lifeboat capsized, and they spent nineteen hours in the Atlantic Ocean, waiting for rescue.When Nazi bombs begin to destroy Bess Walder’s hometown of East London, Bess convinces her parents to evacuate her and her younger brother, Louis, to Canada aboard the SS City of Benares. On the journey, she meets another evacuee, Beth Cummings. Bess and Beth have a lot in common—both strong and athletic, both named for Queen Elizabeth, both among the older kids on the ship, and both excited about life in Canada. On the fifth day at sea, everyone starts to relax, but trouble is right behind them. That night, a Nazi U-boat torpedoes the Benares. As their luxury liner starts to sink, Bess and Beth rush to abandon ship aboard their assigned lifeboat. Based on true events and real people, Lifeboat 5 is about two young girls with the courage to persevere against the odds and the strength to forgive.

Hurdles In The Dark My Story Of Survival, Resilience, And Triumph

A Mexican-American teen girl dreams of winning an athletic scholarship against all odds in a Texas border town. This true story of survival, strength, and triumph is perfect for fans of Educated and Athlete A. Twenty-four hours: that’s how long fourteen-year-old Elvira Gonzalez is given to come up with the $40,000 she needs to save her kidnapped mother from a drug cartel. It’s 2006 and Elvira’s hometown of Laredo, Texas, has become engulfed by the Mexican Drug War. Elvira’s life is unraveling around her—setting her on a harrowing path that leads her to being locked up in one of South Texas’s worst juvenile detention centers. After Elvira’s released from juvie, she’s resolved to never go back. That’s when her unexpected salvation arrives in the form of 33-inch-high plastic hurdles. Determined to win a track scholarship out of Laredo, Elvira begins breaking into the school, alone, at 5:30 in the morning to practice hurdling. Soon, she catches the attention of a renowned high school coach, an adult man in his 30s. As they train, their coach-student relationship begins to change, becoming sexual. At just seventeen years old, Elvira experiences the dangers many young athletes face, especially those who are marginalized. In spite of these towering obstacles, Elvira eventually propels herself to become one of the top ranked hurdlers in the USA and the first in her family to go to college. This inspiring true story of grit, tenacity, and hope traces Elvira’s path as she overcomes impossible hurdles in her race to freedom.

Everything Is Poison

This historical novel in prose and verse tells the story of a deadly secret hiding in plain sight and of the women who risk everything to provide care for those with nowhere else to turn, perfect for fans of Blood Water Paint and The Lost Apothecary. Early Seventeenth-Century RomeFor as long as she can remember, Carmela Tofana has desperately wanted one thing: to be allowed behind the counter of her mother’s apothecary in Campo Marzio, Rome. When she turns sixteen, she’s 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’s another potion requiring darker ingredients. And then there’s Aqua Tofana, the apothecary’s remedy of last resort for husbands who are just as deadly as any disease. In all Carmela’s years of wishing to follow in her mother’s footsteps, she never realized one tiny vial could be the death of them all.

The Demon And The Light

Final Fantasy meets Shadow and Bone in The Demon and the Light, the hotly anticipated follow-up to Axie Oh’s The Floating World.The battle is over, but the war is just beginning…With the help of her friends and allies, Ren managed to topple the General’s insurrection, but the Floating World and its territories are still under threat of attack from the rival Volmaran Empire. And far worse, she was powerless to save Sunho from being overcome by the monstrous power in his blood. Now he’s gone, transformed into a feral, deadly creature that doesn’t even recognize her anymore, and her heart aches for the sweet boy she’s grown to love.But the escalating war will not pause for her grief. Seen by some as a heavenly savior and others merely a figurehead to be manipulated, Ren must use all her courage and cunning to survive the royal court’s game long enough to find Sunho and bring him home before he loses himself to the Demon forever.Also by Axie OhThe Girl Who Fell Beneath the SeaThe Floating World

Vesuvius

The end is coming. The gods are watching. This thrilling historical fantasy set in the days before Mount Vesuvius destroys Pompeii is a meet cute with an explosive fallout.Clever thief Felix slips from city to city to survive the present and escape a past he can’t remember. When Felix steals a divine artifact—Mercury’s helmet—from a temple in Pompeii, pieces of his forgotten past begin to surface.Loren, an ambitious temple attendant, has seen Felix in his apocalyptic nightmares for years. The last thing Loren expects is for his dream to stumble headfirst through his temple doors, moments after an earthquake rocks the city.When Felix shows Loren the helmet, Loren sees the world coming to an end. He knows they have mere days to uncover Felix’s ties to the relic and to Loren’s visions if they have any hope of saving the city. But Ancient Rome is ruled by bloody politics and unstoppable destinies, and now that Loren and Felix are intertwined, their lives aren’t all they risk losing. When all has turned to ash and rubble, the boys will have to piece together their fates to make it out of a burning city alive.An exploration of ambition and class, autonomy and religion, survival and love, Vesuvius combines the romantic angst of They Both Die at the End and the blended magic and history of The Song of Achilles to show readers that it is never too late to change your fate—or change the world.

The Golden Necklace A Darjeeling Tea Mystery

National Book Award nominee Mitali Perkins crafts a contemporary chapter-book mystery about a 12-year-old Nepali girl who sets out to solve the disappearance of her Bengali friend’s missing jewelry. Set within a tea plantation in Darjeeling, 7-10-year-old readers are transported across the world to a politically and culturally rich setting, following our brave heroine, Sona.Sona, a 12-year-old Nepali girl, has struck up a friendship with Tara, the niece of the greedy tea plantation manager who has promised Tara’s hand in marriage in order to get his hands on her inheritance of precious jewelry. Then Tara’s gold jewelry goes missing. The search is on for the culprit, and Sona must use all her wits in order to prove it wasn’t her beloved brother, Samiran Daju, who stole it.Filled with vivid characters against a complex and multilayered political and cultural backdrop, this novel showcases a strong girl protagonist whom readers will root for. The Golden Necklace is award-winning author Mitali Perkins’s latest and most compelling story yet.

The Daggers Of Ire

“A perfect blend of magic, humor, adventure, and heart!” –Rick Riordan, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Percy Jackson and the Olympians A rich and exciting new Latine middle grade fantasy about sisterhood, magic, and the power of kids to face what grown-ups refuse to see–by J. C. Cervantes, New York Times bestselling author of the Storm Runner series Esmerelda Santos is a rare bruja, born with Chaos magic in her veins. She and her family are direct descendants of one of the four original witches–a mysterious legend about the night magic was born in San Bosco. But since the death of her mother, Esme is more concerned about healing their father’s spiraling grief. When Esme finds a heart spell in a forbidden grimorio, she thinks it could be the answer to making her dad whole again. But before she can try, she and her best friend, Tiago, discover that their families and all the town’s witches have vanished–along with their magic, which keeps San Bosco alive. The only way to save them and the town is to find an original witch–impossible, since no one has actually ever seen one. With a witch hunter on their tail, Esme and Tiago journey to a banished realm where forbidden magic runs wild. Here the two must embrace their powers and confront the legend’s terrible truths . . . or risk losing their families and their magic forever. Perfect for fans of Witchlings and Amari and the Night Brothers!

The Child King Of Uxmal

Twins Emma and Martín help a potential king earn his throne in this third book in the Legendarios chapter book series that’s Magic Tree House meets Heroes in Training! Emma and Martín swap the cool Chicago fall for the hot jungles of the Puuc Hills when they dive into the myth of the Child King of Uxmal. There, they meet Nicte the healer. Nicte is determined to save her village from constant droughts and the burden of their ruthless king. She’s following rumors of a prophecy, which leads her to three strange items: a giant egg and a drum and rattle that will only play for the rightful king of Uxmal. Emma and Martín are eager to help Nicte follow the prophecy when they are yanked out of the jungle—and discover that there’s a page missing from their book! Can the twins find a way back into the legend to save Nicte’s village, or is this the end of the story?

The Story Of My Anger

The Pura Belpré Honor Award winning author of Aniana del Mar Jumps In makes her YA debut with a powerful novel-in-verse about a Texas teen who is battling racism in her theatre program and book banning efforts by her town’s school board.Yulieta Lopez is angry. Angry at her racist drama teacher who refuses to cast Black students in lead roles. Angry at the school board threatening her favorite teacher for teaching works of literature that they deem “controversial.” Angry that she has to keep quiet until she can head to college and leave Texas forever.Yuli is accustomed to playing various roles: the diligent daughter, the honorable hija, the good girl who serves everyone else before serving herself. But as the fire of Yuli’s rage spreads and lights her up, she can no longer be silent. Determined to find a way to fight back, Yuli and her friends start a guerilla theatre club which stirs things up and gets people talking, and finally, Yuli steps into the role she was always meant to play.

I’ll Find You Where The Timeline Ends

A teen descendant of a Japanese dragon god must find out the truth of what happened to her missing sister while trying not to fall for a handsome rogue agent in acclaimed author Kylie Lee Baker’s magical new YA romance, I’ll Find You Where the Timeline Ends.“Here’s one thing I know for certain: I’ll never see you again. And if I never see you again, then in fifty years, the world will end.” -YejunYang Mina, descended from a Japanese dragon god, was born with the power to travel through time, and has spent her life training to take her place in the Descendants, a secret organization whose purpose is to protect the timeline. But since moving to Seoul, everything is falling apart. Mina has discovered that the Descendants are corrupt, that her sister has been erased from existence, and that she can’t pass Calculus, which puts her mission to kiss the cutest boy in her year at risk. With her very existence on the line, Mina decides to tread a dangerous path: team up with a handsome rogue agent named Yejun, who has a plan to free the Descendants from the corrupt influence, and (hopefully) restore Mina’s sister. Between class and their time travel dates, Mina can’t stop herself from falling for the mysterious Yejun. Yet, as Mina grows closer to Yejun, she also grows closer to discovering the truth, which may be the very thing that breaks her…