In Samantha M. Clark’s debut, a young boy awakens on the shore of a deserted island: He knows that he’s not safe and has nowhere to take shelter, but he can’t recall his name or how he arrived. He’s also not aware that a silent narrator is watching and awaiting his every move. Hoping to find safety, and perhaps even rescuers, the boy sets out on a journey along the island’s surrounding line of trees. With only a blanket for armor, he pretends to be a knight as he tries to protect some of the island’s small creatures and outrun a scary, green-eyed wolf. But a bullying voice inside the boy’s head constantly reminds him that he’s just a coward and constantly chides, how can a coward be a knight, protect others or even save himself?

The mysterious island slowly seems to provide the boy with clues to his identity, such as his mother’s singing, visions of his little brother, fabric scraps and pink tiles. Piecing together his past is a puzzle for the boy and readers alike. In the process, his journey across the island becomes a modern-day allegory of the powers of fear, resilience and hope. It’s not until the haunting end that the boy, and readers, finally learns how he came to the island and a difficult choice he must make regarding his fate. While The Boy, the Boat, and the Beast can be a quick read, this debut novel should be savored for its atmospheric setting, ominous tension and the beautiful way it brings light to the darker parts of childhood.

It’s not too hard to sell a kid on some fast-paced science fiction a la Star Wars—even in book form—but to get a kid hooked on a novel that involves hard math and science, well that’s a different thing altogether. Award-winning author Christopher Edge has a knack for blending the world of science and fiction into what feels like a whole new genre. The Jamie Drake Equation is his second foray into this field, and it does not disappoint.

Preteen Jamie Drake is proud of his astronaut father, but the time his dad spends away on training and space missions is starting to wear on Jamie and his family. His dad’s latest mission, while exciting, is his most dangerous as he will venture out of the space station to launch signals into faraway galaxies. Jamie isn’t sure there is intelligent life beyond our planet until he accidentally downloads a message from a distant alien race to his phone. As his family starts to drift apart and his dad faces an unforeseen danger, Jamie finds it is up to him to learn what he can from the aliens and help bring his dad home.

Thrilling, smart and surprisingly poignant, The Jamie Drake Equation will leave young readers with a hunger to know more about the universe and our planet’s place in it. Highly recommended for readers of all ages.

Jennifer Bruer Kitchel is the librarian for a Pre-K through 8th level Catholic school.

Have you ever been so intrigued by a painting that you long to step inside? Then pick up Wendy McLeod MacKnight’s The Frame-Up, which takes readers into the surprising interior world of the paintings at the Beaverbrook Gallery in New Brunswick, Canada.

Twelve-year-old Sargent Singer is a talented young artist, and his estranged father, the gallery’s director, invites Sargent to spend the summer with him. At the Beaverbrook Gallery, Sargent is captivated by the 1915 portrait of a luminous, 13-year-old girl named Mona Dunn. But one day, he catches Mona in a new pose—sticking her tongue out at some rowdy boys— and his world turns upside down.

Sargent longs to get to know Mona and her secret life inside the painting. The two begin speaking and soon become close friends, spending time together both inside and outside of the frame Mona calls home. As Sargent learns more about the gallery, the mystery deepens, with shady characters emerging. The gallery begins to struggle financially, and Sargent’s father pins his hopes on a wealthy donor, but Sargent and Mona both suspect the prospective donor is up to no good, and soon they join forces to investigate. They discover that the paintings are in peril, and, worst of all, Sargent will leave at summer’s end. And while he will grow up, Mona will remain frozen in time.

With an endearing ending sure to surprise readers, The Frame-Up is an inventive and intelligent novel that will charm art lovers and neophytes alike.

Andromeda—just call her Annie, please!—is a preteen from Brooklyn who has a loyal best friend named Millie, an annoying big brother, freckles and an unusually good memory.

When Annie’s family is forced to move to the tiny burg of Clover Gap, she’s not thrilled about a lot of things. She has a lot of questions: Did she cause their move? Will she lose her best friend? Will she fit in at her new school?

Clover Gap is nothing like Brooklyn, and as Annie navigates her new house and new school, she details her thoughts, likes, dislikes, wishes, rumors, conversations, apologies and more in list form. Surprisingly, this makes for a very readable format for the stream-of-consciousness wonderings of a preteen brain.

Clover Gap turns out to be not so bad, but it’s truly a growth experience for Annie as she realizes that the more life changes, the more things stay the same.

For a story mostly written in list form, the reader learns surprisingly a lot about Annie. Kristin Mahoney utilizes a clever format that will draw in both reluctant readers as well as young girls like Annie, who are just trying to find their way in the world.

In her charming debut novel, Mae Respicio brings young readers into the warm and loving Filipino community of Lucinda Bulosan-Nelson, a determined San Francisco middle school student with an unusual dream.

Lou wants a circular saw for her 13th birthday, and she wants to build her own house: “The idea started off as a daydream, a dare to myself: What if I made something no other girl has?”

And Lou has just about all she needs as she inherited a plot of land from her late father. She has a growing set of construction skills; she’s already making sets for Barrio Fiesta, a neighborhood fundraiser for the Filipino American Community Senior Center. And thanks to her woodworking teacher, Mr. Keller, she’s learning about tools, drafting and innovative architectural designs, including tiny houses. But Lou’s ambitious plans, and her budding friendship with classmate Jack, might all come to nothing if her mom gets a job out of state, and if no money can be found to pay the back taxes on Lou’s new land.

In Lou, emerging Filipina American author Respicio has created a likable, believable girl who is eager to embrace STEAM thinking and innovation, but who appreciates and treasures her family and traditions at the same time. As Lou confronts a block of wood, she reflects on what she might make of it: “Really, I’m just aiming for the start of something. Right now it feels good. It feels like possibilities.”

And in just that way, The House That Lou Built feels like the start of a wonderful career for the talented Mae Respicio.

Twelve-year-old Claudia Dalton panics when her dad mysteriously disappears, until he sends a postcard saying that he “needs a little time to think some things over” while he visits an old friend. Then he starts sending Claudia a series of mysterious clues in the form of jigsaw puzzle pieces. Claudia works hard to solve each one, hoping the solution will bring her dad home.

Dad, it turns out, has picked a thoroughly unusual way to reveal to his family that he’s gay, but the setup works brilliantly in The Jigsaw Jungle, Kristin Levine’s compelling portrayal of a family in the midst of transition. Levine knows exactly how such a transition feels, as her own husband and the father of their two daughters came out in 2012.

Adding to the excellence of Levine’s tightly drawn plot is the fact that this story is told in scrapbook form—as a series of emails, phone conversations, receipts, flyers and transcripts of old home movies—compiled by Claudia, who’s just trying to make sense of everything.

The Jigsaw Jungle has a wonderful cast of likable and believable supporting characters as well, each with their own issues. Claudia’s grandfather, Papa, is a recent widower, while her new friend Luis is a child of divorce. Levine’s novel adeptly shows how acceptance and change, as hard as they may be, are vital foundations for love. “I decided I’ll just have to get used to the pieces I’ve been given, even if they don’t form the picture I had imagined they would,” Claudia explains.

The Jigsaw Jungle is a triumph of a book, portraying sensitive family dynamics in a loving, engaging way.

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In Jo Watson Hackl’s Smack Dab in the Middle of Maybe, young Cricket is motivated—with magical thinking and pure determination—to make things right with her mother, who left the family after Cricket’s grandmother died. In a moment of courage, Cricket takes advantage of being left behind in a supermarket and runs away from her aunt and bratty cousins. With a real cricket as a traveling companion, Cricket takes off for the woods to hole up for a little over a week, hoping and waiting for her mother’s reappearance on the anniversary of her grandmother’s death.

Equipped with supplies from the grocery store and her father’s survival manual, Cricket has some successes and major pitfalls in her outdoor adventure. She believes that if she can find the special “bird room” that her mother so often described, everything can be put right. While Cricket discovers clues that lead her closer to the bird room, more is revealed about Cricket and her mother’s relationship. Readers slowly realize Cricket’s mother has mental health issues, which form the cornerstone of this touching middle grade novel.

Hackl’s cheerful protagonist confronts difficult situations and issues with resolve and aplomb during her journey toward maturity.

This article was originally published in the July 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.