Julie Mayhew’s The Big Lie takes place in 2014—but in a world very different from our recent 2014. In this alternative history, the Nazis won World War II and are the harsh ruling party. Free thoughts, freedom of expression and any orientation other than heterosexual are crimes against this state.

Jessika Keller is a patriotic schoolgirl, a talented ice skater and a citizen of the Greater German Reich in England. Jessika’s next-door neighbor and best friend says things about governmental leaders that make Jessika uncomfortable and confused. Whenever she has dinner at her friend’s house, the dinner conversation evolves into politics, with her friend’s parents speaking out against the current regime. At first, she is shocked, but gradually she begins to question aspects of her life and society that she never thought about before these conversations.

Also confusing Jessika are her mixed feelings towards two peers: one a member of her own sex and one of the opposite sex. She knows that romantic feelings towards girls are in direct opposition to her father’s beliefs, but can she deny this part of herself? In this coming-of-age story, Jessika must grapple with several very real and scary ideas, ultimately deciding what she stands for and what she’s willing to risk, whether it affects her family, her friends or her country. Mayhew includes helpful historical notes and English translations of the German used in this fast-paced, imaginative story.

BookPage Teen Top Pick, November 2017

Fifteen-year-old Will Holloman is, indeed, a hollow man (as suggested by his last name). His older brother, Shawn, has been shot and killed, and Will’s sadness over Shawn’s absence is like a tooth that has been ripped out, and his tongue keeps slipping “into the new empty space, / where you know / a tooth supposed to be / but ain’t no more.” Now Will intends to follow the three rules of the street: no crying, no snitching, get revenge. He’s going to play by the rules, which “weren’t meant to be broken. / They were meant for the broken / to follow.” With his brother’s gun in the waistband of his jeans, he heads to his building’s elevator. And here, acclaimed author Jason Reynolds’ brilliant new novel-in-verse (recently nominated for a National Book Award) becomes a ghost story—a gritty, streetwise A Christmas Carol.

As the elevator descends, different ghosts of shootings past—each connected to Will in sometimes surprising ways—enter the carriage. They share experiences, question him and challenge his motives. It’s a long way down from the eighth floor to the lobby, but it only takes seven floors, 60 seconds and six ghosts to make him question his quest for revenge. Reynolds’ elegant verse begs to be read aloud, and teachers will want to discuss what Will might have taken away from each ghostly visit. An ambiguous ending prompts further questions: What, if anything, has Will learned? Is he destined to be just another “block boy” looking to off somebody?

This article was originally published in the November 2017 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

Being adopted has never been an issue for 16-year-old Grace. But when she becomes pregnant, gives birth on the same night her ex-boyfriend is crowned homecoming king, and then gives up the baby for adoption, Grace decides to find her own birth mother. What she finds instead in Robin Benway’s National Book Award finalist, Far from the Tree, are a younger sister, Maya, who’s also adopted, and an older brother, Joaquin, who’s spent his whole life in and out of foster care homes.

Alternating chapters from the siblings’ different perspectives reveal their painfully realistic ups and downs. Grace is reluctant to talk about her baby (who has left a painful void) and the way her classmates now taunt her. Maya is open about being gay, but she’s not sure how to handle her adoptive mother’s alcoholism or if she’s less of a family member compared to Lauren, her adoptive parents’ biological child. And having never experienced the stability of a family, Joaquin can’t explain why he’s hesitant to let his current, loving foster parents adopt him.

As these three siblings connect, they also form even stronger relationships with their loved ones at home and create a larger circle to call family. Their sophisticated stories show that while there’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to family, all families can be messy, complicated—and fiercely devoted. Readers will find themselves crying and cheering along with these resilient teens.

What if the British Empire had never diminished in power or scope? What if Queen Victoria’s heirs had looked outside Western Europe for mates, as a calculated bid to cement their dominion? In That Inevitable Victorian Thing, E.K. Johnston imagines a near-future world based on that alternative historical premise, and the result is a delightful mashup of tradition and technology.

It’s debut season, and Helena is about to have her coming-out party, which means that a month of formal parties and dances in Toronto will culminate with logging in to the Computer, which analyzes her DNA and recommends genetically compatible mates. Helena has long suspected that regardless of the Computer’s recommendation, she’d make a love match with her childhood friend, August.

At one of those fancy balls, Helena and August meet Margaret, another debutante visiting from England. Little do they know that Margaret Sandwich is actually none other than Victoria-Margaret, heir to the throne and the Empire. Margaret is eager to have one summer of living like a normal person before taking up the mantle of the monarchy.

Johnston’s imagined world is utterly original, one in which Victorian decorum and religiosity blend with cutting-edge science, and the ethnic diversity and open exploration of sexual identities makes the novel feel contemporary. One senses right up until the surprising ending that Johnston had a really great time creating this world—and one suspects that readers will have an equally enjoyable time inhabiting it.