I grew up loving Ellen Emerson White’s The President’s Daughter and its sequels, which centered on female characters (the main character’s mother is the first female president) daring to break new ground. White, a longtime fan of the Red Sox, also often includes baseball in her fiction; with her new novel, she brings both these themes together.

Senior year is coming to an end, and Jill Cafferty has, if she chooses to accept it, a full ride to play baseball at Stanford. Through some unusual blend of genetics, innate talent and really hard work, Jill can throw a fastball harder and faster than most male pitchers, and for the last few years, not just colleges but also major league scouts have taken notice. When Jill is, to her own surprise, drafted to the Pittsburgh Pirates organization in the third round of the MLB draft, she decides to take a leap, becoming the first woman to play major league baseball. Immediately, she’s both a role model to millions of little girls and scorned and resented by some hard-line traditionalists—but what does Jill want?

Filled with details about the less-than-glamorous life of minor league ball players, White’s new novel will appeal to sports fiction fans regardless of gender. Some plot points (particularly Jill’s feelings about her deceased dad, as well as her relationships with friends back home) feel underdeveloped by contrast, but overall White successfully avoids many sports fiction clichés, resulting in a thoroughly credible novel that’s begging for a sequel.

BookPage Teen Top Pick, February 2017

Oswald Pinkerton has an unfortunate moniker and a boyfriend who has disappeared. Ozzie is a thinker—perhaps too much so—and he wonders endlessly about how his boyfriend, Tommy, vanished. Not only is Tommy gone, but he’s been erased from the memories of everyone who ever knew him.

As Ozzie navigates school (the bullies, as well as a potential new love interest, Calvin), work (where he often sees Tommy’s mom) and friends (including gender-bending Lua), he also travels from therapist to therapist (reluctantly) to deal with issues relating to Tommy, his parents’ rocky divorce and a plane crash that nearly took his life.

At the Edge of the Universe tackles it all—relationships, gender issues, family angst, sexual abuse, alcoholism. It’s a heavy read, but a surprising page-turner. Author Shaun David Hutchinson (We Are the Ants) infuses the very likable yet troubled Ozzie with a lot of interest in and knowledge of the metaphysical world, but there is enough added drama and typical teen issues to keep readers wondering: Will Calvin and Ozzie become a couple? Will Tommy return? Is the universe really shrinking?

This is a well-composed, intelligent young adult read with contemporary themes and plenty of descriptive detail. Some of the issues aren’t pretty or easy, but today’s teens will thrill to Oswald’s story of great heart and big ideas.

Sharon Verbeten is a freelance writer and children’s librarian in De Pere, Wisconsin.

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

In We Are Okay, author Nina LaCour (Everything Leads to You) tells a story more of absence than presence, looking with calm directness at grief and betrayal and the ways they can multiply outward. It’s a beautiful, devastating piece of art.

Marin is in school in New York, quietly living a new life and trying to leave behind the life she ran from. Her lonely Christmas break is interrupted by a visit from her best friend (and now ex-girlfriend), Mabel. The truth about the event that caused Marin to leave San Francisco with only what she held in her hands comes out slowly, and her grief in the face of it is cavernous. But notice the details LaCour shines a light on: the perfect yellow bowls Marin bought at a pottery shop, the potted plant thriving and in need of a larger container. If her existence now is sparse, it is not without color, or life.

The title hints at a happy ending, but the journey toward it passes through some of the darkest corners of the heart. Be prepared to be gutted—and grateful. We Are Okay is an extraordinary work by an author who keeps redefining and elevating her genre. Readers are lucky to have it.

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

“And this makes me wonder if a black girl’s life is only about being stitched together and coming undone, being stitched together and coming undone.” The latest novel from Renée Watson captures the poignant story of a black teenage girl struggling to navigate a world that doesn’t appear to accept her.

Jade Butler lives in an impoverished area of Portland, Oregon, and is raised by a single mother who works tirelessly so that Jade can attend a prestigious private high school. There, Jade is given lots of opportunities, such as free SAT prep classes and tutoring jobs. When Jade is invited to participate in a mentorship program for African-American girls, she is disappointed. She’s tired of being selected for programs where the only criteria is being black and poor. She just wants to be nominated for the study abroad trip to Costa Rica, but it’s difficult to refuse these opportunities when so much is riding on her success.

Piecing Me Together is a beautifully written story told through the first-person narration of a girl who, despite being smart, strong and artistic, still feels like she has to overcome her race, gender and socio-economic status. This has as much to do with the actions of the adults in her life—as well intentioned as they may be—as it does with the undercurrent of racism and classism. There’s a lot to unpack here, and readers will finish the story with more questions than answers—a testament to the novel’s complexity and nuance.

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

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

Mixed-race Mary B. Addison has lived in a group home since her release from “baby jail,” where she was held for six years. The other girls are like Mary—convicted of violent crimes—but she is the one they call “psycho.” Mary committed the most heinous crime of the group: When she was 9 years old, she killed the white baby her mother was babysitting. Allegedly.

Mary wants the opportunity to rebuild her life unfettered by her reputation. She is extremely smart, and wants to go to college and be a teacher. But because of the nature of her crime, many doors are closed to her. She can’t attend regular public school, and a career that would put her in contact with children is out of the question. Now that she has a loving boyfriend and a baby on the way, it’s even more important that she convince her mother to tell the whole truth about that night. But Momma isn’t trustworthy, and Mary is reluctant to divulge details.

With Mary’s first-person narration interspersed with excerpts from true crime books about her case and transcripts of interviews with detectives and doctors, Tiffany D. Jackson’s debut novel unfolds in meticulously layered detail. Mary and Momma are fascinating characters at the center of a sophisticated and morally complex plot. Though the unsettling outcome may disturb some readers, Allegedly is a mind-boggling story sure to entertain young thriller enthusiasts.

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

Ilse Stern knows in her heart that everything will start this autumn. She’s hoping for a date with Hermann Rød, the handsome boy who lives across the hall. But for a Jewish teenage girl in Oslo, Norway, in 1942, fate has something other than a night at the cinema in mind. What starts with hateful words scrawled on windows of her father's tailoring shop soon escalates into the mass arrests, forced labor and death camps of Nazi-controlled Europe.

Shifting between five different points of view, author Marianne Kaurin tells a multifaceted story. There’s Hermann, pretending to apprentice for an artist while secretly helping smuggle Jews to safety in Sweden; their neighbor, a taxi driver who finds that his work for the Nazis is increasingly challenging his sense of morality; Ilse’s devoted father; Ilse’s scared but ever-practical older sister; and Ilse herself. Between them, they demonstrate the intersecting stories of Holocaust-era resistance fighters, bystanders and victims—as well as those who managed to survive through pure luck.

Like many Holocaust books, Almost Autumn doesn’t flinch at showing the harsh realities of life and death in and around Hitler’s concentration camps. Despite errors in her descriptions of Jewish practices and a plot and format that fail to stand out in a saturated genre, Kaurin composes her difficult story with sensitivity and balance. Inspired by her family’s experiences during the Second World War, she shines a light on a dark historical time.

Jill Ratzan matches readers with books in a small library in southeastern Pennsylvania.

After a traumatic year off, Lily’s return to her swanky Manhattan high school has been far from easy. Most of her friends still blame her for what happened, and the rest treat her with the lightest of kid gloves. The only person who isn’t treating Lily like a pariah is Dari, the artistic new student with a troubled past. Their attraction is immediate and intense, but can it survive a tumultuous year of drama and tragedy?

Playwright Kara Lee Corthron’s first novel is at once a touching romance and a poignant coming-of-age story that’s deeply in tune with the harsh realities many teenagers and young adults face today. From sexual assault to domestic abuse to systemic racism, Lily and Dari encounter obstacles that no teen should have to face, but all too many do. Corthron tells their story with just the right mix of whimsy, grace and gravitas, treating her protagonists and the flawed adults in their lives with the utmost respect. Lily and Dari’s journey is inspirational, and despite how deeply the deck is stacked against them, they gather the courage to move forward in the best way they can.

The Truth of Right Now is not a lighthearted read, but it’s an important page-turner for young readers growing up in today’s America.

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

Despite the title, this engaging mystery from debut author Chelsea Sedoti isn’t about the popular, enviable Lizzie, but about 17-year-old Hawthorn Creely, the lonely outcast who becomes obsessed with Lizzie’s disappearance. Hawthorn has always been a loner. Her sarcasm, dry wit and occasional rudeness have left her with only one friend, and even that relationship hangs by a thread. So when Lizzie is reported missing, Hawthorn inserts herself into Lizzie’s old life by taking over Lizzie’s former job and hanging out with Enzo, Lizzie’s sulky artist boyfriend. As Hawthorn and Enzo connect over Lizzie, Hawthorn is enlivened by her new adventures, but they come at the expense of a tragedy.

Hawthorn is one of the most relatable characters in recent young adult literature. Her unhappiness stems from her inability to connect to people her own age and her subsequent boredom. She lives mostly in her own head, choosing to find magic in movies, books and her imagination rather than the world around her. 

This mystery is less about finding a missing girl as it is about finding happiness and purpose in a complex, often contradictory world.

Kimberly Giarratano is the author of Grunge Gods and Graveyards, a young adult paranormal mystery.

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