Fresh Reads, Honest reviews, Educator-approved
KB Brookins’s Pretty is a raw, 4-star exploration of Black trans-masculinity and the journey to self-definition. Part memoir, part cultural critique, it navigates the “messy and painful” realities of living between governmental labels and personal truth. For educators and GSA facilitators, it’s a powerful tool for empathy, highlighting the resilience required to survive in a world that insists on defining you before you can define yourself.
Why do we overpay for “free” items? Dan Ariely’s Predictably Irrational is a 4-star deep dive into the quirky, systematic biases that drive our decisions. From the placebo effect to the hidden cost of “zero,” this book reveals that our mistakes aren’t random—they are predictable. A must-read for high schoolers and educators alike, it offers fascinating insights into economics and psychology that will forever change how you shop, study, and think.
Can a novel be a standardized test? Alejandro Zambra’s Multiple Choice is a 4-star experimental masterpiece that mimics the Chilean Academic Aptitude Test to critique conformity and authoritarianism. Moving from playful to political, it challenges readers to find answers in a world where the “correct” choice doesn’t exist. An essential, thought-provoking tool for high school ELA and Social Studies classes exploring rhetoric, history, and the power of compliance.
Hadley Freeman’s Good Girls is a searingly honest memoir that deconstructs the “perfect” facade of anorexia. By blending her personal 20-year struggle with cutting-edge research on metabolism, OCD, and neurodivergence, Freeman offers adults a vital window into the anorexic mind. This 4-star read is an essential, albeit heavy, resource for counselors and parents looking to understand the cultural and biological pressures that drive disordered eating in adolescents.
R.F. Kuang delivers a haunting Dark Academia twist on Dante’s Inferno. In Katabasis, two rival students descend into Hell to rescue a mentor—not for love, but for their academic futures. Using only chalk, runes, and their wits, they navigate a monotonous yet terrifying underworld. It’s a 4-star exploration of academic trauma and the lengths we go for validation. Perfect for high schoolers who loved Babel or Piranesi.