Fresh Reads, Honest reviews, Educator-approved
Featuring a poverty-stricken boy who bravely rides out all the storms life keeps throwing at him. Joe Oak is used to living on unsteady ground. His mom can’t be depended on as she never stays around long once she gets “the itch,” and now he and his beloved grandmother find themselves without a home.
On a spring morning in 1986, neighbors Valentina Kaplan and Oksana Savchenko wake up to an angry red sky. A reactor at the nuclear power plant where their fathers work–Chernobyl–has exploded. Before they know it, the two girls, who’ve always been enemies, find themselves on a train bound for Leningrad to stay with Valentina’s estranged grandmother, Rita Grigorievna.
Different like me. When Addie learns about her town’s dark past, she fights to honor those once silenced—while finding her own voice. A Kind of Spark is a powerful, heartfelt story of justice, identity, and being heard.
A haunting, beautifully written novel about loss, identity, and the generational echoes of silence. The Berry Pickers intertwines two lives shaped by one disappearance, revealing the hidden costs of prejudice and the resilience of love. A powerful reflection on truth, family, and the price of secrets left buried.
A haunting and timely novel, Prophet Song imagines how quickly an ordinary life can be dismantled by tyranny. Lynch’s relentless prose traps readers alongside Eilish as she battles fear, loss, and the rising tide of violence. It is both a cautionary tale and a gripping story of maternal courage.