Fresh Reads, Honest reviews, Educator-approved
Check into the Underlook! Spirit Week serves up a brilliant, middle-school-friendly tribute to The Shining. When aspiring filmmaker Elijah and young tutor Suzy visit a reclusive horror author in a deserted Colorado hotel, they stumble into a suspenseful mystery tied to family secrets and dementia.
Muddy paws and messy steps! I Stepped in Something turns a frustrating walk into a lesson on joy. As a young boy and his dog Harlee step into a series of sticky, gooey situations, they realize that minor messes don’t matter when you’re with your best friend. Featuring clever rhymes and vibrant illustrations, it’s a wonderful, relatable read-aloud celebrating resilience and pet companionship.
Mean Girls meets The Craft in this surreal 5-star trip through the world of elite creative writing. Local author and Syracuse University professor Mona Awad crafts an unsettling, comical, and bizarre “fever dream” where a lonely grad student is pulled into a cult-like clique of “Bunnies.” It’s a masterful satire of academic obsession and the monstrous lengths we go to for belonging. Warning: Things are about to get weird.