Harbor Me by Jacqueline Woodson

As a part of their school day, six kids are sent by themselves to a classroom to talk, without any adults present. At first the students wonder what in the world is going on and what will they talk about. But before too long they discover their small group is a safe place to talk and share their situations, their hopes and their fears. They find themselves able to share what before they kept hidden inside. And in the process give and receive empathy, support and the courage to push on. This story shows the impacts that so many social issues have on today’s youth and their resilience to overcome some of the odds against them. This story is at the same time both hopeful and heartbreaking. Jacqueline Woodson is always able to tackle tough issues with style.

~Lisa

Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen by Lois McMaster Bujold

This book is about Cordelia Vorkosigan, but it’s not like the rest of this series. It’s slice-of-life instead of action-adventure. Three years after the death of Aral, Cordelia and Jole, Aral’s second spouse in all but legality, start to turn to each other. Cordelia has decided to have more children, daughter’s, since she and Aral froze the gametes to let that happen when they got older. She offers to Jole the ability to have his own children with their husband. I really like this book even though it nothing like the rest of the series.

It was actually fun on the reread of the series after reading Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen to see all the little references to Jole even way back in The Vor Game, the audience never knew about their relationship because Miles wouldn’t have noticed, but Lois McMaster Bujold has been setting this up for decades.

~Naomi

A Green Journey by John Hassler

Fans of Wendell Berry and the Port William, Kentucky novels will definitely like Jon Hassler’s books about the denizens of Staggerford, Minnesota. “A Green Journey” describes the adventures of Miss Agatha McGee, Janet Meers (neé Raft), Bishop Richard “Dick” Baker, and others. One of the sub-plots involves the conflicts between lay Catholics and the clergy that occurred as a result of the reforms instituted by the Catholic Church due to Vatican II. But really, it’s just a darn good story, read on the recommendation of one of the librarians. Check out the “Librarians’ Picks” shelves—I’ve found many excellent titles that way.

~Rebecca

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

One day in the summer of 1969 in New York City, four children visit a gypsy on a lark to have their fortunes told. She does, but not the way they expected: she tells them the date that each of them will die. It’s a provocative idea — what would *you* do, how would it change *your* life, if you knew the date of your death? — and the knowledge does skew the behavior of the protagonists for the balance of the book. But does that knowledge also cause them to act in such a manner to ensure the prophecies will come true? The premise is more interesting in the execution, but nevertheless, the premise is enough to keep you turning the pages.

~Fielding

Shadowland by Meg Cabot

I really liked these books back in middle school, and upon rereading it I was happy to discover that I still really like them. Suze is a mediator, meaning she can see ghosts and does her best to help them move on. Her mother just got married so she moved from New York to California, but in her new room she finds a ghost named Jesse. After a rocky start they come to a truce. At her new school she meets Father Dominic, the principle and also the only other mediator she had met in her life, and a powerful angry ghost named Heather. Heather committed suicide when her boyfriend dumped her and now she has decided that she wants to bring him with her. Suze had to stop her before anyone else dies with the help of Father Dominic, her new step brothers, and even Jesse.

~Naomi

In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote “Frankenstein” by Fiona Sampson

It’s amazing to realize that Mary Shelley began writing “Frankenstein” when she was seventeen; the book was published anonymously when she was nineteen; people assumed it was written by her more famous husband the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley; though George Gordon Byron (aka Lord Byron) eventually made it clear that Mary was the actual author of the very first “monster” book. She never made a dime from all of the nineteenth and twentieth century knock-offs that followed. And she saw lots of tragedy in her life, with the deaths (or miscarriages) of four of her five children, the drowning of her husband, the suicide of her step-sister, the suicide of her husband’s first wife, her own disinheritance, etc. etc. Her life, and this book, are a lot more interesting than her more famous novel.

~Rebecca

George by Alex Gino

Melissa (known to everyone as George) hates her name, and that everyone else thinks that she is a boy. She wants to play Charlotte in the school play they’re doing of Charlotte’s Web. Luckily Melissa’s best friend is willing to help her with that. Even after the teacher proves to be kind of a jerk.
This is an amazing book. I read it because I saw it in the Reading Revels, and I really like it. It’s a great book about a trans girl, and it isn’t all doom and gloom. When she tells her best friend and when she tells her brother both interactions go quite well. Melissa’s mother has some trouble with it, but luckily the principal of the school is not stuck in the past, even though her classes teacher is. And the best thing is that it’s a really enjoyable read! I love it!

~Naomi

Strike your heart by Amélie Nothomb

The young medical student is seemingly as aloof and cold as she is beautiful, but she comes by her reluctance to engage with other people honestly: throughout her childhood, her mother pointedly ignored her and made it abundantly clear she was unwanted. And even though she is both careful and tentative in making friendships, that doesn’t always guarantee success. This short novel of jealousy and alienation has no more than a dozen characters altogether, but all are tightly drawn, and the book’s sparse language and plotting made it one of the best books I’ve read all year.

~Fielding