Display: Young Love

Danny Constantino's First (and Maybe Last?) Date
By Paul Acampora
New York: Dial Books for Young Readers, 2020. Fiction. 218 pages.

Between going to the middle school dance with his celebrity crush and watching his mom campaign to be the next town mayor, Danny has a lot to learn about life in the spotlight. --Editor

Bye Forever, I Guess
By Jodi Meadows
New York: Holiday House, 2024. Fiction. 284 pages.

Eighth-grader Ingrid runs a popular blog anonymously and has online personas more popular than she is, but when a wrong-number text message offers her a chance at connection, Ingrid opens herself to the opportunity to make a real live friend. --Editor

Toads & Diamonds
By Heather Tomlinson
New York: Henry Holt, 2010. Fiction. 278 pages.

A retelling of the Perrault fairy tale set in pre-colonial India, in which two stepsisters receive gifts from a goddess and each walks her own path to find her gift's purpose, discovering romance along the way.--Editor

That's What Friends Do
By Cathleen Barnhart
New York: Harper, an imprint of Harper Collins Publishers, 2020. Fiction. 340 pages.

Told in two voices, middle-schoolers Sammie and David's long-term friendship is endangered when new student Luke begins flirting with Sammie just when David decides to confess his crush on her.--Editor

Crushing It
By Joanne Levy
New York: Aladdin, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing Division, 2017. Fiction. 229 pages.

Seventh grader Kat struggles with awkwardness while trying to help her popular best friend and cousin, Olivia, get together with her own crush, Tyler.--Editor

Comments

Review: Fowl Play

Fowl Play By Kristin O'Donnell Tubb New York: Katherine Tegen Books, 2024. Fiction 277 pages. Still reeling from her beloved uncle's death, Chloe Alvarez is comforted and confused when at his last will and testament reading, Uncle Will gifts her his African Grey parrot, Charlie. Charlie has a robust vocabulary and loves to make Alexa requests for her favorite songs, but when she starts saying things like, "homicide," and "cyanide," Chloe becomes convinced that Uncle Will may have met his demise by murder instead of a genetic disease, as was previously thought. Ultimately, bringing in her brother, Grammy, and Uncle Frank (and of course Charlie,) Chloe's ragtag and adoring family support her search for answers ---going on stakeouts, engaging in fast pursuits, and searching for clues. But as the suspects stack up and the mystery grows, Chole will learn that the process of death and grieving is complicated, and in the end her Uncle Will's words that, ...

Review: Alice with a Why

Alice with a Why By Anna James New York: Penguin, 2026. Fiction. 240 pgs. In 1919, in the aftermath of the first World War, Alyce is living with her grandmother in the English countryside. Her grandmother, also named Alice, tells Alyce (with a y) stories from her childhood adventures in a wonderful land filled with white rabbits and mad hatters. Alyce doesn't really believe the silly stories, she just misses her father who was killed in the war. One day, Alyce receives a mysterious invitation to tea, and subsequently falls into a pond where she is transported to Wonderland. Her grandmother, of course, is that Alice. Alyce is prompted by the Mad Hatter, Dormouse, and March Hare to seek out the Time Being and put an end to the war between the Sun King and the Queen of the Moon. Thus begins Alyce's adventure through Wonderland. I have a certain soft spot for the original story of Alice in Wonderland. It is one of my particular favorites and I often have a hard time reading new int...

Review: Blood in the Water

Blood in the Water By Tiffany D. Jackson New York: Scholastic, 2025. Fiction. 255 pages. 12-year-old Kaylani McKinnon can't help but feel like a fish out of water. She's a Brooklyn girl spending her summer on Martha's Vineyard surrounded by wealthy family friends in their mansion. All she really wants is to stay home all summer where she her incarcerated father can easily reach her, and she can keep working to find ways to prove him innocent of fraud and embezzlement. Despite her protests, she finds herself on the island with the snooty granddaughters of her host. Soon after Kaylani's arrival, a popular teen boy is found murdered and she decides to conduct her own investigation. As she tries to discover what happened to Chadwick Cooper, Kaylani finds that not everything on Martha's Vineyard is as perfect as it appears. Thrillers for middle grade readers can be hard to find, but Tiffany D. Jackson succeeds in her first middle grade novel. A quick moving plot, tight d...

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