⭑ "Debut author Aleman was born in Mexico and his writing is stellar, clear and emotional, realistic and suspenseful. The story is complex and heart-wrenching, yet full of hope and familial love, making this an excellent choice even for younger YA readers." —Booklist

This timely, moving debut novel follows a teen's efforts to keep his family together as his parents face deportation.

Mateo Garcia and his younger sister, Sophie, have been taught to fear one word for as long as they can remember: deportation. Over the past few years, however, the fear that their undocumented immigrant parents could be sent back to Mexico has started to fade. Ma and Pa have been in the United States for so long, they have American-born children, and they're hard workers and good neighbors. When Mateo returns from school one day to find that his parents have been taken by ICE, he realizes that his family's worst nightmare has become a reality. With his parents' fate and his own future hanging in the balance, Mateo must figure out who he is and what he is capable of, even as he's forced to question what it means to be an American.

Daniel Aleman's Indivisible is a remarkable story—both powerful in its explorations of immigration in America and deeply intimate in its portrait of a teen boy driven by his fierce, protective love for his parents and his sister.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/3uyfJJh

Daniel Aleman discusses INDIVISIBLE

“Intense, unflinching…a gratifying story.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A devastating and beautiful read that clearly shows the complexities of addiction, fear, love, and friendship.” —SLJ

“A gratifying story of a young woman’s path to recovering pieces of her past self through a present laced with pain.” —Booklist

In this gritty, heart-wrenching mystery, prose and verse mix to explores themes of disability, pain, belonging, loss, addiction, and friendship.

Everything was fine before. When Eve and Lidia could hide their physical differences inside goofy Burger Hut costumes. When Lidia shook Eve up and Eve made Lidia laugh. When Lidia was there.
 
Everything is different now. Cut open . . . rearranged . . . stapled shut, Eve is left alone to recover in a world of pain and a body she no longer recognizes. Her only companions being a bottle of Roxanol and an infuriating (but cute) neighbor, Eve strikes up a relationship—and makes a pact—with the devil. Sacrificing pieces of a place she doesn't know to return to a place she does. What will she discover when she unravels her past? And is having Lidia back worth the price?
 
In verse and prose, Fix paints a riveting picture of a teen struggling to find herself and move forward with her life in a sea of opioids, regret, grief, and hope.

Learn more: https://bit.ly/3epFxSD

J. Albert Mann on FIX

Hey friends! This week we talk about L.C. Rosen's Jack Of Hearts (And Other Parts)! Described as a Riverdale meets Love, Simon, Jack Of Hearts explores the life of highschooler Jack, as he navigates hookups and gossip that seems to be all about his sex life. But Jack's been receiving 'love notes' from a secret admirer who's starting to get a little more aggressive than doting. Can Jack and his squad figure out who's stalking him without facing their wrath? 

Theme Song by Man With Roses

EP 33; Jack Of Hearts (And Other Parts) by L.C. Rosen

Welcome to the Shelf Care Interview, an occasional conversation series where Booklist talks to book people.

This Shelf Care Interview is sponsored by Little Brown Books for Young Readers.

In this episode of the Shelf Care Interview, Maggie Reagan talks to Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds.

Ibram X. Kendi, a professor of history and international relations, is one of America's foremost historians and leading anti-racist voices. He is the New York Times' bestselling author of How to Be an Antiracist, National Book Award-winning author of Stamped from the Beginning, and the founding director of the Antiracist Research and Policy Center at American University in Washington, D.C.

Jason Reynolds is the New York Times bestselling multi-award winning author of many books for children, including the Track series and the Printz, Newbery, and Coretta Scott King Honor book, Long Way Down. Recently he was appointed the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature. Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You, Jason's remix for young readers of Ibram X. Kendi's Stamped From the Beginning, comes out in March from Little Brown.

Shelf Care Interview: Ibram X. Kendi and Jason Reynolds on Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

Kathleen Lane discusses her new book for middle graders, PITY PARTY.

⭑ " All the varied moods and textures of these pieces come together into an original, convincing, spot-on, and weirdly moving collage portrait of middle-school-age insecurities, anxieties, awkwardness, and interpersonal dynamics." —The Horn Book

⭑ "Lane has written a heartfelt and relatable book filled with moments of darkness and humor, plus a little magic. ...Perfect for anyone who has ever felt out of place in a social situation. Hand to fans of Jason Reynolds’s Look Both Ways. A first purchase for all ­libraries serving middle schoolers." —School Library Journal

J. Albert Mann on FIX

LB School & Library Podcast

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