Review of One of the Boys, by Victoria Zeller

Award Winners, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

One of the Boys

by Victoria Zeller

Levine Querido, 2025. 331 pages.
Review written February 11, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review
2026 Stonewall Young Adult Award Winner

Grace Woodhouse is a senior in high school who thought she had to give up football last summer after she came out as trans. When everyone thought she was a boy, she was a kicker for their team and ranked the eighteenth best high school kicker in the nation as a junior. Even though she still thinks about the kick she flubbed that stopped them from going to State championships, it’s still hard to watch her team go on without her.

So when the teammate replacing her asks for help, she gives in and gives him some pointers. But they all know that she could do a better job – so the football captains ask Grace to come back to the team.

So, yes, this is the story of a trans athlete, but in this case it’s about a trans girl playing with the boys. The team captains are supportive, but not everyone on the team is, and yes, she faces transphobic slurs at games. And her new girlfriends aren’t always understanding of the time that playing football takes away from hanging out with the girls.

I loved this book. I’m not a football fan and didn’t know much about the position of kicker, but this book got me into the head and heart of the person doing the kicking. She was up against plenty, on the field and off, and this book showed us a nuanced character, trying to figure things out, trying to be accepted for who she is, and trying to help her team.

I appreciated that Grace wasn’t able to articulate very well for anyone why she was trans – it makes her feel all the more real, not just a spokesperson. But she never questioned that she was trans. The questions were more how could she live her life and help out her team and can she keep this up in college? Does she want to?

The book is full of football players trying to avoid “feelingsball,” but with feelings happening all over the place. I loved the characters in this book, the realistic conflicts, and the many kindnesses as well.

victoria.monster

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Review of The Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal, by Ambika Vohra

Award Winners, Contemporary, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal

by Ambika Vohra

Quill Tree Books, 2024. 353 pages.
Review written December 29, 2025, from a library book.
2026 Mathical Book Prize Honor Book, Grades 9-12

Here’s a light-hearted novel about a senior in high school who’s trying to get out of her comfort zone for the sake of her Stanford application.

And of course there’s guy drama. Brian was her best friend in middle school before he moved away. When Aisha got a scholarship to the same private high school Brian attends, he turned out to have become hot. But he also barely acknowledges Aisha’s existence, despite her growing crush. So when the picture in his locker of his girlfriend comes down – and he asks Aisha to the winter formal, she thinks her dreams have come true.

But when she arrives at winter formal, she doesn’t see him anywhere. And then his mother – of all people – calls Aisha to say that Brian is sick with the flu. Aisha flees the festivities, but doesn’t know who to call to get a ride home. Her mother didn’t even know she’d planned to be there with a boy. She’s standing next to a clarinet player from a jazz band who happens to be her best friend’s boyfriend’s grandmother. The grandma is waiting for a promised ride from her friend’s grandson, who hasn’t shown up. So she has some wise words for Aisha about being stood up.

But the grandma doesn’t keep waiting around and calls a cab. Shortly after she leaves, a kid pulls up in a Volkswagen Jetta, apologizes for being late, and tells her to hop in. Clearly he’s mistaken Aisha for the clarinet player, but in the spirit of the advice she’s been given, Aisha hops in.

But before long the story comes out. This guy, Quentin, is a good listener. Since Aisha’s all dressed up, they go for ice cream, and eventually reach a deal: Aisha will tutor Quentin in precalculus, so he won’t fail, and Quentin will help coach Aisha into doing activities outside her comfort zone for the Stanford application and to actually live life. And yes, her goals get transferred to sticky notes.

So that’s the set-up. And yes, it plays out with the reader understanding that Aisha’s got a crush on the wrong guy long before she does. Quentin ends up having a lot more back story than came out at first, and we’ve got friend drama, high school drama, family drama – all in a sweet feel-good story that makes you care about this girl who cares a little bit too much about getting into Stanford. Reading about the things that wake her up is a heart-warming ride with a set of delightful people.

ambikavohra.com

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Review of The Secret Astronomers, by Jessica Walker

Award Winners, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Secret Astronomers

A Novel in Notes

by Jessica Walker

Viking, 2025. 304 pages.
Review written December 12, 2025, from a book sent to me by the publisher.
Starred Review
2026 Mathical Book Prize Honor Book, Grades 9-12

The Secret Astronomers is, as the subtitle tells us, a novel in notes. The book is a facsimile of an 1888 textbook on astronomy – which someone has started writing in, doing art over the pages, and putting post-it notes in.

At the front of the book we see a note taped in (the tape and note paper are in the image) with this written on it:

Find the oldest book in the Green Bank High School Library. Hidden inside are the secrets that are being left behind forever. If you’re smart enough to figure out the message, then you have a right to know why a small town in the-middle-of-nowhere West Virginia is the center of intelligent life in the known universe.

We come to realize that the art and notes in the following pages are from a girl who’s been forced to move to Green Bank to stay with her grandparents after her mother’s death. The textbook everything’s written over is the oldest book in Green Bank High School Library.

The writer complains about living in Green Bank, where the Internet is forbidden because of the radio telescopes, and talks about what it’s like (with pictures) – when someone else joins the conversation, using Post-it notes instead of writing directly in the book. This new person begins with:

Hey would you PLEASE stop destroying this book? I know these pages are as old as Methuselah, but it’s one of the only astronomy textbooks in our library and I need to reference it for my college application essay.

After that, the two get a conversation going. After some discussion and sharing about their lives, they decide to remain anonymous to each other. They call each other Copernicus and Kepler, and agree that they won’t try to meet in person.

And then we learn about their lives and their Senior years in Green Bank. About their crushes and family drama. But they also slowly solve the puzzles and codes that Copernicus’s mother left behind when she was a high school student in Green Bank, and that involves some clever twists.

Both want to get out of Green Bank – Copernicus to go back to San Francisco to be with her Dad, and Kepler to go to college (still worried about that application essay).

The art on the pages plus the hand-written notes do make this book an amazing reading experience. I’m glad our library doesn’t have the eaudiobook, because this is one I’m glad I experienced visually.

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Review of Imposter, by Cait Levin

Contemporary, Mathematical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Imposter

by Cait Levin

Charlesbridge Teen, 2025. 232 pages.
Review written December 2, 2025, from my own copy, sent by the publisher.
Starred Review
2026 Mathical Book Prize Winner, Grades 6-8

Imposter is an issue book, but the character-building makes it much more than an issue book.

Cam is a high school sophomore who loves making. So she decides to take the intro to computer science class as her elective – and it turns out she’s the only girl. The boys there – and even the teacher – treat her as if she doesn’t belong.

But she has a supportive best friend, Viv, who joins her signing up for the Robotics team – to build a submarine robot to compete in San Diego the upcoming summer. Again, they are the only girls and face some pushback.

However, the only other Sophomore in Computer Science, Jackson, a guy who’s always playing video games, agrees to be her partner for the big CS project. They decide to take on the problem of how women are treated in STEM fields – both in schools and in industry. Cam does research to back up their points, and Jackson uses her ideas to make a game where women overcome obstacles to defeat the big boss.

Along the way in both class and the RoboSub team, Cam keeps facing obstacles. She sees her own mother deal with a coworker being harassed at work, and gets motivated to stand up for herself.

As I started the book, I was skeptical of tackling this issue simply with a game shedding light on it. But as the book went on, I got more and more hooked by the characters. And the situations they faced as the story went on seemed all too realistic.

Without giving anything away, there are two little romantic subplots for each of the two girls, and I loved the way they turned out. It put the emphasis on their friendships and made this book more than just a typical YA romance.

By the end of the book, I was enthusiastically cheering for Cam and Viv. I know awareness alone won’t solve all their problems, but Cam feels all the more equipped to tackle future obstacles and to help other girls follow her example.

I am sorry that the situation hasn’t changed since the 1980s when I was a math student. This indeed sounds worse, since I was never harassed or made to feel like I didn’t belong. But I was always definitely a minority in math and science classes. So I’m glad for another person shining light on the problem, complete with a lists of research and resources at the back. (Though let me also refer people interested in this topic to Eugenia Cheng’s X + Y: A Mathematician’s Manifesto for Rethinking Gender.

caitlevin.com
charlesbridge.com

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Review of Falling Like Leaves, by Misty Wilson

Contemporary, Romance, Teen Fiction Review 0

Falling Like Leaves

by Misty Wilson
read by Rebekkah Ross

Simon & Schuster Audio, 2025. 8 hours, 44 minutes.
Review written January 19, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.

This young adult romance was completely formulaic and predictable – but totally sweet. I enjoyed the characters and the situation so much, I didn’t mind that I could pretty much tell what was going to happen.

Ellis Mitchell goes to a private school in New York City, and has an internship at her father’s media company. She’s goal-driven to do everything in her senior year to get into Columbia with a journalism major. So why does she browse the Fashion Institute admissions application?

But then her life falls apart, as her mother and father tell her they’re doing a temporary separation – and Ellis has to go with her mother to stay with Aunt Naomi and Ellis’s cousin Sloane in small-town Connecticut.

Bramble Falls, Connecticut, is all about Autumn! They’ve got Autumn Festival events every weekend, and since Aunt Naomi is the Mayor, Ellis has to help. And that throws her into contact with Cooper, the boy who was her best friend when she visited the summer after eighth grade. But their texting fell off when they got busy, and Ellis hasn’t seen him since – so why is he acting like he hates her?

There’s lots of good stuff here about Ellis figuring out what she really wants, and it’s all with the backdrop of an idyllic Fall Festival. Ellis makes some good new friends, has some misunderstandings and disappointments, and it all makes for a great story. Yes, there’s romance – the spiciness goes as far as making out, and the ups and downs of their budding friendship and relationship kept me listening eagerly. Lots of fun.

mistywilsonwrites.com

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Review of Mister Impossible, by Maggie Stiefvater

Paranormal, Teen Fiction Review 0

Mister Impossible

by Maggie Stiefvater
read by Will Patten

Scholastic Audio, 2021. 10 hours, 44 minutes.
Review written August 24, 2021, from a library eaudiobook

This is the second book in the Dreamer trilogy, where Maggie Stiefvater continues to demonstrate her imaginative world-building.

In this book, Ronan is on the run with two other dreamers. Dreamers, also called Zeds, are able to dream objects and bring them back to reality.

But the Moderators want to track them down and kill them, because Visionaries have seen the world destroyed with unquenchable fire – because of Dreamers. They must be stopped.

Meanwhile, we’re also following some characters who are dreams themselves. They are destined to fall asleep if their Dreamer dies – except in this book we discover a possible way to escape that fate. Also, the ley lines that give power to Dreamers are getting weaker because of the proliferation of technology. Can the Dreamers fix that?

And the story of all this is complicated and surprising and unexpected.

You will want to read this trilogy in order. It would be tremendously confusing if you didn’t, but as it is each new revelation pieces into what you already know about Dreams and Reality and Destiny and Power.

maggiestiefvater.com

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Review of (S)Kin, by Ibi Zoboi

Audiobooks, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

(S)Kin

by Ibi Zoboi
read by Bahni Turpin and Robin Miles

Versify (HarperCollins), 2025. 6 hours, 16 minutes.
Review written January 31, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2025 National Book Award Finalist

This paranormal novel in verse features two viewpoint characters. Marisol and her mother have moved from the Caribbean islands to New York City, and it’s the new moon – time for Marisol to shape shift. She sheds her skin and shifts into a fireball witch who flies through the night and wreaks vengeance on the person her mother directs her to. Her mother and the mothers before them have shapeshifted for generations, and they thought that in New York City, where no one believes the old stories, they might find it easier to be human, not treated as monsters.

Also in New York City, Genevieve, with darker skin from an unknown mother, lives with her white father and white stepmother. She’s got a terrible skin condition – some kind of allergy or eczema, always burning. Her father studies folklore, and she wonders if her mother was some kind of mermaid.

But when a woman shows up to tend her baby siblings who can soothe her skin, Gen wonders what kind of magic is happening.

Ibi Zoboi takes actual Caribbean legends and shows us what it might be like to be one of those mythical creatures – and dream of better things in America. How might that work out for teens who only want to be normal humans, blending in with their peers?

A powerful story of kinship and identity.

ibizoboi.net

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Review of We Deserve Monuments, by Jas Hammonds

Award Winners, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

We Deserve Monuments

By Jas Hammonds

Roaring Brook Press, 2022. 375 pages.
Review written January 26, 2023, from a library book
2022 Capitol Choices Selection
2023 Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent
Starred Review

We Deserve Monuments is about a Black lesbian teen named Avery who suddenly got uprooted from her home in DC at the start of her senior year of high school. Avery’s grandmother is dying of cancer in rural Georgia, and her mother decided that the family needed to be with her – never mind that the last time they visited was when Avery was five.

Mama Letty doesn’t even seem glad to see them. She calls Avery “Fish” because her lip ring makes her look like a fish on a hook. She’s prickly and isn’t exactly grateful for the family swooping down because she’s dying.

But other things go surprisingly well for Avery. The girl next door and her white friend take her under their wing, and she’s quickly got better friends than she had in DC, including the girlfriend she recently broke up with.

But there are complications. Avery learns for the first time about her grandfather who was killed by Klan members before her mother was born. And then it turns out those Klan members are related to her new white friend. And she is attracted to the girl next door, but has no reason to think those feelings are returned.

All this is going on while she’s trying to get to know Mama Letty, but learns about family trauma and hurt. And why can’t her mother and grandmother ever have a conversation without fighting?

I like the way the author shows us a family with lots of flaws but also lots of love.

Jashammonds.com
Fiercereads.com

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Review of The Corruption of Hollis Brown, by K. Ancrum

Award Winners, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Corruption of Hollis Brown

by K. Ancrum
read by Andrew Gibson

HarperCollins, 2025. 8 hours, 20 minutes.
Review written January 7, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
National Book Award Longlist

This book begins with Hollis Brown getting beat up. He starts fights on purpose – knows how to say what will set people off – but this one got him hurt pretty bad. His only friends are two other seniors, Annie and Yulia, but they’ll be going off to college at the end of this year. They live in a small town with a defunct factory where everyone’s too poor to leave. Hollis’s own father is rarely home because he’s working in the city.

And then something strange happens when the seniors decide to spend the night in the abandoned part of town that’s reportedly haunted. Annie’s ex-boyfriend, whom she just broke up with, gets stabbed. And Hollis gets blamed for it because the guy was mad he was there with Annie, and Hollis was the only one with enough presence of mind to take him to the hospital. At that point, I thought the book was going to be about whatever mysterious thing was going on in the abandoned part of town.

And then – after Hollis cries in the woods about the unfairness of it all – he meets a strange boy who appears to be homeless and gives the boy his coat. After Hollis agrees to meet the guy again – a spirit comes out of the stranger’s dead body and inhabits Hollis’s body.

Hollis can’t control his body at all. He can talk to the spirit and tell him to wipe his shoes before he goes into the house and faces Hollis’s mother. But nothing else.

The spirit – whose name is Walt and turns out to have grown up in the same town a long time ago – has ideas about how Hollis should dress and act. He even gets Hollis making new friends. But at night, when Walt is asleep, Hollis works on controlling his own hand. If he can just reach his phone without waking up Walt….

But things from there continued to not go as I expected. As Hollis and Walt slowly come to know and understand one another, situations change.

Ultimately, this is a book about love and friendship and hope. But comes at it with an approach like nothing I’ve ever read before.

kancrum.com

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Review of Hekate: The Witch, by Nikita Gill

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Teen Fiction Review 0

Hekate

The Witch

by Nikita Gill
read by the author

Hachette Audio, 2025. 6 hours, 12 minutes.
Review written January 10, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

This audiobook was simply beautiful. The reader’s lovely accent helped. The whole audiobook, I wondered why they used a reader with an Indian accent to read a story from Greek mythology – and then when I went to write this review, I learned it had been the author’s voice all along. Her voice and accent are beautiful, and it turns out she’s British-Indian, which is also what I was hearing. Lovely!

The story is about a Greek goddess I hadn’t known anything about, though many of the elements of her life were familiar – but now made deeply personal. Hekate was a child of war – when the Titans, including her father Perses, were fighting the Olympians. When the Titans lost the war, Hekate and her mother Asteria had to flee. Asteria found Hekate a safe home in the Underworld, under the care of her sister, the goddess Styx. But Asteria herself had to continue to flee and turned herself into an island to escape from Zeus.

Because of those circumstances, Hekate grew up in the underworld, not knowing her purpose – which should have been given to her by her father at her birth. Meanwhile, she chafes under the “protection” of Styx – and devises her own quest to learn her parents’ fate and to discover her own powers and purpose. So it’s a coming-of-age tale for a goddess and a powerful witch.

And the writing is lyrical and beautiful. This is one of those audiobooks that you can actually tell is a novel in verse – often I can’t tell from the audio, but that wasn’t a problem here. I liked the way many of the individual poems ended with a reversal that would lead you into the next poem.

This is Greek mythology from the inside (or from the underside), seen through the eyes of a child growing into a goddess.

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