Review of Silenced Voices, by Pablo Leon

Graphic Novel, Historical, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Silenced Voices

Reclaiming Memories from the Guatemalan Genocide

by Pablo Leon

HarperAlley, 2025. 240 pages.
Review written February 17, 2026, from a library book.
2026 Pura Belpré Honor Book, Young Adult
2026 Robert F. Sibert Honor Book
Starred Review

Silenced Voices is a graphic novel with children on the front – that covers a horrific part of history, so this is firmly for teens, rather than children. The historical event was a genocide carried out by the Guatemalan government in the 1980s against indigenous people they claimed were helping the guerrillas.

The graphic novel focuses on the story of one character at a time. First, a boy in America who hears about a genocide trial of a former Guatemalan military leader and asks his mother about it – who’s never said much about growing up in Guatemala.

Then the bulk of the book is his mother’s story – how she barely escaped, with the help of her sister, when soldiers came and wiped out their whole village in horrible ways. But before she could get to safety, she and her sister split up, and they never saw each other again.

And there’s more in the present and in the past tying up that story. (I won’t give it away.)

This is a graphic depiction (literally) of a family and culture traumatized and victimized – showing the fallout into the next generation. But I appreciate the positive and optimistic framing of letting voices that were once silenced speak up and that injustice won’t stand forever. All in a compelling and powerful story.

artsypabster.com
harperalley.com

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Review of Relit, edited by Sandra Proudman

Fantasy, Short Stories, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Relit

16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories

edited by Sandra Proudman

Inkyard Press, 2024. 346 pages.
Review written December 26, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a bit of the Foreword from the editor so you know what’s going on in Relit:

This anthology began with a hope, a dream, a spark of an idea that the contributing authors and I felt passionately about: to take some of the most popular classics out there (the novels, myths, and plays we’ve all read in class or seen adaptations of on TV and in movies)… and reimagine, reignite, remix them into some epic science fiction and fantasy tales, with Latinx characters at the center of all the action.

I’ve always loved a good retelling, and this authors of the stories in this collection bring creativity and a sense of fun to the originals. Some of my favorites: Anna Meriano starts off by giving us Pride and Prejudice as livestreamed from space. Monica Sanz gives us a version of Jane Eyre with witchcraft and some female empowerment. David Bowles writes a science fiction version of Hamlet with fighting in mech suits. And Sandra Proudman does a version of The Old Man and the Sea in the future barren desert of Nevada.

There’s lots more here, with a collection of stellar authors retelling tales as varied as “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” They all have a speculative fiction twist, and they all feature Latinx characters showing resourcefulness and creativity. It took me a long time to get this book read – it’s too tempting to put it down between stories – but that way I got to lengthen the fun.

sandraproudman.com

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Review of A Constellation of Minor Bears, by Jen Ferguson

Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

A Constellation of Minor Bears

by Jen Ferguson
read by Julie Lumsden, Jesse Nobess, and Shaun Taylor-Corbett

Heartdrum, 2024. 8 hours, 51 minutes.
Review written March 2, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

So far, I love every book by Jen Ferguson I’ve read (or story – She had one in the award-winning Legendary Frybread Drive-in). I’m not quite sure what took me so long to get to this one, but it did help when we got the eaudiobook edition. As with all of her books, this is mostly about relationships between quirky characters who quickly find their way into your heart.

A Constellation of Minor Bears is about a group of teens hiking the Pacific Crest Trail after graduation. Well, that was the plan anyway. Molly and Tray did graduate, Molly at 17 years old, but Molly’s brother Hank had a terrible accident that caused a traumatic brain injury earlier in the year, so he didn’t graduate, and needs to do summer school instead. Tray is the best friend of both Molly and Hank, but Molly’s been angry with him ever since Hank’s accident. Because Tray was there and failed to stop Hank’s fall.

But Molly has been icily polite. They need to talk things out and figure things out – and the Pacific Crest Trail is a good place to do so. Though Molly’s doing a lot of hiding – including hiding from her parents that she’s planning to keep hiking and not actually go to college in the Fall. But would that break the bargain she made with various gods to become a doctor if her brother woke up?

So, yes, Molly and Tray and Hank (our three viewpoint characters) have plenty to work through. And then along the way they encounter a fat girl who quickly befriends them – but needs their help. This book includes profound thoughts on fat phobia and ableist thinking, all in a realistic story setting. As well as issues from Molly and Tray being Métis, and Molly not feeling like she knows enough about what that means.

But above all, this was a book about characters I quickly came to care about in a setting that challenged them emotionally and physically.

jenfergusonwrites.com

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Review The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond, by Amanda Glaze

Historical, Paranormal, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond

by Amanda Glaze

Union Square & Co., 2022. 362 pages.
Review written November 26, 2022, from my own copy, sent by the publishers for the Cybils Awards.
Starred Review

The Second Death of Edie and Violet Bond is a historical paranormal novel about twins who inherited their mother’s gifts of interacting with the Dead who have crossed beyond the Veil. Violet can open the veil between life and death and communicate with spirits there, and Edie can cross into the spirit world. The Second or Final Death is when spirits go beyond. But spirits who have recently died often linger on the other side of the veil, and Edie and Violet can interact with them.

But the process isn’t without danger. Their mother was working with an unknown client a year ago, and Edie saw her use belladonna to force a spirit into the beyond — and her mother went with the spirit. After their mother’s death, their father threatened to save them by sending them to an asylum. That night, they tied bedsheets together and escaped.

Now they’re traveling with a company putting on shows of spiritualism. Most of what they do is fake — but not all of it. Part of Edie’s act is to deliver speeches on current issues — claiming to “channel” dead white men — whom people are interested to hear. (This was a real thing at the time!)

But their show has brought them back to Sacramento — close to the home they ran away from. A handsome young reporter is nosing around. And Edie senses something disturbing at the nearby asylum. She goes to a speech about the rights of women — and how a husband or father could consign a woman to an asylum with just his word.

And some Spiritualists are going missing. It comes close to home when a girl from their own traveling show goes missing, and Edie sees her beyond the veil.

It’s all put together in an absorbing way. I like all the actual history that’s thrown in — with an Author’s Note explaining it at the back. And I love her line in the Acknowledgments — “No librarians were harmed during the making of this book, but many were consulted.” I was impressed when I discovered this is a debut novel. I felt like there were a few too many coincidences as things came together, but on the other hand, everything was neatly tied together.

Overall, the theme of the connection between sisters made this a heart-warming book. I hope this author writes many more.

amandaglaze.com
unionsquareandco.com

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Review of Where Wolves Don’t Die, by Anton Treuer

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

Where Wolves Don’t Die

by Anton Treuer
read by the Author

Recorded Books, 2024. 7 hours, 4 minutes.
Review written March 11, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2026 American Indian Youth Literature Award Honor Book

I loved every minute of this audiobook. I’m so glad it won Honor from the AIYLA, because I’d completely missed it in 2024. (They give the award every other year, but so many great books are being written by indigenous authors lately, I hope they increase it to every year.)

The book begins with teen Ezra Cloud thinking about how much he hates living in Minneapolis with its gray snow. And since his mother died of cancer – which she surely got from working at the factory – Ezra has a hard time even looking at his father.

Then Ezra sees Matt, the kid who’s long been his bully, harassing his best friend and secret crush Nora. Ezra only just manages to keep from punching Matt. He punches a locker and breaks his hand instead. That night, when under the influence of painkillers, he dreams about a group of wolves burning down a house – and the next day Matt’s family home, which housed a meth lab, has burned down, and Matt’s father and uncle are dead.

The next time Matt sees Ezra, he claims he saw Ezra at the fire. There’s a detective poking around. Ezra’s sure he couldn’t have been there, but his father wants Ezra well out of the way. So they go to see his grandparents – on a reserve in Canada – for Christmas, and Ezra stays after to spend the winter with his grandpa working the traplines.

Most of the book is in remote Canada, Ezra in a cabin with his grandpa, learning the lore of trapping – and lore of their people thrown in. He also has a chance to work through some emotional baggage. There are moments of great danger, and mystical encounters with wolves – and by the time they’re back from the trapline, there’s still the mystery of who set the fire to clear up.

So this is a book with its share of survival, mystery, and danger – but what I truly loved about it was the emotional depth. Truly a wonderful book to listen to.

antontreuer.com

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Review of Soundtrack, by Jason Reynolds

Audiobooks, Contemporary, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Soundtrack

by Jason Reynolds
performed by a full cast

Listening Library, 2025. 6 hours, 29 minutes.
Review written February 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
2026 Odyssey Honor Audiobook

I always listen to Odyssey Award Winners and Honorees, because they are without exception excellent productions. Even knowing that, I was blown away when I listened to this book.

Jason Reynolds wrote this as an original audiobook – they’re coming out with the novelization next month, but the audiobook came first. It’s about a kid fresh out of high school forming a band in New York City and then playing in subway stations and gaining a following. And the audiobook production is incredible. It’s got a full cast (and a large one), with full sound effects. When they’re talking in a group, you hear them as if they’re talking in a group, there’s crowd noise and sounds of objects they refer to – and music!

Throughout the entire production this story about a young band is accompanied by the sounds of a band jamming to music. It’s astonishingly good.

For a minute there, I was astonished on this audiobook’s behalf that it had “only” won Odyssey Honor, because I was misremembering which one won the award. Then I remembered that the actual winner was Trans History, also with a full cast and full sound effects, and including the actual voices of present-day trans folks – and I understood the decision better. Still, this audiobook is incredible, and together these books have raised the bar on what an audiobook production can be.

Our main character in this book, Stuy, is the drummer, and his mother was a drummer before him, who dropped out of her band when she gave birth to Stuy and his father left. But now Stuy’s mom’s boyfriend throws his drum set into a corner, and Stuy goes to stay with his Uncle Lucky – where he meets a kid who plays the guitar. That leads to finding the rest of their band, and the whole adventure is tremendous fun – though with some serious undertones (fair warning).

It was a truly engaging story – and the music and the cast made the whole thing into an experience.

jasonwritesbooks.com

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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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