KEEPING PACE, by Laurie Morrison, Harry N. Abrams, April 9, 2024, Hardcover, $18.99 (ages 10-14) Two former friends rethink their relationship while training for a half-marathon in Keeping Pace, a novel by Laurie Morrison. Grace has been working for years to beat her former friend Jonah Perkins’s GPA so she can be named top scholar of the eighth grade. But when Jonah beats her for the title, it feels like none of Grace’s academic accomplishments have really mattered. They weren’t enough to win—or to impress her dad. And then the wide, empty summer looms. With nothing planned and no more g ..read more

SONG OF THE SIX REALMS, by Judy I. Lin, Feiwel & Friends, April 23, 2024, Hardcover, $20.99 (young adult) A young musician finds herself at the center of a battle between divine rulers and demonic beasts in Song of the Six Realms, by Judy I. Lin. Xue, a talented young musician, has no past and probably no future. Orphaned at a young age, her kindly poet uncle took her in and arranged for an apprenticeship at one of the most esteemed entertainment houses in the kingdom. She doesn’t remember much from before entering the House of Flowing Water, and when her uncle is suddenly killed in a ..read more

THE MISDIRECTION OF FAULT LINES, by Anna Gracia, Peachtree Teen, April 2, 2024, Hardcover, $18.99 (young adult, ages 14 and up) Three Asian American teens compete for top honors at an elite tennis tournament in The Misdirection of Fault Lines, by Anaa Gracia. Alice is on her own for the first time. She has no coach. No friends. Not even clothes that meet the Bastille Invitational’s strict dress code. There’s only the steady drumbeat of guilt inside—pressure to make the tournament’s costly expense “worth it” in the wake of Ba’s unexpected passing. But will a win on court justify the price ..read more

MADE GLORIOUS, by Lindsay Eagar, Candlewick, April 2, 2024, Hardcover, $19.99 (young adult, ages 14 and up) A high school thespian will stop at nothing to get the lead in Made Glorious, a contemporary YA novel by Lindsay Eagar. Rory is an antihero for the ages. Like Shakespeare’s Richard III, she confides in her audience, telling us exactly the lengths she’ll go to secure the leading role in Bosworth Academy’s senior musical, confessing without shame that she is charming and conniving and brutally ambitious, that we will watch and root for her even as she manipulates and endangers those a ..read more

YOUR BLOOD, MY BONES, by Kelly Andrew, Scholastic Press, April 2, 2024, Hardcover, $19.99 (young adult, 14 and up) A young woman returns to her childhood home only to find her best friend strung up in chains in the basement in Your Blood, My Bones, by Kelly Andrew. Wyatt Westlock has one plan for the farmhouse she’s just inherited — to burn it to the ground. But during her final walkthrough of her childhood home, she makes a shocking discovery in the basement — Peter, the boy she once considered her best friend, strung up in chains and left for dead. Unbeknownst to Wyatt, Peter has suffer ..read more

TRAJECTORY, by Cambria Gordon, Scholastic Press, April 2, 2024, Hardcover, $19.99 (young adult) A young woman finds herself working on a top-secret project for the US Army during WWII in Trajectory, by Cambria Gordon. Seventeen-year-old Eleanor is nothing like her hero Eleanor Roosevelt. She is timid and all together uncertain that she has much to offer the world. And as World War II rages overseas, Eleanor is consumed with worry for her Jewish relatives in Europe. When a chance encounter proves her to be a one-in-a-generation math whiz—a fact she has worked hard all her life to hide—Elea ..read more

IN THE ORBIT OF YOU, by Ashley Schumacher, Wednesday Books, March 19, 2024, Hardcover, $21 (young adult) Childhood friends unexpectedly reunite in In the Orbit of You, a new young adult novel by Ashley Schumacher. It’s been years since Nova Evans last saw Sam. She was too young then to understand why he had to move away―and what it had to do with the cuts and bruises he got from home and never wanted to talk about. All she knew is that they promised to find each other when they were older, something she thought was impossible thanks to her and her mom moving around constantly. Until she b ..read more

LOUDER THAN HUNGER, by John Schu, Candlewick, March 19, 2024, Hardcover, $18.99 (ages 10 and up) A teen with an eating disorder is sent to a residential treatment facility in Louder Than Hunger, a new novel in verse by John Schu. But another voice inside me says, We need help. We’re going to die. Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age . . . and the cruelty of mirrors . . . and food. Jake has read about ..read more

BREATHING UNDERWATER, by Abbey Lee Nash, Holiday House, March 5, 2024, Hardcover, $18.99 (young adult) An epilepsy diagnosis puts an elite swimmer’s dreams at risk in Breathing Underwater, a new young adult novel by Abbey Nash. Tess lives for swimming: the feel of the pool’s rough edge on her toes, the snap of cold water on her skin, and the push of her limbs ever forward. In the water, she’s truly alive. Until tragedy strikes. And Tess is left navigating a summer of doctor visits, missed swim practices, a newly distant best friend, and a job stuck behind a counter—not sitting high in the ..read more

PROMCHANTED, by Morgan Matson, Disney Hyperion, March 5, 2024, Hardcover, $18.99 (young adult) A modern-day teen suddenly finds herself inside Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, in Promchanted, by Morgan Matson. Stella Griffin doesn’t believe in fairy tales. Ever since her boyfriend dumped her three weeks before the prom—not ideal timing—she’s convinced every love story is a lie. She’s ready to skip the prom entirely. But she and her best friend, Nisha, have been planning for years to celebrate at Disneyland before the prom . . . an OG OC tradition. But even being all dressed up at the Happie ..read more