reviews him from his younger brothers and changed their lives forever. Echo and Noah may be facing intense life situations, but their story is full of insightful humor and a cast of engaging characters. Pushing the Limits is an accomplished debut, a perfect choice for readers who thrive on edgy, riveting storytelling.
“Lemon” because her daughter was bitter; later she admits to being drawn to it because, “That yellow looked like hope to me.” Lemon’s trip is a tough one, but by the end she’s found a new path that owes as much to the hardships she’s seen as to her mother’s once-invisible but nevertheless enduring love.
—Deborah Hopkinson
—Heather Seggel
Fingerprints of You
Intentions
By Kristen-Paige Madonia
Simon & Schuster $16.99, 272 pages ISBN 9781442429208 eBook available Ages 14 and up
teen
Fingerprints of You opens on Lemon’s 17th birthday, which her mom, Stella, is celebrating by getting herself a new tattoo. After a lifetime of being dragged from place to place in the wake of Stella’s bad decisions inspired by bad men, Lemon wants to differentiate herself from the mother she sees as “made of metal and glass.” Lacking a better role model, she does so by hooking up with her mom’s tattoo artist and ending up pregnant. Author Kristen-Paige Madonia brings poetry to the down-but-notout Stella and Lemon. When Lemon rides a bus cross-country in search of her absentee dad, she can finally loosen up and explore an age-appropriate romance (ironic belly bump notwithstanding). Lemon’s first impressions of San Francisco’s Mission District include “the smells of marinara and car fumes and something dank and wet seeping from the street drains,” along with the many small kindnesses from neighbors in an overwhelming landscape. Those little lessons pay forward into Lemon’s budding relationship with her dad and help her forge some peace with Stella. At its heart, Fingerprints of You is the tale of Lemon’s liberation from a too-young adulthood and her emancipation back into youth. At the beginning of the book Stella jokes that she chose the name
By Deborah Heiligman Knopf $16.99, 272 pages ISBN 9780375868610 eBook available Ages 14 and up
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Rachel Greenberg’s parents are on the edge of divorce, her former best friend Alexis is barely speaking to her, her grandmother’s health is fading—and while she’s theoretically almost-dating handsome, athletic Jake, something about the rabbi’s son, Adam, is totally irresistible. Arriving early at her synagogue one day, Rachel accidentally hears an encounter that overturns everything she thought she knew about someone she trusted. She must come to terms with the secret and what it means for her own beliefs. Rachel doesn’t always make the right choices—particularly when it comes to sneaking out of Friday night services or exacting revenge on a friend. However, her sense of morality, shaped by her religious heritage, leads her to well intended—if stumbling—attempts to make amends. Perhaps resolving these internal conflicts can help her find peace with her external ones as well. Deborah Heiligman’s Intentions is suffused with the traditions of Reform Judaism. For readers who have struggled with Judaism’s views on God and personal responsibility, Intentions is a mirror that will validate their own experiences; for others, it’s a window to the landscape of an unfamiliar world. Intentions is a unique and welcome addition to the world of young adult literature. —J i l l R a t z a n
It’s about a family that moves 12 time zones away and find they can’t sleep, a big problem, until they meet their nocturnal neighbors who show them the beauty of living at night.
Edward Gorey, Terry Gilliam, Carson Ellis, Beatrice Alemagna, Maurice Sendak, Jon Klassen, Chris Van Allsburg
History. It always seemed like one long story with many different narrators. Science. I always loved science because it’s all about discovery.
Our dad and Walter Payton
Where’s Waldo, all of Dr. Seuss, Shel Silverstein The Chronicles of Narnia, Winnie the Pooh
Sail Play piano
We think the strongest message we could send, wouldn’t be a message at all, but to pique their curiosity and feed their imagination.
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