All twelve-year-old Shayla wants to do is follow the rules, but when she starts seventh grade, the rules have changed. Her two best friends seem to be going their own ways and some people at school are saying that she's not black enough. After a ruling in a controversial court case involving the shooting of a black man by a white police officer, Shayla decides to join the Black Lives Matter movement and begins passing out black armbands at school. As the unrest in both Los Angeles and her school spreads, Shayla must figure out if some things are worth breaking the rules. I loved this book because it is amazing and disables any myths about the BLM movement. And did I mention it is amazing!?

Eleven-year-old Ollie comes across a weeping woman next to a river, holding a book and threatening to throw it into the water. Ollie is impulsive, so she plucks the book from the woman's hand and runs off with it. The book is "Small Spaces," and tells a haunting story of a girl, two boys in love with her, and a farm from hundreds of years ago, and a deal with the sinister specter called the Smiling Man, who grants wishes for the ultimate price. Now, Ollie takes a school trip to a local farm with a haunted history. I am totally getting nightmares from this book but at least I learned to trust your instincts. Loved it and will definitely read the sequel. Dead Voices

Thirteen-year-old Patricia "Sweet Pea" DiMarco navigates her parents' divorce after they decide to live in nearly identical houses just two doors away from each other. Between them is eccentric advice columnist Miss Flora Mae who befriends the young Sweet Pea. One day, Flora goes on vacation and asks Sweet Pea to send out her letters for the column. However, Sweet Pea sees a letter with familiar handwriting, and what she does with that letter has unexpected consequences. I adored this book because it accurately introduced the ideas of being gay and divorce.

Caleb Franklin and his big brother, Bobby Gene, spend an extraordinary summer with their new, older neighbor, Styx Malone, a foster boy from the city. Styx has a lot of knowledge on how to trade things and knows a lot of people too. He isn't ordinary. Caleb doesn't want to be ordinary either. So he follows Styx in whatever he does. Hopefully, that won't lead to trouble. This book was awesome and everyone should read it.

It has been eighty years since the Axis won World War II, and America was divided between the victors--the Nazis in the East and Imperial Japan in the West. But now resistance is growing in the Eastern territories and sixteen-year-old Chinese American Ren Cabot, who has every reason to hate the Japanese who executed his mother, gets drawn into a resistance group and confronted with choices that could lead to either freedom or death. I loved this book because it takes place in World War ll. It gives a chilling picture of a world where the Axis powers won and makes me remember what America stands for.