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Howton's Hidden Corner Posts

The Naturals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

This book was my New Year’s Eve Date . It was easy to stay up until the new year (New York time) because I was e3ngorssed in this story! I called the ending about three or four chapters ahead but it kept me guessing until then. I loved the five YA naturals and the way their brains worked. I loved their personalities, back stories, and their interactions with each other. I cannot wait to read the remining three!

Seventeen-year-old Cassie is a natural at reading people. Piecing together the tiniest details, she can tell you who you are and what you want. But, it’s not a skill that she’s ever taken seriously. That is, until the FBI come knocking: they’ve begun a classified program that uses exceptional teenagers to crack infamous cold cases, and they need Cassie.

What Cassie doesn’t realize is that there’s more at risk than a few unsolved homicides-especially when she’s sent to live with a group of teens whose gifts are as unusual as her own. Soon, it becomes clear that no one in the Naturals program is what they seem. And when a new killer strikes, danger looms close. Caught in a lethal game of cat and mouse with a killer, the Naturals are going to have to use all of their gifts just to survive.

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, Amazon
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Cinderella Is Dead by Kalynn Bayron

Dystopian and Fairy tale mashups are my favorite. I haven’t found one I loved since I finished the Lunar Chronicles. This one gave them a run for their money! It is imaginative, believable, and grotesquely pretty. Girl power and feminist ideas are woven so intrinsically into the story. It’s purple cover and intriguing name pulled me in but I am so glad that the story lived up to its hype.

It’s 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.

Sixteen-year-old Sophia would much rather marry Erin, her childhood best friend, than parade in front of suitors. At the ball, Sophia makes the desperate decision to flee, and finds herself hiding in Cinderella’s mausoleum. There, she meets Constance, the last known descendant of Cinderella and her step sisters. Together they vow to bring down the king once and for all–and in the process, they learn that there’s more to Cinderella’s story than they ever knew . . .

Bloomsbury Childrens, Amazon
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What About Will by Ellen Hopkins

This one broke me. As a younger sibling, as a empath, as a parent, and as a teacher. I felt the pain and loss that Trace is constantly going through. I feel that this is an amazing resource for our students who know that their friends or family might be doing something they know is wrong and they can’t reconcile the person standing before them with the person they love. It is powerful and I am grateful for the impact I know it will have on our students.

Twelve-year-old Trace Reynolds has always looked up to his brother, mostly because Will, who’s five years older, has never looked down on him. It was Will who taught Trace to ride a bike, would watch sports on TV with him, and cheer him on at Little League. But when Will was knocked out cold during a football game, resulting in a brain injury–everything changed. Now, seventeen months later, their family is still living under the weight of “the incident,” that left Will with a facial tic, depression, and an anger he cannot always control, culminating in their parents’ divorce. Afraid of further fracturing his family, Trace begins to cover for Will who, struggling with addiction to pain medication, becomes someone Trace doesn’t recognize. But when the brother he loves so much becomes more and more withdrawn, and escalates to stealing money and ditching school, Trace realizes some secrets cannot be kept if we ever hope to heal.

G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers, Amazon
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Thirteen Witches: the Memory Thief by Jodi Lynn Anderson

This one was different. It in no way went where I expected but I really enjoyed it. It is a series that is about magic, friendship, grief, memory loss, and of course witches. It felt authentic and true to what friends face when people change and I enjoyed my time with Rosie.

Twelve-year-old Rosie Oaks’s mom is missing whatever it is that makes mothers love their daughters. All her life, Rosie has known this…and turned to stories for comfort. Then, on the night Rosie decides to throw her stories away forever, an invisible ally helps her discover the Witch Hunter’s Guide to the Universe, a book that claims that all of the evil in the world stems from thirteen witches who are unseen…but also unstoppable. One of these witches—the Memory Thief—holds an insidious power to steal our most precious treasures: our memories. And it is this witch who has cursed Rosie’s mother.

In her quest to save her mom—and with her wild, loyal friend “Germ” by her side—Rosie will find the layers hidden under the reality she only thought she knew: where ghosts linger as shades of the past, where clouds witness the world, and a ladder dangles from the moon leading to something bigger and more. Here, words are weapons against the darkness, and witch hunters are those brave enough to wield their imaginations in the face of the unthinkable. The knowledge of her beloved stories is an arsenal in this world, but to unlock their power, Rosie must dare to have hope and believe in herself in the face of daunting odds.

Aladdin, Amazon
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Frizzy by Claribel Ortega and Rose Bousamra

Oh, how I related to this character. While I may not have lived experiences of the beauty shop every weekend, the chemicals and length of process for straightening coily hair, and the stigma that comes with Black hairstyles, I do have suppressed memories of a mother who didn’t know how to style my hair, who thought my curls or frizzes were messy, a fight to keep my hair straight and “pretty” and the shame that can go along with that. This book gave me freedom. It made me think twice about the way I approach hair conversations with my daughter and about the way I speak about my own hair. Here’s to letting our hair and thereby ourselves take up space!

Marlene loves three things: books, her cool TĂ­a Ruby and hanging out with her best friend Camila. But according to her mother, Paola, the only thing she needs to focus on is school and “growing up.” That means straightening her hair every weekend so she could have “presentable”, “good hair”.

But Marlene hates being in the salon and doesn’t understand why her curls are not considered pretty by those around her. With a few hiccups, a dash of embarrassment, and the much-needed help of Camila and Tia Ruby―she slowly starts a journey to learn to appreciate and proudly wear her curly hair.

First Second, Amazon
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This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron

LOVE LOVE LOVE!!! Mythology, Magic, Mystery, Murder It has it all! It is a series….which I didn’t know until I finished the first book…bummer. But I am so excited to get the next book and revisit these characters!!!

Briseis has a gift: with a single touch she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms.

When Briseis’s aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents hope that surrounded by plants and flowers, she will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they never expected-it comes with a mysterious set of instructions, a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world, and generation

Bloomsbury YA, Amazon
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Everything You Wanted to Know About Indians But Were Too Afraid To Ask by Anton Treuer

I have never been so thankful for a book in my parenting life as I was for this one. The festivities around Thanksgiving have always been a difficult one for me as a parent. I want my daughter to enjoy fun events at school but I also want her to know that the story we hear about Natives and Pilgrims is not really the true story. This year was the first time she asked me, “Well, if that’s not the true story…what is?” This book gave me the opportunity to share with her the factual information surrounding Thanksgiving from the Native perspective and I am so glad that we were able to work through the hard questions together!

What have you always wanted to know about Indians? Do you think you should already know the answers—or suspect that your questions may be offensive? In matter-of-fact responses to over 120 questions, both thoughtful and outrageous, modern and historical, Ojibwe scholar and cultural preservationist Anton Treuer gives a frank, funny, and sometimes personal tour of what’s up with Indians, anyway.

—What is the real story of Thanksgiving?

—Why are tribal languages important?

—What do you think of that incident where people died in a sweat lodge?

White/Indian relations are often characterized by guilt and anger. Everything You Wanted to Know about Indians but Were Afraid to Ask cuts through the emotion and builds a foundation for true understanding and positive action.

Borealis Books, Amazon
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The Belles and The Everlasting Rose by Dhonielle Clayton

I…like…pink….pink….pink….pink. It all started with a TikTok sound. I heard it and knew we had a lot of books with pink covers that we could highlight easily. Then someone commented on The Bells and I commented back that it was in my TBR but I hadn’t gotten to it yet. It then became my next audiobook on Sora. I LOVED Belles and immediately had to grab Everlasting Rose when I finished the first book. The narrator was fabulous and I got sucked in all too easily.

The Belles

Camellia Beauregard is a Belle. In the opulent world of Orleans, Belles are revered, for they control Beauty, and Beauty is a commodity coveted above all else. In Orleans, the people are born gray, they are born damned, and only with the help of a Belle and her talents can they transform and be made beautiful.

But it’s not enough for Camellia to be just a Belle. She wants to be the favorite, the Belle chosen by the Queen of Orleans to live in the royal palace, to tend to the royal family and their court, to be recognized as the most talented Belle in the land.
But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favorite is not everything she always dreamed it would be. Behind the gilded palace walls live dark secrets, and Camellia soon learns that the very essence of her existence is a lie, that her powers are far greater, and could be more dangerous, than she ever imagined. And when the queen asks Camellia to risk her own life and help the ailing princess by using Belle powers in unintended ways, Camellia now faces an impossible decision.

With the future of Orleans and its people at stake, Camellia must decide: save herself and her sisters and the way of the Belles, or resuscitate the princess, risk her own life, and change the ways of her world forever.

Disney-Hyperion, Amazon

The Everlasting Rose

The evil queen Sophia’s imperial forces will stop at nothing to keep Camille, her sister Edel, and her loyal guard, Rémy, from returning Charlotte to the palace and her rightful place as queen.

With the help of an underground resistance movement called the Iron Ladies–a society that rejects beauty treatments entirely–and the backing of alternative newspaper the Spider’s Web, Camille uses her powers, her connections, and her cunning to outwit her greatest nemesis, Sophia, and attempt to restore peace to OrlĂ©ans. But enemies lurk in the most unexpected places, forcing Camille to decide just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to save her people.

Disney-Hyperion, Amazon
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Ash Princess by Laura Sebastian

This book decimated me. I was not prepared for the way I was so deeply affected by Theodosia’s story. It is dark. It is harrowing. It is hard to walk through with her but so worth it. I cannot wait to read the rest of the series!

Theodosia was six when her country was invaded and her mother, the Fire Queen, was murdered before her eyes. On that day, the kaiser took Theodosia’s family, her land, and her name. Theo was crowned Ash Princess–a title of shame to bear in her new life as a prisoner.

For ten years Theo has been a captive in her own palace. She’s endured the relentless abuse and ridicule of the kaiser and his court. She is powerless, surviving in her new world only by burying the girl she was deep inside.

Then, one night, the kaiser forces her to do the unthinkable. With blood on her hands and all hope of reclaiming her throne lost, she realizes that surviving is no longer enough. But she does have a weapon: Her mind is sharper than any sword. And power isn’t always won on the battlefield.

For ten years the Ash Princess has seen her land pillaged and her people enslaved. That all ends here.

Delacorte Press, Amazon
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Idol Gossip by Alexandra Leigh Young

Do you love K-pop? Love stories? Frienemies? So do I and I loved this book! I fell into the world of K-pop with a Webtoon and so when I saw this cover I dove for it. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I did!

Every Friday after school, seventeen-year-old Alice Choy and her little sister, Olivia, head to Myeongdong to sing karaoke. Back in San Francisco, when she still had friends and earthly possessions, Alice took regular singing lessons. But since their diplomat mom moved them to Seoul, her only musical outlet is vamping it up in a private karaoke booth to an audience of one: her loyal sister. Then a scout for Top10 Entertainment, one of the biggest K-pop companies, hears her and offers her a spot at their Star Academy. Can Alice navigate the culture clashes, egos, and extreme training practices of K-pop to lead her group onstage before a stadium of 50,000 chanting fans—and just maybe strike K-pop gold? Not if a certain influential blogger and the anti-fans get their way . . .

Walker Books, Amazon
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