Two Green Birds
By: Geraldo Valerio

Francisco’s grandmother has a surprise for him. In her backyard is a guava tree, and in the tree hangs a cage containing two magnificent green birds. They are parakeets, his grandmother says. Francisco has never seen birds so green, so beautiful. He imagines them sitting on his hand, or murmuring in his ear as he scratches the backs of their heads. One day Francisco arrives at Grandma’s and hears a big commotion in the backyard. The guava tree is full of parakeets, just like the ones in the cage. All the parakeets are screaming. Inside the cage, the two birds hop and flap and seem to be calling to the parakeets outside. And that’s when Francisco knows what the green parakeets need to be happy – and what he and his grandmother have to do.

Mystery at the Biltmore
By: Colleen Nelson

Left behind by her globe-trotting detective parents once again, Elodie decides to prove she’s worthy of joining them on a case by setting up her own detective agency at her renowned Upper West Side home, The Biltmore. When a pair of sapphire and diamond earrings mysteriously disappear from Mrs. Vanderhoff’s apartment, Elodie is asked to solve the case. Elodie begins her investigation the way any good detective would, looking for clues and potential suspects. With twists, turns, and suspects galore, will Elodie be able to prove she has what it takes to solve a crime? Or will the LaRue Detective Agency fail on its first case? As Elodie, her dog Carnegie, and new friend Oscar (a self-proclaimed parkour master) delve deeper into the mystery, they encounter a quirky cast of characters, an array of clues, and a little bit of fun.

Three Thieves: Tower of Treasure
By: Scott Chantler

As an acrobat in a traveling circus, 14-year-old orphan Dessa Redd flies through the air with ease. Still, she is weighed down by troubling memories. But when her ragtag circus troupe pulls into the city of Kingsbridge, Dessa feels a tickle of hope. Maybe here in the royal city she will finally find her twin brother – or the mysterious man who snatched him away when they were just children. Meanwhile, Topper, the circus juggler, recruits Dessa and the circus strongman, Fisk, for the job of robbing the royal treasury. Hungry and desperate, both agree, setting off a series of adventures that will take the three thieves from one end of the world to the other in search of Dessa’s long-lost brother.

Katrina Hyena, Stand-Up Comedian
By: Sophie Kohn

When the spotted hyenas in Katrina’s clan laugh, it’s meant as a warning to alert the clan that danger is near. But that’s not why Katrina laughs. Katrina laughs because she thinks the world is just sooooo funny! This causes great frustration with the other hyenas. Every single time Katrina starts laughing, they think she’s in danger and rush to help her. What if Gary the Lion is on the prowl?! Katrina, whose dream is to be a stand-up comedian, thinks her stressed-out clan worries too much about Gary, so she decides to help them relax by putting on a comedy show.

The Kodiaks
By: David A Robertson

Everything is changing for 11-year-old Alex Robinson. After his father accepts a new job, Alex and his family move from their community to the city. For the first time in his life, he doesn’t fit in. His fellow students don’t understand Indigenous culture. Even a simple show of respect to his teacher gets him in trouble. Things begin to look up after Alex tries out for a local hockey team. Playing for the Kodiaks, Alex proves himself as one of the best, but he becomes a target because he’s Indigenous. Can Alex trust his teammates and stand up to the jerks on other teams? Can he find a way to fit in and still be who he’s meant to be?

No Purchase Necessary
By: Maria Marianayagam

Ajay Anthonipillai has a million-dollar problem. Ajay has lived his life dutifully following the rules set by his Tamil parents. Rules like, “straight A’s only” (rule #3), “no such thing as a no-homework day” (rule #5), and “never watch scary movies” (rules #10). But moving to a new school gives Ajay a new rule to follow: get on seventh grade all-star Jacob Underson’s good side. When Jacob asks him to steal a Mercury bar from Scary Al’s convenience store, Ajay feels this is his chance to finally “get cool” and gain real friends. Maybe even stop eating lunch alone. But Jacob rejects the stolen chocolate bar, leaving Ajay to unwrap it and discover that it contains Mercury’s Twenty-fifth Anniversary Grand Prize: one million dollars! Faced with an extreme dilemma, Ajay will have to bear the weight of his actions and battle his conscience in deciding whether to claim the prize that may change the life of his family forever.

Bea Mullins Takes A Shot
By: Emily Deibert

After a lifetime of humiliating sports experiences, Bea Mullins knows the best way to survive middle school is to stick to the sidelines. When PE is suddenly canceled, though, Bea is forced to join an after-school activity… which is how she ends up as a member of the Glenwood Geese, her middle school’s first all-girls hockey team. Bea would be happy sitting on the bench, but she doesn’t want to let down her best friend, Celia. Plus, the more time Bea spends on the rinks, the more she comes to enjoy her teammates, especially the incredibly talented–and incredibly cool–co-captain Gabi. But when low funding puts the Geese in danger of never playing again, Bea realizes she may lose everything she didn’t know she wanted.

The Ghosts of Bitterfly Bay
By: Mary Averling

Maudie isn’t your typical twelve-year-old girl—she’s the ghost of one. Along with her best friend Kit and little brother Scratch, she haunts a cottage in the woods, doing her best to scare off the vacationers and forget her old life. But everything changes when Kit and Scratch go missing. Maudie knows something terrible must have happened, and she’s right: Longfingers—a monster from her own nightmares, with spidery fingers and needle-sharp teeth—has stolen her friends away. Longfingers makes Maudie a twisted deal: find the key to a door in a mysterious cabin, or she’ll never see her friends again. With nobody else to turn to, Maudie has to beg for help from Gianna, the living girl she’s been haunting. Together, the girls search for a way to thwart the monster and save Maudie’s friends. But Maudie’s keeping secrets about the cabin and her past. Unless she finds a way to finally face the truth, she may never be able to rescue her friends from Longfingers’s grasp.

The Queen’s Spade
By: Sarah Raughley

The year is 1862 and murderous desires are simmering in England. Nineteen-year-old Sarah Bonetta Forbes (Sally), once a princess of the Egbado Clan, desires one thing above all else: revenge against the British Crown and its system of colonial “humanitarianism,” which stole her dignity and transformed her into royal property. From military men to political leaders, she’s vowed to ruin all who’ve had a hand in her afflictions. The top of her list? Her godmother, Britain’s mighty monarch, Queen Victoria herself. Taking down the Crown means entering into a twisted game of court politics and manipulating the Queen’s inner circle–even if that means aligning with a dangerous yet alluring crime lord in London’s underworld and exploiting the affections of Queen Victoria’s own son, Prince Albert, as a means to an end. But when Queen Victoria begins to suspect Sally’s true intentions, she plays the only card in Victorian society that could possibly cage Sally once again: marriage. Because if there’s one thing Sally desires more than revenge, it’s her freedom. With time running out and her wedding day looming, Sally’s vengeful game of cat and mouse turns deadly as she’s faced with the striking revelation that the price for vengeance isn’t just paid in blood. It means sacrificing your heart.

Messy Perfect
By: Tanya Boteju

Cassie Perera is a star student in St. Luke’s junior class. But the new school year brings an unwelcome surprise–the return to St. Luke’s of Cassie’s former friend, Ben, who left a few years ago after a homophobic bullying incident Cassie knows she didn’t do enough to prevent. Still harboring guilt from her inaction, Cassie decides, in her usual, overzealous way, to team up with the neighboring public school to found an underground Gender and Sexuality Alliance–as a complicated strategy for making things up to Ben. Secretly, Cassie is also tempted by the possibility of opening up about her own sexuality for the first time. As Cassie’s new friends urge her out of her comfort zone, she unlocks a kind of joy and freedom she’s never felt before–even as she struggles to balance these experiences with her typical tightrope of being the perfect daughter, student, and Catholic.

Zombie Apocalypse Running Club
By: Carrie Mac

Eira and Soren are queer twins living with their survivalist parents when a plague starts spreading that turns people into zombie-like monsters. They disagree with their parents about a lot, but they can’t deny that their way of life keeps them safe while much of the world perishes–for now. When it becomes clear that their safety won’t last, the twins decide to strike out on their own. They don’t get far before encountering the one remaining person in the closest town: their friend Racer, a gold medal-winning Special Olympics champion. Racer is appalled at the twins’ slow speed and tells them that their survivalist skills aren’t worth anything if they can’t outrun the monsters. He sets them on a training regimen that comes in handy when they embark on the bigger journey ahead of them. On their trek they find friends, enemies, and even love. But with zombies on their heels at every turn, will they ever be able to slow down?

A Constellation of Minor Bears
By: Jen Ferguson

Before that awful Saturday, Molly used to be inseparable from her brother, Hank, and his best friend, Tray. The indoor climbing accident that left Hank with a traumatic brain injury filled Molly with anger. While she knows the accident wasn’t Tray’s fault, she will never forgive him for being there and failing to stop the damage. But she can’t forgive herself for not being there either. Determined to go on the trio’s postgraduation hike of the Pacific Crest Trail, even without Hank, Molly packs her bag. But when her parents put Tray in charge of looking out for her, she is stuck backpacking with the person who incites her easy anger. Despite all her planning, the trail she’ll walk has a few more twists and turns ahead.