Amanda MacGregor

Minnesota

Contributor at Teen Librarian Toolbox

Writing, reading, reviewing, libraries, dogs, YA, mental health, and Teen Librarian Toolbox. She/her. Rep'd by @aecbks.

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Articles

Recentering Reading | From the Editor

5 days ago | slj.com | Kathy Ishizuka |Amanda MacGregor

If you’re struggling to make it make sense, you’re in good company. Among parodists, even the highly skilled can’t top our current state. “It’s just so absurd that it doesn’t leave much room for a novelist to work,” said Percival Everett, speaking to The Times of London about the Trump administration. “How can you come up with anything crazier than this?”Everett had just received the 2025 Pulitzer Prize for fiction for James , his reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
13 Captivating Titles to Sweep Teens Away in the Summer Months | We Are Kid Lit Collective

1 week ago | slj.com | Amanda MacGregor

School Library Journal has proudly partnered with We Are Kid Lit Collective to share and promote the group’s 11th annual summer reading recommendations. In the next couple of weeks, SLJ will publish individual posts featuring their recommendations of board books, picture books, chapter books, middle grade, and young adult titles. We Are Kid Lit Collective is pleased to present our 11th annual summer reading list.
All That You Are

2 weeks ago | slj.com | Mary Lanni |Amanda MacGregor

. Aug. 2025. 32p. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9781499818246. PreS-K COPY ISBN PreS-K–When a child hails from more than one cultural heritage, it can feel difficult for them to understand exactly who they are. And in a world that sometimes focuses only on pieces and parts, remembering to honor the whole person is paramount. This beautiful, poetic picture book celebrates children whose parents span a variety of backgrounds.
School

2 weeks ago | slj.com | Amanda MacGregor |Sam Bloom |Edith Campbell |Ariana Sani Hussain

Vacation season is on its way, which for many young people means road trips, theme parks, and cruises galore. But it can also mean sharing vulnerability, processing grief, repairing family relationships, and navigating blossoming romance. These three novels explore the fun, freedom, and complications of life on vacation for tweens. Cartaya, Pablo. A Hero’s Guide to Summer Vacation. 288p. Penguin/Kokila. May 2025. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9780451479754.
Author A. A. Vacharat on YA Debut ‘This Moth Saw Brightness’ | 5 Questions and a Rec

2 weeks ago | slj.com | Mina Ikemoto Ghosh |a Rec |Amanda MacGregor

In this Q&A series, SLJ poses five questions and a request for a book recommendation to a debut YA author. A. A. Vacharat shares about This Moth Saw Brightness in this latest installment. 1. Congrats on your YA debut! How would you describe your book to readers? I’ve found “strange” encapsulates everything most succinctly. “Devastatingly timely” is also accurate, unfortunately. 2. What drew you to YA to tell this story? YA allows risks.
A Rock Is Born: An Epic Journey Through Time

2 weeks ago | slj.com | Richard Men Ho |Rachel Zuffa |Amanda MacGregor

K-Gr 2–The rock cycle is simply told over 130 billion years, as one rock undergoes a transformation of weathering through lava, mud, and weather, and is broken into pieces underneath sediment to be reborn. Minimal text and captions highlight how time moves slowly for the rock, even as life moves on around it. Digital illustrations are clean and rich, careful to highlight the rock as it becomes a grain of sediment and enlarging it to depict microscopic minerals and crystals.
Your Crown Shines: For Ketanji Brown Jackson and You

2 weeks ago | slj.com | Jessica Moore |Myiesha Speight |Amanda MacGregor

. Jun. 2025. 40p. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9780063311398. Gr 1-5 COPY ISBN Gr1-5–A young Ketanji Brown in pigtails and striped socks is shown arriving at school after her father drops her off. Even when Brown was young, her parents instilled hope and perseverance in her, so she is not disturbed by any limitations people tried to put on her. When a high school guidance counselor told her she was dreaming too big and needed to set her sights lower, she was not deterred or discouraged.
The Music Inside Us: Yo-Yo Ma and His Gifts to the World

2 weeks ago | slj.com | James Howe |Sally James |Amanda MacGregor

by (text) & illus. by Jack Wong . Jun. 2025. 48p. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9781419755217. Gr 1-5 COPY ISBN Gr 1-5–Young and old will appreciate this glorious new picture book on the life of cellist Yo-Yo Ma. What a beautiful and inspiring life—growing up in a musical family in Paris, at age four Ma declared his wish to play the cello.
Toes, Teeth, and Tentacles: A Curious Counting Book

2 weeks ago | slj.com | Tamara Saarinen |Amanda MacGregor

. Jul. 2025. 40p. Tr $18.99. ISBN 9780316456692. Gr 1-4 COPY ISBN Gr 1-4–Fascinating facts are the focus of this concept book: “A banana slug has four tentacles.
Rewriting the Rules: How Dr. Kathleen Friel Created New Possibilities for Brain Research and Disability

2 weeks ago | slj.com | Amanda MacGregor

by (text) & illus. by Josée Bisaillon . Sept. 2025. 32p. Tr $19.99. ISBN 9798765647271. Gr 1-4 COPY ISBN Gr 1-4–The choice to use mixed media art—collage, pastels, colored pencils, gouache, and digital montage—is the cherry on top of this well-executed biography of Dr. Kathleen Friel. Readers follow Friel from childhood to adulthood as “she rewrote the rules from even the smallest movements” helping her to navigate and excel in the world as a person with cerebral palsy.