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Nov 12, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Steve McCarthy |Lauren Eldridge |Christina Soontornvat
A modern twist on classic folklore and the bonds of friendship. Sometimes friendships emerge from the most unexpected places. “Everybody in Ireland knows that banshees are supernatural harbingers of doom.” Referred to as bansheenies when they are young, these fairies grow in pods. Each banshee forms an unshakable link with the first human they see until one day, the banshee bursts forth to “howl the banshee’s howl at them”—a sign that the human is about to die.
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Oct 18, 2024 | 
booklistonline.com | Christina Soontornvat
Illus. by Joanna Cacao.
Nov. 2024. 288p. Scholastic/Graphix, paper, $12.99 (9781338741315); Scholastic/Graphix, $24.99 (9781338741322). Grades 4-7. 741.5.
REVIEW.
First published October 18, 2024 (Booklist Online).
During the second semester of her eighth-grade year, Christina is sure her life is everything she wants it to be, everything that is, except for being part of the cheerleading squad. And that her parents are splitting up. And that she has a crush on a boy who already has a girlfriend.
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Sep 19, 2024 | 
datebook.sfchronicle.com | Michael Eric Dyson |Marc Favreau |Christina Soontornvat |Isabel Roxas
“The Story of Kamala Harris: An Inspiring Biography for Young People” by Tonya Leslie and illustrated by Juanita Londoño comes out Sept. 24. Photo: Callisto KidsUntil mid-July, the 2024 presidential election looked to be a gloomy remake of 2020 but this time with a forgone conclusion. Then everything changed. Headline: Biden out. Harris in. The race is on. The recast Harris vs. Trump match-up has turned exciting, and so has a pile of recent books geared to this election season.
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Sep 3, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Debbie Herman |Lauren Eldridge |Christina Soontornvat
To see or not to see. Carla’s thrilled that Vision Screening Day’s approaching. She hopes she’ll need glasses because no one else in class wears them. Her friend Buster scoffs, “You like to be different.” Next day, Carla’s wearing self-made purple pipe-cleaner frames. She tells Buster she wants to see what styles and colors will flatter her when she gets real glasses. Every day thereafter, Carla sports different frames she’s designed and constructed.
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Aug 12, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Charlene Chua |Lauren Eldridge |Christina Soontornvat |Melinda Beatty
Children will stay wide awake, day or night, to finish this funny sleepy-time story. Getting a good day’s rest is tough for a young vampire. Trying to settle down in his casket isn’t easy for little Vlad, what with the terrifying cacophony coming from outside. He complains about “CLICKETY CLACK” and “SKREEK” sounds, while an accompanying image depicts a smiling, pink-skinned letter carrier delivering mail.
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Aug 12, 2024 | 
kirkusreviews.com | Nancy Vo |Lauren Eldridge |Christina Soontornvat
The dynamic interaction between the characters invites readers to take risks, push boundaries, and have a little unscripted... Reinvention is the name of the game for two blobs of clay. A blue-eyed gray blob and a brown-eyed brown blob sit side by side, unsure as to what’s going to happen next. The gray anticipates an adventure, while the brown appears apprehensive.
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Jul 11, 2024 | 
publishersweekly.com | Ben Brashares |Christina Soontornvat |Michael Eric Dyson |Marc Favreau
Twelve-year-olds from Millerton, N.J., communicate across time in this high-stakes series launch from siblings Ann (The Whole Thing Together) and Ben Brashares (The Great Whipplethorp Bug Collection). In 2023, former best friends Henry, Frances, and Lukas are burying their deceased shared gerbil when they unearth a rusting radio. Henry moves it to his family’s tool shed, where it inexplicably powers up and starts transmitting on it’s own.
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Jul 11, 2024 | 
publishersweekly.com | Sally Nicholls |Christina Soontornvat |Michael Eric Dyson |Marc Favreau
Kate DiCamillo, illus. by Júlia Sardà. Candlewick, $17.99 (160p) ISBN 978-1-536223-31-6While white-cued Marta Buchelli’s mother works as a maid in the Hotel Balzaar, Marta ponders the art in the hotel’s once grand lobby, yearns for her soldier father’s return, and stays out of sight and quiet as a mouse. Despite her efforts, she is noticed by a countess accompanied by green-feathered parrot Blitzkoff (“once a man who was a very great general”).
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Jul 11, 2024 | 
publishersweekly.com | Lamar Giles |L R Giles |Christina Soontornvat |Michael Eric Dyson
Black high school senior and football star Cade Webster has his life mapped out: attend college on a sports scholarship, get drafted into the NFL, and use his resulting fame to vacate his family from their gang-run neighborhood in Virginia. After anonymous threats lead to football games being canceled and his father’s cancer seemingly worsens, Cade’s future feels uncertain.
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Jul 11, 2024 | 
publishersweekly.com | Annie Barrows |Christina Soontornvat |Michael Eric Dyson |Marc Favreau
The creators of Ivy & Bean return in this delightful series kickoff for early readers that follows sisters Stella and Marigold. In a beginning flashback, three-year-old Stella’s parents drop her off at her grandmother’s house, where she awaits their return from the hospital with her baby sister in tow. Upon the siblings’ first meeting, Stella promises to tell newborn Marigold “all the secret things I know,” a vow that sets the tone for the sisters’ budding relationship.
