SLJ Reviews

Rick Riordan and Mark Oshiro's middle grade adventure receives a star this month, as do a Jarrett Lerner early reader and the Nintendo game Metroid Prime Remastered. 

For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, we offer this list of nonfiction and fiction titles to commemorate the lives of the thousands of people of Japanese descent who were impacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066, which forcibly relocated them into concentration camps.

Readers can find magic in these pages, from an alternate Shakespearean London to a modern high school. Share these stories featuring LGBTQIA+ characters with teens during Pride Month and throughout the year.

It's just not summer if teenagers aren't pocketing S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, with its iconic gang members, dusty American landscape, and exquisitely crafted life lessons; this year, SLJ and NCTE reveal the 2023 round of “Refreshing the Canon” selections, where multimedia suggestions enrich The Outsiders and so much more.

Black Boy, published in 1945, is Richard Wright's memoir about growing up in the South during the Jim Crow era. Pair it with these books, movies, and art pieces to translate Wright's experience to modern day.

The House on Mango Street centers around Esperanza Cordero’s coming of age in her Chicago neighborhood. The below resources, including nonfiction and artwork, can enhance students’ engagement with Sandra Cisneros’s classic.

Self-identifying mixed-race people make up the largest demographic among Americans under 18. These picture books and middle grade novels feature multiracial kids as heroes of their own stories.

These recent manga titles for teens feature something for everyone, from slice-of-life family stories to action-packed fantasy adventures.

SLJ and NCTE have revealed the 2023 round of “Refreshing the Canon” selections. Check out these multimedia recommendations to supplement teens’ reading experience of Toni Morrison's classic, The Bluest Eye.