Love Is the Higher Law, by David Lavithan, $15.99. Set in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, this episodic novel shifts between the stories of three young New Yorkers. Stunned by a seismic shift as emotional as it was physical, Peter, Claire and Jasper try to make sense out of the unfathomable, fitfully working out a new blueprint for their altered lives.
Love in this setting is fragile and perilous, redefining relationships among family, friends, lovers and would-be lovers. Lavithan’s definition of memorial — “staring at something that isn’t there” — is as apt for intangibles as it is for an abruptly absent landmark. Ages 12 and up.
Upon Secrecy, by Selene Castrovilla, illustrated by Jeff Crosby and Shelley Ann Jackson, $17.95 Paging students and teachers studying the American Revolution: Here’s a lively, obscure story that will make you sit up. Castrovilla’s slim book about the Culper spy ring may look like a picture book, but the text would be a great supplement for high school history classes.
How these double agents deceived the British and aided the revolutionaries is as fascinating for its imaginative technology, including an invisible ink called “sympathetic stain.” The research behind both text and illustrations is impeccable. Ages 8 and up.
The Day of the Pelican, by Katherine Paterson, $16 This powerful story about a family of Muslim refugees fleeing Christian oppressors in Kosovo is based on the experiences of Albanian refugees sponsored by Paterson’s church in Vermont.
Meli’s comfortable life is swiftly upturned in the 1990s by Serbian Christians intent on an “ethnic cleansing” that mirrored the Holocaust. Routed from their home and threatened with death, Meli and her family escape to a Macedonian refugee camp.
There, she wonders whether the barriers are to protect the Albanians or the unwelcoming Macedonians. When her family learns a sponsor is willing to help them set up a new life in the United States, they’re stunned and a little worried upon learning that the sponsors are Christians. Ages 9 and up.
Leo and the Lesser Lion, by Sandra Forrester, $16.99 This novel, set in the Great Depression, is about life in the wake of a loss. Bayliss grieves the death of her idolized older brother and blames herself for his drowning. Determined to redeem herself by devoting her life to good works, the tomboy finds her new goals challenged when two homeless children move into her brother’s room. Ages 9 and up.
My Name Is Sangoel, by Karen Lynn Williams and Khadra Mohammed, illustrated by Catherine Stock, $17. Puzzled about how to pronounce the name of the title? So are the American children who meet this young refugee from southern Sudan. But inspiration strikes, and Sangoel designs a vivid graphic that’s as strong as the summer sun and as powerful as a hard-won soccer goal. Ages 6 and up.
Going Bovine, by Libba Bray, $17.99. Diagnosed with mad cow disease, 16-year-old Cameron finds himself on a long, strange trip guided by a punk rocker angel.
The line between reality and something else swiftly blurs in this funny, lively update that subtly and not at all pretentiously references Homer’s “Odyssey,” Dante’s “Inferno” and Norse mythology. Here’s one book about dying that has a wicked sense of humor.
“Young adult” is the publisher’s designated reader, but note that if “Going Bovine” were a movie, it would be rated R for language and sex references.
The Other Girl: A Midvale Academy Novel, by Sarah Miller, $16.99 This sequel to “Inside the Mind of Gideon Rayburn” is a cheerful romp, the literary equivalent of snacking on junk food while eavesdropping on an older sibling’s sleepover group.
Has Disney optioned it yet?
In the first book, prep-school student Molly inexplicably tapped into the internal thoughts of fellow student and boyfriend Gideon. Hilarity and insight resulted, though the insight largely seemed related to turning Gideon on.
Now Molly’s capricious talent shifts its focus to a gorgeous competitor for Gideon’s affections. Suddenly, Molly is privy to the inner dialogue of the school’s most beautiful student, which proves even more disconcerting.
Ages: Young adult, for the same reasons as for “Going Bovine.”
