Hana Banana Reads

The War Outside by Monica Hesse Age Range: 13 & up Release Date: September 25, 2018 Little, Brown and Company 9780316316699 “I know the way I am telling these stories seems mundane and boring. Horror grows out of mundanity. If you’re paying attention, it always starts small. We all tell the versions we wish were true.”* There are a lot of World War II stories. Some people claim to be tired of them. I, on the other hand, am always drawn to them. There are so many stories to tell during this time, so many atrocities committed, so many lives affected, how could anyone have possibly heard them all? Well, I am here to tell you, Monica Hesse’s newest is a story you haven’t heard before, and even if you consider yourself “tired” of tales set during this time, you should really give this one a shot. Haruko and Margot meet in Crystal City, Texas, an internment camp for those under suspect of working with the enemy. Neither of the girls has ever seen the places their...

The Art of the Swap by Kristine Asselin and Jen Malone Age Range: 8-12 Release Date: February 13, 2018 Publisher: Aladdin 9781481478717 The past and the present shake hands in this fun and all-around thrilling collaboration of art, history, and girl power. Hannah Jordan lives in The Elms, a mansion preserved by the Newport Antiquities Society as a museum. Well, technically, she lives above it. As the daughter of the mansion’s caretaker, Hannah has always had free reign in the beautiful estate. She also has a fierce love for the history of The Elms, including that of its former occupants. As the niece of the mansion’s owners, Margaret Dunlap is spending the summer at The Elms with her aunt and uncle, where a commissioned portrait of her is about make its debut. Margaret would much rather slide down the banisters or read The Wonderful Wizardof Oz in her room than sit for the painting, but this is 1905, and such behavior is not proper for a young lady about to turn thirt...

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee Age Range: 14 & up Release Date: June 6, 2017 Katherine Tegen Books 9780062382801 Finally cracking open a much-hyped-about book can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it’s exciting . You’ve been hearing great things about it everywhere, five-star reviews are all over the place, and you can’t wait to fall in love. On the other, high anticipation can often lead to the biggest letdowns. Happily, The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue is of the former. This fun and flirtatious romp through 18th century Europe has been talked about for months . And I must say, it lives up to the hype. Henry “Monty” Montague is, quite simply, a rogue. But oh, of the most lovable sort. He can often be found drinking, gambling, or getting it on with a pretty boy or girl in the shadows. Mostly, Monty is looking forward to his Grand Tour of Europe. To getting out of his stifling home with its even more stifling expecta...

Midnight at the Electric by Jodi Lynn Anderson Age Range: 13 & up Release Date: June 13, 2017 HarperTeen 9780062393548 Time jumping in a story can be tricky. If it isn’t done right, it leaves the reader confused and unsure of the thread of the narrative. At worst, it causes frustration with the book itself. Midnight at the Electric does not have this problem. Anderson starts her story in the year 2065. We then jump back to 1934, then again to 1919, and far from being frustrating, each new time jump pulls you in even farther than the one before. Our first narrator is Adri, a loner who doesn’t know how to connect with anyone around her. Her life’s purpose has been to go to Mars as a Colonist. When she finally gets the chance, Adri relocates to Kansas for her final months of training and lives with an elderly woman named Lily, her only living relative. In her early days on Lily’s farm, Adri stumbles across a collection of letters from a young woman named Lenore, ...

***Upcoming Release!*** The War I Finally Won Kimberly Brubaker Bradley 9780525429203 Age Range: 9-14 Release Date: October 3, 2017 Dial Books Due in October, TheWar I Finally Won is the sequel I never knew we needed. Its predecessor, The War That Saved My Life , took the kidlit world by storm in 2015, snagging a Newbery Honor the following year. That powerhouse of a book followed Ada, a ten-year-old girl with a clubfoot who suffers terrible abuse at the hands of her mother. Because of her bad foot, her mother insists Ada is simple, that no one could ever love her (including herself), and never allows Ada to leave their flat in London. But it is 1939, there is a war on, and London is under constant threat of being bombed. The abuse Ada suffers, both physical and psychological, sits with her, even after she is accepted into a loving home as an evacuee. This is where our sequel picks up, and it is Ada’s psychological state and emotional developme...