2025-2026 Golden Sower Bald Eagle Nominee

Give me a sign

Sortino, Anna,


School Library Journal, July 2023. Booklist, June 2023. Kirkus Review, May 2023. Catholic Library World, April 2024. Seventeen-year-old Lilah, who wears hearing aids, returns to a summer camp for the Deaf and Blind as a counselor, eager to improve her ASL and find her place in the community, but she did not expect to also find romance along the way.
Date Published:2024

Invisible son

Johnson, Kim, 1979-,


After spending two months in a juvenile detention center for a crime he did not commit, seventeen-year-old Andre Jackson returns home and tries to adapt to a Covid-19 world and find his missing best friend.
Date Published:2023

The next new Syrian girl

Shukairy, Ream,


Booklist starred, March 2023. Kirkus Starred, January 2023. Publishers Weekly Annex, March 2023. "The unlikely friendship between Syrian American boxer Khadija and Syrian refugee Leene reveals the pressures and expectations of the perfect Syrian daughter and the repercussions of the Syrian Revolution both at home and abroad"--OCLC.
Date Published:2023

Promise boys

Brooks, Nick, 1989-,


School Library Journal, February 2023. Booklist starred, January 2023. Publishers Weekly, December 2022. Kirkus Starred, December 2022. Horn Book, January 2023. Bulletin (Center for Children's Books), December 2022. J.B., Ramón, and Trey, students of the Urban Promise Prep School, must follow the school's strict rules, but when their principal is murdered, the three boys must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested.
Date Published:2023

School Library Journal, February 2023. Booklist starred, January 2023. Publishers Weekly, December 2022. Kirkus Starred, December 2022. Horn Book, January 2023. Bulletin (Center for Children's Books), December 2022. J.B., Ramón, and Trey, students of the Urban Promise Prep School, must follow the school's strict rules, but when their principal is murdered, the three boys must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested.

Date Published:2023

Saints of the household

Tison, Ari,


School Library Journal starred, March 2023. Kirkus Starred, January 2023. Booklist, March 2023. "When brothers Max and Jay help a classmate in trouble, they struggle with the consequences of their violent actions and worry they may be more like their abusive father than they thought, so the brothers turn to their Bribri roots to find their way forward"--OCLC.
Date Published:2023

The scarlet alchemist

Baker, Kylie Lee,


School Library Journal starred, October 2023. Pub Weekly, August 2023. Kirkus Starred, August 2023. In an alternate Tang Dynasty China, aspiring royal alchemist Zilan, who has the ability to resurrect the dead, arrives in the capital to compete against the best alchemists in the country and becomes drawn into the dangerous political games of the royal family.
Date Published:2023

The space between here & now

Suk, Sarah,


Pub Weekly, August 2023. Booklist, October 2023. Kirkus Review, September 2023. "Seventeen-year-old Aimee Roh has Sensory Time Warp Syndrome, a rare condition that causes her to time travel to a moment in her life when she smells something linked to that memory. . . . Aimee's fear of vanishing at random has kept her from living a normal life. When Aimee disappears for nine hours into a memory of her estranged mom . . . she becomes distraught. Not only was this her longest disappearance yet, but the memory doesn't match up with the story of how her mom left, at least, not the version she's always heard from her dad. Desperate for answers, Aimee travels to Korea, where she unravels the mystery of her memories, the truth about her mother, and the reason she keeps returning to certain moments in her life"--OCLC.
Date Published:2023

Pub Weekly, August 2023. Booklist, October 2023. Kirkus Review, September 2023. "Seventeen-year-old Aimee Roh has Sensory Time Warp Syndrome, a rare condition that causes her to time travel to a moment in her life when she smells something linked to that memory. . . . Aimee's fear of vanishing at random has kept her from living a normal life. When Aimee disappears for nine hours into a memory of her estranged mom . . . she becomes distraught. Not only was this her longest disappearance yet, but the memory doesn't match up with the story of how her mom left, at least, not the version she's always heard from her dad. Desperate for answers, Aimee travels to Korea, where she unravels the mystery of her memories, the truth about her mother, and the reason she keeps returning to certain moments in her life"--OCLC.

Date Published:2023

Swarm

Lyle, Jennifer,


Booklist, Kirkus Review, When Shur sees mysterious giant butterflies outside of school one day, they seem too beautiful and strange to seem like a threat, but she and her classmates soon discover that there is something very wrong with these creatures. Despite emergency warnings to stay indoors, Shur leaves school with her twin brother, Keene; her toddler brother, Shawn; and their two best friends, and they soon learn just how dangerous these butterflies are when they witness one attack a person on their way home. As Shur tries to protect the ones she cares about most, they realize that the butterflies carry a horrifying infection, turning people into angry, grotesque, and zombie-like creatures, but they soon realize that the butterflies are not the only threat they face.
Date Published:2023

Booklist, Kirkus Review, When Shur sees mysterious giant butterflies outside of school one day, they seem too beautiful and strange to seem like a threat, but she and her classmates soon discover that there is something very wrong with these creatures. Despite emergency warnings to stay indoors, Shur leaves school with her twin brother, Keene; her toddler brother, Shawn; and their two best friends, and they soon learn just how dangerous these butterflies are when they witness one attack a person on their way home. As Shur tries to protect the ones she cares about most, they realize that the butterflies carry a horrifying infection, turning people into angry, grotesque, and zombie-like creatures, but they soon realize that the butterflies are not the only threat they face.

Date Published:2023

That's not my name

Lally, Megan,


School Library Journal, January 2024. Publishers Weekly, October 2023. Kirkus Review, October 2023. Told in two voices, a seventeen-year-old battered and bruised girl struggles to remember who she or the man claiming to be her father is while seventeen-year-old Drew stops at nothing to find his missing girlfriend.
Date Published:2024

Warrior girl unearthed

Boulley, Angeline,


School Library Journal starred, May 2023. Horn Book Starred, May 2023. Pub Weekly, April 2023. Kirkus Starred, April 2023. Booklist, April 2023. "With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family's involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people's inheritance"--OCLC.
Date Published:2023

School Library Journal starred, May 2023. Horn Book Starred, May 2023. Pub Weekly, April 2023. Kirkus Starred, April 2023. Booklist, April 2023. "With the rising number of missing Indigenous women, her family's involvement in a murder investigation, and grave robbers profiting off her Anishinaabe tribe, Perry takes matters into her own hands to solve the mystery and reclaim her people's inheritance"--OCLC.

Date Published:2023