Books by On the Block Authors

Blackbird fly

Kelly, Erin Entrada,


Kirkus Review, Publisher's Weekly, School Library Journal, After twelve-year-old Apple Yengko is voted third-ugliest girl in Chapel Spring Middle School, her life threatens to spiral out of control. Her refuge is in Beatles music--if only she could afford it, she would buy a guitar and learn to play every one of their songs. However, when she does this, her mother fears she is becoming too American. Two new friends show Apple the value of standing out from a crowd.
Date Published:2015

Kirkus Review, Publisher's Weekly, School Library Journal, After twelve-year-old Apple Yengko is voted third-ugliest girl in Chapel Spring Middle School, her life threatens to spiral out of control. Her refuge is in Beatles music--if only she could afford it, she would buy a guitar and learn to play every one of their songs. However, when she does this, her mother fears she is becoming too American. Two new friends show Apple the value of standing out from a crowd.

Date Published:2015

Boy 2.0

Baptiste, Tracey,


School Library Journal starred, August 2024. Booklist, September 2024. Kirkus Review, September 2024. Publishers Weekly Annex, September 2024. When thirteen-year-old African American Coal discovers he can turn invisible, he searches for answers about his past with the help of his friends and his new foster family.
Date Published:2024

Carnival chaos

Baptiste, Tracey,


Pub Weekly, May 2024. Booklist, July 2024. School Library Journal, September 2024. When Misty moved from Trinidad to Brooklyn, she was not expecting to discover she is a moko jumbie spirit, that she and her cousins all have magic, and she certainly did not expect to discover a plot to capture magical power during the annual West Indian Labor Day parade.
Date Published:2024

The colliding worlds of Mina Lee

Oh, Ellen,


Booklist, December 2023. Kirkus Review, October 2023. Seventeen-year-old Korean American Mina Lee's life is disrupted when she finds herself sucked into the world of her own webcomic.
Date Published:2025

Finding Junie Kim

Oh, Ellen,


School Library Journal starred, May 2021. Booklist starred, March 2021. Publishers Weekly, March 2021. Kirkus Review, March 2021. A tale based on true events follows the coming-of-age of a girl who is motivated by an act of racism at school to learn about her ancestral heritage and her grandparents' experiences as lost children during the Korean War.
Date Published:2021

The first state of being

Kelly, Erin Entrada,


School Library Journal, February 2024. When Ridge, a time-traveling teenager from the future, gets trapped in 1999, he befriends Michael, a lonely twelve-year-old boy, changing the course of their lives forever.
Date Published:2024

Haru, zombie dog hero

Oh, Ellen,


Booklist, Publishers Weekly Starred, Eleven-year-old Luke's best friend is his dog, Haru, but they are torn apart when their landlord falsely accuses Haru of biting her. Luke and his friends embark on a mission to save Haru, and they stumble upon mysterious experiments happening at the old laboratory at Painted Lake, owned by an evil multibillionaire named Mr. Thomas Sinclair. Then, things take an even more sinister turn when zombies appear in town, and it's up to Luke to save their home and rescue Haru.
Date Published:2024

Booklist, Publishers Weekly Starred, Eleven-year-old Luke's best friend is his dog, Haru, but they are torn apart when their landlord falsely accuses Haru of biting her. Luke and his friends embark on a mission to save Haru, and they stumble upon mysterious experiments happening at the old laboratory at Painted Lake, owned by an evil multibillionaire named Mr. Thomas Sinclair. Then, things take an even more sinister turn when zombies appear in town, and it's up to Luke to save their home and rescue Haru.

Date Published:2024

Hello universe

Kelly, Erin Entrada,


School Library Journal starred, January 2017. Booklist starred, December 2016. Pub Weekly, December 2016. Kirkus Starred, December 2016. Horn Book, March 2017. Bulletin (Center for Children's books), March 2017. The lives of four misfits are intertwined when a bully's prank lands shy Virgil at the bottom of a well and Valencia, Kaori, and Gen band together in an epic quest to find and rescue him.
Date Published:2017

The jumbie god's revenge

Baptiste, Tracey,


School Library Journal, August 2019. Kirkus Starred, July 2019. Horn Book, September 2019. After two out-of-season hurricanes nearly destroy her island home, Corinne discovers that the god Huracan is angry and she, aided by friends and enemies alike, races to calm him.
Date Published:2019

The jumbies

Baptiste, Tracey,


School Library Journal, April 2015. Publisher's Weekly, February 2015. Booklist, March 2015. Kirkus Review, February 2015. Eleven-year-old Corinne must call on her courage and an ancient magic to stop an evil spirit and save her island home.
Date Published:2016

Lalani of the distant sea

Kelly, Erin Entrada,


School Library Journal starred, August 2019. Booklist starred, June 2019. Pub Weekly, May 2019. Kirkus Starred, July 2019. Twelve-year-old Lalani Sarita takes on the impossible task of traveling to the legendary Mount Isa, towering on an island to the north. Generations of men and boys have died on the same quest--how can a timid young girl in a tiny boat survive the epic tests of the archipelago?
Date Published:2019

School Library Journal starred, August 2019. Booklist starred, June 2019. Pub Weekly, May 2019. Kirkus Starred, July 2019. Twelve-year-old Lalani Sarita takes on the impossible task of traveling to the legendary Mount Isa, towering on an island to the north. Generations of men and boys have died on the same quest--how can a timid young girl in a tiny boat survive the epic tests of the archipelago?

Date Published:2019

Max in the house of spies

Gidwitz, Adam,


"A tale of World War II"--Dust jacket. School Library Journal starred, February 2024. Booklist starred, December 2023. "To find his way back home to his family in Germany during WWII, Max Bretzfeld, with a kobold named Berg on one shoulder and a dybbuk named Stein on the other, sets out to do the impossible--become a British spy"--Provided by publisher.
Date Published:2024

Max in the land of lies

Gidwitz, Adam,


"A tale of World War II"--Dust jacket. Sequel to: Max in the house of spies. School Library Journal starred, March 2025. Horn Book Starred, May 2025. Kirkus Starred, January 2025. "Max Bretzfeld has become a British spy and is returning to Germany with two missions: to infiltrate the Funkhaus, the center of Nazi radio and propaganda; and to find his parents"--OCLC.
Date Published:2025

On again, awkward again

Kelly, Erin Entrada,


School Library Journal starred, April 2025. Publishers Weekly, February 2025. Booklist, April 2025. Horn Book, May 2025. Kirkus Review, March 2025. High school freshmen, Pacy and Cecil, share a look of love at first sight that sparks a series of mistakes and awkward interactions that become part of their love story.
Date Published:2025

Rise of the jumbies

Baptiste, Tracey,


Sequel to: The jumbies. School Library Journal starred, August 2017. Kirkus Starred, July 2017. Booklist, September 2017. Suspicion falls on half-jumbie Corinee when local children from her Caribbean island home begin to disappear, and she is forced to go deep into the ocean to seek the help of a dangerous jumbie who rules the waves.
Date Published:2017

Those kids from Fawn Creek

Kelly, Erin Entrada,


School Library Journal, March 2022. Booklist starred, March 2022. Horn Book Starred, March 2022. Pub Weekly, January 2022. Kirkus Starred, January 2022. New York Times, March 2022. Library Media Connection, August 2022. The twelve kids in the seventh grade at Fawn Creek K-12 have been together all their lives so when graceful Orchid Mason arrives, with exotic clothes and glorious hair, the other seventh graders do not know what to think.
Date Published:2023

School Library Journal, March 2022. Booklist starred, March 2022. Horn Book Starred, March 2022. Pub Weekly, January 2022. Kirkus Starred, January 2022. New York Times, March 2022. Library Media Connection, August 2022. The twelve kids in the seventh grade at Fawn Creek K-12 have been together all their lives so when graceful Orchid Mason arrives, with exotic clothes and glorious hair, the other seventh graders do not know what to think.

Date Published:2023

We dream of space

Kelly, Erin Entrada,


School Library Journal starred, April 2020. Booklist starred, March 2020. Horn Book Starred, May 2020. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books starre, June 2020. Pub Weekly, March 2020. "Cash, Fitch, and Bird Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main. And Bird, his twelve-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA's first female shuttle commander. The Thomas children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms. Salonga gives her students a project; they are separated into spacecraft crews and must create and complete a mission. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways"--OCLC.
Date Published:2020

School Library Journal starred, April 2020. Booklist starred, March 2020. Horn Book Starred, May 2020. Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books starre, June 2020. Pub Weekly, March 2020. "Cash, Fitch, and Bird Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. Cash, who loves basketball but has a newly broken wrist, is in danger of failing seventh grade for the second time. Fitch spends every afternoon playing Major Havoc at the arcade on Main. And Bird, his twelve-year-old twin, dreams of being NASA's first female shuttle commander. The Thomas children exist in their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms. Salonga gives her students a project; they are separated into spacecraft crews and must create and complete a mission. When the fated day finally arrives, it changes all of their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways"--OCLC.

Date Published:2020