My newest favorites from the CYBILS!

 I always feel so lucky to get to read for the CYBILS award.  I love being a first round panelist where we read EVERYTHING.  I'm not going to tell you that all the nominees are wonderful because that would be a straight up lie, but there are SO many terrific surprises as we read.  Here are two of my new favorites.

The first one is called Roll for Initiative by Jaime Formato.  This is her first novel and I really hope it's not the last, because this one was terrific!  The main character in this one is Riley, who lives with her mom and her older brother, except that her older brother, Devin, has left to go to college and Riley misses him terribly.  Riley's mom works A LOT and Devin really held the family together.  Riley is unhappy with having to ride the bus, fix her own meals, do the laundry and her homework all on her own but as luck would have it, a friendly girl named Lucy has moved into her apartment complex and she's looking for some new friends too.  When Riley tries to pass off a world map that she had been working on for Dungeons and Dragons game as a poster for school spirit week, Lucy demands that Riley let her into a game.  Riley agrees and as they're playing, Hannah wants to join and then Jen.  It doesn't all go smoothly but they each have different skills that help them all work together as a most excellent team.  Until Devin turns up back home.  He's been struggling with his new classes and thinks he can better serve the family by taking classes at a local community college.  Riley comes up with a daring plan to get Devin to back to California.  This was SUCH a fun book to read.  The dialogue between the characters is so real and so relatable.  The characters each of the girls create seem to be a perfect reflection of who they each are and it's terrific to watch how Riley's character evolves through the story.  Am I gushing?  Probably but I really loved this book!  Don't miss is!

The second new one that I loved is from an author you might have heard of before, Alan Gratz?  Yeah, him.  He's written these amazing books about different topics like refugees (Refugee) or September 11 (Ground Zero) and World War 2 (Prisoner B-3087, Projekt 1065, Grenade, Allies),  all with varying points of view and storytellers.  His new one is called Two Degrees and I'd like to hope it's actually set in a dystopian future but I'm kind of scared it's not.  This one tackles climate change and the storytellers are Akira, who lives in California with her family and loves horseback riding but is surprised when a trail ride is interrupted by a raging wildfire.  Then there's Owen and George (who are the comic relief providers, thank goodness), they live in Churchill, Manitoba and give polar bear tours but even these savvy polar bear experts are surprised when they are attacked.  Finally, there's Natalie, who lives in Miami and her family is preparing for direct hit from a category 4 or 5 hurricane.  Like his other works, this one runs at a breakneck speed-the chapters are short and switch from one character to another pretty often and usually right at a climactic moment.  There's tons of action and drama and lots to keep readers engaged.  I know I couldn't put it down.  There is some very pointed conversation about how climate change is impact different parts of North America but he could have easily picked places in other parts of the world as well.  Gratz also includes a parent who is a climate change denialist which provides an interesting counter point. I loved this one.  I'm probably biased because I love all his work but I thought having this one, set in the present instead of the past was brilliant.  I can't wait to put this one in my library.

Here's the book trailer.