November 2022 - Page 10 of 11

The Hope of Elephants
by Amanda Rawson Hill (Author)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Cass and her parents haven’t let her dad’s cancer stop them from having a good life–full of love and poems and one annual World Series game. Now that Dad’s cancer is back, Cass overhears the doctor say that she has a 50% chance of inheriting her dad’s genetic mutation, Li-Fraumeni syndrome. There’s a genetic test Cass can take that will tell her for sure. There’s still so much she wants to do–play baseball, study at the zoo, travel the world with her best friend, Jayla. Would it be better not to know?

When it turns out Dad’s cancer is worse this time, Cass is determined to keep up their World Series tradition while navigating all the change and uncertainty that lies ahead.

Snippet:
MY FIRST WORLD SERIES

Dad got to throw
the opening pitch.
His blog had gone viral
a couple of months before.
I don’t remember much.
I was only four.

The Dancing Trees
by Masiana Kelly (Author) and Michelle Simpson (Illustrator)
@ Amazon | Bookshop | IndieBound

Booktalk: Thomas loves to tell stories. Big stories. Stories about how skilled he is on the land. But when one of his friends grows tired of his tall tales, Thomas has to prove how skilled he really is. Taking the challenge to spend a night alone in the forest, Thomas heads into the wilderness. The trees, who have heard his stories, watch him tear off their bark and litter as he goes. And so, while Thomas sleeps, they dance a dance that will leave Thomas with a very different kind of story to tell–if he can find his way home…

Snippet: He tried following the path, but he couldn’t find his way out of the forest. He tried to use the GPS on his cellphone, but his battery died. As the sky became darker and the air became cooler, a feeling of dread–and hunger–sat in his stomach.