fiction Archives - Page 421 of 727

Piñata Moon
by Torran Anderson (Author)

Booktalk: When Envo’s friend, J., commits suicide, he’s caught between his regular routine of driving around looking for parties and his own struggles with depression. Told over the course of one night in Tucson, Arizona, Enzo searches for a rite of passage that will help him confront J.’s death. As Enzo wrestles with his complicated history with J., he struggles to communicate with his friends, Matas and Sci-fi, and imagines the moon is his only confidant. Enzo keeps a running list of the tiny things he enjoys about living to combat his urge to follow in J.’s footsteps and he receives tweets from the moon that give him the guidance he craves.

Snippet:

@themoonforreal
Give me a good reason to exit this life early.
I can’t think of one.

@themoonforreal
No point in taking your life, Envo. You haven’t
lived yet.

A 2019 Cybils Poetry nominee

Otto Blotter, Bird Spotter
by Graham Carter (Author / Illustrator)

Booktalk: The Blotter family are famous bird spotters, who stay in their hideout all day. All except for Otto–he’d rather go out and have big adventures. When he follows the BIGGEST footprints he’s ever seen, he finds an extraordinary baby bird all on its own. Otto’s new friend soon reveals a very special ability: camouflage! But the bird keeps growing and growing, and Otto begins to suspect it may have a family after all . . . perhaps the time has come to take him home?

Keen-eyed readers may spot the bird’s giant family hidden on the pages, if they’re good enough bird spotters!

Snippet: