Friday, December 5, 2025

New Realistic Fiction


Dear Justyce by Nic Stone
Dear Martin; Book Two
“Vernell LaQuan Banks and Justyce McAllister grew up a block apart in the Southwest Atlanta neighborhood of Wynwood Heights. Years later, though, Justyce walks the illustrious halls of Yale University and Quan sits behind bars at the Fulton Regional Youth Detention Center.

Through a series of flashbacks, vignettes, and letters to Justyce, Quan's story takes form. Troubles at home and misunderstandings at school give rise to police encounters and tough decisions. But then there's a dead cop and a weapon with Quan's prints on it. What leads a bright kid down a road to a murder charge? Not even Quan is sure.” -Amazon

Dear Manny by Nic Stone
Dear Martin; Book Three
“Jared Peter Christensen is running for president (of the Junior Class Council at his university, but still). His platform is solid--built on increased equity and inclusion in all sectors of campus life--and he's got a good chance of beating the deeply conservative business major he's running against.But then a transfer student enters the race and calls Jared out for his big-talk/little-action way of moving. But what's the right way to bring about change? As the campaign heats up, feelings are caught, and juicy secrets come to light, and Jared writes letters to his deceased friend Manny, hoping to make sense of his confusion. What's a white boy to do when love and politics collide?” -WorldCat

The Great Upending by Beth Kephart
“If eleven-year-old Sara and her brother Hawk can complete a task involving the reclusive author renting out the silo on their farm for the summer they will receive reward money that will pay for Sara's life-saving surgery.” -WorldCat

The Hoop and the Harm by Jawara Pedican 
"Udoka Clendon is a first-year university student and a product of basketball systems that have produced professional players. He's been pushed relentlessly by the obsessive mentorship of his older brother, which has been tolerated by his hard-working single mother. For years his brother has taken him to tournaments and pushed him to succeed on the outdoor courts of the west end. Burdened by expectations and self-doubt, Udoka tries to reignite his passion for the game. Now, he's been given a final opportunity at the city-wide tournament to rediscover his confidence and his sense of purpose--all of which he fears he has lost forever. With the clarity and poetic style of a seasoned writer, and drawing on his own time as an elite sports prospect, Jawara Pedican shows the trials and traumas of becoming fixated on a dream of sports stardom." -Publisher

You Truly Assumed by Laila Sabreen
“Sabriya has her whole summer planned out in color-coded glory, but those plans go out the window after a terrorist attack near her home. When the terrorist is assumed to be Muslim and Islamophobia grows, Sabriya turns to her online journal for comfort. You Truly Assumed was never meant to be anything more than an outlet, but the blog goes viral as fellow Muslim teens around the country flock to it and find solace and a sense of community.

Soon two more teens, Zakat and Farah, join Bri to run You Truly Assumed and the three quickly form a strong friendship. But as the blog’s popularity grows, so do the pushback and hateful comments. When one of them is threatened, the search to find out who is behind it all begins, and their friendship is put to the test when all three must decide whether to shut down the blog and lose what they’ve worked for…or take a stand and risk everything to make their voices heard.” -Amazon