It's Easy! All You Need Is Love by John Lennon and Paul McCartney

Bears are known to be a bit grumpy when they emerge from hibernation, and this rumpled bear is no exception. Melting snow is making chilly puddles all around. Bah!

But what's that sound?

It's a happy bluebird whose song seems to call forth the spring itself. Trees begin budding and bright flowers push up out of the muddy fields.

The bluebird perches on Bear's head and offers him a freshly picked flower and then leads him through the landscape.

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!

ALL YOU REALLY NEED IS LOVE!

And as Bear and Bird make their way down the road, spring unfolds before them and a joyful throng assembles as the parade progresses to a happy "happening" in the park.

NOWHERE YOU CAN BE

THAT ISN'T WHERE YOU'RE MEANT TO BE!

Altogether, now, everyone:

LOVE IS ALL YOU NEED!

In a sweet tribute to fellow-feeling and spring joy, the lyrics to Lennon and McCartney's anthem to love, so familiar to Baby Boomers and Beatles fans, becomes the lively rhyming text to All You Need Is Love, illustrated with great charm and visual humor by noted picture book artist, Mark Rosenthall. Love may not be all we need in these times, but it is what we need for sure, love for life, love for our lovely world, and love for each other. School Library Journal sums it up: "The illustrations are as inspiring as the lyrics, with bright rainbow colors, and lighthearted, animated characters. The diversity of human characters is to be appreciated, and the change of setting as the parade marches on adds interest and intrigue. VERDICT A cultural must-have for all well-rounded library collections."

All Heart! Little Miss Valentine by Roger Hargreaves

Little Miss Valentine is all heart --REALLY.

LITTLE MISS VALENTINE HAD ONE DAY A YEAR WHEN SHE WAS TERRIFICALLY BUSY.

From her center of operations in Cupid's Cottage, she manages the distribution and delivery of Valentines all around the world. Santa has a sleigh, but Little Miss Valentine sails her heart-shaped hot-air balloon through the sky, dropping Valentine cards in their envelopes which always find the right mailbox as if by magic.

And her Valentines are especially designed for each individual.

LITTLE MISS SCARY'S CARD JUMPED OUT FROM THE PAGE WHEN SHE OPENED IT!

Little Miss Valentine thought hers was the best job in the whole world--but not this year!

Chaos was a real possibility. Imagine what could happen if MR. QUIET got the Valentine made for MR. NOISE?

Who you gonna call?

It's Little Miss Hug to the rescue in Roger Hargreaves' Little Miss Valentine (Mr. Men and Little Miss) (Grosset and Dunlap, 2019). With her cute red braids and her bright smile drawn by Adam Hargreaves, it looks like Little Miss Valentine and her friend will make sure that Valentines find their mailboxes again this year!

Sweet Comic Valentine! My Fuzzy Valentine by Naomi Kleinberg

It's furry. It's fuzzy.  In fact, it's even flocked. It's red. It's heart-shaped and lace trimmed.

What is inside Elmo's envelope?

And who sent it to Elmo?

Little Elmo just has to know.  So he asks everyone.

It's not from Zoe. She says her Valentine may be slow. In fact, it might come late. Baby Bear declares he's been too busy taking care of Curly Bear. Cookie Monster denies sending a Valentine, but he offers to share Elmo's!

Elmo is stumped. He does not know--until he meets Mommy and sees her smile grow and her eyes glow. And now Elmo does know!

YOU SENT ME THIS VALENTINE!

It's a very special fuzzy, flocked Valentine card, one that matches Elmo himself, in Naomi Kleinberg's and Louis Womble's touchy-feely and funny My Fuzzy Valentine (Sesame Street/Random House, 2018). It's just the way for a preschooler to spend a special Valentine's Day with little Elmo and his friends.

Is There More? Always More Love by Erin Guendelsberger

I LOVE YOU SO MUCH, BUT THERE'S MORE IN MY HEART.
WHERE DO I START?

With a nod to Elisabeth and Robert Browning, those quintessential amorous Victorian poets, February is the time to express those "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways" thoughts.

But for kids not into long love letters in Spencerian handwriting, there are other ways to talk about love.

And in Erin Guendelsberger's Always More Love (Sourcebooks, 2020), the poet voicing the words of love is a fat red Valentine heart with stick arms and legs and big eyes who comes up with some interactive professions and confessions of love.

I'M NOT JUST RED--THERE'S MORE TO ME.
SHAKE THE BOOK TO SEE WHAT I CAN BE!

NOW MAKE A FACE--AS SILLY AS YOU WISH!
NOW BLOW YOUR BIGGEST, LOUDEST KISS!

Fans of interactive books like Herve' Tullet's Press Here (Baby Board Book, Learning to Read Book, Toddler Board Book, Interactive Book for Kids) (see review here), will get this newest one, illustrated with an active little narrator who believes that there's always more love, in a good alternative to a Valentine's Day card for preschool and primary readers.

What's in a Word? I Love You, Fred by Mick and Chloe Inkpen

Fred is a different dog these days.

He's been schooled and is now a doggy academy graduate. Fred wasn't the star pupil, but he wasn't the worst in his class either.

He knows all those important words his young master uses:

I "SIT." I "STAY"
I DON'T RUN AWAY.

"WALK" AND "BARK" AND "BED."
BUT WHAT IS..."FRED?"

His people say that word a lot. Fred wants to earn a "Good Boy!" but... he can't figure out how to "FRED!"

Fred puzzles. He watches other dogs in the park, but they never seem to FRED!

And then one day at the park Fred sees another dog just like him looking up at him from the pond. And he has Fred's ball!

Fred jumps into the pond!

PADDLE! STRUGGLE! KICK! SPLUTTER!

Suddenly his boy is shouting FRED!

"OH, FRED! FRED! FRED! FRED!"

And as Fred is pulled out of the water he suddenly gets it. He is Fred.

"I HAVE BEEN FREDDING ALL THE TIME."

Now Fred knows who he is and that he is loved, in Mick and Chloe Inkpen's I Love You, Fred (Aladdin Books, 2019), a funny story of a boy and his goofy but well-meaning pug who are learning to speak the same language--love--illustrated with charm and love by the author's daughter, Chloe Inkpen. Share this one with Inkpen's first book about Fred in his pre-obedience school days, I Will Love You Anyway and his hit stories of a pampered pooch, Naughty Mabel (read review here).

Looking for Love: Love, Z by Jessie Sima

A little robot named Z goes out one day hunting for adventure and finds a message in a bottle. All that is still legible on the letter are two words.

LOVE,
BEATRICE

Little Z doesn't have a clue what "love" means and who or what "Beatrice" might be, but they sound important. At bedtime he asks his family of rusty robots, as they sweetly tuck him in to bed with a story and a clanky kiss. They can only say...

DOES NOT COMPUTE

But Z cannot leave the question unanswered. Setting out on a quest, he spots a sturdy sailboat with a kitty for a captain.

"Hello, I am looking for Beatrice. I am looking for what love is, and she will have the answer."

But as they sail on, nobody has a clue.

"What's a Beatrice?"

But everyone has a different definition of what love is. The crow says its sharing delicious food--even if you want it for yourself. Kids playing in the park all have their own ideas. One says it's butterflies. One says it's a million puppies, and another thinks of snowflakes on his tongue.

All of these don't really compute for Z either. Beatrice must be the only one who knows. He has to find her. Z and Kitty Captain sail on until, weary, they spot a small island with a cozy house. They disembark and knock at the friendly-looking blue door. A woman opens it.

"Hello. I'm Beatrice," she says.

She brings Z and Kitty in beside the fire and Z explains the object of their mission. Beatrice says she has to think about that query, so she does, while she offers fresh baked cookies, plays a game of checkers with Z, and they dance to her old Victrola. At last she explains.

"You'll know it when you feel it,"

Z is unsure what to make of her answer, but as he prepares to power down, there's a sudden knock at Beatrice's door.

It's Z's whole family of old rusty robots who've been searching for him, bringing his favorite bedtime story, his night-light, and good-night kisses from all, and at last Z has a feeling that does compute, in Jessie Sima's Love, Z Simon and Schuster, 2018).  A sweet story in which Z goes looking for love in all the right places, Sima's soft and simple illustrations extend the storytelling, right down to Z and the rusty robots shoving off for home, leaving Kitty and his flotsam bottle, tagged "Love, Z" with Beatrice. Sima's other books include Not Quite Narwhal, smf Harriet Gets Carried Away (read reviews here).

Some Bunny Loves You! I Love You, Funny Bunny! by Sean Julian

Some Bunny loves Funny Bunny...

... from whiskers to toes...

And, goodness knows... all the way to that pinkish nose. This Funny Bunny has style and a winning smile...

All their time is hugging time and singing time, reading time, and especially at bedtime.

Some big Bunny loves all the times with Funny Bunny!

Sean Julian's sweet board book is filled with soft and fuzzy love in his I Love You, Funny Bunny (ZonderKidz, 2019) in a rollicking, frolicking rhyming book that any bunny and every bunny would love. Julian's softly textured big bunny and baby bunny are an endearing pair of parent and child who clearly enjoy being together, reading, wrestling, talking and singing through their day.

DING! Robot in Love by T. L. McBeth

It was a day like any other.

Then I saw her!

I had never seen anything so beautiful.. So... shiny!

No sooner do his optical sensors fire than his servos are in swivel and his central processor is sizzling!! He is smitten.

Robot is in love!

He moves closer, thinking to activate vocalization, but his circuit board is in total system overload.

DING!

Our connection was electric!

The next day Robot tries again. Nattily attired in spiffy suit and red bow tie, carrying a bouquet, he returns to their meeting place, determined to communicate to her how he feels.

She was gone!

Then he sees her picture in the store window--and her name!

TOAST-O-MATIC!

We ran away together.

And it's true love and a dual power supply forever in T.L. McBeth's toasty warm love story Robot in Love (Henry Holt and Company, 2018). Artist McBeth's simple artwork depicts his love-stricken suitor dandily dressed, in simple black and white drawings accented with soft reds, right down to the Valentine hearts in his visual orbits. For youngsters who prefer their love stories on the silly side, this is a heart-warming Valentine Day's story which will not fail to engage the giggle gears in young readers in a sweet tale of cyborg romance.

For more offbeat Valentine fare, pair this one with Kelly DiPucchio's hilarious Zombie in Love (see review here).

To the New World! Brightly Burning by Alexa Donne

I glanced up to see globules of liquid dancing up from my drinking glass. They shimmered red, like droplets of blood, though I knew it was just cherry-flavored nutri-drink. Dammit, that's my protein ration for the day wasted.

The gravity stabilizers were failing again.

The equipment aboard the agricultural spaceship Stalwart was always breaking down. Stella Ainsley, who doubles aboard as teacher and maintenance engineer, is valued for her skilled small hands, but is nevertheless restless with her first work assignment. Almost 18, half through her expected lifespan in space, Stella feels some romantic stirrings for her fellow crewmen, George and Jon, but she suspects that the decrepit old ship is destined to be de-certified sooner rather than later.

So when a job a governess aboard the high status Rochester, a moon orbiter, comes open, Stella jumps at it. In the days after the apocalypse has left Earth in an ice age, being tutor to the young sister of the captain of the ship seems to offer Stella a better life. At least onboard the Rochester, there will be better food--vegetables and hope for occasional meat--and new people, and by comparison to the Stalwart, what seem like posh quarters.

"How do I turn the lights on?" I mumbled to myself, then jumped as the lights flicked to life, like magic. Maybe Sergei was onto something and this ship was haunted.

A sound, high-pitched and bloodcurdling, jolted me out of my moment. It was like a laugh. But that couldn't be. I was spooking myself. I got up, taking eight steps across the room--insanely large--and pushed the square button. Whoosh, the panels parted and I gasped. I had my own bathroom.

Stella's bold move to the new ship pleases her. Her pupil Jessa is a sweet eleven-year-old, there's even bacon for breakfast, and the strange but handsome Hugo Fairfax, the ship's captain, takes a special interest in her, even inviting her to evening reading sessions from his enormous library in his stateroom. But Stella soon discovers that life on the Rochester has similarities to life in the court of Louis XIV. Staff members angle for the captain's favor, and when the luxe private ship Ingram docks for an extended stay, the beautiful Bianca seems obviously to have set her cap for Hugo. There is a swirl of rumors and intrigue among the elegantly gowned guests, and just as Stella begins to believe that Hugo truly cares for her, she discovers a horrendous plot among the vying aristocrats to reduce the population of the fleet through a deadly virus created by the Rochester's medical officer, Mari Hanada. Stella faces the choice of going along with the plan or trying to escape back to Earth, hoping to be part of the colonization of a livable area of the planet.

Alexa Donne's forthcoming Brightly Burning (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2018) is a heady mix of Gothic romance, science fiction, and an apocalyptic survival story. Savvy readers may recognize the bare bones of the plot of Jane Eyre, with a wink and a hint from the author when Stella takes the pseudonym of "Jane" as she manages her escape, while elements of that classic love story are played out in a futuristic fleet of spaceships in low orbit around Earth. There is a strong and varied cast of characters with many motives, underlain by an all-too-possible post-apocalyptic setting. Unlike the gentle Jane, however, Stella is a self-admittedly bold heroine with a strong moral sense who finally loves wisely but also well.

Somebunny Loves You! LOVE from PETER RABBIT

LOVE is all the smiles you give.

I'll never have enough.

Peter and Mama Rabbit count the ways of love--exploring the wide world together, and then going back home, snuggling together in their burrow.

It's holding hands when lost or lonely, cuddling when it's snowy outside, that "just right" feeling when they share time and hugs and kisses, and laughs, especially at bedtime.

With the beloved pastel illustrations of Beatrix Potter, this little book, sturdy but petite enough for small hands, Love from Peter Rabbit (Frederick Warne, 2017), is a sweet but sugar-free treat for the Easter season, especially for the Easter basket, along with the adorable Gund Classic Beatrix Potter Peter Rabbit Stuffed Animal Plush, 6.5-Inch., for somebunny who's loved a lot.

The Girl Can't Help It! The Calculus of Change by Jessie Hilb

I have a secret passion for calculus. I like the idea of infinitesimal change, because it feels like somehow I can control it. I am in charge of getting the numbers and symbols where they need to go. What I can't control in real life is the sudden, catastrophic change that often comes without steps or warning and makes life insufferably different. Like a dead mom.

But it is in real life, in calculus class, that Aden is hit by a change she can't control.

A boy named Tate asks her to tutor him. Looking at him is like a shot out of the blue.

Talking to Tate is like swimming underwater. Everything silences, and it's just him and me. But I can't breathe.

He smiles. I'm toast.

The air seems electric when she's with him. They laugh together. They finish sentences together. They seem to sparkle together.

But Tate has a steady girlfriend, Maggie. Aden tries to forget about her and savor every moment she has with Tate. But she admits to herself that she is jealous of Maggie, thin and stylish in her skinny jeans, while Aden feels like a bubble in her long skirts and tunics. "Can a girl be pretty if she's also fat?" she wonders.

But times with Tate are like out-of-body experiences for Aden. He makes her feel beautiful. She lives for those times when they are together.

The rest of life seems a slow slog. Her younger brother Jon is restless, unhappy with her father's plan for him to win a lacrosse scholarship and confesses to Aden that he wants to go to Rhode Island School of Design and create video games. Her dad tries to keep the family together, but he is often irrationally angry, especially with Jon. And then her best friend Marissa confides that she thinks she's in love with one of their teachers.

"Lance? Lance who?"

"Lance Danson." she says, still looking down.

"Wait, what? As in Mr. Danson? "He's married. He has a kid! Dude," I say, "be careful there."

"I can't help it," Marissa says quietly.

Suddenly Aden is struck with the unsuspected similarity between them. Tate has a steady girlfriend, and yet, she can't help the way she feels around him, either.

Love does not follow the rules. There's no certainty about it.

Is attraction as quixotic as Cupid's arrow? Or can it be subject to rational calculation? Little Richard's classic song says "She can't help it, the girl can't help it." But Aden is the Queen of calculus class. She likes scenarios she can control. But she can't control the fact that her mother has been dead since she was seven. She can't help her brother Jon, who seems rudderless, diverted by drugs and his girlfriend, even though she's always been his substitute mom. She can't seem to get through to her dad, who seems to be sinking into unresolved grief and rage. And finally, her own self doubt gets in the way of logic. She feels she wants and deserves more from Tate, but if she doesn't get it, can she bear to turn away from him? She begins to do irrational things that make her wonder.

Jessie Hilb's The Calculus of Change (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2018) takes on the messy improbability of love and life, the things that can be controlled and the things that cannot, the things that can be helped and the things that cannot, in an absorbing story of young love and mature love lost and found, and hoped for that almost sinks her main character beneath the waters of her first love. No absolute answers are offered, except to keep swimming, to give it your best stroke, as Aden does in a book that will resonate strongly with young adult readers.

Sweet-Heart! Beecause I Love You by Sandra Magsamen

YOU SHINE LIKE A FIREFLY LIGHTING UP THE NIGHT!

Sandra Magsamen's little toy-and-movable book is a Valentine card with a cover--and antennae--just made for a favorite youngster.

Filled with similes to sweet ladybugs, glowing fireflies, dipping and dancing butterflies, and even a whale swimming delightedly, Magsamen's Beecause I Love You (Made With Love) (Scholastic Press, 2017) begins with a comparison to a bee who wears his heart on his vest, so to speak, and whose wings are heart-shaped, like hand-sewn appliques.

Each page in this smallish board book shows another lovable creature doing something winsome, but the final profession of love is saved just for THE ONE at the very end--

BEECAUSE YOU'RE YOU!

How Much Do I Love You? My Sweet Little Megabyte by Jeffrey Button

How do I love you? Let me count the ways.

And in Jeffrey Button's little board book, My Sweet Little Megabyte (Little, Simon, 2016), the counting is in bits and bytes, mega, giga, and tera.

There's no mistake.

My heart is yours.

With bits of wit and a protocol of hyper text affection, the authors says his cache of cookies is all for this app of his I, all 4 U, not virtual but--IRL! In this sweet little Valentine's book of digital wordplay, we have an inexpensive little greeting card of a board book for youngsters coded for that special day of endearments.

Warm Feelings! Guess How Much I Love You in the Winter by Sam McBratney

Little Nut Brown Hare and Big Nut Brown Hare went out in the winter snow. They played I Spy as they hopped through the snow.

"I spy something that belongs to a spider," says Big Nut Brown Hare.

Little Nut Brown Hare scrutinizes the all-white scene. Could there be a spider in all this snow? Then he spies something.

"A WEB!"

What's more fun than walking and playing a game in the snow with Dad? And Little Nut Brown Hare is sharp as a tack. He spots something that belongs to the river. It's water, of course. Easy-peasy!

Then Big Nut Brown gives him a harder question.

"I SPY SOMETHING THAT BELONGS TO YOU!"

Little Nut Brown Hare looks down at himself doubtfully. He's not wearing mittens or a scarf... or anything! Then Big Nut Brown Hare offers him a prompt.

"IT'S ONLY THERE WHEN THE SUN COMES OUT."

Aha! Beyond a shadow of a doubt, Little Nut Brown Hare and his dad are having a fine walk in the winter scene, in Sam McBratney's latest in his beloved Guess How Much I Love You series, Guess How Much I Love You in the Winter: Deluxe Cut Paper Edition (Candlewick Press, 2016). And there is something extra-special in this wintry edition with beautiful cut-out, layered three-dimensional illustrations of woodsy winter vistas by Anita Jera, making this title a standout among the seasonal crop of snow and Valentine's Day stories. Youngsters will love studying the pages and playing I Spy along with the Nut Brown pair and join into the warm and loving story of father and son hugs. Pair this one with the plush toy for a heart-warming gift for a special preschooler.

Heart-y Countdown Peppa Pig and the I-Love-You-Game by Neville Ashley

"TODAY IS THE DAY WE CELEBRATE EVERYTHING WE LOVE," SAYS MUMMY PIG. "WE CAN PLAY THE I-LOVE-YOU-GAME!"

"I LOVE GAMES!" SAYS PEPPA.

And it seems that Peppa especially loves talking about things she loves. She launches into a long list--birthday parties with balloons and cake with candles to blow out. She loves cookies. She loves dressing up, and.....

Granny Pig softly interrupts Peppa's eruption of favorites and turns to little Georgie to give him a chance to join in. Georgie jumps in quickly with his short list!

"DINO-SAW!!!!!"

Undeterred, Peppa plows on. She loves rainbows and books about rainbows and drawing rainbows. And then she loves ... spiders.

"NOT ME!" SHIVERS DADDY PIG.

Grandpa Pig grabs the conversational ball before Peppa can pop back in, remarking that he loves his blackberry bushes, and Grandma adds that she loves picking his blackberries and eating blackberry pies.

Peppa breaks in again.

"I LOVE LOTS OF THINGS!" SAYS PEPPA.

No kidding!

She continues with her list. She loves her friend Suzy Sheep, and Goldie, her Goldfish, and, and.....

The list of "things" Peppa loves seems endless. Parrots and pizza and pictures she draws, and playing her drums, and planting plants in Grandpa's garden plot. Everyone in the family nods, a bit weary of Peppa's monopolizing monologue. With a slightly ironic smile, Mummy Pig wryly asks if she is quite sure she hasn't forgotten anything. Peppa pauses.

"JUMPING IN MUD PUDDLES!"

And Peppa gets no argument from her family, who are, after all, pigs, in Neville Ashley's Peppa Pig and the I Love You Game (Candlewick Press). Preschool fans of the Peppa's Pig family cartoons will no doubt proceed to chime in with their own lists of best-loved things after hearing this one. A good story for the pre-Valentine's Day period, or for any time to get kids talking about whom or what they love.

Pair this one with Charlotte Pomerantz' and James Marshall's peerless poetic tale of puddles and pigs, The Piggy in the Puddle (Reading Rainbow Books) guaranteed to leave any kid giggling with glee.

Panicked! Under Rose-Tainted Skies by Louise Gornall

"Ready?" Mom asks. "Just keep breathing"

I'm drowning. "Mom." I snatch her arm, hold it tight to my chest like it's a buoy. I won't make it to the car. Exhaustion hits like a Mack truck. And then, just because the panic attack hasn't quite finished screwing me six ways from Sunday, the spasms start. Arms up, legs twitch. A tortured heaving sound makes my skeleton jerk. I can't stop it. At least I don't pass out this time. That's the worst, especially if there's no one around to catch you.

That's only happened to me once. Back then I didn't know what a panic attack was. Mrs. Dawson asked me a question in chem class, and my mind went blank. Everyone's eyes were on me. My vision started to wobble. Like when the heat rises off the desert floor and smudges the landscape, everything was out of focus. The next thing I knew I was waking up in the ER, a set of staples running down my forehead. Things got really bad from there.

In her first year of high school, Norah had a panic attack which left her with a full-blown case of agoraphobia complicated by obsessive compulsive disorder. Soon she can't leave her room unless her four cushions are lined up precisely on her perfectly-made bed and all her books are stacked by perfectly aligned sizes. Trips to see her psychologist usually end in an attack that requires Dr. Reeves to meet with her in the car.

But Norah likes to watch what goes on outside from the open door, and one day she watches a new family moving in next door, with an incredibly handsome boy, and she realizes she can't take her eyes off of him whenever he is outside.

Something warm fizzes like seltzer in my stomach as I watch him through the window.

And when her Mom has to be out of town, Norah finds herself unable even to retrieve the ordered groceries delivered to her back door, and she is surprised when he knocks and offers to bring them in. Apparently, he has seen her at the door trying to reach them and cheerfully carries them in. He is nice and funny, explaining that his mom made him come over and reassure them that he doesn't have a motorcycle or play drums all night. Norah is able to talk and joke with him. And for the first time in a long while, around Luke she feels normal.

Over time, waves from the doorway become texts back and forth, and eventually Norah is able to spend an evening watching movies with Luke. Against all odds, he seems to accept her, phobias and all, and to see her differently from the way she sees herself.

And then one movie night, after she has allowed Luke to touch her hand, he kisses her, and she recoils, visions of deadly bacteria in that kiss.

"Leave me alone!" I try to yell, but it comes out small, a tremor tearing through.

It's over, her time of feeling almost normal. Norah hates herself and her shrinking world even more now that she is really alone in a way she wasn't before Luke.

But then, when Mom is again away on business, the worst thing that can happen happens. Norah wakens suddenly in the middle of the night.

I notice the faintest glow of silver moonlight seeping out of a crack in Mom's door. Then there's a bump, and a single note from Mom's musical jewelry box rings out.

There's someone in my house.

The intruder will be coming to her bedroom next, Norah knows. And she knows what she has to do, must do.

"I have to leave the house."

Louise Gornall's forthcoming Under Rose-Tainted Skies (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion, 2017) has it all--a self-aware, funny and phobic heroine whose courage matches her fears and a love story of two people drawn to each other despite it all. The strength of this young adult novel lies in the honest first-person narration of Gornall's character Norah, who takes the reader inside the constrained world of an agoraphobic with a sensitive but insightful description of her closely constrained world. Even with the somewhat ex machina ending which has Norah face the very worst of her fears, ironically to find real safety outside, this is a highly believable novel written in witty and elegant prose, with a promise of hope for Norah at the end of her flight from fear.

Not In Our Stars: Lost Stars by Lisa Selin Davis

I looked toward the darkening sky. I watched as the moon and sun collided, a black spot surrounded by a thin band of fire, and in that magical instant I could feel Ginny around me. Matter is always matter. Every molecule that made up her person was still here, or at least in our galaxy.... Nothing mattered here on Earth. Nothing mattered but the stars, my real friends, the source of all life.

In that moment, that seven minutes and thirty one seconds of eclipse, I felt completely at peace. There was no life or death, and Ginny had never existed and always would. All the answers were in the stars, and I loved them as much as I'd ever loved anyone.

When the family's golden girl, her older sister Ginny, died in a drunken crash in her junior year, Carrie's family falls apart. Little sister Rosie becomes the perfect little sister, her mother flees to a semi-Buddhist "retreat for lost souls," as Carrie puts it, and her father goes autocratic, trying to crack down on Carrie, hoping to save her from Ginny's fate.

Carrie's only lifelines are her love for astronomy and her sister's older friends, just graduated and spending their last summer at home before college trying to pack as much booze and drugs and thoughtless sex as they can into their last days as teenagers. Carrie knows she doesn't really fit in, that they accept her out of loyalty to her dead sister, but she clings to those nights in Soo's basement with music and drinking to dull her grief and secret responsibility for her sister's death, and she numbs her emotions by relentlessly calculating the progress of Comet 11P/A Alexandrov, making its appearance in its 97-year cycle at the end of the summer.

And then two people come in to her life. Tonya was a friend from freshman year, before Ginny died. Her dad has enrolled Carrie in what she considers boot camp for bad teens, a community work camp constructing a footbridge to the town observatory, and Tonya, grown into a no-nonsense straw-boss type, tries to shape Carrie up, to teach her how to pull weeds, use a shovel and hammer, and be a responsible person.

The other new person is Dean. For reasons unspoken, he is staying for the summer with his aunt next door, and the sound of his guitar draws Carrie to him, first in conversations about music, and then deeper and deeper into friendship and the beginning of her first real feelings for a boy. Somehow, Dean seems to understand her fear of getting close to anyone, and when Comet Vira becomes visible over the horizon, something inside of Carrie begins to change. She takes heart in knowing that the light of those already dead "lost stars" keeps coming toward earth, eons after their death.

"Eventually every star will explode. There's no getting around it," I said.

"Look," Dean said, "we're all going to die or a black hole will swallow us. But it might be tens of thousands of years, millions, before then. Or, as that book you like says, 'billions.'"

"Billions," I said.

"Nobody in the whole universe knows how things will end," Dean said.

Lisa Selin Davis' forthcoming Lost Stars (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016) is a young adult novel that catches its character at a point of celestial transit, a moment when nothing and yet everything changes. She sees her parents as planets in their own orbits and yet subject to the same pull from the stars that she feels, and she sees her own path through time in a different light. Like her comet, Carrie realizes that she has her own path to follow, not one set in the stars.

Playing out against the background music of the 1980s, this honest but hopeful novel deals without apology with the time in which drugs disrupted families and brought young people to face deaths of their own doing, a time like all times when they must find their own stars to steer by, but find they don't have to do it alone.

Best of Times, Worst of Times: Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan

We all knew the law. Ethan’s Uncle Mark had made the proclamation broadcast across the city, announcing new laws had been passed to stop the sans-merci, to give the Light guards the power to crush them.The guards would use that power to kill Ethan, unless I stopped them.

“The guards of the Light don’t take bribes,” the guard said.

There was the long, slow scrape of a train-car door opening. Standing framed in the doorway was a doppelganger, his face shrouded by the doppelganger’s dark hood, fastened with the enchanted collar.

“I heard there was a witness who saw the accused consorting with a member of the sans-merci,” he said. “I just have one question.”The doppelganger threw his hood back.

This was Ethan’s face. This was Ethan’s doppelganger—his exact physical double.

“How do you know,” continued the doppelganger, “that it wasn’t me?”

Society is divided into the City of Light, maintained by Light Magic, and the City of the Dark, "the buried," powerless and poor, dominated by the dark magicians. Ethan's family, the Strykers, rule the Light City, but they have a dark secret: as a baby Ethan's life was saved by the blood of a created doppelganger, hooded and bound by a dark magic collar. Lucie, too, has a dark past, saving her father with her own magic from the Cages where blood was drawn to nourish the magicians of the Light, celebrated as the Golden Thread in the Dark, but used by the Strykers to keep the Dark City pacified.

But Ethan and Lucie love each other deeply, and when on their way back to the City Ethan is seized as a traitor, he is saved from instant execution by the intervention of his double. The law states that an eyewitness' story can't count against someone who has a doppelganger, and when Ethan and Lucie are released, the Strykers use their power to protect Ethan and suppress the doppelganger's own story. Lucie's sympathy for the doppelganger Carwyn leads her to free him impulsively from his collar, even though he warns her that he has no soul, only evil within.

Lucie's liberation of Carwyn is emblematic of what is happening in the greater society. The revolutionaries of the Dark, the Sans Merci. break free and are relentless in their movement to overthrow the reign of the Light, and despite their glowing city and merciless guardians, that revolution inevitably begins with a slaughter of the ruling class.

They brought out more of the Light Council, one after the other and killed them before our eyes. The blood fell like rain and caused a joyful riot.

There was no escape from the ugliness in the human heart, the hate that led to this violence and all violence.

Both the City of Light and the City of Dark are set afire by the rebels, and Ethan is seized and set for execution by the Sans Merci. Despite her powers of light, Lucie cannot save him. But again, Carwyn steps forward to substitute himself as he did on the train platform.

His grip on the dark cage was firm. He looked bright and sweet and new to the world. He looked like no one but himself, like a self he had never been before. I know he did have a soul.

Sarah Rees Brennan's forthcoming Tell the Wind and Fire (Houghton Mifflin Clarion Books, 2016) artfully twists the plot of the classic A Tale of Two Cities (Dover Thrift Editions) around her tale of a dystopic society's decline through class warfare into the chaos of rebellion, a story line with parallels in current life.

Magic in this novel is mostly metaphorical, in the classic antithesis of the Light and the Darkness. But Brennan's people of the Light are no angels, merely a fortunate and fabulously wealthy few whose hegemony is maintained through brutal use of dark magic, actually and symbolically drawing upon the blood of the people of the Dark as well as their labors to remain in power. Among these "illuminati" there is a glittering way of life, but one maintained by brute force and suppression. Lucie, as narrator, is herself the one bridge between the two cities, and Brennan chooses flawed characters, Carwyn, whose name means "Blessed Love," and Lucie and Ethan, their very names yet meaning "Light" and "Strong and Wise," to be charged with reshaping their society.

Brennan's writing is not hindered but rather bolstered by the weight of metaphor and its now familiar genre of dystopia society and rebellion. This novel draws on deep roots that will be familiar to young adult readers on some level to tell a rousing story of love and conflict for power that never flags.

See the book's trailer here.

Trust No One, Not Even Yourself: We'll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean

I found Cellie crouched in the backyard, a pile of wadded newspapers and dry grass at her feet. A book of matches was in her hand.

"Don't, Cellie." Jason went and stood by her side. "I don't want this," I said to him. He looked baffled.

"What about what he did to us? Don't you still see Roman in your dreams?" he said to me.

"What he did to us was awful. But this isn't the way, Jason. We have to forgive, to forget, to move on. You don't want to do this. I know it. This isn't you."

His upper lip curled. "You don't know shit about me." Cellie struck her match first, inhaling deeply at the explosion of sulfur. She handed the matchbook to Jason and he struck one as well.

"Please," I begged. But they didn't listen. Together they held the matches aloft and dropped them.

Alice Monroe is found by her neighbor on her third birthday, in the house where her grandfather had been dead for three days. Alice is left, with her twin Celia, to stay with the next-door neighbors, while the police search for relatives. But Alice watches, frightened, as her sister sets fires and becomes violent, and soon they are taken away from the kindly Mr. and Mrs. Chan and sent to a succession of temporary foster parents and group homes, until, with a boy named Jason, they become the virtual prisoners of the cruel Roman, who rousts them from sleep to beat them almost nightly. Eventually they are removed from Roman's custody, but Jason's desire for revenge only grows stronger as they grow older.

And when they are arrested for Roman's death in the fire, Alice and Cellie are sent to Savage Isle, an institution for mentally disturbed teens. Out on bail and waiting his trial, Jason finds a way to help them escape and takes them to hide out in an abandoned country barn. But jealous of Alice's closeness with Jason, Cellie throws a lighted lantern into the bales of hay in the loft, and Jason dies in the fire. Alice survives and sees herself and Cellie returned to Savage Isle.

Charged with arson and with Jason's murder, Alice is on probation with the general patient population, but when her twin seems not to be there, Alice assumes she is confined to D Ward, the section for seriously disturbed patients. She becomes convinced that she will never be free as long as her sister is alive, and forms a close relationship with Chase, who agrees to help her get into D Ward to find her twin without knowing that Alice is planning her murder. But as Alice comes to love and perhaps trust Chase, her will to kill begins to fade.

Emiko Jean's Gothic thriller, We'll Never Be Apart (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015) has the taut immediacy of relationships of, say, one of John Green's famous teen novels, heightened by the psyche-destroying circumstances of Alice's ruined childhood. But just as Alice's fear and hate for her evil twin seems to losing its power over her, she discovers her own medical file hidden in Chase's room, and she learns the truth about herself that she has never understood.

This is an absorbing story of sad realities and compelling fantasies, but where author Jean works her writerly magic is in the way she uses dualities--Alice's first person narrative of events as they occur, her journal's remembrances of those events, and the dimly glimpsed truth, the fiction within a fiction, that takes readers into Alice's psychotic delusions so convincingly that we too are shaken by the sudden revelation of Alice's dual selves and left off-balance by the novel's ambiguous ending--both of them. It's quite a tour de force, a searing young adult novel that is hard to forget.

Looking for Love: There's This Thing by Connah Brecon

IT'S ALL...

AND....

I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IT BETTER, BUT I'M NOT VERY BRAVE.

When the girl thinks about it, she imagines a fizzy bottle of soda pop overflowing, and when she imagines it, she knows it will be something like how she feels when she hugs her cat.

Our girl is looking for love, and at first she is looking for love in all the wrong places.

She leaves a trail of crumbs, and a hungry, honking goose finds her. She sets a deadfall trap with a stick and a box, but what she catches is a very disgruntled bear.

She makes her way down Hope Street, and stops in front of the KEY SHOP, wondering what will open up all the thoughts in her heart.

Dejected, she sits down on a bench, certain that she'll never find what she needs.

And then a boy, who has been watching her from afar, sits down beside her and solemnly hands her a heart-shaped balloon.

"MAY I?" HE ASKS.

It's a perfect happy ending for Valentine's Day, in Connah Brecon's There's This Thing (Philomel Books, 2014), which tells readers that sometimes love just finds you. Brecon's illustration are delicate, with the focus on his main character, except for certain pages which offer hints for the reader of what his little character seeks. A quiet story that requires a bit of mulling over, this one is a different take on all the fuss over Valentine's Day.