62 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ NOVEMBER 4, 2019
Review_CHILDREN’S
and tiger girls. Beyond the magical elements,
a diverse cast of characters populate Lily’s
world—her sullen older sister, Sam; her
widowed mother; the kind library staff; and
Ricky, a new friend with more than one
family secret. While the pacing is slow, the
characters’ development feels authentic and
well drawn. Keller’s (The Science of Breakable
Things) #OwnVoices journey through
Korean mythology begins with a fantastical
quest and slowly transforms into a tale
about letting go and the immortality that
story can allow. Ages 8–12. (Jan.)★ Not So Pure and Simple
Lamar Giles. HarperTeen, $17.99 (400p)
ISBN 978-0-06-234919-4
High schooler Del Rainey has had a
crush on Kiera Westing since kindergarten,
but Kiera has “never been single. Nev. Er.”
When she suddenly experiences a breakup,
though, he’s determined to give things a go,
inadvertently signing up for their church’s
Purity Pledge group alongside her, an
eight-week program offering “a thorough
review of why Jesus wants me to abstain.”
Though he’s a virgin, Del has a reputation
for being a player at school, and Kiera won’t
entertain his
clumsy advances.
Meanwhile, Del
navigates being
the guy who has
to ask awkward
questions in the
sex ed class the
other Purity
Pledgers aren’t
allowed to take
amid rumors
about the Baby-Getters Club—a supposed
pact among some of the girls at school to
get pregnant at the same time. With true-
to-life characters and a straightforward
handling of sex, including often ignored
aspects of male sexuality, Giles’s
thoughtful, hilarious read offers a timely
viewpoint on religion, toxic masculinity,
and teen sexuality. Ages 13–up. Agent:
Jamie Weiss Chilton, Andrea Brown Literary.
(Jan.)Saving Savannah
Tonya Bolden. Bloomsbury, $17.99 (272p)
ISBN 978-1-68119-804-0
Following Inventing Victoria, Bolden
returns to the world of upper-classAfrican-American society in historical
Washington, D.C., where she explores the
tumultuous changes of 1919—the fight
for women’s suffrage, the New Negro
movement, the growth of anarchism—
through the eyes of 17-year-old Savannah
Riddle, who has grown increasingly
embarrassed, even repulsed, by her privi-
leged life. Missing her brother, who has
defied their parents’ expectations by
becoming a photographer in Harlem, and
irritated by her best friend’s frivolity,
Samantha determines to “widen her
world.” She befriends the cleaning wom-
an’s daughter, Nella, and Nella’s cousin
Lloyd, a socialist-leaning activist, and
begins to volunteer at the all-black
National Training School for Women
and Girls. Her world does widen, and her
perspective radicalizes, as she experiences
how other people live, even as anarchist
actions escalate, bringing danger to her
community. While Savannah’s character-
ization lacks some nuance, the story is
richly complex in its historical detail, and
it builds to a revelatory climax. Enhanced
by a comprehensive author’s note, this is
a valuable portrayal of affluent African-
American society and of post-WWI life.
Ages 13–up. (Jan.)Reverie
Ryan La Sala. Sourcebooks Fire, $17.99
(416p) ISBN 978-1-4926-8266-0
Gay high school junior Kane
Montgomery does not remember stealing
his father’s car and crashing it into an
abandoned mill in East Amity, Conn. But
after paramedics pull him from a river—
and with a missing person to account for
and facing possible arson charges—Kane
accepts the help of the frightening, charis-
matic psychologist Dr. Poesy in uncovering
what happened. As the events leading up
to the car crash begin to surface, Kane
encounters rev-
eries, dreamlike
fantasy worlds
conjured by
East Amity’s
citizens, and
meets the
Others, class-
mates with the
ability to enter
and manipulate
the reveries.Slowly, Kane discovers his own powers
within the reveries, but when the dreams
prove unmanageable, threatening the bal-
ance between reality and fantasy, Kane
must make difficult decisions that affect
friends, family, and a new boyfriend. With
a nod to Roald Dahl’s The Witches, debut
author La Sala weaves compelling tension
into the elaborate reveries’ richly drawn, if
occasionally overwrought, worlds. Still,
La Sala’s portrayal of Kane’s friendship
with the Others is heartfelt, and the story’s
many LGBTQ characters are prominently
represented and powerfully nuanced. Ages
14–up. Agent: Veronica Park, Corvisiero
Literary Agency. (Jan.)We Used to Be Friends
Amy Spalding. Amulet, $17.99 (384p)
ISBN 978-1-4197-3866-1.
What’s worse than a romantic breakup?
A best-friend breakup, at least according
to James, a girl with a boy’s name, whose
friendship with Kat seems to erode over
their senior year of high school. Kat is
dating someone
new, and James,
increasingly
irritated at what
she sees as Kat’s
constant need
for attention,
has stopped
telling Kat
about what’s
happening in
her life, even
major events like her parents’ split. The
two girls narrate their stories in alter-
nating chapters, and Spalding (The
Summer of Jordi Perez) has James’s version
move backward in time while Kat’s goes
forward. The author effectively conveys
the ways that a desire for perfection can
keep people at arm’s length, how not
telling people things makes it harder to
tell them later, and how silence can come
to feel like a lie. The novel is about more
than just the friendship: Kat’s seeing a
girl for the first time; James is volun-
teering, making new friends, and
debating whether to get back together
with her boyfriend. But Spalding shows
with sensitivity how the pain of losing a
close friend can seep into everything.
Ages 14–up. (Jan.)continued from p. 59