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honesty, and the delicate balance between
livestock and pets. Summer vacation seems
off to a good start for 13-year-old Danny
as he practices for the county fair and
rodeo’s team-roping event with his border
collie, Banjo. But everything changes when
the unpleasant neighbor boys falsely accuse
Banjo of attacking their sheep. Per the law
of the land, Banjo must be killed, even
though Danny is sure that his well-behaved
pup is innocent. A botched scheme to save
Banjo’s life lands the dog lost and afraid in
a nearby woods, where he’s eventually
rescued by Meg, a young animal lover who
becomes fixated on finding Banjo’s owner.
Salisbury transports readers with his
evocative descriptions of the rural Oregon
landscape, rodeo events, and the chore-
filled days of life on a ranch. He adroitly
builds suspense by relating Banjo’s journey
in brief alternating chapters told from
Danny and Meg’s points of view. A tail-
wagging denouement wraps things up in
believable fashion. Ages 10–up. (Oct.)The Beautiful
Renée Ahdieh. Putnam, $18.99 (448p)
ISBN 978-1-5247-3817-4
Seventeen-year old dressmaker Celine
Rousseau fled Paris with a bloody secret,
arriving at the Ursuline convent in 1872
New Orleans to begin anew. But after a
woman is found dead with her throat torn
out and another corpse turns up, Celine’s
willful spirit and attraction to the enig-
matic, striking Sébastien Saint Germain
make her the serial killer’s focus. Drawn
to La Cour des Lions, the New Orleans
underworld that Sébastien leads, Celine is
fascinated by his glamor and brutality and
his circle of uniquely skilled, criminal
friends—and unsure whether they’re
entirely human. As she plots to outwit the
killer, biracial Celine (her father is white
and her mother is East Asian) contends with
her own secret past and her undeniable
attraction to danger and power. Ahdieh’s
New Orleans is lushly atmospheric, per-
meating this series opener with an under-
current of violence within a seductive
underworld around Mardi Gras. Though
the dialogue is flat in places, readers will
champion Celine’s wit and incredible
grit—even surrounded by powerful,
supernatural protectors, Celine fights for
herself and those she loves. Ending on a
spectacular cliffhanger, Ahdieh ensures thatfans will clamor for the continuation to this
captivating volume. Ages 12–up. Agent:
Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary. (Oct.)The Light at the Bottom of the
World
London Shah. Disney-Hyperion, $17.99
(320p) ISBN 978-1-368-03688-7
In this thrilling postapocalyptic tale set
in 2099, after civilization was forced under-
water by global flooding, a young Muslim
woman searches for her unjustly impris-
oned father amid the remnants of Great
Britain. British-Afghan Leyla McQueen,
16, a champion submersible racer, hopes
to free her father (jailed for “aiding and
abetting citizen suicides” among sufferers
of an underwater malaise called “the sea-
sickness”) by winning the prestigious
London Submersible Marathon. When
that hope doesn’t pay off, she sets out into
the treacherous
ocean to find
him herself,
accompanied
by Ari, a mys-
terious young
man sent by her
grandfather to
protect her.
Despite Leyla’s
insistence that
she doesn’t need
any help, the waters are filled with enemies,
including the genetically engineered
Anthropoids who prey upon humans, and
the authorities who want to prevent Leyla
and Ari from discovering the truths
hidden in the dark depths of a drowned
world. Shah’s strong debut, first in a
planned duology, is vividly described and
emotionally rich. Despite predictable plot
points and an insufficiently explained
underwater setting, the strong premise
and underlying sense of excitement make
this a fast-paced, wholly enjoyable adven-
ture. Ages 12–up. Agent: Rebecca Podos,
Rees Literary Agency. (Oct.)★ War Girls
Tochi Onyebuchi. Razorbill, $18.99 (464p)
ISBN 978-0-451-48167-2
In the year 2172, a civil war rages in
Nigeria as the Republic of Biafra fights for
independence in battles using advanced
tech and giant mechs. War Girl Onyii, a
Biafran rebel and former child soldier witha bionic arm, has
made a safe place
away from the
war with her
comrades and
younger sister,
Ify, a brilliant
hacker who has
created an
Accent, a tiny
technological
wonder that
“reveal[s] the series of lines and nodes of
net connectivity that bind everything—
and everyone—together.” When their
camp is attacked, Onyii is left alive and
drawn back into the fight; Ify, captured, is
taken to the glittering glass city of Abuja.
Four years later, Ify is a trusted confidant
to her now powerful kidnapper but ques-
tions the treatment of young Biafran
prisoners, while Onyii has become a killing
machine known as the Demon of Biafra.
Their divergent paths, forged in violence,
shape them indelibly, ensuring they will
never be the same. Onyebuchi’s action-
packed, high-stakes tale of loyalty, sister-
hood, and the transformative power of
love and hope brims with imaginative
future tech and asks important questions
about the human cost of war, mechaniza-
tion, and artificial intelligence. Set amid
the horrors of war in a world ravaged by
climate change and nuclear disaster, this
heart-wrenching and complex page-
turner, drawn from the 1960s Nigerian
civil war, will leave readers stunned and
awaiting the second installment. Ages
12–up. Agent: Noah Ballard, Curtis Brown
Ltd. (Oct.)Girls Like Us
Randi Pink. Feiwel and Friends, $18.99
(320p) ISBN 978-1-250-15585-6
It’s 1972, and four teenage girls—
three, black, in rural Georgia, and one,
white, in Chicago—confront unwanted
pregnancies before Roe v. Wade made
abortion legal. When her older sister, Ola,
misses her period, Izella, 15, convinces her
to visit Mrs. Mac, an elderly “seer,” to end
her pregnancy. The sisters’ predicament is
complicated because their preacher mother,
Evangelist, has been highly critical of a
neighbor, Missippi, 14, who is also preg-
nant following sexual assault by her uncle
(“I feel like that baby gone wind up raised