Sometimes the Girl, by Jennifer Mason-Black

Maya's dreamed of being a writer, but after a bad mentoring experience, she's given up on her novel.  She's focused now solely on following her ex-girlfriend on a trip to New Zealand to do farming for a few months.  To earn the money to make the trip, Maya agrees to take a job helping Elsie McAllister clear out her attic.

Elsie is the author of one of the greatest novels of the previous century.  Maya and just about every other schoolchild has read the book.  Notably, Elsie never wrote a follow-up but instead faded into obscurity about the novel's publication.  Maya wonders why, of course, but Elsie isn't volunteering any answers.  Instead, Elsie issues terse instructions for how to dispose of her possessions.

Maya can't help but be curious about the old woman and as she retrieves box after box of mementos and paraphernalia of Elsie's life, inventorying the contents for her boss, she sift through them for clues.  Meanwhile, Elsie's grown children, suspicious that there may be an unpublished manuscript hiding upstairs, apply pressure to Maya to set aside anything of significant literary value.  And Elsie makes Maya promise to do no such thing.

Filled with a variety of stories, the most compelling sections have to do with the revelations about Elsie than Maya uncovers.  There's an effort to portray Maya's own life (and her struggles) as relevant or parallel, but Maya's story simply isn't as interesting.  For example, somewhere in all of this is a story about Maya's older brother committing suicide, but it barely captured my attention.  The story of Elsie's lost love and the horrid circumstances that led to her death, on the other hand, are burned into my mind. In that context, Maya brings just the right amount of grit and fortitude to make her relationship with the bitter and grumpy Elsie compelling and revealing.

This is a mature book, misclassified as YA simply because of its focus on coming of age, but actually not really focused at all on adolescence.  Part gay history and part speculation about real writers (like Harper Lee) who had only one great novel in them.

The Judgement of Yoyo Gold, by Isaac Blum

Yoyo has always been an exemplary Jewish girl, serving as a model in the way that being the rabbi's daughter seems to require.  Taking care of her younger brothers and sisters, doing well in school, and mediating for her peers is exhausting but she relishes the way it makes her feel.  In her Orthodox community, she feels at home and just hopes that she is a credit to her family.  It's hard these days because she had a close friend who had a falling out and was sent away.  The absence leaves her feeling lonely and even more committed to doing good and to counter the judging eyes of the community that she feels upon her.

She's also a teenager in contemporary society.  From a non-Orthodox acquaintance, she learns about TikTok videos.  Her own phone is filtered and social media are definitely forbidden, but she gets excited by the technology and, following a rumor, finds a boy name Shua in her community who can hack her phone.  She's surprised to find out from him that many other kids have used his help to overcome the phone filters.  It would seem that the community is not quite as virtuous and pious as she grew up thinking.

These revelations keep coming.  And when she spies on a particularly self-righteous girl from her community eating unkosher food, she's scandalized and she hatches a plan.  Following the example of others, she creates her own anonymous TikTok video in which she complains about the girl's behavior.  The post goes viral and, while Yoyo's role in it remains secret, she is enthralled by the attention it receives.  Soon, she is posting other exposes about her community.

Meanwhile, she's also finding herself tempted in other ways, especially by Shua, for whom she discovers a forbidden attraction.

A well-nuanced study of the life of a modern Orthodox girl -- a complex mix of modernism with traditional faith.  Her mature reasoning skills, tempered by her adolescent impetuousness, made for an interesting character study.  And her pride and the sense of self that she develops by the end was immensely gratifying.  

I was disappointed by her descent into cyber-bullying and her lack of genuine repentance, but justice is dealt out and lessons learned.  And I was actually surprised at the amount of freedom she had as a young woman, but much of that leeway may have been because of her responsible reputation.

Just Harriet, by Elana K Arnold

Harriet likes things to stay the way they are, but with her mother expecting a baby that doesn't seem too likely.  And when Mom gets prescribed bed rest, Harriet finds herself and her kitty sent to grandma's for the summer.  Grandma runs a bed and breakfast on an island, a place Harriet has loved visiting in the past, but not like this!

Unhappy with being away from home, unhappy that Mom and Dad are not available to her, and unhappy that everything is changing, Harriet mopes and says mean things she doesn't mean.  

Nothing makes her happy until she discovers a mysterious key.  No matter where she looks, she can't figure out what it unlocks!  She searches all over the bed and breakfast and across the island.  When she does find is mate, a lot more than she expected will be unlocked.

Falling into the trope that the most appealing early reader protagonists are bratty, Harriet is a bit much to take.  And the fact that her meanness is endlessly forgiven and indulged lessens my interest in her otherwise amusing character.  The more fatal flaw of the book, though, is its lack of a substantive story.  The mystery of the key ought to have some sort of adventure connected with it, but what happens is resolved too quickly to provide a meaningful payoff.  The artwork is cute and Harriet's naughtiness may appeal to young readers, but mostly the book seems designed for easy lessons about what mistakes Harriet makes.

Call It What You Want, by Brigid Kemmerer

Last year, Maegan got caught cheating during an SAT exam.  As a result, all of the tests in the room were invalidated and she became a social pariah.  To make matters worse, Maegan's sister has come home from college pregnant and Maegan is unable to talk about any of it with anyone outside of family. 

No one wants to work with a cheater, which is why when Maegan's Calculus class starts a project that requires a partner, there's a lack of volunteers to work with her.  The only person left is Rob and no one wants to work with Rob either.  It was Rob's father, a financial advisor, who was arrested last year for embezzling everyone's savings.  Unable to live with the shame of what he had done and how it destroyed his family, Rob's father tried to shoot himself...and missed.  Now, Rob and his mother live in a house stripped of all of their possessions (seized by the court) and tend a vegetative man.  

So, Bob and Maegen are at the bottom of the social hierarchy. Placed together to work through their project, Rob and Maegan find comfort in their shared woes and open up to each other.  Any romantic feelings are deeply complicated by the judgements of their parents and peers.

While obviously addressing issues of familial guilt and forgiveness, the novel also spends considerable time on class and race, observing the strain between richer and poorer students.  The story is compelling and, while wrapped up all too neatly in the end, fairly rewarding.

Not Your Average Jo, by Grace K. Shim

Riley Jo is tired of being one of the very few Asian students in Bentonville, Arkansas. She's fed up with well-meaning people coming up to her and saying horribly insensitive things.  She dreams of going to a more diverse urban environment where she won't stand out.  And most of all, she wants to pursue her muse as a pop music guitarist. But her parents don't have a lot of money and her mother, who teaches at a local university can get Riley free tuition if she stays here.

Riley is convinced that she'll bloom elsewhere and finding a school where she can study music will be the ticket to making it as a pop singer and never having to settle down in small-town Arkansas. But as she is searching for a college that she could afford she discovers a private boarding high school for the arts that offers a contemporary music program.  And when she applies, she is accepted.  It's only for her senior year and, after she graduates, she'll have to come back home for college, but Riley hopes that within that year she'll be able to break through.

Things at school don't go as she would hope.  She discovers that prejudice and microaggressions are just as common in the big city and that the music industry is riven with racism.  She may have an opportunity to become famous, but it will cost her her self-respect.  Is it worth it?

The story is outlandish and implausible, but told in an entertaining fashion.  Riley is interesting, but she gets pretty prickly towards the end and the love interest is surprisingly played down.  Where the novel really focuses is upon prejudice (external and internal, outwardly-directed and inwardly-directed).  There's not a lot of revelations and occasionally things grow a bit preachy, but it's well-formulated.  I preferred to simply enjoy the fantasy of the storyline in which kids can just become pop stars by writing a few songs.

The (Un)popular Vote, by Jasper Sanchez

When a boy at school gets in a fight with bullies because of his sexual orientation and then is expelled, Mark bristles at the injustice.  And he decides to do something about it:  Run for class president.  Most people would point out that student government is not a place of power but Mark is the child of a US Congressman and he's been raised on politics and he understands that a position is what you make of it.  Soon, in a witty nod to the real national political landscape of social media, media buzz, focus groups, and demographic research, Mark is killing the political circuit.

But there's another story.  When Mark came out as a trans male, his father basically disowned him.  To make peace and in hopes of a reconciliation, Mark made a deal with his Dad.  He would change schools and hide his past so as not to embarrass his father.  Part of that deal was maintaining a low profile.  But when Mark hits off his very public campaign, he invites the curious school media to dig into his past, which sabotages the arrangement Mark has made with his family.

I absolutely loved the way Sanchez finds ways to evoke political America in this story of school politics.  The book is actually over five years old, but the things that Sanchez calls out are even more present now than they were when this was written.  The story of Mark's coming out is also moving, albeit a bit underplayed as it becomes a non-event in the end.  Where the story faltered however was the relationship between Mark and his father.  Dad is a very two-dimensional bigot, really incapable of any sort of development and a hugely wasted opportunity.  In other words, the congressman adds nothing to the story and really could have been removed altogether.

Finding Lost, by Holly Goldberg Sloan

When Cordy's father died, her family had to rely on the charity of their friends and neighbors.  A friend found her mother a job as a housekeeper that came with a dilapidated boathouse in which Cordy, her little brother, and Mom could live.  Two jobs gave them barely enough money to squeak by, but nothing for "UE" (unnecessary expenses).  So, when a stray dog follows Corey home from school, she knows already that it is unlikely she'll be able to keep it.  But surprisingly, Mom lets the dog stay and she names him "Lost."

A series of surprises await.  Lost leads Corey to the unusual sight of a pod of dolphins (including an apparent albino) swimming in the river. Her little brother learns of a free clinic for doing check-ups for animals.  And when they take Lost in for a check up, the veterinarian strikes up a friendship with Corey's mother that sparks into something more serious.  Corey's none too pleased that her mother appears smitten with the vet.  She worries that Mom will forget about Dad and want to leave their home.  But in the end, things work out -- just not how Corey imagined they might.

There's a bit too much happy ending in the final chapter, but up to that point the story is bittersweet with a combination of good news and bad that felt right.  Corey's intelligence and inquisitive nature shines throughout.  And even when she is making poor choices, she recognizes her flaws.  Corey's acknowledgement of her grief and the subsequent re-opening of her heart becomes compelling. A poignant and gentle story about a family in transition.