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Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle; Simon & Schuster, 310 pages ($19.99) Ages 12 and up.
Debut author Ebony LaDelle offers a swoonworthy romance and appealing characters in this marvelous novel, set in Detroit, of two Black teens, grappling with difficult issues on their own and finding their way to each other aided by the loving support of family, friends and their larger community.
17-year-old Danielle "Dani" Ford, who dreams of attending New York University and becoming a writer, has cut herself off from her friends in the traumatic aftermath of a sexual assault. She has not confided in anyone, including her loving parents, about what happened to her and has no interest in guys or dating.
Prince Jones, also a senior at fictional Mass Tech High School, dreams of becoming a DJ and is already a celebrity for his weekly DJ Love radio broadcast, giving relationship advice to callers on a popular Detroit hip hop show. He also cares for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his 8-year-old brother Mook, who has attention deficit disorder. His responsibilities at home have affected his schoolwork and made him rethink his college plans.
Sparks fly when Danielle insults Prince by accident in a chance meeting at the Detroit Public Library, wrongly assuming he is a teen parent because he's checking out picture books. (Dani's father reminds her how insulted she was when a white shopper at a store assumed the baby she was holding for a relative was hers.) Prince has been smitten with Dani for awhile; she reluctantly agrees to his suggestion that she go on three dates with him so he can prove he's worth falling for.
The novel, alternating narration between Dani and Prince, unfolds against the vivid backdrop of Detroit with dates at a roller rink, the downtown Christmas tree-lighting and an after-hours visit to the Motown Museum Hitsville USA.
Wretched Waterpark, Sinister Summer Book One by Kiersten White; Delacorte Press, 232 pages ($16.99) Ages 8 to 12.
One might be tempted to see a whisper of Lemony Snicket's Unfortunate Events books in this new series from versatile YA author Kiersten White, but White, who reimagined Frankenstein in "The Dark Descent" and reimagined Vlad the Impaler as a girl in her "And I Darken" series, paves her own path with this clever, funny first installment.
12-year-old twins Theo and Alexander Sinister-Winterbottom and 16-year-old sister Wilhelmina are abruptly left for the summer by their parents with an aunt they'd never met "and who, by all appearances, had never encountered an actual human child before."
Aunt Saffronia makes vague allusions to "the first task to be accomplished" in dropping the three off at the macabre Fathoms of Fun Waterpark with its leering gargoyles. Park admission prices are listed in Roman numerals; working at the ticket window "was a woman in a long-sleeved dress with a lace collar so high it came up around her chin, making it look as though her head was being served on a platter. She had a face like a sheet of plastic wrap over a bowl of mashed potatoes." Other sinister touches include towels in colors of "black, nearly black and extremely black," a cabana resembling a mausoleum, a wave pool called the Cold, Unknowable Sea and water slides named Oblivion, Abandon Hope, Infinite Plunge and Mortal Coil. (The foam rafts for the water slides are brown with a flat bottom and raised sides and "looked like nothing so much as an open coffin.")
Daredevil Theo aims to set personal records on the rides; anxious Alex merely wishes to survive the experience as the twins get caught up in the search for Mr. Widow, the missing husband of the park's creepy owner. White wraps up the mystery in satisfying fashion – there are thrilling moments but nothing overly terrifying – and invites the reader for a return engagement, with an excerpt from Book Two, "Vampiric Vacation!"
The Whale Who Swam Through Time: A 200-Year Journey in the Arctic written by Alex Boersma and Nick Pyenson, illustrated by Alex Boersma; Roaring Brook Press, ($19.99) Ages 4 to 8.
Scientists Alex Boersma and Nick Pyenson tell an important story of man's effect on the environment from the fascinating perspective of a bowhead whale, the world's longest-living mammal with a life span of more than 200 years and one of the few whale species that lives all its life in the Arctic. The colorful, careful illustrations bring to life the Arctic world of the whale and the changes over the decades, from the threat of whaling ships with their harpoons to the arrival of massive oil drilling platforms and the noise pollution from the rigs, cargo ship propellers and submarines' sonar. Whales navigate by sound, but "gone are the days of a quiet sea." And now, with sea ice melting, there is more open ocean and faster ships.
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Reviewer of children's books for the Buffalo News and retired after 36 years at The News, working as a copy editor, assistant city editor, feature writer, youth section editor and digital content editor.
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