Kirkus Best Books of the 21st Century
The influential trade publication, Kirkus, has recently released an exciting list of their best books of the 21st century. We are thrilled to share the wonderful news—Levine Querido has proudly secured four remarkable titles on this distinguished list as well. In just five short years, LQ has remarkably positioned itself to be recognized as one of the leading publishers producing the absolute best children’s books out there in the market today.
Había una vez . . .
There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.
But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children — among them Petra and her family — have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.
Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet — and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard — or purged them altogether.
Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?
Newbery Medalist Donna Barba Higuera presents us with a brilliant journey through the stars, to the very heart of what makes us human.
A Texas teen comes face-to-face with a cousin’s ghost and vows to unmask the murderer.
Elatsoe—Ellie for short—lives in an alternate contemporary America shaped by the ancestral magics and knowledge of its Indigenous and immigrant groups. She can raise the spirits of dead animals—most importantly, her ghost dog Kirby.
When her beloved cousin dies, all signs point to a car crash, but his ghost tells her otherwise: He was murdered. Who killed him and how did he die?
With the help of her family, her best friend Jay, and the memory great, great, great, great, great, great grandmother, Elatsoe must track down the killer and unravel the mystery of this creepy town and its dark past. But will the nefarious townsfolk and a mysterious Doctor stop her before she gets started?
A breathtaking debut novel featuring an asexual, Apache teen protagonist, Elatsoe combines mystery, horror, noir, ancestral knowledge, haunting illustrations, and fantasy elements in one of the most-talked about debuts of the year.
A sprawling, evocative, and groundbreaking autobiographical novel told in the unforgettable and hilarious voice of a young Iranian refugee. It is a powerfully layered novel that poses the questions: Who owns the truth? Who speaks it? Who believes it?
“A patchwork story is the shame of the refugee,” Nayeri writes early in the novel. In an Oklahoman middle school, Khosrou (whom everyone calls Daniel) stands in front of a skeptical audience of classmates, telling the tales of his family’s history, stretching back years, decades, and centuries. At the core is Daniel’s story of how they became refugees—starting with his mother’s vocal embrace of Christianity in a country that made such a thing a capital offense, and continuing through their midnight flight from the secret police, bribing their way onto a plane-to-anywhere. Anywhere becomes the sad, cement refugee camps of Italy, and then finally asylum in the U.S.
Implementing a distinct literary style and challenging western narrative structures, Nayeri deftly weaves through stories of the long and beautiful history of his family in Iran, adding a richness of ancient tales and Persian folklore. Like Scheherazade of One Thousand and One Nights, Daniel spins a tale to save his own life: to stake his claim to the truth.
A tale of heartbreak and resilience and urges readers to speak their truth and be heard.
Debut graphic novel memoir by award-winning Illustrator, Agnes Lee, for fans of Harmony Becker, Molly Knox Ostertag, and Kate Beaton
Day 1
Gotta get up. Gotta keep moving. This map – it says I have to cross over here. Wait, what’s that…?
And so begins a graphic novel story unlike any other: 49 Days. In Buddhist tradition, a person must travel for forty-nine days after they die, before they can fully cross over. Here in this book, readers travel with one Korean American girl, Kit, on her journey, while also spending time with her family and friends left behind.
Agnes Lee has captivated readers across the world for years with her illustrations for the New York Times Metropolitan Diary. Her debut graphic novel is an unforgettable story of death, grief, love, and how we keep moving forward.
P R A I S E
★ “49 Days is an unusual, profoundly moving graphic novel whose elegance belies its complexity and whose emotional impact only grows upon rereading.”
—BookPage (starred)
★ “A gorgeous, resonating, even mystical creation with little text, overflowing with unsaid feelings... Gently, nudgingly, Lee brilliantly intertwines the past, present, and future.”
—Booklist (starred)
★ “A moving portrayal of mortality and its aftermath.”
—Kirkus (starred)
“Middle and high school readers will relate to the universal experiences of love, loss, and family tradition.”
—School Library Journal
“Expressive, fluid…an exemplar of what it means to trust the audience.”
—Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books