Waiting on Wednesday: Anger is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo

 

Image: HarperCollins

Anger is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo. 336 p. Quill Tree Books/ HarperCollins, September 15, 2026. 9780062882790.

Waiting on Wednesday features Anger is Only a Shadow by Elizabeth Acevedo. I have been a fan of Ms. Acevedo since reading Poet X, which won the National Book Award, Printz Medal and Boston Globe Horn Book Award in addition to being a Kirkus Award finalist, and winning the Walter Dean Myers Award for Outstanding Children's Literature, the Carnegie Medal and an Odyssey Award. I've read and enjoyed With Fire on High and Clap When You Land, and am very much looking forward to reading Anger is Only a Shadow. 

Publisher synopsis: From National Book Award-winning, New York Times-bestselling author and renowned poet Elizabeth Acevedo comes a white-knuckle journey to self-understanding and doing the right thing, no matter the cost.

Lil is anything but small. She’s rebellious, she's loyal; she's figuring out what kind of good person she wants to be, or if she wants to be a good person at all. But more than anything? Lil wants to be free.

When her instinct for freedom leads to another stay in D.C. juvenile detention, Lil knows she’s lucky to just be on probation. But judgment, guilt, and an ankle monitor weigh heavily on her, and she can’t shake that pinned-down feeling.

The only person who might understand is her big brother, Aldwin. Except he’s more distant now than just the hundred miles where he’s away at college. Something’s been off with him for a couple of months, but only Lil seems to realize how important it is to get to him.

As her court hearing ticks closer, a question looms over Lil as the missed phone calls and strange texts from her brother pile up: will she follow the rules until her sentencing, or put her future freedom on the line?

Teen Tuesday: The Leaving Room by Amber McBride

Image: Macmillan

The Leaving Room by Amber McBride. Unabridged downloadable audiobook, ~3 hours. Read by the author. Macmillan Audio, October, 2025. 9781250411440. Review of audiobook borrowed from public library.

Gospel is the Keeper of the Leaving Room. She guides young souls onward, but first she collects memories, for the young are reluctant to move on. She doesn't know how she knows these rules, but she does. One day, Melodee enters the Leaving Room, and it turns out that she is a Keeper as well. Two keepers? How can that be? 

I picked this up last December because I wanted to read all the NBA finalists in Literature for Young People. I read and enjoyed two of Ms. McBride's earlier novels. This was a bit hard to get into, but blossomed into a fascinating take on the afterlife.

Young adult readers who enjoy verse novels or books that explore the afterlife like Gabrielle Zevin's Elsewhere, or Jennifer Yu's Grief in the Fourth Dimension, or Gabby Noone's Layoverland will enjoy this. 

Middle Grade Monday: The Moon without Stars by Chanel Miller

Image: Penguin Random House

 

The Moon without Stars by Chanel Miller. 256 p. Philomel Books/ Penguin Young Readers, January, 2026. 9780593624555. Review of finished book borrowed from pubic library. 

Seventh grader Luna is well aware of her outsider status. She might be even comfortable with it. After all, she has her bff, Scott to walk to school and sit with at lunch. They sit under a tree, where Luna observes the interactions of the "popular crowd" with some fascination. 

After she read all the books that she was given by the family of a girl in town who had died, Luna wonders what to do with them. She decides to give them away, but carefully. She becomes a "book doctor," prescribing books for her classmates - a middle school "right book at the right time for the right reader," if you will. Soon, she finds herself in demand for these books and she wonders how she can help more people. So she creates a zine and Scott illustrates it. 

The zine takes off and eventually, Luna catches the eye of the popular crowd. At first, she splits her time between them and Scott, but eventually ditches him altogether; but being in the popular crowd has its price and as the stakes grow, Luna is unsure of her place in it.

This was such a spot-on depiction of middle school friendship dynamics. I loved Luna's voice. I loved her friendship with Scott and ached for him when she ditched him for the popular crowd. Middle school readers will find much to relate with in this engaging, heartfelt story. I picked it up after reading some Newbery buzz about it. The buzz is well-deserved.