The Ant Queen is on the move again, putting all the inhabitants of the rainforest in danger, in this sequel to Mez's Magic (2018). Read full book review >

The last entry in a quartet by Schrefer (Mez's Magic, 2018, etc.) chronicles an imagined early encounter between a human child and a gorilla family. Read full book review >

When the magical rainforest of Caldera is threatened by a terrible evil, four young animal friends must overcome their differences to save the rainforest from destruction. Read full book review >

When your brother is an orangutan, you have a serious responsibility. Read full book review >

The author of Endangered (2012) introduces another primate species, offering a poignant demonstration of connection between chimpanzees and humans. Read full book review >

Congolese-American Sophie makes a harrowing trek through a war-torn jungle to protect a young bonobo.

On her way to spend the summer at the bonobo sanctuary her mother runs, 14-year-old Sophie rescues a sickly baby bonobo from a trafficker. Though her Congolese mother is not pleased Sophie paid for the ape, she is proud that Sophie works to bond with Otto, the baby. A week before Sophie's to return home to her father in Miami, her mother must take advantage
of a charter flight to relocate some apes, and she leaves Sophie with Otto and the sanctuary workers. War breaks out, and after missing a U.N. flight out, Sophie must hide herself and Otto from violent militants and starving villagers. Unable to take Otto out of the country, she decides finding her mother hundreds of miles to the north is her only choice. Schrefer jumps from his usual teen suspense to craft this well-researched tale of jungle survival set during a fictional conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Realistic characters (ape and human) deal with disturbing situations described in graphic, but never gratuitous detail. The lessons Sophie learns about her childhood home, love and what it means to be endangered will resonate with readers.

Even if some hairbreadth escapes test credulity, this is a great next read for fans of our nearest ape cousins or survival adventure. (map, author's note, author Q&A) (Adventure. 12-16)Read full book review >

This psychological thriller follows a girl with dark secrets to a school with uneasy mysteries of its own. Accused of murdering her grandfather, Angela is dispatched to Hidden Oak, a boarding school where the physically and emotionally abusive faculty plays the Prisoner's Dilemma with its students for commissary points. Angela forms an uneasy friendship with a group of girls, some of whom later disappear. Cut off from the rest of the world, Angela tries to outwit the faculty to find her friends and save herself. It takes several botched escapes and one mostly successful one for Angela to see that being bad and being dangerous are not the same thing. Dangerous, in fact, might be a desirable trait. The horrors of Hidden Oak are slow to unfold but the ending is rushed, and unanswered questions about Angela leave room for a sequel. Self-reliance and trust are explored using a cast of secondary characters who range from innocent to malevolent. With few exceptions, readers never quite know who is good and who is bad. Gripping, violent and terrifying. (Thriller. YA)Read full book review >

The life of a 16-year-old boy goes from bad to worse when he leaves his financially strapped parents to become part of a wealthy family's psychodrama. Read full book review >

A high-priced tutor sinks into the lives of a dysfunctional Fifth Avenue family in this debut novel. Read full book review >