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This Rebel Heart
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School Library Journal Best YA of 2022; Chicago Public Library Best YA of 2022; The List Best of 2022; Polygon Best SFF of 2022; Tablet Magazine Best Jewish Children’s Literature of 2022; Buzzfeed Best YA of 2022; ALA Rainbow Book List 2023
“Challenging and rewarding.” - Kirkus Reviews
“One of 2022’s most provocative fantasy novels.” —Polygon
★ “Vivid, suspenseful, emotionally grounded, and heartbreaking, this book grapples with vital ethical debates about memory and democracy that makes it essential reading for lovers of historical fiction.” —School Library Journal, starred review
★ “A breathtaking, affecting work…. The queer characters, gentle three-way romance and passionate socio-political activism in This Rebel Heart are likely to strike a recognizable chord for teens of any era.” —Shelf Awareness, starred review
★ ”Like Sepetys’ The Fountains of Silence, this will certainly send readers to research a lesser-known resistance movement and realize that while it’s easy to judge history in hindsight, it’s far more difficult, but necessary, to try to make it.” —The Bulletin, starred review
“Locke's path of lyrical and magical devastation continues through mid-20th century Europe with their newest YA novel . . . Diaspora readers in particular will undoubtedly relate to this gorgeously poetic and heartbreaking tale of living in a place that may not love you back.” —BuzzFeed
“Lyrically melding facts and otherworldly elements, including the angel of death, Jewish folklore, and the Danube as a magical, life-giving river with which Csilla can communicate, Locke (the Balloonmakers series) offers an original, moving tribute to the bravery of freedom fighters—straight and queer, Jewish and gentile—who risked their lives for their cause.” —Publishers Weekly
“A beautiful and strange novel full of magic, friendships, and hard truths.” —The Southern Bookseller Review
“Gorgeous and heart-wrenching.” —The Honey Pop
What Are Your Words? A Book about Pronouns
Illustrated by Anne (Andy) Passchier
ALA Top Ten Rainbow Book 2022
★ "An affirming, conversational picture book that models the ease with which our language can adapt to gender diversity and pronoun use. A recommended first purchase for all libraries."
—School Library Journal, starred review
"Awesome, insightful, powerful, necessary, relevant and woke.... The variety of adjectives used throughout Ari's journey to find their words will delight Language Arts teachers and can serve as a teaching text."—Cicely Lewis, School Library Journal
"Locke's simple narrative...seamlessly incorporates the appropriate pronouns for each person, demonstrating the ease with which language can change to accommodate pronoun diversity.... A sweet, affirming introduction to the language used to communicate a range of gender identities."—Booklist
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Being Friends with Dragons
Illustrated by Diane Ewen
“A casually diverse cast of children (including a boy using a wheelchair) and endearing, facially expressive, multicolored dragons make this engaging book worthy of readers’ time. The bright, colorful cartoony illustrations are rambunctiously fun and include witty subtleties, though some details get swallowed by the gutter. The text is at once lighthearted and instructive as a reminder of qualities that are important to find in both ourselves and our loved ones. A “talon-ted” tightrope walk between character education and entertaining whimsy. (Picture book. 4-7)” - Kirkus Reviews
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This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them and Us
Kirkus Reviews Best Middle Grade of 2021; NAIBA Best Middle Grade of 2021; Bank Street Children’s Best Book of the Year; 2022 ALA Rainbow List; CCBC Choices 2022 Book
★ “An essential read, this collection breaks free from the dichotomy of representing LGBTQ+ lives as total tragedy or one-true-love, happily-ever-after coming-out stories. Vital and liberating.” - Kirkus Reviews, starred review
★ "Arguably the first queer anthology for middle-schoolers, this generous collection of 16 stories covers the LGBTQIA+ waterfront, featuring tales with gay, lesbian, bi, trans, gender fluid, and nonbinary characters...Happily, the stories are uniformly excellent"
-Booklist, starred review
★ “Stellar…a strong amalgam of confidently written portraits that consider the
joys, pains, and complexities that can come with being young and queer.” -Publishers Weekly, starred review
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