November 2025 Stars & Big Picture
Starred titles are books of special distinction. See the archives for selections from previous months.
Flake, Sharon G. Hattie Mae Begins Again. Knopf, 2026 [368p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9780593650349 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 9780593650363 $10.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 4-6
Foutz, Ella Grace Lullabies for the Insomniacs: A Memoir in Verse. Zest, 2025 [128p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9798765671290 $29.99
Paper ed. ISBN 9798765671306 $15.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 9-12
Hawthorne, Britt Main Street: A Community Story About Redlining; by Britt Hawthorne and Tiffany Jewell; illus. by David Wilkerson. Kokila/Penguin, 2026 [40p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9798217002672 $18.99
E-book ed. ISBN 9798217002689 $5.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R* 6-9 yrs
Higuera, Donna Barba Xolo; illus. by Mariana Ruiz Johnson. Levine Querido, 2025 [220p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9781646147021 $19.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 3-5
King, Rachael The Grimmelings. McElderry, 2025 [288p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9781665984225 $18.99
Paper ed. ISBN 9781665984218 $8.99
E-book ed. ISBN 9781665984232 $8.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 3-7
Wedelich, Sam A Quick Trip to the Store; written and illus. by Sam Wedelich. Knopf, 2025 [48p]
Trade ed. ISBN 9780593905982 $18.99
E-book ed. ISBN 9780593906002 $7.99
Reviewed from digital galleys R* 4-7 yrs
Hear Her Howl
By Kim DeRose
YA literature is filled with rebellious girls taking on the patriarchy, smashing stifling gender norms and expanding ideas of what girlhood and strength look like. Although this perspective is invaluable and necessary, often missing from the narrative is an exploration of the vulnerability that comes with destroying the familiar and the subsequent need to work through grief and fear to build a place of safety—not only for oneself, but for everyone harmed by a broken system. What is required for transformation, not just deconstruction? In this month’s Big Picture, Hear Her Howl, author DeRose offers such an examination through a recasting of the werewolf myth, in which a group of teen girls discover that it’s one thing to become bloodthirsty werewolves hell-bent on taking down the bad guys, but it’s an entirely different thing to build a pack based on trust, support, and loyalty.
After Rue Bishop is caught kissing a girl, her devout, rigid mother Katherine sends her to Sacred Heart, an all-girls Catholic boarding school with a mission to churn out “respectable” young women. Led by the strict, no-nonsense Mother Superior, Sacred Heart is painfully traditional, but ripples of dissent surface as Rue connects with other students. Fellow classmates Angelica and Morgan push back at the school’s dress code, and misfit Charlotte Savage directly challenges the Bible-backed lessons on modesty and behavior. Bold and unafraid to break the rules, Charlotte is everything Rue, a chronic peacekeeper, wants to be but is sure she’s not. Things take a turn when Rue hears a lone howl from the school’s surrounding forest and vivid dreams begin to trouble her. Soon, Rue’s appetite has turned ravenous, her nails and teeth grow sharp, and Rue knows that something deep and powerful inside of her is surfacing—and Charlotte might hold some clue as to what’s going on. When Charlotte reveals herself to be a werewolf, she offers Rue a chance to transform too if she is willing to release her “wild.” The girls’ howls become clarion calls to the other Sacred Heart students, and together they form a pack—no longer meek and restrained, but fierce, powerful, and free.
What could have been a trope-filled retread of predictable werewolf stories is instead a nuanced reflection anchored by Rue, a complex teenage girl whose world goes from feeling boxed in to suddenly limitless. Sent to the school as punishment, she is instead ironically validated in her sexuality, by both Charlotte, who reciprocates the attraction, and the other girls, who are completely accepting of the pair’s new romance. However, Rue is burdened by the loyalty and love she has for the mother who cast her out, still craving her acceptance. Rue’s constant thrum of anxiety from fearing rejection finally quiets when she realizes she has to grieve what she wanted but what could never be—and that she can live with her mother’s disappointment but not her own.
That theme of self-acceptance extends to the other Sacred Heart girls too. DeRose’s third-person narrative accentuates the pack environment, giving readers a chance to reflect on both the collective and individual experiences of the girls. Intersectionality is shown to have critical value as the girls voice their stories, with Morgan and Angelica experiencing issues unique to women of color, and Charlotte acknowledging the privilege that comes from her wealthy, affluent family. By confiding in one another, they receive unquestioning support and care, in opposition to the persecution they are used to facing. Between clandestine meetings and wild runs in the woods, the first fissures of disrupting the system begin, and the girls’ authentic stories reinforce those cracks, dismantling what holds them back.
In releasing their “wild,” the girls of Sacred Heart find themselves in a pivotal moment. They could succumb to radical conformity, in alignment with the Mother Superiors and Katherine Bishops of the world who were stifled living life as they thought they should. Or instead they can pursue a life of radical acceptance, which, until their time at Sacred Heart, they had never known was possible. DeRose offers a haven to young readers struggling to develop their identities, particularly when their beautiful, creative, and fascinating authentic selves are met with backlash. This novel assures young people that the Rues of this world will one day find the freedom and confidence to let their howls loose.
—Glorian Roberts, Reviewer
Cover illustration from Hear Her Howl. Jacket art © 2025 by Tim McDonagh. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, Union Square.
