My favorite Top Ten Tuesday prompts are those dealing with seasonal TBR lists.  I enjoy them so much that I started my Summer 2020 list early.  To see the adult books I'm hoping to read this summer, click here.  Today's Part Two list will deal just with children's books, including YA and MG.  I'm going to feature new and upcoming titles because I've discovered some intriguing-looking ones that I really, really want to read. 

Before we get to that, I want to mention two things.  First, TTT is hosted every week by the lovely Jana over at That Artsy Reader Girl.  Click on over to her blog to get all the deets on this fun weekly meme, as well as reviews, giveaways, etc.  Second, after this TTT discussion about how different readers use Goodreads, I decided to revamp my TBR lists on the site.  I deleted the 5000 books on my main TBR shelf and started over from scratch!  Then, I sorted all of the books I want to read into lists according to genre, setting, topic, etc.  I put the titles I'm most excited about in want-to-read order on a "Top 100" list, in the hopes that I can keep the list manageable.  If you want to check out my new and improved TBR lists on Goodreads, feel free.  The link is on the left sidebar.

Okay, here we go with Top Ten Books on My Summer 2020 TBR List (Part Two):


1.  Splinters of Scarlet by Emily Bain Murphy (available July 21, 2020)—I was blown away by Murphy's inventive debut, The Disappearances when I read it back in 2018.  I've been waiting and waiting for her sophomore novel and it's finally (almost) here.  I can't wait to dive into this book about magic and a mystery.   


2.  Show Me a Sign by Ann Clare LeZotte—Inspired by the real deaf community that thrived on Martha's Vineyard in the early 19th Century, this MG novel is about Mary, a deaf girl who has grown up feeling secure in a community where nearly everyone is deaf and knows sign language.  When an ambitious scientist arrives on the island determined to get to the root of its prevalent deafness, Mary becomes a science experiment in the hands of a cruel captor.  What will happen to her and her unique community?  Sounds like a fascinating book.


3.  Orphan Eleven by Gennifer Choldenko—I enjoy Choldenko's books, especially her Alcatraz series, so I'm always excited when she comes out with a new book.  Her newest concerns a mute orphan who joins the circus, where she has to find her voice again in order to work with the animals.


4.  On the Horizon by Lois Lowry—I love historical fiction, so I'm definitely intrigued by Lowry's newest.  The MG novel concerns two infamous events—the bombings of Pearl Harbor and Hiroshima.  Based on Lowry's personal experience growing up in Hawaii and historical research, the book takes an intimate look at how both events changed the lives of those who experienced them firsthand.


5.  Echo Mountain by Lauren Wolk—Another historical, this MG novel is set during the Great Depression.  Because of economic hardship, Ellie and her family have to sell everything they have and move to a remote mountain location.  As if things aren't bad enough already, her father drifts into a coma after an accident for which Ellie is blamed.  To heal her father and soothe her guilt-ridden soul, she goes in search of a magical hag who can mend all kinds of hurts. 


6.  The Vanishing Deep by Astrid Scholte—This YA underwater dystopian sounds compelling.  It concerns Tempe, a teenage girl who dives deep into the water that covers her world to search for treasures in the remains of the drowned cities of old.  She needs to earn enough to pay scientists to bring her dead sister back to life.  Her sister took a secret to her grave and Tempe is desperate for answers.  I'm in! 


7.  All the Greys on Greene Street by Laura Tucker—This MG novel features a young artist whose father, an art restorer, goes missing leaving behind only a cryptic note.  There's no one she can turn to for help, so she sets about solving the mystery of her missing father and the painting that seems to be linked to his disappearance.


8.  Fractured Tide by Leslie Lutz—Greg over at Book Haven featured this YA survival novel on his blog last week.  You better believe any book billed as LOST meets Stranger Things is going to get my immediate attention!  Naturally, it concerns a group of shipwrecked survivors and monsters both human and not.


9.  Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams—I don't know why, but I find cults super fascinating, so the premise of this YA novel caught my attention.  Admittedly, the main plot (a teen girl comes to realize she lives in a cult run by a megalomaniac and wants to escape with the Outsider boy she's fallen in love with) sounds fairly generic, but as a Type 1 diabetic, I'm intrigued by the book's subplot involving the heroine's diabetic brother.  In a community where medical intervention is outlawed, is it a sin for the MC to secretly break the rules in order to procure insulin for her sibling? 


10.  A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson—The murder of a teenage girl by her boyfriend still haunts the town in which it happened.  Pip knew the killer as a kind guy who would never do something so heinous.  For her senior project, she decides to investigate the murder.  In doing so, she finds new information that could exonerate the boyfriend.  Her digging has unearthed some dark secrets, however, secrets someone would kill to keep buried forever.  I can't resist an intriguing mystery and this one sounds like just that.

There you have it, ten MG and YA books I'm hoping to read this summer.  Which are you hoping to get to in the next few months?  Do we have any in common?  I'd truly love to know.  Leave a comment on this post and I will return the favor on yours.

Happy TTT! 

Fear of a vengeful abusive boyfriend sends Hope Wright scuttling to get to the only place she has left to go—The Orchard House.  Her mother never had anything good to say about her ancestral home, but Hope is praying she and her traumatized 10-year-old daughter, Tink, can find refuge there.  At least for a night or two until she can find them a better hiding place.  She only hopes her estranged aunt Peg, caretaker of the house and surrounding orchards, will be receptive to unexpected visitors.

Although Peg initially meets her surprise guests with the business end of a shotgun, she softens when she realizes just who is quivering on her doorstep.  It's obvious Hope doesn't remember being at The Orchard House, doesn't remember Peg or any of what happened there.  Vowing to leave the past where it belongs, Peg guards her secrets while doing her best to care for the skittish mother and daughter.

With cherry season in full swing, it's not long before the Wright women are laboring side-by-side, forming a tight bond.  Even as Hope and Tink find healing in the comfort of family, newly-formed friendships, and the satisfaction of working the land, the threat of Hope's murderous ex looms.  Tink's dug up some intriguing clues to the past in Peg's off-limits bedroom and Peg is wracked with guilt over the secrets she's keeping.  What will happen when things come to a head, exposing the truth about the past?  Can Peg keep Hope safe, not just from a physical threat but also from the emotional bomb that's about to go off?  Or will Hope and Peg both end up losing everything that's most important to them?

You all know by now what a sucker I am for homecoming stories.  If they feature juicy secrets, all the better!  Not surprisingly, then, I was drawn to the premise of The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season by Molly Fader.  It stars a sympathetic trio of females, who are all wounded but fierce in their own ways.  Rooting for them is a no-brainer.  Plotwise, the novel moves along at a steady pace.  It's obvious from the get-go what's going to happen in the story, all the way down to the role of the surprise item Tink finds in Peg's hidden box, but the tale is still compelling—even if there weren't any plot "twists" I didn't see coming.  On the whole, then, I very much enjoyed The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season.  It's a tender story about family, forgiveness, love, and the power of coming home.  Although it deals with some difficult themes, overall it's an uplifting, empowering novel that made me smile.

(Readalikes:  Reminds me of other homecoming novels, although no specific titles are coming to mind.  You?)

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