Weekend Pick for June 9, 2023
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Check out our weekly suggestions!
Are your students looking for book recommendations?
Send them to browse through the picks for this or past years.
For the picks from 2022 click here
For the picks from 2021 click here
For the picks from 2020 click here.
For older picks click from 2019 click here.
For the even older picks click here.

The rest of our picks for the month of June will be chosen by guest contributor Meg Grizzle. Meg Grizzle is a PhD student in Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Arkansas. Her research interests include young adult literature, multimodalities, libraries, writing instruction, teen mental health, and rural education. Prior to entering the PhD program, she taught high school English. She is returning to the classroom this fall to teach 10th grade ELA and will continue her graduate work. When she is not researching, writing, and lesson planning, she enjoys spending time with her husband and two boys, ages 5 and 7.
Sanctuary by Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher

When I’m trying to hook reluctant readers, I often turn to dystopian YAL. Plot-driven, fast-paced dystopian YA usually pulls young readers in quickly and holds their attention until the end. Most ELA teachers have witnessed students devouring series like The Hunger Games and Divergent, and my students have reported that it’s thrilling narratives and futuristic settings with a tinge of reality that keep them coming back to dystopian YA. I have noted another aspect of YA dystopian novels that seems to be important: a sense of hope. Unlike classic dystopian texts like 1984, Brave New World, or The Handmaid’s Tale, YA dystopia tends to end with the possibility of a better future. Paola Mendoza and Abby Sher’s Sanctuary does exactly this.
Sanctuary is disturbing in its proximity. Set in 2032, Mendoza and Sher’s dystopian nightmare feels far too close to the immigrant experience in America, with the main characters remaining ever vigilant to avoid the nefarious Deportation Force and the separation of families. Immigration status is tracked with microchips slipped beneath wrists and California has succeeded from the union, designating itself as a sanctuary state. Apart from the drones that spot, track, and physically remove immigrants without American citizenship and the landmines that pepper the borderland between Mexico and America’s “Great Wall”, there are few aspects of the novel that do not mirror life in 2023 America, a mere nine years prior to the novel’s setting. Sanctuary provides commentary on the immigrant experience and asks readers to consider a future that isn’t far removed from our current reality.
Sanctuary is disturbing in its proximity. Set in 2032, Mendoza and Sher’s dystopian nightmare feels far too close to the immigrant experience in America, with the main characters remaining ever vigilant to avoid the nefarious Deportation Force and the separation of families. Immigration status is tracked with microchips slipped beneath wrists and California has succeeded from the union, designating itself as a sanctuary state. Apart from the drones that spot, track, and physically remove immigrants without American citizenship and the landmines that pepper the borderland between Mexico and America’s “Great Wall”, there are few aspects of the novel that do not mirror life in 2023 America, a mere nine years prior to the novel’s setting. Sanctuary provides commentary on the immigrant experience and asks readers to consider a future that isn’t far removed from our current reality.
Sanctuary is told through the perspective of sixteen-year-old Vali, who immigrated to the United States from Columbia. After their mother is taken by the Deportation Force, Vali and her younger brother Ernie must navigate a country whose government is determined to erase them. The story follows Vali as she leaves her home in Vermont to make the journey to safety and refuge in California. Vali and Ernie’s journey is perilous and plagued by danger, but they ultimately find themselves on the other side of a river, safe on the banks of California.
Mendoza and Sher have created a terrifying and all too possible world that is rooted in the realities of contemporary America, but rather than allow Vali and Ernie to fall victim to injustice, Mendoza and Sher infuse hope throughout the plot. Vali and Ernie’s journey highlights the power of community, love, and resistance, making the novel an excellent pick for readers who love dystopian narratives but don’t want to leave the text feeling disparaged about the future.
Mendoza and Sher have created a terrifying and all too possible world that is rooted in the realities of contemporary America, but rather than allow Vali and Ernie to fall victim to injustice, Mendoza and Sher infuse hope throughout the plot. Vali and Ernie’s journey highlights the power of community, love, and resistance, making the novel an excellent pick for readers who love dystopian narratives but don’t want to leave the text feeling disparaged about the future.