Get these books on your radar now (& check out the covers!!!!)

New covers are showing up on twitter lately for upcoming books. These caught my eye & I wanted to be sure you get them on your lists. Sequel to the outstanding Shadowshaper (you really need to read that now!), here's what author Daniel José Older told Teen Vogue about his upcoming book (due in September):

Definitely one thing about all my work, one thing in particular here, is looking at the power of community. Thinking about how much we can change when we get together and fight for it. This is a book that is explicitly a protest novel in the sense that the characters hit the streets protesting against violence and the different forms that it appears in in their lives. That is very much entwined with the larger narrative of what they are doing with their lives and trying to survive and the magical fights they are in. It is all tied together, not just like, "Oh, fight the power on one hand and then simply go off and do some cool magic stuff." They are all very much connected, whether it is the actual painting coming to life and fighting bad guys for you or it's you in your most difficult moment when you're most alone finding some kind of truth in a song or a book and that becomes a thread which is a lifeline that will pull you out of wherever you are. All those are forms of art saving lives and that's what is always on my mind when I am writing Shadowshaper books.

Eve Ewing's Electric Arches (due in ) is "an imaginative exploration of Black girlhood and womanhood through poetry, visual art, and narrative prose." The cover is flat out amazing but the description is even better. From the publisher:

Blending stark realism with the surreal and fantastic, Eve L. Ewing’s narrative takes us from the streets of 1990s Chicago to an unspecified future, deftly navigating the boundaries of space, time, and reality. Ewing imagines familiar figures in magical circumstances―blues legend Koko Taylor is a tall-tale hero; LeBron James travels through time and encounters his teenage self. She identifies everyday objects―hair moisturizer, a spiral notebook―as precious icons. 

Her visual art is spare, playful, and poignant―a cereal box decoder ring that allows the wearer to understand what Black girls are saying; a teacher’s angry, subversive message scrawled on the chalkboard. Electric Arches invites fresh conversations about race, gender, the city, identity, and the joy and pain of growing up.

Dear Martin by Nic Stone (due in October) is ripped from the headlines. Here's the publisher's description:

Justyce McAllister is top of his class, captain of the debate team, and set for the Ivy League next year—but none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. He is eventually released without charges (or an apology), but the incident has Justyce spooked. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood, he can’t seem to escape the scorn of his former peers or the attitude of his prep school classmates. The only exception: Sarah Jane, Justyce’s gorgeous—and white—debate partner he wishes he didn’t have a thing for.
 
Struggling to cope with it all, Justyce starts a journal to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. But do Dr. King’s teachings hold up in the modern world? Justyce isn’t so sure.
 
Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned up. Way up. Much to the fury of the white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. And Justyce and Manny get caught in the crosshairs. In that media fallout, it’s Justyce who is under attack. The truth of what happened that night—some would kill to know. Justyce is dying to forget.