The Cilantro in Apple Pie, Kimberley Nadine Knights’ contemporary young adult debut, reveals 16-year-old Trinidad and Tobago native Rubie Keane's journey to Mellowbrook, Massachusetts, where Rubie’s older sister Violet and Violet’s new husband Dennis Peterson live—and where Rubie’s ailing parents decide she’ll continue her education at nearby private high school Lumiere Hall, essentially a feeder school for the Ivy League.
Bryan Ney’s young adult historical fiction debut, Calamity Jane: How the West Began, follows his eponymous 15-year-old protagonist on an engaging, perilous journey during the Gold Rush days of yore. The novel opens in Bannack, Montana, where the Canary family now lives in abject poverty after selling their farm in Missouri.
