(4) YA Suspended series. Fast-paced, slangy first-person narratives focus on the story behind each protagonist's suspension and touch on issues such as bullying, racism, cheating, and coming out. Short chapters and wide margins make this school-centered, high-interest series a good choice for low-reading-level teens, even if the moral messages are heavy-handed. Covers feature edgy photos of a diverse selection of teens. Review covers these Suspended titles: A Cut Too Far, The Confessional, Testing the Truth, Over the Tracks, and High Drama.

Reviewer: Amy Seto Forrester

(3) YA Bareknuckle series. Set in a nineteenth-century NYC Bowery underground boxing club, these fast-paced and involving hi-lo novels--filled with fight action, intrigue, adventure, and a multiethnic cast of characters--starkly portray the social, political, and economic realities of the period and place. There are recurring secondary characters, but each book's unique central character drives the plot and resolves the story's conflicts. Compelling, reluctant-reader-friendly historical fiction. Review covers these Bareknuckle titles: Lightning's Run, The Giant, The Big Fix, and Fighter's Alley.

Reviewer: Jack Forman

(4) YA Surviving Southside series. In a series opener that reads like an LGBT Bluford High, out-and-proud Carmen teams up with oblivious jock Scott to start a GSA after his best friend Jamie is bullied into suicide. The issue is given formulaic packaging, but this hi-lo problem novel is a gap-filler, and Carmen and Scott's developing friendship is engagingly thorny and complex.

Reviewer: Claire E. Gross

(4) YA After the Dust Settled series. Set in the future, these books depict a world altered by an unexplained apocalyptic event. In each, two protagonists (a girl and a boy in River and Plague, a young and older man in Shot) must rely on their survival skills to combat enemies who attempt to destroy them. The fast-moving but predictable plots present easy reads for adventure-loving teens. Review covers these After the Dust Settled titles: River Run, Plague Riders, and Shot Down.

Reviewer: Luther B. Clegg