Booklist’s Shelf Care podcast episode 13, Summer Scares, is now available.  Hear from author Silvia Moreno-Garcia and librarian horror expert Becky Spratford, librarians Konrad Stump and Evelyn Gathu, and Booklist’s own Julia Smith about this year’s Summer Scares program.

Can’t Take That Away
by Steven Salvatore

Carey Parker is a genderqueer teen who dreams of performing in front of crowds as a true diva, like their icon, Mariah Carey, but ever since a traumatic transphobic incident with one of their classmates, they have avoided this dream.

Spring Youth Preview: 2021
by Taylor Crossley

​This announcement section offers  readers a selected preview of notable new titles for young adult, middle-grade, and young readers. All titles will be published in the spring or summer 2021 season.

Listen-Alikes: Tell Me a (Short) Story
by Terry Hong

​Short stories can be the perfect antidote to these days of winter blues, pandemic panic, and cabin fever. Deesha Philyaw’s debut short-story collection—The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, a much-lauded, National-Book-Award-finalist—illuminates the lives of nine Black woman with a performance from Janina Edwards as nuanced as the characters she portrays. 

The Shelf Care Interview: Traci Sorell​

In this episode of the Shelf Care Interview, Julia Smith talks with Traci Sorell about her new book, CLASSIFIED: THE SECRET CAREER OF MARY GOLDA ROSS, which publishes this March under a Lerner’s Millbrook Press imprint. 

Talking With: Kelly Loy Gilbert
by Reinhardt Suarez

I was lucky to be able to have a conversation with Kelly Loy Gilbert, author of Conviction (2016), Picture Us in the Light (2018), and her forthcoming When We Were Infinite. Her novels uniquely capture the worlds inhabited by Asian American teens navigating the multiple worlds of their families’ pasts and their own present as Americans.

Notes from the Field: Combating Misinformation and COVID-19
by Olivia Kuncio

​The public is turning to libraries for help deciphering all the messages and news swirling around COVID-19 and the vaccination effort that is under way across the country. We wondered how our colleagues at Chicago Public Library were meeting this need, knowing that their experience and advice would be of help to all our readers. —Donna Seaman

Core Collection: The Facts about Vaccines Past and Present
by Donna Seaman

Libraries play an essential role in public health by helping provide the facts about disease, prevention, and treatment. During the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing public immunization effort, accurate and reliable information on contagious viruses and the vaccines that can halt their spread and save our lives is urgently needed.