When tomorrow burns

Seventh grade trials--and a healthy dose of mystical meddling--jeopardize a tight-knit trio's yearslong friendship in Newbery medalist Keller's striking novel. Uncomfortable with his crush on Nomi, Arthur avoids her to spend time with his sexist track teammates. Simultaneously, Nomi wonders why Violet has seemed different lately: she's started wearing pink and has been going by the name Vi. As encroaching wildfire smoke threatens her Seattle hometown, Nomi recalls a foreboding phrase from a book of prophecy the group once read: "Pink and gray both on one day./ The world has tipped, you have no say." Hoping to halt said world-tipping, the erstwhile friends reunite to embark on a quest to find the second volume of predictions, seeking guidance. Interspersed among the trio's perceptive alternating chapters are enigmatic interstitials from the perspective of Seattle trees as they recount the city's past and offer context surrounding the origins of the prophetic books. Threading a grounded story following three tweens on the precipice of change with adroit musings about climate disaster, misogyny, and the cyclical patterns of history, Keller delivers a moving, clear-eyed exhortation on the necessity of community. Vi is described as half Asian and half white; Nomi and Arthur are white. Ages 8--12. Agent: Faye Bender, Book Group. (Mar.)

Nomi, Vi, and Arthur used to do everything together, but that's changed since the start of seventh grade. As nearby wildfires choke the Seattle skies, Arthur struggles with a secret crush and uncomfortable new friendships, Vi feels betrayed after discovering that her whole life has been fodder for her influencer-mother's socials, and Nomi must manage her younger sister's mounting anxieties as well as her own. With everything so off-kilter, Nomi returns to a mysterious book of eerily portentous verses the three friends found years ago. She grows convinced that its last entry is finally about to come true, and it seems to foretell disaster, predicting "a girl who burns, a boy who breaks." Even as the friends hide their individual secrets (e.g., Vi sends a revealing selfie to a boy), the search for the book's sequel brings them back to one another. In addition to believably chronicling middle-school drama, Keller deftly entwines several other narratives, incorporating the history of the peculiar book as well as (in particularly poetic passages) the lore of trees. She elegantly and movingly captures that fleeting and transformative period of the tween years, when adult concerns (including racial and class privilege, the climate crisis, and toxic masculinity) loom all too large but kids aren't quite ready to discount magic altogether. This is a beautiful testament to interdependence and resilience. norah piehlMarch/April 2026 p.64 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

In the latest from Newbery Award--winner Keller, three middle schoolers seek answers about a mysterious book in hopes of preventing catastrophe. Best friends Nomi, Violet, and Arthur once discovered a book full of predictions. Each came true, save for the final one--a poem that ominously referenced "a girl who burns, a boy who breaks." Years later, as smoke from raging wildfires pollutes the Seattle air, Nomi becomes convinced that the final prophecy is upon them and disaster is imminent. She enlists Vi and Arthur, who's distanced himself from the girls in favor of the popular, athletic boys, to help her find a second book of prophecies that she believes will "make the world right again." As the trio attempts to trace the books' origin, they each navigate personal struggles: Nomi, who's cued white, is desperately seeking a sense of control in a world filled with uncertainty; Vi, who's white and Korean, is reeling after discovering that she's unknowingly been a source of material for her mother's online content; and Arthur is grappling with what it means to be a white boy in our society. Short passages throughout the novel in the voice of a forest that serves as a Greek chorus slowly and cleverly reveal the true story of the prophetic book. The result is a complex, carefully woven exploration of fate, autonomy, power, privilege, identity, and friendship. As beautiful and intricate as the rings of an ancient tree. (author's note, letter to the reader)(Fiction. 10-14) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.