Spring 2026

When It's Your Turn for Midnight

  • Interest Level: Grade 8 - Grade 12
  • Reading Level: Grade 8

When fifteen-year-old Chianti learns that her dad isn’t her biological father, her family splinters.

Chianti goes to stay with her maternal grandmother, Ambuya, an eccentric and formidable ex-freedom fighter in Zimbabwe’s civil war.

Ambuya’s closest neighbors are the gogos: her three best-friends-turned-business-partners, who take Chianti under their wings. They make a living by upcycling choice items of secondhand clothing—when their supply chain’s not being disrupted by thieves.

In between helping with the gogos’ business, Chianti becomes fascinated by a box of her grandmother’s old photos. As she wrestles with the ghosts of their past as well her own, she realizes that time is slippery, that family isn’t defined by blood, and that it’s never too late for a transformation.

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979-8-7656-8913-4
On pre-order until 04/07/2026
$18.99
979-8-7656-9156-4
On pre-order until 04/07/2026
$23.99
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Interest Level Grade 8 - Grade 12
Reading Level Grade 8
Genre Young Adult
Category SEL: A Self-Awareness, SEL: B Self-Management, SEL: C Social Awareness, SEL: D Relationship Skills, SEL: E Responsible Decision-Making, Social Emotional Learning
Copyright 2026
Publisher Lerner Publishing Group
Imprint Carolrhoda Lab ®
Language English
Number of Pages 184
Publication Date 2026-04-07
Text Type Fiction
BISACS YAF018000, YAF046020, YAF067000
Dewey [Fic]
Dimensions 5.5 x 8.25
Features Author/Illustrator biography

Author: Blessing Musariri

Blessing Musariri is a Zimbabwean writer who has published short stories, poems, and novels. Her most recent YA novel, All That It Ever Meant (Zephyr/Head of Zeus and Norton, 2022), received starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and School Library Journal, was a Junior Library Guild selection, and was chosen as an honor book by the Children’s Africana Book Awards. Blessing has worked as a freelance editing and proofreading consultant and as an English teacher.