Young Adult
The hate u give
Angie Thomas
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Thomas Angie
Young Adult, Fiction
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed. Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.
Blood moon
Lucy Cuthew
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Cuthew Lucy
Young Adult
"After school one day, Frankie, a lover of physics and astronomy, has her first sexual experience with quiet and gorgeous Benjamin - and gets her period. It's only blood, they agree. But soon a gruesome meme goes viral, turning an intimate, affectionate afternoon into something sordid, mortifying, and damaging. In the time it takes to swipe a screen, Frankie's universe implodes. Who can she trust? Not Harriet, her suddenly cruel best friend, and certainly not Benjamin, the only one who knows about the incident. As the online shaming takes on a horrifying life of its own, Frankie begins to wonder: is her real life over?" --Amazon.
A formidable feminist find in verse (that's called alliteration!). -Victoria
Somebody give this heart a pen
Sophia Thakur
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Thakur Sophia
Black History, Young Adult
"In her publishing debut, internationally acclaimed performance poet Sophia Thakur takes you on an intimate journey through love, loss, sacrifice, and self-discovery. In four parts -- titled Grow, Wait, Break, and Grow Again -- she shares her raw self and gives voice to experiences that connect people, inspiring readers to explore the tendencies of the heart." -- Provided by publisher.
Sophia is raw, honest and someone who who built herself up brick by brick to become an indomitable force. Somebody give that heart all the pens she needs! If you don't know her, you need to check her out! -Victoria
Beauty mark : a verse novel of Marilyn Monroe
Carole Boston Weatherford
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Weatherf Carole
Young Adult
From the day she was born as Norma Jeane Mortenson, to her reigning days as a Hollywood icon, Marilyn Monroe lived a life that was often defined by others. This verse novel revisits Marilyn's often traumatic early life of foster homes, loneliness, sexual abuse, teen marriage, and follows her into a hard-won, meteoric rise to stardom that brought with it exploitation, pill dependency, and depression. In covering moments of extraordinary pain and moments of unexpected grace, gumption, and perseverance, we learn the inexorable power of pursuing one's dreams. -- adapted from jacket
A gripping account of a Hollywood icon. You may never see Marilyn Monroe the same way again! -Victoria
One of us is lying
Karen M. McManus
YOUNG ADULT FICTION McManus, Karen
Young Adult
"The Breakfast Club" meets "Pretty Little Liars", One of Us Is Lying is the story of what happens when five strangers walk into detention and only four walk out alive. Everyone is a suspect, and everyone has something to hide "When the creator of a high school gossip app mysteriously dies in front of four high-profile students all four become suspects. It's up to them to solve the case"
Added by Beth
We were liars
E Lockhart
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Lockhart E
Young Adult
Spending the summers on her family's private island off the coast of Massachusetts with her cousins and a special boy named Gat, teenaged Cadence struggles to remember what happened during her fifteenth summer.
Added by Beth
Darius the Great is Not Okay
Adib Khorram
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Khorram Adib
Diverse Characters, Young Adult
Clinically-depressed Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore, travels to Iran to meet his grandparents, but it is their next-door neighbor, Sohrab, who changes his life.
A great story about friendship, finding value, purpose and acceptance of yourself for who you really are at your core. I really loved how this book realistically tackled mental illness and the interactions Darius has with his family and friends about it. Soccer, Iran, bullying, depression, and tea; this book has it all! -Victoria
Life as we knew it
Susan Beth Pfeffer
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Pfeffer, Susan Beth
Young Adult, Science Fiction
Miranda’s disbelief turns to fear in a split second when a meteor knocks the moon closer to the earth. How should her family prepare for the future when worldwide tsunamis wipe out the coasts, earthquakes rock the continents, and volcanic ash blocks out the sun? As summer turns to Arctic winter, Miranda, her two brothers, and their mother retreat to the unexpected safe haven of their sunroom, where they subsist on stockpiled food and limited water in the warmth of a wood-burning stove. Told in journal entries, this is the heart-pounding story of Miranda’s struggle to hold on to the most important resource of all--hope--in an increasingly desperate and unfamiliar world.
Book #1 in the Last Survivors series. -Beth
Leviathan
Scott Westerfeld
YOUNG ADULT FICTION Westerfeld, Scott
Young Adult, Fiction
A steampunk novel. In an alternate 1914 Europe, fifteen-year-old Austrian Prince Alek, on the run from the Clanker Powers who are attempting to take over the globe using mechanical machinery, forms an uneasy alliance with Deryn who, disguised as a boy to join the British Air Service, is learning to fly genetically-engineered beasts.
Added by Beth
Concrete Rose
Angie Thomas
YOUNG ADULT FICTION/Thomas, Angie
Young Adult
Maverick feels strongly about family ties, making choices he feels necessary to help support his mom while his King father serves time, and leave him literally holding his son in a doctor's waiting room after he gets paternity test results back and his babymomma ghosts. Now the child he's raising is impacting the lives of his family and his girlfriend, and the gang life he led to support them all financially could leave them all bearing his responsibilities since it endangers his life. It looks like he may have been offered a chance to go straight, but leaving the King Lords won't be easy, and a "real" job has high demand for low return.
Incredible prequel to Angie Thomas' The Hate U Give. Learning about who Maverick and Lisa are as teenagers as well as looking at exploring a different generation in Garden Heights felt like I gained so much perspective into Starr's life and upbringing. In a recent interview I watched with Thomas, she said the novels are stand-alone in a way and could be read in any order so if you missed The Hate U Give, check it out while you wait! -Victoria
Added by Beth