Young Adult Novels

  The Hawthorne Legacy by Jennifer Lynn Barnes is the sequel to NY Times Best Seller The Inheritance.  Character Avery is in search for a man that may have the answers to all of her questions and why Tobias left his fortune to her, almost a stranger, rather than his own family.  In her search, clues start to unravel a deep connection to the family that she never knew about.  Tobias's grandsons, Grayson and Jameson, pull her in different directions and Avery must dodge threats coming at her from people that want her out of the picture. The Hawthorne Legacy has everything you would want in a book: suspense, action, and romance.  It is a book you don't want to put down.  It's full of entertainment and left it open to the next book in the series. Barnes, J., & Barnes, J. (2021). The hawthorne legacy . Little, Brown and Company.

  Chasing Shadows by Swati Avasthi opens with an act of violence.  Corey and his twin sister, Holly, are shot by a stranger leaving Corey dead and Holly in a coma.  Savitri is Corey's girlfriend and Holly's best friend.  She is overcome with guilt and desire to find justice for the twins.  While in a coma, Holly dreams of a snake man character claiming Corey.  When she awakes, she can't forget her dreams.  She finds comfort in her favorite comic hero, Leopardess.  Together, Holly and Savitri try to make sense of Corey's death and try to find his killer.  Chasing Shadows is a graphic novel that focuses on grief, revenge, and friendship.  It is full of action and suspense.    Bybee, C. (2020). Chasing shadows . Center Point Large Print.

  Almost American Girl by Robin Ha is a graphic novel that focuses on fourteen year old Chuna.  Her mother begins a relationship and decides to marry a man from Alabama.  She must transition from life in Korea to a life in America along with fitting into a new family, who are not very supportive.  Chuna goes through a culture shock as she continuously compares her lively life in Korea to her life in isolation in Alabama.  Through her love for comics, she begins to thrive.   Almost American Girl is a great coming of age novel where readers connect to the hardships of getting used to American culture and developing new friendships when you feel different alone.  It also explores the strong bond of a mother and daughter relationship. Ha, R. (2020). Almost american girl: an illustrated memoir . Balzer + Bray/Harper Alley, imprints of HarperCollins Publishers.

  Torpedoed by Deborah Heiligman is a true story that takes place during World War II in England.  During this time, there was intense bombing, so parents decided to send their children across the ocean on a ship to find safety, even though traveling through the Atlantic Ocean during this time was at risk for getting attacked by German submarines.  In the September of 1940, the worst imaginable happened.  The ship, City of Baneras, was attacked by a torpedo.  On the ship were two hundred passengers, half of them children.  The passengers are forced onto the lifeboats in the dark night as the ship begins to sink.  While waiting for lifeboats, the survivors recount clinging on for life through the cold water and the stormy night.  When help finally arrives, on lifeboat is mistakenly left behind.  Therefore, the rescue continues on for eight more days.   In Torpedoed , ordinary people become heros.  The book is a page turner, mak...

  I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson is a novel that flips back and forth to the past and the future.  It follows two thirteen year old twins Noah and Jude.  Noah is a talented artist who is sociall awkward.  Noah and Jude are very close and know what each other are thinking.  However, when their mother, Diana, decides to prepare them for a prestigious art school, Jude becomes jealous of her brother's artistic talent and sabotages his application.  Three years go by and Jude is attending the art school, but Noah is not.  Noah no longer does art, but has begun to hang out with Jude's old popular friends.  Jude has become more eccentric and believes in folklore.  She has gone to wearing baggy clothes and putting onions in her pocket to keep evil spirits and boys away.  Their mother has died and Jude believes Diana has cursed her clay sculptures.  She decides to make a stone sculpture as a way to communicate with her mother.  ...

  Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds is a novel written free verse about fifteen year old Will growing up in a violent neighborhood.  Will is dealing with witnessing the death of his older brother who was shot and killed by a gang member.  Will decides it is his job to avenge his brothers death  when he finds a gun in his brotherś dresser.  He sets off to go kill the gang member he believes killed his brother.  However, while in the elevator he is vistited by ghosts that cause him to question the idea of revenge killing.  His first visitor is Buck, his street mentor, who tells him he doesn´t have it in him to kill someone.  Buck is the person who gave his brother Shawn the gun.  The next visitor is Dani, Will´s childhood crush, who died as a child in a drive-by shooting.  She poses the question, ¨What if you miss?¨  Next is Uncle Mark, whom forces him to consider the long term consequences of his decision and to think about how what it...

  When You Were Everything by Ashley Woodfolk is a novel about losing a friend and feeling lonliness in the world.  Cleo and Layla had been best friends for years.  However, over the summer Layla began to drift apart from Cleo.  Out of hurt, Cleo ended what was left of the friendship.  Cleo begins to form other friendships, and even a relationship with popular Dom.  However, she still finds it hard to trust in fear of what happened between her and Laylaś friendship.  Cleo wants to just forget about their friendship, but Layla becomes her tutor making it difficult.  Feeling alone, Cleo must navigate through her estranged friendship, her family falling apart, and trying to make new friendships.  Cleo has to deal with torment from Layla and her new ¨popluar¨ best friends while dealing with her parents divorce.  In the end, they forgive each other, even though their friendship is never the same. Readers will be able to connect to the charac...

       Beastgirl by Elizabeth Acevedo is a book of poetry focus on civil rights abuses that affected Domicans throughout history.  The poems cover both high and profile events.  For example, the relative of the Florida teen Jordan Davis and a Haitian man in a Dominican park.  The poems cover heavy topics such as abuse, rape, harrassment, and discrimination.  The book is suggested for ten and up, but I feel that it would be more appropriate for high school age students. Acevedo, E. (2016). Beastgirl & Other Origin Myths . YesYes Books. 

  Looking for Alaska is a novel by John Green where shy, unpopular Miles, ¨Pudge¨, enrolls in a prepatory school for his junior year in Alabama.  That is where Miles meets his new friends.  Chip, who is called the Colonel, Takumi, and Alaska.  They take Miles under their wing and introduce him to the social order on the campus, smoking cigarettes, and drinking.  Miles gets hazed by who they all the Weekday Warriors, named because they only stay during the week at school, and his friends help him get them back.  Miles goes on a date with Sara, but is secretly in love with Alaska, who is in a relationship with a college student.  As time passes Miles continues his obsession for Alaska.  Over Thanksgiving break, he stays to try to be with her.  During this time, they finally pull an epic prank against the Weekday Warriors.  While they are hiding out they learn that Alaska´s mom had died of an  aneurysm when she was eight.  Later, ...

    Stand Off by Andrew Smith is about a fifteen year old rugby player, Ryan, who is a senior at a boarding school in Oregon.  However, he is two years younger than his classmates because he skipped two grades.  During his junior year of high school, he began a relationship with Annie and also suffered the lost of his best friend who was murdered for being gay.  When he returns from the summer break, he discovers his roommate is a twelve year old freshman, Sam.  They develop a bond that is hilarious, however, Ryan still deals with anxiety attacks.  Through his love for creating comics, he develops a character he calls Nate (Next Accidental Terrible Experience).  Annie worries about him and tries to convince Ryan to see a phsycologist.  Ryan has to overcome his fears of the future and his worry of letting anyone get too close to him while he creates a bond with his rugby teammates and Sam. Stand Off will make you both cry and laugh.  Th...

  Ask the Passengers by A.S. King is about a teen girl, Astrid, who struggles with high school challenges.  She deals with friendships, living in a small town, and having feelings for another girl, Dee.  To calm herself, she will stare at the sky and watch the planes fly overhead.  She imagines the passengers on the plane.  Astrid begins to deal with the emotions of getting a handle of her sexuality.  She comes out that she is gay to her father.  Astrid´s best friend Kristina is also secretly gay.  She uses her boyfriend to hide the fact that she is gay.  Even though Kristina comes out to her, Astrid decides not to tell Kristina that she is gay too.  When Kristina finds out, she becomes hurt.  Kristina and Astrid decide to go to a gay bar together and are caught for being underage.  This causes them to be outed by everyone at school.  Kristina lies and tells everyone that Asrid was the one that brought her there.  Lat...

The Sledding Hill is a young adult novel by Chris Crutcher.  The novel focuses on protagonist, Eddie, as he copes with the sudden loss of both his father and his best friend, Billy, who is the narrator of the story.  The people in town see Eddie as a troublemaker and stupid.  He becomes selectively mute after the two only people who knew the real him died.    However, soon after Billy´s death, Eddie begins to see Billy¨s spirit.  At first Eddie doesn´t believe it is real, but Eddie is persistent.  He begins to dream about Billy and Billy takes him to to the hill where they use to go sledding together.  Eventually he begins to believe that Billy is really with him.  When school begins, Eddie is still mute, but befriends Billy´s dad who is the school janitor.  In one of Eddie´s classes he reads a book, Warren Peece, that deals with issues such as homosexuality and abortion.  The father that leads the school wants to ban the book, but ...

  The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier is a novel about a freshman in high school named Jerry who has a confrontation with a gang, The Vigils.  Archie is the leader of the gang and their goal is to cause pshychological harm on students as they are forced to compete.  For example, Jerryś friene, ¨The Goober¨, is challenged to sneak into a classroom and loosen the screws on the chairs and desks.  The Goober suffers from great guilt when everything falls apart the next day during school when the students go to class.  Jerry´s assignment is to refuse to sell chocolates in the school fundraiser.  At first, Brother Leon, the teacher in charge of the sale, is shocked when he hears this, but eventually finds out that The Vigils are behind it.  At first, Brother Leon is angry, but discovers Jerry is allowed to sell the chocolates after ten days.  However, even though Jerry intended to sell the chocolates, he told Brother Leon ¨no" after the ten days. ...

Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets  is written by Kwame Alexander, along with Chris Colderly and Marjorie Wentworth, and illustrated by Ekua Holmes.  It is the winner of the Coretta Scott King Award for its vibrant illustrations.  Caldecott winner Kwame Alexander joined Colderey and Wentworth to present original poems to honor twenty authors that have been an inspiration to them.   Alexander, K., Colderley, C., Wentworth, M., & Holmes, E. (2017).  Out of wonder: poems celebrating poets . Candlewick Press.

  Stamped From the Beginning by Ibram Kendi is a novel about the history of racism in America.  Kendi believes that American racism should be categorized in three groups.  The first group is the segregations who he states are anti-blackness. Next is assimilationists who argue that black people can integrate with mainstream American culture by hiding their true self.  The third group is the anti-racists in which argue that blackness has been problematic in America.  He uses five influential people from the colonial time to further explain his beliefs.  One being Thomas Jefferson due to the fact he fought for equality, but still owned hundreds of slaves.  He also called William, an abolitionist and journalist, The Liberator.  Keni´s book brings upon the idea that racial policies in America are from a collection of interests that include economic, political, and social concerns. Reynolds, J. (2020). Stamped from the beginning .

  The Hate You Give by Angie Thomas is a novel about a sixteen year old girl that deals with racism, police brutality, and activism after she witness her friend being murdered by the police.  Starr attends a predominantly white school where she feels like an outcast.  One evening she attends a party where she runs into her best friend, Khalil.  Suddenly gunshots erupt by a gang and Khalil offers Starr a ride home.  On the way home a police officer pulls them over.  When Khalil questions the reason for the stop, the officer pulls him out of the car and searches him.  The police officer commands Khalil not to move while he walks to his car.  When Khalil goes to check on Starr, the officer shoots him and kills him.  Starr can only focus on what happened and begins to feel awkward with her white boyfriend.  Star´s uncle is a police officer and he convinces her to go to the police about what she witnessed.  She later learns that the pol...

  Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi is an autobiography in the form of a graphic novel.  It tells of her life living with her family in Tehran, Iran during the 1970ś and 1980´s.  During this time ¨Margi¨ was in her early teen years.  During this time the Islamic Revolution was occurring and the Western backed government of the Shah was overthrown.  This brought along many changes that made an impact on how people were expected to behave.  Marji struggles through these changes and especially has a hard time adjusting at her school and their structure rules.  Marji´s family protests against the strict regime, but stops when it becomes too dangerous after there is a picture posted of her mom protesting in the newspaper.  Conflict arises between Marji and her family because her spiritual beliefs differ.  Since she was a young girl she has believed she would grow up to be a prophet.  She is close with God and begins to study books about famous re...

  Gabi, A Girl in Pieces is a young adult novel written by Isabel Quintero.   The novel takes form in the shape of Gabi´s journal entries over a year.  The diary entries begin during the final few weeks of summer and end on her graduation day.  In her diaries, Gabi reflects on the drama that she endures through high school.  Gabi grows up in Southern California and dreams to attend college at Berkeley.  She is a good student, but struggles with Algebra II. She even has to retake it her senior year.  In the final few weeks of summer, Gabi´s friend Cindy becomes pregnant and becomes the center of gossip.  Gabi´s mom fears that Cindy will be a bad influence on her daughter.  Gabi begins a relationship with a boy named Eric who she develops a trusting and mature relationship with.  Gabi´s father is a drug addict and is in and out of her life.  When he claims he is sober, Gabi believes him, however he relapses.  At the same tim...

    The Knife of Never Letting Go is a fantasy novel written by author, Patrick Ness.  The main character, Todd, is the only boy in a town full of only men.  He has grown up believing that all of other people in the world, even women, have been wiped out my original alien inhabitants.  Todd is able to hear the men's thoughts and the men can hear Toddś thoughts.  As Todd is about to become a man at the age of thirteen, he figures out that the town is hiding a terrible secret from him, that everything he has been told is a lie. Todd decides to run away with his dog, whose voice he can hear too.  While fleeing the two come across a girl, named Viola, who has crashed landed.  Todd and Viola must escape from a crazed preacher named Aaron.  They are also being pursued by the hostile army from Prentisstown.  They are chased to an empty, yet large city named Haven.  Mayor Prentiss titles Todd as the President of Haven. The novel ends with ...

  Monster is a series of notes and a screenplay that character, Steve Harmon, writes in his notebook.  They are about the trial of himself and James King for killing a drugstore owner in a botched robbery. It is a recount of the eleven days of the trial and ends at the juryś verdict.  On the first day of the trial, Steve writes how the prosecuting attorney explains how Steve and James entered into the drugstore to rob it and accidentally shoots the store owne, Mr. Nesbitt, with his own gun.  Steve was just a lookout, but is still on trial and responsible for the murder.  As the book continues, witnesses are brought out to testify, including a convict who testifies in order to get his sentence reduced.  Steve reflects on his own childhood and the violent scenes he witnessed, and how he never sought out violence.  In the notes, Steve creates a violent image of jail be describing the sounds and the monstrous crimes that occur.  Steve begins to believ...

  Celebrate Your Body by Lisa Klein and Carrie Leff is a guide that covers a variety of topics from social media and romantic relationships to online porn and sex.  In the introduction it teaches about the major changes that happen to a girlś body during puberty.  The book also covers topics such as hair, skin, body care, body shapes and sizes, breast growth, girl private parts, menstruation, and even finding the perfect bra.  All the topics a young girl may question but may be too embarrased to ask.  Celebrate Your Body also covers topics such as how to navigate friendships and relationships, as well as sex and sexuality.  There is also a list of resources for both teens and adults. Celebrate Your Body does cover some controversial topics, so in my opinion it´s best to make parents aware of this before adding it to your library.  These topics are important to young girls and provide a way to find answers when many may not be comfortable asking abou...

    Annie on My Mind written by Nancy Garden is a novel about two seventeen year old girls living in New York City who develop a relationship.  Liza is the main character, and the narrator.  Her family is wealthy and Liza attends a prestigious private school.  Annie, on the other hand, lives uptown with her parents and grandmother.  Her family are immigrants from Italy and work hard to make ends meet.  Liza and Annie meet while at the MET in Manhattan.  They both have different goals in life as well.  Liza is a top student at her school and dreams of studying architecture at MIT.  Annie wishes to be  accepted to Berkley and become a professional singer.  Despite their differences, they develop a strong bond instantly.  Their friendship soon becomes a romantic relationship and they fall in love.  Over Thanksgiving break is the fist time Liza and Annie kiss and Annie admits she may be gay.  When Liza begins to fal...