Laugh Out Loud High School Drama!

Kelsey Finkelstein is fourteen and FRUSTRATED. Every time she tries to live up to her awesome potential, her plans are foiled – by her impossible parents, her annoying little sister, and life in general. But with her first day of high school coming up, Kelsey is positive that things are going to change. Enlisting the help of her three best friends — sweet and quiet Em, theatrical Cass, and wild JoJo — Kelsey gets ready to rebrand herself and make the kind of mark she knows is her destiny. 

Things start out great - her arch-nemesis has moved across the country, giving Kelsey the perfect opportunity to stand out on the soccer team and finally catch the eye of her long-time crush. But soon enough, an evil junior’s thirst for revenge, a mysterious photographer, and a series of other catastrophes make it clear that just because KELSEY has a plan for greatness… it doesn’t mean the rest of the world is in on it. 

Call # YA ZEITLIN, MEREDITH

A Prank Turned Tragic

On a hot summer night in a Midwestern town, an innocent prank goes horrifically awry: 

alcohol, 

guns,

 a dare. 

 The lives of 8 teens collide in 1 fateful moment.

Call # YA PATTOU, EDITH

Not Gonna Take It Anymore!

The high school cheerleading team takes over a soda vending machine's funds, which were previously collected by the pep band. "NO WAY!" says Gabe Johnson.   A sudden, drastic price increase makes his soda habit unaffordable, and the money that should have been funding summer band camp has been diverted to a new dance team for the cheerleaders. Tired of being a joke and pushover, Gabe fights back, organizing a campaign to save band camp. The animosity between band geeks and jocks quickly escalates, unjustly threatening band's existence, leading to a vending-machine heist.  CALL # YA HERBACH, GEOFF

Go on A Road Trip!

Five strangers. 

Countless adventures.

One epic way to get lost.

Four teens across the country have only one thing in common: a girl named LEILA. 

She crashes into their lives in her absurdly red car

 at the moment they need someone the most.

There's HUDSON, a small-town mechanic who is willing to throw away his dreams for true love. And BREE, a runaway who seizes every Tuesday-and a few stolen goods along the way. ELLIOT believes in happy endings...until his own life goes off-script. And SONIA worries that when she lost her boyfriend, she also lost the ability to love.

Hudson, Bree, Elliot and Sonia find a friend in Leila. And when Leila leaves them, their lives are forever changed. But it is during Leila's own 4,268-mile journey that she discovers the most important truth: sometimes, what you need most is right where you started. 

And maybe the only way to find what you're looking for is to get lost along the way.

Call #  YA ALSAID, ADI

Someone Knows YOUR Secret!

"Eric, a gifted soccer player.

 Shelly, a "goth girl" who hides from her past.

Fatima, a dutiful daughter whose questions go too far. 

Three teens from different schools and different walks of life.  But they have one thing in common...

Each teen has received calls from an unnamed stranger who threatens to reveal their shameful secrets to the world if they do not cooperate with specific instructions to bully their classmates.

When the 3 finally meet in the mandatory anti-bullying counseling program, they team up to find the stranger who threatens them - before time runs out and their shattering secrets are revealed.

Call # YA BENOIT, CHARLES

What if You FOUND a Baby?

Saving  Baby Doe

by Danette Vigilante

13-year-old Lionel Perez and his best friend, Anisa Torres, live in Brooklyn. One day, while trespassing in a nearby construction site, they discover an abandoned baby in a Porta-Potty. 

Lionel and Anisa spring into action and vow to protect Baby Doe, even when adults try to take matters out their hands.  But Lionel wants the baby to feel wanted and loved.  So

he becomes involved with some neighborhood boys who sell drugs. He knows this is a bad idea, but Lionel feels it's the only way he can earn money to provide for the baby, whom he plans to "kidnap". 

 The real challenge comes, though, when Lionel discovers the baby's mother and must make the hard decision whether to tell or keep this knowledge a secret.

Call # YA VIGILANTE, DANETTE

Gripping, Mid-20th Century Historical Fiction

 World War II is over and Germany partitioned among the victors. 

For most in the Soviet-occupied zone, life is grim and anything but peaceful.

 Hunger's a constant companion, trust in short supply. 

Most despise their Russian masters

 and even more, the German police--Schupos--who do their bidding. 

After a childhood cut short by war and the harsh strictures of Nazi Germany, sixteen-year-old Wilm is finally tasting freedom. 

In spite of the scars World War II has left on his hometown, Leipzig, and in spite of the oppressive new Soviet regime, Wilm is finding his own voice.

 It’s dangerous, of course, to be sneaking out at night to leave messages on police buildings. But it’s exciting, too, and Wilm feels justified, considering his family’s suffering.

 Until one mission goes too far, and Wilm finds he’s endangered the very people he most wants to protect.

Call # YA BASS, KAREN

Dark, Gritty, Dangerous

The Lure tells the story of fifteen-year-old Blaise Montgomery, who lives on the dangerous outskirts of Washington, DC, where a stray bullet can steal a life on the way to school and death lurks around every corner. Drugs and violence are the only way to survive, so Blaise and her friends turn to gangs for safety, money, and love. And when Blaise is accepted into one of the toughest gangs in the city, she’s finally part of a crew. 

A family.

But as Blaise is put in increasingly dangerous situations—particularly as her gang’s newest lure—she begins to see that there’s more to lose than she ever realized. Should Blaise continue to follow the only path she’s ever known, or cut and run?

Call # YA EWING, LYNNE

Crazy Little Thing Called Love...

When Bea meets Beck, she knows instantly that he's her kind of crazy.  Sweet, strong, kinda-messed-up Beck understands her like no one else can.  He makes her feel like she could fall in love again.

But despite her feeling for Beck, Bea can't stop thinking about someone else: a guy who is gorgeous and magnetic...and has no idea Bea even exists.  But Bea knows a ton about him.  She spends a lot of time watching him.  She had a journal full of notes.  Some might even say she's obsessed.

Bea tells herself she's got it all under control, but this isn't a choice, it's a compulsion, The truth is, she's breaking down...and she might end up breaking her own heart.

Call #  YA HAYDU, COREY ANN

Life in a New Country...

Sixteen-year-old Emma, daughter of a Canadian diplomat, has moved from country to country all her life, but after her parents' divorce, she is forced to move from the Philippines to a diplomatic compound in Islamabad, where her mother has been posted.

 Emma resents the numerous restrictions, the loss of her friends, and the dullness of life in Pakistan. She is angry about her father's desertion and her mother's constant work-related absences. She alienates other students on the first day at her new school when she gives an honest answer to the question, "How are you enjoying Pakistan?" but she eventually makes some tentative friendships and tries to address some of the poverty-related issues around her. 

Trouble brews, though, in the form of political tensions and her own ill-advised attraction to a handsome Pakistani classmate which leads to trouble.

However, the novel ends on a hopeful note with Emma reaching out to her family and new friends. 



Call # YA LAIDLAW, S.J.

Pretty Girls = Mean Girls?

Faye:  "Girls who are pretty have a way of looking down their perfect noses at anyone they feel isn't worthy of sharing the air with them. They have a way of making regular girls like me feel inferior for not winning the gene pool lottery. Tormenting them is my way of getting even.

"Everyone knows that pretty equals mean, and Evelyn Ryder used to be a beautiful movie star--never mind that it was practically a lifetime ago. There's no time limit on mean. So if you think I feel guilty about mugging her, think again."

In 1984, 14-year-old Faye lives with her volatile and overworked mother (an immigrant from the Caribbean island of Dominica) near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, N.Y., where nice and not-so-nice neighborhoods rub shoulders. 

Faye and two of her friends occasionally mug "pretty, stuck-up girls with loads of extra cash in their pockets," seeing it as a way to put them in their place.

But when they rob Evelyn, an 80-year-old former film star, and injure her, Faye decides that she's gone too far.

Faye and Evelyn, both lonely in their own ways, develop an unexpected friendship, connecting over Evelyn's secrets and regrets, and the drama Faye endures with friends and at home. 

Call # YA BLYTHE, CAROLITA

Time for Some Light Summer Reading!

We're all a little like Danielle, really, in

 OCD, the Dude, and Me

With frizzy orange hair, a plus-sized body, sarcastic demeanor, Danielle Levine doesn't fit in even at her alternative high school. While navigating her doomed social life, she writes scathing, self-aware, and sometimes downright raunchy essays for English class.

Written as a series of  essays, private journal entries, letters, and e-mails, Danielle, a loner, finds it easiest to communicate through writing. She has OCD, often rearranging her collection of snow globes for comfort, but dreams of Friday night parties with the popular kids, including the object of her unrequited love, Jacob!

As a result of her unfiltered writing style, she is forced to see the school psychologist and enroll in a "social skills" class. But when she meets Daniel, another social misfit who is obsessed with the cult classic film The Big Lebowski, Danielle's resolve to keep everyone at arm's length starts to crumble.

Call #     YA VAUGHN, LAUREN ROEDY NEW 

Moving and Funny

Things I know about Reece Malcolm:

1. She graduated from New York University.
2. She lives in or near Los Angeles.
3. Since her first novel was released, she’s been on the New York Times bestseller list every week.
4. She likes strong coffee and bourbon.
5. She’s my mother.

Devan knows very little about Reece Malcolm, until the day her father dies and she’s shipped off to live with the mother she’s never met. All she has is a list of notebook entries that doesn't add up to much.

Call #  YA SPALDING, AMY  NEW

Abe Lincoln Award Nominee!!

Piper--gutsy, savvy and, yes, deaf--has signed her way into a gig that promises a big, necessary payoff: manager of Dumb, Seattle's Battle of the Bands winners. 

Seething with resentment and feelings of inadequacy after her parents raid her college account to pay for her baby sister's cochlear implants, Piper is determined to shape both Dumb's future and her own. Piper's struggles and growth as a manager--she is initially hampered by lack of both experience with intra-band politics and knowledge about music--enjoy realistic treatment, as do her nuanced relationships with family members and the super-talented and adorable Ed Chen.

 As Piper learns about Seattle's rock heroes (Cobain and Hendrix), she sees both the band Dumb could be if they would choose rocking over fighting and the person she will become once she truly owns her deafness. 

Bring the good life back...

Nothing is going as planned for Rebecca Muir. She's weeks away from starting college--at a school chosen specifically to put a few thousand miles of freedom between Reb and her parents. But her dad's last-minute job opportunity has her entire family moving all those miles with her! And then there's the matter of her unexpected, amazing boyfriend, Jackson, who is staying behind on the exact opposite coast.

And if that isn't enough to deal with, mere days after moving cross-country, Reb's dad drops shocking, life-changing news. With her mother and brother overwhelmed and confused, Reb is left alone to pick up the pieces of her former life. But how can she do that when everything can change in an instant? How can she trust her "perfect" boyfriend when her own dad let her down? Reb started the year knowing exactly what her future would hold, but now that her world has turned upside down, will she discover what she really wants?

 

NEW! Sequel to Little Brother!

Homeland 

by Cory Doctorow

When Marcus, once called M1k3y, receives a thumbdrive containing evidence of corporate and governmental treachery, his job, fame, family, and well-being, as well as his reform-minded employer's election campaign, are all endangered.

Call # YA DOCTOROW, CORY NEW

Extreme Measures!

 

 

15-year-old Fitz, has just learned that his father, whom he's never met, who supports him but is not a part of his life, is living nearby. 

Fitz begins to follow him, watch him, study him, and on an otherwise ordinary May morning, he executes a plan to force his father, at gunpoint, to be with him.


Call # YA COCHRANE, MICK NEW

Gritty and Believable

 

Lousy camp experiences are as plentiful as mosquitoes.
Camp takes a look at a 14-year-old girl's hellish eight weeks at Camp Takawanda for Girls. Ostracized Amy Becker feels like she can trace her problems to the moment she boarded the bus: she was the only one wearing the stupid camp uniform, and her autistic brother, Charlie, made a scene. 

Soon cruel Rory and her posse of mean girls strip Amy naked in front of boys on a beach and throw her into the water. It's frustrating for the reader yet still believable that Amy doesn't manage to get help, and so Rory continues to humiliate and threaten Amy at every turn. 

Fake cheery letters back home to Charlie make her travails all the more painful, until she breaks through into vengeance: Camp was a jungle; I'd play by the law. Eat or be eaten.

- Booklist review.

Call # YA Wolf, Elaine NEW