Book Category: Teen

Young Queer America: Real Stories and Faces of LGBTQ+ Youth

Written by staff-admin on June 14, 2023.

PRIDE MONTH PICK

Photographer and activist Maxwell Poth has traveled all over the United States, inviting LGBTQ+ youth to share their stories as part of Project Contrast, a nonprofit that amplifies these voices and connects kids and families with the resources they need to survive and thrive.

This book collects the stories and portraits of seventy-three queer kids and teenagers from fifteen different states. In their own words, these young people share the challenges they’ve faced coming out or coming to terms with their own identities; they write about their families, their schoolmates, their teachers, and the queer community they’ve found throughout their journeys; and they offer messages of love and support to their LGBTQ+ peers. Featuring a foreword by trans actress and model Isis King, this book sends a powerful message to the many LGBTQ+ kids growing up in small towns who feel isolated: We see you, we love you, you are not alone.

All My Rage

Written by staff-admin on March 13, 2023.

Winner of the National Book Award and the Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature, this brilliant, unforgettable, and heart-wrenching novel from#1 New York Times bestselling author Sabaa Tahir is a sweeping story about family and forgiveness, and love and loss that crosses generations and continents.

Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, Salahudin and Noor understand each other in a way no one else does. Until The Fight, which destroys their bond with the swift fury of a star exploding. Now, Sal scrambles to run the family motel as his mother Misbah’s health fails and his grieving father loses himself to alcoholism. Noor, meanwhile, walks a harrowing tightrope: working at her wrathful uncle’s liquor store while hiding the fact that she’s applying to college so she can escape him—and Juniper—forever. When Sal’s attempts to save the motel spiral out of control, he and Noor must ask themselves what friendship is worth—and what it takes to defeat the monsters in their pasts and the ones in their midst.

She Is a Haunting

Written by staff-admin on March 13, 2023.

When Jade Nguyen arrives in Vietnam for a visit with her estranged father, she has one goal: survive five weeks pretending to be a happy family in the French colonial house Ba is restoring. But the house has other plans. Night after night, Jade wakes up paralyzed. The walls exude a thrumming sound while bugs leave their legs and feelers in places they don’t belong. She finds curious traces of her ancestors in the gardens they once tended. And at night Jade can’t ignore the ghost of the beautiful bride who leaves cryptic warnings: Don’t eat.

Neither Ba nor her sweet sister Lily believe that there is anything strange happening. With help from a delinquent girl, Jade will prove this house – the home they have always wanted – will not rest until it destroys them. Maybe, this time, she can keep her family together. As she roots out the house’s rot, she must also face the truth of who she is and who she must become to save them all.

The Cruel Prince

Written by staff-admin on January 10, 2023.

Jude was seven years old when her parents were murdered and she and her two sisters were stolen away to live in the treacherous High Court of Faerie. Ten years later, Jude wants nothing more than to belong there, despite her mortality. But many of the fey despise humans. Especially Prince Cardan, the youngest and wickedest son of the High King. To win a place at the Court, she must defy him–and face the consequences.

The first book in a fantastic fantasy trilogy. Jude is a smart and complicated heroine that is always true to her self, even as she grapples to find her place in the world.