Prepared by
Revised
December 11, 2019
Fiction
Children of Blood and Bone
2018
Coming of age in a land where her magi mother was killed by the zealous king's guards along with other former wielders of magic, Zelie embarks on a journey alongside her brother and a fugitive princess to restore her people's magical abilities.
Lexile level
670
Desi T loved this! Find out why »
Lovely War
2019
Meeting in a World War II-era Manhattan hotel for a forbidden tryst, immortals Ares and Aphrodite are caught by the latter's jealous husband before she defends her actions by imparting the tale of four young humans who became connected during World War I.
Lexile level
650
XL
2019
A late bloomer unhappily resigned to being overlooked by everyone outside his tall family experiences a sudden and remarkable growth spurt that catapults him to popularity and makes him aware of opportunities and self-beliefs he never knew he had.
Lexile level
580
House of Salt and Sorrows
2019
When her beautiful sisters are cursed to dance at glittering balls night after night before they start dying in tragic accidents, Annaleigh questions her involvement with a mysterious stranger and wonders if she will be next.
Lexile level
700
Aurora Rising
2019
Relegated by a misguided act of heroism to a squad comprised of his school's hopeless misfits, a graduating cadet in a 24th-century space academy rescues a centuries-hibernating girl from interdimensional space only to be swept up in an interstellar war millions of years in the making.
Lexile level
800L
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Darius the Great Is Not Okay
2018
A Persian-American youth who prefers pop culture to the traditions of his mixed family struggles with clinical depression and the misunderstandings of older relatives while bonding with a boy who helps him embrace his Iranian heritage.
Spin the Dawn
2019
Risking her life by disguising herself as a boy to secure the position of imperial tailor, Maia is given the impossible task of sewing three magic gowns representing the sun, moon and stars for the emperor's reluctant bride-to-be.
Lexile level
690
Stephanie B loved this! Find out why »
Heroine
2019
Determined to see her softball team through a historic tournament run despite severe injuries, a socially awkward teen is prescribed opioid painkillers that initially help, before high pressure leads to an out-of-control addiction spiral.
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Slay
2019
Hiding her identity as the developer of an elite online role-playing game, a talented teen, one of the only black students in her school, is targeted with violent racism when an in-game dispute escalates into a player's murder.
Lexile level
930
Patron Saints of Nothing
2019
Setting aside his college ambitions when he learns his cousin has been murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, a high school senior travels to the Philippines to uncover the truth, and the part he may have played in it.
Lexile level
840
Thirteen Doorways, Wolves Behind Them All
2019
Abandoned in a Depression-era Chicago orphanage with her sister, a young woman endures injustice, poverty and violence while struggling to survive in the years leading up to World War II.
The Fountains of Silence
2019
Drawn back to his mother's homeland by the utopian promises of the Franco regime in 1957 Madrid, the photographer son of an oil tycoon bonds with a girl who raises his awareness about the lingering shadows of the Spanish Civil War.
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Frankly in Love
2019
Torn between his love for his white girlfriend and his sense of duty to the matchmaking parents who made hard sacrifices to move to the United States, a Korean-American teen looks for solutions, along with a friend who has a similar problem.
Ann P loved this! Find out why »
Nonfiction
Brave Face: A Memoir
2019
TEEN 616.8584 HUT
Shaun David Hutchinson was 19. Confused. Struggling to find the vocabulary to understand and accept who he was and how he fit into a community in which he couldn't see himself.
Lexile level
890
Dreamland: The True Tale of America's Opiate Epidemic
2019
TEEN 363.45 QUI
Explore the roots of the current opiate crisis, and learn how the rise of the prescription drug OxyContin paralleled the influx of heroin into the United States.
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States for Young People
2019
TEEN 970.004 DUN
Examines the legacy of indigenous peoples' resistance, resilience and fight against imperialism in the United States, revealing the roles colonialism and American policies played in forming a national identity.
It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
2019
TEEN B NOAH TREVOR
Trevor Noah, the funny guy who hosts "The Daily Show" on Comedy Central, shares his remarkable story of growing up in South Africa with a black South African mother and a white European father at a time when it was against the law for a mixed-race child to exist.
They Called Us Enemy
2019
TEEN GRAPHIC NOVEL 940.5317 TAK
The iconic actor and activist's graphic novel memoir details his experiences as a child prisoner in the Japanese-American internment camps of World War II, reflecting on the hard choices his family made in the face of legalized racism.
Lexile level
680
Recommended for
Ann P
I am a youth services librarian and was a teen librarian for over 15 years. I have had the pleasure of serving on a variety of national teen book award committees, including the Michael Printz Award for Excellence in Young Adult Literature. When I am not reading all things teen literature, I am hanging out with my crazy kitties, Callie and Ricky Bobby, and rooting for the Oklahoma Sooners (OK-born and bred).
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