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The Door of No Return
By Kwame Alexander
J ALE / Also available on Playaway and as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
A novel in verse about a boy escaping slavers during the nineteenth century.
Fever 1793
By Laurie Halse Anderson
J AND / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
In 1793 Philadelphia, sixteen-year-old Matilda Cook, separated from her sick mother, learns about perseverance and self-reliance when she is forced to cope with the horrors of a yellow fever epidemic.
City of the Plague God
By Sarwat Chadda
J CHA / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Thirteen-year-old Sikander Aziz has to team up with the hero Gilgamesh in order to stop Nergal, the ancient god of plagues, from wiping out the population of Manhattan in this adventure based on Mesopotamian mythology.
Revolution is Not a Dinner Party
By Ying Chang Compestine
J COM / Also available as an Ebook
Starting in 1972 when she is nine years old, Ling, the daughter of two doctors, struggles to make sense of the communists’ Cultural Revolution, which empties stores of food, homes of appliances deemed “bourgeois,” and people of laughter.
Catherine, Called Birdy
By Karen Cushman
J CUS / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
The thirteen-year-old daughter of an English country knight keeps a journal in which she records the events of her life, particularly her longing for adventures beyond the usual role of women and her efforts to avoid being married off.
Refugee
By Alan Gratz
J GRA / Also available on Playaway and as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Although separated by continents and decades, Josef, a Jewish boy living in 1930s Nazi Germany; Isabel, a Cuban girl trying to escape the riots and unrest plaguing her country in 1994; and Mahmoud, a Syrian boy in 2015 whose homeland is torn apart by violence and destruction, embark on harrowing journeys in search of refuge, discovering shocking connections that tie their stories together.
Game Changer
By Tommy Greenwald
J GRE / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
While thirteen-year-old Teddy fights for his life after a football injury at training camp, his friends and family gather to support him and discuss events leading to his coma. Told through dialogue, text messages, newspaper articles, transcripts, an online forum, and Teddy’s inner thoughts.
Among the Hidden
By Margaret Haddix
J HAD / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
In a future where the Population Police enforce the law limiting a family to only two children, Luke has lived all his twelve years in isolation and fear on his family’s farm, until another “third” convinces him that the government is wrong.
The Last Cuentista
By Donna Barba Higuera,
J HIG / Also available on Playaway and as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
A girl named Petra Peña wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. But Petra’s world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children—among them Petra and her family—have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race. Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet—and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity’s past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard—or purged them altogether. Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again?
The Ruby Code
By Jessica Khoury
J KHO / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Bullied at school and home, Ash finds respite from his unhappy life in virtual reality games. One night, he spends his meager savings to help a stranger, who thanks him with a copy of an old fantasy game called The Glass Realm. While exploring the game, Ash meets a seemingly humble shopkeeper named Ruby. But from the start, Ruby seems different than the other townsfolk—especially when she and Ash stumble across an in-game quest designed not for the player, but for Ruby to solve. When Ruby begins developing powerful abilities that can rewrite the very code of the game, they realize she is far more than a pre-programmed side character.
Hattie Big Sky
By Kirby Larson
J LAR / Also available in large print and as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
After inheriting her uncle’s homesteading claim in Montana, sixteen-year-old orphan Hattie Brooks travels from Iowa in 1917 to make a home for herself and encounters some unexpected problems related to the war fought in Europe.
Red, White, and Whole
By Rajani LaRocca
J LAR / Also available on CD and as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Reha feels torn between two worlds: school, where she’s the only Indian American student, and home, with her family’s traditions and holidays. But Reha’s parents don’t understand why she’s conflicted—they only notice when Reha doesn’t meet their strict expectations. Reha feels disconnected from her mother, or Amma, although their names are linked—Reha means “star” and Punam means “moon”—but they are a universe apart. Then Reha finds out that her Amma is sick. Really sick. Reha, who dreams of becoming a doctor even though she can’t stomach the sight of blood, is determined to make her Amma well again.
Brother’s Keeper
By Julie Lee
J LEE / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Twelve-year-old Sora and her eight-year-old brother, Youngsoo, must try to escape North Korea’s oppressive Communist regime on their own in 1950. Includes historical notes, photographs of the author’s mother, glossary of Korean words, and timeline.
The Mysterious Disappearance of Aidan S. (as Told to His Brother)
By David Levithan
J LEV / Also available as an Eaudiobook
Aidan disappeared for six days. Six agonizing days of searches and police and questions. Then, just as suddenly, Aidan reappears. Where has he been? The story he tells is simply. . . impossible. But it’s the story Aidan is sticking to. His brother, Lucas, wants to believe him. But Lucas is aware of what other people are saying: that Aidan is making it all up to disguise the fact that he ran away. When the kids in school hear Aidan’s story, they taunt him. But still Aidan clings to his story. And as he becomes more of an outcast, Lucas becomes more and more concerned. Being on Aidan’s side would mean believing in the impossible. But how can you believe in the impossible when everything and everybody is telling you not to?
What Lane?
By Torrey Maldonado
J MAL / Also available as an Eaudiobook
Biracial sixth-grader Stephen questions the limitations society puts on him after he notices the way strangers treat him when he hangs out with his white friends and learns about the Black Lives Matter movement.
Gone Wolf
By Amber McBride
J MCB / Also available on Playaway and as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
In the future, a Black girl known only as Inmate Eleven is kept confined—to be used as a biological match for the president’s son, should he fall ill. She is called a Blue—the color of sadness. She lives in small room with her dog, who is going wolf more often—he’s pacing and imagining he’s free. Inmate Eleven wants to go wolf too, she wants to know why she feels so Blue and what is beyond her small room. In the present, Imogen lives outside of Washington, DC. The pandemic has distanced her from everyone but her mother and her therapist. Imogen has intense phobias and nightmares of confinement. Her two older brothers used to help her, but now she’s on her own, until a college student helps her see the difference between being Blue and sad, and Black and empowered.
The Best At It
By Maulik Pancholy
J PAN / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Rahul Kapoor is heading into seventh grade in a small town in Indiana. The start of middle school is making him feel increasingly anxious, so his favorite person in the whole world, his grandfather Bhai, gives him some well-meaning advice: Find one thing you’re really good at and become the BEST at it. Those four little words sear themselves into Rahul’s brain. While he’s not quite sure what that special thing is, he is convinced that once he finds it, bullies like Brent Miller will stop torturing him at school. And he won’t be worried about staring too long at his classmate Justin Emery. With his best friend, Chelsea, by his side, Rahul is ready to crush this challenge…. But what if he discovers he isn’t the best at anything? Funny, charming, and incredibly touching, this is a story about friendship, family, and the courage it takes to live your truth.
Prairie Lotus
By Linda Sue Park
J PAR / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
In Dakota Territory in the 1880s, half-Chinese Hanna and her white father face racism and resistance to change as they try to make a home for themselves.
This is Just a Test
By Madelyn Rosenberg
J ROS / Also available as an Ebook
In 1983 seventh-grader David Da-Wei Horowitz has a lot to worry about—his bar mitzvah is coming soon, his Jewish and Chinese grandmothers argue about everything, his teammates for the upcoming trivia contest, Scott and Hector, do not like each other, he is beginning to notice girls, and Scott has persuaded him to begin digging a fallout shelter just in case the Cold War heats up.
The Carrefour Curse
By Dianne K. Salerni
J SAL / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
When twelve-year-old Garnet finally gets to meet her magical extended family she discovers they’re all trapped in the ruins of their crumbling manor and Garnet must break a curse that has decimated three generations of Carrefours.
Louder than Hunger
By John Schu
J SCH / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Jake volunteers at a nursing home because he likes helping people. He likes skating and singing, playing Bingo and Name That Tune, and reading mysteries and comics aloud to his teachers. He also likes avoiding people his own age… and the cruelty of mirrors… and food. Jake has read about kids like him in books—the weird one, the outsider—and would do anything not to be that kid, including shrink himself down to nothing. But the less he eats, the bigger he feels. How long can Jake punish himself before he truly disappears?
Skandar and the Unicorn Thief
By A. F. Steadman
J STE / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Skandar Smith has always yearned to leave the Mainland and escape to the secretive Island, where wild unicorns roam free. He’s spent years studying for his Hatchery exam, the annual test that selects a handful of Mainlander thirteen-year-olds to train to become unicorn riders. But on the day of Skandar’s exam, things go horribly wrong, and his hopes are shattered until a mysterious figure knocks on his door at midnight, bearing a message: the Island is in peril and Skandar must answer its call. Skandar is thrust into a world of epic sky battles, dangerous clashes with wild unicorns, and rumors of a shadowy villain amassing a unicorn army. And the closer Skandar grows to his newfound friends and community of riders, the harder it becomes to keep his secrets—especially when he discovers their lives may all be in graver danger than he ever imagined.
The Otherwoods
By Justine Pucella Winans
J WIN / Also available as an Ebook
When twelve-year-old River’s only friend is kidnapped and dragged to the terrifying spirit world of The Otherwoods, they have no choice but to face the world’s monsters and their own fears to become the hero they were destined to be.
Turtle Boy
By M. Evan Wolkenstein
J WOL / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Seventh-grader Will’s Bar Mitzvah community service project, visiting an incurably ill older boy in the hospital, leads to a friendship that is life-changing for both them and those around them.
GRAPHIC NOVELS
When Stars are Scattered
By Victoria Jamieson
J GN JAM / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Omar and his younger brother Hassan live in a refugee camp, and when an opportunity for Omar to get an education comes along, he must decide between going to school every day or caring for his nonverbal brother in this intimate and touching portrayal of family and daily life in a refugee camp
Mexikid
By Pedro Martin
J B MARTIN, P / Also available as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
Pedro/Peter Martín is a Mexikid, or a kid born in the U.S. to parents from Mexico, a kid who doesn’t quite belong to either place. So he’s not sure what to expect when his dad announces that the whole family (all 11 of them!) will be piling into their Winnebago to drive 2,000 miles down to Mexico with a mission: bring their mysterious, Mexican-Revolution-era abuelito home to live with them. But their grandfather has a mission of his own, and he won’t leave Mexico until it’s complete. This deeply personal and hilarious graphic memoir captures an unforgettable journey filled with cousins, comics, heartbreak, and newly discovered family history. It’s the story of one Mexikid in search of his grito … all on the road trip of a lifetime.
NONFICTION READS
The Mona Lisa Vanishes: A Legendary Painter, a Shocking Heist, and the Birth of a Global Celebrity
By Nick Day
J 364.1 DAY / Also available on Playaway and as an Ebook and an Eaudiobook
On a hot August day in Paris, just over a century ago, a desperate guard burst into the office of the director of the Louvre and shouted, “La Joconde, c’est partie!” “The Mona Lisa, she’s gone!” Travel back to an extraordinary period of revolutionary change: turn-of-the-century Paris. Walk its backstreets. Meet the infamous thieves—and detectives—of the era. And then slip back further in time and follow Leonardo da Vinci, painter of the Mona Lisa, through his dazzling, wondrously weird life. Discover the secret at the heart of the Mona Lisa—the most famous painting in the world should never have existed at all.
The Faithful Spy: Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Plot to Kill Hitler
By John Hendrix
J 940.53 HEN / Also available as an Ebook
Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party is gaining strength and becoming more menacing every day. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor upset by the complacency of the German church toward the suffering around it, forms a breakaway church to speak out against the established political and religious authorities. When the Nazis outlaw the church, he escapes as a fugitive. Struggling to reconcile his faith and the teachings of the Bible with the Nazi Party’s evil agenda, Bonhoeffer decides that Hitler must be stopped by any means possible! In his signature style of interwoven handwritten text and art, John Hendrix tells the true story of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a pastor who makes the ultimate sacrifice in order to free the German people from oppression during World War II.
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys’ Soccer Team
By Christina Soontornvat
J 959.3 SOO / Also available as an Ebook
On June 23, 2018, twelve young players of the Wild Boars soccer team and their coach enter a cave in northern Thailand seeking an afternoon’s adventure. But when they turn to leave, rising floodwaters block their path out. The boys are trapped! Before long, news of the missing team spreads, launching a seventeen-day rescue operation involving thousands of rescuers from around the globe. Combining firsthand interviews of rescue workers with in-depth science and details of the region’s culture and religion, [the author] … shows how both the complex engineering operation above ground and the mental struggles of the thirteen young people below proved critical in the life-or-death mission.