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(MG) In the near future, Halley’s Comet is on a collision course with Earth. Knowing this, the government builds a ship to transport the best scientists, computer programmers, and botanists onto a “Goldilocks Planet” that can support human life. The travelers wake from their cryogenic sleep 300+ light years later as the ship arrives. But…a nefarious group called The Collective seized control in the intervening time, and Petra Peña awakens to discover a society in which stories (cuentos) are forbidden. Stories, after all, are a way of recalling history and protecting culture. And in this universe, multiculturalism is shunned in favor of samesness. ** It’s an interesting book; very different from other 8th grade lit circle books; a lot of Spanish in this novel.

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"Plenty of people go down there [into the cave] just to live. Survivalists...fugitives. Did you read about that one guy, been living down there for seventeen years? Serial killer. I think he murdered like nine people down there, just for fun. Can you imagine?" Those are the words of the salesman at the outdoor supply store, right before Grant leaves on his solo caving adventure. He probably should have listened.

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The young heroine of this story doesn't want much -- maybe a shower and a hot meal since she's been living in her car lately. All of that changes when a mysterious benefactor leaves her hundreds of billions of dollars. There's just one catch: she has to spend a year in the same mansion (castle?) as his heirs. This is a modern-day take on The Westing Game!

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In a futuristic world, illness and disease have been eradicated, but now overpopulation is an issue. Enter: Scythes, honored but hated assassins who periodically cull the population. The first rule of becoming a Scythe? You cannot want the job. Otherwise, what kind of psychopath would you be...?

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This Coretta Scott King winner is a force. It's an easy and highly-engaging book perfect for reluctant readers -- or just those who are big fans of urban fiction! Gerald lives with his Aunt Queen because his Mama got into some trouble. But when Mama comes back six years later, she isn't alone. Gerald finds out he has a little sister and a cruel stepfather. He'll do anything to keep Angel safe.

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Told in wandering anecdotes, the story of Nayeri’s flight from war-torn Iran intertwines with Scheherazade’s tales to form a cohesive story of the fight to survive and the will to create something beautiful out of tragedy, horror, and fear.

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During the pandemic, a middle school boy is tasked with helping his great grandmother go through her things. As Matthew listens to his GG recount her time growing up during the Ukraine famine, he learns a lot more than he bargained for.

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This is one of those books that will make you cry...but in the best way! I recommend this book to just about all my reluctant readers. The short read by Gary Schmidt tells the story of Jack, a 12-year-old boy who lives on a farm in Maine, and the foster boy his family takes in. Joseph has had a very hard life; in fact, the only thing keeping him going is his love for baby Jupiter.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. I REALLY enjoyed this book about a poor girl from Brooklyn who inherits a mysterious apothecary…and discovers the rare gift she’s tried to hide her entire life is part of an ancient lineage. Briseis, like her Aunt Circe before her, is a direct descendant of the goddesses upon which Greek mythology is founded, and as such, can control the wild things growing around her.** This sounds like a Harry Potter ripoff but it wasn’t at all! It was rooted in myth, which I loved, and featured minority characters to boot. Now, I do feel like the villain was a pretty flat character and easily predictable; also, it ended on a cliffhanger…but other than that, it was fantastic!!

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Gateway Nominee 2024. Delaney and Cash are best friends and high school students in East Tennessee. They met in a support group for relatives of addicts. When Delaney makes a major scientific breakthrough, she and Cash win an opportunity to go to one of the premier prep schools in the country. Buy this will mean leaving everything and everyone they know and love.
I’m not sure why this is rated so highly. I got real tired of listening to Cash’s self-flagellation. It was a fine book, but I feel like all his books are starting to sound the same...

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2021 Goodreads Best Young Adult Fiction Winner. WOWWWWWWWWWW!!!! I hardly ever give ratings this high, but Fire Keeper’s Daughter earned it. I can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read this book…perfect example of why you shouldn’t judge a book by it’s cover— I mistakenly thought this was a fantasy book about Faeries. Instead, it’s a realistic, cultural book about Daunis Fontaine - a half-Native, half Zaaghanaash (English) girl living on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Daunis feels Ojibwe and spends much of her time on real-life Sugar Island, where the rez is. But her light skin and trust fund will always separate her from enrolled members of her tribe. In fact, the only place Daunis is truly at home is on the ice rink, and that far north, hockey is god. When members of her small community start dying, Daunis realizes hockey may be both less and more important than she’d thought. Appealing to Creator and the traditions of the First Nations, Daunis sets off to unravel the evils plaguing her community. ** This book is 🔥🔥🔥 Drop everything and check it out!

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Gateway Nominee 2022. Jason is half-Filipino and sometimes his friends forever that. After all, he’s lived in the US since he was a baby, only sporadically keeping in touch with his long-distance cousin Jun through snail mail. But when word arrives that Jun has been murdered in Manila as part of President Duterte’s war on drugs, Jay knows he won’t be able to find peace until he discovers what REALLY happened to Jun. I appreciated how this book brings light to issues in America through the lens of another culture experiencing identical issues. I also liked how the author forces us to consider: Is any human being all good or all bad?

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Gateway Nominee 2024. In the wake of a school shooting, two friends set out to draw national attention to Bell Firearms. Oh... And their friend has returned to haunt them, urging them onward. I don’t even go for “ghost” stories, but I still loved it. For lovers of “A Heart in a Body in the World.” I should have known I'd love this book since this author was a Gateway Nominee Author last year, too! "If the hero dies, they call it a Greek a tragedy. But when the heroin dies, it’s a romance." Ladies...get ready.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. This book is like YA Meth Grapes of Wrath. It's not an upbeat book, but it is beautifully written. This is the story of two boys with nothing left to lose after their mother dies and their father goes to prison for life. It made me physically cold. Read at your own risk!

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This is the conclusion to “The Initial Insult,” a 2024 Gateway Nominee. In this latter half of the story, Ribbit Usher is hell-bent on getting vengeance. The thousand tiny wrongs inflicted on him by the upper echelons of Amontillado are about to be punished. Meanwhile, the “best friends” heart charm hanging around Tress’s neck has begun to pulse with a beat. Is it her delirium? The guilt of murdering her best friend? Or…is Felicity still somehow alive, bricked in behind the rubble of the fallen Allen house? Using lots of allusions to Edgar Allen Poe’s stories, this horror-filled conclusion is sure to appeal to teenagers.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. Emory Ward’s family built the town of Mill Haven when they built the Mill for which it is named. They are the rich and privileged family in the big house on top of the hill. But every family has problems, and the Ward family is drug abuse. In fact, it’s the reason a girl is now dead. As Emory fights to save her brother, readers experience the reality of addiction.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. Spencer Harris has left his public school behind and transferred to a new school, one where no one knows that his birth certificate still reads "female." When he joins the local soccer team (against his parents' wishes), he meets the handsome Justice Cortez. Justice's family is deeply religious and does not know he's gay. Spencer and Justice navigate their feelings for each other as the Queer Straight Alliance advocates for gender-neutral bathrooms at their school. * Props to the author for the representation. However, some of it felt really on-the-nose, like when Spencer can't be heard reading names of trans kids over the storm and his friends yell, "Don't worry! We will amplify your voice!!!" Also, the portrayal of Justice's religious family and church lacked nuance. No one is "all good" or "all evil," but this book misses that.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. 3.5 stars. This is a horror-inspired modern retelling of Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado.” One girl gets really mad at her former best friend, kidnaps her, chains her up, and tries to force a confession by slowly burying her alive. I was left confused by the end… I still don’t understand how one friend ended up on a riverbank. Don’t really understand what happened to the panther. What happened with Cecil? Lots of questions but McGinnis did a good job building the horror elements and including Poe Easter eggs.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. This one is going to be this year's winner, ya'll. Angie Thomas can do no wrong. How can one author be so freaking talented? The creator of The Hate U Give brings us the backstory of Starr's parents, but you don't have to have read THUG to understand or love this book. 17-year-old Maverick is a King Lord because his father -- now in prison for 40 years -- is a King Lord. And how else is he supposed to earn enough money for diapers, formula, and baby clothes? When Mav's cousin is murdered, he struggles with what Dre would have wanted for him, even as the streets close in on him. This is a book about "a gang-banging high school flunkout"... who decides to be better and do better for his son. I highly recommend listening to the audiobook narrated by Dion Graham. I kept picturing the famous father/son due DJ Pryor and Kingston (Denny's commercial) during the parts where Mav and Seven interact. This book is poignant, funny, and real. I recommend it to anyone who works in an urban school or with young Black men; also, for readers who loved If I Grow Up, Homeboyz, or the Bluford books.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. 3.5 stars. I am loving books that deal with effects of the opioid crisis. Jake Foster is a varsity ball player with a killer fadeaway…until he gets injured and addicted to oxycontin. He’s just trying to hold it together long enough to win State. But then he disappears.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. "Gubben" Oz Olsson lives with his grandfather "Farfar" and helps the older man run a food truck selling traditional Nordic food. I loved learning a little about Swedish and Finnish culture, and Farfar's determination to redeem himself for having lived a double-life is beautiful. Reck is a funny writer, even when he's writing a serious story.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. Guillermo is on probation, having beat the crap out of his former best friend and gotten himself arrested. Regan is the good-girl daughter of his probation supervisor. They are all wrong for each other...but can't deny their connection. Tbh, I disliked this book. Chick Lit does not need to be 416 pages long, and the plot really dragged.

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Gateway Nominee 2024. The premise is so spectacular! What could be better than a fantasy world in which the gods of Olympus are doomed to roam our real earth every seven years while others hunt them?! It turns out, lots of things could be better :-( The execution was lacking. Somehow, the book was both confusingly convoluted AND boring -- at least to me.

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Great Gateway 2024 Nominee! This book reminds me a bit of the Scarlet Letter, as it might have been told by a vengeful Pearl. “Phoenix” lived in a van with her mother…or the only mother she’s ever known, at any rate. Nina is kind of a flat villain (in fact, the word “flat” is overused to describe her affect quite a bit) but one with a purpose: destroy the life of the man who destroyed hers. As Nina and Phoenix travel to small-town Jasper Hollow to seek vengeance, it becomes obvious that Phoenix is being kept in the dark about a lot of things. There were some loose threads that weren’t tied up at all, but on the whole, a great book!

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🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥Tracy Beaumont has written over 350 letters to the founder of Innocence X, a firm that is clearly a fictionalized version of Bryan Stevenson’s (Just Mercy) Equal Justice Initiative. The reason? Tracy’s dad has been sitting on death row for seven years, and his time is about to run out. Then, just when things start to look up, her brother Jamal is accused of killing his white girlfriend. It’s hard to hold on to hope when there are so many in her town who want to see her family fall. This book calls out complicity. It will make some people mad. But maybe being mad is ok, if you also open your mind a little…

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When Ashley catches her boyfriend hooking up with his ex-girlfriend on their group camping trip, she punches him in the face and drunkenly takes off running into the woods. As the most outdoorsy of their friend group, Ashley expects to make it back to civilization quite easily; and everyone else assumes that’s exactly what she did when they can’t find her the next morning. Instead, she faces injury, disorientation, and severe malnourishment as she tries to survive the same woods that killed her friend years ago.

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This is one of the most disturbing YA books I have ever read. Monday’s disappearance, Claudia’s frantic searching, and the adults’ laissez faire attitude kept me reading, however. The timeline shifts are kind of confusing, but the plot kept me reading and reading!

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Emoni has a gift: her cooking instantly transports people. But growing up as a single Black Puerto Rican mother in Philly, her choices feel limited. When a cooking class is offered at her local high school, Emoni starts seeing options she didn't know existed. (This book is like Como Agua Para Chocolate by Laura Esquival — but modern and for teens and by Acevedo!)

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LOVED this book that author Jennifer Longo wrote at the insistence of her adopted daughter, about a rootless girl growing up in foster care in America. Muir (named after conservationist John Muir) is about to age out of the foster care system. She's managed to survive 17 years by attaching to no one and nothing, depending only on herself -- and her caseworker Joelle -- for survival. With one year to go, Joelle convinces Muir to stay on a tiny island in the Pacific Northwest, where Muir promises herself she will not fall in love with any of the inhabitants. I loved everything about this book, and it treats fostering and adopting with the gravitas and perspective they deserve.

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When all the Muslims in America are rounded up and relocated to an internment camp under the newly appointed "Secretary of War," Layla fights back the only way she knows how -- with her voice and her words. The author wrote this as a "what if" scenario to propel readers to stand up for those who cannot defend themselves. It was not my favorite book, but the idea was good.

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A murder of crows descends upon Auburn, Pennsylvania, and magical realism follows them. Leighton Barnes lives in a house that heals itself after every episode of her father’s violence. The whole town is complicit in ignoring the evils it holds while blaming the crows. “Maybe fear is the toll women pay to exist in this world at all.“
5 STARS, loved the magical realism of this book!

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Laz could be a baseball legend if he weren’t poor as dirt and playing for one of the worst teams in the state -- a team no self-respecting scout would ever visit. When news reaches his family that their trailer park is being torn down, things look bleaker than ever. With his brother getting mixed up in drugs and his future on the line, it is uncertain if Laz’s “golden arm” will be enough to save them. Then a wealthy family invited Laz to move into their basement so he can play ball for one of the best teams in the state, and suddenly his life is turned around. Or so it seems…

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When Katelyn sets up a dating profile page for her mother, she has no idea the danger she's put them both in. Within seconds, facial recognition software has recognized her mother's photo, catapulting both their lives into a terrifying chase. Who IS Katelyn's mother, if not the person she's always known?

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Camino and Yahaira are sisters who have never met — who don’t even know about each other until their father’s death exposes the depths of his double life.

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After spending years working with men from the prison-industrial complex, I thought I was ready to read this book. No. This book was based on the TRUE STORY of an artistic boy who finds himself in prison, and it is a TOUGH read. Based on "The Central Park 5," this novel in verse by the INCREDIBLE Ibi Zoboi is a book for all teens to read.

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An incredible look at communist Romania an under totalitarian dictator. I had no idea about “the man who out-Stalined Stalin.” Through the eyes of 17-year-old Cristian Florescu readers experience the indomitable spirit of the Romanian people fighting for their freedom.

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Two teenagers a hundred years apart try to make sense of the burning of "Black Wall Street" in 1921.

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In a futuristic world, everyone exists primarily in the virtual world of the Oasis. When the creator of the Oasis dies, he leaves behind the most massive Easter egg ever -- and whoever gets there first, inherits everything.

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For Korean-American Daniel and (undocumented) Jamaican-American Natasha, one day is all it takes to fall in love. Except she’s being deported. This book is hard to rate because I’m not an angst-ridden teenager.

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

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The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

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National Book Award Winner. “I was going to have a better life out in the white World.” At the age of 14, Junior has attended 42 funerals. A teacher on the Rez school Junior attends attempts to atone for his sins by urging Junior to escape, to flee to a place not devoid of hope. Junior considers: who has the most hope in the world? He decides it is white people. And so Junior decides to escape to the white world.

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The Poet X is an awesome tribute to the power of verses and lyrics and beats to communicate a story. I loved the narrator’s voice and her growth from insecure fighters to strong, confident Latina❤️ This book reminded me of Maya Angelou!

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This is based on the true story of an African boy who was abducted and forced to fight in the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda. No lie, this is a difficult, stomach-turning read; yet, I’m shocked by how familiar parts of it feel. Whether you’re in America or Africa, leaders USE the Bible to spiritually abuse those they hope to manipulate. There are still two pathways to hope: education and forgiveness

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Field Guide to the North American Teenager

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Field Guide to the North American Teenager

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17-year-old Norris leaves Montreal for Austin, Texas, which he immediately hates. As he bemoans his life, he records his observations in a blank diary given to him by the guidance counselor at his new high school.

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In the far, far north of Russia, magic is still real, and young Vasilisa is careful to honor the spirits that keep the darkest of it at bay. When her father remarries and new people come to the village, Vasilisa knows the magic is under threat...

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DeShawn lives in the Frederick Douglass Projects with his sister and granny. Both his parents were killed in a shoot-out, and DeShawn knows the score: he'll be lucky to make it to 21. Although he promises his granny that he'll stay away from the gang$ that dominate their neighborhood, desperation leaves him few options.

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Kaeleigh and Raeanne are identical twins who are nothing alike. They take turns narrating this novel in verse. This is by far most disturbing book I have ever read, and it left me thinking for -- years.

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17-year-old Alexandra is as unreliable a narrator as they get: she’s schizophrenic, and through her eyes, readers never know what is real and what is imagined.

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On the island of Nil, to which people are transported at random, you have 365 to escape or die. Since no one knows what is causing people to turn up on Nil, and since Nil doesn’t actually exist, it’s impossible to predict what will happen next.

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Libby was the world’s largest teen, now 300 pounds lighter and looking too make a fresh start. Jack has prosopagnosia, or face-blindness, and can’t even recognize his own parents in a crowd. After a bullying incident at school, the two become an unlikely pair who stand up for and protect each other

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After the Summer of Slaughter, England introduces a zero-tolerance policy for teen murderers: anyone convicted will be sent to Furnace Penitentiary—a brutal prison located one-mile below the earth’s surface. This was blood-and-guts horror and it ended on a LITERAL cliffhanger.

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Perry is incredibly annoyed when his parents inform him he HAS to take their foreign exchange student to senior prom. This is going to be the lamest. prom. ever. UNTIL.... she ends up being a disguised assassin who kidnaps him. Then, all bets are off.

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If you've ever had parents who threaten to ship you off to reform school if you don't "shape up," this book is for you. I didn't realize these types of schools were legit -- and legitimately this scary -- until I read the Afterword in the back of this book. It's kind of terrifying.

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In a futuristic United States, the second civil war is fought over reproductive rights. The fallout: abortion is now illegal; now, birthing is mandatory. However, after a person turns 13, parents can determine whether or not their child is turning into a good person. If not? From 13-17, kids can be legally murdered.

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This awesome story about a girl with face-blindness is a modern-day retelling of the myth of Persephone, Demeter, and Hades. LOVED it! For lovers of mythology :-)

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A novel in magical realism by the inimitable Jason Reynolds, a dude who didn't read a book in its entirety until he was 17 years old -- and is now a world-famous novelist. This novel set in verse tells the story of the streets: don't snitch; don't cry, get even. The entire story takes place in the 60 seconds it takes for the elevator to ride from the 7th floor to the ground level -- and at each level, a ghost-victim from the streets steps on.

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From the author of Silver Linings Playbook comes this YA story of hope and friendship. Finley McManus loves 2 things more than life: basketball and his best friend Erin. They distract him from the realities of his existence -- living in a depressed neighborhood rules by the Irish mob, littered with dirty needles, and choked for hope. Fin is a mostly normal kid -- except for the fact that he rarely speaks, something that started after a horrific event that left his mother dead and his Pops without legs. All Finley wants is to play ball, make it to college with Erin, and leave Bellmont behind him forever. Then Russ arrives. Finley's coach explains that Russell's parents were murdered, and that since then, he -- uhhhhhh -- believes that he is from outer space and named Boy21. Would Finley mind taking Russ under his wing? Oh, and also, Boy21 is one of the most killer basketball players in the nation. Finley has always said yes to Coach before... but Boy21 could take his position on the team! With the Irish mob closing in, Russ getting weirder by the day, and the season quickly approaching, it's time for Finley to decide what really matters to him and who he wants to be in the world. I read this book twice, it's so great!

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Violet and Finch are two strangers who find themselves on top of the bell tower at their school, contemplating death. But who ultimately saves whom? Niven does an AMAZING job writing in the voice of a teen with bi-polar disorder.

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In the near-future, "Death-Cast" calls each individual who is about to die. In this way, people can make the best of their last 24 hours on earth. Mateo and Rufus match on an online forum designed to provide people with a "last friend" to walk through their remaining time on earth together. Despite the title, the ending STILL shocked me.

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17-year-old Teddy is assigned to mentor wannabe gangbanger Micah as penance for trying to kill the homeboyz who took ou his (Teddy’s) little sister. But Micah isn’t really interested in being reformed and Teddy is just pretending to mentor as he continues to plot vengeance.

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Fabiola Toussaint is a 16-year-old Haitian girl immigrating to the United States with her mother. When her mother is barred from the US and sent to a detention center, Fabiola practices the voodoo from her youth to bend space and time so “Papa Legba” will reunite them. This book was AMAZING!

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After his drunken ex-girlfriend causes an altercation with the police, Justyce finds himself in jail. He begins writing letters to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. trying to make sense of what is happening to him -- after all, Justyce is one of the top students at his prep school and has always had a bright future.

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What do you get when you cross Young Adult Lit with Historical Lit with Feminist Lit? THIS BOOK!!!! After her scientist father is mysteriously murdered, Faith finds cryptic notes from him detailing the discovery of a tree that feeds on human lies. AMAZING!

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A novel told from 2 perspectives: the Black boy who was stopped by the cops, and the white boy who saw him. I have a ton of respect for the Black and white authors of this novel, who collaborated and brainstormed and wrestled their truth into words. A book for all American teens.

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Star spends her days straddled between the struggling Black world where she stays and the rich white world where she goes to school. When the boy she likes is shot, Star faces immense pressure from both sides: she was the only witness.

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Lakshmi is a dirt-poor girl living in the Himalayas. Her stepfather says she must go to work to help keep the family going...so he sells her into a human trafficking ring. Please note that this is one of the most frequently challenged books in our area -- but STL is also one of the biggest human trafficking hubs in the country. I would encourage parents/students to learn more about this topic, so they recognize the signs.

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Unreliable narrators are the best kind, and the best kind of unreliable narrator is one who admits to you upfront that she is lying! On an island off the East coast, cousins and friends "summer" in the sun while the adults in their world plot, scheme, and argue.

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Crystal meth -- street name, crank -- is highly addictive. Straight-A student Kristina tries it once and once is enough to begin her descent into addiction. (Students got me hooked on this author and her novels in verse). This is definitely a more mature read, so parents, beware! But the author did write this book about her own daughter's lived experience.