October/November 2016

The Raven King

by Maggie Stiefvater

All her life, Blue has been warned that she will cause her true love's death. She doesn't believe in true love and never thought this would be a problem, but as her life becomes caught up in the strange and sinister world of the Raven Boys, she's not so sure anymore.  This is the conclusion of the best selling Raven Cycle books.

The Hired Girls
by Laura Amy Schlitz

Fourteen-year-old Joan Skraggs, just like the heroines in her beloved novels, yearns for real life and true love. But what hope is there for adventure, beauty, or art on a hardscrabble farm in Pennsylvania where the work never ends? Over the summer of 1911, Joan pours her heart out into her diary as she seeks a new, better life for herself--because maybe, just maybe, a hired girl cleaning and cooking for six dollars a week can become what a farm girl could only dream of--a woman with a future.


Irmina

by Barbara Yelin

In the mid-1930s, Irmina, an ambitious young German, travels to London. There she meets Howard Green, one of the first black students at Oxford. Like Irmina, Howard is looking for an independent existence-and a love affair blossoms between the two outsiders. But the relationship comes to an abrupt end when Irmina, constrained by the political situation in Hitler's Germany, has to return to Berlin. Political events accelerate, and her letters to Howard are returned unopened. It will be 30 years until she receives another. Based on a true story, this moving and perceptive graphic novel conjures the oppressive atmosphere of wartime Germany and reflects on the passive complicity of its people with sympathy and intelligence.

Black Flowers, White Lies
by Yvonne Ventresca

Her father died before she was born, but Ella Benton knows they have a supernatural connection. Since her mother discourages these beliefs, Ella keeps her cemetery visits secret. But she may not be the only one with secrets. Ella's mother might be lying about how Dad died sixteen years ago. Newfound evidence points to his death in a psychiatric hospital, not as a result of a tragic car accident as her mother always claimed. After a lifetime of just the two of them, Mom suddenly feels like a stranger.  When a hand print much like the one Ella left on her father's tombstone mysteriously appears on the bathroom mirror, at first she wonders if Dad is warning her of danger as he did once before. If it's not a warning, could her new too-good-to-be-true boyfriend be responsible for the strange occurrences? Or maybe it's the grieving building superintendent whose dead daughter strongly resembles Ella? As the unexplained events become more frequent and more sinister, Ella becomes terrified about who or what might harm her. Soon the evidence points to someone else entirely: Ella herself. What if, like her father, she's suffering from a breakdown? In this second novel from award-winning author Yvonne Ventresca, Ella desperately needs to find answers, no matter how disturbing the truth might be.


Ashes

by Laurie Halse Anderson

A conclusion to the trilogy that began with Chains, a National Book Award Finalist, follows the Valley Forge escape of Isabel and Curzon, who endeavor to rescue Isabel's enslaved younger sister while outmaneuvering the ruthless Bellingham. As the Revolutionary War rages on, Isabel and Curzon are reported as runaways, and the awful Bellingham is determined to track them down. With purpose and faith, Isabel and Curzon march on, fiercely determined to find Isabel's little sister Ruth, who is enslaved in a Southern state.

August/September 2016

Eleanor and Park 

by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor, 15, is the new girl at school and bullied because she's overweight and dresses in a flamboyant manner. Park is a half-Korean boy who has lived in Omaha, Nebraska, all his life but still feels like an outsider. This is a story of first love, which very slowly builds from the first day Eleanor sits next to Park on the school bus. First they ignore each other, and then they slowly become friends through their love of comic books and 1980s alternative music. Park is the only good thing in Eleanor's life. Her home life is a miserable exercise in trying to stay out of her abusive stepfather's way, and finding new ways to wear the same clothes repeatedly since there is no money for anything extra. Park adores everything about Eleanor, and she finds refuge at his house after school with his understanding parents. Things finally explode at Eleanor's house and Eleanor and Park's relationship is truly tested.  -From School Library Journal 

The Accident Season

by  Moïra Fowley-Doyle

Every October Cara and her family become inexplicably and unavoidably accident-prone. Some years it's bad, and some years it's just a lot of cuts and scrapes. This accident season--when Cara, her ex-stepbrother, Sam, and her best friend, Bea, are 17--is going to be a bad one. Cara is about to learn that not all the scars left by the accident season are physical: There's a long-hidden family secret underneath the bumps and bruises. This is the year Cara will finally fall desperately in love, when she'll start discovering the painful truth about the adults in her life, and when she'll uncover the dark origins of the accident season--whether she's ready or not.

P.S. I Like You

by Kasie West

Cade and Lily have been enemies for years: he's rude about her clothes, hair, and whole vibe; she thinks he's a snotty, stuck-up rich kid. Plus, she has her eye on shaggy hipster Lucas, who looks like he could totally be on her wavelength. But when Lily scribbles some graffiti on top of the desk to combat her boredom in chemistry class, she's surprised to find a reply the next day and even more surprised when the answers continue. Soon, she's corresponding through hidden notes and bonding with her secret pen pal over a mutual interest in indie music. Who's her mysterious new friend? Little by little, Lily whittles down the number of possibilities to one that makes absolutely no sense. - From School Library Journal

July 2016

Romancing the Nerd

by Leah Rae Miller

A sudden growth spurt and talent at basketball has taken nerd Dan Garrett to the heights of high school popularity, but may cause him to lose Zelda, the tuba-playing girl of his dreams.

The Square Root of Summer
by Harriet Reuter Hapgood

Gottie Oppenheimer, a seventeen-year-old physics prodigy, navigates grief, love, and disruptions in the space-time continuum in one very eventful summer.









Love & Gelato

by Jenna Evans Welch

It has always been just Lina and her mom, Hadley, and Lina's been fine with that. But when Hadley dies of cancer, her final wish is for 16-year-old Lina to go to Italy for the summer to meet her father. When she arrives at his home, she finds her mother's journal awaiting her-words that recount Hadley's year in Italy and her experience of love as she honed her craft as an artist. Lina comes to know her mother through new eyes while falling in love for the first time with a cute Italian boy. This poetic novel is replete with opportunities for discovery, including Lina's exploration of the beautiful Tuscan countryside and her newfound relationship with her father. The journal works to parallel Lina's and Hadley's lives across generations and gives tension to the narrative. Lina is a likable heroine in spite of her flaws, and readers will be caught up in this story of romance, family, and what it really means to be loved.

May/June 2016

Glass Sword
by Victoria Aveyard

Aggressively pursued by her royal former friend when she flees the court that would both denounce and control her Silver powers, Mare discovers that there are others like herself and endeavors to organize a rebellion against their oppressive leaders.







Front Lines
by Michael Grant

1942, World War II. The most terrible war in human history. Millions are dead; millions more are still to die. The Nazis rampage across Europe and eye far-off America. The green, untested American army is going up against the greatest fighting force ever assembled--the armed forces of Nazi Germany. But something has changed. A court decision makes females subject to the draft and eligible for service. So in this World War II, women and girls fight, too. As the fate of the world hangs in the balance, three girls sign up to fight.


The Memory of Light
by Francisco X. Stork

When Victoria Cruz wakes up in the psychiatric ward of a Texas hospital after her failed suicide attempt, she still has no desire to live, but as the weeks pass, and she meets Dr. Desai and three of the other patients, she begins to reflect on the reasons why she feels like a loser compared with the rest of her family, and to see a path ahead where she can make a life of her own.



Stars Above
by Marissa Meyer

A collection of Lunar chronicles stories explore how Cinder arrived in New Beijing, how Wolf became a brooding soldier, and when Princess Winter and Jacin realized their destinies.








The Mystery of Hollow Places
by Rebecca Podos

A mystery writer's daughter sets out to find her missing father and, along the way, begins to understand the loneliness that has gripped them both since her mother abandoned them years before. Becoming convinced that her missing forensic pathologist father was looking for the mother she never knew, 17-year-old Imogene uses the skills gleaned from a lifetime of reading her father's books to track him down and get answers to long-held questions.

First & Then
by Emma Mills

Recommended in John Green's Book Giving Guide for the Holidays 2015 Devon Tennyson wouldn't change a thing. She's happy silently crushing on best friend Cas, and blissfully ignoring the future after high school. But the universe has other plans. It delivers Devon's cousin Foster, an unrepentant social outlier with a surprising talent, and the obnoxiously superior and maddeningly attractive jock, Ezra, right where she doesn't want them--first into her P.E. class and then into every other aspect of her life. With wit, heart, and humor to spare, First & Then is a contemporary novel about falling in love--with the unexpected boy, with a new brother, and with yourself.




Underwater
by Marisa Reichardt

Morgan didn't mean to do anything wrong that day. Actually, she meant to do something right . But her kind act inadvertently played a role in a deadly tragedy. In order to move on, Morgan must learn to forgive first, someone who did something that might be unforgivable, and then, herself. But Morgan can't move on. She can't even move beyond the front door of the apartment she shares with her mother and little brother. Morgan feels like she's underwater, unable to surface. Unable to see her friends. Unable to go to school. When it seems Morgan can't hold her breath any longer, a new boy moves in next door. Evan reminds her of the salty ocean air and the rush she used to get from swimming. He might be just what she needs to help her reconnect with the world outside. Underwater is a powerful, hopeful debut novel about redemption, recovery, and finding the strength it takes to face your past and move on.

Salt to the Sea
by Ruta Sepetys

World War II is drawing to a close in East Prussia and thousands of refugees are on a desperate trek toward freedom, many with something to hide. Among them are Joana, Emilia, and Florian, whose paths converge en route to the ship that promises salvation, the Wilhelm Gustloff. Forced by circumstance to unite, the three find their strength, courage, and trust in each other tested with each step closer to safety. Just when it seems freedom is within their grasp, tragedy strikes. Not country, nor culture, nor status matter as all ten thousand people aboard must fight for the same thing: survival. Told in alternating points of view and perfect for fans of Anthony Doerr's Pulitzer Prize-winning All the Light We Cannot See , Erik Larson's Dead Wake , and Elizabeth Wein's Printz Honor Book Code Name Verity , this masterful work of historical fiction is inspired by the real-life tragedy that was the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff -- the greatest maritime disaster in history. As she did in Between Shades of Gray , Ruta Sepetys unearths a shockingly little-known casualty of a gruesome war, and proves that humanity can prevail, even in the darkest of hours.



Under a Painted Sky
by Stacey Lee

A powerful story of love, friendship, and sacrifice, for fans of Code Name Verity. All Samantha wanted was to move back to New York and pursue her music, which was difficult enough being a Chinese girl in Missouri, 1849. Then her fate takes a turn for the worse after a tragic accident leaves her with nothing and she breaks the law in self-defense. With help from Annamae, a runaway slave she met at the scene of her crime, the two flee town for the unknown frontier. But life on the Oregon Trail is unsafe for two girls. Disguised as Sammy and Andy, two boys heading for the California gold rush, each search for a link to their past and struggle to avoid any unwanted attention. Until they merge paths with a band of cowboys turned allies, and Samantha can't stop herself from falling for one. But the law is closing in on them and new setbacks come each day, and the girls will quickly learn there are not many places one can hide on the open trail.



Passenger
by Alexandra Bracke

In one devastating night, violin prodigy Etta Spencer loses everything she knows and loves. Thrust into an unfamiliar world by a stranger with a dangerous agenda, Etta is certain of only one thing: she has traveled not just miles, but years from home. And she's inherited a legacy she knows nothing about from a family whose existence she's never heard of. Until now. Nicholas Carter is content with his life at sea, free from the Ironwoods-a powerful family in the Colonies-and the servitude he's known at their hands. But with the arrival of an unusual passenger on his ship comes the insistent pull of the past that he can't escape and the family that won't let him go so easily. Now the Ironwoods are searching for a stolen object of untold value, one they believe only Etta, his passenger, can find. In order to protect her, Nick must ensure she brings it back to them-whether she wants to or not. Together, Etta and Nicholas embark on a perilous journey across centuries and continents, piecing together clues left behind by the traveler who will do anything to keep the object out of the Ironwoods' grasp. But as they get closer to the truth of their search, and the deadly game the Ironwoods are playing, treacherous forces threaten to separate Etta not only from Nicholas but from her path home forever.