May 21, 2024

• Publisher: ‎Fantagraphics
• Reading age: ‎14 – 18 years
• Grade level: ‎10 – 12

A story about how music and film connects us to who we’ve loved, who we’ve been, and who we are becoming ― and that lying beneath the façade of teenage cynicism is the profound desire to be understood and loved.

Reeling from the death of her parents in a car crash, teenage Billie travels over the rainbow and under tangled concrete overpasses, from her native Austin, Texas to the improbably named Liberal, Kansas. Her plan is to live with her godfather, Adam, “a lonely, gay, film geek stuck inside a jock’s body – a jock’s world.” His partner Steven run the Starlite, a movie theater and safe haven for their eccentricities and artistic yearnings. Together, they face new challenges as they help a grieving teen find the path to her true self, while the couple themselves live with the compromises they’ve made for the sake of comfort.

Liberal, the adopted home of Oz’s Dorothy, is also home to small-town intolerance, immature adults with unsettled scores, and their children, some who resist and others who succumb to their parents’ prejudices. Along the way Billie meets Clara ― a goth, lesbian Dorothy impersonator who’s used to being an outsider ― and Dylan ― who finds himself caught between his old allegiance to rigid cliques and his magnetic attraction to this new girl who rocks Frida Kahlo tees and cowboy boots.

Full color illustrations throughout

• Publisher: ‎Henry Holt and Co.
• Reading age: ‎14 – 18 years
• Grade level: ‎10 – 12

To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before meets You’ve Reached Sam―with all the feels of a Taylor Swift song―in this love story in which explosive secrets threaten to tear everyone apart, including best friends (or maybe more?), Natalia and Ethan.

“One of the best YA novels I’ve read in a long time.” ―Rachel Lynn Solomon, author of Today Tonight Tomorrow

It’s Senior Sunrise, the epic overnight at the beach that kicks off senior year. But for Natalia and Ethan, it’s the first time seeing each other after what happened at junior prom―when they almost crossed the line from best friends to something more and ruined everything. After ghosting each other all summer, Natalia is desperate to pretend she doesn’t care and Ethan is desperate to fix his mistake.

When the senior class carries out their tradition of writing private letters to themselves―what they wish they would do this year if they were braver―Natalia pours her heart out. So does Ethan. So does everyone in their entire class. But in Natalia’s panicked attempt to retrieve her heartfelt confession, the wind scatters seven of the notes across the beach. Now, Ethan and Natalia are forced to work together to find the lost letters before any secrets are revealed―especially their own.

Seven private confessions. Seven time bombs loose for anyone to find. And one last chance before the sun rises for these two to fall in love.

• Publisher: ‎Page Street YA
• Reading age: ‎14 – 17 years

After her parents split up, seven-year-old Lisa’s father convinces her to leave out the window in the middle of the night. After all, according to their religion, she belongs to him, and it is her duty to obey him. Ever the dutiful daughter, at least on the outside, and confused about the sinful changes in her mother (she’s cut her hair, there’s a new man around, she’s had a baby with him), Lisa complies.

She spends the next nine years on the run before the police finally catch up with her father, and she is returned to a mother who is “dead” in the eyes of their religion. But her father always had a plan for when the law came and took what was his—a plan that was set in motion the moment the police arrived at their home.

Now Lisa must make a decision: follow the plan and go home again with the hope that she’ll see her brother and father again, or risk everything to figure out what life could be when she makes her own choices.

• Publisher: ‎G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers 
• Reading age: ‎12 – 17 years
• Lexile measure: ‎HL710L
• Grade level: ‎7 – 9

From the two-time Sydney Taylor Honor author comes another sweet Nantucket-set summer romance, perfect for fans of Rachel Lynn Solomon and K.L. Walther.

Jordan Edelman’s messy dating days are over. After a few too many broken hearts, and a father who worries a bit too much, she’s sworn off boys—at least for the summer. And since she’ll be tagging along on her father’s research trip to Nantucket, she doesn’t think it’ll be too hard to stick to her resolution.

But hooking up with the cute boy on the ferry doesn’t count, right? At least, not until that cute boy turns out to be Ethan Barbanel. As in, her father’s longtime research assistant Ethan Barbanel, the boy Jordan has hated from afar for years. And to make matters worse, Jordan might actually be falling for him.

As if that didn’t complicate her life enough, Jordan’s new summer job with a local astronomer turns up a centuries-old mystery surrounding Gibson’s Comet—and as she dives into her research, what she learns just might put her growing relationship with Ethan in jeopardy.

• Publisher: ‎Delacorte Romance
• Reading age: ‎12 – 17 years
• Lexile measure: ‎990L
• Grade level: ‎7 – 9

Two total opposites. One race through the Great Outdoors. In this grumpy-sunshine teen romance from the author of Love from Scratch and Not Here to Stay Friends, the trail to true love doesn’t always come with a map.

Natalie Hart has always been loud, unfiltered, and unapologetically herself. But then comes her freshman year of college, when she loses her merit scholarship and gains one pesky little anxiety diagnosis.

Hesitant to take out more student loans, Natalie decides to shoot her shot and applies to Wild Adventures, a popular outdoorsy reality show. Sure, Natalie prefers her twelve-step skincare routine to roughing it on the Appalachian Trail while competing in challenges against other college kids, but that scholarship prize money is calling her name. High risk, high reward, right?

Enter Finn Markum, her randomly assigned, capital-O Outdoorsy teammate whose growl could rival a black bear. These partners have more friction than a pair of new hiking boots. Or is it flirtation? Turns out falling in love might be the wildest adventure of all…

• Publisher: ‎Peachtree Teen
• Reading age: ‎14 – 17 years
• Grade level: ‎9 – 12

A charming romantic dramedy from the author of The Art of Insanity

High schooler Skyler Davidson spends most of her time with her pet rat, Five. The daughter of scientists, she’s determined to finish her late mother’s research on neutron stars. So she teams up with aspiring videographer, Cooper, to film a submission for a NASA internship—all while keeping it a secret from her dad, who doesn’t expect any trouble from his obviously college-bound daughter. As Skyler and Cooper grow closer, it turns out that Skyler’s dad has a new love interest as well: a hot makeup influencer who likes to put her nose where it doesn’t belong. She’ll keep hush on Skyler’s NASA plans, if Skyler agrees to get to know her. Now Skyler’s tangled up in a budding romance, an unexpected friendship, and the stress of having to retake her SATs. Will Skyler’s dream of stars collapse and explode, or can dad and daughter reconcile and change their trajectory?