The Summer Reading Challenge has arrived! Here are some great books to kick off the summer.
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Gene understands stories -- comic book stories, in particular. Big action. Bigger thrills. And the hero always wins. But Gene doesn't get sports. As a kid, his friends called him "Stick" and every basketball game he played ended in pain. He lost interest in basketball long ago, but at the high school where he now teaches, it's all anyone can talk about. The men's varsity team, the Dragons, is having a phenomenal season that's been decades in the making. Each victory brings them closer to their ultimate goal: the California State Championships. Once Gene gets to know these young all-stars, he realizes that their story is just as thrilling as anything he's seen on a comic book page. He knows he has to follow this epic to its end. What he doesn't know yet is that this season is not only going to change the Dragons's lives, but his own life as well.
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Book
Call Number:
YA 796.323 Yan
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"These days, Tre Brun is happiest when he is playing basketball on the Red Lake Reservation high school team--even though he can't help but be constantly gut-punched with memories of his big brother, Jaxon, who died in an accident. When Jaxon's former teammates on the varsity team offer to take Tre under their wing, he sees this as his shot to represent his Ojibwe rez all the way to their first state championship. This is the first step toward his dream of playing in the NBA, no matter how much the odds are stacked against him. But stepping into his brother's shoes as a star player means that Tre can't mess up. Not on the court, not at school, and not with his new friend, gamer Khiana, who he is definitely not falling in love with. After decades of rez teams almost making it, Tre needs to take his team to state. Because if he can live up to Jaxon's dreams, their story isn't over yet" --back cover.
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Book
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YA FIC Gra
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Enduring an isolated existence in hardscrabble Addis Prime, a star underground augmented reality gamer finds his small family targeted by city-razing monsters waging a galaxy-spanning war.
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Book
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J FIC Mba
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"Anda loves Coarsegold Online, the massively-multiplayer role playing game that she spends most of her free time on. It's a place where she can be a leader, a fighter, a hero. It's a place where she can meet people from all over the world, and make friends. But things become a lot more complicated when Anda befriends a gold farmer--a poor Chinese kid whose avatar in the game illegally collects valuable objects and then sells them to players from developed countries with money to burn. This behavior is strictly against the rules in Coarsegold, but Anda soon comes to realize that questions of right and wrong are a lot less straightforward when a real person's real livelihood is at stake" --Cover flap.
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Book
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YA FIC Doc
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Told from alternating perspectives, Bunny takes a basketball scholarship to an elite private school to help his family, leaving behind Nasir, his best friend, in their tough Philadelphia neighborhood.
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Book
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YA FIC Rib
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"Fifteen-year-old Spencer Harris is a proud nerd, an awesome big brother, and a David Beckham in training. He's also transgender. After transitioning at his old school leads to a year of isolation and bullying, Spencer gets a fresh start at Oakley, the most liberal private school in Ohio. At Oakley, Spencer seems to have it all: more accepting classmates, a decent shot at a starting position on the boy's soccer team, great new friends, and maybe even something more than friendship with one of his teammates. The problem is, no one at Oakley knows Spencer is trans--he's passing. So when a discriminatory law forces Spencer's coach to bench him after he discovers the "F" on Spencer's birth certificate, Spencer has to make a choice: cheer his team on from the sidelines or publicly fight for his right to play, even though it would mean coming out to everyone-- including the guy he's falling for."--
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Book
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YA FIC Fit
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New & Best List
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"By day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johnson is an honors student, a math tutor, and one of the only Black kids at Jefferson Academy. But at home, she joins hundreds of thousands of Black gamers who duel worldwide as Nubian personas in the secret multiplayer online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer, not her friends, her family, not even her boyfriend, Malcolm, who believes video games are partially responsible for the "downfall of the Black man." But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, news of the game reaches mainstream media, and SLAY is labeled a racist, exclusionist, violent hub for thugs and criminals. Even worse, an anonymous troll infiltrates the game, threatening to sue Kiera for "anti-white discrimination." Driven to save the only world in which she can be herself, Kiera must preserve her secret identity and harness what it means to be unapologetically Black in a world intimidated by Blackness. But can she protect her game without losing herself in the process?" -- Jacket flap
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Book
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YA FIC Mor
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The adventure zone. 01, Here there be gerblins
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"Join Taako the elf wizard, Merle the dwarf cleric, and Magnus the human warrior for an adventure they are poorly equipped to handle AT BEST, guided ("guided") by their snarky DM, in a graphic novel that, like the smash-hit podcast it's based on, will tickle your funny bone, tug your heartstrings, and probably pants you if you give it half a chance." --
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Book
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YA FIC McE
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Nothing in Owen's life has been right since his father died in prison, accused of a crime Owen is certain he didn't commit. Monroe, the IT guy at school, might finally bring Owen the means to clear his father's name by letting him use an Animus-a device that lets users explore genetic memories buried within their own DNA. During a simulation, Owen comes uncovers the existence of a powerful relic long considered a legend-the Trident of Eden. Now two secret organizations will stop at nothing to take possession of this artifact-the Brotherhood of Assassins and the Templar Order. It becomes clear the only way to save himself is to find the Trident first. --Publisher.
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Book
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YA FIC Kir
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"The lives of two Minnesota teenagers are intertwined through the world of role-playing games"--
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Book
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YA FIC Bre
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Struggling to fit in after her parents' divorce sends her from Boston to her grandmother's house in the country, sixteen-year-old Maddy forms a manga club at school and falls in love through an online fantasy game.
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Book
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YA FIC Man
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Stranger things and Dungeons and Dragons. #1
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Long before the dreaded Demogorgon took one of them to the Upside Down, watch Mike, Lucas, and Will bond with Dustin for the first time over the game that would define their childhood.--Publisher's description.
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Book
Call Number:
FIC Hou
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New & Best List
Warriors & Weapons : A Young Adventurer's Guide : Dungeons & Dragons
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You hold in your hands an immersive, one-of-a-kind guide to the brave and bold heroes, along with their weapons, armor, clothing, and equipment, from the world's most beloved tabletop role-playing game--Dungeons and Dragons.
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Book
Call Number:
J 793.93 Zub
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Dungeon's & dragons. Dungeon master's guide : roleplaying game core rules
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"We've packed this book with incredibly useful tools and advice for Dungeon Masters of all levels. Make your game sessions special with over 400 total and 18 new magic items, practical solutions for common Dungeon Master pitfalls, and Greyhawk, a customizable premade campaign setting. Introduce inspiring new mechanics into your game! Tinker away with revised rules for crafting magic items, creating NPCs, and more. Excite your party and keep them engaged between sessions with the new system for bastions, which are strongholds built and controlled by players. Delight in spectacular artwork featuring new magic items, legendary D&D figures, cinematic fantasy landscapes, a double-sided poster map of the Greyhawk setting, and more! We've built useful handouts and resources to help you keep track of your campaigns and added a Lore Glossary that helps you easily find information about key D&D characters and locations.
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Book
Call Number:
793.93 Dun 2024
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In a near-future New York City, fourteen-year-old computer genius Sam Wilson manages to hack into the AT&T network and sets off a chain of events that have a profound effect on human activity throughout the world.
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Book
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YA FIC Fal
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"Arden sells memories. Whether it's becoming homecoming queen or studying for that all important test, Arden can hack into a classmate's memories and upload the experience for you just as if you'd lived it yourself. Business is great, right up until the day Arden whites out, losing fifteen minutes of her life and all her memories of the boy across the school yard. The boy her friends assure her she's had a crush on for years. Arden realizes that her own memories have been hacked, but they haven't just been stolen and shared... they've been removed. And she's not the only one: her mysterious crush, Sebastian, has lost ALL of his memories. But how can they find someone who has the power to make them forget everything they've learned?"--Amazon.
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Book
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YA FIC Sil
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"She Dwarf believes herself to be the last dwarf in existence. Hoping to find evidence to the contrary, She Dwarf sets out on a mission to find the lost dwarven city of Dammerung. But Dammerung isn't on any map and will not be easily found. Strong forces stand in She Dwarf's way. Begrudgingly forced to take on a partner to aid in her mission, She Dwarf is joined by war barbarian, Hack Battler. Together, the pair will face vengeful shorcs, sludge demons, mutant bear monsters, and more. When warned by an elf named Drift of the dangers of searching for the lost city, She Dwarf will come face to face with the consequences of her quest. Driven by memories of her mother, She Dwarf is more determined than ever to unearth the truth of the dwarves."--Page [4] of cover.
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Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Lat
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Rethink the Internet : how to make the digital world a lot less sucky
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Drawing on her own experiences as a cyberbullied preteen, the twenty-one-year-old CEO and inventor of #ReThink asks readers to consider the consequences before they post, tweet, comment, or text in an effort to stop internet hate.
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Book
Call Number:
YA 395.5 Pra
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Creature : paintings, drawings, and reflections
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Drawing on twenty-five years as a picture book and comic creator, painter, designer and filmmaker, Shaun Tan explores his central obsession with imaginary beings. This volume collects stand-alone drawings and paintings, each with unwritten tales of their own.
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Book
Call Number:
YA 741.64 Tan
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Isabel "Izzy" Crane and her family have just relocated to Sleepy Hollow, the town made famous by--and obsessed with--Washington Irving's legend of the Headless Horseman. But city slicker-skeptic Izzy has no time for superstition as she navigates life at a new address, a new school, and, with any luck, with new friends. Ghost stories aren't real, after all... Then Izzy is pulled into the orbit of the town's teen royalty, Vicky Van Tassel (yes, that Van Tassel) and loveable varsity-level prankster Croc Byun. Vicky's weariness with her family connection to the legend turns to terror when the trio begins to be haunted by the Horseman himself, uncovering a curse set on destroying the Van Tassel line. Now, they have only until Halloween night to break it--meaning it's a totally inconvenient time for Izzy to develop a massive crush on the enigmatic Vicky. Can Izzy's practical nature help her face the unknown--or only trip her up? As the calendar runs down to the 31st, Izzy will have to use all of her wits and work with her new friends to save Vicky and uncover the mystery of the legendary Horseman of Sleepy Hollow--before it's too late.
Format:
Book
Call Number:
YA FIC Wat