Teen Reads

This ain't Josie's first rodeo. Her parents own several fancy restaurants in Houston, and they just opened a new one right outside the stadium. Josie is expected to stay inside the restaurant and help, and maybe take over their growing empire one day, but that isn't what Josie wants. She'd rather be at the rodeo itself than in a high-end restaurant next to it. Or eating funnel cakes and Texas-sized corn dogs at the carnival on the grounds. Or better yet, riding her horse at her grandparents' ranch, the very place her mom wants to sell. It ain't Shawn's first rodeo either. He's been riding bulls since his mom died, doing everything he can to live up to his rodeo-champion stepfather's sky-high expectations. But as Shawn's stardom rises, so do tensions in their relationship. His stepfather's drinking and gambling problems sure don't help. After one unforgettable night leaves Josie and Shawn wanting nothing but each other, their lives become entwined in increasingly complex ways. (3/2)

After being rejected from their dream school, best friends Raven, Dorian, and Atticus infiltrate the magical university to receive an unsanctioned education, while navigating their feelings for each other.

Darling, a talented Guardian, must turn her assignment Lucy's life around in order to succeed, while Calamity, a skilled Misfortune, works hard to prolong Lucy's streak of bad luck; yet as they insert themselves into Lucy's life, the two begin to question their roles, and their initial loathing for each other starts to change. (3/2)

Kamala Khan is Jersey City's premier super hero, Ms. Marvel! She's stretched between going to the mosque, posting Avengers fanfic on the internet, and fighting crime. But then a clash ends with a pair of priceless spectacles in the wrong hands--Ms. Marvel's! Now she's on a mission to return them to where they belong, once she's figured out where that is. A mysterious new bad guy drops hints at magical secrets the spectacles hold, setting Ms. Marvel on a quest to Lahore, Pakistan. It's the trip of a lifetime, seeing the land of her father's youth, but Kamala is forced to grapple with what to do when the choice between right and wrong isn't so clear. (3/2)

Planet Earth has been invaded! By a cat-shaped alien obsessed with...appliances, no less. An alien named Mumu is a survivor of a civil war that saw the destruction of his planet's scientists, leaving only its fools alive. In an attempt to understand the advanced technology his species left behind, he's infiltrated Earth, a planet with a lower level of civilization, to study their so-called "home appliances," which contain facets of all kinds of technological knowledge. So begins the adventures of Sakurako, a university freshman and Mumu's new and unexpected accomplice, as she navigates a wild and exciting campus life. (4/7)

In order to update her family-owned Deaf Center, eighteen-year-old Natalie agrees to teach ASL to Felix, the lead singer of a popular boy band whose sister is losing her hearing, but their professional arrangement turns into a high-stakes romance that forces them to choose whether love and their dreams can survive life in the spotlight. (4/7)

The rumor mill has never been kind to Meadowvale High seniors and best friends Rick and Martina, labeling them outcasts (sure), stoners (no comment), and pranksters (okay, this one's fair). But for the most part, they have successfully flown under the radar. That is, until they're targeted in a prank that replaces yearbook superlatives with grisly forecasts of student and faculty deaths. Sure, Rick and Martina were never going to be voted Most Likely to Succeed . . . but Homecoming's Cutest Corpses? Thanks for the cute, no thanks on the corpse. At first, the senior class is annoyed by the prank. But when the body of Mr. Stephens, Most Likely to Sleep with the Fishes, is dredged from the bottom of a lake, suspicions arise that something truly sinister is going on. And as more people turn up dead in the exact ways the yearbook promised, it becomes clear someone's killing off the student body one page at a time. Now Rick and Martina must find the yearbook killer before their vicious superlative comes true. So much for surviving high school without drawing attention. Now Rick and Martina just want to survive. (4/7)

J--'s life is consumed by the roller coaster video game Coaster Boss, and by the power she exerts over the pixelated theme park attendees. Her life outside the game, however, is less controllable. Me. I'm such a big space. I break the universe, a glitch. She's navigating ADHD, the loneliness of middle school, and an overwhelming crush on a girl named Junie. J-- is convinced that Junie sees her as who she really is, a person who isn't "bad" just because she doesn't stay quiet and sit still in class. As a person who is realizing that the name she's been given doesn't really fit her. And that maybe boy doesn't either. Glitch Girl! follows J-- from fifth to seventh grade, from the beginning to the end of her obsession with Coaster Boss, and to the start of a new friendship. When J-- meets Sam, a nonbinary classmate, she begins to realize that it's okay to not fit into neat, pixelated boxes.

It is 1990. Morgan has lived all her life in the small fishing town of Prince Rupert in northern British Columbia. Ever since her mom took off when she was ten, Morgan has kept an eye on her dad, a commercial fisherman who works hard and occasionally parties even harder. After struggling to keep up and find a place at a public high school, Morgan's best friend Skye convinces her to attend an alternate school. There, she meets Nate. Both cute and intelligent, Nate introduces her to a wider worldview, including music, movies and books, and becomes a lifeline after an unimaginable tragedy strikes. In the aftermath, Morgan learns hard truths about her mother's painful past and the resulting intergenerational effects of that trauma, and as she struggles to come to terms with her new reality, an unexpected development offers a chance of a fresh start, with love and forgiveness at its core. (4/7)