Our teen book spotlight this week is on books that are all about families!! Let’s face it, love ‘em or hate ‘em, where would we be without our families (both by blood and the ones we choose)? One of the things I love about YA is that there is such diversity throughout the collection and when it comes to books that feature families and family life, it is no exception plus sometimes it is very interesting reading about someone else’s family and then comparing yours (and realizing how lucky you may just be!). These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #yafamilystories as well as on Libby and Hoopla. Check back next week for a new teen book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
The How and the Why by Cynthia Hand--Cassandra McMurtrey has a family consisting of a loving mother and a dad-joke-cracking father--the best kind of parents she could wish for--but still, she is adopted, and is haunted by the desire to know who she is and where she came from. Then she discovers a series of letters--sealed up in the Idaho Bureau of Vital Records--written by an unknown teenage girl eighteen years ago.
Almost American Girl by Robin Ha---Robin Ha pens a graphic novel memoir about transitioning from life in Seoul, South Korea to a whole new life cut off from everything she knows in Huntsville, Alabama. When fourteen-year-old Robin and her mother vacation to Alabama to visit friends, her mother announces that she is getting married. Robin is then thrust into a culture she doesn't understand, is cut off from her Korean friends, and feels alienated in her new step-family. Worse, she is angry at the one person she's always been closest to--her mother. Then her mother enrolls her in a comic drawing class, which sparks in Robin a new sense of belonging and purpose.
The Family Romanov by Candace Fleming--Examines the rise and fall of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family, contrasting their lives to those of their poor subjects. Discusses each family member, the events prior to and after their fall from grace, and the family's murder. Includes photographs and first-person accounts, and information on the family's remains.
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay---Examines the rise and fall of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and his family, contrasting their lives to those of their poor subjects. Discusses each family member, the events prior to and after their fall from grace, and the family's murder. Includes photographs and first-person accounts, and information on the family's remains.
Sia Martinez and the Moonlit Beginning of Everything by Raquel Vasquez Gilliland--Three years ago Sia's mother was deported back to Mexico and she hasn't seen her since. In spite of enduring racism from various individuals in her small Arizona town, Sia receives love and acceptance from her father, her best friend, and a quiet new boy in school. When she makes an annual trip to the desert to light spiritual candles for her mother, a spaceship crash-lands in front of her and she discovers her mother is very much alive and government officials are hiding terrible secrets.
Hope and Other Punch Lines by Julie Buxbaum--Teen Abbi Hope Goldstein lives with the notoriety of being the baby in an iconic photograph nicknamed "Baby Hope" that was captured on September 11th as the Twin Towers fell. Abbi decides to spend the summer as a counselor at Knights Day Camp to escape anyone who may know or recognize her. However, there she meets Noah Stern, who has his own connection to that fateful day. Soon the two are forced to work through difficult questions about the history behind the Baby Hope photo and deal with the answers.