Our teen book spotlight this week is focused on books that have recently been added to our collection meaning they are new!!!! New books are the best; they have a new book smell and there is just something about being one of the first people to read it. We are featuring some amazing fiction and nonfiction this time including titles from a few of our favorite and most popular authors as well as some of my personal favorites from the past few months! These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #2022yanewbooks 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!!
Year of the Reaper by Makiia Lucier--Making his way home after surviving a three-year imprisonment during a war and a pestilence ravaging the land, Lord Cassia learns he has a newfound ability to see ghosts. When he arrives at his family's enclave, he discovers that the new royal family--composed of the Oliveran King and the enemy Brisan Queen--is living there to escape the pestilence, and that their union ended the war. When Lord Cassian discovers someone is targeting the queen and her companions, he sets out to find the killer, enlisting the help of the king's sister, a historian-in-training named Lena. Together, the pair look into the queen's past and discover a secret that threatens their hard-fought peace.
Blaine for the Win by Robbie Couch--High school junior Blaine Bowers life is picture-perfect in every way, but his world falls apart when his boyfriend, Joey, breaks up with him in public on their one-year anniversary. Joey tells Blaine that he is too flighty and free-flowing, and Joey wants to date more serious guys like Zach Chesterton. Desperate to prove himself to Joey, Blaine enters the race for senior student council president in order to beat Zach. But as the race heats up, Blaine begins to question just how much he is willing to change to get Joey back.
Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White--Benjamin Woodside, a transgender boy, has escaped the Angels, the religious cult in which he was raised, but not before they infected him with a deadly virus that's changing him on the inside. Years before, the Angels unleashed a deadly virus that killed most of the world's population and changed others into monsters. Benji was to be their ultimate creation, a monster who would control the Flood--the name for the monstrous creatures they created. While on the run, Benji encounters ALC, a rebel group of LGBTQ resistance fighters who are willing to accept him as long as he uses his monstrous powers to fight against the Angels. Initially attracted to their leader Nick, Benji slowly learns the truth behind Nick's own agenda and must come to terms with how to use the monster he's becoming.
Saving Earth by Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich--Provides middle grade readers with an illustrated guide to the history of the fight against climate change from the recent past to the present. Describes practical things that young people today can do to help save the Earth; profiles leading climate change activists; and highlights the climate justice movement. Includes sidebars, resources, and quotes.
Across the Rainbow Bridge by Kevin Crossley-Holland--This collection of five Norse tales offers stories set in the land of the Vikings, describing their beliefs, their gods, and their way of life. In addition to humans, the land of Midgard also contained giants, dwarves, trolls, and the spirits of the dead, as shown in one story in which the soul of a dead poet passes on a gift to one of the village children. In Asgard, where the gods Odin, Loki, and Thor lived, the gods would visit earth by a rainbow bridge, reaching out to humans who needed their help, such as in another story in this group, where Loki tricks a greedy troll.
Gallant by Victoria Schwab--Even though she's lived there her whole life, the Merilance School for Independent Girls has never felt like home to fourteen-year-old Olivia. The other girls ridicule her because she speaks with sign language, and the teachers treat her as though she's stupid, just because she's mute. And for just as long, she's been seeing the ghouls prowling the school. The only tie she has to her family is a diary kept by her mother that documents her descent into madness after the death of her father. When a letter arrives from her uncle Arthur Prior, inviting her to live with him at his manor Gallant, Olivia is thrilled and imagines her life will only get better. When she arrives, however, she learns Arthur is dead, her prickly cousin Matthew wants her to leave, and the ghouls won't let her be. But Olivia refuses to give in, feeling for the first time that she's home. When an old abandoned garden calls to her, she enters and finds a shadow world mirroring the real one, leading her to discoveries about Gallant, her parents, and her destiny.