Our teen book spotlight this week is all about Possibilities of Change!!! We are exploring books that are inspirational and explore the idea and concepts of changing ourselves and the world around us; we have an incredible mixture of fiction and nonfiction titles this week which will open our eyes to others and situations around us and will inspire us to make and lead change through our example. These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #yainspire as well as on Libby and Hoopla.
The 2022 Summer Reading Program Oceans of Possibilities is taking place from June 4th-August 10th with a new theme and badge activities every week. Make sure to watch the Teen Book Spotlight book talk video for this week as it counts towards your badge activities for the week; if you read one of the titles featured or on the tagged list, that counts as another activity as well!!! Earn the weekly themed badges to get your virtual tickets which can be turned into opportunities to win prizes! For more information--such as to sign up or to sign in to your account in order to track your books and activities--visit our Summer Reading page and click “LOG IN NOW”.
Check back next week for a new teen book spotlight and if you have any book suggestions, please let us know!!
Vinyl Moon by Mahogany Brown--Uses poems, essays, and other prose to tell the story of domestic abuse survivor Angel, who struggles to recover and find herself again after the incident forces a move from California to Brooklyn. Though she struggles in her new school, she finds solace in Ms. G's classroom where the words of strong black female writers resonate with her. The words she reads speak to her pain, help her make sense of what happened, and give her hope for the future.
The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets by Gayle Pitman--After police raided the Stonewall Inn in June 1969, spontaneous and often violent demonstrations broke out among the LGBTQ community. The author explains the build-up to the raids and the riots, the events during the riots, and their aftermath. Included are interviews of people involved in or witnessing the events, newspaper articles, and contemporary photographs.
Walk Toward the Rising Sun by Ger Duany--Ger Duany just wanted to make his family proud, play with his brothers and sisters, and maybe get an education and become a soldier when he's older. But when his village was attacked by the North Sudanese military, he was forced to become a child soldier and saw many of his loved ones die. After he escaped and came to America in the 1990s, Ger worked to adjust to a new life. Soon he became an actor, a model, and a UN Goodwill Ambassador while also dealing with PTSD and a new kind of racism.
We are Displaced by Malala Yousafzai--Malala Yousafzai presents the stories of girl refugees from around the world including Yemen, Iraq, the Congo, and Myanmar.
Brave Face: A Memoir by Shaun David Hutchison--Shaun David Hutchinson discusses coming of age in the early 1990s when a lack of positive queer representation forced his own sexuality to become a thing of negativity that left him depressed and angry. He shares passages from his own diary at the time where he reveals the self-harm and abuse he suffered, and the constant messages from a society who told him to "repent" or he would never find love. He goes on to explain how he eventually found happiness and acceptance in the gay community.
The Nowhere Girls by Amy Reed--When Grace Salter learns that the girl who used to live in her new home was run out of town after accusing a group of popular boys of raping her, Grace is outraged and becomes determined to do something to put an end to the sexist attitudes that prevail at her new school. Her friends, Rosina and Erin, both outcasts at school with their own motivations, decide to help. Together, the three form a group that empowers their female classmates to rise up and fight back against the rape culture in their community.