Our teen book spotlight this week is on books that have the word “summer” in their titles!!! To help us kick off these summer months filled with reading, we are exploring books that have “summer” in the titles to give us some inspiration and that summer feel. We have a great mixture of dystopian, nonfiction, realistic, graphic novels, and more so there is something for everyone and the titles are easy to remember because summer can be found in the titles! These books and more can be found by searching the catalog using the search tag #yasummervacay 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!!
Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall--When the five Garza sisters find the body of a dead man near the Rio Grande, they discover he is a native of Mexico and take it upon themselves to return his body to his family. As they venture forth, their party becomes the target of supernatural forces both benevolent and malevolent, causing minor obstacles that test their resolve and their commitment to their journey. Even as they contend with such creatures as a warlock and the vampiric chupacabra, their path is laid before them by the mysterious mariposas - butterflies - that make sure they never lose their way.
Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman--The only thing Rumi Seto knows for certain that she absolutely wants is to go on writing music with her younger sister, Lea, for the rest of her life. Then, Lea dies in a car accident, and Rumi finds herself sent away to live with her aunt in Hawaii while her mother deals with her grief. Rumi feels the loss, abandonment, and absence of her sister, mother, and of the music, but she also meets the "boys next door," one the smiling Kai, a teenage surfer, and the other the elderly George Watanabe, a man who is dealing with his own grief. With their help, Rumi may be able to find her way back to life, and finish the song she and Lea had been working on.
The Freedom Summer Murders by Don Mitchell--Describes the 1964 murders of three young men by the Ku Klux Klan for helping black Americans vote in Mississippi, the FBI's investigation, and its aftermath. Includes black-and-white photographs and quotes.
The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson--In a Brazil of the distant future, June Costa falls in love with Enki, a fellow artist and rebel against the strict limits of the legendary pyramid city of Palmares Trães' matriarchal government, knowing that, like all Summer Kings before him, Enki is destined to die.
Harlem Summer by Walter Dean Myers--Sixteen-year-old Mark Purvis, an aspiring jazz saxophonist during the Harlem Renaissance, lands a summer job as an assistant to the publishers of the African-American magazine "The Crisis." He soon finds himself bored with his duties and dreams of the chance to play jazz with local cool cat Fats Weller. When Fats requests his assistance in unloading a truck, Mark realizes he's in hot water when the mob-owned truck -- full of bootleg whisky -- goes missing. Caught between two very different worlds, Mark must set the record straight before things spin out of control.
This One Summer by Jillian Tamaki--Each summer when Rose travels with her parents to their Ontario lake cottage, she renews her friendship with slightly immature Windy, who nonetheless possesses sound instincts that Rose lacks and is like a younger sister to Rose. But this summer, their comforting bubble of childhood is burst by the increasing disintegration of Rose's parents' marriage, Rose's infatuation with a convenience store clerk, and painful new revelations about their impending womanhood.