Teen Book Lists

"Elizabeth Bertelsen dreams of becoming an astronomer, but for her such dreams are as unreachable as the stars she so deeply adores. As a Mormon girl, her duty is to her family and, in a not too far away future, to the man who will choose to marry her. When she unexpectedly finds herself in Colorado, she is tempted by the total eclipse of the sun that is about to happen-- and maybe even meeting up with the female scientists she has long admired. With her familial duties and faith tugging at her heartstrings, a new romance on the horizon, and the study of the night sky calling to her, Elizabeth can't possibly have it all... can she?" (description adapted from jacket)

"The coming of age story of Rebecca Leavitt as she searches for her identity in the Northwest Territories of Canada"-- Provided by publisher.

In 1890s West Africa, when a brutal raid leaves their home in ruins, twin sisters Hassana and Husseina are kidnapped, sold into slavery, and separated, remaining connected through shared dreams of water, but will their fates ever draw them back together?

"In 1946 Eva arrives in New York City, from the rubble of Berlin, supposedly looking for a new life, but actually seeking justice against the Nazis that "escaped" with the help of the CIA; one in particular, the doctor who knows who Eva really is, because her identity is the product Project Bluebird, an experiment of the concentration camps involving brainwashing and mind control, which both the Americans and the Soviets would like access to--and Eva does not know if she can trust anyone she meets, least of all Jake Katz, the young man she is attracted to." (description from catalog)

"Attending boarding school in London, Adele enters the glittering world of society girls and their wealthy suitors until a violent assault leads her to a roguish young con woman, and together, they become vigilantes who mete out justice." (description from Novelist)

"It is 1904 and the partially deaf Asta Hedstrom is engaged to Nils, but she does not want to marry him: she would rather spend her time with her best friend Gunnar Fuglestad and his secret boyfriend, Erlend, who belongs to the wealthiest family on their Norwegian island; so when Nils gravely injures Gunnar, she shuns her marriage and moves in with Gunnar and Erlend in a secluded cabin above town--and the three misfits set out to win the annual Christmas sleigh race, and prove to that they belong together, in spite of the villages prejudices." (description from catalog)

"Joseon (Korea), 1758. There are few options available to illegitimate daughters in the capital city, but Hyeon has earned a position as a palace nurse. All she wants is to keep her head down, do a good job. When someone murders four women in a single night, the prime suspect is Hyeon's closest friend and mentor. Determined to prove her beloved teacher's innocence, Hyeon launches her own secret investigation. When evidence begins to point to the Crown Prince himself as the murderer, Hyeon and a young police inspector, Eojin, must work together to search the darkest corners of the palace to uncover the deadly secrets behind the bloodshed." (description adapted from jacket)

"Uriel the angel and Little Ash (short for Ashmedai) are the only two supernatural creatures in their shtetl (which is so tiny, it doesn't have a name other than Shtetl). The angel and the demon have been studying together for centuries, but pogroms and the search for a new life have drawn all the young people from their village to America. When one of those young emigrants goes missing, Uriel and Little Ash set off to find her. But there are obstacles ahead of them as difficult as what they've left behind." (description from publisher)

"During the 1956 Hungarian Revolution in post-WWII Communist Budapest, Csilla must decide whether to fight for her deeply flawed country or let it burn to the ground after her late parents are unexpectedly, publicly exonerated." (description from catalog)

"The Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in 1910 Chicago, and the two daughters, Olivia and Helen, are finding their way and finding love--even where they are not supposed to." (Description from catalog)

"Russia, 1918. With the execution of Tsar Nicholas and his family, the empire crumbles. Russia is on the edge of civil war. Anna, a bourgeois girl, narrowly escaped the massacre of her entire family in Yekaterinburg. Desperate to get away from the Bolsheviks, she offers a peasant girl a diamond to take her as far south as possible-- not realizing that the girl is a communist herself. With her brother in desperate need of a doctor, Evgenia accepts Anna's offer and suddenly finds herself on the wrong side of the war." (description from publisher)

"It's 1937. Naomi Vargas is Mexican American. Wash Fuller is Black. These teens know the town's divisive racism-- and the potential consequences of defying "the rules"--Better than anyone. But sometimes the attraction between two people is so powerful it breaks through even the most entrenched color lines. Can their love survive both prejudice and tragedy? Race, romance, family-- and the real-life New London school explosion-- converge in this riveting novel that transplants Romeo and Juliet to a bitterly segregated Texas town." (description from catalog)

"Under the corrupt authoritarian Ceaus’escu’s tenure in 1989 Bucharest, canny aspiring writer Cristian Florescu, 17, keeps his true observations secret as he studies English and jots down illegal thoughts, such as jokes and notes from a contraband travel guide, in a notebook. When an agent of the secret police blackmails him for accepting a dollar of foreign currency from the son of his mother’s U.S. diplomat client, and promises life-saving medication for his grandfather, Cristian is forced to inform on his loved ones. Tensions intensify as the teen suspects everyone close to him for the betrayal that led to his blackmail, including best friend Luca, crush Liliana, and even his own family (all characters cue as white), and wrestles with how to use his new position to resist authority." (description from Publisher's Weekly)

"Despite the U.S. ban on the importation of enslaved labor, in 1860 plantation owner Timothy Meaher sent a ship called the Clotilda from Alabama, to the kingdom of Dahomey. There, he purchased 110 people who had been captured by the king’s soldiers. Fourteen voices, including that of the ship, tell the tale of that journey across the Middle Passage and the years following their enslavement, first in the Alabama swamps, then on plantations, and finally in the free settlement of African Town." (adapted from Kirkus)

Intertwining the stories of two Black students decades apart, this compelling and honest novel follows Kevin and Gibran as they navigate similar forms of insidious racism while discovering who they want to be instead of what society tells them they are.

Growing up in 1970s Ohio, Mexican American brothers Pedro and Daniel, who are not like other boys, manage an abusive home life, school, coming out, first loves, first jobs, and the AIDS epidemic, leaning on each other always and forever. Published from Catalog.