Book Finder

Fourth grade is not going at all how Benny Barrows hoped. He hasn’t found a new best friend at school. He’s still not a great bike rider — even though his brother George, who’s autistic, can do tricks. And worst of all, he worries his dad’s recent accident might be all his fault. Benny tries to take his mom’s advice and focus on helping others, and to take things one step at a time, but Benny doesn’t know how he and his family will overcome all the bad luck that life seems to have thrown their way.

Justice knows how it can go down for African American young men, and it isn’t always fair. Still, he’s pretty sure living on the straight and narrow will keep him safe. Pining over his crush Ebony, writing rap lyrics, and looking forward to chess games in the park, Justice never imagines he could be labeled a criminal. Then his teacher’s phone and wallet are stolen, and Justice finds himself at the center of the investigation. Can Justice prove he’s innocent, or will he be wrongly convicted of a crime he never committed?

Reality and fantasy converge in this story of a Japanese runaway’s quest to find his long-lost sister and mother.

At-risk teenagers congregate at a safe house, and we gradually learn what brought each of them there—an unplanned pregnancy, harassment about sexual orientation, and an unloving foster parent. A complicated poetic format (sestinas) doesn’t make for a complicated read — the plot is equal to the poetry.

Life could be better for twelve-year-old Jacques. His mother just died, his father is jobless, and his grandmother’s bridal store is on the verge of closing. At least he can look forward to the soccer season — after all, he’s a shoo-in for captain. But the arrival of Somali refugees shakes up nearly everything in his French-American Maine town, even soccer. Jacques isn’t the only star anymore. School, church, sports … everything suddenly seems different. So Jacques is surprised to find himself becoming friends with Kiki, a smart, kind, and strong-minded Somali Muslim girl with a mysterious scar. Can kids as seemingly different as Jacques and Kiki be friends as their town learns to embrace its changing face?

Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy — that he thinks he might be gay. You don’t want anyone to think you’re gay too, do you?

But when Sandy goes missing, sparking a town-wide search, and King finds his former best friend hiding in a tent in his backyard, he agrees to help Sandy escape from his abusive father, and the two begin an adventure as they build their own private paradise down by the bayou and among the dragonflies. As King’s friendship with Sandy is reignited, he’s forced to confront questions about himself and the reality of his brother’s death.

Watch as Kacen Callendar discusses their journey in developing King and the Dragonflies at the 2021 National Book Festival.

Nikolai Lantsov has always had a gift for the impossible. No one knows what he endured in his country’s bloody civil war—and he intends to keep it that way. Now, as enemies gather at his weakened borders, the young king must find a way to refill Ravka’s coffers, forge new alliances, and stop a rising threat to the once-great Grisha Army.

Two Japanese American sisters grow up in post World War II America in this Newbery winning book. Katie is the little sister to Lynn, and Lynn is her mentor and friend. When Lynn develops a terminal illness, Katie must try to keep her spirit alive and “kira-kira.” This is also a wonderful audiobook.

Mads is pretty happy with her life. She goes to church with her family, and minor league baseball games with her dad. She goofs off with her best friend Cat, and has thus far managed to avoid getting kissed by Adam, the boy next door. It’s everything she hoped high school would be…until all of a sudden, it’s not. Her dad is hiding something big — so big it could tear her family apart. And that’s just the beginning of her problems: Mads is starting to figure out that she doesn’t want to kiss Adam… because the only person she wants to kiss is Cat.  Kiss Number 8, a graphic novel from writer Colleen AF Venable and illustrator Ellen T. Crenshaw, is a layered, funny, sharp-edged story of teen sexuality and family secrets. A 2019 New York Public Library Best Books for Kids and Longlist, National Book Awards 2019 for Young People’s Literature.

This book about an Oklahoma high school football team is perfect for sports loving guys. The sports scenes are vivid as is the depiction of a small town where the high school sports team is the center of the universe. Fans of the TV show Friday Night Lights will enjoy this title.

Wim lives in Cape Cod, where she drowns her sorrows in a riding stable. But something keeps drawing her to New Zealand — from visions of a tattooed Maori tribesman, to the New Zealander who comes to research Wim’s ancestors. Ghostly visions, family relations, and a hint of romance are woven through this ethereal novel.

After a horrific bombing, Tareq must travel with his father and one surviving younger sister, Susan, from war-torn Syria to Turkey to Greece.

When nine-year-old Betita’s beloved father is arrested by Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) and deported to Mexico, Betita and her pregnant mother are left behind on their own. Soon they too are detained and must learn to survive in a family detention camp outside of Los Angeles. Even in cruel and inhumane conditions, Betita finds heart in her own poetry and in the community she and her mother find in the camp. The voices of her fellow asylum seekers fly above the hatred keeping them caged, but each day threatens to tear them down lower than they ever thought they could be. Will Betita and her family ever be whole again? Also available in Spanish.

In 1954, seventeen-year-old Chinese-American Lily Hu, is secretly excited and intrigued by an ad for a show at the Telegraph Club featuring a male impersonator. Her White friend, Kathleen takes her to the San Francisco lesbian bar, where they begin to explore their sexuality and their relationship.

Educator’s guide available from Malinda Lo’s website.

Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Frederica Riley’s dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There’s just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend. As their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it’s really Laura Dean that’s the problem. Maybe it’s Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever. Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnists like Anna Vice to help her through being a teenager in love. This sweet and spirited graphic novel asks us to consider what happens when we ditch the toxic relationships we crave to embrace the healthy ones we need. Accolades include Booklist 2019 Editor’s Choice.

Disguised as boys, Lena and her sister Dion flee their father’s abuse. They hitchhike to their mother’s hometown in Kentucky in hopes of finding a relative to care for them.

When Jefferson’s attorney states, “I would just as soon put a hog in the electric chair as this,” disillusioned teacher Grant Wiggins is sent into the penitentiary to help Jefferson gain a sense of dignity and self-esteem before his execution.

John Green, Maureen Johnson, and Lauren Myracle weave each of their stories together in this collection of winter romances. John Green’s, “A Cheertastic Christmas Miracle,” focuses on three friends who leave their cozy James Bond marathon to trek through a winter storm to check out some stranded cheerleaders at the local Waffle House.

Between his father’s death, his academic burnout, and his deep (and distracting) love of video games, Dennis is nowhere near where his family wanted him to be. In fact, he’s just been kicked out of college.

And that’s when things get … weird.

Four adorable—and bossy—angels, straight out of a sappy greeting card, appear and take charge of Dennis’s life. 

A girl walks home from school. She’s tall for her age. She’s wearing her winter coat. Her headphones are in. She’s hurrying. She never makes it home. In the aftermath, while law enforcement tries to justify the response, one fact remains: a police officer has shot and killed a thirteen-year-old girl. The community is thrown into upheaval, leading to unrest, a growing movement to protest the senseless taking of Black lives, and the arrival of white supremacist counter demonstrators.

A lighthouse keeper’s daughter on Fenwick Island, Delaware, chronicles the confusion brought on by the War.

It's 1989 in New York City, and for three teens, the world is changing. Reza is an Iranian boy who has just moved to the city with his mother to live with his stepfather and stepbrother. He's terrified that someone will guess the truth he can barely acknowledge about himself. Reza knows he's gay, but all he knows of gay life are the media's images of men dying of AIDS. Judy is an aspiring fashion designer who worships her uncle Stephen, a gay man with AIDS who devotes his time to activism as a member of ACT UP. Judy has never imagined finding romance...until she falls for Reza and they start dating. Art is Judy's best friend, their school's only out and proud teen. He'll never be who his conservative parents want him to be, so he rebels by documenting the AIDS crisis through his photographs. As Reza and Art grow closer, Reza struggles to find a way out of his deception that won't break Judy's heart — and destroy the most meaningful friendship he's ever known.

Fourteen year old Gayle just can’t seem to stay out of trouble with her boyfriend. So Gayle and her baby are sent to Georgia to live with relatives. Especially her feisty, solitary great grandmother helps Gayle come to appreciate the importance of family, friendship and more in this gritty and memorable novel.

Lily Jo McGrother, born Timothy McGrother, is a girl. But being a girl is not so easy when you look like a boy. Especially when you’re in the eighth grade. Dunkin Dorfman, birth name Norbert Dorfman, is dealing with bipolar disorder and has just moved from the New Jersey town he’s called home for the past thirteen years. This would be hard enough, but the fact that he is also hiding from a painful secret makes it even worse. One summer morning, Lily meets Dunkin, and their lives forever change. Rainbow Project Book List Recommendation.