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Instead of celebrating her 13th birthday in her prosperous Mexican home as she expected, Esperanza must adjust to the murder of her father, the loss of her house and wealth, and her new life as a farm worker in California during the Great Depression. This readable coming-of-age novel is based on the life of the author’s grandmother.

After a family tragedy results in the loss of both father and home, 12-year-old Nora lives with her mother in Manila’s North Cemetery, which is the largest shantytown of its kind in the Philippines today. When her mother disappears mysteriously one day, Nora is left alone. With help from her best friend Jojo and the support of his kindhearted grandmother, Nora embarks on a journey riddled with danger in order to find her mom. Along the way she also rediscovers the compassion of the human spirit, the resilience of her community, and everlasting hope in the most unexpected places. 

Shenice Lockwood, captain of the Fulton Firebirds, is hyper-focused when she steps up to the plate. Nothing can stop her from leading her team to the U12 fast-pitch softball regional championship. But Shenice's focus gets shaken when her great-uncle Jack reveals that a career-ending — and family-name-ruining — crime may have been a setup. Her broken focus means mistakes on the field. And Shenice's teammates are beginning to wonder if she's captain-qualified. It's up to Shenice to discover the truth about her family's past — and fast — before secrets take the Firebirds out of the game forever.

When yellow fever strikes 18th century Philadelphia, sixteen year old Matilda’s life is forever changed. Contemporary readers are likely to see themselves in Matilda while being transported back in time through striking smells and sights of an earlier time.

Who was at the forefront of women’s right to vote? It’s time to celebrate the names and stories of the women whose stories have yet to be told, women from diverse backgrounds — black, Asian, Latinx, Native American, and more — who helped lead the fight for suffrage.  Gorgeous portraits accompany biographies of such fierce but forgotten women as Yankton Dakota Sioux writer and advocate Zitkála-Sá, Mary Eliza Church Terrell, who cofounded the National Association of Colored Women (NACW), and Mabel Ping-Hua Lee, who, at just sixteen years old, helped lead the biggest parade in history to promote the cause of suffrage. 

Biracial eighteen-year-old Daunis Fontaine has never quite fit in either in her hometown or on the nearby Ojibwe reservation. But when Daunis’s best friend, Lily, is murdered, she agrees to go undercover in her community and help the FBI while secretly pursuing her own investigation.

Times have changed in the Kingdom of Tortall. Keladry of Mindelan, who dreams of a knight’s shield of her own, is the first girl without a disguise to train for knighthood. Without disguise does not mean without difficulty however and the series follows Kel as she’s tested by bullies, skeptics, and her own fears.

Why has Rin become uneasy in her forest home and distrustful of her neighbors? And will a journey deeper into the Forest, toward the enemy, offer any solace? This fantasy tale is a companion to other Books of Bayern titles listed here.

The stars say eghteen-year-old Xifeng is destined for greatness, but only if she embraces the darkness within her. In order to achieve greatness, she must spurn the young man who loves her and exploit the callous magic that runs through her veins — sorcery fueled by eating the hearts of the recently killed. For the god who has sent her on this journey will not be satisfied until his power is absolute. Set in an East Asian-inspired fantasy world filled with both breathtaking pain and beauty, Forest of a Thousand Lanterns possesses all the hallmarks of masterful fantasy: dazzling magic, heartbreaking romance, and a world that hangs in the balance. First book in the “Rise of the Empress” series. New York Public Library’s 2017 Best Books For Teens.

Mia Tang has a secret. Actually, a lot of secrets. She doesn’t live in a house like her friends. She doesn’t have a dog. And her parents are hiding an even bigger secret, one that could get them all in trouble. It will take all of Mia’s courage, kindness, and hard work to get through this year. Will she be able to hold on to her job, help the immigrants and guests, escape Mr. Yao, and go for her dreams? First in a series.

In Rosario, Argentina, Camila Hassan lives a double life. At home, she is a careful daughter, living within her mother’s narrow expectations, in her rising-soccer-star brother’s shadow, and under the abusive rule of her short-tempered father. On the field, she is La Furia, a powerhouse of skill and talent. When her team qualifies for the South American tournament, Camila gets the chance to see just how far those talents can take her. In her wildest dreams, she’d get an athletic scholarship to a North American university. But the path ahead isn’t easy. Her parents don’t know about her passion. And the boy she once loved is back in town, but things aren’t the same as when he left: she has her own passions and ambitions now, and La Furia cannot be denied. As her life becomes more complicated, Camila is forced to face her secrets and make her way in a world with no place for the dreams and ambition of a girl like her.

When Max—Maxine Zelaster—befriends her new robot classmate Fuzzy, part of Vanguard One Middle School’s new Robot Integration Program, she helps him learn everything he needs to know about surviving middle school—the good, the bad, and the really, really, ugly. Little do they know that surviving seventh grade is going to become a true matter of life and death, because Vanguard has an evil presence at its heart: a digital student evaluation system named BARBARA that might be taking its mission to shape the perfect student to extremes!

In three interwoven biographies, Weller chronicles the life and times of three tradition-breaking women singer-songwriters who came of age in the late 1960s.

Sixteen-year-old Florrie turns political activist when she takes notice of the changing landscape of her beloved San Antonio hometown. Upset by the loss of small independent businesses to money-hungry corporations, she first begins her grassroots campaign with her family, who own their restaurant, encouraging them to support other local businesses and to avoid the chain stores. (School Library Journal)

Piri, now 17, resides with a Swedish family while she searches for news of family and friends who also might have survived the Nazi concentration camps. Although the Swedes accept her as their own daughter, she strives to hold on to her own identity and dreams of finding her blood relatives. The novel is dedicated to the many people who assisted the Jews in their efforts to find their families after the war.

In Katsa’s world, those with a Grace, or special talent, such as singing or storytelling, are marked by eyes that are different colors. Katsa’s Grace is killing, which she has tempered to fighting and been put to use by her manipulative uncle, one of the kings of the seven kingdoms, to torture people. Katsa despises her uncle and being forced to hurt people so she moonlights as a rescuer as part of a secret council she’s formed to promote fairness and honesty over cruelty and abuses of power.

When legendary R&B artist Korey Fields spots Black seventeen-year-old Enchanted Jones at an audition, her dreams of being a famous singer take flight. Until Enchanted wakes up with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night. 

The day after Liyana got her first real kiss, her life changed forever. Not because of the kiss, but because it was the day her father announced that the family was moving from St. Louis all the way to Palestine. Though her father grew up there, Liyana knows very little about her family’s Arab heritage. Her grandmother and the rest of her relatives who live in the West Bank are strangers, and speak a language she can’t understand. It isn’t until she meets Omer that her homesickness fades. But Omer is Jewish, and their friendship is silently forbidden in this land.

The compelling memoir of Irene Gut Opdyke, a Polish girl who risked her life to save her Jewish friends during World War II.

Eleven-year-old Harriet follows her spy route every day, recording her findings (findings for her eyes only) in her notebook. When her classmates find the notebook, Harriet has to deal with the consequences. A few years ago, the movie gave this classic book new life, but it is still a timeless and charming read for older elementary readers.

Livia Bitton-Jackson a.ka. Elli Friedmann, was only 13 years old when the Nazis invaded Hungary. She recounts her struggle to survive with her mother, first in the ghetto, then in the Plaszow Concentration Camp (the one shown in Stephen Spielberg movie, Schindler’s List), and then while working in a factory in Augsburg.

Kate and her astrophysicist grandfather share a special bond, so when her grandfather disappears and his lab is attacked by an alien outsider, Kate must find him and the secret of his most important project. Book one of The Heroic Adventures of Kate trilogy.

When Louise Wolfe’s first real boyfriend mocks and disrespects Native people in front of her, she breaks things off and dumps him over e-mail. It’s her senior year, anyway, and she’d rather spend her time working on the school newspaper. The editors pair her up with Joey Kairouz, the ambitious new photojournalist, and in no time the paper’s staff find themselves with a major story to cover: the school musical director’s inclusive approach to casting The Wizard of Oz has been provoking backlash in their mostly white, middle-class Kansas town. As tensions mount at school, so does a romance between Lou and Joey — but as she’s learned, “dating while Native” can be difficult. In trying to protect her own heart, will Lou break Joey’s?

Having withstood the horrors of Auschwitz and made it out alive, eighteen-year-old Elli is more than ready to leave behind the painful memories and start fresh in America. What she is not fully prepared for, though, are all the challenges of creating a new life in a completely new place — especially one as hectic as New York City!