National Network for Equitable Library Service

In this sequel to the acclaimed Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda-now a major motion picture, Love, Simon-we follow Simon's BFF Leah as she grapples with changing friendships, first love, and senior year angst. When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat-but real life isn't always so rhythmic. She's an anomaly in her friend group: the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it.

A provocative and heart-wrenching novel about family, loss, and loyalty from acclaimed and bestselling author Chris Crutcher. Losers Bracket is the powerful and gripping new novel by the author of Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes and Whale Talk. When it comes to family, Annie is in the losers bracket. While her foster parents are great (mostly), her birth family would not have been her first pick. And no matter how many times Annie tries to write them out of her life, she always gets sucked back into their drama. Love is like that.

"Crackles with energy and snaps with authenticity and voice." -Justina Ireland, author of Dread Nation "An incredibly potent debut." -Jason Reynolds, author of the National Book Award Finalist Ghost "Acevedo has amplified the voices of girls en el barrio who are equal parts goddess, saint, warrior, and hero." -Ibi Zoboi, author of American Street Fans of Jacqueline Woodson, Meg Medina, and Jason Reynolds will fall hard for this astonishing #ownvoices novel-in-verse by an award-winning slam poet, about an Afro-Latina heroine who tells her story with blazing words and powerful truth.

A teenage girl arrives in Seoul to work in a factory by day and struggles through night school to achieve her dream of becoming a writer. This complex and nuanced coming-of-age story is set against the backdrop of Korea's industrial sweatshops of the 1970s.

The first time Brian Guillemot ever spoke to his mother, he was thirty years old, reading a European re-imagining of the X-Men and sitting on the john. An adopted only child, Brian "Gumbo" Guillemot's teenage hobby was searching for his birth parents. But when he finally finds his birth mother, Kim, he's unprepared for the instant family that comes with her. No one knows anything about Brian's birth father and Kim's penchant for divulging too much information disappears whenever he is mentioned.

A stunning and lyrical debut novel. Vincent Appleton smiles at his daughters, raises a gun, and blows off his head. For the Appleton sisters, life had unravelled many times before. This time it explodes. Eight-year-old Hariet, known to all as Ari, is dispatched to Cape Breton and her Aunt Mary, who is purported to eat little girls. But Mary and her partner, Nia, offer an unexpected refuge to Ari and her steadfast companion, Jasper, an imaginary seahorse. Yet the respite does not last, and Ari is torn from her aunts and forced back to her twisted mother and fractured sisters.

Eleven-year-old Maya Devine has grown up with a warped view of reality. For one, she sees colour around people’s bodies and can sometimes hear what’s going on inside their heads. These insights make everyone a bit more interesting, but the one person she’ll never figure out is her mother. Marigold has never been like other moms, but still, Maya sometimes feels like she is all she has.

A hilarious coming-of-age novel about the pain of young love, family secrets, and sick ferrets

Fifteen-year-old Jacob feels almost on the inside: almost smart, almost funny, almost good-looking, almost worthy of falling in love. His sister is too busy dating guys in Whitesnake jackets to notice, and his best friend is occupied with his own painful pubescent crisis. Jacob’s mother has just started a curious (and rather un-Christian) holy war with the church across the street, while his father has secretly moved into the garage.

A visceral story of friendship, music, and bloody revenge

Rachel feels like she doesn’t fit in — until she finds heavy metal and meets Fern, a kindred spirit. The two form their own band, but the metal scene turns out to be no different than the misogynist world they want to change. Violent encounters escalate, and the friends decide there’s only one way forward . . .

The likeable young Nicholas, left penniless on the death of his father, sets off in search of better prospects. His meandering route to happiness includes work as a teacher at Dotheboys Hall, where the brutal Wackfor Squeers ill-treats his impoverished pupils, and a spell as an actor with the absurdly melodramatic Crummles troupe.