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Trisha Conrad hosts an all-night party to celebrate the end of junior year. But the fun ends for the new seniors when Trisha has a premonition of the entire senior class dying.

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.

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.

He was born in the backwoods of Kentucky in a humble log cabin, but Abraham Lincoln was savvy enough to embrace the new technology of his time—photography—to propel him all the way to the White House. This simple man with lofty goals was willing to use any means necessary, including the power of photography, to save the union and free the slaves—leaving behind an unmatched legacy of sacrifice, service, and achievement.  

Fifteen-year-old bender Kivali has had a rough time in a gender-rigid culture. Abandoned as a baby and raised by Sheila, an ardent nonconformist, Kivali has always been surrounded by uncertainty. Where did she come from? Is it true what Sheila says, that she was deposited on Earth by the mysterious saurians? What are you? people ask, and Kivali isn’t sure. Boy/girl? Human/lizard? Both/neither? Now she’s in CropCamp, with all of its schedules and regs, and the first real friends she’s ever had. Strange occurrences and complicated relationships raise questions Kivali has never before had to consider. But she has a gift—the power to enter a trancelike state to harness the “knowings” inside her. She has Lizard Radio. Will it be enough to save her? A coming-of-age story rich in friendships and the shattering emotions of first love, this deeply felt novel will resonate with teens just emerging as adults in a sometimes hostile world. 

More than just the story of the Pullman porters, this Coretta Scott King Award winner recounts the saga of the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first major black labor union. Organized just after the Civil War, the union brought together many freed slaves who had been hired by George Pullman to pamper the passengers in his sleeping cars. Seasoned with poetry, song, black-and-white historical photographs, and the personal reminiscences of porters and their wives, the text is full and engaging.

As a 12-year-old growing up in Sierra Leone, Beah lived a life not unlike a typical American pre-teen, listening to hip hop and hanging out with friends. When civil war comes to his country, however, he is surrounded by death and is forced to survive by becoming a soldier, plied with cocaine and sent on killing sprees. The violence is frequent and not for the squeamish — the book was published for the Adult market — but teens love a tale of overcoming long odds.

Miles “Pudge” Halter is done with his safe life at home. His whole life has been one big non-event until heads off to the sometimes crazy and anything-but-boring world of Culver Creek Boarding School, and his life becomes the opposite of safe. Because down the hall is Alaska Young. The gorgeous, clever, funny, sexy, self-destructive, screwed up, and utterly fascinating Alaska Young. She is an event unto herself. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Then… Nothing is ever the same.

Living in our modern technological society it’s easy to believe ancient cultures had little scientific or mathematical knowledge. Teresi, however, demonstrates that modern science is much older than we think, and shows how scientific and mathematical concepts of ancient cultures are the foundation of today’s technology.

When Nala Robertson reluctantly agrees to attend an open mic night for her cousin-sister-friend Imani’s birthday, she finds herself falling in instant love with Tye Brown, the MC. He’s perfect, except…Tye is an activist and is spending the summer putting on events for the community when Nala would rather watch movies and try out the new seasonal flavors at the local creamery. In order to impress Tye, Nala tells a few tiny lies to have enough in common with him. As they spend more time together, sharing more of themselves, some of those lies get harder to keep up. In Love Is a Revolution, plus size girls are beautiful, the popular girl clique has strong convictions and substance, and the ultimate love story is not only about romance but about how to show radical love to the people in your life, including to yourself.

It’s not surprising that this novel has been made into a movie — author Larry Doyle has been a comedy screenwriter for some time, and this book reads like a screenplay. Taking place over one graduation day and night, it tells the story of nerdy Denis, who while making his graduation speech, blurts out “I Love You, Beth Cooper.” Beth is popular, beautiful, and, as it soon turns out, more than Denis even imagined.

Lucy Otswego is a big girl who towers over just about everyone and everything in her small Alaskan town-except for her father’s reputation as a mean drunk. At fifteen, Lucy runs away from the cruel classmates who see her only as the Giant, the neighboring adults who pity her, and the abusive father whose fleeting attention is worse than his indifference. When the crew of a crabbing boat assumes she’s much older than she is and invites her to sign on for the season, she jumps at the chance to escape her teenage life.

This classic is filled with witches, ghosts, murder, betrayal, and revenge? Macbeth, a successful Scottish general, encounters three witches who prophesize his future. Eager to make their predictions come true and egged on by the power-hungry Lady Macbeth, he sets out on a murderous path to become King, deceiving and destroying anyone in his way. Looking for a parallel text? Read Enter Three Witches by Caroline Cooney, a story about Lady Mary, the teenaged charge of the Macbeths. How will she be able to cope with Macbeth’s deadly behavior?

When Reason’s mother goes insane, she is forced to live with her grandmother Esmerelda, who may be the source of her mother’s insanity. Reason does her best to avoid contact with Esmerelda, but when she decides to run away, she walks through Esmeralda’s back door in Sydney and finds herself on a New York City street. The book is full of action, a little violence, and is a good entry in the urban fantasy genre.

When his father goes on yet another drinking binge, Martyn lashes out and accidentally kills him. Instead of going to the police, he and his neighbor (on whom he has a secret crush) cover up the crime. Just when Martyn thinks he has things under control, the situation take a dramatic turn.

This comprehensive look at the Hoover and how he shaped the FBI necessarily examines the United States and its history including the Cold War, communism, and race relations.