TITLE: Caraval

AUTHOR: Stephanie Garber
GENRE: Fantasy

This book is filled with SO MUCH MYSTERY. Centered around a real-life performance where the audience are the participants, Scarlett has always wanted to be invited as a player. When her sister, Tella runs off to join in on this year's festivities Scarlett's dream of being a part of the game is about to come true. But in Caraval not everything is as it seems.

TITLE: Carry On

AUTHOR: Rainbow Rowell
GENRE: Fantasy

This book is Harry Potter with a twist! Wanted and chased by members of an evil organization Simon is a student at a reknowned school of wizardry. Orphaned as a child, Simon has no recollection of his parents or family. Filled with action, intrigue, mystery and a little romance with his roommate Baz, this book is the first in the Simon Snow series.

TITLE: Renegades
AUTHOR: Marissa Meyer
GENRE: Fantasy
* 2019-2020 Truman Award Nominee

The first book in the Renegades trilogy, this book is sure to make you want to read more - and wish you had a superpower, too! Told from varying points of view of 2 teenaged superheros on opposite sides of the line of right and wrong, this book is filled with action. A great read for anyone who loves Marvel or DC characters this tells the story of how superheros are made, what choices they face in deciding which side they will become a part of. Check out the book, Renegades, today and you will not be disappointed!

TITLE: Greetings From the Witness Protection Program
AUTHOR: Jake Burt
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
*2019-2020 Truman Award Nominee

This book will pull at your heart strings, make you laugh until you cry and sit on the edge of your seat all within 357 pages. Told from the point of view of Nicki, a teenager whose been in foster care longer than she can remember. When she is approached by the U.S. Marshals to stand in as a 2nd child for a family in hiding she doesn't hesitate to accept. Every member of the family brings their own struggles, including both highs and lows. but through it all they turn this unconventional group into a family.

TITLE: Stepsister
AUTHOR: Jennifer Donnelly
GENRE: Fantasy

Want a new take on an old fairy tale? Then this is the book for you! Everyone knows the story of Cinderella, but do we know what it was like to be one of her evil step-sisters? Or even how they became the mean girls they were in the story? This book is told from one of the step-sister's points of view and opens with trying on the glass slipper by cutting off her heel to make it fit. We all know THAT didn't work, but neither did much else for this tale of the step-sister of Cinderella. By the end of the book readers won't think she's really as evil as she is portrayed to be.

Red Rising Book Talk

TITLE: Red Rising (book 1 of the Red Rising series)
AUTHOR: Pierce Brown
GENRE: Science Fiction
* 2016-2017 Gateway Award Nominee

TITLE: The Watchmaker's Daughter
AUTHOR: C.J. Archer
GENRE: Fantasy

The first book in the Glass and Steel series, this story follows the daughter of a watchmaker on an adventure to discover herself and reclaim the shop she lost. Filled with magic, mystery and a "bad guy" she struggles to uncover the hidden story behind a mysterious stranger who possesses a watch that can restore his health. Read more in this first adventure of the Glass and Steel series!

TITLE: Forget Me Not
AUTHOR: Ellie Terry
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
* 2019-2020 Truman Award Nominee

Calliope June has Tourette's Syndrome which means she often makes motions and noises that she doesn't mean to make. She also has a mother who is as likely to up and, which means Calli must start a new school, with boyfriend break-up. But with her new move she meets someone she can call friend - one of the first she's made and kept - who lives right across the hall. But as their relationship grows Calli is faced again with the fact that she may move - again - when she gets a new step-dad. Will she be able to stay and hang on to the first real friend she's ever made? Read, Forget Me Not, by Ellie Terry to find out!

TITLE: Devils Unto Dust
AUTHOR: Emma Berquist
GENRE: Scary Fiction

Fans of the zombie series, Rot and Ruin, and the television show/comic books, The Walking Dead, will like this book by Emma Berquist. Set in the wild west, but plagued by the presence of shakes, virus infected, zombie-like people, this book focuses on Willie the eldest in a family of three kids and an absent dad. Since the death of their mother, Willie has been the leader of the family not being able to rely upon her father who is more absent than present and squanders away the family's money gambling whenever he gets the chance. When WIllie's dad steals money from the wrong people WIllie sets out across the desert and all that lurks there, to save her family.

TITLE: Unnatural Disasters
AUTHOR: Jeff Hirsch
GENRE: Dystopian Fiction

Crazy weather? Unstable economy? Extreme religion? Rampant terrorism? These and more are all elements of the book, Unnatural Disasters, by Jeff Hirsch. Despite the fact that all of these are major issues in the world crumbling around her, high school senior Lucy must also navigate through the loss of a first love, family security and mere survival in this realistic fiction meets science fiction meets dystopian fiction from the author of The Eleventh Plague.

TITLE: The Lonely Dead
AUTHOR: April Henry
GENRE: Scary Fiction

Written by April Henry, author of numerous books in the scary and mystery genres including The Girl Who was Supposed to Die and Body in the Woods, the book the Lonely Dead does not disappoint. Taking on a new angle to the scary genre, Henry adds an element of suspense with the presence of paranormal activity - ghosts! Fans of the movie, The Sixth Sense, will love the events and characters in this book. Adele lives with her grandpa who wants to ignore the fact that Adele has inherited the same ability as her mother and grandmother - she can see and talk to the dead. Adele sets out to help catch the killer of a classmate and in the process she realizes she's been given a gift and it's not a curse after all.

TITLE: The Hate U Give
AUTHOR: Angie Thomas
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
* 2019-2020 Gateway Award Nominee

Sixteen year-old Starr Carter isn't your ordinary teenager. Born and raised in a poor inner city neighborhood she also attends a fancy prep school in a neighboring well-to-do area of her city for academics. Even though she navigates two separate worlds, attending a fancy prep school does not protect her from the dangers of her life in her everyday neighborhood. Starr becomes the only witness in the shooting of her unarmed friend Kahlil at the hands of a police officer stirring up problems for her at school and in her everyday life on the streets of her neighborhood. Choosing what, and how to describe the events of the night of Kahlil's death will have a big impact on the balance she has between both her family and her friends.

TITLE: Far From the Tree
AUTHOR: Robin Benway
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
* 2019-2020 Gateway Award Nominee

Connected by a biological mother, but separated as small children, three siblings connect with one another in the book, Far from the Tree, by Robin Benway. Set in present times and told from the point of view of Mya, Grace and Joaquin, this book touches on several issues that arise for kids adopted and raised in different families yet connected by blood. Grace, who gives her child up for adoption, begins the process of finding her siblings, and herself, as she struggles with the choices she's made. Mya, is an outspoken teenager with big dreams for the future and a younger sister that her parents never dreamed they would have after adopting her. And, Joaquin, who has grown up in the foster system but has finally found"home" with Mark and Linda his 18th set of foster parents. A great read for anyone wanting a touching story of the importance of family.

TITLE: Long Way Down
AUTHOR: Jason Reynolds
GENRE: Realistic Fiction
* 2019-2020 Truman Award Nominee

We've all heard of what life can be like to live in inner city neighborhoods through stories we see in television shows, movies and in books we read. Much like the themes carried through books such as The Hate U Give, the book Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds tells the story of one boy's struggle with living in a gang-ruled world where choices we take for granted can be life or death for he and his family. Told through the eyes of one teenager, in one very long elevator ride, Long Way Down is written in verse and says a lot through very little words as does most poetry. A quick read, full of heavy issues and heartfelt choices, Long Way Down is a great read for anyone wanting a glimpse into the lives of those who live in the inner city areas plagued boy violence and gangs and the choices they face to stay above it all.

Dry, by Neal Shusterman

TITLE: Dry
AUTHOR: Neal Shusterman
GENRE: Dystopian Fiction

Everyone likes a good disaster story, right? Okay, maybe it's just me, but this book ranks right up there with the likes of any dystopian book - full of life or death decisions and the fate of the group lies in the hands of a group of teenagers. Set in the southernmost parts of California, water sources become scarce and then eventually deplete entirely. A great book full of characters with a wide berth of personalities and skills, Dry, written by Neal Shusterman (Unwind, Scythe) brings to life the idea of what life would be like if water sources were no longer.

Refugee, by Alan Gratz

TITLE: Refugee
AUTHOR: Alan Gratz
GENRE: Historical Fiction
* 2019-2020 Truman Award Nominee

Written by Alan Gratz, Refugee, is another fantastic book that touches on real-life, and current issues that we see often in the news these days. Told from three different points of view, from three different time periods, this book touches on the journeys of three different refugee families. One is set in Germany in 1939, another in Cuba in 1994 and the last in Syria in 2015. All are compelling stories of heartache and loss told through these eyes of children who lived it.

Soldier Boy, by Keely Hutton

TITLE: Soldier Boy
AUTHOR: Keely Hutton
GENRE: Historical Fiction
* 2019-2020 Gateway Award Nominee

Solider Boy, written by Keely Hutton, was a difficult but interesting book. Based on the true accounts of Ricky, a child soldier in the Ugandan civil war in the early 1990's Ricky tells the story of what he endured under the command of a violent and cruel leader of an army of rebels. Armed with a weapon and expected to carry out atrocities no child should have to endure, Ricky eventually finds hope as an adult when he becomes the founder of the charity Friends of Orphans who works to rehabilitate children soldiers much like himself.