Teen Age Girls

Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit is a beautifully written novel in verse loosely based on author Colby Cedar Smith’s maternal grandmother. The story follows Mary as she and her family emigrate from Greece to Detroit in the 1930s, creating a historically accurate portrayal of life as an immigrant during the Great Depression, hunger strikes, and violent riots. Mary lives in a tiny apartment with her immigrant parents, her brothers, and her twin sister, and she questions why her parents ever came to America.

Tracy should have been a boy. Even her older brother Spencer says so, though he wouldn’t finish the thought with, “And I should have been a girl.” When both are caught with gay partners, their lives and futures are endangered by their homophobic father. While the Vietnam War threatens to take Spencer away, Tracy and her father wage a war of their own, each trying to save the sweet, talented pianist. At 17, Tracy dresses as a boy and leaves her parents in turmoil, with only the slimmest hope of finding peace within herself.

This heartfelt and humorous contemporary take on Sense and Sensibility follows two sisters - complete opposites - who discover the secrets they’ve been keeping make them more alike than they’d realized.

Despite - or perhaps because of - her fancy car, private school education, and life of privilege, Lola Renaldi has become a volunteer junkie. Feeding the hungry, clothing the poor, visiting the elderly - if it's a good cause, she's done it. Lola's favorite stint, building affordable houses, puts her directly in the path of Rodney. He refuses to discuss why he's doing community service, but it's clear he's hiding something dark about his past. As their friendship grows, Lola begins to question the true reasons for her obsessive volunteerism.

Madison Stanton doesn't know where she is or how she got there. But she does know this - she is dead. And alone, in a vast, dark space. The only company she has in this place are luminescent objects that turn out to be all the things Maddy lost while she was alive. And soon she discovers that with these artifacts, she can reexperience - and sometimes even change - moments from her life.

Lizzie Richards isn't excited to be starting over at a new school for her senior year, but she's trying to take her mother's advice and make the most of it - the only way she can: By disobeying her strict parents' rules. Lizzie's father has moved the family around every few years to advance his career, so she has never had a chance to develop the kind of "BFF" relationships. Thanks to Maura's plotting, Lizzie becomes everyone's new favorite babysitter. Lizzie decides to break her mother's rules by using Maura's computer to create a secret Facebook account.

Twelve-year-old Arianna learns an asteroid threatens to wipe out Earth, she's terrified. But the impending disaster vanishes as mysteriously as it appeared, leaving her to wonder if it was nothing more than a strange dream. What's more mysterious is discovering her eleven new best friends shared a similar experience.

Jamaican breezes are calling, and one hardworking BSG definitely deserves a getaway! But Katani's Caribbean dream trip may not be all soft sand and warm surf. When Grandma Ruby learns that the family's famous banana bread bakery is in serious danger, Katani's business savvy is put to the ultimate test. Spooky stories, dolphins, horseback rides on the beach, a mysterious old lady, and a lost heirloom add up to plenty of colorful island adventure for Katani and her family.

Left with Aunt Mattie and uncle Sheriff Cade in the North Carolina mountains, nine-year-old June becomes "Mattie's Girl" when Cade is killed at the home of her best friend, PeeDee. In stories deeply rooted in 1940s Appalachia, June chronicles the years between meeting the irrepressible PeeDee and losing her. She struggles to understand her mother's indifference, her father's divided love, her grandmother's sudden death, and her grandfather's being institutionalized.

Cris Burks won widespread acclaim for her engaging first novel, SilkyDreamGirl. Burks' second offering follows the life of a determined girl struggling toward adulthood in 1950s Chicago. The devastating discovery that "Daddy" is not her real father opens a great chasm in Neecey's world and leads to Neecey's abusive mother bringing a succession of no-good men into the home. Nevertheless, as she grows into a woman, the resilient Neecey strives to overcome despair and forge a new life for herself.

At the Manhattan High School for the Arts, where everyone is “different” and everyone is “special,” Gretchen Yee feels ordinary. She’s the kind of girl who sits alone at lunch, drawing pictures of Spider-Man, so that she won’t have to talk to anyone; who has a crush on Titus but won’t do anything about it; who has no one to hang out with when her best (and only real) friend, Katya, is busy.

Sara needs to cross the US border illegally to help her Tía Elena after learning her parents and siblings were killed in an accident. She needs to elude kidnappers and FBI agents on her way to live with her criminal uncle. Survival depends on her successful trip from Baja to Oregon. Will she thrive or only survive? Will she meet the love of her life along the way?

Jasbir, aka Jazz, has always been a stellar student and an obedient, albeit wise-cracking, daughter. Everything has gone along just fine - she has good friends in the "genius" program she's been in since kindergarten, her teachers and principal adore her, and her parents dote on her. But now, in her junior year of high school, her mother hears that Jazz was seen hugging a boy on the street and goes ballistic.

The only thing she stands to lose are her shoes.Cinderella is an ordinary teenage girl, with an extraordinary name. But because of that name, she and her cousins, Belle, Aurora, Ariel, and Snow White suffer years of torment from their peers. Then as the girls enter high school and the enticing world of dating, a life-altering decision must be made. Is it finally time to stop fighting, and surrender to the fairy tale clichés that have been holding them back? By embracing their names, the girls discover an inner-strength they never knew existed.

Millions of Africans were enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade, but few recorded their personal experiences. Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is perhaps the most well known of the autobiographies that exist. Using this narrative as a primary source text, authors Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge share Equiano's life story in "found verse," supplemented with annotations to give listeners historical context.

Sixteen-year-old Lorena is a science nerd at a time when girls don't do science. It's 1962 and the message from President Kennedy's Committee on the Status of Women isn't well received in her conservative community. Lorena plays the roles expected of a good girl. She's Lorena to her teachers, Lor to her friends, and Reenie to her Dad. She can't make her parents understand why she doesn't want the traditional role of teacher, nurse, or secretary like her older two sisters do.

A novel-in-verse about a young girl coming-of-age and stepping out of the shadow of her former best friend. Perfect for fans of Elizabeth Acevedo and Nikki Grimes. With gritty and heartbreaking honesty, Mahogany L. Browne delivers a novel-in-verse about broken promises, fast rumors, and when growing up means growing apart from your best friend.

A story of friendship, courage and a bit of crime. Bridget wants a quiet life, including, if possible, keeping her parents out of prison. Then a boy called Menzies makes her an offer she can't refuse, and they set off on a job of their own. It's a desperate, daring plan, to rescue two kids, Jamal and Bibi, from a desert detention centre. Can Bridget and Menzies pull off their very first jail break, or will they end up behind bars too? Sometimes to help a friend, you have to dig deep.

Chelsea's mom moved her to Florida in hopes of giving her a better life hoping to forget their negative past and move on to a better future. What she finds is new challenges and new issues that force her to make some adult choices at the age of 15. What does she do when those who are supposed to love her turns on her? She survives!

Melissa has had a fantastic summer hanging out with her friends and making new ones. But life as she knows it will change when they all come together to begin their sophomore year at Dearborn High. Connections will be made and friendships will be tested. Will Melissa’s family and friends be able to help her through the challenges she will face in the upcoming months?