Young Readers Fiction

When Poppy Song joined Mrs. Z's third-grade class at Curiosity Academy, she knew just how to connect with her classmates: baked goods. Her beloved grandmother Po Po used to own her own bakery, and Poppy has inherited Po Po's gift for making pineapple buns, egg tarts, and other sweets, which she gladly shares with the other kids in Mrs. Z's class. After her classmates hear about a fancy treat called Dragon's Beard candy, they can't wait for Poppy to make some and bring it in.

Guillermo "Memo" Castillo and Theo Chang have been best friends since they were in kindergarten, and now they're partners in Sorcery too -- the mega-popular collectible card game, that is. Memo and Theo are excited to attend the upcoming science fiction & fantasy fan convention not far from Peppermint Falls. They plan to dress up in costumes, play in their first-ever Sorcery competition, defeat that arrogant fifth grader Josh Harkan in the tournament, and have an awesome day.

For seventeen-year-old Maya, the equation for happiness is simple: a dream internship at MIT + two new science nerd friends + a perfect boyfriend = one amazing summer. Then Whit dumps her out of the blue. Maya is miserable until she discovers that her scientist mother, before she died, was conducting research on manipulating pheromones to enhance human attraction.

Natalie and Imogen are inseparable, and wildly different—Imogen is infuriatingly humble and incredibly intelligent, while Natalie is brave, jumping into danger and new adventures. Still, one thing ties them together: their love of the supernatural. Every summer, they vacation with their parents at the famously haunted Harlow Hotel. Imogen is a true believer, while Natalie sees ghost stories as nothing but pure fun. Then, Imogen suddenly passes away from an undiagnosed heart condition that no one saw coming, and Natalie is left to take on the summer before senior year alone.

High school senior Autumn Reeves has been waitlisted at her dream school. Determined to move to the top of the list, she must find a way to stand out. When a promposal she planned for a friend has half the senior class asking for her help, a brilliant business idea that will look great on her application is born: Promposal Queen. Autumn has no clue how to start a business, so she joins the Young Black Entrepreneurs group and finds herself face-to-face with Mekhi Winston, the boy whose unexpected freshman-year kiss.

High school junior Michie is struggling to define who she is for her scholarship essays, her big shot at making it into Brown as a first-generation college student. The prompts would be hard for anyone, but Michie's been estranged from her mother since she was seven and her concept of family has long felt murky. Enter new kid and basketball superstar Derek de la Rosa. He is very cute, very talented, and very much has his eye on Michie, no matter how invisible she believes herself to be.

Sena treasures his life in rural Ghana—playing soccer, working the family farm, striving to do his best at school—but he is increasingly aware of his family's precarious security in the face of poverty. When an alluring gentleman comes to town to befriend local teenagers, offering promises of a better future, it only takes one more unsettling turn of events to send Sena into the clutches of human traffickers. Sena's ordeal, escape, and remarkable survival makes for a thrilling adventure of self-discovery and empowerment.

Even and Odd are sisters who share magic. Lately, though, it seems like that’s the only thing they have in common. Odd doesn’t like magic, and Even practices it every chance she gets, dreaming of the day she’ll be ready to be a hero. When the hidden border between the mundane world the sisters live in and the magical land they were born in shuts abruptly, the girls are trapped, unable to return home. With the help of a unicorn named Jeremy, they discover a wizard is diverting magic from the border to bolster her own power.

Twelve-year-old Claire Barton doesn't like the "flutter feeling" that fills her chest when she worries about the future, but she knows what she loves: the land that's been in her family for three generations; her best friend Maya; her family's horses, Sunny and Sam; and her older brother Andy. That's why, with Andy recently sent to rehab and her parents planning to sell the horses, Claire's world feels like it might flutter to pieces.

Sang Ly lives at Cambodia’s city dump and is grateful she can help earn a living for her family by sifting through the trash for recyclables and things that can be repaired and sold. On a good day, she can earn enough to buy food for her family. She needs enough good days so she can pay the rent collector, Sopeap—a grumpy old woman who shows no mercy and who is willing to evict any tenant who can’t pay their rent on time. When Sang Ly is unable to pay her rent for the month, she fears her family will have to leave the dump and their shanty home.

After the overnight mega success of his dad's cookie store, twelve-year-old Ellis Johnson is on top of the world. He’s met celebrities, strangers stop “the Cookie Kid” on the street, and he’s even headed to NYC to be in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade with his dad. Ellis is ready for his star turn, playing harmonica on national television—until his big break turns into the most embarrassing moment of his life.

When Ebere's mother puts her to bed at night, she always says, "Remember to dream, Ebere." And dream, Ebere does! Encouraged by her mother to make her dreams as big as possible, Ebere imagines herself as the captain of a rocket ship with the ability to go anywhere in the universe. A message of hope and possibility, award-winning star of stage and screen Cynthia Erivo's debut book is an ode to a child's imagination, a parent's love, and the big dreams shared by both.

The story involves foreign espionage against a secret government missile project that is based in Washington. Steve Ames comes for help from the Spindrift Foundation after several scientists are struck down by a mysterious neural malady that seems to cause severe aphasia and inability to communicate. Steve suspects foul play and decides that isolating the remaining members of the research group on Spindrift Island for security purposes might save them from further attacks, but as the whole Brant family discovers the enemy does not give up that easily.

High school senior Rainbow is trapped with three other teens in a game-like world that may or may not be real. Together, they must complete quests and gain experience in order to access their own forgotten memories, decode what has happened to them, and find a portal home. As Rainbow’s memories slowly return, the story of a lonely teen facing senior year as the new kid in a small town emerges.

This powerful and hopeful book—inspired by the historic election of Vice President Kamala Harris—celebrates brown and Black girls. Based on a viral poem by Blaxican poet and activist Leslé Honoré, this moving journey through the past, present, and future of brown and Black girls is a celebration of community, creativity, and joy—and offers a reminder of the history that inspires hope, and the hope that inspires activism.

The space rock is just the latest thing to land, uninvited, in Vega Lucero’s road-stop hometown. But when she discovers how much a chunk of the meteorite might be worth, she realizes it’s exactly the treasure she’s been hoping to find—and maybe a way to convince her mom not to sell the family store to big city developers to help pay for her grandpa Tata's medical expenses.

As infants, twin sisters Charlie Yates and Magnolia Heathwood were secretly separated after the brutal lynching of their parents, who died for loving across the color line. Now, at the dawn of the Civil Rights Movement, Charlie is a young Black organizer in Harlem, while White-passing Magnolia is the heiress to a cotton plantation in rural Georgia. Magnolia knows nothing of her racial heritage, but secrets are hard to keep in a town haunted by the ghosts of its slave-holding past.

Head-spinning, Taylor-Swift-song-level feelings. Their instant connection seems implausible, even impossible, as they start to realize all they have in common. Both are grieving, living in worlds haunted by ghosts; both have a parent who's out of sight, not out of mind; and both were forced to give up their Olympic dreams. Connected by experiences only they understand, Hattie and Presley fall into a whirlwind romance—flirting at their workplace, sleeping side by side beneath the stars, ice skating to a playlist all their own.

Nine girls bound together in beautiful, virtuous Havenwood, a refuge from an unsafe world. Then there are eight, one of them gone—departed with no warning. Did this member of their pack stray willingly, or did something more sinister occur? The girls seek answers not knowing if they should be angry or frightened or perhaps, they should be both.

University-trained Battle Wizards are rare on this continent, so Mazart has advantages over other wizards. But there's a plot to set him up. It starts with a spell that is placed on him by some unknown party. The spell gives him waking dreams of a beautiful queen with elfin features. Seems harmless enough, but what is the purpose? He wonders if he's going to end up having to teach someone a lesson about Battle Wizards.