Teen Books for PRIDE Month

Every June, the country remembers the Stonewall Riots with PRIDE Month.  So today, I am sharing LGBTQIA books for teens . . . .

My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park by Steve Kluger
Three teenagers in Boston narrate their experiences of a year of new friendships, first loves, and coming into their own.

Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin
A gender-fluid teenager who struggles with identity creates a blog on the topic that goes viral, and faces ridicule at the hands of fellow students.

Shine by Lauren Myracle
When her best friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover the culprits in her small North Carolina town.

Fan Art by Sarah Tregay
High school senior Jamie has a crush on his best friend and finds ways to share that news with the help of several friends.

Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Ann Peters
When her girlfriend dies suddenly at age seventeen, Colorado teenager Alix struggles with grief as painful secrets are revealed.


More Books --
10 Things I Can See from Here by Carrie Mac
Adaptation by Melinda Lo
Afterworlds by Scott Westerfeld
Away We Go by Emil Ostrovski
The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson
Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez
Far From Xanadu by Julie Ann Peters
Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark
Gemini Bites by Patrick Ryan
Girl Mans Up by M.E. Girard
Gone, Gone, Gone by Hannah Moskowitz
Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
Love in the Time of Global Warming by Francesca Lia Block
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
Simon vs. the Homo-Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
What They Always Tell Us by Martin Wilson
Wide Awake by David Levithan
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan


Check these books out on display at the Arnold Branch through July 21, 2017.

Stories for Summer

It's Summer!  It's time for sleeping in, playing all day and vacations.  Take some time to read one of these great chapter books set during the summer . . .

The Family Fletcher Takes Rock Island by Dana Alison Levy
Summertime brings the Fletcher Family back to Rock Island where the good times never end, but this summer the boys' favorite lighthouse is all boarded up and with the help from their new neighbors, the Garcia girls, the boys are determined to find out what is really happening with their lighthouse and saving it, no matter what the cost.

Sand Dollar Summer by Kimberly Jones
When twelve-year-old Lise spends the summer on an island in Maine with her self-reliant mother and bright--but oddly mute--younger brother, her formerly safe world is complicated by an aged Indian neighbor, her mother's childhood friend, and a hurricane.

Ivy Takes Care by Rosemary Wells
Brokenhearted when her best friend departs for the summer, Ivy spends her own summer caring for animals in the mid-century Southwest, sharing her season of discovery with a stubborn pony, a mischievous puppy, and a scarred racehorse.

Lawn Boy by Gary Paulsen
Things get out of hand for a twelve-year-old boy when a neighbor convinces him to expand his summer lawn mowing business.

The Great Good Summer by Liz Scanlon
Loomer, Texas, twelve-year-old Ivy Green, whose mother may have run off with a charismatic preacher to Panhandle, Florida, and classmate Paul Dobbs, who wants to see a Space Shuttle before the program is scrapped, team up for a summer adventure that is full of surprises.


More Summer Stories --
Charlie Joe Jackson's Guide to Summer Vacation by Tommy Greenwald
The Forget-Me-Not Summer by Leila Howland
Melonhead and the Big Stink by Katy Kelly
Morgy's Musical Summer by Maggie Lewis
Summer According to Humphrey by Betty G. Birney
The Summer Experiment  by Cathie Pelletier
Summer of the War by Gloria Whelan
Summer with Elisa by Johanna Hurwitz
Thimble Summer by Elizabeth Enright
When My Sister Started Kissing by Helen Frost


Check these books out on display at the Arnold Branch through July 7, 2017.

NIchijou: My Ordinary Life by Keiichi Arawi

Their school is just like yours -- except for the robot student built by a mad scientist.

They deal with normal problems like forgetting their homework -- except for the rogue deer fought off by the principal.

Yes, their school life is just like yours . . .





This manga series is a collection of short episodes in the life of several students at an "ordinary" Japanese high school.  The humorous stories are appropriate for all ages and would be a good pick for younger manga readers.

Build a Better World -- READ!

This summer's reading program theme is "Build a Better World".  So this week, I'm sharing some great picture books that fit the construction theme for the summer . . .

Ready, Set, Build! by Meg Fleming
Children follow a busy dog builder as he sketches and plans his house, clears rubble to make space, and gets to work digging, lifting, and sawing. 

Go! Go! Go! Stop! by Charise Mericle Harper
Little Green only knows one word: 'Go!' It's the perfect thing to get the construction site moving, but how will they stop?

Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale
A collection of concrete poetry, illustrations, and photographs that shows how young children's constructions, created as they play, are reflected in notable works of architecture from around the world.

The Construction Crew by Lynn Meltzer
A construction crew tears down an old building and builds a new house in its place.

 Iron Horses by Verla Kay
Illustrations and simple rhyming text depict the race to construct railroads across the country during the second half of the nineteenth century.


More Construction Books --
Billions of Bricks by Kurt Cyrus
Build, Dogs, Build: A Tall Tail by James Horvath
Busy Builders, Busy Week! by Jean Reidy
Dig! by Andrea Zimmerman
The Diggers Are Coming! by Susan Steggall
Franklin's Big Dreams by David Teague
Hard Hat Area by Susan L. Roth
Henry Builds a Cabin by D.B. Johnson
The House in the Meadow by Shutta Crum
The House on Dirty-Third Street by Jo Kittinger
If I Built a Car by Chris Van Dusen
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
Nelly Gnu and Daddy Too by Anna Dewdney
The Night Worker by Kate Banks
Rex Wrecks It! by Ben Clanton
Road Work Ahead by Anastasia Suen
Sky Boys: How They Built the Empire State Building by Deborah Hopkinson
Who Swings the Wrecking Ball? Working on a Construction Site by Mary Meinking

Check out these and more construction picture books on display at the Arnold Branch through June 30, 2017.

Out of This World Tales

Today, I'm sharing some "Out of This World" stories for teens.  These books all feature either characters that are aliens or settings from outer space.  Here a few of my favorites . . . .

Survival Colony 9 by Joshua David Bellin
Querry Genn, a member of one of the last human survivor groups following global war, is targeted by the monstrous Skaldi, although Querry has no memory of why.

Mothership by Martin Leicht & Isla Neal
In 2074, while attending the Hanover School for Expecting Teen Mothers aboard an earth-orbiting spaceship, sixteen-year-old Elvie finds herself in the middle of an alien race war and makes a startling discovery about her pregnancy.

Losers in Space by John Barnes
In 2029, hoping to bypass the exams and training that might lead to a comfortable life, Susan, her almost-boyfriend Derlock, and seven fellow students stow away on a ship to Mars, unaware that Derlock is a sociopath with bigger plans.

Tin Star by Cecil Castelucci
Beaten and left for dead, fourteen-year-old Tula Bane finds herself abandoned on a space station called Yertina Feray after traveling with the colonist group, Children of Earth.


More Out of This World Tales --
172 Hours on the Moon by Johan Harstad
Apollo's Outcasts by Allen Steele
The Assault by Brian Faulkner
Avalon by Mindee Arnett
The Cage by Megan Shepherd
Dangerous by Shannon Hale
Dover Arising by Karen Bao
The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick
Illuminae by Amie Kaufman & Jay Kristoff
Living Hell by Catherine Jinks
Mars One by John Maberry
The Prom Goer's Interstellar Excursion by Chris McCoy
Spacer and Rat by Magaret Bechard
Starflight by Melissa Landers
We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson

Check these books out on display at the Arnold Branch through June 23, 2017.

Camp Half-Blood Confidential: Your (Real) Guide to the Demigod Training Camp by Rick Riordan

Are you new to Camp Half-Blood?  Looking for a handy guide to familiarize yourself with the camp?

Then read this guidebook written by the demigods who come to Camp Half-Blood.  You'll enjoy descriptive entries on the locations throughout the camp as well as humorous stories about the camp's activities and campers.

This is a must read for anyone who's enjoyed the Percy Jackson stories.

Stories from the Farm

I have found that even though we are located in a semi-rural area, that a lot of children that visit our library are unfamiliar with farms and farm life.  So this week, I am sharing some children's books about life on a farm . . . .

Chicken Feathers by Joy Cowley
Relates the story of the summer Josh spends while his mother is in the hospital awaiting the birth of his baby sister, and his pet chicken Semolina, who talks but only to him, is almost killed by a red fox.

Barn Boot Blues by Catherine Friends
When her parents swap urban life in Minneapolis for rural life on a farm 100 miles away, twelve-year-old Taylor feels as if she is living on another planet.

Out of the Dust by  Karen Hesse
In a series of poems, fifteen-year-old Billie Jo relates the hardships of living on her family's wheat farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl years of the Depression.

The Golden Goose by Dick King-Smith
Farmer Skint and his family on Woebegone Farm have fallen on hard times, but their luck changes with the arrival of a special golden goose.

Alida's Song by Gary Paulsen
A fourteen-year-old boy who has been neglected by irresponsible parents spends a wonderful summer on a farm where his grandmother cooks for two elderly brothers.


More Farm Stories --
Anna on the Farm by Mary Downing Hahn
The Barn by Avi
The Beef Princess of Practical County by Michelle Houts
Centaur Rising by Jane Yolen
Dragonsdale by Salamanda Drake
Drizzle by Katherine Van Cleve
Fat & Bones by Larissa Theule
Forty Acres and Maybe a Mule by Harriett Gillem Robinet
A Gathering of Days by Joan W. Blos
Jimmy Dabble by Frans Vischer
McBroom's Wonderful One-Acre Farm by Sid Fleischman
R My Name is Rachel by Patricia Reilly Giff
Simeon's Fire by Cathryn Clinton
A Tough Nut to Crack by Tom Birdseye
Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher


Check these books out on display at the Arnold Branch through June 16, 2017.