You Are Here by Jennifer E. Smith

Emma has always felt like something is missing -- that she doesn't fit into her family.  Then she finds out she had a twin brother who died right after birth.

Peter has always wanted to travel the world -- see new places.  He's never gotten the chance as his father is determined to keep them both in their small town forever.

Now they're on a road trip together.  Emma wants to find the brother she never knew and convinces Peter to go with her to find his grave.

I really enjoyed this book.  I liked the relationships between the various characters and how they change throughout the story.  I would recommend this to fans of Sarah Dessen or Morgan Matson.

Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories edited by Stephanie Perkins

This short story anthology of romance stories for teens is the sequel to My True Love Gave To Me: Twelve Holiday Stories, also edited by Stephanie Perkins.  The twelve short romance stories are written by some of the top authors in teen literature right now.  Here are a few of my favorite stories in the book . . . .

Head, Scales, Tongue, Tail by Leigh Bardugo
Gracie and Eli spend several summers searching for the answers about the sea monster she once saw in Little Spindle Lake.

The End of Love by Nina LaCour
Flora spends the summer auditing a high school geometry class and reconnecting with some old friends.

A Thousand Ways This Could All Go Wrong by Jennifer E. Smith
Annie and Griffin attempt a first date while she learns how to work with an autistic child in her summer camp group.

In Ninety Minutes, Turn North by Stephanie Perkins
In this sequel to a short story in My True Love Gave to Me, Marigold attempts to get North to consider moving to Atlanta with her for college.

Health Is Not Valued 'Til Sickness Comes

This week, I am sharing teen novels featuring stories about illness.  Grab the kleenexes before reading these books . . . .

The Comeback Season by Jennifer E. Smith
High school freshman Ryan Walsh, a Chicago Cubs fan, meets Nick when they both skip school on opening day, and their blossoming relationship becomes difficult for Ryan when she discovers that Nick is seriously ill and she again feels the pain of losing her father five years earlier.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray
Cameron Smith, a disaffected sixteen year-old who, after being diagnosed with Creutzfeld Jakob's (aka mad cow) disease, sets off on a road trip with a death-obsessed video gaming dwarf he meets in the hospital in an attempt to find a cure.

Deadline by Chris Crutcher
Given the medical diagnosis of one year to live, high school senior Ben Wolf decides to fulfill his greatest fantasies, ponders his life's purpose and legacy, and converses through dreams with a spiritual guide known as "Hey-Soos."

Kira-Kira by Cynthia Kadohata
Chronicles the close friendship between two Japanese-American sisters growing up in rural Georgia during the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the despair when one sister becomes terminally ill.

Pieces of Me by Amber Kizer
After a car accident leaves her brain-dead, Jessica tries to prevent her parents from donating her organs and tissues, but then follows the lives of four fellow teens who are able to survive because she did not.


More Books --
After Ever After by Jordan Sonnenblick
The Brilliant Light of Amber Sunrise by Matthew Crow
Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon
Extraordinary Means by Robyn Schneider
Fever, 1793 by Laurie Halse Anderson
First Love by James Patterson
Hold Me Like a Breath by Tiffany Schmidt
Life In a Fishbowl by Len Vlahos
The Loose Ends List by Carrie Firestone
Lovely, Dark, and Deep by Justina Chen
Me & Earl & the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews
The Probability of Miracles by Wendy Wunder
Second Chance Summer by Morgan Matson
Somebody Up There Hates You by Hollis Seamon
Zac & Mia by A.J. Betts

Check these books out on display at the Arnold Branch through April 26. 2019.

Windfall by Jennifer E. Smith

Alice has been best friends with Teddy and Leo for the past nine years -- ever since she came to live in Chicago after her parents' deaths.  For the past four years, she's been in love with Teddy.  She's been too scared to let anyone know about this -- not even Teddy. 

Then for Teddy's 18th birthday, Alice buys him a lottery ticket that changes all of their lives.





This is a great rags to riches story that focuses more on the effects of the lottery win to the people in the winner's life than to the winner itself.  I would highly recommend this book to fans of Jennifer E. Smith, Sarah Dessen, and Morgan Matson.

Truly, Madly in Love

As Valentine's Day is coming up, I thought this week I would share some of my favorite teen romances . . .

The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
Sparks fly when sixteen-year-old Lucy Patterson and seventeen-year-old Owen Buckley meet on an elevator rendered useless by a New York City blackout. Soon after, the two teenagers leave the city, but as they travel farther away from each other geographically, they stay connected emotionally, in this story set over the course of one year.

Jekel Loves Hyde by Beth Fantaskey
As seventeen-year-old Jill Jekel and classmate Tristen Hyde work together on a chemistry project, hoping to win a scholarship for her and a cure for his curse, they also uncover family secrets and a chemistry of their own.

Psyche in a Dress by Francesca Lia Block
A young woman, Psyche, searches for her lost love and questions her true self in a modern retelling of Greek myths.

Things I Know About Love by Kate Le Vann
Seventeen-year-old Livia Stowe travels from England to Princeton, New Jersey, to visit her brother who is studying there and to celebrate her recovery from a year-long struggle with leukemia, and while she is there she writes a blog about her experiences, which include falling in love.


More Teen Romances --
After the Moment by Garrett Freymann-Weyr
Bright Lights, Dark Nights by Stephen Emond
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Enchanted by Alethea Kontis
If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo
Little & Lion by Brandy Colbert
A Little in Love by Susan E. Fletcher
Love by the Morning Star by Laura L. Sullivan
The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich
The Lovely Reckless by Kami Garcia
The One Memory of Flora Banks by Emily Barr
Openly Straight by Ben Konigsberg
Ronit & Jamil by Pamela L. Laskin
September Girls by Bennett Madison
Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli
Something Like Fate by Susane Colasanti
Suffer Love by Ashley Herring Blake
That Inevitable Victorian Thing by E.K. Johnston
Through to You by Emily Hainsworth
Unlovely by Celeste Conway
The Weight of Feathers by Anna-Marie McLemore


Check these books out on display at the Arnold Branch through March 2, 2018.

Shhhh! It's a Secret!

This week we are focusing on teen books that contain plots hinging on secrets and lies . . . .

Freakling by Lana Krumwiede
After a traumatic accident removes his telekinetic ability, or psy, twelve-year-old Taemon is exiled to the "dud farm," where he is surprised to find kind, open people who enjoy using their hands but there are also mysteries at the colony and when Taemon unwittingly leaks one of the secrets he must find the courage to repair the damage, even if it means returning to the city from which he was banished.

The Miles Between by Mary Pearson
Seventeen-year-old Destiny keeps a painful childhood secret all to herself until she and three classmates from her exclusive boarding school take off on an unauthorized road trip in search of "one fair day."

This Is What Happy Looks Like by Jennifer E. Smith
Perfect strangers Graham Larkin and Ellie O'Neill meet online when Graham accidentally sends Ellie an e-mail about his pet pig, Wilbur. The two 17-year-olds strike up an e-mail relationship from opposite sides of the country and don't even know each other's first names. What's more, Ellie doesn't know Graham is a famous actor, and Graham doesn't know about the big secret in Ellie's family tree. When the relationship goes from online to in-person, they find out whether their relationship can be the real thing.

Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents.

Jasper Jones by Craig Silvey
In small-town Australia, teens Jasper and Charlie form an unlikely friendship when one asks the other to help him cover up a murder until they can prove who is responsible.


More Secrets & Lies --
34 Pieces of You by Carmen Rodrigues
After the End by Amy Plum
Before Wings by Beth Goobie
Chime by Franny Billingsley
Crash Into You by Katie McGarry
Crushed by Laura McNeal
The Night My Sister Went Missing by Carol Plum-Ucci
Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King
The Safe-Keeper's Secret by Sharon Shinn
Sea Change by Aimee Friedmann
September Girls by Bennett Madison
Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
There Will Be Lies by Nick Lake
The Truth Commission by Susan Juby
V Is for Villain by Peter Moore
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell

Check out these books on display through July 1, 2016.

Weather Gone Wild!

This November, the country's weather is being affected by El Nino.  We're experiencing above normal temperatures for the month.  Weather is a topic that continually interesting -- whether talking about the day's weather, freak storms from the past, or upcoming possible snow storms that will cancel school.  Today I'm sharing chapter books featuring wild weather . . .

The Storm Makers by Jennifer E. Smith
Twelve-year-olds Ruby and Simon have been growing apart since their parents moved them to a Wisconsin farm, but weird weather events that seem tied to Simon's emotions bring a stranger into their lives who introduces them to the Makers of Storms Society,strengthening the bond between the twins.

Blizzard's Wake by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
In March of 1941, when a severe blizzard suddenly hits Bismarck, North Dakota, a girl trying to save her stranded father and brother inadvertently helps the man who killed her mother four years before.

Ninth Ward by Jewell Rhodes
In New Orleans' Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no choice but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina bears down upon them.

The Lightning Catcher by Anne Cameron
When eleven-year-old Angus McFangus learns that he is a storm prophet, someone who can predict and control catastrophic weather, he must stop the villainous Scabious Dankhart from unleashing an unending storm and achieving world domination.

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.


More Wild Weather Stories --
Anna's Blizzard by Alison Hart
Blown Away! by Joan Harlow
The Book of Storms by Ruth Hatfield
The Buddha's Diamonds by Carolyn Marsden
Hurricane by Terry Trueman
The Maloney's Magical Weatherbox by Nigel Quinlan
Saint Louis Armstrong Beach by Brenda Woods
Treasures in the Dust by Tracey Porter
The Voyage of the Frog by Gary Paulsen
Where the Four Winds Blow by Dan Yaccrino


Check out these books on display at the Arnold Branch through November 20, 2015.