SBPL Teen Services Staff Picks

 I have decided to share some old & new stories full of adventure in order to encourage you (teens) to read more and perhaps join your library's teen summer reading program (I know ours is pretty awesome, you should try it). Here we go: This is still a favorite of mine, due to its unique combination of short story format and a magical mystery to solve.  In each story, a person is trying to figure out who killed the terrible, awful, racist, (he hates everyone really, but especially minorities, and gays, and girls, and anyone disabled....you get it). No one liked him, but each character longs to solve the mystery and prove themselves to be "the chosen one" for their own reasons.  In between the stories are small notes/clues/extras for the reader to join the stories together but also to spill more light onto the truth.  This is an amazing book, and I really wish there were more like it.   This is a space story (and a love story) that is truly unique; as you are dropped h

  I read A Drop of Venom because I was sucked in by the cover (it IS very entrancing!) but was even more excited to read it once I read the blurb about the content.  Patel's story combines Indian fables & folk tale elements along with her own exploration of the story of Medusa.  The combination of Naga (snake people) and Medusa (snake hair) ideas seems so....obvious that it seemed like someone should have written this; and I'm so glad Sajni Patel did. I must warn you, this is a dark and intense story, even if there is a love story attached to it.  Manisha and Pratyush have not had good lives, and even if their story is sweet; it quickly takes a terrible turn.  This story was so well done and is so full of adventure that I loved it, but I did cry at the tragic parts.  This is a new book, just out this year and you should definitely try it; but you probably should be in high school due to the content. This isn't a new book, but I re-read it for a book club and decided to

  This cool, creepy cover DEMANDED to be read, and I'm so glad I grabbed it.  Jackson writes a creepy thriller about a young man who is given asylum from false charges (which no one believes are false) and offered a fresh start at an exclusive boarding school.  The catch?  Well, things are weird...like Douglas keeps hearing the forest talking to him, and things like that....but the tipping point is when someone dies, he sees them die...and suddenly no one remembers that the dead person ever existed.  Douglas teams up with the groundskeeper's son, Everett in an effort to figure out and stop whatever is happening....but the odds are stacked against them. I love the way Jackson plays out the plot, seasoning it with little creepy bits of history, tiny acknowledgements of racism, classism, and homophobia to make things seem even more insurmountable, then showing how Douglas handles it and rises.  This is a really good horror/thriller story with terrible, warped creatures coming out

  Kwame Alexander is a powerful writer.  He knows the exact words to use, which is why, I think, he writes in verse so much....he doesn't need the extra words to make you see his vision.  In The Door of No Return, Alexander paints a picture of Kofi.  A boy from the village of Upper Kwanta who dreams of a girl; has visions of being the best at something so he can make his parents and village proud; at overpowering his cousin who bullies him.....variations of a life that have been seen time after time in many places.  He could have had those things, but instead something terrible happens and he ends up captured and on a boat, trapped with so many others...   What makes this story so compelling is that Alexander shows us Kofi, his sweetness, his bitterness, his love and sorrow and then shows us the moment everything changes.  This is a beautiful and sorrowful tale that leaves you hopeful for Kofi, even if you know that for others, it was the start of a new and horrible life. I don'

What Stalks Among Us is an absolutely fascinating thriller of a story.  Two high school seniors skip a field trip to an amusement park to go off on their own, find a corn maze and enter it because...why not?  The problem?  Now that they are in the maze, they can't get out....and how do they know that?  Because they keep finding dead bodies, and some of them are their own.....which means they have BEEN trying to get out.  What makes this extra awesome is the backstory of why the maze exists and the how of solving the puzzle as well as the delicate dance of actually making it work.  Hollowell does a fabulous job of dropping clues (and bodies) while maintaining a line of tension that really keeps the reader engaged.  I could not stop until I finished....so good! For those who love horror but not gore, this is an excellent option. Mascot is not only a story about students asking for the removal of a racist mascot, but is also a story about the students on both sides and why they are th

  She is a Haunting not only has an amazingly spooky cover but it's a psychological thriller that leaves the reader constantly wondering what is real.  Tran writes a story that grabs hold and doesn't let go.  I don't want to say too much, but essentially the house the main character is staying at with her father in Vietnam is either VERY haunted or she is being fed hallucinogens (maybe both?).   Thornhill is a spooky ghost story, which alternates between modern times and the past; both explaining why the house is haunted as well as showing what is happening because of the haunting to the family living there now. This creepy tale is told in both prose and picture adding to the atmosphere. Malice is another story told in both verse and picture.  In this book the reader is introduced to the world of Malice, where children can be trapped and hunted; while others read about it in an exclusive secret graphic novel.  What happens when a couple of kids decide to stop the madness an