SBPL Teen Services Staff Picks

  I really enjoy Alice Oseman's writing style and this story sounded like fun; and it was.  I was Born for This starts with a fangirl who calls herself Angel (real name Fereshteh) who has just graduated high school and is in London finally meeting her BFF, Juliet with whom she has been friends for years but hasn't actually met in person.  The running off to London isn't something Angel's parents are happy about, but they just don't understand Angel's obsession with the boy band The Ark or how important going to a meet & greet and a concert is to her.  The story alternates POV with Jimmy, who is one of the members of The Ark.  Jimmy is struggling with anxiety, pressure from social media & publicity people to conform to a particular way of being (which adds to the anxiety) as well as his early outing as transgender via an Instagram pic (accidentally showing the testosterone meds) by a bandmate.   I thought that this would be a silly story, but in...

This biographical graphic novel tells the story of what led up to the iconic moment Tommie Smith made at the 1968 Olympics, as well as what happened after that.  This true story is heart-warming and tragic in equal doses, but if you don't learn what happened in history, it will be repeated....and in these challenging times of racism, classism and violence, this is important story and very well told. Do you love a good twisted fairy tale?  Then don't miss Cinderella is Dead.  This takes the idea of the classic fairy tale and turns it into a fantastical dystopic horror story.  In Bayron's story, girls are now required to essentially reenact Cinderella's story, showing up to a ball in a gown and hoping to be selected for marriage by virtue of their beauty (they get no choice in attending or in their marriage options).  Sophia hates the lack of choices as well as the way everyone just follows along, too afraid to dissent.  She is determined to make her own way ...