SBPL Teen Services Staff Picks

 It's always fun to share the hot, new titles and chat about them, but it's also nice to revisit old favorites.  This month, I wanted to share some of my old favs, maybe encourage you to try something that is awesome but fell off the radar of "hot reads" in recent times. The Keys to the Kingdom series is REALLY cool, and one of my favorites.  It mixes action/adventure with fantasy fiction with a bit of creepy for flavor.  In the first book, Mister Monday, we meet Arthur who is having a bad day.  He forgot to bring a doctor's note and has to participate in a run for P.E.; however, his asthma quickly acts up & he collapses.  While he is struggling for breath, a strange old man appears out of nowhere and hands him a clock hand, and magically he can breathe again.  The old man seems very startled when Arthur isn't dying but is healed and disappears....and now Arthur can see strange things that he never noticed before.  When a strange sleeping sick...

 I started and stopped a lot of books this month, then decided the best way to handle my lack of focus was to read some collections of short stories and a book of poetry/memoir.  Here's what I found.   FYI, we have a short story list for teens on our website  https://sbpl.info/book-lists/teen-short-stories/ Feel free to read & explore! 10 teen authors pick some well known romantic tropes and write their own version.  The cover indicates the stories are "transformed" but not everyone did that....some changed them, some inverted them, some just changed the narrative from the traditional "white, anglo-saxon heterosexual couple" viewpoint which altered the trope into a different story or just a different side of the story to view it from. I quite enjoyed this collection, you should try it. I am always down for a retold or twisted fairy tale.  This one has a creepier vibe (which is awesome!).  If you aren't sure if you enjoy scary stories, short st...

  I love a good horror story, and this one had so much hype that I was excited to read it.  And it was a good book; however, it definitely wasn't perfect.  The author obviously drew a lot of inspiration from Stephen King's Carrie (which isn't really credited beyond a "thank you for writing amazing books" note to King), and she did make her own twist on the situation basing it on racism.  I would say she eliminated the religious zealotry of the King novel, but she didn't; simply used it in a different way.  The purity culture was warped and twisted so that "whiteness" equaled purity, in addition to being perfect.  I did enjoy this book, but wish the powers were explored more or that we had gotten deeper into the character's minds.  Read it and tell me what you think? I wasn't sure about this book, mostly because Deaver has created a main character who truly is pretty awful....which makes it difficult to root for their happiness.  The "fak...

  Vicky has crippling social anxiety.  She can't even say hi to her classmates and is sure everyone hates her.  She is pushed to join the yearbook club by a guidance counselor, and finds that even if it's difficult, she can be a part of it while still being in the background.  She is really good at photo editing so she focuses on that.  Vicky's only friend has moved away, and when her friend accidentally dials her and Vicky hears her talking about her badly, she is devastated.  She wishes she could be more like "those people", and starts an Instagram account called Vicurious where she inserts herself through photoshop into various pics.  Everyone knows she isn't actually there (concerts that happened before she was born, red carpet premieres, fun parties) but she is having fun and somehow it catches on and goes viral.  Now Vicky is famous, but not really....and she has no idea how to handle that or how to actually confront her issues and be with r...

  This road trip book was interesting and I did enjoy watching the family dynamics as 3 cousins (each for their own reasons) accompany each other on a road trip across country.  The intersections & tensions make sense, as family doesn't always agree and the fact that the death of their grandmother is a catalyst makes the reader understand each person's why & how they are handling their grief.  My only issue is that it's ending is a bit too neat & tidy (don't want to spoil the ending but.....yeah, it's a messy thing you see coming and it is POOF! magically all better.....and life doesn't work that way).  I recommend you trying it and let me know if you agree or not.  I love a good scary story, and this was fun.  The premise is that Alex doesn't get accepted to film school and her friends start a Go-Fund-Me to help her reapply with a better film.  An anonymous donation gives her almost a million dollars, and a retired film star offers free us...

  Hazard is a short book with some deep thoughts.... The basic premise is that Hazard is being forced to go to a therapist because of something that happened at football practice.  The book is all from Hazard's POV, and alternates between emails to his therapist and his own memories of various events.  It is quickly apparent to the reader that Hazard has some issues relating to his father's hospitalization, his mother's apparent abandonment (she's at the hospital with his father) and struggling to figure himself out.....as well as the whole toxicity that surrounds "being a man"...... This book felt a bit quick in places, like it jumped over some big things with just a quick mention; but overall, it works. It is quickly becoming apparent to me that Khorram is going to be an author I ALWAYS need to read because I will adore the book. In Kiss & Tell, we are following the "gay boy" of boy band Kiss & Tell as he and his friends tour and explode in...

  I didn't expect to like this book as much as I did.  I honestly tried it based on random "you should read this" remarks I had seen around, but fully expected it to be the same old story with new faces.....but it wasn't.   Skye enters a contest competing in a K-Pop competition aired on Korean TV.  She decides to compete both as a singer and a dancer, fully confident in her abilities; however, she is unsurprised to find that many doubt her dance abilities based on her weight, and even in the singing portion, she is questioned about "being willing to lose weight in order to be more attractive to an audience".  Skye has struggled to build her self esteem, and refuses to let anyone take that from her or to apologize for who she is, but she is still human and it is not easy being the focus of so much attention.  Adding to the attention is that infamous celebrity, Henry Cho, is also competing.  Of course she finds him attractive, but what I love is tha...