Recommended Reads

The twelve kids in the seventh grade at Fawn Creek K-12 have been together all their lives so when graceful Orchid Mason arrives, with exotic clothes and glorious hair, the other seventh graders do not know what to think.

Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can't wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. She's desperate to finish high school and escape her sad divorced mom, her volatile little brother, and worst of all, her great group of friends...who don't understand Morgan at all. Because really, Morgan's biggest secret is that she has a lot of secrets, including the one about wanting to kiss another girl. Then one night, Morgan is saved from drowning by a mysterious girl named Keltie. The two become friends and suddenly life on the island doesn't seem so stifling anymore. But Keltie has some secrets of her own. And as the girls start to fall in love, everything they're each trying to hide will find its way to the surface...whether Morgan is ready or not.

An inspirational nonfiction novel-in-verse about Zhanna Arshanskaya, a young Ukrainian Jewish girl using the alias Anna, whose phenomenal piano-playing skills saved her life and the life of her sister, Frina, during the Holocaust--from award-winning author Susan Hood, with Zhanna's son, Greg Dawson

The memoir of Wade Hudson, a Black man and Civil Rights activist who came of age in the 1960s at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.

An anthology featuring over thirty Black authors and illustrators to honor Black life past, present, and future

A biography in verse and prose of science fiction visionary Octavia Butler. Acclaimed novelist Ibi Zoboi illuminates the young life of the visionary storyteller Octavia E. Butler in poems and prose. Born into the Space Race, the Red Scare, and the dawning Civil Rights Movement, Butler expereinced an American childhood that shaped her into the groundbreaking science-fiction storyteller whose novels continue to challenge and delight readers fifteen years after her death.

Every year, in the magical town of Ravenskill, Witchlings who participate in the Black Moon Ceremony are placed into covens and come into their powers as full-fledged witches. And twelve-year-old Seven Salazar can't wait to be placed in the most powerful coven with her best friend! But on the night of the ceremony, in front of the entire town, Seven isn't placed in one of the five covens. She's a Spare! Spare covens have fewer witches, are less powerful, and are looked down on by everyone. Even worse, when Seven and the other two Spares perform the magic circle to seal their coven and cement themselves as sisters, it doesn't work! They're stuck as Witchlings and will lose their magic. Seven invokes her only option: the impossible task. The three Spares will be assigned an impossible task: If they work together and succeed at it, their coven will be sealed and they'll gain their full powers. If they fail... Well, the last coven to make the attempt ended up being turned into toads. Forever. But maybe friendship can be the most powerful magic of all.

Eleven-year-old Miranium's summer is going down hill fast: her best friend, Thomas, has moved away, her know-it-all nemesis, Tamika, has moved too near for comfort, her parents are stressed since her father has lost his job, she has just blown up the microwave with an ill advised experiment (destroying her own cellphone in the process), and worst of all her beloved cat, Sir Fig Newton, has developed diabetes; there is no money for his medical care, and her parents want to re-home him--but Mira is determined to raise the money somehow even if it means turning to Tamika for help.

Seventh-grader Charley Decker's mother is on vacation with her boyfriend, and Charley plans to spend the weekend watching movies with her best friends Wade and Oona and her older brother, Greg; but Greg has a date and takes their mother's boyfriend's expensive, rare automobile, than manages to get it towed; Charley and her friends hatch a plan to get the car back--but things go seriously wrong when they discover somebody called Mitch hiding from a pair of scary dudes in the trunk of the car, and the three friends find themselves on the wildest ride of their lives.

When the electricity goes out, twelve-year-old Eddie and his friends set out to investigate what is going on when they make the startling discovery that they are the only ones left in their neighborhood--and perhaps the only people left anywhere.