Staff Picks Youth Fiction
October 2020
The Little Blue Cottage
by Kelly Jordan
Similar to The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, this is an updated version with multi-ethnic family members who come to the cottage year after year in the summer. Both the house and the little girl look forward to being together. The little girl enjoys the outside and her special nook. Years go by and the girl does not return even though the cottage keeps waiting and falls into ruin. When the little girl does return, she is grown up with her own family. The cottage is restored and more memories are created with the new little girl.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian 1
Posted in: Youth Fiction
September 2020
Escape Goat
by Ann Patchett
An amusing picture book where the goat is the scapegoat, as every time he escapes from his enclosure, everyone in the family blames him for the things that they did wrong. Ranging from burning the pies to putting gum under the chair, the goat is blamed. Only Nicolette, Mr. Farmer’s daughter, tries to speak up for the goat as the fence for his enclosure goes up and up to try and keep him in.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Youth Fiction
The Forgotten Girl
by India Hill Brown
Iris and Daniel are best friends. After they discover a neglected grave in an unknown cemetery, weird things begin to happen. As they investigate further, they find out the grave is part of a segregated cemetery from back when White and Black people were buried separately. Make sure it’s not dark out when you read this eerie ghost story. Also available on Hoopla.
Recommended by: Becky McCormack, Youth Services Assistant Manager
Posted in: Youth Fiction
We Dream of Space
by Erin Entrada Kelly
From the Newbery winner of Hello, Universe comes another pitch-perfect book for middle grades. Cash, Fitch, and Bird are siblings in seventh grade together in 1986. Each are rotating around each other in their own world. Cash may fail seventh grade again. Fitch has anger issues. Bird, his twin, wants to become the first female shuttle commander.
All three siblings have the same science teacher, Ms. Salongan, who assigns them to spacecraft crews that must create and complete a mission. This is being done in connection with the real-life launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger. When launch day arrives, it brings changes for all three siblings and new meaning to the phrase “major malfunction”.
Kelly writes the novel in three alternating points of view and has illustrated the book herself. A Today show pick for “25 children’s books your kids and teens won’t be able to put down this summer!” This title is also available on OverDrive.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Youth Fiction
Out of the Wild Night
by Blue Balliett
A ghost story full of action and suspense. In November on the island of Nantucket, Mary W. Chase is woken up from her grave to narrate the story as well as be the Crier to wake up the living and the dead to the present danger. Ghostly footprints come on shore from the ocean one night. The ghosts want to prevent the restoration of old houses, which is destroying the memories and possessions of those who lived before. The children, led by Phee and Gabe, form a group of children to work with the ghosts to prevent the evil developer, Eddy Nold, from destroying the houses in the name of improvement. There are many of spooky scenes throughout the story to keep the reader turning pages. As is Baillett’s style, readers have to think and be alert for clues that she weaves into her story. With a surprising twist at the end, readers will be looking back in the book for those clues. A book that blends the worlds between life and death, memories and love.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Youth Fiction
One Time
by Sharon Creech
Who are you? Who could you be? These are the two questions Gina Filomena ponders the year she is in Miss Lightstone’s class. Labeled as a child with an overactive imagination, Gina befriends her new neighbor, Antonio, in whom she finds a kindred spirit. With the encouragement and guidance of Miss Lightstone, Gina, Antonio, and their classmates discover the wonders of writing. They soon find that writing is not just about telling stories, but also helps them process their world- and there’s a lot going on in Gina’s world. An enormous amount of pasta, porcupines eating licorice, the shenanigans of Angel Lucia, the suddenness of change, the perfection found in words like mangata and komorebi. One Time is a thoughtful read that weaves together imagination, expression, and becoming one’s true self.
Recommended by: Stephanie Thomas, Youth Services Preschool Services Coordinator
Posted in: Youth Fiction
Don’t Turn Out the Lights: A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark
by Jonathan Maberry
Posted in: Youth Fiction
Genesis Begins Again
by Alicia D. Williams
This story begins with Genesis getting evicted from yet another home. What is wrong with her parents? Why can’t they ever stay in one place? As the plot evolves, the reader discovers some of the long-held beliefs on Genesis’ father’s side of the family. Genesis struggles to come to terms with those beliefs and make new friends in yet another new school. Also available on OverDrive.
Recommended by: Becky McCormack, Youth Services Assistant Manager
Posted in: Youth Fiction
Before the Ever After
by Jacqueline Woodson
A powerful novel in verse written by Woodson depicting the range of emotions characters feel as a former football player and father descends into the symptoms of the unknown disease called CTE, chronic traumatic encephalopathy. This degenerative brain disease affects boxers and football players and has led to improvements in football helmets. ZJ has to come to grips that his dad will not get better, may continue to get worse, as his dad’s memory of friends and even ZJ fails. And anger takes the place of memories.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian 1
Posted in: Youth Fiction
Owly: Just a Little Blue
by Andy Runton
Second book in the Owly graphic novel series. Owly and Wormy try to help a bluebird family whose tree has been damaged. The daddy bluebird does not trust Owly and refuses the new house that they built out of their wheelbarrow. The following spring after a huge storm, Owly and Wormy save the baby birds and bring out the tree house once more for the bluebird family. The cute illustrations and sparse text still gets across the meaning of sacrifice, friendship, and trying again to reach out to others.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Youth Fiction