Staff Picks Youth
December 2021
Under My Hijab
by Hena Khan
Have you ever wondered how to explain hijab (the head scarf) to little children or even adults ? Have you ever wondered if a Muslim woman who wears a hijab can be stylish and dye her hair pink like auntie in the story? Have you ever wondered if a Muslim woman who wears a Hijab can play sports?
Posted in: Youth Fiction
Cat Kid Comic Club: Perspective
by Dave Pilkey
In the second graphic novel, the Comic Club characters are back once again and in the classroom with twenty-one baby frogs where everyone has their perspective about things. Naomi and Melvin disagree and disrupt the class and Poppy sees the world differently than her siblings. Each chapter has a different story told by one of the characters. As Pilkey teaches real life lessons on how to get along with different perspectives, he also teaches the reader how to draw perspectives and write a story.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Youth Fiction
November 2021
Long Distance
by Whitney Gardner
A graphic novel which starts with Vega’s dads deciding to move to Seattle from Portland, so she has to leave her BFF behind. Then her dads decide to send her to summer camp where she can work on making new friends. Her steps in the process are the titles of the chapters. When her cellphone quits and things at camp get stranger and stranger, Vega has to team up with her fellow campers to figure out what’s going on! What is going on is nothing ordinary and out of this world.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Youth Fiction
The List of Things That Will Not Change
by Rebecca Stead
Bea’s parents have divorced and, as Bea navigates living in two separate places, her father announces he’s remarrying. Part of the remarriage comes with a new sister for Bea which she’s thrilled about since she’s an only child. As the wedding gets closer, Bea realizes that blending a new family isn’t always as easy as it appears.
This book is available in the library and on OverDrive/Libby as an ebook and e audiobook.
Recommended by: Becky McCormack, Youth Services Assistant Manager
Posted in: Youth Fiction
October 2021
Set Me Free
by Ann Clare LeZotte
Mary Lambert loves her island home on Martha’s Vineyard in the early 1800s, but she’s eager to explore beyond her comfort zone. When she gets a letter from a past acquaintance asking for her help, Mary knows this is the adventure she’s been waiting for. Mary, like many people in her hometown, is deaf. Everyone in her town uses sign language, and now it will be Mary’s job to teach a young girl how to use sign language as well. But when Mary arrives and discovers her young pupil is a prisoner in the house, she does everything she can to help the young girl escape. A companion book to LeZotte’s first book, Show Me a Sign, Set Me Free is a historical drama, mystery, and adventure mixed into one story.
Recommended by: Stephanie Thomas, Youth Services Preschool Services Coordinator
Posted in: Youth Fiction
Sir Simon: Super Scarer
by Cale Atkinson
Simon the ghost got transferred to his first ever haunted house. He is a professional scarer, but he knows a haunted house comes with a lot of ghost chores. Like many of us, Simon wishes he had more time for other things he also enjoys. When a new family moves in, he seizes the opportunity to trick little Chester into doing his ghost chores. After getting to know Chester better, he realizes how much they have in common and how he’s not being fair. Sir Simon Spookington experiences the feeling of empathy and a new beautiful friendship is born. A super scarer duo of “ghotests with the mostests”. Cale Atkinson’s illustrations are captivating. Both kids and adults will truly appreciate the wittiness of the storyline, as well as the hilarious and authentic expressions on the characters.
Recommended by: Fanny Camargo, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Youth Fiction
The Raven Heir
by Stephanie Burgis
A fast-paced fantasy story where triplets Cordelia, Giles, and Rosiland have lived in an enchanted forest with their sorceress mother in order to be saved from claiming the Raven throne. The mother refuses to tell which triplet was born first. When the barons and their knights break through the protection, Cordelia must use her shape shifting abilities and her new found connection to the desolate landscape to save not only her family but the earth itself.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Youth Fiction
The Edge of Strange Hollow
by Gabrielle K. Byrne
A fantasy book where Poppy Sunshine, though well protected and banned from entering the Grimwood, a place where shapeshifters and fairies and other magical creatures live, decides she must go there after her parents disappear in it searching for magical objects. She and her friends, Mack and Nula, leave Strange Hollow willing to break every rule to save them. The never-ending deadly dangers in the forest include thorn trees, trolls, unicorns, Valkyries, and in the middle the Holly Oak, which just might hold the key to the Grimwood’s mysteries. What is it about the Grimwood that pulls Poppy to enter the forest where she feels she can finally breathe? And who are really the “monsters”?
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Youth Fiction
A Thousand Questions
by Saadia Faruqi
Maryam, aka Mimi, travels to Pakistan with her mother to meet her maternal grandparents. Her American father, who is divorced from her mother, is working in the same town she’s visiting. With the help of the servant girl, Sakina, who Mimi has befriended, she attempts to reconnect with her father.
Recommended by: Becky McCormack, Youth Services Assistant Manager
Posted in: Youth Fiction
Ground Zero
by Alan Gratz
Two stories are told in alternating chapters. In one, Brandon is caught in one of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. In the other, Reshmina is struggling with her twin brother who wants to join the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2019.
Recommended by: Becky McCormack, Youth Services Assistant Manager
Posted in: Youth Fiction