Staff Picks
October 2021
The Girl in the Headlines
by Hannah Jayne
Eighteen-year-old Andrea lives a comfortable, suburban life. Except that she is the number one suspect in her father’s murder, the horrific attack of her mother, and the disappearance of her little brother. Andrea has no recollection of the night these events took place, but she knows she would never hurt her family. From the motel room where she was dumped, Andrea must find her missing little brother, while avoiding the police and trying to piece together a night she cannot remember. Was she set up? If so, by who and why? Could she have snapped? How did she get to the motel room? Is there a reason she cannot remember? So many questions that all eventually get pieced together. This book will keep you interested and wanting to read one more chapter.
This book is available in the library and on Hoopla as an ebook.
Recommended by: Malorie Carpenter, Youth Services Assistant
Posted in: Young Adult Fiction
The Lincoln Highway
by Amor Towles
An incredible read by the author of A Man in Moscow. In June, 1954, Emmett is released from a work farm ready to pick up his little brother, Billy, and head to California to restart his life. Unknown to him, Duchess and Woolly, a fast talker and a neurodivergent, have hidden themselves in the trunk. Soon, they find themselves heading to New York City instead for various spoken and unspoken reasons. The subplots are deftly woven together to make a story that covers a variety of human emotions, wants, and needs.
This book is available in the library and on OverDrive/Libby as an ebook and e audiobook.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Adult 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
Efren Divided
by Ernesto Cisneros
When Efren’s mother is deported to Mexico, his father works two jobs to earn money to bring his mother back. Seventh grader Efren becomes the main caretaker of his five-year-old twin siblings. As his grades begin to suffer, he decides to confide in his teacher.
This book is available on the library and on OverDrive/Libby as an ebook and e audiobook.
Recommended by: Becky McCormack, Youth Services Assistant Manager
Dragon Hoops
by Gene Luen Yang
Yang alternately describes the history of basketball and the story of the Bishop O’Dowd Dragons, a high school boys’ basketball team in Oakland, CA. This graphic novel depicts the difficulties in the team’s drive to win the state basketball championship.
The book is available in the library and on OverDrvie and as ebook.
Recommended by: Becky McCormack, Youth Services Assistant Manager
Posted in: Youth Fiction
Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish
by Pablo Cartaya
Marcus is facing suspension from eighth grade after he punches a kid at school. His mother decides to take him and his brother to Puerto Rico to visit some relatives and have a change of scenery. Marcus, however, is determined to reconnect with the father who left them behind ten years ago.
Recommended by: Becky McCormack, Youth Services Assistant Manager
Posted in: Young Adult Fiction
The Violent Season
by Sara Walters
A debut young adult novel that keeps the heart rate and interest up through the entire book. Wolf Ridge, Vermont is a little town where every November violent deaths happen. Is it bad luck, a sickness, or people choosing to be bad?
After the murder of Wyatt’s mother the previous November, she decides to get to the causes of the killings and specifically who is her mother’s murderer. Along with high school angst involving Cash, her best friend forever, and a new love interest in Porter, Wyatt begins confronting the memories of that day.
Recommended by: Joan Stoiber, Youth Services Reference Librarian I
Posted in: Young Adult Fiction