Young Adult Books

By: Dale Walls (Author), 2023, Hardback

By: Aiden Thomas (Author), 2020, Hardcover

A trans boy determined to prove his gender to his traditional Latinx family summons a ghost who refuses to leave in Aiden Thomas's paranormal YA debut Cemetery Boys.

Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can't get rid of him.

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

However, the ghost he summons is actually Julian Diaz, the school's resident bad boy, and Julian is not about to go quietly into death. He's determined to find out what happened and tie off some loose ends before he leaves. Left with no choice, Yadriel agrees to help Julian, so that they can both get what they want. But the longer Yadriel spends with Julian, the less he wants to let him leave.

By: George M Johnson (Author), 2023, Paperback

New memoir from George M. Johnson, the New York Times bestselling author of All Boys Aren't Blue—a "deeply impactful" (Nic Stone), "striking and joyful" (Laurie Halse Anderson), and "stunning read" (Publishers Weekly, starred) that celebrates Black boyhood and brotherhood in all its glory. 

This is the vibrant story of George, Garrett, Rall, and Rasul -- four children raised by Nanny, their fiercely devoted grandmother. The boys hold one another close through early brushes with racism, memorable experiences at the family barbershop, and first loves and losses. And with Nanny at their center, they are never broken.

George M. Johnson captures the unique experience of growing up as a Black boy in America through rich family stories that explore themes of vulnerability, sacrifice, and culture.

Complete with touching letters from the grandchildren to their beloved matriarch and a full color photo insert, this heartwarming and heartbreaking memoir is destined to become a modern classic of emerging adulthood.

By: Gayle E Pitman (Author), 2019, Hardcover

In The Stonewall Riots: Coming Out in the Streets, Gayle E. Pitman’s “fresh storytelling brings emotion and depth to the history of a movement and the establishment that served as an epicenter for social change” (Publishers Weekly).

A timely and necessary read, The Stonewall Riots helps readers understand the history and legacy of the LGBTQ+ movement. The book includes contemporary photos, newspaper clippings, and other period objects, as well as a timeline, a biography, and an index. Interviews with people involved as well as witnesses bring an immediacy to the story.

In clear prose and short chapters, the book takes readers through a history of American gay life leading up to the Riots, the Riots themselves, and the aftermath. In a starred review, Shelf Awareness noted: “With meaningful content delivered in an innovative format, The Stonewall Riotsdeserves to be required reading for people of all ages.”

The Stonewall Riots were a series of spontaneous, at times violent demonstrations by members of the gay (LGBTQ+) community in reaction to a police raid that took place in the early morning hours of June 28, 1969, at the Stonewall Inn in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The Riots are attributed as the spark that ignited the LGBTQ+ movement.

By: Alison Bechdel (Author), 2007, Paperback

CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED, NATIONAL BESTSELLER 
Time Magazine #1 Book of the Year • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist • 
Winner of the Stonewall Book Award •  Double finalist for the Lambda Book Award •
Nominated for the GLAAD Media Award
Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir that charts her fraught relationship with her late father. 
Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.
 
In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.

By: Rebel Girls (Author), 2022, Paperback

All Rebel, all the time. The Rebel Girls Handbook is the ultimate ticket to trivia, activities, and more about 300+ extraordinary women featured across the bestselling Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls series.

Malala Yousafzai fights for girls' education around the world. . . and there's an asteroid named after her. Florence Nightingale was a nurse who saved lives during the Crimean War. . . and she had a pet owl named Athena. María Isabel Urrutia is a Colombian weightlifter. . . and the inspiration for a character in the film Encanto.

The Rebel Girls Handbook includes amazing facts and beautiful illustrations of Rebel Girls past and present, all packaged together in a fun, easy-to-flip-through format. Spotlights on the home countries and traits of trailblazing women let readers explore the Rebel universe like never before, while activities encourage them to join in and make the book their own.

Plus, find QR codes inside that unlock awesome bonus audio stories on the Rebel Girls app!

By: Jason June (Author), 2022, Paperback

From debut novelist Jason June comes a moving and hilarious sex-positive teen rom-com about the complexities of first loves, first hookups, and first heartbreaks - and how to stay true to yourself while embracing what you never saw coming, that’s perfect for fans of Sandhya Menon and Becky Albertalli.

There’s one thing Jay Collier knows for sure - he’s a statistical anomaly as the only out gay kid in his small rural Washington town. While all his friends can’t stop talking about their heterosexual hookups and relationships, Jay can only dream of his own firsts, compiling a romance to-do list of all the things he hopes to one day experience - his Gay Agenda.

Then, against all odds, Jay’s family moves to Seattle, and he starts his senior year at a new high school with a thriving LGBTQIA+ community. For the first time ever, Jay feels like he’s found where he truly belongs. But as Jay begins crossing items off his list, he’ll soon be torn between his heart and his hormones, his old friends and his new ones...because after all, life and love don’t always go according to plan.

By: Micah House (Author), 2023, Hardcover

Welcome back to Daihmler County, Alabama. This is the home of the Blanchard family. The Blanchards are an average, everyday, close-knit, loving, southern family...who also happen to be witches. They have been through a great deal of ups and downs, tragedy and triumphs. And it's not over yet. Their lives are about to get a little more complicated.

As The Blanchard Witches saga continues, the family is acclimating to the secrets revealed in the last book and acclimating to some new faces around the house. Yet, old foes are resurfacing and old scores are left to be settled. Everything has been building to this moment when the Blanchards return to Charleston where the sinister D'Angelo family is brewing something which will change every Blanchard forever.

Join your favorite witches for the deadliest battle they've ever fought. Not everyone will survive The House of Duquesne.

By: Micah House (Author), 2021, Paperback

Welcome back to Daihmler County, Alabama. Come sit on Blanchard House porch and visit a spell, but don't get too cozy. The Autumn leaves aren't the only things changing as more problems emerge for the Blanchard witches.

As the second novel in The Blanchard Witches series opens…Olympia's youngest daughter Nacaria (who has been cursed to the shadows for two decades) has been freed from her sentence, but she has not come home. As the family tries to figure out why, a rescue mission seems necessary. Olympia’s middle daughter, Demitra, has mourned her late husband for years. Now she has a new beau, but her sister Artemis is suspicious of him. Is he who he says he is or is he up to something? And Fable is continuing to conceal her secret pregnancy not knowing what the family will do if they discover her baby was fathered by the werewolf they recently destroyed.

While the love that fills Blanchard House may be magical, that love will be tested as secrets are revealed and a deadly enemy must be faced down. Not everyone will make it out alive as the prodigal daughters come home.

By: Dahlia Adler (Author), 2023, Hardcover

A SYDNEY TAYLOR BOOK AWARD MEDALIST

"This is what it looks like when a brilliant high concept is executed to perfection. It’s got all the Dahlia Adler trademarks―romance, wry humor, specificity, and genuine emotional depth." - Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Kate in Waiting and Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda

A queer Sliding Doors YA rom-com in which a girl must choose between summer in NYC with her dad (and the girl she's always wanted) or LA with her estranged mom (and the guy she never saw coming).

In Dahlia Adler’s Going Bicoastal, there’s more than one path to happily ever after.

Natalya Fox has twenty-four hours to make the biggest choice of her life: stay home in NYC for the summer with her dad (and finally screw up the courage to talk to the girl she's been crushing on), or spend it with her basically estranged mom in LA (knowing this is the best chance she has to fix their relationship, if she even wants to.) (Does she want to?)

How's a girl supposed to choose?

She can't, and so both summers play out in alternating timelines - one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the girl she's always wanted. And one in which Natalya explores the city, tries to repair things with her mom, works on figuring out her future, and goes for the guy she never saw coming.

By: Aaron H. Accedes (Author), 2023, Paperback

This “hilariously chaotic and profound” (Adam Silvera, #1 New York Times bestselling author of They Both Die at the End) summer romp is Netflix’s Never Have I Ever meets What If It’s Us about a high school senior determined to get over his unrequited feelings for his best friend by getting under someone else.

Enrique “Quique” Luna has one goal this summer—get over his crush on Saleem Kanazi by pursuing his other romantic prospects. Never mind that he’s only out to his best friend, Fabiola. Never mind that he has absolutely zero game. And definitely forget the fact that good and kind and, not to mention, beautiful Saleem is leaving LA for the summer to reunite with a girl his parents are trying to set him up with.

Luckily, Quique’s prospects are each intriguing in their own ways. There’s stoner-jock Tyler Montana, who might be just as interested in Fabiola as he is in Quique; straitlaced senior class president, Ziggy Jackson; and Manny Zuniga, who keeps looking at Quique like he’s carne asada fresh off the grill. With all these choices, Quique is sure to forget about Saleem in no time.

But as the summer heats up and his deep-seated fears and anxieties boil over, Quique soon realizes that getting over one guy by getting under a bunch of others may not have been the best laid plan and living his truth can come at a high cost.

By: Julian Winters (Author), 2023, Paperback

"Smart, swoony, and pitch-perfect, Right Where I Left You is ideal for every reader who’s just as likely to geek out over a new issue of Superman: Son of Kal-El as they are the quintessential meet-cute.”—LEAH JOHNSON, bestselling author of You Should See Me in a Crown and Rise to the Sun

School’s out, senior year is over, and Isaac Martin is ready to kick off summer. His last before heading off to college in the fall where he won't have his best friend, Diego. Where—despite his social anxiety—he’ll be left to make friends on his own. Knowing his time with Diego is limited, Isaac enacts a foolproof plan: snatch up a pair of badges for the epic comic convention, Legends Con, and attend his first ever Teen Pride. Just him and Diego. The way it should be. But when an unexpected run-in with Davi—Isaac’s old crush—distracts him the day tickets go on sale, suddenly he’s two badges short of a perfect summer. Even worse, now he’s left making it up to Diego by hanging with him and his gamer buddies. Decidedly NOT part of the original plan. It’s not all bad, though. Some of Diego’s friends turn out to be pretty cool, and when things with Davi start heating up, Isaac is almost able to forget about his Legends Con blunder. Almost. Because then Diego finds out what really happened that day with Davi, and their friendship lands on thin ice. Isaac assumes he’s upset about missing the convention, but could Diego have other reasons for avoiding Isaac?

By: Isaac Fitzsimons (Author), 2022, Paperback

Love, Simon meets Bend It Like Beckham in this feel-good contemporary romance about a trans athlete who must decide between fighting for his right to play and staying stealth.

“A sharply observant and vividly drawn debut. I loved every minute I spent in this story, and I’ve never rooted harder for a jock in my life.” – New York Times bestselling author Becky Albertalli

Fifteen-year-old Spencer Harris is a proud nerd, an awesome big brother, and a David Beckham in training. He's also transgender. After transitioning at his old school leads to a year of isolation and bullying, Spencer gets a fresh start at Oakley, the most liberal private school in Ohio.

At Oakley, Spencer seems to have it all: more accepting classmates, a decent shot at a starting position on the boys' soccer team, great new friends, and maybe even something more than friendship with one of his teammates. The problem is, no one at Oakley knows Spencer is trans—he's passing.

But when a discriminatory law forces Spencer's coach to bench him, Spencer has to make a choice: cheer his team on from the sidelines or publicly fight for his right to play, even though it would mean coming out to everyone—including the guy he's falling for.

By: Jules Machias (Author), 2022, Hardcover

*2023 Rainbow List Book*

Jules Machias, author of Indie Next List Pick Both Can Be True, delivers another inspiring story about how an unexpected friendship transforms the lives of two middle schoolers.

Avery Hart lives for the thrill and speed of her dirt bike and the pounding thump of her drum kit. But after she’s diagnosed with hypermobile Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a disease that affects her joints, Avery splits her time between endless physical therapy and worrying that her fun and independence are over for good.

Sarah Bell is familiar with worry, too. For months, she’s been having intense panic attacks. No matter how much she pours her anxiety into making art, she can’t seem to get a grip on it, and she’s starting to wonder if she’ll be this way forever.

Just as both girls are reaching peak fear about what their futures hold, their present takes a terrifying turn when their school is seemingly attacked by gunmen. Though they later learn it was an active shooter drill, the traumatic experience bonds the girls together in a friendship that will change the way they view their perceived weaknesses—and help them find strength, and more, in each other

By: Faridah Abike-lyimide (Author), 2023, Paperback

Gossip Girl meets Get Out in Ace of Spades, a YA contemporary thriller by debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé about two students, Devon & Chiamaka, and their struggles against an anonymous bully.

All you need to know is . . . I’m here to divide and conquer. Like all great tyrants do. ―Aces

When two Niveus Private Academy students, Devon Richards and Chiamaka Adebayo, are selected to be part of the elite school’s senior class prefects, it looks like their year is off to an amazing start. After all, not only does it look great on college applications, but it officially puts each of them in the running for valedictorian, too.

Shortly after the announcement is made, though, someone who goes by Aces begins using anonymous text messages to reveal secrets about the two of them that turn their lives upside down and threaten every aspect of their carefully planned futures.

As Aces shows no sign of stopping, what seemed like a sick prank quickly turns into a dangerous game, with all the cards stacked against them. Can Devon and Chiamaka stop Aces before things become incredibly deadly?

With heart-pounding suspense and relevant social commentary comes a high-octane thriller from debut author Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé.