Teen Fiction
Books can mirror our lives, and we see ourselves in the characters and their experiences. They can be windows into lives that we don't know or understand. Books can also open doors that would otherwise remain closed. Check out the recommendations for books with diverse characters, science fiction, and fantasy. If these don't grab your interest, search the catalog or stop by to check out what else is on the library shelves.
BOOK OF THE MONTH
Everything We Never Had
by Randy Ribay
Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature
Longlisted for the National Book Award
From the author of the National Book Award finalist Patron Saints of Nothing comes an emotionally charged, moving novel about four generations of Filipino American boys grappling with identity, masculinity, and their fraught father-son relationships.
Watsonville, 1930. Francisco Maghabol barely ekes out a living in the fields of California. As he spends what little money he earns at dance halls and faces increasing violence from white men in town, Francisco wonders if he should’ve never left the Philippines.
Stockton, 1965. Between school days full of prejudice from white students and teachers and night shifts working at his aunt’s restaurant, Emil refuses to follow in the footsteps of his labor organizer father, Francisco. He’s going to make it in this country no matter what or who he has to leave behind.
Denver, 1983. Chris is determined to prove that his overbearing father, Emil, can’t control him. However, when a missed assignment on “ancestral history” sends Chris off the football team and into the library, he discovers a desire to know more about Filipino history―even if his father dismisses his interest as un-American and unimportant.
Philadelphia, 2020. Enzo struggles to keep his anxiety in check as a global pandemic breaks out and his abrasive grandfather moves in. While tensions are high between his dad and his lolo, Enzo’s daily walks with Lolo Emil have him wondering if maybe he can help bridge their decades-long rift.
Told in multiple perspectives, Everything We Never Had unfolds like a beautifully crafted nesting doll, where each Maghabol boy forges his own path amid heavy family and societal expectations, passing down his flaws, values, and virtues to the next generation, until it’s up to Enzo to see how he can braid all these strands and men together.
#WeNeedDiverseBooks
The collection of books represents stories from diverse groups (BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, differently-abled). The stories are written by authors from those groups, not an outsider. These books offer the chance for all teens to see characters like themselves on the pages of books. And they offer the rest of the world a more authentic view of cultures different than their own. Click the image for more details.
Escape from Reality
Open a new book. Look at the pages and see new worlds and alternate realities. This collection of fantasy, science fiction, and dystopian novels offers stories about magic, mythology, space, and more. These books also relate to the Perceptions and Reality English class. Click the image for more details.
Once Upon a Time
Many of us grow up reading, listening to, or watching fairy tales. The happily ever after stories delight and sometimes scare. This collection showcases books inspired by fairy tales and myths. They tell the stories of the villains, re-invent characters, or twist the stories. Not all of these re-tellings end happily-ever-after, though.