The White Plains Library Staff have assembled their picks for the year for kids and teens! It's a wonderfully wide-ranging list and should help with your holiday shopping or just some entertainment for yourself. Enjoy!
Below you'll find a list with links to the catalog or resource where they're available as well as a blurb on why staff enjoyed it.
Kids:
Elephant and Piggie Series and more by Mo Willems
My first-grade son, who recently switched from a frustrated reader to an excited reader, devours Mo Willems' books – especially the Elephant and Piggie Series. He insists nightly that he reads one Elephant and Piggie to me and then I read one to him. Both my kids love Mo's pigeon series as well.
-Ryan Jackson, Library Computer Guy (PC Network Technician)
Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan
Esperanza Rising is the book that made me fall in love with reading. It is a beautifully written story about a wealthy young girl whose father owns a farm. When he is killed and his brother states his intentions of taking over, Esperanza and her mother, along with the family who have served them her whole life, flee to California where they work on a commercial farm, showing her a different way of living and caring for her community.
-Gabi Rodriguez – Librarian I Children’s Services
Find the Item Here
The River is My Ocean by Rio Cortez and Asleigh Corrin
El río es mi mar by Rio Cortez and Asleigh Corrin
This lovely story is an ode to the author’s grandma, the Hudson River and Cortez's Puerto Rican heritage. The soft bright art by Ashleigh Corrin beautifully illustrates the city and the river, and I particularly enjoyed the depictions of Ray with his piragua (flavored shaved ice) cart and those of Yemaya (the Yoruba goddess representing motherhood and the sea.) We have the book in English and Spanish- check it out!
-Raquel Cavalcanti, Children's Librarian
Jacob’s Missing Book by Sarah and Ian Hoffman and Chris Case
Sarah and Ian Hoffman have written a timely story of young children sharing in their own way a favorite story of a penguin family, despite its being removed from their school library. The illustrations by Chris Case are positive, warm and bright. Discusses book banning in an age-appropriate manner, and yet it does not gloss over its effects with a tidy solution.
-Raquel Cavalcanti, Children's Librarian
Young Adult:
Catch These Hands! by Murata
It’s the love story we all deeply know. A former high school delinquent is challenged by her old rival to a duel, and if her rival defeats her, they have to start dating. It’s a great slice of life manga that challenges our characters to think outside of the societal norms of how to grow up successfully.
-Erika Peiffer- Children’s Librarian
Gideon Green in Black and White by Katie Henry
This book was a selection for the grades 6-12 division in this year's Battle of the Books competition, and was my very favorite of this year's books. This one's about a socially isolated teenage boy, Gideon Green, with Sherlock Holmes-esque powers of observation, who joins up with a former friend to investigate a crime story for the school newspaper. While the story touches on heartfelt themes, including family secrets and trouble fitting in socially, Gideon's sarcastic narration was truly hilarious and made the book a standout for me this year.
-Kat Carroll, YA Librarian
Mall Goth by Kate Leth
While I never fully committed to the goth look (I wasn’t allowed to wear black polish despite it definitely not being a phase, Dad, this is who I am), my friends and I religiously attended the Hot Topic at the mall weekly in hopes of seeing the one worker who always wore the gray beanie. The trials and tribulations Liv goes through were so relatable to me I felt being pulled back in time to the similar moments I was in during high school.
-Erika Peiffer, Children’s Librarian
Man Made Monsters by Andrea L Rogers
A collection of short stories moving through the generations of a family, from 1839-2039, mixing Cherokee legends with the supernatural, and the human-made horrors indigenous people endure.
-Gabi Rodriguez, Librarian I Children’s Services
The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D Jackson
This may be my favorite book of the year. I recommend it to anyone and everyone who will listen to me, it’s great if you’re into horror, but also if you’re not. In this reimagining of Carrie, Maddy lives in a small southern town where they still have segregated proms. She is unpopular to begin with but when she is caught in the rain one day and her straightened hair springs to life, the biracial identity her father cares so much to protect is revealed; then the bullying she endures becomes even worse. What sets off the chain of events is a video gone viral of classmates throwing pencils into Maddy’s hair after the rain storm.
-Gabi Rodriguez – Librarian I Children’s Services
#Rosco Afro