Archives for YA books

New Young Adult Fiction

New Young Adult Fiction

Despite the supply chain chaos that seems to have followed us into 2022, we’re still frequently ordering and receiving new books for our collection. I love ordering new books for the Edge–reading the reviews, seeing what popular authors come up with next, or finding out about an upcoming sequel to an old favorite. Read on to find out about some of the new YA fiction titles coming to our shelves this month. At the End of Everything by Marieke Nijkamp Grades 9 and up Library Catalog “The young adults who inhabit private company–run Hope Juvenile Treatment Center in rural Arkansas
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February 17, 2022 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: new books, new in the Edge, staff picks, staff recommendations, YA books, and YA Fiction.

Announcing the Winter 2021 Project LIT Titles

Announcing the Winter 2021 Project LIT Titles

Since becoming a Project LIT chapter, we’ve enjoyed reading and discussing Project LIT books with kids and teens. Last month, we were thrilled to see the announcements of new titles in the Winter 2021 Project LIT book list. We’re excited to share the list with you, and to highlight a couple titles that are of particular interest to our librarians. You can find the full Project LIT book lists for Middle Grade and Young Adult on the Reading Lists page of our website. Middle Grade: Ashley’s Picks Stand Up, Yumi Chung! by Jessica Kim Libby Library Catalog This book has
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January 20, 2022 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: children's books, Dive into Diversity, diverse reads, new books, Project Lit, Project Lit Community, staff picks, staff recommendations, and YA books.

Battle of the Books Club

Battle of the Books Club

Join librarians Kat and Lauren for a new book club this spring. We'll meet each month for a book discussion and a game, in the beloved Battle of the Books (BOB) trivia format. Read some awesome books and then team up with your friends to show off your book knowledge in a fast-paced tournament. We kicked off the series with a fun discussion of It Ain't So Awful, Falafel with author Firoozeh Dumas in January… read on to find out what's next. In February, we're reading Luck of the Titanic by Stacey Lee. We'll meet on Monday, February 7th, at
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January 11, 2022 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Library News.
Tags: battle of the books, Battle of the Books Club, book clubs in Westchester, book clubs in White Plains, teen book club, and YA books.

Autism Acceptance Month

Autism Acceptance Month

April 2nd is World Autism Awareness Day, and the month of April has been deemed Autism Acceptance Month. Let’s Light it Up Blue and support acceptance and inclusion of people with autism! Unfortunately, despite its prevalence in today’s society, many people still don’t understand this spectrum disorder. So what is Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)? It is a range of conditions typically characterized by challenges with social skills and communication difficulties. It affects 1 in 54 children in the United States today. Since it is a spectrum, people with autism can range anywhere from needing significant support in everyday life to
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March 24, 2021 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Autism, Autism Acceptance Month, book recommendations, children's books, Observances and Celebrations, picture books, staff picks, staff recommendations, and YA books.

Dive into Diversity: YA Books in Verse

Dive into Diversity: YA Books in Verse

In 2021, my Dive into Diversity posts about young adult books will focus on a different genre each month. I’ll highlight books with characters that represent a range of experiences and identities. I’ll also feature #ownvoices authors, or authors who share an aspect of their characters’ identity, as much as possible. This month, in preparation for Poetry Month, I’m highlighting novels (and one memoir) in verse. I love reading books written in this format. In addition to being quick reads, they’re often beautifully written and convey emotion in a unique way. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo Grades 10
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March 23, 2021 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Dive into Diversity, national poetry month, novels in verse, Observances and Celebrations, Poetry Month, staff picks, staff recommendations, teen books, and YA books.

International Transgender Day of Visibility

International Transgender Day of Visibility

Each year, March 31st is celebrated as the International Transgender Day of Visibility. This is a day to honor the experiences and contributions of transgender and gender nonconforming people, and to recognize the discrimination they face. We’ve collected a bunch of children’s and YA books that reflect and celebrate a variety of transgender and gender nonconforming people. Find a collection of related titles on OverDrive here. The Human Rights Campaign Organization’s Welcoming Schools Project has a wealth of curriculum resources for teachers and parents. For further reading, I highly recommend their booklist: Great Diverse Children's Books with Transgender, Non-Binary and
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March 16, 2021 9:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: children's books, children's literature, International Transgender Day of Visibility, Observances and Celebrations, staff picks, staff recommendations, YA books, and YA Fiction.

Dive into Diversity: YA Romance

Dive into Diversity: YA Romance

In 2021, my Dive into Diversity posts about young adult books will focus on a different genre each month. I’ll highlight books with characters that represent a range of experiences and identities. I’ll also feature #ownvoices authors, or authors who share an aspect of their characters’ identity, as much as possible. Predictably, the February edition highlights books that feature romance as a central plot element. Super Fake Love Song by David Yoon Grades 9 and up OverDrive; Library Catalog I was excited to read David Yoon's next book after loving Frankly in Love when I read it in 2019, and
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February 23, 2021 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Dive into Diversity, romance, staff picks, staff recommendations, teen books, YA books, and YA Fiction.

ALA Youth Media Awards

ALA Youth Media Awards

Each winter at the American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting, ALA honors outstanding books and authors with a variety of awards for excellence. You’ve probably heard of the Newbery and the Caldecott, but did you know that there’s also an award for debut authors writing for teens? Or an award for a children’s book written in a foreign language and published in a foreign country, and later translated into English for publication in the US? Each January, we look forward to seeing which authors and books are honored in these ALA awards. It’s so exciting to see a favorite book
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January 27, 2021 2:12 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: ALA awards, ALA Youth Media Awards, awards, children's books, children's literature, staff picks, staff recommendations, YA books, and YA literature.

Celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

This year, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be celebrated on Monday, January 18th, 2021. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15th, 1929 and his legacy is profound – perhaps now more than ever. “As a child, I remember studying Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. only from one perspective—the man who had a dream. Without a deep understanding of Dr. King, I lacked the ability to apply some of his profound principles to my life. Years later as an adult, I read his autobiography and was amazed at the depth of his personhood. Out of this
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January 15, 2021 9:47 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Featured, Homepage Kids, Homepage Teens, Kids, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: children's books, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Observances and Celebrations, staff picks, staff recommendations, and YA books.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities: YA Books

International Day of Persons with Disabilities: YA Books

The United Nations recognizes December 3rd as the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. I put together a list of YA books featuring a variety of characters living with some type of disability. I read A Time to Dance by Padma Venkatraman, about a dancer in India who has part of one leg amputated after an accident. Since childhood, Veda has been focused entirely on dancing. The book opens just as she wins a particularly sweet victory at a dance competition. On the way home, however, her dance troupe’s van is in a serious accident, and Veda is so severely
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December 1, 2020 10:00 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Dive into Diversity, International Day of Persons with Disabilities, Observances and Celebrations, Observances and Holidays, staff picks, staff recommendations, teen books, and YA books.

July & August Teen Book Clubs

July & August Teen Book Clubs

Virtual book club sessions have been the highlight of spring for librarians Lauren and Kat. We are looking forward to four more sessions this summer, this time with the theme of summer reading. Each month, one book club meeting will feature one title from a Highlands Middle School recommended reading list, and the other will feature a title from the White Plains High School recommended reading list. All four books are available with unlimited copies on Hoopla, and multiple copies on OverDrive. While these books are on recommended reading lists for various grade levels, the book clubs are open to
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June 11, 2020 12:02 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books and Library News.
Tags: book club, book discussion, diverse reads, teen book club, teen books, YA books, and YA Fiction.

Antiracism Resources for Teens & Adults

Antiracism Resources for Teens & Adults

This may seem irrelevant to the topic of antiracism, but I want to start by saying that I’m a knitter. In January 2019, the knitting community began a moment of reckoning with racism in the fiber arts industry. If you’re interested, you can read more about those conversations here, but suffice it to say that this event brought me to a new awareness of racism. After that, I thought a lot more consciously about my privilege, my place as a white librarian working with primarily teens of color, and my responsibility to teach my young children about antiracism. By no
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June 4, 2020 11:26 am | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, eNewsletter, Featured, Homepage, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Antiracism, Antiracism Reading List, Racism, staff picks, staff recommendations, and YA books.

Arab-American Heritage Month

Arab-American Heritage Month

For this month’s column highlighting titles by Arab-American authors, I leaped at the chance to open a book from my to-read list: Darius the Great is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram. When Darius’ grandfather is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor, his parents take Darius and his little sister on their first trip to Iran. Even the pronunciation of Darius’ name is different in Iran, but the change frees him to try new experiences, discovering a talent for soccer and making new friends. The book addresses a range of issues in Darius’ life: the medication he takes to treat his
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April 17, 2020 12:30 pm | by | No Comments
Categories: Authors & Books, Featured, Homepage Teens, Library News, and Teens.
Tags: Arab-American Heritage Month, eBooks, Observances and Celebrations, YA books, and YA literature.