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New Young Adult Books December 2020
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Admission
by Julie Buxbaum
A high school senior on the brink of getting everything she has ever wanted is forced to reckon with the truth and her own complicity when her mother is arrested in a massive college admissions bribery scandal. By the best-selling author of Hope and Other Punch Lines.
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Again again
by E. Lockhart
An unexpected romantic upheaval and a near-fatal family catastrophe catapult a teen into a summer of wild possibilities that finds her falling in and out of love a thousand times before finally confronting the secrets she keeps and her perceptions about love.
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Agnes at the end of the world
by Kelly McWilliams
Dutifully embracing her faith while tirelessly caring for her younger siblings, including one who needs forbidden insulin to survive, a teen who is unaware that she lives within a strict cult meets an Outsider boy and begins to question what is and is not a sin.
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All boys aren't blue : a memoir-manifesto
by George M. Johnson
A first book by the prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist shares personal essays that chronicle his childhood, adolescence and college years as a Black queer youth, exploring subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy.
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All Our Worst Ideas
by Vicky Skinner
Dumped by her long-term boyfriend on the eve of becoming valedictorian and getting into her dream school, Amy takes a job at a record store, where she bonds with a co-worker who has decided against going to college. By the author of We Are the Ghosts.
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The ballad of Ami Miles
by Kristy Dallas Alley
Raised in isolation on her family’s survivalist compound and destined to be one of her post-apocalypse community’s child bearers, a teen flees the only life she has ever known and embarks on a search for her long-lost mother, and a mate of her own choosing.
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The black friend : on being a better white person
by Frederick Joseph
Presents race-related anecdotes from the author's past, weaving in his thoughts on why they were hurtful and how he might handle things differently now, in hopes of bringing more race awareness to Americans.
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Coming Up for Air
by Nicole B. Tyndall
Avoiding relationships in the wake of a parent’s health scare and a sibling’s broken heart, a teen with creative aspirations focuses on her education while unexpectedly bonding with an understanding boy whose encouragement leads to a troubling revelation.
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The cousins
by Karen M. McManus
Invited to their grandmother’s island resort for the summer, three cousins who have never previously met uncover dark family secrets about why their parents were disinherited and what they must do to regain their grandmother’s favor.
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A curse of roses
by Diana Pinguicha
Yzabel sought out Fatyan to help her save the people of Portugal from the famine caused by a reverse magic within her turning food to flowers, but when love begins to blossom between them, it could mean Yzabel's destruction instead.
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Cut off
by Adrianne Finlay
Competing in a wilderness survival reality show for a million-dollar prize, a group of teens discover that they have been abandoned by the competition’s producers, who have raised the stakes by refusing to rescue them.
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Date me, Bryson Keller
by Kevin Van Whye
Accepting a dare to date a new person every week, a popular teen is unexpectedly asked out by a boy and agrees to a secret five-day relationship that quickly becomes more real than he anticipated.
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Diamond city
by Francesca Flores
Trained as a highly skilled assassin, a young woman from a magical kingdom of immigrants is forced to betray her mentor to establish her career by targeting a wealthy industrialist in support of a mysterious conspiracy.
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The extraordinaries
by TJ Klune
A successful fan-fiction writer has a chance encounter with a superhero crush who challenges him to remake himself in ways that compromise his bond with a best friend, who is becoming something more. A young-adult debut by the award-winning author of The House in the Cerulean Sea.
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Fall into Me
by Mila Gray
A talented recording artist succumbing to a stalker’s psychological games falls passionately in love with her bodyguard, an ex-Marine battling trauma from his service in Afghanistan.
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For better or cursed
by Kate Williams
An action-packed sequel to The Babysitters Coven finds Esme attending a once-in-a-generation gathering of the Sitterhood’s governing circle to find answers about things going mysteriously wrong in her life, including Cassandra’s odd behavior.
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Girl crushed
by Katie Heaney
Dumped by her best friend and girlfriend a month before their senior year, a heartbroken Quinn struggles to move on with a new crush when she is unable to completely forget her ex.
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The glare
by Margot Harrison
Moving to her father’s home in California after a decade at her mother’s isolated ranch, a teen who has been taught to fear technology reunites with friends and family members before experiencing nightmares about a dark-web video game that poses life-threatening dangers.
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The Good Girls
by Claire Eliza Bartlett
Targeted as suspects in the shocking murder of a high school senior, three teens—including a notorious party girl, a head cheerleader and a would-be valedictorian—race to expose long-buried secrets and identify the real killer.
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Heiress apparently
by Diana Ma
A series debut inspired by the fictionalized descendants of China’s only officially recognized empress regent follows the experiences of a struggling actress whose lead role in a Beijing production of M. Butterfly is complicated by her uncanny resemblance to a notorious socialite.
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Hood
by Jenny Elder Moke
Arrested by royal soldiers for defending innocent villages, a girl raised within the sheltered walls of a convent is targeted by ruthless King John’s right-hand enforcer before her mother sends her to seek help from the father she has never met, Robin Hood.
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Igniting darkness
by Robin LaFevers
A conclusion to the duology that began with Courting Darkness finds convent novitiate Sybella standing alone as the Duchess of Brittany’s protector while staying in secret contact with the French court, where her sister’s loyalties are tested by a vengeful regent.
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It only happens in the movies
by Holly Bourne
Turning cynical about love in the face of her parents’ acrimonious divorce, her own shifting relationships and the fictional portrayals of love in movies, Audrey bonds with a flirtatious co-worker, Harry, who encourages her to take a chance in the real world.
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The kinder poison
by Natalie Mae
When her magical kingdom’s ailing ruler invokes an ancient tradition to identify his successor, a lowly stable girl who possesses the ability to commune with animals is chosen as a human sacrifice during a high-risk desert crossing involving three ruthless heirs.
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The loop
by Ben Oliver
Enduring a tortuous existence on a futuristic death row for teens where inmates can delay their execution date in exchange for becoming laboratory subjects, Luka uncovers rumors about chaos spreading throughout the outside world before he becomes targeted by his crazed fellow prisoners.
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The love curse of Melody McIntyre
by Robin Talley
Swearing off romantic relationships to focus on her high school’s production of Les Mis, a meticulous student stage manager unexpectedly falls for the musical’s sweet and funny leading lady.
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A love hate thing
by Whitney D Grandison
Fearing for her reputation when her parents take in a troubled teen, a girl in a fiercely discriminatory, affluent community bonds with her new housemate over the course of a hot and violent summer.
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The mall
by Megan McCafferty
Taking a job in the pop-culture-infused retail and food court environment of a New Jersey mall during the summer of 1991, Cassie Worthy begins questioning her well-laid plans to join her boyfriend at college in New York City amid new friendships and personal discoveries.
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My eyes are up here
by Laura Zimmermann
Desperately avoiding contact and wearing baggy clothes when she begins to be objectified for her large breasts, a math-minded teen finds unexpected community on the volleyball team before making a friend with a school newcomer who seems to care more about her mind.
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New Year's kiss
by Lee Matthews
Spending the week after Christmas in a Vermont lodge with her opinionated older sister and stern grandmother, strait-laced Tess bonds with a boy who inspires her New Year’s Eve commitment to taking a role in her own happiness, before he reveals a troubling secret.
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Parachutes
by Kelly Yang
A teen from a privileged Asian family navigates culture shock, unexpected freedom and a new relationship while attending school in California and renting a room from the family of an Ivy League hopeful whose debate coach has undermined her plans.
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Rebel sisters
by Tochi Onyebuchi
Living a comfortable life in the Space Colonies, Ify, now nineteen and a medical administrator, must return to wartorn Nigeria, where she last saw her sister, to investigate why young refugees from that nation are carrying a deadly virus.
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Ruinsong
by Julia Ember
Forced by a violently ruthless queen to use her magic to torture disgraced aristocrats, a powerful young woman confronts a difficult choice when she reconnects with a childhood friend, an alluring noblewoman with ties to an underground rebellion.
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Say her name
by Zetta Elliott
Inspired by the African American Policy Forum’s #SayHerName campaign and the works of such notables as Lucille Clifton and Nikki Giovanni, a collection of poems stands as a tribute to Black Lives Matter activists and victims of police brutality.
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A sky beyond the storm
by Sabaa Tahir
A conclusion to the best-selling series is set a few months after the events of A Reaper at the Gates and finds Laia of Serra navigating loss and the deadly attacks of Empress Keris Veturia to battle a vengeful Nightbringer.
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Soulswift
by Megan Bannen
Serving humanity with a powerful singing voice that members of her faith believe channels the word of the One True God, Gelya uncovers a deadly military conspiracy before her possession by a demon spirit turns her loved ones against her.
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Splinters of scarlet
by Emily Bain Murphy
Avoiding magical powers that create a deadly toxin in her blood with every use, Marit Olsen risks using the magic to secure a job in a wealthy household where her friend and fellow orphan, Eve, has been adopted under mysterious circumstances.
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This is how we fly
by Anna Meriano
Grounded for the summer by her sometimes-evil stepmother, seventeen-year-old vegan feminist Ellen Lopez-Rourke gets permission to join a Quidditch team, where she makes new, if nerdy, friends
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This is not the Jess show
by Anna Carey
Frustrated by the drama that always finds her regardless of her efforts to keep her head down, a high school junior witnesses the spread of a mysterious illness in her 1998 community before discovering an iPhone from the future among her best friend’s possessions.
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This train is being held
by Ismee Williams
Pressured by his Papi to pursue a career in pro sports in spite of his poetic spirit, Alex bonds with an ambitious young dancer whose dreams have been complicated by her mother’s controlling nature, her father’s unemployment and a sibling’s mental illness.
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The voice in my head
by Dana Davis
When a mysterious voice claiming to be God instructs her to bring her terminally ill twin to a remote location in the Arizona desert, Indigo, fearing she is losing her mind, organizes a trip with her dysfunctional family that reveals shocking truths about those closest to her.
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Warmaidens
by Kelly Coon
Warmaidens is the action-packed conclusion to the heartwrenching Gravemaidens fantasy duology. Kammani and the maidens are now going to war against the ruler who tried to entomb them.
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The way back
by Gavriel Savit
Sent by the Angel of Death into the Jewish Far Country’s land of the transient dead, two teens make pacts with ancient demons and declare war on Death himself to reclaim their lives, in a tale based on folk tradition by the author of Anna and the Swallow Man.
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What I carry
by Jennifer Longo
Entering her final year before being released from the foster-care system, a teen who has avoided emotional attachments forges unexpected bonds with three classmates, including a boy who changes her perspectives on everything.
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What she found in the woods
by Josephine Angelini
While summering in her grandparents' small Oregon town, where a serial murderer lurks, eighteen-year-old Magdalena faces recovery from a scandal at her Manhattan private school, schizophrenia, and falling in love with "Wildboy." Told partly through journal entries
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Wonder Women of History
by Laurie Halse Anderson
Wonder Woman has been an inspiration for decades, and while not everyone would choose her star-spangled outfit for themselves, her compassion and fairness are worthy of emulation. We'll be presenting tales of the real-world heroes who take up Diana's mantle and work in the fields of science, sports, activism, diplomacy, and more!
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You're next
by Kylie Schachte
Haunted by the unsolved murder of a classmate whose body she discovered, a teen with a reputation for nosiness witnesses the death of a former flame before uncovering a shocking conspiracy that puts her loved ones in mortal danger.
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