Young Adult Newsletter May 2025
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The Pitkin County Library will be closed on Monday, May 12,
for a Staff Training Day.
All County buildings, including the Library, will be closed on Monday, May 26, in honor of Memorial Day. |
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May the Fourth be with you!
As school wraps up and the weather gets warmer, we're gearing up for Summer Reading here at the Library! Keep an eye out for more information about this year's program as we get closer to June.
Good luck on finals! |
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Teen/Tween Graphic Novel Book Club
| Friday, May 2 | 4:30pm-6:00pm Dunaway Community Room
This book club is dedicated to reading and discussing manga and enjoying Japanese food. This month's books are Fullmetal Alchemist Volume 1 by Hiromu Arakawa and Hunter x Hunter Volume 1 by Yoshihiro Togashi.
Learn more. |
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Crafting at the Library: Beading Bonanza |
Saturday, May 3 | 3:00pm-5:00pm Library Lab
Join us for a rotating monthly craft program on the first Saturday of the month. The activity will be different each month, so stop by, explore, play, and learn new skills!
Learn more.
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Read the Rainbow Teen Book Club
| Monday, May 5 | 5:30pm-6:30pm Hotpick Meeting Room
Once a month, we will select a book authored by an LGBTQ+ writer or featuring LGBTQ+ characters. This month's book is Breathe: Journeys to Healthy Binding by Maia Kobabe and Dr. Sarah Peitzmeier.
Learn more. |
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Teen Advisory Board (T.A.B.)
| Wednesday, May 7 | 4:30pm-5:30pm Hotpick Meeting Room
Our teen advisors meet once a month to help decide which books, movies, and games will be added to the library and what programs will be offered. Food and drinks will be provided.
Learn more. |
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Dungeons & Dragons
| Saturday, May 10 | 3:30pm-5:30pm Library Lab
Come with us on a magical adventure to test your problem solving skills and imagination in a fantasy setting as we learn to play Dungeons and Dragons!
Learn more. |
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Let's Chat in Spanish!
| Tuesday, May 13, 20, 27 | 1:00pm-2:00pm Hotpick Meeting Room
Join us for a weekly program designed to bring together speakers of all levels to practice conversational Spanish in a relaxed, friendly environment.
Learn more. |
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Book Thieves Book Club
| Wednesday, May 14 | 4:30pm-5:30pm Hotpick Meeting Room
The Book Thieves are a group of enthusiastic readers who meet monthly to discuss exciting young adult literature. This month's book is A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson.
Learn more. |
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Middle School Book Club
| Friday, May 16 | 4:30pm-6:00pm Dunaway Community Room
Middle School Book Club is a literary adventure for young readers eager to explore the world of books! This month's book is Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins.
Learn more. |
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Book to Film
| Wednesday, May 21| 4:30pm-6:30pm Teen Area
Watch words come to life on the screen as we watch a movie based on a book and snack on popcorn. This month's showing is The Princess Diaries based on the book by Meg Cabot.
Learn more. |
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Banned Books Book Club
| Tuesday, May 27| 5:30pm-6:30pm Dunaway Community Room
Read materials that have been historically challenged or are on the American Library Association's current challenge list. This month we will discuss the Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey.
Learn more. |
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Teen/Tween Graphic Novel Book Club
| Friday, May 30 | 4:30pm-6:00pm Dunaway Community Room
This book club is dedicated to reading and discussing manga and enjoying Japanese food. This month's books are Spy x Family Volume 1 by Tatsuya Endo and Hunter x Hunter Volume 2 by Yoshihiro Togashi.
Learn more. |
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Young Adult Recommended Reads
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Every month, we highlight stories with a different genre or theme in the Teen Area! These new historical fiction books are the star of the show this May.
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Ida, in Love and in Trouble |
Veronica Chambers |
Before she became a warrior, Ida B. Wells was an incomparable flirt with a quick wit and a dream of becoming a renowned writer. The eldest child of newly freed parents who thrived in a community that pulsated with hope and possibility after the Civil War, Ida had a big heart, big ambitions, and even bigger questions: How to be a good big sister when her beloved parents perish in a yellow fever epidemic? How to launch her career as a teacher? How to make and keep friends in a society that seems to have no place for a woman who speaks her own mind? And – always top of mind for Ida – how to find a love that will let her be the woman she dreams of becoming?
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Where the Heart Should Be |
Sarah Crossan |
Ireland, 1846. Nell is working as a scullery maid in the kitchen of the Big House. Once she loved school and books and dreaming. But there's not much choice of work when the land grows food that rots in the earth. Now she is scrubbing, peeling, washing, sweeping for Sir Philip Wicken, the man who owns her home, her family's land, their crops, everything. His dogs are always well fed, even as famine sets in.
Upstairs in the Big House, where Nell is forbidden to enter, is Johnny Browning, newly arrived from England: the young nephew who will one day inherit it all. And as hunger and disease run rampant all around them, a spark of life and hope catches light when Nell and Johnny find each other. |
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The Queen's Spade |
Sarah Raughley |
The year is 1862 and murderous desires are simmering in England. Nineteen-year-old Sarah Bonetta Forbes (Sally), once a princess of the Egbado Clan, desires one thing above all else: revenge against the British Crown and its system of colonial "humanitarianism," which stole her dignity and transformed her into royal property. From military men to political leaders, she’s vowed to ruin all who’ve had a hand in her afflictions. The top of her list? Her godmother, Britain’s mighty monarch, Queen Victoria herself.
Inspired by the true story of Sarah Forbes Bonetta, Queen Victoria’s African goddaughter. |
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Take a Sad Song |
Ona Gritz |
It's the summer of 1970, and 15-year-old Jane is still reeling from the death of her father. She starts partying to deal with her grief, but a frantic call from her mother leads to her arrest. Jane awaits her hearing with hope, but instead she is sentenced to a yearlong stay at the New York State Training School for Girls. She faces bullying and solitary confinement, and all seems lost. Then she's introduced to the Racket, an underground world of gender role-play, romantic relationships, and chosen families the inmates have created. She befriends and develops deep feelings for fellow inmate Jo-Jo, who shares her love of music. Jane comes to appreciate the complex lives of people she never would have gotten to know on the outside—but she knows that her new family can be taken away in an instant.
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Everything is Poison |
Joy McCullough |
For as long as she can remember, Carmela Tofana has desperately wanted one thing: to be allowed behind the counter of her mother’s apothecary in Campo Marzio, Rome. When she turns sixteen, she’s finally allowed into the inner sanctum: the workroom where her mother, Giulia Tofana, and two assistants craft renowned remedies for their customers. But for every sweet-smelling flower extract in the workroom, there’s another potion requiring darker ingredients. And then there’s Aqua Tofana, the apothecary’s remedy of last resort for husbands who are just as deadly as any disease. In all Carmela’s years of wishing to follow in her mother’s footsteps, she never realized one tiny vial could be the death of them all.
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We Are the Beasts |
Gigi Griffis |
When a series of brutal, mysterious deaths start plaguing the countryside and whispers of a beast in the mountains reach the quiet French hamlet of Mende, most people believe it’s a curse—God’s punishment for their sins. But to sixteen-year-old Joséphine and her best friend, Clara, the beast isn’t a curse. It’s an opportunity. For years, the girls of Mende have been living in a nightmare—fathers who drink, brothers who punch, homes that feel like prisons—and this is a chance to get them out. Using the creature’s attacks as cover, Joséphine and Clara set out to fake their friends’ deaths and hide them away until it’s safe to run. But escape is harder than they thought. If they can’t brave a harsh winter with little food… If the villagers discover what they’re doing… If the beast finds them first... Those fake deaths might just become real ones.
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Volunteer Opportunities at the Library
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Volunteer with youth services
| If you are looking a fun and engaging place to volunteer, considering lending a hand at the Library. If interested, please contact Lily Wymer at lily.wymer@pitkincounty.com or 970-429-1918. |
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Have questions?
| Call 970-429-1900 |
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