





2023 Middle School Titles
New Kid by Jerry Craft | Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordon soon finds himself torn between two worlds–and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordon learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself? |
Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez | What would you do if you had the power to reach through time and space and retrieve anything you want, including your mother, who is no longer living (in this universe, anyway)? Sal doesn’t talk about his ability with anyone. At Culeco, his performing arts middle school, he just chalks it up to being a magician. But when he meets Gabi, the student council president and editor of the school paper, he realizes she is someone with whom he can work. She could use his help, too, because she has a newborn brother on life support. But just because Sal and Gabi can do some interesting things to improve lives, does that mean they should? When things get out of hand, it’s going to require some truly out-of-the-box thinking to set things right. |
The Strangers by Margaret Peterson Haddix | The Greystone kids thought they knew who they were. They’ve been a happy family, just the three of them and their mom. But everything changes when reports of three kidnapped children reach the Greystone kids and they are shocked by the startling similarities between themselves and these complete strangers. The other kids share their first and middle names. They’re the same ages. They even have identical birthdays. Who exactly are these strangers? Before Chess, Emma, and Finn can question their mom about it, she takes off on a sudden work strip and leaves them in the care of Mrs. Morales and her daughter, Natalie. But puzzling clues left behind lead to complex codes, hidden rooms, and a dangerous secret that will turn their world upside down. |
We Dream of Space by Erin Entrada Kelly | Cash, Fitch, and Bird Thomas are three siblings in seventh grade together in Park, Delaware. In 1986, as the country waits expectantly for the launch of the Space Shuttle Challenger, they each struggle with their own personal anxieties. The Thomas children exist in the their own orbits, circling a tense and unpredictable household, with little in common except an enthusiastic science teacher named Ms. Salonga. As the launch of the Challenger approaches, Ms. Salonga gives her students a project for which they are separated into spacecraft crews and must create and complete a mission. When the fated day arrives, it changes all their lives and brings them together in unexpected ways. |
Stand Up, Yumi Chung by Jessica Kim | On the outside, Yumi Chung suffers from #shygirlproblems, a perm-gone-wrong, and kids calling her “Yu-MEAT” because she smells like her family’s Korean barbecue restaurant. On the inside Yumi is ready for her Netflix stand-up special. Her notebook is filled with mortifying memories that she’s reworked into gold. All she needs is a stage and courage. One day, Yumi stumbles on an opportunity that will change her life: a comedy camp for kids taught by one of her favorite YouTube stars. The only problem is that the instructor and all the students think she a girl named Kay Nakamura–and Yumi doesn’t correct them. As this case of mistaken identity unravels, Yumi must decide to stand up and reveal the truth or risk losing her dreams and disappointing everyone she cares about. |
Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston | Amari Peters has never stopped believing her missing brother, Quinton, is alive. Not even when the police told her otherwise, or when she got in trouble for standing up to bullies who said he was gone for good. So when she finds a ticking briefcase in his closet, containing a nomination for a summer tryout at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she’s certain the secretive organization hold the key to locating Quinton–if only she can wrap her head around the idea of magicians, fairies, aliens, and other supernatural creature all being real. |





2023 High School Titles
Flawed by Cecelia Ahern | Celestine North lives a perfect life. She’s a model daughter and sister, she’s well-liked by her classmates and teachers, and she’s dating the impossibly charming Art Crevan. But then Celestine encounters a situation where she makes an instinctive decision. She breaks a rule and now faces life-changing repercussions. She could be imprisoned. She could be branded. She could be found flawed. In her breathtaking young adult debut, bestselling author Cecelia Ahern depicts a society where one woman decides to take a stand that could cost her everything. |
Heartless by Marissa Meyer | Long before she was the terror of Wonderland–the infamous Queen of Hearts–she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. Catherine may be one of the most desired girls in Wonderland, and a favorite of the unmarried King of Hearts, but her interests lie elsewhere. A talented baker, all she wants is to open a shop with her best friend. But her mother thinks this is unthinkable for the young woman who could be queen one day. Then Cath meets Jest, the handsome and mysterious Court Joker. For the first time, she feels the pull of true attraction. At the risk of offending the king and infuriating her parents, she and Jest enter into an intense, secret courtship. Cath is determined to define her own destiny and fall in love on her terms. But in a land thriving with magic, madness, and monsters, fate has other plans. |
Scythe by Neal Schusterman | A world with no hunger, no disease, no war, no misery. Humanity has conquered all those things, and has even conquered death. Not scythes are the only ones who can end life–and they are commanded to do so, in order to keep the size of the population under control. Citra and Rowan are chosen to apprentice to a scythe–a role that neither wants. These teens must master the “art” of taking life, know that the consequence of failure could mean losing their own. |
The Extraordinaries by T.J. Klune | Nick Bell? Not extraordinary. But being the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom is a superpower, right? After a chance encounter with Shadow Star, Nova City’s mightiest hero (and Nick’s biggest crush), Nick sets out to make himself extraordinary. And he’ll do it with or without the reluctant help of Seth Grey, Nick’s best friend (and maybe the love of his life). |
Slay by Brittney Morris | By Day, seventeen-year-old Kiera Johanson is a college student, and one of the only black kids at Jefferson Academy. By night she joins hundreds of thousands of black gamers who duel worldwide in the secret online role-playing card game, SLAY. No one knows Kiera is the game developer–not even her boyfriend, Malcom. But when a teen in Kansas City is murdered over a dispute in the SLAY world, the media labels it an exclusionist, racist hub for thugs. With threats coming from both inside and outside the game, Kiera must fight to save the safe space she’s created. But can she protect SLAY without losing herself? |