Best of 2020: Teen Fiction | SWAN Consortium

Author

Notes

“If you like thrillers and adventure fiction books then this story of survival is for you!”—Darcel, Teen Services Specialist

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

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The world is not tame. Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof. So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her running into the night, stopped only by a nasty fall into a ravine. Morning brings the...

2) The Black Flamingo

Author

Atta, Dean

Notes

“This novel-in-verse is absolutely stunning, and Michael is a character I won't soon forget.”—Jenna, Collection Management Librarian

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

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"Michael is a mixed-race gay teen growing up in London. All his life, he's navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican--but never quite feeling Greek or Black enough. As he gets older, Michael's coming out is only the start of learning who he is and where he fits in. When he discovers the Drag Society, he finally finds where he belongs--and the Black Flamingo is born. Told with raw honesty, insight, and lyricism, this debut explores the...

3) Clap when you land

Author

Acevedo, Elizabeth

Notes

“This is a beautiful novel about grief, love, and the difficulty of forgiveness.”—Darcel, Teen Services Specialist

Formats:

Book, Large Print, Audiobook CD, Pre-loaded Audio

Description

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Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people ... In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance -- and Papi's secrets -- the two girls are forced to...

4) Felix ever after

Author

Callender, Kacen

Notes

“A book about feelings, being LGBTQ+, and love, and all the good and complicated associated.”—Megha, Children's Services Library Assistant

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

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Felix Love has never been in love, painful irony that it is. He desperately wants to know why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. He is proud of his identity, but fears that he's one marginalization too many-- Black, queer, and transgender. When an anonymous student begins sending him transphobic messages-- after publicly posting Felix's deadname alongside images of him before he transitioned-- Felix comes up with a plan for revenge....

5) Goddess in the machine

Author

Johnson, Lora Beth

Notes

“Sci-fi fantasy mixed with a bit of fairytale tropes. Great for anyone interested in female protagonists, futuristic adventures, or classic fairytale format.”—Alexander, Teen Services Librarian

Description

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Bound for humanity's new colony planet, seventeen-year-old Andra wakes up from a cryogenic sleep 1,000 years later than scheduled, forcing her to navigate an unfamiliar planet where technology is considered magic and its practitioners revered as deities.

6) Grown: a novel

Author

Jackson, Tiffany D

Notes

“Powerful and impossible to put down. Pairs especially well with the docuseries Surviving R. Kelly.”—Jenna, Collection Development Librarian

Formats:

Book, Large Print, Audiobook CD, Pre-loaded Audio

Description

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"When legendary R & B artist Korey Fields sports Enchanted Jones at an audition, Chanty's dreams of being a famous singer take flight. Until she wakes up with blood on her hands and zero memory of the previous night. Who killed Korey Fields? Before there was a dead body, Enchanted's dreams had turned into a nightmare, because behind Korey's charm and star power was a controlling dark side. Now he's dead, the police are at the door, and all signs point...

7) The invincible summer of Juniper Jones

Author

McQueen, Daven

Notes

“Fantastic novel that explores racial discrimination through the lens of a teen in the 1950s.”—Alexander, Teen Services Librarian

Description

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It's the summer of 1955. For Ethan Harper, a biracial kid raised mostly by his white father, race has always been a distant conversation. When he's sent to spend the summer with his aunt and uncle in small-town Alabama, his blackness is suddenly front and center, and no one is shy about making it known he's not welcome there. Enter Juniper Jones. The town's resident oddball and free spirit, she's everything the townspeople aren't--open, kind, and...

8) Lobizona

Author

Garber, Romina

Series

Wolves of no world volume 1

Notes

“Magic and werewolves and stuffy British boarding schools are nowhere in sight. But ICE is.”—Genevieve, Children's Services Librarian

Description

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"When her mother is arrested by ICE, sixteen-year-old Argentinian Manu -- who thinks she is hiding in a Miami apartment because she is an undocumented immigrant -- discovers that her entire existence is illegal." -- As an undocumented immigrant on the run from her father's Argentine crime-family, Manuela Azul is confined to a small apartment and a small life in Miami, Florida. Then her surrogate grandmother is attacked, lifelong lies are exposed,...

9) Shadow of the Batgirl

Author

Kuhn, Sarah

Series

Shadow of the Batgirl

Notes

"I'm usually a Marvel person, but if anything would convert me to DC it's this. Characterization is great, plot is fascinating, and it handles race and disability really well. Plus, excellent librarian representation.“—Shelley, Children's Services Librarian

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Cassandra Cain is the daughter of super-villains and a living weapon trained to be the ultimate assassin, but when her father threatens the world she has grown to love, she will have to overcome that voice inside her head telling her she can never be a hero.

10) A song of wraiths and ruin

Author

Brown, Roseanne A

Series

Song of wraiths and ruin

Notes

“This teen fantasy inspired by West African folklore pulled me out of a reading slump, and I haven't stopped thinking about it since. I am anxiously awaiting the sequel.”—Jenna, Collection Development Librarian

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

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"For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts his younger sister, Nadia, as payment to enter the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal--kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia's freedom. But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny;...

11) You should see me in a crown

Author

Johnson, Leah

Series

Thorndike Press large print striving reader collection

Notes

“Such a fun contemporary teen novel that focuses on inclusivity, anxiety, queer narratives, and chronic illness. While that all sounds heavy this novel unfolds like a gift to be savored.”—Rose, Adult Services Librarian

Formats:

Book, Large Print, Audiobook CD

Description

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Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school, after all, her family is black and rather poor, especially since her mother died; instead she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through...