Top Titles

 

1. Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Love is a big theme in this book by Ellen Hopkins. Main character is Pattyn von Stratten a 16 year old Mormon girl who grapples with questioning the role of women in the church. She has many siblings and as the eldest daughter is expected to help out tremendously around her home, home ridden with domestic violence and alcoholism. She gets caught up in trouble in school and is sent with her independent aunt for a summer where she discovers the love for the outdoors,  self -confidence, her first love and learns to drive. There is a twist of events as she is asked to return home,  as she tries to escape her father and reunite with her summer love due to an unexpected pregnancy, but tragedy gets in the way. 

2. Chlorine Sky by Mahogany L. Browne

Friendship breakup is a major theme in this book. The main character, Sky navigates the impact this relationship she loses with her best friend while in high school, discovering a crush and the way her love for the ball game (basketball) helps her navigate life as a young Black teen girl.   Although she is greatly impacted losing her best friend in school (due to miscommunication and growing apart) and expresses her grief, she manages and moves on. She finds a new friend and as well comes with a stronger sense of self in the midst of it all, and budding self worth that is not worth compromising even for friendship. 

3. Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds 

This book is about a teenager going through grief after his older brother is murder to gun violence. Will, the main character enters the elevator of his apartment building, with a gun hidden in his pants, and in each floor meets people who all have passed to gun violence. All of them engage in conversation with Will about his idea to seek revenge. You find out tremendously about the main character, Will with each of the character speaking to him (they are ghosts) and the ways violence in the streets have impacted much of his life and taken numerous people from him, unjustly. 

4. When You Ask Me Where I'm Going by Jasmin Kaur 

A big theme in this book is identity, specifically the Punjabi identity. A book of poetry prose (verse novel)  and  simple yet beautiful illustrations connected to the text. The base of the story is about a young immigrant mother who is working to leave her history, one of sexual assault among other traumas, to raiser her daughter in North America. Topics included are love, race, feminisms and motherhood. 

5. Me (Moth) by Amber McBride 

Granddaughter of a hoodo root worker, book engages with the themes of grief, connection to ancestry and first love. Moth and her family were involved in a car accident where they were  killed, except for Moth (later there is an interesting twist of events that show a different reality). Moth lives with her aunt who is grappling with alcoholism. She meets a classmate who automatically connects with and together engage in an adventure where they learn, more about their ancestors.  

6. Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo 

This book is about two sisters connecting over the death of their father. A book with a major element of grief as they learn about their father, and each other due to his death. This story of family secrets. Themes of sexual assault, betrayal, sisterhood and Dominican identity are delved into. 

7. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo 

Book is about a young woman named Xiomara who is grappling with her identify as a young Dominican-American woman in Harlem, issues of body consciousnesses and surviving being objectified and othered because of her body type.  Her mother is religious and has her own ideas as to how Xiomara should behave, and the book explores the theme of coming into your own, against parent's wishes. As she deals with that mother/daughter fraught relationship she joins her school's poetry slam club where she realizes she must speak up and come into her own. 

8. The Black Flamingo by Dean Atta 

Book is about a Michael, a who is coming to terms with his sexuality. He is of Greek and Jamaican heritage, and grapples with the in between of these worlds, with race, sexuality, and gender expression.  Themes of family betrayal due to homophobia (by his father), heteronormativity, and being bold in who you are, are major themes in this book.  He has an interesting relationship to his mother, loving nevertheless but also complex. A book of self-discovery and remaining true to oneself. 

9. Every Body Looking by Candice Iloh 

Is about Ada, a Nigerian-American teen who explores her sexuality, tensions with expectations from her family and society, and finding who she is.   She leaves her family home her freshman year to a HBU, where she grapples with making her own choices, through dance she begins to discover more the freedom she seeks. She grapples with her past, and learning to let go of its heaviness in order for her to her to get in touch with her own magic and power. 

10. Home is Not a Country by Safia Elhillo  

Nima is a 14-year-old immigrant Muslim  kid raised by a single mother.  She grapples with being working class,  her father's whereabouts, issues of Islmaphobia in suburban America. and not living up to her mother's expectations, at  least in her mind. Themes of being bullied for her heritage, and she finds comfort in music although she is finding home and nostalgic about the world her and her mother left behind in Sudan, and making her way in the new place she is trying to make home in.