Dear Manny

Nic Stone

Jared Peter Christensen is running for president (of the Junior Class Council at his university, but still). His platform is solid—built on increased equity and inclusion in all sectors of campus life—and he’s got a good chance of beating the deeply conservative business major he’s running against.

But then a transfer student enters the race and calls Jared out for his big-talk/little-action way of moving. But what’s the right way to bring about change? As the campaign heats up, feelings are caught, and juicy secrets come to light, and Jared writes letters to his deceased friend Manny, hoping to make sense of his confusion. What’s a white boy to do when love and politics collide?

PUBLISHED: March 2025

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY (fly in): Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: white privilege, race relations

Punching the Air

Ibi Zoboi 

Amal Shahid has always been an artist and a poet. But even in a diverse art school, because of a biased system he’s seen as disruptive and unmotivated. Then, one fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighborhood escalates into tragedy. “Boys just being boys” turns out to be true only when those boys are white. 

Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it? 

PUBLISHED: Dec 2021

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: coming of age, wrongful conviction, Prison Industrial Complex, school to prison pipeline 

Nigeria Jones: A Novel

Ibi Zoboi 

Warrior Princess. That’s what Nigeria Jones’s father calls her. He has raised her as part of the Movement, a Black separatist group based in Philadelphia. Nigeria is homeschooled and vegan and participates in traditional rituals to connect her and other kids from the group to their ancestors. But when her mother—the perfect matriarch of their Movement—disappears, Nigeria’s world is upended. She finds herself taking care of her baby brother and stepping into a role she doesn’t want.

Nigeria’s mother had secrets. She wished for a different life for her children, which includes sending her daughter to a private Quaker school outside of their strict group. Despite her father’s disapproval, Nigeria attends the school with her cousin, Kamau, and Sage, who used to be a friend. ­There, she begins to flourish and expand her universe.

As Nigeria searches for her mother, she starts to uncover a shocking truth. One that will lead her to question everything she thought she knew about her life and her family.

PUBLISHED: May 2023

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: prejudice, racism, traditions, Liberation 

Promise Boys

Nick Brooks 

The prestigious Urban Promise Prep school might look pristine on the outside, but deadly secrets lurk within. When the principal ends up murdered on school premises and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of students―J.B., Ramón, and Trey―emerge as the prime suspects. They had the means, they had the motive . . . and they may have had the murder weapon. But with all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. Or is the true culprit hiding among them?

PUBLISHED: Jan 2023

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY (Fly in): Spring

THEMES: murder mystery, wrongfully accused

Up in Smoke

Nick Brooks 

After Cooper King is pressured by big brother figure Jason to go on a looting spree during a local march, the unthinkable happens: gunshots ring in the air and someone ends up dead. After Cooper flees, the news shows four teens in ski masks near the scene of the murder―Cooper and his friends. Cooper fears the cops will come knocking at his door, and the pressure only mounts when a suspect is taken into custody: Jason.

Monique, Jason's sister and Cooper's longtime crush, is willing to go any length to clear her brother's name. Even if she needs to go into the belly of the beast and confront the killer herself. When she teams up with Cooper, they fall down the investigation rabbit hole and start to fall for each other. But little does Monique know that within this web of deception, Cooper is shrouding the truth that he was there when the shots went off. If the pair fail to uncover the real murderer, Jason will get locked up for a crime he didn't commit―and drag down Cooper with him.

PUBLISHED: May 2025

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY (Fly in): Spring

THEMES: love story, mystery, wrongfully accused

Love Radio 

Ebony LaDelle 

Prince Jones is the guy with all the answers—or so it seems. After all, at seventeen, he has his own segment on Detroit’s popular hip-hop show, Love Radio, where he dishes out advice to the brokenhearted.

Prince has always dreamed of becoming a DJ and falling in love. But being the main caretaker for his mother, who has multiple sclerosis, and his little brother means his dreams will stay just that and the only romances in his life are the ones he hears about from his listeners. Until he meets Dani Ford.

Dani isn’t checking for anybody. She’s focused on her plan: ace senior year, score a scholarship, and move to New York City to become a famous author. But her college essay keeps tripping her up and acknowledging what’s blocking her means dealing with what happened at that party a few months ago. And that’s one thing Dani can’t do.

When the romantic DJ meets the ambitious writer, sparks fly. Prince is smitten, but Dani’s not looking to get derailed. She gives Prince just three dates to convince her that he’s worth falling for. Three dates for the love expert to take his own advice, and just maybe change two lives forever.

PUBLISHED: May 2022

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY (Local): Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: Mental health, Sexual assault

The Secret Summer Promise

Keah Brown

Andrea Williams has got this. The Best Summer Ever. Last summer, she spent all her time in bed, recovering from the latest surgery for her cerebral palsy. She’s waited too long for adventure and thrills to enter her life. Together with her crew of ride-or-die friends, and the best parents anyone could ask for (just don’t tell them that), she’s going to live it up.

There’s just one thing that could ruin it: Her best friend, Hailee, finding out Andrea’s true feelings. So Andrea WILL fall out of love with Hailee – even if it means dating the cute boy George who keeps showing up everywhere with a smile.

Do we want Andrea to succeed? No! Does she? We’re not telling!

PUBLISHED: June 2023

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: LGBTQ, queer love, friendship, identity

Golden Ax

Rio Cortez

In poems that range from wry, tongue-in-cheek observations about contemporary life to more nuanced meditations on her ancestors—some of the earliest Black pioneers to settle in the western United States after Reconstruction—Golden Ax invites readers to re-imagine the West, Black womanhood, and the legacies that shape and sustain the pursuit of freedom.

PUBLISHED: Aug 2022

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY: Fall, Spring, Summer

THEMES: Afrofuturism, Black womanhood, Black pioneers

Camila Núñez's Year of Disasters

Miriam Zoila Pérez 

Cuban American Camila Núñez has always been afraid of the future. She’s been working hard to keep her anxieties in check, but with so many new experiences―her first queer love, trouble with her dog walking job, her mother’s judgments about her body, learning to drive, her father being too busy with work―there’s just so much to worry about.

So when Camila’s best friend gives her a tarot card reading for her sixteenth birthday, she believes it when the cards predict terrible things to come. As the year unfolds, the cards seem to be spot-on―is her papi having an affair? Will her best friend’s love life ruin their friendship? Are all her relationships doomed to fail?

PUBLISHED: March 2025

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY (Fly in): Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: coming of age, mental health, queer identity

Vinyl Moon

Mahogany L. Browne  

When Darius told Angel he loved her, she believed him. But five weeks after the incident, Angel finds herself in Brooklyn, far from her family, from him, and from the California life she has known.

Angel feels out of sync with her new neighborhood. At school, she can’t shake the feeling everyone knows what happened—and that it was her fault. The only place that makes sense is Ms. G’s class. There, Angel’s classmates share their own stories of pain, joy, and fortitude. And as Angel becomes immersed in her revolutionary literature course, the words from Black writers like Toni Morrison, James Baldwin, and Zora NEale Hurston speak to her and begin to heal the wounds of her past.

PUBLISHED: Jan 2022

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY: Fall, Winter, Spring

THEMES: Domestic Violence, Creativity

A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe

Mahogany L. Browne  

Grief, pain, hope, and love collide in this short story collection.

In New York City, teens, their families, and their communities feel the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic. Amidst the fear and loss, these teens and the adults around them persevere with love and hope while living in difficult circumstances.

PUBLISHED: March 2025

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY: Fall, Winter, Spring

THEMES: covid-19, resilience, community, pandemic

The Girl You Know

Elle Gonzalez Rose 

The week before Luna's twin sister Solina was supposed to head back for her final semester at Kingswood Academy, an elite boarding school in the Washington mountains, she told Luna she was dropping out. When Luna refused to let her throw away her future, Solina disappeared.

Twelve hours later, she was dead.

Luna knows Solina's death wasn't an accident, even if the police say otherwise. There's a reason Solina didn't want to go back to Kingswood, and Luna knows she'll find the truth there. All she has to do is become Solina. Playing Solina comes easy, but finding answers is far from it. Between the cunning, cruel people Solina called her friends, Luna's budding feelings for her roommate Claudia, and the harsh realization that Solina had dark secrets, getting to the bottom of her sister's murder is more difficult than Luna could have ever anticipated. But when you have nothing left to lose, you're willing to do anything to get what you want. There's no limit to how far Luna will go to avenge her sister-even if she has to burn all of Kingswood to the ground.

PUBLISHED: Feb 2025

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY (local): Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: murder mystery, family, grief

Full Disclosure

Camryn Garrett 

Simone is HIV-positive - and positive HIV won't define her.

She also knows that celibacy is - techincally - the best way to stay safe. Enter Miles Austin: intelligent, funny and way too sexy for Simone to resist. But her classmates don't know that she's HIV-positive - and what is the truth worth in the hands of the wrong person?

PUBLISHED: Oct 2019

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY (local): Fall, Winter

THEMES: HIV; LGBTQ; POC; mental illness

Red Hot Salsa

Carlos Aguasaco

• A collection of both Spanish and English poems illuminating the experiences of Latinx Americans. 

• An inside look at food, culture, language, triumph, and hope.

PUBLISHED: April 2005

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY (local): Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: Spanish Edition, Cultural Affirmation, Poetry, Identity 

PROJECT OPTIONS

Create a poem about a neighborhood you love

Black Enough: Stories of Being Young & Black in America

Ibi Zoboi 

Edited by National Book Award finalist Ibi Zoboi, and featuring some of the most acclaimed bestselling Black authors writing for teens today—Black Enough is an essential collection of captivating stories about what it’s like to be young and Black in America. A

PUBLISHED: January 2019

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: mental health, family dynamics, LGBTQ, gender, Black youth

Concrete Kids 

Amyra León

Concrete Kids is an exploration of love and loss, melody and bloodshed. Musician, playwright, and educator Amyra León takes us on a poetic journey through her childhood in Harlem, as she navigates the intricacies of foster care, mourning, self-love, and resilience. In her signature free-verse style, she invites us all to dream with abandon--and to recognize the privilege it is to dream at all.

PUBLISHED: October 2020

AUTHOR AVAILABILITY: Fall, Winter, Spring, Summer

THEMES: foster care system, resilience, self-love, self-care, poetry, SEL