This book is a gothic twist on the fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princess. It follows Annaleigh who is one of 12 sisters living in a manor on an isolated island. When death befalls her sisters one by one, Analeigh must do what she can to find out what is plaguing her family before any more harm can come upon the rest of them. The story is a dark fairy tale and romance full of magic, ghosts, and nightmares. 

The story follows Ana, a sixteen-year old from Argentina who recently moves with her mom to New Jersey to reunite with her father. As Ana, who does not speak much English, struggles to speak and understand the new language in a new country, she forms friendships with other teens at school and even falls in love. The story captures Ana’s confusions and frustrations with the new language amid a new culture with warmth and humor. It’s an inspiring story about  fitting in and finding your voice. 

Seventeen-year-old Cristian is blackmailed into becoming an informant for the Romanian communist regime.  This book is a historical thriller set at a time when spies are everywhere and no one is safe. 

It’s a coming-of-age story about the experiences of the main character, Riley, who suffers from anxiety and identifies as gender fluid or nonbinary. As Riley navigates his new school, he makes friends with Solo, who is bullied because of his love of Star Wars, and Bec, whose sister is transgender. As part of a therapy, Riley starts an anonymous blog, but when the blog goes viral, he must decide if he wants to come out or risk everything. 

This is a prequel set in the Hunger Games universe but can stand as its own story. It shows the origins of the Games but focuses on ambitious eighteen-year old Coriolanus Snow, the villain in the Hunger Games series, as a mentor to a female tribute.  It’s a captivating and suspenseful story that explores the evolution of the complex character of Snow and the tragic consequences of his choices. 

This is a novel set in a post-apocalyptic world caused by global warming where people have lost their ability to dream. Because only the North American Indigenous people are still able to dream, they are hunted and killed for their bone marrow which holds the key to recovering people’s ability to dream. This engaging story is told from the point of view of Frenchie, a sixteen-year old boy, who has to hide with a group of indigenous survivors and must travel north towards safety. 

It is a story of courage and survival based on the childhood of the author’s aunt who was one of the only 12 children who survived in the Lodz ghetto in Poland during the Holocaust. It brings to light the harrowing experiences of her Aunt Syvia and of other Jews amidst deprivation and cruelty in the hands of the Nazis. 

A heartbreaking thriller that follows seventeen-year old Safiya Mirza, an Indian American journalism student, as she investigates the murder of fourteen-year old Jawad Ali, a son of Iraqi refugees. This engaging story is not just Safiya’s but also Jawad’s, whose homemade jetpack his teacher mistook for a bomb. 

     Written by Angie Thomas, the book follows sixteen-year-old Starr Carter who lives in a poor predominantly African-American neighborhood and goes to school in an affluent predominantly white suburban school. Starr talks about being two different people depending on where she is and who she is interacting with. Her situation becomes more complicated after witnessing her childhood friend, who is unarmed, get shot by a police officer. Being the lone witness, Starr is faced with two tough choices: stay quiet or  come out and tell the truth.

      The story captures Starr's struggles with the tragic death of her childhood friend and finding her voice in a world where speaking the truth can have equally tragic consequences. The powerful depictions of the characters - the parents' love for their children, the sense of community, and the courage of the protagonist leave readers with a ray of hope. It is a timely coming-of-age story -  heart-wrenching but heart-warming as well and definitely provocative.

       Nicola Yoon's book is a charming love story about two immigrant teenagers who meet each other on the day one of them is scheduled to be deported. On her way to see a lawyer, Natasha, who has lived in New York for most of her life but is about to be deported back to Jamaica, meets Daniel, a Korean-American. The story, told in alternating points of view mostly between Natasha and Daniel, illustrates how the protagonists' cultures  shape their attitudes and behaviors. The events surrounding their meeting convince the poetry-loving Daniel that fate has brought them together, but convincing the level-headed Natasha proves to be a challenge.

       When Jessica,  who loves to run and competes in her school track team, gets into an accident and loses her leg, she is crushed and thinks that her running dream is over. As she goes through the process of grieving, of denial, of anger and of hopelessness and of finally coming to terms with the loss of her leg, she learns to see things from other people's perspectives and befriends a classmate who has cerebral palsy and whose existence she did not notice before the accident. While Jessica is recovering and trying to get back on the track, her family and friends come together to raise money to get her a "blade leg," so she can run again.

       An inspiring story of loss, friendship, courage, and acceptance by Wendelin Van Draanen.