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Messy Roots: A Graphic Memoir of a Wuhanese American
by Laura Gao
Lucie says: Gao's graphic novel illustrates the complicated interplay of simultaneously being queer, an artist, an athlete, a Wuhanese American immigrant, a daughter and more. I laughed, I cried, I learned, I pored over the gorgeous full color pages - this book should be winning all the awards.
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In the serpent's wake
by Rachel Hartman
Lucie says: No other fantasy author can rival Hartman for rich worlds and complicated, frustrating, beautiful character growth. I loved getting lost along with Tess and her sea-faring adventurer companions as they pursued a semi-mythical dragon, each following very different motives.
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Queen of the tiles
by Hanna Alkaf
Lucie says: Murder (or accidental death??) meets the world of competitive Scrabble! This classic mystery mixes word puzzles and heated rivalry with nail-biting suspense as Najwa investigates her best friend's death over the course of one weekend. I was in a battle between turning pages faster and trying to figure out who did it!
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The Agathas
by Kathleen Glasgow
Katie says: One small town and one huge mystery! This book has it all, teenage detectives, roller rinks, TONS of Agatha Christie references! If you love a classic mystery story and unlikely friends this book gives it to you. Trigger warning for DV, underage drinking, and murder.
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Only a monster
by Vanessa Len
Katie says: A twist of the classic hero vs. monster tale that leaves the reader wondering who is the real hero and who is the real monster. I fell into Joan's world so fast and loved following her as she figured out who was a friend (hint not always who you would think). If you love a fantasy full of twists this book is for you.
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The book of living secrets
by Madeleine Roux
Caitlyn says: When two girls are suddenly transported into the world of their favorite novel by a mysterious magic shop proprietor, they think they're getting everything they've ever wanted. But their dreams quickly turn to nightmares. Behind the grand balls, sweeping romance, and captivating people is a horror festering at the heart of the story, and if they want to return home, they'll have to defeat the evil that's slowly poisoning the world around them.
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Hell Followed With Us
by Andrew Joseph White
Caitlyn says: This queer horror novel about the end of the world is not for the faint of heart. When a cult unleashes a biological weapon, the world is transformed overnight. Benji, a trans teen raised in the cult, is on the run, trying to escape both the people who raised him, and the horrifying changes the biological attack triggered in his body. Trigger warning for body horror, gore, transphobia, homophobia, religious trauma.
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The Shadow Glass
by Josh Winning
Caitlyn says: No matter what Jack Corman does with his life, he'll never be free of his father's legacy. Bob Corman created 80's cult classic film The Shadow Glass, an epic fantasy complete with magic, monsters, and puppets (think Labyrinth or The Dark Crystal). Returning to his family home after his father's death, Jack finds himself sucked into a battle between good and evil when the film's puppets come to life, intent on world domination. Jack will have to team up with the film's puppet heroes and a ragtag group of super fans to save the day and come to terms with his father's legacy.
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The blood trials
by N. E. Davenport
SandraRosa says: To join the ranks of the elite Praetorian soldiers, Ikenna must endure brutal trials. Her skin color, heritage, and gender make her a target for peers and for those higher up in the ranks. To make matters worse, if anyone finds out that Ikenna has secret blood magic, she will be executed. But the trial, the bigotry, and her blood magic aren't at the forefront of Ikenna's mind. Her main goal is to find out who assassinated her grandfather and do everything in her power to take them down. The problem is that the murderer is likely one of the very people in charge of the increasingly deadly trials. An action-packed, gritty, sci-fi adventure.
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The Summer of Bitter and Sweet
by Jen Ferguson
SandraRosa says: Lou has just finished high school and helps her family run their ice cream shack. When she begins getting letters from her biological father who was recently released from prison, Lou has to figure out how to keep her family and friends safe. Her biological father committed unspeakable crimes and he's threatening to seize her family's land if she doesn't do what she wants. With secrets of her own coming to light, Lou has to make peace with her past, figure out who she trust, and find a way to forgive those who kept truths from her.
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Sea of Tranquility : a novel
by Emily St. John Mandel
Elise says: A quiet but compelling time travel story, brilliantly combining classic sci-fi with imagery from the current pandemic, and small tender human moments across time and space. I couldn't put it down! Character-driven, intricately plotted, and sweeping.
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Our Crooked Hearts
by Melissa Albert
Elise says: If you're looking for a creepy, menacing, and suspenseful story about a mother-daughter reckoning with supernatural forces, this one is for you!
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Lakelore
by Anna-Marie McLemore
Elise says: Anna-Marie McLemore once again excels in tender magical realism. Compelling, lush, and inventive, she creates a mystical underwater world and characters that sing.
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Blackwater
by Jeannette Arroyo
Kit says: A mix of Teen Wolf, Riverdale, and Heartstopper! A paranormal mystery with elements of fantasy, romance, and horror, it follows two young men in a small, mysterious town in Maine as they run into supernatural strangeness and developing feelings for each other.
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Tin Man
by Justin Madson
Kit says: A little bit Iron Giant, a little bit Wizard of Oz, and a little Edward Scissorhands, (which makes it an ideal book for Kit!) After the loss of their grandparents, siblings Solar and Fenn meet a metal man who longs to feel...when all they want to do is get out of their own grief.
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December News - Save the Date: Our Own Expressions
- Spotlight: Apprenticeships
- Booklists: Backlist favorites
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Earn While You Learn Apprenticeships are a great option for people who like to work with their hands and are ready to go to work. They combine college credit courses and paid on-the-job training.
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Find Apprenticeship Preparation Programs
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Find Affiliated Apprenticeship Programs |
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Find booklists by grade level on our website, Check out the booklists below. All titles are available to download or pick up at the library: - Recent Releases
- Backlist Favorites
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Valiant ladies
by Melissa Grey
Two proper 17th-century ladies who trade in their daytime silks and lace for swords and muskets at night, pass their time fighting, gambling, solving murders and falling desperately in love with each another.
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A scatter of light
by Malinda Lo
Sent to California to stay with her grandmother, where she expects to be bored, Aria Tang West instead meets Steph Nichols, her grandmothers gardener, who introduces her to the working-class queer community, prompting her to second guess who she is and what she wants to be.
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Anne of Greenville
by Mariko Tamaki
An ABBA-loving singer/actor/writer of disco-operas, queer, Japanese American Anne starts a new school in middle-of-nowhere Greenville after a series of dramatic and unfortunate events and quickly finds herself wrapped up in a love triangle she never expected.
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Kingdom of the Feared
by Kerri Maniscalco
Desiring to claim her king, the seductive Prince of Wrath, Emilia must first solve the murder of a high-ranking member of House Greed involving her twin sister, pitting her against the most treacherous of foesthe Feared.
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The Sunbearer Trials
by Aiden Thomas
Chosen to participate in The Sunbearer Trials, where the loser is sacrificed to refuel the Sun Stones, Teo, the 17-year-old trans son of the goddess of birds, must compete against more powerful and better trained opponents for fame, glory and his own survival.
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Rainbow and Black 1
by Eri Takenashi
Katie says: It is a slice of life story about a college student who is very rigid in her views of life and the strange pet that ends up teaching her how to see the world in new ways.
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In deeper waters
by F. T. Lukens
Forging an intense connection with a ship stowaway who then leaps overboard, a once-cloistered prince is kidnapped by war-instigating pirates who force him to put the fate of his kingdom in the hands of an alluring stranger.
Katie says: a fun fantasy adventure with a dash of LGBTQ romance mixed in.
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The Grace Year
by Kim Liggett
Caitlyn says: Tierney is 16, the age when girls are sent away from their restrictive society to an encampment in the woods to release their feminine magic before returning purified and ready for marriage. No one knows what happens during this year, only that not all the girls come back alive. This riveting page-turner is part Hunger Games, part Handmaid's Tale, and kept me up way past my bedtime.
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This is how you lose the time war
by Amal El-Mohtar
Caitlyn says: This lyrical novel is told in messages between two operatives on either side of a future time war, who begin to discover they may not be so different. I made myself late to work finishing the audiobook in my car!
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My heart is a chainsaw
by Stephen Graham Jones
Caitlyn says: Slasher movies are Jade's escape from her bleak life - absentee mother, deadbeat alcoholic father, no real prospects now that she's finished high school. Which is why she's the only person in Proofrock, ID who notices when strange things start happening. But is this truly the beginning of a slasher's murderous rampage? Or is Jade as delusional as everyone says? Trigger warnings for physical abuse, substance abuse, violence, and LOTS of gore.
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The girl I used to be
by April Henry
Kit says: Olivia has been in and out of different foster homes for years and struggles to understand the tragic event that threatens to define her; when she was 3, her mother was murdered and her father disappeared, the prime suspect. Now an emancipated minor, Olivia has gotten by on her own with her wits, determination, and well-placed lies. When police show up one day at her door with the news that her father's jaw was found-- years later, and not very far from where her mother's body was found-- Olivia goes on a personal quest to Medford, Oregon to find out the truth about what happened 14 years before.
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The Wee Free Men
by Terry Pratchett
Kit says: Tiffany Aching is a witch-in-training, but it isn't all power and glamor; the work of a witch on The Chalk is about hard labor, helping your community, and being humble in a job where half of the people you help fear you and the other half resent you. Tiffany has to learn to find her own path, face challenges and threats from a place of understanding, and to replace her fears with boldly being herself. Full of humor, danger, unforgettable characters, and, of course, magic, Tiffany's world is full of gentle advice and insights that make the series a great cottagecore read on the couch on a rainy day.
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A skinful of shadows
by Frances Hardinge
Refusing to accept her dubious role as a vessel for ancestral ghosts, an illegitimate daughter who has inherited the ability to be possessed runs away across the English Civil War-torn countryside and befriends a motley crew of outcasts, misfits and criminals.
Elise says: Check out this vivid and unpredictable combination of adventure, coming-of-age, and supernatural intrigue!
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Etiquette & espionage
by Gail Carriger
In an alternate England of 1851, spirited 14-year-old Sophronia is enrolled in a finishing school where, she is surprised to learn, lessons include not only the fine arts of dance, dress and etiquette, but also diversion, deceit and espionage.
Elise says: Full of silly antics and shenanigans. Delightful!
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