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The sun's out and Summer Reading is here!! Here's how it works: - Visit Beanstack or download the Beanstack app (Apple /Google Play)
- Read! Read every day. Read books, audiobooks, e-books, magazines, comics – it all counts.
- Track your reading online and become automatically entered to win prizes.
- Earn activity badges and more chances to win!
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Find us on Instagram
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June News - Apply today! Teen Volunteer League
- Call for Submissions: Zine Issue 3
- Announcing: Our Own Expressions
- Booklists: Summer Reads
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Now accepting applications for the 2021 Virtual Teen Volunteer League! Meet with other teens online to create the library community you want to see. Build your resume, earn volunteer service hours, receive training and learn job skills from home with our new virtual volunteer league. Priority deadline: June 4th
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Teen volunteers can expect to receive:- At least 30 hours of community service
- Resume support and job skills trainings
- Mentorship from library staff
- Access to community resources
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Teen volunteers will: - Create book reviews, book-talks, and themed booklists
- Create Instagram posts
- Write blog posts
- Facilitate a virtual program or meeting
- Teach a skill or activity
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The Pocket Art Collective zine Issue 2 Cover by Denaya Dyke
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Open Call for Submissions to The Pocket Art Collective Zine
Pierce County Library is publishing a teen-created zine this summer! Issue 1 is now available to pick up outside all Pierce County Library locations. Thank you to everyone who contributed to our first two issues! We are looking for art, writing, and photography for our third issue to be published in August. To send in a submission: - Read the FAQ below
- Complete the submission form by THURSDAY JUNE 10th
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Find booklists by grade level on our website - Recent Releases
- Creative Characters
- Global Reads
- New LGBTQ+ Fiction
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| Counting Down with You by Tashie BhuiyanWhat it's about: While her traditional Bangladeshi parents are away for a month, responsible Karina agrees to tutor Ace, a classmate with a bad reputation. But then tutoring turns to fake dating, which turns into a real romance -- one that can't continue after Karina's parents return.
Read it for: fun rom-com tropes combined with authentic, well-drawn characters.
You might also like: For another South Asian girl grappling with identity and first love, try Anuradha D. Rajurkar's American Betiya. |
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| Dustborn by Erin BowmanWhat it's about: In the punishing heat of the dry, barren Wastes, 17-year-old Delta sets out on a risky journey to rescue her loved ones from the raiders who kidnapped them while searching for her -- and the priceless map that's branded on her back.
Read it for: the grittiness of an old-school Western combined with the intrigue of a post-apocalyptic dystopian story.
Try this next: Joseph Bruchac's Killer of Enemies series or Moira Young's Dustlands trilogy. |
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| Luck of the Titanic by Stacey LeeThe set-up: In 1912 England, British Chinese Valora Luck sneaks onto a luxury passenger ship bound for America, hoping to reunite with her beloved twin Jamie and convince a famous circus owner to hire them as acrobats.
The twist: the ship they're on is the ill-fated Titanic.
Why you might like it: Val is a clever, adventurous heroine, and the details of her shipboard escapades will keep you fascinated, even as you wait for the inevitable tragedy to strike. |
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| Lycanthropy and Other Chronic Illnesses by Kristen O'NealWhat it's about: After Lyme disease derails her college plans, 19-year-old Priya finds understanding with an online support group and a new friend, Brigid, who has a not-so-typical condition: she's a werewolf.
Read it for: a refreshing new perspective on werewolf stories and an own voices portrayal of living with illness and disability.
Reviewers say: "A heartwarming, quirky take on chronic illness in all its hairy detail" (Kirkus Reviews). |
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| She Drives Me Crazy by Kelly QuindlenWhat it's about: Basketball player Scottie usually tries to avoid mean, beautiful cheerleading captain Irene. But if bribing Irene into posing as her girlfriend will help Scottie get revenge on the ex who broke her heart, then Scottie's willing to put up with the annoyance.
Why you might like it: This hating-to-dating romance features an inclusive cast of characters and a hopeful, banter-filled tone that's sure to hook fans of rom-com movies. |
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Creative Characters Books featuring creative and artistic characters who color their world. |
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Super Fake Love Song
by David Yoon
One tiny lie: Even though he prefers D&D and cosplay to loud music, 17-year-old Sunny Dae doesn't correct Cirrus Soh, the impossibly cool new girl, when she mistakenly thinks he's in a rock band.
One big mess: Getting closer to Cirrus leads Sunny to keep up the deception, and as he forms a makeshift band and pretends to be confident, he almost believes it himself...until his scheme falls apart.
Read it for: smart humor, authentic guy friendships, and hard-won self-realization.
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Piecing Me Together
by Renée Watson
Starring: aspiring collage artist Jade, who lives in a poor, mostly black neighborhood and goes to a fancy, mostly white high school.
What happens: After being invited into a mentoring program for "at-risk" African American girls, Jade (who doesn't feel particularly "at-risk") is matched with an unhelpful mentor, prompting her to explore success on her own terms.
Why fans might like it: Jade, like Starr, has to juggle two social identities while trying to stay true to herself.
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An Enchantment of Ravens
by Margaret Rogerson
What it's about: At first, fairy prince Rook is outraged by human artist Isobel's too-insightful portrait of him. Yet when the two are forced to become allies, hostility gives way to forbidden love.
What’s inside: a bold heroine, breathtaking romantic tension, thrilling action, and unexpected twists.
Why you might like it: Flashes of humor (such as Isobel’s kid sisters, who were transformed from literal goats) lighten this lush, gripping tale.
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Picture Us in the Light
by Kelly Loy Gilbert
Starring: high school senior and second-generation immigrant Danny Cheng, whose excitement about his art-school scholarship dims as his parents begin acting strange and his tight-knit friend group implodes.
Why you might like it: If you enjoy character-driven reads, you'll be drawn to snarky, sympathetic Danny and his attempts to deal with grief, guilt, identity, family secrets, and love (romantic and otherwise).
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Eliza and Her Monsters
by Francesca Zappia
What it’s about: No one at school knows that friendless, introverted Eliza is also LadyConstellation, creator of the popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza never has cause to question her careful anonymity -- at least not until she bonds with Wallace, a new classmate and Monstrous Sea superfan.
Including: illustrated pages from Monstrous Sea, as well as snippets of Wallace’s fanfic.
Further reading: For another thoughtful story featuring the particular challenges of internet fame, pick up Alice Oseman’s Radio Silence.
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Global Reads Read around the world.
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War girls
by Tochi Onyebuchi
A tale set in Nigeria follows the experiences of two sisters in a 22nd-century world devastated by war and climate change who fight against violence and political unrest to secure a safe and peaceful life together. By the author of Crown of Thunder.
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Want
by Cindy Pon
A tale set in a heavily polluted Taipei of the near future follows the efforts of a group of teens to save their city in the face of social divisions that enable the wealthy to secure long, protected lives while the poor suffer illness and early death.
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Patron Saints of Nothing
by Randy Ribay
What it’s about: Filipino American Jay is shocked and grief-stricken by the murder of his Filipino cousin, Jun -- how could someone like Jun get mixed up in the vigilante violence of President Duterte’s war on drugs? Fed up with his secretive family, Jay travels from the U.S. to the Philippines in search of answers.
Who it’s for: readers in search of gripping family drama and unflinching, own voices insights into Filipino politics and growing up bicultural.
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The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali
by Sabina Khan
Starring: seventeen-year-old Rukhsana, who’s been hiding her girlfriend, Ariana, and her dreams of studying at Caltech from her conservative Muslim parents.
What happens: After she’s caught kissing Ariana, Rukhsana’s parents ship her off to Bangladesh, where she’s forced to grapple with new complications as she searches for a way to stay true to herself without losing her family.
Who it’s for: readers in search of true-to-life characters navigating intersecting cultures and identities.
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I love you so mochi
by Sarah Kuhn
Eagerly visiting her estranged grandparents in Japan to distance herself from the mother who disapproves of her fashion ambitions, a talented young designer immerses herself in Kyoto's markets and cherry blossom festival and bonds with a cute med student while uncovering illuminating family secrets.
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New LGBTQ+ Fiction Read the rainbow.
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Last Night at the Telegraph Club
by Malinda Lo
Welcome to: San Francisco's Chinatown, 1954, where 17-year-old Lily Hu dreams of space travel, but finds a different kind of exhilaration at a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club.
What happens: Even as she finds herself and falls for her new friend Kath, Lily faces strict parental expectations at home and racism outside of her Chinese American community.
Why you might like it: Packed with immersive historical details and heartfelt emotion, this own voices story offers a complex look at identity and belonging.
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Meet cute diary
by Emery Lee
"Noah Ramirez thinks he's an expert on romance. He has to be for his popular blog, the Meet Cute Diary, a collection of trans happily ever afters. There's just one problem; all the stories are fake...When a troll exposes the blog as fiction, Noah's worldunravels. The only way to save the Diary is to convince everyone that the stories are true, but he doesn't have any proof. Then Drew walks into Noah's life, and the pieces fall into place"
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A Complicated Love Story Set in Space
by Shaun David Hutchinson
Featuring: Noa, Jenny, and DJ, three Earth teens who wake up on a deserted spaceship with no memories of how they got there.
What happens: The ship's Quantum Fold Drive keeps catapulting the trio randomly across space and into outlandish situations, leaving Noa and DJ doubting the reality of their romance, and leaving all three wondering if they'll ever get home.
Who it's for: Simultaneously funny and profound, this love story will resonate with readers who prefer offbeat science fiction.
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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.
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Sweet & bitter magic
by Adrienne Tooley
Exiled and cursed never to love, the most powerful witch in a generation steals small amounts of love from others before encountering a rare girl who offers to use her own secret magic to stop the dark witch behind a deadly plague.
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One of the Good Ones
by Maika Moulite and Maritza Moulite
What it's about: After activist and up-and-coming YouTuber Kezi dies as a result of police violence, her shattered sisters join her best friend and her secret girlfriend on a road trip that Kezi planned using a vintage copy of The Negro Motorist Green Book.
Read it for: multiple perspectives on family, loss, connection, and so-called respectability.
Try this next: For another own voices journey through grief and sisterhood, try Elizabeth Acevedo's Clap When You Land.
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Contact your librarian for more great books for ages 14 and up!
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