Sixteen-year-old Raquel is living in a small town in Portugal, where she must learn to navigate the angst that often comes with being a teenager: her parent’s are divorced, her mother is always working and she doesn’t like her father’s new wife. After being suspended for cursing at a school aide, Raquel meets Pardalita, a gifted artist and senior at her school. As the two girls get to know each other Raquel soon falls in love.
LGBTQI+
Into the Bright Open: A Secret Garden Remix (Remixed Classics, 8)
In this queer re-imaging of “The Secret Garden,” 15-year-old orphan Mary sets off to live in the Georgian Bay wilds where she discovers family secrets both wonderful and horrifying.
This book is part of the Worlds of Words Global Reading List for 2023/24.
Ander And Santi Were Here: A Novel
Nonbinary teen Ander is ready to leave their family’s taquería and focus on their art, but when Santi, an undocumented immigrant from Mexico, begins to work at the restaurant, the two teens spark a romance made complicated by immigration police.
The Days Of Bluegrass Love
Tycho Zeling is drifting through his life. Everything in school, friends, girls, plans for the future, just kind of… happens. Like a movie he presses play on, but doesn’t direct. So Tycho decides to break away from everything. He flies to America to spend his summer as a counselor at a summer camp, for international kids. It is there that Oliver walks in, another counselor, from Norway. And it is there that Tycho feels his life stop, and begin again, finally, as his.
The Family Tree
When her teacher gives her class a simple family tree assignment, Ada is stumped. How can she make her family fit into this simple template?
Ada is adopted. She can see where to put her parents on the tree, but what about her birth mom? Ada has a biological sister, but her sister has different adoptive parents — where do they go on the tree?
With the help of her friends and family, Ada figures it out. She creates her family tree . . . and so much more.
Cemetery Boys
Yadriel, a trans boy, summons the angry spirit of his high school’s bad boy, and agrees to help him learn how he died, thereby proving himself a brujo, not a bruja, to his conservative family.
Valiant Ladies
In Potosí, a silver mining city in the new Spanish viceroyalty of Peru, two teen vigilantes set out to expose corruption and deliver justice after Kiki’s brother is murdered and the prostitute he loved disappears. Includes author’s note.
Nate Plus One
After Nate Haregraves finds out that his ex-boyfriend will be at his cousin’s lavish destination wedding in South Africa, his best friend and secret crush Jai Patel who hopes to convince spotlight shy Nate to front his band at a music contest volunteers to be his plus-one.
Zachary Ying And The Dragon Emperor
After his augmented reality gaming headset is possessed by the spirit of the First Emperor of China, twelve-year-old Chinese American Zack Ying is compelled to travel across China to steal an ancient artifact, fight figures from Chinese history and myth, and seal a portal to prevent malicious spirits from destroying the human realm.
Boys Of The Beast
Three teenage boy cousins on a road trip through California and the Southwest come to terms with truths about their families and themselves.