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White Smoke

Tiffany D. Jackson

The Haunting of Hill House meets Get Out in this chilling YA psychological thriller and modern take on the classic haunted house story from New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson!

Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper.

The renovated picture-perfect home on Maple Street, sitting between dilapidated houses, surrounded by wary neighbors has its . . . secrets. That's only half the problem: household items vanish, doors open on their own, lights turn off, shadows walk past rooms, voices can be heard in the walls, and there's a foul smell seeping through the vents only Mari seems to notice. Worse: Piper keeps talking about a friend who wants Mari gone.

But "running from ghosts" is just a metaphor, right?

As the house closes in, Mari learns that the danger isn't limited to Maple Street. Cedarville has its secrets, too. And secrets always find their way through the cracks.

* An Amazon Best Book of the Month * Parade's Best YA Books of the Year * Indigo Best Books of the Year * SLJ Best Books of the Year * Kirkus Best Books of the Year * A YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults Book of the Year *

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Simone Breaks All the Rules

Debbie Rigaud

Perfect for fans of You Should See Me in a Crown and Never Have I Ever, this hilarious and heartfelt rom-com from bestselling author Debbie Rigaud is pure Black girl joy.

 

Simone Thibodeaux is about to switch things up.

 

Check her life: It’s sealed in a boy-proof container. Her Haitian immigrant parents send Simone to an all-girls high school and enforce strict no-dating rules. As for prom? Simone is allowed to go on one condition: Her parents will select her date (a boy from a nice, Haitian immigrant family, obviously).

 

Simone is desperate to avoid the setup -- especially since she has a serious crush on another boy. It's time to take action. Simone and her fellow late-bloomer friends make a senior year bucket list of all the wild things they haven't done yet. Like: going out dancing, skipping class (what), and oh yeah -- deciding their own prom destinies.

 

But as the list takes on a life of its own, things get much messier than Simone expected. Can she figure out which rules are worth breaking and which might save her from heartbreak?

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The Weight of the Stars

K. Ancrum

"A YA romance about girls and stars and friendship. . . . and what we owe each other and what we give away to lift each other up . . . a masterpiece" —Seanan McGuire, New York Times–bestselling author of Every Heart a Doorway 
Ryann Bird dreams of traveling across the stars. But a career in space isn't an option for a girl who lives in a trailer park on the "wrong" side of town. So Ryann settles for acting out and skipping school to hang out with her delinquent friends. 
One day she meets Alexandria: a furious loner who spurns Ryann's offer of friendship. After a horrific accident leaves Alexandria with a broken arm, the girls are brought together despite themselves—and Ryann learns her secret: Alexandria's mother is an astronaut who volunteered for a one-way trip to the edge of the solar system. 
Every night without fail, Alexandria waits to catch radio signals from her mother. And now it's up to Ryann to lift her onto the roof day after day until the silence between them grows into friendship, and eventually something more. 
The Weight of the Stars is the new LGBQT+ young adult romance from K. Ancrum, written with the same style of short, micro-fiction chapters and immediacy that garnered acclaim for her debut, The Wicker King
"As bright as it is stellar . . . a story with a lush, dark atmosphere; heartbreaking circumstances; bright, new love that blossoms from ugliness; and vividly real, magnetic characters." — Booklist, starred review 
"Touches on sexual identity, friendship, nontraditional families, and the price of human space exploration. . . . a satisfying read." — Kirkus Reviews 
"Their slow-burn romance . . . is sweetly, devastatingly understated." — The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

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Bright Red Fruit

Safia Elhillo

An unflinching, honest novel in verse about a teenager's journey into the slam poetry scene and the dangerous new relationship that could threaten all her dreams. From the award-winning poet and author of HOME IS NOT A COUNTRY.

Bad girl. No matter how hard Samira tries, she can’t shake her reputation. She’s never gotten the benefit of the doubt—not from her mother or the aunties who watch her like a hawk.

Samira is determined to have a perfect summer filled with fun parties, exploring DC, and growing as a poet—until a scandalous rumor has her grounded and unable to leave her house. When Samira turns to a poetry forum for solace, she catches the eye of an older, charismatic poet named Horus. For the first time, Samira feels wanted. But soon she’s keeping a bigger secret than ever before—one that that could prove her reputation and jeopardize her place in her community.

In this gripping coming-of-age novel from the critically acclaimed author Safia Elhillo, a young woman searches to find the balance between honoring her family, her artistry, and her authentic self.

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Road Home

Rex Ogle

A Printz Award Honor Book

A Stonewall Book Award Honor Book

An Amazon Best Book of the Year

A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Book of the Year

Horn Book Fanfare Best Books of the Year

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year

A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year

This final, essential chapter in Rex Ogle’s memoir trilogy recounts being forced from his home and living on the streets after his father discovered he was gay.

When Rex was outed the summer after he graduated high school, his father gave him a choice: he could stay at home, find a girlfriend, and attend church twice a week, or he could be gay—and leave. Rex left, driving toward the only other gay man he knew and a toxic relationship that would ultimately leave him homeless and desperate on the streets of New Orleans.

Here, Rex tells the story of his coming out and his father’s rejection of his identity, navigating abuse and survival on the streets. Road Home is a devastating and incandescent reflection on Rex’s hunger—for food, for love, and for a place to call home—completing the trilogy of memoirs that began with the award-winning Free Lunch.

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Compound Fracture

Andrew Joseph White

A Michael L. Printz Honor Book

A queer Appalachian thriller that pulls no punches—following a trans autistic teen who's drawn into the generational struggle between the rural poor and those who exploit them.

The INSTANT New York Times, USA Today, and Indie bestselling novel from award-winning author Andrew Joseph White!

The limited-quantity first printing of this powerful novel features specially-designed endpapers with photos of West Virginia coal mines from The Library of Congress!

On the night Miles Abernathy—sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian—comes out as trans to his parents, he sneaks off to a party, carrying evidence that may finally turn the tide of the blood feud plaguing Twist Creek: Photos that prove the county’s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called “accident” that injured his dad, killed others, and crushed their grassroots efforts to unseat him.

The feud began a hundred years ago when Miles’s great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, incited a miners’ rebellion that ended with a public execution at the hands of law enforcement. Now, Miles becomes the feud’s latest victim as the sheriff’s son and his friends sniff out the evidence, follow him through the woods, and beat him nearly to death. 

In the hospital, the ghost of a soot-covered man hovers over Miles’s bedside while Sheriff Davies threatens Miles into silence. But when Miles accidently kills one of the boys who hurt him, he learns of other folks in Twist Creek who want out from under the sheriff’s heel. To free their families from this cycle of cruelty, they’re willing to put everything on the line—is Miles?

A visceral, unabashedly political page-turner that won’t let you go until you’ve reached the end, Compound Fracture is not for the faint of heart, but it is for every reader who's ready to fight for a better world. Hand this story to teens pushing for radical change.

Instant New York Times bestseller
Instant USA Today Bestseller
Instant Indie Bestseller
A Kids’ Indie Next Selection
A Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year 
A School Library Journal Best Books of the Year 
A Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year 
A Booklist Editors’ Choice: Books for Youth 
A Chicago Public Library Best of the Best 
A Shelf Awareness Best Books of the Year 
The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books Blue Ribbon Recipient 
A Paste Magazine Best YA Books

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Brownstone

Samuel Teer

WINNER OF THE PRINTZ AWARD

A Harvey Award Nominee!

An Indie Next List Selection!

A Kirkus Reviews Best Book!

A Publishers Weekly Best Book!

“Angsty. Awkward. With a scrappy heart of gold, Brownstone is a must-read for anyone who’s ever felt totally out of place.” —Gabby Rivera, bestselling author of Juliet Takes a Breath

An exciting teen coming-of-age epic from author Samuel Teer and debut graphic novel artist Mar Julia, Brownstone is a vivid, sweeping, ultimately hopeful story about navigating your heritage even when you feel like you don’t quite fit in.

Almudena has always wondered about the dad she never met.

Now, with her white mother headed on a once-in-a-lifetime trip without her, she’s left alone with her Guatemalan father for an entire summer. Xavier seems happy to see her, but he expects her to live in (and help fix up) his old, broken-down brownstone. And all along, she must navigate the language barrier of his rapid-fire Spanish—which she doesn’t speak.

As Almudena tries to adjust to this new reality, she gets to know the residents of Xavier’s Latin American neighborhood. Each member of the community has their own joys and heartbreaks as well as their own strong opinions on how this young Latina should talk, dress, and behave. Some can’t understand why she doesn’t know where she comes from. Others think she’s “not brown enough” to fit in.

But time is running out for Almudena and Xavier to get to know each other, and the key to their connection may ultimately lie in bringing all these different elements together. Fixing a broken building is one thing, but turning these stubborn individuals into a found family might take more than this one summer.

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