TEENS

During a massive blackout in rural Nevada, two brothers struggle to survive without their self-reliance-obsessed dad and without enough water cross the desert for help.

While using a public library computer to find help for her mother, who is addicted to pain medicine, twelve-year-old Jolene witnesses a friend's live-streamed crash-landing in the Arizona desert and embarks on a journey to rescue her.

After her brother's death from a congenital heart defect, twelve-year-old Lucy is not prepared to be the new kid at school--especially in a grade full of survivors of a shooting that happened four years ago. Without the shared past that both unites and divides her classmates, Lucy feels isolated and unable to share her family's own loss, which is profoundly different from the trauma of her peers. Lucy clings to her love of math, which provides the absolute answers she craves. But through budding friendships and an after-school mime class, Lucy discovers that while grief can take many shapes and sadness may feel infinite, love is just as powerful.

"Perfect for fans of Hatchet and the I Survived series, this harrowing middle grade debut novel-in-verse from a Pushcart Prize-nominated poet tells the story of a young girl who wakes up one day to find herself utterly alone in her small Colorado town. When twelve-year-old Maddie hatches a scheme for a secret sleepover with her two best friends, she ends up waking up to a nightmare. She's alone--left behind in a town that has been mysteriously evacuated and abandoned. With no one to rely on, no power, and no working phone lines or internet access, Maddie slowly learns to survive on her own. Her only companions are a Rottweiler named George and all the books she can read. After a rough start, Maddie learns to trust her own ingenuity and invents clever ways to survive in a place that has been deserted and forgotten. As months pass, she escapes natural disasters, looters, and wild animals. But Maddie's most formidable enemy is the crushing loneliness she faces every day. Can Maddie's stubborn will to survive carry her through the most frightening experience of her life?"

Perfect for fans of fantasy, mystery and adventure, book two in the Amari series released in 2022, making it the perfect time to jump in and start reading. Thirteen-year-old Amari, a poor Black girl from the projects, gets an invitation from her missing brother to join the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs and join in the fight against an evil magician.

Twelve-year-old Lulu, burdened with caring for her sister, Serena, since their father disappeared, must learn to trust her new friends and community when secrets and lies catch up with her.

Katrina doesn't know the details about her past, but she knows that she and her parents are part of the Witness Protection Program. When her parents say they have to move on and start over, she gets a new identity: a new name, a new hair color and a new story. Until their location leaks and her parents disappear. Forced to embark on a dangerous rescue mission, Katrina and her new friend Parker set out to save her parents and find the truth about her secret past.

After a bestselling fantasy author disappears, only his biggest fan believes he's in danger and dares to uncover the truth in this fast-paced mystery with a chilling psychological twist.

Brandon is visiting his dad on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 when the attack comes; Reshmina is a girl in Afghanistan who has grown up in the aftermath of that attack but dreams of peace, becoming a teacher and escaping her village and the narrow role that the Taliban believes is appropriate for women--both are struggling to survive, both changed forever by the events of 9/11.

With insight and a light touch, best-selling, Newbery Honor-winning author Gary D. Schmidt tells two poignant, linked stories: that of a grieving girl and a boy trying to escape his violent past. Following the death of her closest friend in the summer of 1968, Meryl Lee Kowalski goes off to St. Elene's Preparatory Academy for Girls, where she struggles to navigate the venerable boarding school's traditions and a social structure heavily weighted toward students from wealthy backgrounds. In a parallel story, Matt Coffin has wound up on the Maine coast near St. Elene's with a pillowcase full of money lifted from the leader of a criminal gang, fearing the gang's relentless, destructive pursuit. Both young people gradually dispel their loneliness, finding a way to be hopeful and also each other.

657 days ago, Meg's British father left their home in France to fight the Nazis, leaving some codes in a jar for her to decipher. Meg and her French mother moved to the Perche, a region in France near Normandy known for its forests. Now, Meg watches the German soldiers in town and sometimes carries messages for the French resistance. Suddenly things have gotten much more dangerous: a wounded British officer is hiding in her grandmother's barn, a family of German refugees is trying to get to Spain, and the Nazis have arrived at the doorstop searching for the fugitives.

Bullied and shamed her whole life for being fat, twelve-year-old Ellie finally gains the confidence to stand up for herself, with the help of some wonderful new allies. --Provided by Publisher. Ages 10 up. Nancy Paulsen Books.

On the night before his twelfth birthday, Ash learns that he was born on the same day as Prince Khufu, which makes him eligible to compete to be the prince's shadow, a coveted position as the friend and bodyguard of the boy destined to be the pharaoh of all of Egypt. What awaits Ash and the candidates is deadly - five days of dangerous tests filled with demon fighting, monster slaying, and magical spells - each overseen by a different Egyptian god.