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Blade of Secrets by: Tricia Levenseller

Author Website: https://tricialevenseller.com/the-secret-blade-duology/

Twitter and Instagram: @TriciaLevensell

Genre: Fantasy, magic, social phobia fiction

Ziva can create anything from metal and make it do almost anything. Once on the run from Warlords, Ziva and her group of friends set out to keep her creations safe.

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Concrete Rose by: Angie Thomas

If there’s one thing seventeen-year-old Maverick Carter knows, it’s that a real man takes care of his family. As the son of a former gang legend, Mav does that the only way he knows how: dealing for the King Lords. With this money he can help his mom, who works two jobs while his dad’s in prison. Life’s not perfect, but with a fly girlfriend and a cousin who always has his back, Mav’s got everything under control. Until, that is, Maverick finds out he’s a father. Suddenly he has a baby, Seven, who depends on him for everything. But it’s not so easy to sling dope, finish school, and raise a child. So when he’s offered the chance to go straight, he takes it. In a world where he’s expected to amount to nothing, maybe Mav can prove he’s different. When King Lord blood runs through your veins, though, you can't just walk away. Loyalty, revenge, and responsibility threaten to tear Mav apart, especially after the brutal murder of a loved one. He’ll have to figure out for himself what it really means to be a man.

Author website: https://angiethomas.com/

Grene: realistic, teen parenting, prequel

Twitter and Instagram: @angiethomas

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Donuts and Other Proclamations of Love by: Jared Reck

Oscar hates school and doesn’t have college plans. He wants to continue working at his grandfather’s food truck.

Farfar is Swedish and they sell rullekebab and munkar every weekend.

Then Oscar and Lou, a real apple polisher at school, get teamed up in a project to repurpose apples being thrown away at lunch. Lou loves school. They bond and Lou even helps with the food truck. Then at a festival, Oscar’s world falls apart.

This book infuses awesome Swedish elements with social justice activism and substance abuse. It is a must read!

Library Book Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHSz8ONC7w0

Twitter: @reckj Insta: @jaredreckbooks

Genre: Realistic Fiction

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Eat Your Heart Out by: Kelly Devos

High school junior Vivian Ellenshaw is shipped off to a weight loss camp after her mother marries her soccer coach. It doesn't matter to them that Vivian is fine with the way she looks and is more than annoyed that she's forced to go to Camp Featherlite. Arriving at camp with her ex-best friend Allison, a jock named Steve, and the camp director's preppy son Paul, the group quickly comes to realize something isn't quite right. They've only just begun to dig into the secrets the camp holds when the place is overrun by zombies and they must fight for their survival.

Author Website

Teaching Resources

Twitter and Instagram:

@KdeVosAuthor

@kellydevos

Genre: Horror, multiple povs, thriller

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Fadeaway by: E. B. Vickers

At 8:53 pm, thousands of people watched as Jake Foster secured the state title for his basketball team with his signature fadeaway. But by the next morning, he’s disappeared without a trace. Nobody has any idea where he is: not his best friend who knows him better than anyone else, not his ex-girlfriend who may still have feelings for him, not even his little brother who never expected Jake to abandon him. Rumors abound regarding Jake’s whereabouts. Was he abducted? Is he off trying to take his game to the next level? Or is it something else, something darker--something they should have seen coming? Told from the points of view of those closest to Jake, this gripping, suspenseful novel reminds us that the people we think we know best are sometimes hiding the most painful secrets.

Discussion Guide:

Genre: Mystery, Opioid Addiction, Suspense

Twitter and Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/elainebvickers/

Twitter: @ElaineBVickers

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In the Wild Light by: Jeff Zentner

Genre: realistic, drug addiction, poverty, boarding schools

Life in a small Appalachian town is not easy. Cash lost his mother to an opioid addiction and his Papaw is dying slowly from emphysema. Dodging drug dealers and watching out for his best friend, Delaney, is second nature. He's been spending his summer mowing lawns while she works at Dairy Queen. But when Delaney manages to secure both of them full rides to an elite prep school in Connecticut, Cash will have to grapple with his need to protect and love Delaney, and his love for the grandparents who saved him and the town he has to leave behind. Jeff Zentner's new novel is a beautiful examination of grief, found family, and young love.

Author Website

Twitter and Instagram:

@jeffzentner

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Lore by: Alexandra Bracken

After her family's sadistic murder by a rival bloodline, Lore escapes and vows to repay her parents' sacrifice by doing one thing - surviving. For seven years, she has pushed back dark thoughts of revenge against the man responsible for their murder, a man by the name of Wrath who has attained unimaginable power. Except for one week, every seven years. A week that is fast approaching ...

When Lore comes home on the first night of the Agon to find Athena gravely wounded on her doorstep, the goddess offers her an alliance; they have a mutual enemy, after all. But as the world trembles under the force of Wrath - a god with the power to destroy all of humanity - will Lore's decision to bind her fate with Athena's come back to haunt her?

Twitter and Instagram:

TWITTER - INSTAGRAM -FACEBOOK -PINTEREST

Genre: Greek Mythology, fantasy

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The Hollow Inside by: Brooke Lauren Davis

Phoenix has to get close to Ellis and his family to help her mom get the revenge she deserves. The plan quickly changes and she finds herself staying in the house with the man who hurt her mom, but as she gets closer she starts to question everything.

Genre: Triller, LGBTQIA+, Suspense, Mystery, Multiple POV, Small Town

Author Website: https://brookelaurendavis.com/

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The Initial Insult by: Mindy McGinnis

Genre: Thriller, Horror, Mystery

Based on the stories of Edgar Allen Poe, The Initial Insult tells the story of Tress Montor whose parents mysteriously disappeared seven years ago. Her best friend was there. Her best friend won’t tell her what happened. Now she lives with her grandfather in a rundown roadside attraction zoo caring for dangerous animals.

Felicity Turnado has it all. She’s rich, she’s popular--she just can no longer face her former best friend because she holds the buried secret of Tress’s parents’ fate.

This story has the dark twist of Edgar Allen Poe set to the backdrop of a teen party in an abandoned house.

Will Tress get what she wants from Felicity? Will Felicity survive it?

Author Insta: @mindymcginnisauthor

www.mindymcginnis.com

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The Passing Playbook by: Isaac Fitzsimons

Genre: sports--soccer, romance, LGBTQ+, transgender

Spencer doesn't intend to join the soccer team at his new high school. He wants to join QSA, fly under the radar, and not be bullied for being transgender. When he joins the team at the urging of his PE teacher, Spencer doesn't anticipate the friendships that result from being on a team again. But will his teammates still support him when they learn his secret?

Author Website

Author Q & A

Teaching Resources

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The Right Side of Reckless by: Whitney D. Grandison

Genre: contemporary romance, family, juvie criminal on probation,

He’s never met a rule he didn’t break… She’s followed the rules her whole life… When they meet, one golden rule is established: stay away. Sparks fly in this edgy own voices novel, perfect for fans of Sandhya Menon, S. K. Ali, and Kristina Forest. They were supposed to ignore each other and respect that fine line between them… Guillermo Lozano is getting a fresh start. New town, new school, and no more reckless behavior. He’s done his time, and now he needs to right his wrongs. But when his work at the local community center throws him into the path of the one girl who is off-limits, friendship sparks…and maybe more. Regan London needs a fresh perspective. The pressure to stay in her “perfect” relationship and be the good girl all the time has worn her down. But when the walls start to cave in and she finds unexpected understanding from the boy her parents warned about, she can’t ignore her feelings anymore. The disapproval is instant. Being together might just get Guillermo sent away. But when it comes to the heart, sometimes you have to break the rules and be a little bit reckless…

Author Website

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Briseis has a gift: she can grow plants from tiny seeds to rich blooms with a single touch. When Briseis's aunt dies and wills her a dilapidated estate in rural New York, Bri and her parents decide to leave Brooklyn behind for the summer. Hopefully there, surrounded by plants and flowers, Bri will finally learn to control her gift. But their new home is sinister in ways they could never have imagined--it comes with a specific set of instructions, an old-school apothecary, and a walled garden filled with the deadliest botanicals in the world that can only be entered by those who share Bri's unique family lineage. When strangers begin to arrive on their doorstep, asking for tinctures and elixirs, Bri learns she has a surprising talent for creating them. One of the visitors is Marie, a mysterious young woman who Bri befriends, only to find that Marie is keeping dark secrets about the history of the estate and its surrounding community. There is more to Bri's sudden inheritance than she could have imagined, and she is determined to uncover it . . . until a nefarious group comes after her in search of a rare and dangerous immortality elixir. Up against a centuries-old curse and the deadliest plant on earth, Bri must harness her gift to protect herself and her family.

Author Website

This Poison Heart by: Kalynn Bayron

Genre: fantasy, poison, plants, mythology, LGBTQ+

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We Can Be Heroes by: Kyrie McCauley,

Genre: Realistic Fiction, Gun Violence, Magical Realism

“Welcome to Bell, proud home of Bell Firearms for two hundred years, and where five months ago, the teen heir to the Bell fortune took his father’s guns to school and killed his ex-girlfriend, Cassandra Queen.” —WE CAN BE HEROES PODCAST

Set with a podcast to break up the story, Beck and Vivian are what remains of their friend group after the glue that held them together, Cassandra Queen, is shot and killed at school by her ex. They discover that they haven’t lost Cassandra entirely through magical intervention and set out to make the town pay for forgetting the death of their friend.

Author Insta: @kyriemccauley

kyriemccauley.com

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What Beauty There Is by Cory Anderson

Jack Dahl, 17, desperately tries to protect his younger brother Matty from being taken away from him after his mother dies. Fleeing into Idaho's cold mountains, Jack begins a desperate search for drug money hidden by his father before his arrest. On his trail is his father's ruthless partner, Victor Bardem, who will stop at nothing to get the money for himself. Jack finds an unexpected ally in Victor's daughter Ava, whom Victor abusively controls. Unaware who she is, Jack accepts Ava's help, but Ava knows how ruthless her father is and worries they are doomed to fail unless she learns to speak up for the brothers.

Discussion with Author: https://youtube.com/watch?v=QKDU6Ij5i38

Author Website

Teaching Resources

Twitter and Instagram

@codyanderwrites

Genre: thriller, mystery, family, poverty, drug abuse

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You'd Be Home Now Glasgow, Kathleen

Website, kathleenglasgowbooks.com

@kathglasgow on Twitter

@misskathleenglasgow on Instagram.

TikTok @kathleenglasgow

For all of Emory’s life she’s been told who she is. In town she’s the rich one–the great-great-granddaughter of the mill’s founder. At school she’s hot Maddie Ward’s younger sister. And at home, she’s the good one, her stoner older brother Joey’s babysitter. Everything was turned on its head, though, when she and Joey were in the car accident that killed Candy MontClaire. The car accident that revealed just how bad Joey’s drug habit was. A journey of one sister, one brother, one family, to finally recognize and love each other for who they are, not who they are supposed to be.

Genre: Drug Abuse, Realistic