New Books for Teens & Young Adult Fiction | Week of April 7

Breathe, Annie, Breathe

Miranda Kenneally

A poignant love story about fate versus choice from today’s upcoming Judy Blume.

Eighteen-year-old Annie Winters can barely run a mile without wheezing. Still, she’s training to run the Music City Marathon in October. That’s only seven months away. Running is so not her thing, but she has to finish what her boyfriend started…before he died.

The Scar Boys

Len Vlahos

Playing in a punk rock band brings peace to a bullied teen in Len Vlahos’s debut novel.

A severely burned teenager. A guitar. Punk rock. The chords of a rock ‘n’ roll road trip in a coming-of-age novel that is a must-read story about finding your place in the world…even if you carry scars inside and out.

In attempting to describe himself in his college application essay–help us to become acquainted with you beyond your courses, grades, and test scores–Harbinger (Harry) Jones goes way beyond the 250-word limit and gives a full account of his life.

Cruel Beauty

Rosamund Hodge

The romance of Beauty and the Beast meets the adventure of Graceling in a dazzling fantasy novel about our deepest desires and their power to change our destiny. For fans of bestselling authors Kristin Cashore and Alex Flinn, this gorgeously written debut infuses the classic fairy tale with glittering magic, a feisty heroine, and a romance sure to take your breath away.

Dangerous Creatures

Kami Garcia

From the world of Beautiful Creatures–the instant New York Times bestselling tale of love and magic.

Ridley Duchannes is nobody’s heroine. She’s a Dark Caster, a Siren. She can make you do things. Anything. You can’t trust her, or yourself when she’s around. And she’ll be the first to tell you to stay away–especially if you’re going to do something as stupid as fall in love with her.

Sekret

Lindsay Smith

An empty mind is a safe mind.

Yulia’s father always taught her to hide her thoughts and control her emotions to survive the harsh realities of Soviet Russia. But when she’s captured by the KGB and forced to work as a psychic spy with a mission to undermine the U.S. space program, she’s thrust into a world of suspicion, deceit, and horrifying power. Yulia quickly realizes she can trust no one–not her KGB superiors or the other operatives vying for her attention–and must rely on her own wits and skills to survive in this world where no SEKRET can stay hidden for long.

Kissing Ted Callahan (and Other Guys)

Amy Spalding

Sneak out. Make out. Rock out.

Riley and her best guy friend, Reid, have made a pact: they’ll help each other pursue their respective crushes, make something happen, and document the details in a shared notebook.

While Reid struggles with the moral dilemma of adopting a dog to win over a girl’s heart, Riley tries to make progress with Ted Callahan, the guy she’s been obsessed with forever. His floppy hair!

Fig

Sarah Elizabeth Schantz

Love and sacrifice intertwine in this brilliant and provocative debut of rare beauty about a girl dealing with her mother’s schizophrenia and her own mental illness.

Fig’s world lies somewhere between reality and fantasy.

But as she watches Mama slowly come undone, it becomes hard to tell what is real and what is not, what is fun and what is frightening. To save Mama, Fig begins a fierce battle to bring her back. She knows that her daily sacrifices, like not touching metal one day or avoiding water the next, are the only way to cure Mama.

The problem is that in the process of a daily sacrifice, Fig begins to lose herself as well, increasingly isolating herself from her classmates and engaging in self-destructive behavior that only further sets her apart.

Don’t Stay Up Late: A Fear Street Novel

R. L. Stine

In the small town of Shadyside, don’t stay up late, because horrible things can happen…

Both day and night, Lisa Brooks is plagued with nightmares and hallucinations. Could they be caused by the horrifying accident that landed her in the hospital for weeks? When Lisa finds out that a neighbor is looking for a babysitter for her little boy, Lisa jumps at the chance to keep busy and take her mind off of her troubling thoughts. But then the murders start — and her friends begin dying one by one. Are Lisa’s nightmares coming true? Find out in the next installment of R.L. Stine’s Fear Street series, Don’t Stay Up Late.

None of the Above

I. W. Gregorio

A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she’s intersex . . . and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.

What if everything you knew about yourself changed in an instant?

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Becky Albertalli

Everybody is talking about Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda!

“A remarkable gift of a novel.”—Andrew Smith, author of Grasshopper Jungle
“I am so in love with this book.”—Nina LaCour, author of Hold Still
“Feels timelessly, effortlessly now.”—Tim Federle, author of Better Nate Than Ever
“The best kind of love story.”—Alex Sanchez, Lambda Award-winning author of Rainbow Boys and Boyfriends with Girlfriends