2022 Teen Services Staff Picks

"Sixteen-year-old trans boy Benji is on the run from the cult that raised him--the fundamentalist sect that unleashed Armageddon and decimated the world's population. Desperately, he searches for a place where the cult can't get their hands on him, or more importantly, on the bioweapon they infected him with. But when cornered by monsters born from the destruction, Benji is rescued by a group of teens from the local Acheson LGBTQ+ Center, affectionately...

"A kitten languishes in a pet shop, unwanted and unloved. Even as his price drops with each passing day, no one spares him a glance unless it's to call him names. Having practically given up on life, the kitty himself is most shocked of all when an older gentleman comes into the store and wants to take him home! Will the man and the cat find what they're looking for..in each other?"--Provided by publisher.

A full-color manga about purrfectly professional massage therapists: fluffy cats who knead your troubles away. Nekoyama, worn out after another long day at the office, stops at a therapeutic massage parlor only to discover that it's run by a cat! Not only that, but the cat actually does the massaging?! As the professional meowsseur digs soft toe beans into Nekoyama's aching muscles, his heart warms and his worries melt away. This is only the beginning,...

"Lydia is dead. But they don't know this yet. So begins the story of this exquisite debut novel, about a Chinese American family living in 1970s small-town Ohio. Lydia is the favorite child of Marilyn and James Lee; their middle daughter, a girl who inherited her mother's bright blue eyes and her father's jet-black hair. Her parents are determined that Lydia will fulfill the dreams they were unable to pursue-in Marilyn's case that her daughter become...

When time stopped on June 23, 2020, the world's youth were enlisted to spend part of their school days trying to come up with a solution. Sixteen-year-old Truda Becker has a theory that the time stoppage is a result of people not caring for one another, but she must work around her father's strange habit of obsessively covering up a light switch in their home, her mother's absence, and her sister's psychopathic tendencies, to get at the truth.

When twelve-year-old Olive, who suffers from brittle bone disease and has been homeschooled all her life, finally attends school in person she soon discovers fitting in is not that easy, but if she can find the magical wish-granting hummingbird that supposedly lives nearby, and prove herself worthy, maybe her deepest wish will be granted.

For Ning, the only thing worse than losing her mother is knowing that it is her own fault. She was the one who unknowingly brewed the poison tea that killed her -- the poison tea that now threatens to also take her sister, Shu. She hears of a competition to find the kingdom's greatest shénnóng-shi -- masters of the ancient and magical art of tea-making -- where the winner will receive a favor from the princess. It may be Ning's only chance to...

Having begun playing in high school and continuing the weekly tradition as an island of calm and consistency in their increasingly complex college lives, friends Jay, Drew, Shen, Lana, and Walter love playing Dice and Deathtraps, a table-top role-playing game. However, now college graduation is bearing down on them, and it seems time for Lana to lead the party through the completion of their original game campaign. Jay's partner Cassandra joins the...

"At a high school where the students are literally divided into predators and prey, friendships maintain the fragile peace. Who among them will become a Beastar- a hero destined to lead in a society naturally rife with mistrust?"--Cover.

"Lahore, Pakistan. Then. Misbah is a dreamer and storyteller, newly married to Toufiq in an arranged match. After their young life is shaken by tragedy, they come to the United States and open the Clouds' Rest Inn Motel, hoping for a new start. Juniper, California. Now. Salahudin and Noor are more than best friends; they are family. Growing up as outcasts in the small desert town of Juniper, California, they understand each other the way no one else...