Rose is a good girl. She listens to her parents and follows every rule. After all, rules are there for a reason . . . right? And adults always know best.<\/em><\/p>\n Talia, the new girl from New York City, doesn\u2019t think so. After only a week at school, Talia\u2014who does what she wants, when she wants\u2014is already making enemies. First on the list: Charlotte, Rose\u2019s lifelong best friend.<\/em><\/p>\n So why can\u2019t Rose stop wondering what it would be like to be Talia\u2019s friend? And why does Rose read a banned book that Talia recommends? Rose doesn\u2019t know. But the forbidden book makes her ask questions she\u2019s never thought of. When Talia suggests they start a banned books club, how can Rose say no?<\/em><\/p>\n Pushing against her parents, her school, and even Charlotte opens a new world for Rose. But when Talia\u2019s escapades become more scary than exciting, Rose must decide when it\u2019s right to keep quiet and when it\u2019s time to speak out.<\/em> – Roaring Book Press<\/p>\n A powerful and imaginative story about a girl fighting to find her way back home from a mind-bending land of the lost. When Henry\u2019s father goes missing in the forest on her tenth birthday, her entire world shatters. The last thing she expects is for him to emerge from the trees exactly one year later, unharmed and bearing a gift for her\u2014a strange necklace.<\/em><\/p>\n Everyone says her father\u2019s reappearance is a miracle, but Henry wants real answers to her questions. Where did her father go? How did he get back? And what\u2019s the truth behind his gift? Wearing the necklace and carrying only a simple map, Henry enters the same forest that swallowed her father. But beyond the trees, she finds a world more incredible and dangerous than she ever imagined. It\u2019s a place for all who are lost, and there\u2019s no clear method of escape. As Henry follows in her father\u2019s footsteps and searches for a way home, she discovers that the truth she\u2019s seeking isn\u2019t as simple as she hoped, and if she wants to leave this world, she\u2019ll have to be braver than she\u2019s ever been.<\/em> – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n Stevie Jane Cohen-Kaplan\u2019s sheltered suburban life is shattered by a mass shooting at a festival in her town. In the aftermath, her brain feels broken. She can\u2019t bear to visit her mom, recovering in the hospital under Stevie\u2019s dad\u2019s watchful eye, or to be pent up in her grandparents\u2019 nearby Manhattan apartment.<\/em><\/p>\n To escape the apartment and her own thoughts, Stevie starts adventuring around New York City with her best friend, Avi, and a new therapy dog (in training). The trio starts chasing stories\u2014about a neighbor\u2019s life after the Holocaust, Stevie\u2019s grandfathers who died of AIDS long before she was born, and even about her own mom\u2019s activist upbringing. These stories may not bring Stevie all the way back to \u201cnormal,\u201d but can they help her find a new version of herself?<\/em> – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n Meet ten-year-old Joy Applebloom, a girl with a knack for finding the silver lining in even the darkest of rainclouds.<\/em><\/p>\n After years of travelling the world with her parents and older sister, Claude (Claude rhymes with bored, which is just about right), Joy and her family move to suburbia \u2013 back to school, back to her grumpy, rule-obsessed grandad and back to normality.<\/em><\/p>\n Joy soon finds her usual irrepressible positivity and zest for life waning, but when the powers that be threaten to pull down a mighty oak tree, Joy decides to fight back, and realizes that not all magic requires wands and spells, and perhaps the most important sort of magic is the power, resilience and courage that was there all along . . .<\/em> – Kane Miller, a division of EDC Publisher<\/p>\n An empowering story from #1 New York Times bestseller and Newbery medalist Linda Sue Park starring a young snorkeling enthusiast who draws inspiration for fighting climate change from interacting with her pesty little brother.<\/em><\/p>\n Inspired by her own experience, beloved author Linda Sue Park tells the story of a girl learning how to impact a cause she cares about while navigating the ups and downs of a sibling relationship and turning disappointment into opportunity.<\/em><\/p>\n Gracie loves snorkeling! She loves it so much, she convinces her parents to let her plan a family vacation to Roat\u00e1n, Honduras, where they can all snorkel together. She even makes a new friend there. Now, if only her irritating little brother would leave her alone, everything would be perfect. Then Gracie hurts her leg, and all her carefully made plans start to come apart. Worse still, she learns the reef itself is in serious danger. Gracie wants to help the reef . . . but she\u2019s just a kid. What can she do to make a difference? Fortunately, her new friend has a few ideas!<\/em> – Allida<\/p>\n Young Adult Titles<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A queer Appalachian thriller that pulls no punches\u2014following a trans autistic teen who\u2019s drawn into the generational struggle between the rural poor and those who exploit them.<\/em><\/p>\n On the night Miles Abernathy\u2014sixteen-year-old socialist and proud West Virginian\u2014comes 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\u2019s Sheriff Davies was responsible for the so-called \u201caccident\u201d that injured his dad, killed others, and crushed their grassroots efforts to unseat him.<\/em><\/p>\n The feud began a hundred years ago when Miles\u2019s great-great-grandfather, Saint Abernathy, incited a miners\u2019 rebellion that ended with a public execution at the hands of law enforcement. Now, Miles becomes the feud\u2019s latest victim as the sheriff\u2019s son and his friends sniff out the evidence, follow him through the woods, and beat him nearly to death.<\/em><\/p>\n In the hospital, the ghost of a soot-covered man hovers over Miles\u2019s 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\u2019s heel. To free their families from this cycle of cruelty, they\u2019re willing to put everything on the line\u2014is Miles?<\/em><\/p>\n A visceral, unabashedly political page-turner that won\u2019t let you go until you\u2019ve reached the end, Compound Fracture is not for the faint of heart, but it is for every reader who\u2019s ready to fight for a better world. Hand this story to teens pushing for radical change.<\/em> – Peachtree Teen<\/p>\n Jared Peter Christensen is running for president (of the Junior Class Council at his university, but still). His platform is solid\u2014built on increased equity and inclusion in all sectors of campus life\u2014and he\u2019s got a good chance of beating the deeply conservative business major he\u2019s running against.<\/em><\/p>\n But then a transfer student enters the race and calls Jared out for his big-talk\/little-action way of moving. But what\u2019s the right way to bring about change? As the campaign heats up, feelings are caught, and juicy secrets come to light, and Jared writes letters to his deceased friend Manny, hoping to make sense of his confusion. What\u2019s a white boy to do when love and politics collide?<\/em><\/p>\n New York Times bestselling author Nic Stone writes from a new perspective in this exciting final chapter of the Dear Martin series that examines privilege, love, and our political climate.<\/em> – Crown Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n A queer YA coming-of-age set during the rigged Honduran presidential election<\/em><\/p>\n As the contentious 2017 presidential election looms and protests rage across every corner of the city, life in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, churns louder and faster. For her part, high school senior Libertad (Libi) Moraz\u00e1n takes heart in writing political poetry for her anonymous Instagram account and a budding romance with someone new. But things come to a head when Mami sees texts on her phone mentioning a kiss with a girl and Libi discovers her beloved older brother, Maynor, playing a major role in the protests. As Libertad faces the political and social corruption around her, stifling homophobia at home and school, and ramped up threats to her poetry online, she begins dreaming of a future in which she doesn\u2019t have to hide who she is or worry about someone she loves losing their life just for speaking up. Then the ultimate tragedy strikes, and leaving her family and friends\u2014plus the only home she\u2019s ever known\u2014might be her only option.<\/em> – Dial Books<\/p>\n After her dad abruptly abandons her family and her mom moves them a million miles from their Chicago home, Noor Khan is forced to start the last quarter of her senior year at a new school, away from everything and everyone she knows and loves.<\/em><\/p>\n Reeling from being uprooted and deserted, Noor is certain the key to survival is to keep her head down and make it to graduation.<\/em><\/p>\n But things aren\u2019t so simple. At school, Noor discovers hundreds of books have been labeled \u201cobscene\u201d or \u201cpornographic\u201d and are being removed from the library in accordance with a new school board policy. Even worse, virtually all the banned books are by queer and BIPOC authors.<\/em><\/p>\n Noor can\u2019t sit back and do nothing, because that goes against everything she believes in, but challenging the status quo just might put a target on her back. Can she effect change by speaking up? Or will small-town politics\u2014and small-town love\u2014be her<\/em> downfall? – Little, Brown Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n Ana and her mother have been living out of their car ever since her militant father became one of the FBI\u2019s most wanted. Leandro has struggled with debilitating anxiety since his family fled Cuba on a perilous raft.<\/em><\/p>\n One moonlit night, in a wilderness park in California, Ana and Leandro meet. Their connection is instant\u2014a shared radiance that feels both scientific and magical. Then they discover they are not alone: a huge mountain lion stalks through the trees, one of many wild animals whose habitat has been threatened by humans.<\/em><\/p>\n Determined to make a difference, Ana and Leandro start a rewilding club at their school, working with scientists to build wildlife crossings that can help mountain lions find one another. If pumas can find their way to a better tomorrow, surely Ana and Leandro can too.<\/em> – Atheneum Books for Young Readers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/blogs.davenportlibrary.com\/reference\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/banned-books-crop-tops-and-other-bad-influences.jpg?resize=200%2C310&ssl=1\")
<\/a>Banned Books, Crop Tops, and Other Bad Influences<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Brigit Young<\/p>\n
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<\/a>The Empty Place<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Olivia A. Cole<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Every Story Ever Told<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Ami Polonsky<\/p>\n
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<\/a>A Girl Called Joy<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Jenny Valentine, illustration by Claire Lefevre<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Gracie Under the Waves<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Linda Sue Park<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Compound Fracture<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Andrew Joseph White<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Dear Manny<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Nic Stone<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Libertad<\/a><\/em><\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong>by Bessie Flores Zaldivar<\/p>\n
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<\/a>This Book Won’t Burn<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Samira Ahmed<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Wild Dreamers<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Margarita Engle<\/p>\n