Leyden Libraries-- Newsletter
Special Edition
The Abraham Lincoln Award: Illinois High School Readers' Choice Award
Stop by the West Media Center or the Nardini Library to check out one of these titles today!
The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey
Cassie Sullivan, the survivor of an alien invasion, must rescue her young brother from the enemy with help from a boy who may be one of them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKkEAIs4pJc&index=1&list=PLmkn169kgtTM1NpX107bcFIAWHYzv1TRi
Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake
Cas Lowood, armed with his late father's mysterious athame, set out to kill a ghost known as Anna Dressed in Blood, but what he believes will be a routine task turns deadly when he discovers Anna is unlike any ghost he has ever encountered before.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13s5iu6RHC4&index=3&list=PLmkn169kgtTM1NpX107bcFIAWHYzv1TRi
Ask the Passengers by A.S. King
Astrid Jones, who realizes that she is a lesbian, deals with the gossip and rejection she faces by sending love up to the people on airplanes as they pass over her.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7VHx-GF3FY&list=PLmkn169kgtTM1NpX107bcFIAWHYzv1TRi&index=4
The Beginning of Everything by Robyn Schneider
Star athlete and prom king Ezra Faulkner's life is irreparably transformed by a tragic accident and the arrival of eccentric new girl Cassidy Thorpe.
Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjqA9TYtIQE&index=5&list=PLmkn169kgtTM1NpX107bcFIAWHYzv1TRi
DJ Rising by Love Maia
Sixteen-year-old Marley Diego-Dylan's career as "DJ Ice" is skyrocketing, but his mother's heroin addiction keeps dragging him back to earth.
Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
Set over the course of one school year in 1986, this is the story of two star-crossed misfits--smart enough to know that first love almost never lasts, but brave and desperate enough to try.
Escape from Camp 14 by Blaine Harden
Chronicles the life of Dong-hyuk Shin, who was raised in a political prison camp in North Korea, and describes the inhuman conditions inside, his harrowing escape from the camp and the country, and his efforts to raise awareness of the camps to others.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vj6oupzP2q0&list=PLmkn169kgtTM1NpX107bcFIAWHYzv1TRi&index=6
The Madman’s Daughter by Megan Shepherd
Dr. Moreau's daughter, Juliet, travels to her estranged father's island, only to encounter murder, medical horrors, and a love triangle. Inspired by H. G. Wells classic, The Island of Dr. Moreau.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGVN2ZTpQ4c&list=PLmkn169kgtTM1NpX107bcFIAWHYzv1TRi&index=8
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
Thirteen-year-old Conor awakens one night to find a monster outside his bedroom window, but not the one from the recurring nightmare that began when his mother became ill--an ancient, wild creature that wants him to face truth and loss.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2LRPg2A7vI&list=PLmkn169kgtTM1NpX107bcFIAWHYzv1TRi&index=9
Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern
When high school sophomore Jessie's long-term best friend transforms herself into a punk and goes after Jessie's would-be boyfriend, Jessie decides to visit "the wild nerd yonder" and seek true friends among classmates who play Dungeons and Dragons.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADYMYPsCc5k&list=PLmkn169kgtTM1NpX107bcFIAWHYzv1TRi&index=7
Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys
Josie, the seventeen-year-old daughter of a French Quarter prostitute, is striving to escape 1950 New Orleans and enroll at prestigious Smith College when she becomes entangled in a murder investigation.
The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater
Though she is from a family of clairvoyants, Blue Sargent's only gift seems to be that she makes other people's talents stronger, and when she meets Gansey, one of the Raven Boys from the expensive Aglionby Academy, she discovers that he has talents of his own--and that together their talents are a dangerous mix.
The Selection by Kiera Cass
Sixteen-year-old America Singer is living in the caste-divided nation of Illea, which formed after the war that destroyed the United States. America is chosen to compete in the Selection--a contest to see which girl can win the heart of Illea's prince--but all she really wants is a chance for a future with her secret love, Aspen, who is a caste below her.
Seraphina by Rachel Hartman
In a world where dragons and humans coexist in an uneasy truce and dragons can assume human form, Seraphina, whose mother died giving birth to her, grapples with her own identity amid magical secrets and royal scandals, while she struggles to accept and develop her extraordinary musical talents.
The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight by Jennifer E. Smith
Hadley and Oliver fall in love on the flight from New York to London, but after a cinematic kiss they lose track of each other at the airport until fate brings them back together on a very momentous day.
Stolen by Lucy Christopher
Sixteen-year-old Gemma, a British city-dweller, is abducted while on vacation with her parents and taken to the Australian outback, where she soon realizes that escape attempts are futile, and in time she learns that her captor is not as despicable as she first believed.
Swim the Fly by Don Calame
Swim team members and best friends Matt, Sean, and Coop, set themselves the summertime goal of seeing a live girl naked, and while the chances of that happening seem very dim, Matt's personal goal to swim the one-hundred-yard butterfly to impress the new girl on the team seems even less likely to happen.
The Testing by Joelle Charbonneau
Sixteen-year-old Cia Vale is chosen to participate in The Testing to attend the University; however, Cia is fearful when she figures out that her friends who do not pass The Testing are disappearing.
Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas
After she has served a year of hard labor in the salt mines of Endovier for her crimes, Crown Prince Dorian offers eighteen-year-old assassin Celaena Sardothien her freedom on the condition that she act as his champion in a competition to find a new royal assassin.
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
A biography of Olympic runner and World War II bombardier, Louis Zamperini, who had been rambunctious in childhood before succeeding in track and eventually serving in the military, which led to a trial in which he was forced to find a way to survive in the open ocean after being shot down.
Winger by Andrew Smith
Two years younger than his classmates at a prestigious boarding school, fourteen-year-old Ryan Dean West grapples with living in the dorm for troublemakers, falling for his female best friend who thinks of him as just a kid, and playing wing on the Varsity rugby team with some of his frightening new dorm-mates.