What We’re Reading (and Loving)

Don’t know what to read next? Looking for YA book recommendations? Welcome to the Book Chat with the Young Adult Team. Every month, the YA Team each recommends a favorite book from our YA collection. We cover fiction, non-fiction, manga, comics, and graphic novels, so there is something for everyone! There is also a mixture of new releases and old favorites, so keep an eye on our posts for books to add to your TBR.

GENEVIEVRE RECOMMENDS OUR AIMLESS NIGHTS BY KOUMORI

Our Aimless Nights is a super cute romance manga about two seemingly very different high school students who meet up secretly after school outside the convenience store where Waya, the boy, works. Chika, the girl, is extremely popular and exudes lively enthusiasm. Waya, on the other hand, is almost mute around his classmates, and many claim to have never even heard him speak. He moves silently through the school and is seen as a standoffish loner. But under the quiet calm of the street lamps once the convenience store has closed for the evening, the two meet up every week and share their thoughts in ways they don’t open up to others.

As they keep meeting, they each develop a secret crush. But can two very different students from such different social backgrounds ever be more than secret friends? And if anyone ever found out about their secret meetings, how would they react? Will they ever cross that line from friendship to something more?

The book tackles themes of loneliness and isolation, the pressures of school, social anxiety/fitting in, opening up and being vulnerable, coming-of-age, the opposites attract romance trope, and the importance of finding connection. It’s perfect for readers who want slice-of-life manga or are looking for contemporary, wholesome romance without a lot of drama or toxicity.

NICOLE RECOMMENDS ANIMORPHS GRAPHIX VOL. 1: THE INVASION BY K.A. APPLEGATE AND MICHAEL GRANT, ADAPTED BY CHRIS GRINE

Animorphs fans of old, rejoice! The best-selling sci-fi series is back in these colorful adaptation graphic novels by Chris Grine. A group of teens finds themselves as Earth’s last defense against a secret alien invasion by the Yeerks: slug-like creatures that can enter a person’s head through the ear and take them over completely. After given the ability to turn into any animal they can touch, these five friends will have to decide what to do with these newfound powers: fight with tooth and claw to save Earth, or pretend it was all a dream?

These books do a wonderful job of retelling each entry in this classic chapter book series, with detailed illustrations of all those fun alien races and spaceships. For those familiar with the series, it’s a wonderful nostalgic trip through an adaptation that is incredibly faithful to the original books. For new readers…get ready – it’s time to buckle up for one heck of a wild ride!

KELLI RECOMMENDS MAYBE AN ARTIST BY LIZ MONTAGUE

Maybe An Artist is a graphic memoir that follows Liz as she grows up and overcomes challenges. This book was a delightful read. It’s for anyone who has ever felt invisible in school or is having a hard time figuring out who they are. This is a great coming of age story I recommend for anyone.

KAYLEIGH RECOMMENDS ONE FOR ALL BY LILLIE LAINOFF

Tania has always wanted to be like her father—an honorable Musketeer, a master of the sword bravely serving France. But two things keep that dream beyond her grasp—she’s a girl, and for the past several years, she has struggled with dizziness, fatigue, and fainting spells that keep her life mostly limited to her family’s house.

When tragedy strikes, Tania finds herself suddenly leaving her small town and attending an elite, secretive finishing school in Paris—one where girls not only learn dancing and social etiquette, but also secretly train in fencing and subterfuge to serve as Musketeers spies. Tania quickly bonds with her Musketeer sisters and delights in continuing to train in swordplay like her father taught her, but as they uncover an assassination plot against the King and their unknown enemies begin to multiply, the four girls must figure out what it means to be a true Musketeer—and what they really care about fighting for.

I chose this book for two reasons—to celebrate Disability Pride Month, but also, on a more personal note, because I have the same condition as Tania and the author: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).  POTS is a disorder of the autonomic nervous system that impacts blood flow and can severely limit someone’s ability to function in daily life, including forcing some of those with POTS to be bedbound. Tania is a brave, strong character like her Musketeer father, and she fearlessly fences with miscreants and chases after spies while also dealing with the near-constant fatigue and dizziness of her POTS. Through Tania, Lillie Lainoff depicts the extent to which POTS can impact a person’s physical, social, and emotional life while also showing how Tania is able to participate in many of the same activities and serve just as important of a role as her able-bodied friends with the help of physical accommodations and the support, care, and understanding of her fellow Musketeers.

Disability and chronic illness can indeed severely limit someone’s participation in life, but simply educating oneself about different support needs and implementing accommodations often can quickly remove much of that limitation and distance. Just like Tania—and her other three Musketeer sisters—we all need different and specialized support sometimes, and taking the time to learn about others’ experiences (like reading this book!) can make a huge difference towards including everyone and helping all kinds of people live full, joyful lives.

BETH RECOMMENDS LAST TO LEAVE BY TERESA RICHARDS

Fans of CLUE this book is for you!!!!! I know you all know I LOVE mysteries and playing CLUE growing up was magical for me – even to this day! So imagine my excitement when this book came across the library desk. Imagine the scene. 8 Influencers are invited to a mansion for a 1920’s Murder Mystery game.  Each influencer is now an active player trying to solve the murder, keep up with their fans, get people to vote for them to stay in the game, and oh yeah figure out some pretty important life lessons.

Meet Fallon, the gamer girl who just wants to improve her mediocre life and heard Sleuthit! announce a murder mystery game with the prize of 1 million dollars. She needed to be picked. Imagine winning 1 million dollars, getting your influencer skills hyped even more and getting sponsored– Game On!  Fallon and Dante work together to solve the mystery and learn some pretty important lessons about friendship and how to correct past mistakes. 

I don’t want to give too much away as clues are boundless but watch out for those red herrings as there maybe other people playing against you.  Play along with the book and see if you can figure out who did it, with which weapon, and in which room.  Is it Gentleman Jade with the baseball bat in the music room? Lady Lilac in the ballroom with the garden shears?  Read for yourself and see if you can solve the clues (and learn a little about what makes a good friend).

RACHEL RECOMMENDS SUNDOWN GIRLS BY L.S. STRATTON

One year ago, sixteen-year-old Naomi Ward’s life was turned upside down. She discovered her given name is Camryn Stoakes and the woman who raised Naomi had kidnapped her as a baby. She’d been a missing girl all her life. Naomi—Camryn—is torn from the only family she’s even known and thrust into her “real” one. But that’s fifteen years lost, and the Stoakeses are strangers. It goes about as well as you might expect. So, in the name of bonding, the Stoakes and Naomi head to the remote mountain town of Sparksburg, Virginia.

It’s charming, in a Leave It to Beaver re-run kind of way, but almost devoid of Black people. There’s also a stench that exists exclusively within the town limits and that only Naomi seems to smell. Oh, and the girl in a nightgown that catches fire outside Naomi’s bedroom window at night before vanishing. The Stoakes are sure Naomi is just imagining things as her mind tries to sort through its trauma, but she’s not so sure. Sparksburg has an ugly history as a sundown town, and its founder Charles Davis Meacham was not a good man, whatever the plaques in town might say.

When Naomi’s neighbor goes missing and said neighbor’s moms are found dead, Naomi links that disappearance to another recently missing girl. The police can’t (or won’t) see the connection, so Naomi is going to have to handle it herself. Missing girls have to look out for each other.

Sundown Girls is a slow-burn mystery that keeps its cards close to its chest and builds its horror on real history. It’s a story about how history haunts just as surely as ghosts, how easily people are stripped of their humanity by people who have lost their own, and the bridge between who you were and who you are. Content warns are included in a note to the reader before the story.

ADRIANE RECOMMENDS THE SUMMER OF BROKEN RULES BY KL WALTHER

Claire and Meredith lived for summers on Martha’s Vineyard. But then Claire died eighteen months ago and Meredith hasn’t been the same since. This summer Meredith is headed back to Martha’s Vineyard for a family wedding and she vows to join in all the festivities in honor of her sister, including the family game of assassin, Claire’s favorite. When she joins an alliance with a cute groomsman, it seems like a simple agreement, until she starts to catch feelings.

This is the perfect summer romance. Full of the beach, a wedding, and summer sun! KL Walther has easily become one of my favorite YA romance authors! This is a perfect beach read!

LISA RECOMMENDS SHARDS OF SILENCE BY BRIAN LEE YOUNG

Derrick, is a 15 year old member of the Navajo Nation that gets the opportunity to attend a prestigious boarding school on the East Coast. He is constantly torn between two worlds-the love and traditions of his family while trying to navigate the elite environment of the school as a BIPOC. Author Brian Lee Young used his experience as a scholarship student at a Connecticut prep school as the basis to explore Derrick’s experiences of trying to find his way in this new environment.

The experiences of talking about his heritage to schoolmates leads him to questions that he has of his own great grandmother’s experience at boarding school during the era of U.S. government sponsored boarding schools. It takes him on a quest to learn about his own family’s history, one that is often not spoken about due to the trauma his forebears faced. Factual information on Indigenous Nations plights is relayed through Derrick’s narrative which assists in educating the reader on the monstrous acts that were opposed upon by the U.S. government on Native Americans.

LAUREN RECOMMENDS THEY BLOOM AT NIGHT BY TRANG THANH TRAN

“People are often frightened by the night, but it is in daylight where the real monsters hide.” An excerpt from the book that I think does an amazing job of showcasing who the real monsters are. This book is such a great way to examine how humans can be the real villains and monsters, more so than any imagined creature could ever be. When folklore and natural disasters combine, they create a story of found family and the importance of being yourself. Rich with body horror and self-examination, this book forces you to examine yourself from the inside out.

SHAWN RECOMMENDS DAN IN GREEN GABLES BY REX OGLE (AKA REY TERCIERO)

Dan in Green Gables is a graphic novel retelling of the classic Anne of Green Gables, moving from the 1900s Prince Edward Island to the 1990s rural Tennessee. The story revolves around Dan Stewart-Álvarez, a queer 15-year-old boy who is left with his grandparents at their home, Green Gables, and learns to navigate a conservative community as he comes to understand and affirm his own identity.

The narrative is easy to follow, with great paneling and artwork by Claudia Aguirre, capturing the beauty of the rural Tennessee landscape alongside Dan’s eccentric and creative personality. Readers are sure to enjoy this coming-of-age narrative as a welcome introduction to a classic of children’s literature. Blending themes of religion, found family, and queer acceptance, the novel is sure to draw readers into a sense of kinship with Dan.

Want More?

Want more book suggestions? Stay tuned for future recommendations from our team!

If you’re a young adult who likes to read, you can also submit book recommendations from our collection. Email genevievre.wood@rva.gov with a one paragraph review, explaining why you liked the book and why others should read it.