Battle of the Books

Amina's Voice
by Hena Khan

A Pakistani-American Muslim girl struggles to stay true to her family's vibrant culture while simultaneously blending in at school after tragedy strikes her community.

Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library
by Chris Grabenstein

Kyle and other students get to stay overnight in the new town library, designed by the famous gamemaker Luigi Lemoncello, but finds that come morning he must work with friends to solve puzzles in order to escape.

Ninth Ward
by Jewell Parker Rhodes

In New Orleans' Ninth Ward, twelve-year-old Lanesha, who can see spirits, and her adopted grandmother have no choice but to stay and weather the storm as Hurricane Katrina bears down upon them.

Number the Stars
by Lois Lowry

In 1943, during the German occupation of Denmark, ten-year-old Annemarie learns how to be brave and courageous when she helps shelter her Jewish friend from the Nazis.

The Last-Last Day of Summer
by Lamar Giles

When adventurous cousins Otto and Sheed Alston accidentally extend the last day of summer by freezing time, they find the secrets between the unmoving seconds are not as much fun as they expected.

The Other Boy
by M.G. Hennessey

Hiding his transgender identity behind a veneer of an everyday student who loves baseball and working on his graphic novel, Shane is threatened with exposure by a classmate and begins a painful journey toward acceptance and empathy.

Tiger Boy
by Mitali Perkins

A tiger cub has escaped from a reserve in India, and Neel, a poor boy from the islands, is determined to find her in order to save her from being captured and sold on the black market by Mr. Gupta and his men.

Hello, Universe
by Erin Entrada Kelly

Virgil Salinas is shy and kindhearted and feels out of place in his crazy-about-sports family. Valencia Somerset, who is deaf, is smart, brave, and secretly lonely, and she loves everything about nature. Kaori Tanaka is a self-proclaimed psychic, whose little sister, Gen, is always following her around. And Chet Bullens wishes the weird kids would just stop being so different so he can concentrate on basketball. They aren’t friends, at least not until Chet pulls a prank that traps Virgil and his pet guinea pig at the bottom of a well.

When Stars are Scattered
by Victoria Jamieson and Omar Mohamed

Omar and his younger brother Hassan live in a refugee camp, and when an opportunity for Omar to get an education comes along, he must decide between going to school every day or caring for his nonverbal brother.

The Total Eclipse of Nestor Lopez
by Adrianna Cuevas

A twelve-year-old Cuban American boy must use his secret ability to save the inhabitants of his new town when it is threatened by a tule vieja, a witch that transforms into animals.

Miles Morales, Spider-Man
by Jason Reynolds

Brooklyn Visions Academy student Miles Morales may not always want to be a super hero, but he must come to terms with his identity--and deal with a villainous teacher--as the new Spider Man.2022-23 reading lists will be posted at a later date.

Piecing Me Together
by Reneé Watson

Tired of being singled out at her mostly-white private school as someone who needs support, high school junior Jade would rather participate in the school's amazing Study Abroad program than join Women to Women, a mentorship program for at-risk girls.

The Inheritance Games
By Jennifer Lynn Barnes
(book 1 of the series)

When a Connecticut teenager inherits vast wealth and an eccentric estate from the richest man in Texas, she must also live with his surviving family and solve a series of puzzles to discover how she earned her inheritance.

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe
by Carlos Hernandez

In order to heal after his mother's death, thirteen-year-old Sal learns to reach into time and space to retrieve things--and people--from other universes.

Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World
by Ashley Herring Blake

Twelve-year-old Ivy Aberdeen's house is destroyed in a tornado, and in the aftermath of the storm, she begins to develop feelings for another girl at school.

The Last Cuentista
By Donna Barba Higuera

A girl named Petra Pena, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita. But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children--among them Petra and her family--have been chosen to journey to a new planet. 

Maybe He Just Likes You
By Barbara Dee

When boys in her class start touching seventh-grader Mila and making her feel uncomfortable, she does not want to tell her friends or mother until she reaches her breaking point.

Listen, Slowly
by Thanhhà Lại

Mai is taking a much unwanted summer trip to Vietnam with her family to learn more about her roots. But as time goes on, Mai grows closer to her family and she begins to understand her culture.

Skink: No Surrender
by Carl Hiaasen

With the help of an eccentric ex-governor, a teenaged boy searches for his missing cousin in the Florida wilds.

Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
by Jordan Sonnenbleck

Steven tries to deal with his complicated emotions when his brother is diagnosed with leukemia, and struggles with his school life and his desire to support his family.

The Poet X
by Elizabeth Acevedo

Xiomara Batista feels unheard and unable to hide in her Harlem neighborhood and she has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking.

Darius the Great is Not Okay
by Adib Khorram

Clinically-depressed Darius Kellner, a high school sophomore, travels to Iran to meet his grandparents, but it is their next-door neighbor, Sohrab, who changes his life.

Didn't See That Coming
By Jesse Q. Sutanto

A romantic comedy about a gamer girl with a secret identity and the online bestie she's never met in real life--until she unwittingly transfers to his school.

Scythe
by Neal Shusterman

In a world where disease has been eliminated, the only way to die is to be randomly killed ('gleaned') by professional reapers ('scythes'). Two teens must compete with each other to become a scythe--a position neither of them wants.

If I Ever Get Out of Here
by Eric Gansworth

Lewis "Shoe" Blake from the Tuscarora Reservation has a new friend from the local Air Force base, but in 1975 upstate New York there is a lot of tension between Native Americans and Whites--and Lewis is not sure that he can rely on friendship.

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood (Young Readers Edition)
by Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah's unlikely path from apartheid South Africa to the desk of The Daily Show began with a criminal act: his birth. This is the story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was never supposed to exist.

The House in the Cerulean Sea
by T.J. Klune

Lonely Linus Baker, a caseworker for the Department in Charge of Magical Youth, is sent by the Extremely Upper Management to an orphanage on a faraway island to find out if the six children there are actually so dangerously magical they could bring about the apocalypse.

The Deep Dark (graphic novel)
By Molly Knox Ostertag

High school senior Magdalena Herrera already has adult responsibilities and a deadly secret hidden in the dark of the basement, one that drains her of energy and leaves her bleeding--until the return of her childhood friend, Nessa, forces her to face her secrets.

How It Went Down
by Kekla Magoon

When sixteen-year-old Tariq Johnson is shot to death, his community is thrown into an uproar because Tariq was black and the shooter, Jack Franklin, is white, and in the aftermath everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events agree.