High School Library

Sixteen-year-old Petula de Wilde is anything but wild. A former crafting fiend with a happy life, Petula shut herself off from the world after a family tragedy. She sees danger in all the ordinary things, like crossing the street, a bug bite, or a germy handshake. She knows: Life is out to get you. The worst part of her week is her comically lame mandatory art therapy class with a small group of fellow misfits. Then a new boy, Jacob, appears at school and in her therapy group.

Sixteen-year-old Alison wakes up in a mental institution. As she pieces her memory back together, she realizes she's confessed to murdering Tori Beaugrand, the most perfect girl at school. But the case is a mystery. Tori's body has not been found, and Alison can't explain what happened. One minute she was fighting with Tori. The next moment Tori disintegrated into nothing.

This timely and media-driven approach to the Parkland shooting, as reported by teens in the journalism and broadcasting programs and in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas newspaper, is an inside look at that tragic day and the events that followed that only they could tell. It showcases how the teens have become media savvy and the skills they have learned and honed. Students will also share specific insight into what it has been like being approached by the press and how that has informed the way they interview their own subjects.

His classmates may consider him a nerd, but Benedict Pendleton knows he's destined for great things. All he has to do is find a worthy girlfriend, and his social station will be secured. Sure, Benedict is different - but that's what he likes about himself. Pen Lupo is sick and tired of hiding who she is. On the outside Pen is popular, quiet, and deferential to her boyfriend. On the inside, however, Pen is honest, opinionated - and not sure that she's quite like other girls.

LaToya Williams lives in Montgomery, Alabama, and attends a mostly white high school. It seems as if her only friend is her older brother, Alex. Toya doesn't know where she fits in, but after a run-in with another student, she wonders if life would be different if she were...different. And then a higher power answers her prayer: to be "anything but black". Toya is suddenly white, blond, and popular. Now what?

Seventeen-year-old Tess Fowler has dropped out of high school, tossed her laptop in a freezing lake, then jumped in after it fully clothed. Why? Because Jonah was the boy she knew only through texts and emails but understood to his very core. Jonah was the only boy she’d told she loved and the only boy to say it back. And Jonah was the boy whose suicide she never saw coming.

Carly: She was sweet. Smart. Self-destructive. She knew the secrets of Brighton Day School's most privileged students. Secrets that got her killed. Neily: Dumped by Carly for a notorious bad boy, Neily didnt answer the phone call she made before she died. Now he can't get the image of her lifeless body out of his mind. Audrey: Shes the reason Carly got tangled up with Brighton's fast crowd, and now she regrets it—especially since she's convinced the police have put the wrong person in jail.

Rotten Tooth has finally decided it’s time to teach the pirate kids some real pirating skills! They are overjoyed - until he begins by showing them how to tie and untie different knots. BOR-ING! But one night while the kids are belowdecks practicing their knots, the Sea Rat comes under attack by the Filthy Sails, a rival pirate ship!

When Logan goes searching for the Perfect Monster Wave, he doesn't expect his former best friend to be killed by it. Add to this a deadbeat dad who bankrupted his family and the possibility of college going down the drain, and Logan is suddenly in a tailspin.

For Chicago's Oak Park and River Forest High School's Spoken Word Club, there is one phrase that reigns supreme: Respect the Mic. It's been the club's call to arms since its inception in 1999. As its founder Peter Kahn says, "It's a call of pride and history and tradition and hope." This vivid new collection of poetry and prose - curated by award-winning and bestselling poets Hanif Abdurraqib, Franny Choi, Peter Kahn, and Dan "Sully" Sullivan - illuminates just that, uplifting the incredible legacy this community has cultivated.

Sixteen-year-old Mafi Shahin is well-aware that life is not always fair. If it was fair, her parents might allow her to hang out with a member of the male species, other than her cat Mr. Meowgi. If it was fair, her crush and basketball hottie Jalen Thomas might see her as more than just her brother's kid sister. And if it was fair, her baba’s brother and wife would be able to leave Afghanistan and come to America.