VCL Young Adult Reading Suggestions: Kim's Picks for Grade 7 & 8 Summer 2019

Xiomara is a poet with a very strict mother who does not support her poetry or let her date. Then, Xiomara and her lab partner, Aman, start to flirt. This book is about Xiomara’s struggle to live her life on her own terms without sparking her mother’s rage. I recommend it to people who like realistic fiction, feminist themes, dark themes, gorgeous writing, and romance.

Ryder is an unaccompanied minor taking a multi-day train trip from California to Chicago. Her mom isn’t around and her grandmother can’t take care of her anymore, so she is going to live with a relative she’s never met. Ryder slowly reveals more and more of her difficult life in a way that will tug on your heart strings. I recommend this book to readers who like emotional stories about people with complicated childhoods.

Rowan and Citra are two teens living on a future Earth where people live forever. There’s no sickness, hunger, poverty, war, etc. However, the world population still needs to be controlled, so people called Scythes exist to kill people. Rowan and Citra are picked to be a Scythe’s apprentices. I recommend this book to people who like science fiction, technology, action/adventure, and surprising twists.

Number Four looks like your typical teenager but is actually an alien with developing super powers. He tries to blend in with normal American high schoolers to hide from another alien race that is trying to kill him and 9 others like him. When three of them are murdered, Number Four has to go on the run, again. I recommend this book to people who like fast-paced action and adventure, science fiction, and a good underdog story.

When Crow was a baby she washed up on the shores of an island. The mysterious recluse living there, Osh, took her in and raised her. Now Crow is 12. She has many questions about where she came from. She goes looking for the answers and finds a dangerous man searching for treasure on a nearby island. I recommend this to people who like action & adventure stories, historical fiction, and pretty writing in a lush setting.

This book follows three different kids who are all refugees. Josef is a Jewish boy escaping Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Isabel is a girl sailing on a raft from Cuba to America in 1994. Mahmoud is a boy escaping the bombings in the city of Aleppo, Syria in 2015. I recommend this book to people who like historical fiction, action & adventure, and emotional stories.

SCRAWL is a literary magazine featuring the writing and artwork of high schoolers and middle schoolers in Rockland County. If you are an aspiring writer or artist this is a great opportunity for you. Submissions open in January.

Miles Morales has to juggle superhero work with school work AND keep his identity a secret. When his costume gets torn in a fight, his identity is threatened and then a new villain arrives on the scene. I recommend this to people who want to get into Spiderman comics and like action & adventure.

Sebastien is a prince whose parents want to find him a wife. However, Sebastien has a secret life. At night he likes to wear dresses and go out as Lady Crystallia. He meets a talented, young dressmaker named Frances. Their feelings for each other bloom as she supports and understands his double life. Do his parents feel the same way, though? I recommend this book to people who like LGBTQIA+ themes, romance, and inspiring stories of acceptance.

This graphic novel is about a boy, Ebo, on a journey to escape poverty in Ghana. He and his older brother want to get to Europe to find their sister and a better life. The journey is long and dangerous. This is fiction, but real people make this journey every year and many of them do not survive. I recommend this book to people that like stories about difficult experiences that are rooted in fact.