NCW Libraries

Twelve-year-old María Luisa O'Neill-Morales (who really prefers to be called Malú) reluctantly moves with her Mexican-American mother to Chicago and starts seventh grade with a bang--violating the dress code with her punk rock aesthetic and spurning the middle school's most popular girl in favor of starting a band with a group of like-minded weirdos.

"Ash has never thought much about being intersex. But when he gets his period and his parents pressure him to 'try being a girl,' he must fight for who he really is"--

Eleven-year-old Rick Ramsey has generally gone along with everybody, just not making waves, even though he is increasingly uncomfortable with his father's jokes about girls, and his best friend's explicit talk about sex; but now in middle school he discovers the Rainbow Spectrum club, where kids of many genders and identities can express themselves--and maybe among them he can find new friends and discover his own identity, which may just be to opt...

Claudia agrees to coach actors in her high school's production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, leading to new friendships--and maybe even new love.

In small-town Alaska in the 1990s, high school senior Meri's determination to escape for a more exciting place wanes as she struggles with family, grief, friends, and hormones.

"A.J. and his friends are graduating from third grade. Eeeek! The kids have the chance to choose a guest speaker for the ceremony, and their minds are all set on one person: the most popular singer and rapper in the world, Lil Mouse! Will they be able to get their favorite celebrity and have the greatest graduation in the history of graduations?"--

El Gusano de Tequila is the Spanish translation of the novel The Tequila Worm, winner of the Pura Belpre and PEN USA Awards. Sofía viene de una familia de cuentistas. Aquí están sus cuentos de cuando crecia en un barrio de McAllen, llenos de la magia de las tradiciones familiares: hacer cascarones de Pascua, celebrar el Día de los Muertos, preparar la quinceañera, disfrutar el nacimiento de Navidad, y curar la nostalgia comiendo el gusano de...

When thirteen-year-old Erin discovers she is the daughter of the love god Cupid, she uses her newfound ability to sabotage her rival Trevor by making him fall in love with her, but she soon realizes love has a funny way of complicating things.

Sixth-graders Sara, a Pakistani American, and Elizabeth, a Jewish girl, connect in an after school cooking club and bond over food and their mothers' struggles to become United States citizens.

"Liliana Cruz does what it takes to fit in at her new nearly all-white school, but when family secrets come out and racism at school gets worse than ever, she must decide what she believes in and take a stand"-- It's fine that Lilliana's best friend, Jade, is all caught up in her new boyfriend lately. It's fine that her inner-city high school is disorganized and underfunded. It's fine that her father took off again, and she's left with her increasingly...