Monroe Free Library

Longlisted for the National Book Award for Young People's Literature! From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series comes a powerful, heartrending contemporary novel about fear, first love, and the devastating impact of prejudice. It's 2002, a year after 9/11. It's an extremely turbulent time politically, but especially so for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who's tired of being stereotyped....

"San doesn't know where he'd be without James and Delia. Living in a small town where magic is frowned upon, he needs their friendship--and their time together in their school's magic club--to see him through to graduation. But as soon as senior year starts, little cracks in their group begin to show. Sam may or may not be in love with James, who may or may not have a crush on a girl from his church. Delia wants to get into a hyper-competitive magic...

"The day the train fell in the lake, Cassie stopped believing in much of anything, despite growing up in a devout Catholic family. Then she set her mind to forgetting the strange boy named Elias who was with her when it happened. When Elias comes back to town after many years away, Cassie finds herself talked into sneaking out at night to follow him ghost-hunting--though she knows better than to believe they will find any spirits. Still, the more...

Ryan wakes up to find his contractor dad building walls to turn their big old house into a duplex. The family that moves into the other side includes Bizzy Horvat, the pretty girl he has a crush on at school. Bizzy claims her mother is a witch with the power to curse people with clumsiness or, in Bizzy's case, astonishing beauty. When a bee gets caught in Bizzy's hair, Ryan acts so quickly and radically to save her from getting stung that he attracts...

As Princess of Wonderland Palace and the future Queen of Hearts, Dinah's days are an endless monotony of tea, tarts, and a stream of vicious humiliations at the hands of her father, the King of Hearts. The only highlight of her days is visiting Wardley, her childhood best friend, the future Knave of Hearts -- and the love of her life. When an enchanting stranger arrives at the Palace, Dinah watches as everything she's ever wanted threatens to crumble....

"In the beginning, Owen's story was blank . . . then he was befriended by Lily, the aspiring author who helped him find his voice. Together, the two have spent years navigating first love and amassing an inseparable friend group. But all of it is upended one day when his school's administration learns Owen's secret: that he was sexually assaulted by a classmate."

Sixteen-year-old Marguerite knows her uncle doesn't like her. True, she's in line for the throne before him and he contends she's too deaf to rule, but she's known since he broke her hand to keep her from using sign language. Now, as the kingdom's Bishop-Princep, Uncle Reichard has declared war on magic and Marguerite must hide the fact that she's a witch.While witnessing her first witch trial, Marguerite rescues a child from death with the help of...

Told in two voices, seventh-graders Essie, in North Carolina for just one semester, and Ollie, a non-binary, "gender weird" classmate, develop a gentle romance while Essie ponders her label.-- Essie is not excited about moving to North Carolina for her dad's visiting professorship, and counts the days until she can return home. Then she meet Ollie, who is nonbinary. Ollie is smart and confident, and begins to juggle their passion for queer advocacy...

With Florie's best friend Kacey set to head off to college, they decide to take a road trip to San Francisco, but when Florie's forever crush Sam volunteers to drive them, she will have to deal with her feelings and the romantic signals Sam is starting to send.

"Tenth graders Eliana and Dmitri could not be more different. He's an outgoing, self-confident drummer in a punk band called Unexpected Turbulence. Eliana is introspective and thoughtful, and a movie buff who is living with depression. Dmitri quite literally falls for Eliana when he sees her in gym class and slams into a classmate. The pair then navigate the ins and outs of first love. Exciting, scary, unexpected, and so much more difficult than they...