Here's some titles you need to read!

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 It's been crazy busy balancing everything, so I haven't posted in awhile, and I am sorry.  I will try to do better.  Here are some amazing titles you should definitely try!



This is the winner of the 2025 Printz (top honor a teen book can have).  I'll be posting this article in both the graphic novel and the teen reads blogs as it deserves all the hype.  The story definitely deserves the awards it got!  On the surface, it's a story of a girl getting to know her estranged father after never having met him in her 14 years of life.  However, there is more than that....Almudena has never known her heritage, being raised by her very blonde, white mother.  She doesn't speak Spanish either.  Her summer is being spent with her Guatemalan father who doesn't speak much English, surrounded by those who prefer to speak Spanish and helping her father fix up a brownstone to help those who are being displaced due to the gentrification of the neighborhood.  She is trying to learn who she is, how she fits in and also how her upbringing has influenced her opinions.  I don't want to explain more as the journey is half the fun, but the writers do an amazing job making everyone feel real and the situations faced emotional and grounded.  You should definitely check out this title!


Lunar New Year Love Story is another award winning title for Gene Luen Yang, this one nominated and getting an honor award for Asian/Pacific Islander Literature award 2025.  Again, well deserving the award!  This is a love story, but it's not just about a girl falling in love with a boy, but about a girl finding out about herself and falling in love with her culture and making peace with her past.  I don't want to say too much, as the reveals are intrinsically part of the journey.  I do have to say that what I love most about the story is that it's about figuring out what love IS and not what you think it is; as part of growing up is realizing that what you THINK and DREAM about as your love story may not be actually what you want or need.  Again, highly recommended for all ages!




This is a retelling of Huckleberry Finn from the POV of Jim, and it's written as if the story were factual, not fictional.  Walker and Anderson balance the events of the original Mark Twain story with factual events happening in that time period and intertwine them to make a compelling and thought provoking story.  I would definitely recommend reading Huck Finn if you haven't already, but have no reservations on recommending this title either way.  Seeing the story from the eyes of a runaway slave and mixing in the reality of what that meant at that time really makes for a deeper understanding of the original story as well as highlighting the parts of history not always acknowledged by history books written by upper class white men.  This is one of those books I think everyone should read.  Seriously.


I'm going to leave it here with these titles and will come back next month with some more titles. Promise!

Saleena Longmuir, Teen Librarian


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