Choose one of the titles below to read during the summer break. Join us for our second annual ice cream social & book discussion when we return to school!

A Very Large Expanse of Sea

by Tahereh Mafi
"It's 2002, a year after 9/11, and Shirin has just started at yet another school. It's an extremely turbulent time for the world, but also for someone like Shirin, a sixteen-year-old Muslim girl who's tired of being stereotyped. Shirin is never surprised by how horrible people can be. But she's tired of the rude stares, the degrading comments - even the physical violence - she endures as a result of her race, her religion, and the hijab she wears every day. She decided long ago not to trust anyone anymore, and she doesn't expect, or even try, to fit in anywhere or let anyone close enough to hurt her. Instead, she drowns her frustrations in music and spends her afternoons breakdancing with her brother. But then she meets Ocean James. He's the first person in forever who really seems to want to get to know Shirin. It terrifies her - they seem to come from two irreconcilable worlds - and Shirin has had her guard up for so long that she's not sure she'll ever be able to let it down." -- from the publisher

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

by Benjamin Alire Saenz
Fifteen-year-old Ari Mendoza is an angry loner with a brother in prison, but when he meets Dante and they become friends, Ari starts to ask questions about himself, his parents, and his family that he has never asked before.

Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood

by Trevor Noah
The author, host of The Daily Show, shares his remarkable story of growing up in South Africa, with a black South African mother and a white European father, at a time when it was against the law for a mixed-raced child like him to exist. In a country where racism barred blacks from social, educational, and economic opportunity, Trevor surmounted staggering obstacles and created a promising future for himself, thanks to his mother's unwavering love and indomitable will. -- from NoveList Plus

Bridge of Clay

by Markus Zusak
Upon their father's return, the five Dunbar boys, who have raised themselves since their mother's death, begin to learn family secrets, including that of fourth brother Clay, who will build a bridge for complex reasons, including his own redemption.

Clap When You Land

by Elizabeth Acevedo
​"Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of people crying...in New York City, Yahaira Rios is called into the principal's office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash. Separated by distance - and by Papi's secrets - the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered. And then, when it seems like they've lost everything of their father, they learn of each other." -- from the NOBLE catalog

Games of Deception: The True Story of the First U.S. Olympic Basketball Team at the 1936 Olympics in Hitler's Germany

by Andrew Maraniss
"1936 was a turbulent time in world history. Adolf Hitler had gained power in Germany three years earlier. Jewish people and political opponents of the Nazis were the targets of vicious mistreatment, yet were unaware of the horrors that awaited them in the coming years. But the Olympians on board the SS Manhattan and other international visitors wouldn't see any signs of trouble in Berlin. Streets were swept, storefronts were painted, and every German citizen greeted them with a smile. Like a movie set, it was all just a facade, meant to distract from the terrible things happening behind the scenes. 
This the incredible true story of basketball from its invention by James Naismith in Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891 to the sport's Olympic debut in Berlin and the eclectic mix of people, events, and propaganda on both sides of the Atlantic that made it all possible." -- from the publisher
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Hey, Kiddo: How I Lost My Mother, Found My Father, and Dealt With Family Addiction

by Jarrett Krosoczka
A powerful graphic memoir by the award-winning author traces his unconventional coming of age with a drug-addict mother, an absent father, and two lovingly opinionated grandparents. -- from NoveList Plus

Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up With Me

by Mariko Tamaki
"Laura Dean, the most popular girl in high school, was Fredericka Riley's dream girl: charming, confident, and SO cute. There's just one problem: Laura Dean is maybe not the greatest girlfriend. Reeling from her latest break-up, Freddy's best friend, Doodle, introduces her to the Seek-Her, a mysterious medium, who leaves Freddy with some cryptic parting words: break up with her. But Laura Dean keeps coming back, and as their relationship spirals further out of her control, Freddy has to wonder if it's really Laura Dean that's the problem. Maybe it's Freddy, who is rapidly losing her friends, including Doodle, who needs her now more than ever. Fortunately for Freddy, there are new friends, and the insight of advice columnists like Anna Vice to help her through being a teenager in love." -- from the publisher.

Shout

by Laurie Halse Anderson
"A memoir that shares the author's life, covering her rape at thirteen, her difficult early childhood, and her experiences surrounding her publication of Speak." -- from OCLC

Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You

by Jason Reynolds; adapted for young adults from Stamped From the Beginning, by Ibram X. Kendi
"A history of racist and antiracist ideas in America, from their roots in Europe until today, adapted from the National Book Award winner Stamped From the Beginning, by Ibram X. Kendi." -- from the NOBLE catalog

The Mamba Mentality: How I Play

by Kobe Bryant
​In the wake of his retirement from professional basketball, the late NBA great, nicknamed "The Black Mamba," decided to share his vast knowledge and understanding of the game to take readers on an unprecedented journey to the core of his legendary "Mamba Mentality." - adapted from NoveList Plus
​Learn More! Read "Dear Basketball," written by Kobe Bryant and posted on Players' Tribune on 11/29/15.
How did Kobe outsmart the referees? Watch this interview with Jimmy Kimmel and find out!

We Hunt the Flame

by Hafsah Faizal
"In a world inspired by ancient Arabia, seventeen-year-old huntress Zafira must disguise herself as a man to seek a lost artifact that could return magic to her cursed world." -- from the NOBLE catalog

Where the Crawdads Sing

by Delia Owens
"For years, rumors of the 'Marsh Girl' have haunted Barkley Cove, a quiet town on the North Carolina coast. She's barefoot and wild; unfit for polite society. So in late 1969, when handsome Chase Andrews is found dead, the locals immediately suspect Kya Clark. But Kya is not what they say. Abandoned at age ten, she has survived on her own in the marsh that she calls home. A born naturalist with just one day of school, she takes lessons from the land, learning from the false signals of fireflies the real way of this world. But while she could have lived in solitude forever, the time comes when she yearns to be touched and loved. Drawn to two young men from town, who are each intrigued by her wild beauty, Kya opens herself to a new and startling world - until the unthinkable happens." -- from the NOBLE catalog