Esperanza is a young girl who moves into a house on Mango Street with her family. This house is not what Esperanza dreams of though since it is in terrible condition and it is very small. The house is in a Latino neighborhood in Chicago. Esperanza matures during the year. Esperanza makes friends, develops a crush, and is assaulted. The novel also talks about some of the tragedies going on in some other people’s lives who live on Mango Street. Esperanza learns a lot from her experiences and from her neighborhood.
Kiss Kill Vanish is a young adult thriller written by Jessica Martinez. Valentina Cruz is the daughter of the most powerful man in Miami. After witnessing her boyfriend, Emilio, and her father murder a man, she runs away to Montreal. There, things become even more confusing when further secrets about Valentina's life are revealed.
Maggie Somerville was murdered in her bedroom. Specks of dust from vacuum cleaners and fibers were scattered to obscure suspicions. Nils Shapiro, an excellent Minneapolis private detective, comes to observe. He decides to find the killer, but no one is ye tof suspicion. Shapiro works with the police department to search backgrounds. When he puts his theory to test, he finds that the killer is closer to him than he thought.
The Hinterland — a fairytale world filled with magic, violence, and wickedly beautiful promises. In this collection of twelve dark fairytales, author Melissa Albert brings to life the stories that make up the very backbone of her debut novel, The Hazel Wood. Within these pages, girls grown from apple blossoms, women in bearskins, and grooms with the eyes of lions perform a precarious dance, toying with the fibers of life.
The book How to Make Friends with the Dark, by Kathleen Glasgow, is a realistic fiction novel. The main character, Tiger, has an unbreakable bond with her mother. Their mother-daughter relationship is deep and understanding, with a few quirks. Everything changes for Tiger when her mom unexpectedly dies. After Tiger loses the person she loves the most, her life goes into shambles. As the book narrates on, changing from first person point of view to second, we see how Tiger’s emotions play out.
Eliza Mirk is an unsociable and shy high school student who much prefers to spend her time in the online world, where she can have complete control over her identity and be as anonymous as she likes. When she is online, she is simply known as LadyConstellation, the author of the insanely popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. However, when Eliza meets a boy named Wallace Warland, who also happens to be a popular fanfiction writer for Monstrous Sea, she finds herself opening up for the very first time.
Restore Me is the fourth novel in Tahereh Mafi's Shatter Me series. This book is primarily based around Juliette's struggles as she tries to lead with almost no knowledge of how to do so. As the children of the other Supreme Commanders come to visit and her past is uncovered, Juliette must figure out who to trust. My opinions on this book are mainly based on structure.
15-year-old Liliana Cruz has a lot to deal with. From taking care of two chaotic younger brothers to dealing with an increasingly absent best friend to providing emotional support for her mother who, incidentally, won’t tell her where her missing father is, it seems like she’s just barely holding her life together. But one thing is for sure — Liliana is at home in her diverse inner-city high school, even if it’s underfunded and disorganized.
The Teen YA book Our Chemical Hearts is a romance and coming-of-age novel that follows a high schooler named Henry. When a girl, who wears baggy clothing and walks with a cane transfers to his school, he doesn’t know how much of a mark she’ll leave. Due to circumstances, Henry and the new girl, Grace Town, become the co-editors of the school newspaper, their relationship blossoms. As days, weeks and months pass on, Henry goes through drastic changes. He realizes how complicated human emotions really are.
John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars is a young adult romance novel based around the love story of two teenagers with cancer. Hazel Grace Lancaster, a sixteen-year-old with stage IV thyroid cancer, is forced to attend a cancer support group where she meets Augustus Waters. The two quickly grow close and fall in love amid their final adventures.
