18 books like I Was Born for This
On The Come Up
Insightful, unflinching, and full of heart, On the Come Up is an ode to hip hop from one of the most influential literary voices of a generation. It is the story of fighting for your dreams, even as the odds are stacked against you; and about how, especially for young black people, freedom of speech isn't always free.
Shares: Performing Arts, Music, Young Adult, Children's fiction
Radio Silence
A studious girl and a quiet, straight-A boy start a controversial podcast together that challenges their courage and forces them to confront issues in the form of backlash and censorship.
Shares: LGBT, Coming-of-age, Young Adult, Children's fiction
Petar's Song
Book Band: Dark Blue (Ideal for ages 9+)
The story of a family of fishermen doing their best to make ends meet in a small Indian village
Hari's family make their living from fishing, but with no fish left in the bay, times are really hard. To catch the fish further away they need a better boat, but to get a better boat they need to sell fish… Despite family feuds and village superstitions…
Shares: Music, Children's fiction
Aunt Jane's nieces abroad
The book and the series were designed to appeal to the same audience as Louisa May Alcott's Little Women and Little Men. This was expressly stipulated in Baum's contract with Reilly & Britton, which stated: Baum shall deliver to the Reilly and Britton Co. on or before March 1, 1906 the manuscript of a book for young girls on the style of the Louisa M. Alcott stories, but not so good, the…
Shares: Music, Children's fiction
Banner in the Sky
Rudi dreams of climbing to the summit of the Citadel, the highest mountain in Switzerland. His father was the only man who dared to approach the top and he died in the pursuit. Now Rudi yearns to complete the quest.
Adolescence.
Shares: Music, Young Adult, Children's fiction
The Court of the Dead
A few months after returning from the depths of Tartarus, demigods Nico di Angelo and Will Solace agree to join Nico's half-sister Hazel Levesque at Camp Jupiter on the West Coast. She needs their help in managing a situation that the boys inadvertently brought about: the demigods showed the monsters of the Underworld that they have options; they don’t have to be evil.
Now some of those monsters…
Shares: LGBT, Young Adult, Children's fiction
The Reappearance of Rachel Price
18-year-old Bel has lived her whole life in the shadow of her mom’s mysterious disappearance. Sixteen years ago, Rachel Price vanished and young Bel was the only witness. Rachel is gone, presumed dead.
The case is dragged up from the past when the Price family agree to a true crime documentary. Bel can’t wait for filming to end, for life to go back to normal. But then Rachel Price reappears, and…
Shares: Young Adult, Children's fiction
The Music of Zombies
When planning for Cockenzie Rood Day, Prince Albion gets kidnapped because a zombie wants to play his fiddle in the talent contest. Trueheart, a prince and Gubble the troll must stop the zombie before real damage is done to the Five Kingdoms.
Shares: Music, Children's fiction
Legendary
Having made a deal with a criminal to save her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage, Tella must win Caraval and uncover Legend's identity, or risk losing everything, including her life.
Swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. But Tella isn't yet free. She made a…
Shares: Performing Arts, Young Adult, Children's fiction
Cemetery Boys
Yadriel has summoned a ghost, and now he can’t get rid of him.
When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.
However, the ghost he summons is actually…
Shares: LGBT, Young Adult, Children's fiction
Sisters in Sanity
"Where are they taking me?""It's for your own good, Brit," Dad said.I was shoved into a small, stuffy room, and the door was locked behind me. I waited for my dad to realize he'd made a terrible mistake and come get me.But he didn't.For sixteen-year-old Brit Hemphill, it's hard to know who she can trust. Convinced she's out of control, her father has sentenced her to Red Rock: a center for…
Shares: Coming-of-age, Young Adult, Children's fiction
The Sun and the Star
As the son of Hades, Nico di Angelo has been through so much, from the premature deaths of his mother and sister, to being outed against his will, to losing his friend Jason during the trials of Apollo. But there is a ray of sunshine in his life–literally: his boyfriend, Will Solace, the son of Apollo. Together the two demigods can overcome any obstacle or foe. At least, that’s been the case so…
Shares: LGBT, Young Adult, Children's fiction
Midnight over Sanctaphrax
Twig has the caterbird tethered to his ship, the edgedancer, and is being led into a storm never seen before, on his way to find his father. Twig soon learns that this storm is the mother storm, and that the mythical place, called riverisse is real. And is torn between a simple yet complicated choice. Cut the anchor chain of sanctaphrax, and all of the edges knowledge, to save riverisse, or have…
Shares: Young Adult, Children's fiction
Challenger Deep
A captivating novel about mental illness that lingers long beyond the last page, Challenger Deep is a heartfelt tour de force by New York Times bestselling author Neal Shusterman.
Caden Bosch is on a ship that's headed for the deepest point on Earth: Challenger Deep, the southern part of the Marianas Trench.
Caden Bosch is a brilliant high school student whose friends are starting to notice his…
Shares: Coming-of-age, Young Adult, Children's fiction
After Tupac and D Foster
D Foster showed up a few months before Tupac got shot that first time and left us the summer before he died.The day D Foster enters Neeka and her best friend's lives, the world opens up for them. D comes from a world vastly different from their safe Queens neighborhood, and through her, the girls see another side of life that includes loss, foster families and an amount of freedom that makes the…
Shares: Coming-of-age, Young Adult, Children's fiction
Dragonsong
Menolly, a young fisher's daughter, had dreamed all her life of learning the Harper's craft. Her musical talent is not valued in her fishing hold, especially by her parents the holders, as women in general tend to be less valued and have fewer choices than men in Pernese society. When her father denies her what she regards to be her destiny, she flees Half Circle Hold just as Pern is struck by…
Shares: Music, Children's fiction
Keeper
An extraordinary novel, winner of the Branford Boase Award and the Bronze Nestle Children's Book Prize.Paul Faustino, South America's top sports writer, sits opposite the man they call El Gato – the Cat – the world's greatest goalkeeper. On the table between them stands the World Cup... In the hours that follow, El Gato tells his incredible story – how he, a poor logger's son, learns to become a…
Shares: Coming-of-age, Young Adult, Children's fiction
Benny And Omar
"In my old school, we had fighting, no pool and there'd be vicious matches against the other schools . . . I miss all that stuff!"Moving to Africa is the worst thing that has ever happened to Benny Shaw. No one plays hurling (the best game on the planet) and the local school is run by hippies who like to talk about feelings. As if.But when Benny meets wisecracking Omar (the name's Bond, James…
Shares: Coming-of-age, Young Adult, Children's fiction