Books written in new and different ways: verse and poetry, as well as music-themed stories, across genres and interest levels.
YA Novels in Verse

Michael has navigated what it means to be Greek-Cypriot and Jamaican, but never quite feels Greek or Black enough. As he gets older, his coming out is only the start of learning who he is and where he fits in.
The author shares her childhood memories about what it was like to grow up as an African American in the 1960s and 1970s, living with the remnants of Jim Crow and her growing awareness of the Civil Rights movement.
Picked on at home, criticized for talking trash while beating boys at basketball, and always seen as less than her best friend, a girl struggles to like and accept herself.
A multi-heritage dancer's coming of age within the African diaspora is shaped by abuse at the hands of a cousin, her mother's descent into addiction, and her father's efforts to create a Nigerian-inspired home in America. Will she find the courage to shape a life of her own?
A young girl chronicles the life-changing year of 1975, when she, her mother, and her brothers leave Vietnam and resettle in Alabama.
As 15-year-old Will sets out to avenge his brother Shawn's fatal shooting, seven ghosts who knew Shawn board the elevator and reveal truths Will needs to know.
Mildred Loving, an African American girl, and Richard Loving, a Caucasian boy, challenge the Virginia law forbidding interracial marriages in the 1950s.
Moth, who lost her family in an accident, and Sani, who's battling ongoing depression, take a road trip that has them chasing ghosts and searching for ancestors, which helps them move forward in surprising, powerful, and unforgettable ways.
For Denver, music is everything. She and her best friends sing their way into the orbit of the biggest R&B star in the world. He gives them everything, plus hours in the recording studio. Even the painful sacrifices and the lies the girls have to tell are all worth it, until they're not.
Sent with her mother to the safety of a relative's home in Cincinnati when her Syrian hometown is overshadowed by violence, Jude worries for the family members who were left behind as she adjusts to a new life with unexpected surprises.
Ever since her body grew into curves, Xiomara Batista has learned to let her fists and her fierceness do the talking. When she's invited to join her school's slam poetry club, she can't stop thinking about performing her poems.
Christine Heppermann's powerful collection of free verse poems explore how girls are taught to think about themselves, their bodies, and their friends–as consumers, objects, and competitors. Based on classic fairy tale characters and tropes.
At just 16 years old, Amal's bright future is upended; he's convicted of a crime he didn't commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his art. This never should have been his story. But, can he change it?
Molly Rosenberg reluctantly volunteers to participate in Santa Monica's annual homeless count. But when she ends up meeting Red, a homeless girl, Molly makes it her mission to reunite her with her family in time for Christmas.
Searing and soul-searching, this important memoir is a denouncement of our society's failures and a love letter to all the people with the courage to say #MeToo and #TimesUp, whether aloud, online, or only in their own hearts.
Seventeen-year-old Blade endeavors to resolve painful issues from his past and navigate the challenges of his former rock star father's addictions, scathing tabloid rumors, and a protected secret that threatens his own identity.
In India, a girl who excels at Bharatanatyam dance refuses to give up after losing a leg in an accident.
Two very different girls bond while hospitalized for Crohn's disease.
A recreation of the 1912 sinking of the Titanic as observed by millionaire John Jacob Astor, a beautiful young Lebanese refugee finds first love, the "Unsinkable" Molly Brown, Captain Smith, and others–including the iceberg itself.
Sophie Scholl, a young German college student, challenges the Nazi regime during World War II as part of the White Rose, a non-violent resistance group.