Teen Short Reads: Books 250 Pages or Less | Downers Grove Public Library

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1) The life and crimes of Hoodie Rosen

Author

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

"Hoodie Rosen's life isn't that bad. Sure, his entire Orthodox Jewish community has just picked up and moved to the quiet, mostly non-Jewish town of Tregaron, but Hoodie's world hasn't changed that much. He's got basketball to play, studies to avoid, and a supermarket full of delicious kosher snacks to eat. The people of Tregaron aren't happy that so many Orthodox Jews are moving in at once, but that's not Hoodie's problem. That is, until he meets...

2) And the ocean was our sky

Author

Series

Spoken word compact discs Fiction

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eBook

Description

"Presents a twist on themes from Moby Dick in the story of a proud warrior whale pod that attacks a ship before pursuing a near-mythical adversary on a vengeful hunt that risks the worlds of both whales and humans."--

3) Black birds in the sky: the story and Legacy of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre

Author

Colbert, Brandy

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eBook, Kindle

Description

"In the early morning of June 1, 1921, a white mob marched across the train tracks in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and into its predominantly Black Greenwood District--a thriving, affluent neighborhood known as America's Black Wall Street. They brought with them firearms, gasoline, and explosives. In a few short hours, they'd razed thirty-five square blocks to the ground, leaving hundreds dead. The Tulsa Race Massacre is one of the most devastating acts of racial...

4) Be not far from me

Author

McGinnis, Mindy

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

The world is not tame. Ashley knows this truth deep in her bones, more at home with trees overhead than a roof. So when she goes hiking in the Smokies with her friends for a night of partying, the falling dark and creaking trees are second nature to her. But people are not tame either. And when Ashley catches her boyfriend with another girl, drunken rage sends her running into the night, stopped only by a nasty fall into a ravine. Morning brings the...

5) Always forever maybe

Author

Rissi, Anica Mrose

Description

A powerful YA debut, told with astonishing insight and wit, about the depths and boundaries of true friendship and obsessive teenage love--perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, E. Lockhart, and Sara Zarr. When Betts meets Aiden at the candy store where she works, their connection is like a sugar rush to the heart. Betts already knows the two of them are infinite. Inevitable. Destined to become an us. Betts has only ever kept one secret from her best friend,...

6) Cracking the bell

Author

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD

Description

While recovering from a game-related concussion, football star Isaiah wonders what his life would be like without the game.

7) An emotion of great delight

Author

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle, Pre-loaded Audio

Description

In the wake of 9/11, Shadi, a child of Muslim immigrants, tries to navigate her crumbling world of death, heartbreak, and bigotry in silence, until finally everything changes.

8) Losers bracket

Author

Crutcher, Chris

Description

"When it comes to family, Annie is in the losers bracket. While her foster parents are great (mostly), her birth family would not have been her first pick. And no matter how many times Annie tries to write them out of her life, she always gets sucked back into their drama. Love is like that. But when a family argument breaks out at Annie's swim meet and her nephew goes missing, Annie might be the only one who can get him back. With help from her friends,...

Author

Bruchac, Joseph

Series

Description

A teenage survival expert finds all his skills tested as he's pursued through the Canadian wilderness by men determined to silence him. On his way to teach at Camp Seven Generations, a Native outdoor school, Nick witnesses a murder and then is thrown off a train. Remembering and using the teachings of his Abenaki Elders will prove to be the difference between life and death for him. Although his pursuers have modern technology to help them, Nick has...

10) Find Layla: a novel

Author

Description

Underprivileged and keenly self-aware, SoCal fourteen-year-old Layla Bailey isn't used to being noticed. Except by mean girls who tweet about her ragged appearance. All she wants to do is indulge in her love of science, protect her vulnerable younger brother, and steer clear of her unstable mother. Then a school competition calls for a biome. Layla chooses her own home, a hostile ecosystem of indoor fungi and secret shame. With a borrowed video camera,...

11) What I leave behind

Author

Description

Since his father's suicide, Will, sixteen, has mainly walked, worked at Dollar Only, and tried to replicate his father's cornbread recipe, but the rape of his childhood friend shakes things up.

12) The immortal boy

Author

Montaña Ibáñez, Francisco

Description

"Two intertwining stories of Bogotá. One, a family of five children, left to live on their own. The other, a girl in an orphanage who will do anything to befriend the mysterious Immortal Boy"-- "Este libro narra dos historias de Bogotá. La de cinco hermanos colombianos que enfrentan la orfandad y la miseria con valentía. Y la de una niña huérfana que hará cualquier cosa para conocer al misterioso chico inmortal. El momento en que sus vidas...

Author

Smith, Clete Barrett

Description

"Matt Nolan is the high school drug dealer, deadbeat, and soon-to-be dropout according to everyone at his school. His vice principal is counting down the days until Mr. 60% (aka Matt) finally flunks out and is no longer his problem. What no one knows is the only reason Matt sells drugs is to take care of his uncle Jack, who is dying of cancer. Meet Amanda. The overly cheerful social outcast whose optimism makes Matt want to hurl. Stuck as partners...

14) Lux: the new girl

Author

Woodfolk, Ashley

Series

Flyy girls novels volume 1

Description

"Meet the Flyy Girls. The group of girls who seem like they can get away with anything. Veteran author Ashley Woodfolk pens a gorgeous and dynamic series of four Harlem highschoolers, each facing a crossroads of friendship, family, and love. Lux Lawson is on a spree. Ever since her dad left, she's been kicked out of every school that would take her, and this is her last chance: Harlem's Augusta Savage School of the Arts. If this doesn't work, Lux...

15) The ghost collector

Author

Formats:

Book, eBook, Kindle

Description

"Ghosts aren't meant to stick around forever . . . Ghosts are everywhere in Shelly's life. Recently passed people, pets, and a boy who lives in the local graveyard and lends her Smiths tapes are all part of spirit world she and her grandmother are privy to. In the tradition of their Cree ancestors, Shelly and her grandmother help these lost souls transition to the next world by catching them in their hair. But when Shelly's mom dies, her relationship...

16) Look both ways: a tale told in ten blocks

Author

Reynolds, Jason

Series

Thorndike Press large print striving reader collection

Formats:

Book, Audiobook CD, Large Print, Pre-loaded Audio

Description

"A collection of ten short stories that all take place in the same day about kids walking home from school"--

17) We are all we have

Author

Budhos, Marina Tamar

Description

After her mom is taken by ICE, seventeen-year-old Rania's hopes and dreams for the future are immediatly put on hold as she figures out how take care of her younger brother and survive in a country that seems to be closing around them.

18) The color of the sky is the shape of the heart

Author

Formats:

Book, eAudiobook, eBook, Kindle

Description

Inspired by a mysterious message, seventeen-year-old Ginny Park sets off to find herself as she reflects on her experiences of growing up Zainichi, an ethnic Korean born in Japan, and the incident that forced her to leave years prior.

Author

Description

"Ash has never thought much about being intersex. But when he gets his period and his parents pressure him to 'try being a girl,' he must fight for who he really is"--

20) Chlorine sky

Author

Browne, Mahogany L

Description

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.