FOR YOU: WHISTLING PAST THE GRAVEYARD BY SUSAN CRANDALL
Looking for beautiful storytelling? This gorgeous coming-of-age story is about what it means to be family and how the most unlikely people can be a part of that despite all racial and societal barriers. Set in the '60's, the spitfire child narrator captured my heart.
FOR YOUR TEEN: EVERY LAST WORD BY TAMARA IRELAND STONE
Samantha McAllister looks just like the rest of the popular girls in her junior class. But hidden beneath the straightened hair and expertly applied makeup is a secret that her friends would never understand: Sam has Purely-Obsessional OCD and is consumed by a stream of dark thoughts and worries that she can’t turn off. Second-guessing every move, thought, and word makes daily life a struggle, and it doesn’t help that her lifelong friends will turn toxic at the first sign of a wrong outfit, wrong lunch, or wrong crush. Yet Sam knows she’d be truly crazy to leave the protection of the most popular girls in school. So when Sam meets Caroline, she has to keep her new friend with a refreshing sense of humor and no style a secret, right up there with Sam’s weekly visits to her psychiatrist. (recommended for ages 14 and up)