Staff Picks
Coming of Age Stories for the New Year
- Kei G.
- Thursday, December 29, 2022
Collection
The start of a New Year is a great time to discover new talents or hobbies and define your personality—as they say, “New Year, New You!” Check out these Coming-of-Age stories featuring characters discovering their true selves as you set goals and reflect on what makes you unique!
Azar on Fire
Published in 2022
"Fourteen-year-old Azar Rossi sets out to find her voice and win her local Battle of the Bands contest"-- Provided by publisher.
Swing
Published in 2018
"Noah and his best friend Walt want to become cool, make the baseball team, and win over Sam, the girl Noah has loved for years. When Noah finds old love letters, Walt hatches a plan to woo Sam. But as Noah's love life and Walt's baseball career begin, the letters alter everything"-- Provided by publisher.
Alma Presses Play
Published in 2021
"Alma's life is a constant of halfways: She's half-Chinese, half-Jewish; her parents spend half the time fighting, and the other half silent; and, at thirteen, she's halfway through becoming a woman. Then comes the year when everything changes, and her life is overtaken by constant endings: friends move away, romances bloom and wither, her parents file for divorce, and just like that her childhood seems to be over. Among this world of confusing beginnings, middles, and endings, could there be a roadmap for Alma to truly find herself?"--OCLC.
How Maya Got Fierce
Published in 2022
"She may be a California farm girl, but seventeen-year-old Maya's vision board is all about Fashion and Fierce--the New York City women's magazine she's been reading since she was ten. As the oldest daughter of Punjabi garlic farmers, though, Maya's path is set, and it's off to Cow camp for the summer. When she lands in the New York City area, Maya learns that her cousin's girlfriend works at Fierce--and realizes that her wildest dreams may just be in reach. She scores a coveted internship interview and gets an offer. But accepting the position means secretly quitting Cow camp and rejecting her parents' plans for her. One other (major) glitch: Maya's bosses at Fierce, thinking she's twenty-six, hire her as the assistant editor, not an intern. Oops. May is well on the way to making her dreams come true, even if the glam life at Fierce isn't quite as shiny and fun as she had hoped. When she suggest the perfect candidate for a big story--and manages to get the scoop--all eyes are on her. How long can Maya keep her real age from her boss ... and her real life from her parents?"--Provided by publisher.
You Should See Me in a Crown
Published in 2021
Liz Lighty has always done her best to avoid the spotlight in her small, wealthy, and prom-obsessed midwestern high school, after all, her family is black and rather poor, especially since her mother died; instead she has concentrated on her grades and her musical ability in the hopes that it will win her a scholarship to elite Pennington College and their famous orchestra where she plans to study medicine--but when that scholarship falls through she is forced to turn to her school's scholarship for prom king and queen, which plunges her into the gauntlet of social media which she hates and leads her to discoveries about her own identity and the value of true friendships.
The Girl Least Likely
Published in 2021
Leading a double life as Sabrina, a funny-girl alter-ego that frees her to explore who she really is and what she really wants, teen stand-up comic Gretchen is torn between two boys as she learns to be her truest self.
Fat Chance, Charlie Vega
Published in 2021
Overweight sixteen-year-old Charlie yearned for her first kiss while her perfect best friend, Amelia, fell in love, so when she finally starts dating and learns the boy asked Amelia out first, she is devastated.
This is How We Fly
Published in 2020
Grounded for the summer by her sometimes-evil stepmother, seventeen-year-old vegan feminist Ellen Lopez-Rourke gets permission to join a Quidditch team, where she makes new, if nerdy, friends.
Charming As a Verb
Published in 2020
Henri "Halti" Haltiwanger can charm just about anyone. But his easy smiles mask a burning ambition to attend his dream college, Columbia University. There is only one person who seems immune to Henri's charms: his "intense" classmate and neighbor Corinne Troy. When she uncovers Henri's less-than-honest dog-walking scheme, she blackmails him into helping her change her image at school. Henri agrees, seeing a potential upside for himself. Soon what started as a mutual hustle turns into something more surprising than either of them ever bargained for ... -- Publisher's description.
As Far As You'll Take Me
Published in 2021
Seventeen-year-old Marty Pierce leaves small-town Kentucky for London, hoping to explore his sexuality and find work playing oboe, but homesickness, anxiety, and his dwindling savings worsen even as his dreams are coming true.
Big Boned
Published in 2021
"Lori Palmer is the new girl at Bay Water High, where students prize glossy hair, "beach' bodies, and thigh gaps above all else, which is so not her. She misses her old school, where her artistic talent was more important to her peers than a chia smoothie recipe ever was. Uncomfortable in her own size-sixteen skin, Lori decides to survive senior year as best she can by blending into the background while she melts in the summer heat. But her plans go completely awry when she discovers popular jock Jake volunteering at her brother Zac's school. When her brother befriends Jake's sister, Lori is suddenly thrust into Jake's unfamiliar world of water polo, parties, and stargazing. As she grows closer to Jake, and her relationship with her mother starts to deteriorate, Lori's old anxieties resurface and she throws herself into her art. It's a widly new direction for Lori, and through it she realizes that finding her voice might get her into a wold of trouble, but standing up for what she believes in is as important as standing up for herself"--Provided by publisher.
Love is a Revolution
Published in 2021
Harlem teenager Nala is looking forward to a summer of movies and ice cream until she falls in love with the very woke Tye and pretends to be a social activist.
Watch Us Rise
Published in 2019
Jasmine and Chelsea are best friends on a mission--they're sick of the way women are treated even at their progressive NYC high school, so they decide to start a Women's Rights Club. They post their work online--poems, essays, videos of Chelsea performing her poetry, and Jasmine's response to the racial microaggressions she experiences--and soon they go viral. But with such positive support, the club is also targeted by trolls. When things escalate in real life, the principal shuts the club down. Not willing to be silenced, Jasmine and Chelsea will risk everything for their voices--and those of other young women--to be heard. These two dynamic, creative young women stand up and speak out in a novel that features their compelling art and poetry along with powerful personal journeys that will inspire readers and budding poets, feminists, and activists.
Zoe Rosenthal is Not Lawful Good
Published in 2021
Planning is Zoe Rosenthal's superpower. She has faith in a properly organized to-do list and avoids unnecessary risks. Her mental checklist goes something like this: 1) Meet soulmate: DONE! 2) Make commitment: DONE! 3) Marriage: TO COME! (after college). She isn't sure which college yet, but it will have a strong political science department, since her perfect boyfriend, Simon, plans to "save the country," as his sister puts it, "and the planet and everything." Zoe will follow along, the perfect serious, supportive girlfriend. It's good to have her love life resolved, checked off, done. But speaking of unnecessary risks, Zoe's on a plane to Atlanta, sneaking off to Dragon Con for the second season premiere of Bleeders. The show is subject to her boyfriend's lofty scorn, but Zoe is nothing like these colorful hordes "wearing their inside on their outside." Once her flirtation with fandom is over, she will get back to the important business of planning a future with Simon. The trouble is, right now, Bleeders - and her fellow "Bloodygits" - may just mean the world to her. Will a single night of nerdery be enough?