Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

Brown Girl Dreaming by Jacqueline Woodson

BROWN GIRL DREAMING is a memoir in verse that depicts Jacqueline Woodson growing up in different places during a unique time in American history. She’s born in Ohio, to which her father’s family traces a proud lineage, but raised in the South, where she encounters the sweetness of life with grandparents as well as the sting of Jim Crow. She moves back to the North and navigates a noisier place with hard edges and warm friends. How can she reconcile her different worlds? Will she be able to find her voice, not only so she can stand out but so she can make sense of the topsy-turvy world around her?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Alcohol consumption
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If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

If You Come Softly by Jacqueline Woodson

Jeremiah feels good inside his own skin. That is, when he’s in his own Brooklyn neighborhood. But now he’s going to be attending a fancy prep school in Manhattan, and black teenage boys don’t exactly fit in there. So it’s a surprise when he meets Ellie the first week of school. In one frozen moment their eyes lock, and after that they know they fit together—even though she’s Jewish and he’s black. Their worlds are so different, but to them that’s not what matters. Too bad the rest of the world has to get in their way.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Death of a child due to police shooting
  • Gun violence
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Frankly in Love by David Yoon

Frankly in Love by David Yoon

High school senior Frank Li is a Limbo–his term for Korean-American kids who find themselves caught between their parents’ traditional expectations and their own Southern California upbringing. His parents have one rule when it comes to romance–“Date Korean”–which proves complicated when Frank falls for Brit Means, who is smart, beautiful–and white. Fellow Limbo Joy Song is in a similar predicament, and so they make a pact: they’ll pretend to date each other in order to gain their freedom. Frank thinks it’s the perfect plan, but in the end, Frank and Joy’s fake-dating maneuver leaves him wondering if he ever really understood love–or himself–at all.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism & racial slurs, specially anti-Asian & anti-Black
  • Cheating
  • Familial estrangement
  • Parent with terminal cancer
  • Emesis
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent
  • Gun violence
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Emergency Contact by Mary H.K. Choi

For Penny Lee high school was a total nonevent. Her friends were okay, her grades were fine, and while she somehow managed to land a boyfriend, he doesn’t actually know anything about her. When Penny heads to college in Austin, Texas, to learn how to become a writer, it’s seventy-nine miles and a zillion light years away from everything she can’t wait to leave behind. Sam’s stuck. Literally, figuratively, emotionally, financially. He works at a café and sleeps there too, on a mattress on the floor of an empty storage room upstairs. He knows that this is the god-awful chapter of his life that will serve as inspiration for… Read more.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Slut-shaming
  • Cheating
  • Rape recounted
  • Depression
  • Anxiety & panic attacks
  • Alcoholism & alcohol abuse
  • Pregnancy
  • Abortion & miscarriage mentioned
  • Hospitalisation of a parent
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The Book Ninja by Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus

The Book Ninja by Ali Berg & Michelle Kalus

The Book Ninja by Ali Berg book cover

Sometimes love means having to broaden your literary horizons.

Frankie Rose is desperate for love. Or a relationship. Or just a date with a semi-normal person will do. It’s not that she hasn’t tried. She’s the queen of online dating. But enough is enough. Inspired by her job at The Little Brunswick Street Bookshop, Frankie decides to take fate into her own hands and embarks on the ultimate love experiment.

Her plan? Plant her favourite books on trains inscribed with her contact details in a bid to lure the sophisticated, charming and well-read man of her dreams. Enter Sunny, and one spontaneous kiss later, Frankie begins to fall for him. But there’s just one problem – Frankie is strictly a classics kind of gal, and Sunny is really into Young Adult. Like really.

A quirky and uplifting love letter to books, friendship and soulmates.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Cheating
  • Death of a loved one
  • Car accident (recounted)
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Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett

Starry Eyes by Jenn Bennett book cover

Ever since last year’s homecoming dance, best friends-turned-best enemies Zorie and Lennon have made an art of avoiding each other. It doesn’t hurt that their families are the modern-day Californian version of the Montagues and Capulets. But when a group camping trip goes south, Zorie and Lennon find themselves stranded in the wilderness. Alone. Together. What could go wrong?

With no one but each other for company, Zorie and Lennon have no choice but to hash out their issues via witty jabs and insults as they try to make their way to safety. But fighting each other while also fighting off the forces of nature makes getting out of the woods in one piece less and less likely.

And as the two travel deeper into Northern California’s rugged backcountry, secrets and hidden feelings surface. But can Zorie and Lennon’s rekindled connection survive out in the real world? Or was it just a result of the fresh forest air and the magic of the twinkling stars?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Ableist language
  • Lesbomisia
  • Racism
  • Islamophobia
  • Cheating
  • Anxiety attacks (on-page)
  • Depression mentioned
  • Suicide of a parent
  • Blood depiction & physical injury
  • Chronic illness (main character, specifically hives)
  • Hospitalisation mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a father & mother recounted
  • Physical assault
  • Plane crash mentioned
  • Animal attacks, specifically snake and bear attacks
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A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood

A Snowfall of Silver by Laura Wood book cover

A snow-dusted love story. In the Autumn of 1931, eighteen-year-old Freya Trevelyan runs away from her home in Cornwall to follow her dream of becoming an actress. When she is invited to join a theatrical company about to head out on tour, Freya thinks the path to success is clear, and, amidst all the glamour and bustle of stage life, she finds – for the first time – a place to belong. But can reality ever live up to her expectations? What if her life – and falling in love – turn out to be nothing like she planned? An enchanting coming of age romance about following your dreams – even when they aren’t quite what you expected.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Homophobia
  • Racism & racial slurs
  • Misogyny, slut-shaming & victim-blaming
  • Sexual assault (non-consensual kiss)
  • Sexual harassment
  • Toxic relationship
  • Emotional abuse & gaslighting
  • Anxiety & implications of Bipolar Disorder
  • Alcohol consumption & smoking
  • Graphic emesis (on-page)
  • Blizzard

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

Sixteen-year-old Deka lives in fear and anticipation of the blood ceremony that will determine whether she will become a member of her village. Already different from everyone else because of her unnatural intuition, Deka prays for red blood so she can finally feel like she belongs.

But on the day of the ceremony, her blood runs gold, the color of impurity–and Deka knows she will face a consequence worse than death.

Then a mysterious woman comes to her with a choice: stay in the village and submit to her fate, or leave to fight for the emperor in an army of girls just like her. They are called alaki–near-immortals with rare gifts. And they are the only ones who can stop the empire’s greatest threat.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Homomisia
  • Misogyny
  • Rape and rape of a child mentioned*
  • Self-harm (cutting) for ritual
  • Blood & gore depiction, and physical injuries
  • Graphic murder (on-page)
  • Torture

*Discussed in more detail on-page roughly around pages 277-278 in the UK edition.

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The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon

Natasha: I’m a girl who believes in science and facts. Not fate. Not destiny. Or dreams that will never come true. I’m definitely not the kind of girl who meets a cute boy on a crowded New York City street and falls in love with him. Not when my family is twelve hours away from being deported to Jamaica. Falling in love with him won’t be my story.

Daniel: I’ve always been the good son, the good student, living up to my parents’ high expectations. Never the poet. Or the dreamer. But when I see her, I forget about all that. Something about Natasha makes me think that fate has something much more extraordinary in store—for both of us.

The Universe: Every moment in our lives has brought us to this single moment. A million futures lie before us. Which one will come true?

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Cheating
  • Suicidal ideation
  • Deportation (theme)
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Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Beartown by Fredrik Backman

Beartown by Fredrik Backman book cover

People say Beartown is finished. A tiny community nestled deep in the forest, it is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. But down by the lake stands an old ice rink, built generations ago by the working men who founded this town. And in that ice rink is the reason people in Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today. Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys.

Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.

Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.

GoodreadsThe Story Graph

Trigger & Content Warnings:

  • Homomisia
  • Racism
  • Misogyny
  • Rape
  • Suicide and self-harm
  • Gun violence
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