New School Year... New...Secrets...Scandal...Friends?

Since it's back to school season, we created a new display in the Teen Space at our Library full of YA books that have a new school year theme, but with some kind of twist. Scandals, murders, secrets, and friends... or sometimes frenemies! Thus, "New School Year... New...Secrets, New...Scandals, New...Friends?" was born...


Some of the books on display are:

Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins

A fabulous romance!
Anna was looking forward to her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a great job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she's less than thrilled about being shipped off to boarding school in Paris-until she meets Etienne St. Clair. Smart, charming, beautiful, Etienne has it all . . . including a serious girlfriend.

Harbinger by Sara Wilson Etienne

Totally absorbing!
When sixteen-year-old Faye arrives at Holbrook Academy, she doesn't expect to find herself exactly where she needs to be. After years of strange waking visions and nightmares, her only comfort the bones of dead animals, Faye is afraid she's going crazy. Fast.

The Carrie Diaries by Candace Bushnell

Before there was ever Sex and the City...
The Carrie Diaries opens up in Carrie's senior year of high school. She and her best friends -- Walt, Lali, Maggie, and the Mouse -- are inseparable, and then Sebastian Kydd comes into the picture. Carrie falls into the relationship that she was always supposed to have in high school-until a friend's betrayal makes her question everything. 

Private by Kate Brian

A true High School "soap opera!"
Fifteen-year-old Reed Brennan wins a scholarship to Easton Academy—the golden ticket away from her pill-popping mother and run-of-the-mill suburban life. But when she arrives on the beautiful, tradition-steeped campus of Easton, everyone is just a bit more sophisticated, a bit more gorgeous, and a lot wealthier than she ever thought possible. She quickly discovers that inside their secret parties and mountains of attitude, hanging in their designer clothing-packed closets the Billings Girls have skeletons. And they’ll do anything to keep their secrets private.

Other titles include:
Blue Bloods by Melissa De La Cruz
Deadline by Chris Crutcher
Hex Hall by Rachel Hawkins
Monster High by Lisi Harrison
My Name is Not Easy by Debby Dahl Edwardson
Something to Hold by Katherine Schlick Noe
Dead is a Battlefield by Marlene Perez
Freshman Year and Other Unnatural Disasters by Meredith Zeitlin

If you have to go back to school, the least you can do is go back to school with a twist, right? Stop by soon and pick up some scandalously delicious reads...

Review: Smile

Smile
by Reina Telgemeier

Book Description:
Raina just wants to be a normal sixth grader. But one night after Girl Scouts she trips and falls, severely injuring her two front teeth. What follows is a long and frustrating journey with on-again, off-again braces, surgery, embarrassing headgear, and even a retainer with fake teeth attached. And on top of all that, there's still more to deal with: a major earthquake, boy confusion, and friends who turn out to be not so friendly.

Review:
I actually really liked this graphic novel. The pictures were easy to look at and understand. The style was very simple, but still fun-looking.

The storyline was pretty great, too, though it had some gross moments to do with her teeth, lol! It was really interesting because not only was it a good story with a character that was very relatable, but it turns out it's a memoir! The events really happened to the author. Cool.
Another graphic novel I may never have picked up on my own, but after having heard great things about it from other people, I decided to give it a shot, and it turned out to be really good! :)