Book List
| Rainbow Boys
Alex Sanchez Call #: PBK SAN LINCOLN SHELF |
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Three teenage boys, coming of age and out of the closet. In a revealing debut novel that percolates with passion and wit, Alex Sanchez follows these very different high-school seniors as their struggles with sexuality and intolerance draw them into a triangle of love, betrayal, and ultimately, friendship. |
| I’ll Give You the Sun
Jandy Nelson Call #: BPK NEL LINCOLN SHELF |
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Jude and her twin brother, Noah, are incredibly close. At thirteen, isolated Noah draws constantly and is falling in love with the charismatic boy next door, while daredevil Jude cliff-dives and wears red-red lipstick and does the talking for both of them. But three years later, Jude and Noah are barely speaking. Something has happened to wreck the twins in different and dramatic ways. |
| Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid
collected by Jan Harold Brunvand Call #: PBK BRU |
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Urban legends are those strange, but seemingly credible tales that always happen to a friend of a friend. From the classic hook-man story told around many a campfire to “Saved by a Cell Phone,” these spine-tingling urban legends will give you goose bumps, even when you know they can’t be true. Still, you’ll continue to check the backseat of your car at gas stations and look under your bed at night before praying for sleep. |
| Donorboy
Brendan Halpin Call #: PBK HAL LINCOLN SHELF |
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Rosalind had two mommies. Now, thanks to a tragic accident involving foodstuffs, she has none. And Sean, the sperm donor responsible for half her DNA (and nothing else), is taking custody. Rosalind finds herself adjusting to a new life that seems both hateful and surreal–she’s an orphan with a new father, surrounded by friends she is beginning to despise and well-meaning adults who succeed only in annoying her. |
| Two Parties, One Tux
Steven Goldman Call #: PBK GOL |
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Mitchell Wells may not survive eleventh grade. He really only has one friend. His normally decent grade point average is in limbo due to a slightly violent, somewhat inappropriate claymation film. And girls . . . well, does hanging out with his sister count? Then his friend reveals he’s gay, one of the most popular girls in school decides she must date Mitchell, and–oh right–prom’s coming up. |
| Boy Meets Boy
David Levithan Call #: PBK LEV LINCOLN SHELF |
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This is the story of Paul, a sophomore at a high school like no other: The cheerleaders ride Harleys, the homecoming queen used to be a guy named Daryl (she now prefers Infinite Darlene and is also the star quarterback), and the gay-straight alliance was formed to help the straight kids learn how to dance. |
| The Bermuda Triangle
Charles Berlitz Call #: 001.9 BER |
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What happens when your two best friends fall in love…with each other? |
| If You Could be Mine
Sara Farizan Call #: PBK FAR LINCOLN SHELF |
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Seventeen-year-old Sahar has been in love with her best friend, Nasrin, since they were six. They’ve shared stolen kisses and romantic promises. But Iran is a dangerous place for two girls in love—Sahar and Nasrin could be beaten, imprisoned, even executed if their relationship came to light. |
| The Alliance
Gabriel Goodman Call #: PBK SSS |
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This title is about the founding of a gay-straight alliance at Southside. |
| Love Rules
Marilyn Reynolds Call #: PBK REY |
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This young adult novel accurately portrays the widespread effects of a young lesbian’s decision to come out of the closet and live openly and honestly while still in high school. The story line revolves around Kit Dandridge—a young lesbian struggling to be herself in a repressive environment—her best friend Lynn, and their families and friends. |
| Scars
C.A. Rainfield Call #: PBK RAI |
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Kendra, fifteen, hasn’t felt safe since she began to recall devastating memories of childhood sexual abuse, especially because she still can’t remember the most important detail– her abuser’s identity. Frightened, Kendra believes someone is always watching and following her, leaving menacing messages only she understands. If she lets her guard down even for a minute, it could cost Kendra her life. To relieve the pressure, Kendra cuts; aside from her brilliantly expressive artwork, it’s her only way of coping. |
| Ask the Passengers
A.S. King Call #: PBK KIN LINCOLN SHELF |
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Astrid Jones desperately wants to confide in someone, but her mother’s pushiness and her father’s lack of interest tell her they’re the last people she can trust. Instead, Astrid spends hours lying on the backyard picnic table watching airplanes fly overhead. She doesn’t know the passengers inside, but they’re the only people who won’t judge her when she asks them her most personal questions–like what it means that she’s falling in love with a girl. |
| Afterworld
Scott Westerfeld Call #: PBK WES |
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Darcy Patel has put college and everything else on hold to publish her teen novel, Afterworlds. Arriving in New York with no apartment or friends she wonders whether she’s made the right decision until she falls in with a crowd of other seasoned and fledgling writers who take her under their wings. |
| Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Benjamin Alire Saena Call #: FIC SAE LINCOLN SHELF |
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Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship—the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime. And it is through this friendship that Ari and Dante will learn the most important truths about themselves and the kind of people they want to be. |
| Down to the Bone
Myra L. Dole Call #: FIC DOL |
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Here’s what it means to be a tortillera. It means you’re a girl who loves girls. Which means you get kicked out of school faster than Mother Superior Sicko can grimace. Which means your dramatic mom finds out. Which means you’re kicked to the curb with nowhere to go, and the love of your life is shipped off to Puerto Rico to marry a guy. But this is Miami. If you have a bighearted best friends, and your broken heart is still full of love, you just might land on your feet. |
| The God Box
Alex Sanchez Call #: FIC SAN |
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High school senior Paul has dated Angie since middle school, and they’re good together. They have a lot of the same interests, like singing in their church choir and being active in Bible club. But when Manuel transfers to their school, Paul has to rethink his life. Manuel is the first openly gay teen anyone in their small town has ever met, and yet he says he’s also a committed Christian. |
| Jack
A.M. Homes Call #: FIC HOM |
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In Jack, A. M. Homes gives us a teenager who wants nothing more than to be normal—even if being normal means having divorced parents and a rather strange best friend. But when Jack’s father takes him out in a rowboat on Lake Watchmayoyo and tells his son he’s gay, nothing will ever be normal again. |
| Rainbow Road
Alex Sanchez Call #: FIC SAN |
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Jason Carrillo came out to his basketball team senior year and lost his university scholarship. Now, with graduation behind him and summer ending, he’s asked to speak at the opening of a gay and lesbian high school across the country. But after spending years in the closet and losing his scholarship dream, what message can he offer? |
| Rainbow High
Alex Sanchez Call #: FIC SAN |
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Jason Carrillo, the best-looking athlete in school, has had his eyes on the prize from day one: a scholarship for college. But then his eyes turn to love — and Kyle. Kyle Meeks, swim team star and all-around good guy, is finally in the relationship he wanted. Being in love feels so good, in fact, that he can’t imagine giving it up to go to Princeton. Something he’s worked for his entire life. Nelson Glassman, outgoing and defiant, might be HIV positive. Jeremy, the boy he loves, is HIV positive. Although Nelson fears testing positive, if he is infected Jeremy might stop protecting him and pushing him away. |
| Between Mom and Jo
Julie Anne Peters Call #: FIC PET |
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Nick has a three-legged dog named Lucky, some pet fish, and two moms who think he’s the greatest kid ever. And he happens to think he has the greatest Moms ever, but everything changes when his birth mom and her wife, Jo, start to have marital problems. Suddenly, Nick is in the middle, and instead of having two Moms to turn to for advice, he has no one. |
| The Blue Lawn
William Taylor Call #: PBK TAY |
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David is 15 and the star player of his school’s rugby team. Sixteen-year-old Theo is an outsider, not altogether likable, and not particularly interested in making friends. Initial hostility turns to an unlikely friendship, masking a growing attraction neither boy understands. |
| Empress of the World
Sara Ryan Call #: FIC RYA |
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Nicola Lancaster is spending her summer at the Siegel Institute, a hothouse of smart, intense teenagers. She soon falls in with Katrina (Manic Computer Chick), Isaac (Nice-Guy-Despite-Himself), Kevin (Inarticulate Composer) and Battle, a beautiful blond dancer. The two become friends–and then, startlingly, more than friends. What do you do when you think you’re attracted to guys, and then you meet a girl who steals your heart? |
| Love & Lies
Ellen Wittlinger Call #: FIC WIT |
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Marisol Guzman enrolls herself in an adult education class called “How to Write Your First Novel.” Also enrolled in the class in John Galardi, a.k.a. “Gio,” a friend and fellow zine writer who fell head over heels for her last spring. Of course, Gio is not the person Marisol would wish to fall in love with, because they’ve been down this road before and because she’s a lesbian. |
| Geography Club
Brent Hartinger Call #: PBK HAR |
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Russel Middlebrook is convinced he’s the only gay kid at Goodkind High School. Then his online gay chat buddy turns out to be none other than Kevin, the popular but closeted star of the school’s baseball team. Soon Russel meets other gay students, too. There’s his best friend Min, who reveals that she is bisexual, and her soccer-playing girlfriend Terese. Then there’s Terese’s politically active friend, Ike. But how can kids this diverse get together without drawing attention to themselves? |
| Deliver us From Evie
M.E. Kerr Call #: FIC KER |
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Told by her brother Parr, this is the story of 18-year-old Evie, her Missouri farm family, and the turmoil created by Evie’s love for the local banker’s daughter. |
| From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun
Jacqueline Woodson Call #: FIC WOO |
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Melanin Sun’s mother has some big news: she’s in love with a woman. Now he has many decisions to make: Should he stand by his mother even though it could mean losing his friends? Should he abandon the only family he’s ever known? Either way, Melanin Sun is about to learn the true meaning of sacrifice, prejudice, and love. |
| Annie on My Mind
Nancy Garden Call #: FIC GAR |
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This groundbreaking book is the story of two teenage girls whose friendship blossoms into love and who, despite pressures from family and school that threaten their relationship, promise to be true to each other and their feelings. |
| Baby Be-Bop
Francesca Lia Block Call #: PBK BLO |
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Dirk MacDonald has always known he was gay. Struggling with what it means to be different, he ultimately learns to accept — and love — himself for who he is. |
| Eight Seconds
Jean Ferris Call #: FIC FER |
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Eighteen-year-old John must confront his own sexuality when he goes to rodeo school and finds himself strangely attracted to an older boy who is smart, tough, complicated, gorgeous, and gay. |
| Wide Awake
David Levithan Call #: PBK LEV |
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Everything seems to be going right in Duncan’s life: The candidate he’s been supporting for president has just won the election. Duncan’s boyfriend, Jimmy, is with him to celebrate. Love and kindness appear to have won the day.
But all too quickly, things start to go wrong. |
| Everyday
David Levithan Call #: PBK LEV LINCOLN SHELF |
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Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.
There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. |
| Crossing Lines
Paul Volponi Call #: FIC VOL |
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Adonis is a jock. He’s on the football team and he’s dating one of the prettiest girls in school. Alan is the new kid. He wears lipstick and joins the Fashion Club. Soon enough the football team is out to get him. Adonis is glad to go along with his teammates . . . until they come up with a dangerous plan to humiliate Alan. Now Adonis must decide whether he wants to be a guy who follows the herd or a man who does what’s right. |
| Will Grayson, Will Grayson
John Green Call #: FIC GRE LINCOLN SHELF |
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Will Grayson meets Will Grayson. One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two strangers are about to cross paths. From that moment on, their world will collide and lives intertwine. |
| Winger
Andrew Smith Call #: PBK SMI LINCOLN SHELF |
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Ryan Dean West is a fourteen-year-old junior at a boarding school for rich kids in the Pacific Northwest. He’s living in Opportunity Hall, the dorm for troublemakers, and rooming with the biggest bully on the rugby team. And he’s madly in love with his best friend Annie, who thinks of him as a little boy. |
| It Gets Better
Edited by Dan Savage and Terry Miller Call #: 306.76 SAV |
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It Gets Better is a collection of original essays and expanded testimonials written to teens from celebrities, political leaders, and everyday people, because while many LGBT teens can’t see a positive future for themselves, we can. |
| Hear Me Out
Edited by Frances Rooney Call #: 306.76 HEA |
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More and more gay teens are speaking out about the realization of their sexuality, and about the consequences-the reactions of friends and families, schoolmates and society in general. These heartfelt memoirs, originally presented orally in schools, speak poignantly about the lives of young gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and transsexual people today. |
| Gay Rights
David Hudson Call #: 306.76 HUD |
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Explores the debate over what rights gay individuals should have, including marriage, protection from institutionalized discrimination, and military policy. Thought provoking questions on personal situations and public policy are set within text to encourage reader engagement. |
| Gender Identity
Cynthia Winfield Call #: 306.76 WIN |
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Contrary to popular education, gender is no longer an either “male” or “female” proposition. Today, it is increasingly important, especially for those coming into adulthood, to go beyond the concepts of gay, lesbian, straight, and bisexual when examining gender: the way we feel about ourselves and our roles in society. |
| The Shared Heart
Adam Mastoon Call #: 305.9 MAS |
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With candor and sensitivity, thirty-nine young people write frankly about their own homosexuality. Told with honesty and courage, their words express the fundamental need all people share for acceptance and respect. |
| GLBTQ
Kelly Huegel Call #: 306.76 HUE |
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For gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, and questioning teens, these challenges can include prejudice, discrimination, rejection, reprisals, insensitive remarks (even among friends and families) and, sometimes, violence.
But being a GLBTQ teen can also be fun and enlightening—when you are comfortable with who you are. |