young adult Collections and programs
Young Adult New Arrivals
A world without power grows dark and deadly...
Liam and Hannah continue their dangerous journey, but their every step is dogged by a deadly adversary. Hunted and exhausted, will they have what it takes to get home?
In Fall Creek, Noah struggles to protect his son and his friends. With the town running out of food and fuel, and the cold as brutal as ever, they're forced to make compromises that may place them in even greater danger...
When the country goes dark, ordinary people find themselves facing the end of the world as they know it. With society collapsing before their eyes, they'll have to risk everything to protect their home and the people they love.
Years after their respective returns from Wonderland, Neverland, and Oz, the trio meet here, at Cheshire Crossing—a boarding school where girls like them learn how to cope with their supernatural experiences and harness their magical world-crossing powers.
But Alice, Wendy, and Dorothy—now teenagers, who’ve had their fill of meddling authority figures—aren’t content to sit still in a classroom. Soon they’re dashing from one universe to the next, leaving havoc in their wake—and, inadvertently, bringing the Wicked Witch and Hook together in a deadly supervillain love match.
To stop them, the girls will have to draw on all of their powers . . . and marshal a team of unlikely allies from across the magical multiverse.
When seventeen-year-old Bailey starts a new job at a hotel waterpark, she is less than thrilled to see an old acquaintance is one of her coworkers. Bailey met Charlie a year ago on the long flight to Omaha, where she moved after her parents’ divorce. Charlie’s cynicism didn’t mix well with Bailey’s carefully well-behaved temperament, and his endless commentary was the irritating cherry on top of an already emotionally fraught trip.
Now, Bailey and Charlie are still polar opposites, but instead of everything about him rubbing Bailey the wrong way, she starts to look forward to hanging out and gossiping about the waterpark guests and their coworkers—particularly two who keep flirting with each other. Bailey and Charlie make a bet on whether or not the cozy pair will actually get together. Charlie insists that members of the opposite sex can’t just be friends, and Bailey is determined to prove him wrong.
Bailey and Charlie keep close track of the romantic progress of others while Charlie works to deflect the growing feelings he’s developed for Bailey. Terrified to lose her if his crush becomes known, what doesn’t help his agenda is Bailey and Charlie “fake dating” in order to disrupt the annoying pleasantries between Bailey’s mom and her mom’s new boyfriend. Soon, what Charlie was hoping to avoid becomes a reality as Bailey starts to see him as not only a friend she can rely on in the midst of family drama—but someone who makes her hands shake and heart race. But Charlie has a secret—a secret that involves Bailey and another bet Charlie may have made. Can the two make a real go of things…or has Charlie’s secret doomed them before they could start?
Since fleeing the gilded halls of Evergarden for the muck-filled canals of the Marshes, Marlow Briggs has made a name for herself as the best cursebreaker in Caraza City. But no matter how many cases she solves, she is still haunted by the mystery of her mother’s disappearance.
When Adrius Falcrest, Marlow's old friend and scion of one of Caraza's most affluent spell-making families, asks her to help break a life-threatening curse, Marlow wants nothing to do with the boy who spurned her a year ago. But a new lead in her mother’s case makes Marlow realize that the only way to get the answers she desperately seeks is to help Adrius and return to Evergarden society―even if it means suffering through a fake love affair with him to avoid drawing suspicion from the conniving Five Families.
As the investigation draws Marlow into a web of deadly secrets and powerful enemies, a shocking truth emerges: Adrius’s curse and her mother’s disappearance may just be clues to an even larger mystery, one that could unravel the very foundations of Caraza and magic itself.
Book 2 (follows Garden of the Cursed)
The city of Caraza sits poised on the edge of chaos―and cursebreaker Marlow Briggs is at the center of a deadly struggle for power. In the tragic aftermath of the Vale-Falcrest wedding, Marlow is spurned by Adrius, who refuses to speak to her and publicly vows to find a noble wife before the year is out. Despite her heartbreak, Marlow is still intent on breaking his compulsion curse. To do so, she’ll have to play loving daughter to the man who cast it―the man who’s hellbent on reshaping Caraza in his own image, no matter the cost.
But the closer she gets to her long-lost father, the more Marlow starts to question if he’s really the villain she’s made him out to be. As the lines between enemy and ally blur, Marlow must decide if she’s willing to sacrifice her heart’s desire to save a city that wants her dead.
Nova Albright, the first Black homecoming queen at Lovett High, is dead. Murdered the night of her coronation, her body found the next morning in the old slave cemetery she spent her weekends rehabilitating.
Tinsley McArthur was supposed to be queen. Not only is she beautiful, wealthy, and white, it’s her legacy—her grandmother, her mother, and even her sister wore the crown before her. Everyone in Lovett knows Tinsley would do anything to carry on the McArthur tradition.
No one is more certain of that than Duchess Simmons, Nova’s best friend. Duchess’s father is the first Black police captain in Lovett. For Duchess, Nova’s crown was more than just a win for Nova. It was a win for all the Black kids. Now her best friend is dead, and her father won’t face the fact that the main suspect is right in front of him. Duchess is convinced that Tinsley killed Nova—and that Tinsley is privileged enough to think she can get away with it. But Duchess’s father seems to be doing what he always does: fall behind the blue line. Which means that the white girl is going to walk.
Duchess is determined to prove Tinsley’s guilt. And to do that, she’ll have to get close to her.
But Tinsley has an agenda, too.
Everyone loved Nova. And sometimes, love is exactly what gets you killed.
Book 1 of 2
At only seventeen years old, Ross Quest is already a master thief, especially adept at escape plans. Until her plan to run away from her legendary family of thieves takes an unexpected turn, leaving her mother’s life hanging in the balance.
In a desperate bid, she enters the Thieves’ Gambit, a series of dangerous, international heists where killing the competition isn’t exactly off limits, but the grand prize is a wish for anything in the world—a wish that could save her mom. When she learns two of her competitors include her childhood nemesis and a handsome, smooth-talking guy who might also want to steal her heart, winning the Gambit becomes trickier than she imagined.
Ross tries her best to stick to the family creed: trust no one whose last name isn’t Quest. But with the stakes this high, Ross will have to decide who to con and who to trust before time runs out. After all, only one of them can win.
A year ago, Gage survived a car accident that killed his best friend, Hunter. Without the person who always brought out the best in him, Gage doesn’t know who he is. He likes working as a fry cook and loves his small-town friends and family, but they weren’t in the wreck and he can’t tell them how much he’s still
hurting. He just wants to forget all his pain and move on.
So when his stepdad shows him a dream job opening in one of his idol’s restaurants, Gage knows this is his chance to convince everyone and himself that he’s fine. To try to push past his grief once and for all, Gage applies for the job, asks out a crush, and volunteers to host a memorial for Hunter.
But the more Gage tries to ignore his grief, the more volatile it becomes.
Broken Kingdoms: Book 5 of 9
For weeks, Malin plotted and schemed with the kingdom’s cruelest crooks, the Nightrender and the Guild of Kryv, to infiltrate a wicked masquerade.
They survived. They escaped. Most of them.
To the underbelly of the kingdom, the Nightrender never made it out of his own scheme. To Malin, he’s only Kase, the man who owns her heart, and who is once again a prisoner of their enemies. Malin and the Kryv will stop at nothing until he’s free. Even if it means claiming her birthright to a throne that brings death and war.
But when they discover Kase has been locked in a cruel spell, Malin must find a way to steal his new twisted memories before he is lost to them for good.
The only trouble is when Kase looks at Malin, all he sees is an enemy with a death sentence.
Broken Kingdoms: Book 6 of 9
To take her place as rightful queen, Malin Strom stands by the side of the Nightrender and his guild of thieves in the fight to take a throne she never wanted. Now, as warriors from distant kingdoms answer their call, a new battle begins.
But when dark fae side with the Black Palace, Malin and Kase are forced to take drastic measures if they are to have a hope for victory: forge an unwilling alliance with a cruel sea fae, draw out a cursed beast they thought long dead, even risk the lives of everyone they love by twisting the memories of fate itself.
For Kase and Malin, this fight could be their hard-fought salvation...or a vicious end to everything they love.
Collections
Print Collection: The library has a wide variety of fiction books appropriate for middle and high school youth. These include classic authors, popular titles, and a variety of genres. The non-fiction titles support homework assignments and general interests. We also have the 2022-2023 TRUMAN and GATEWAY Award Nominated books available in the Young Adult section of the library. Missouri School Librarians have nominated these books for students to read and vote for their favorite in March 2022.
Media Collection: Titles of interest to youth in CD and DVD formats are housed in the general media collection.
Truman Award Nominees 2024-2025
Air By: Monica Roe
Dinged By: Tommy Greenwald
Ode to a Nobody By: Caroline Brooks Dubois
Rain Rising By: Courtne Comrie
Ravenfall By: Kalyn Josephson
The Fort By: Gordon Korman
The Last Hope in Hopetown By: Maria Tureaud
The Marvellers By: Dhonielle Clayton
The Problem with Prophecies By: Scott Reintgen
The Switch By: Roland Smith
Two Degrees By: Alan Gratz
Undercover Latina By: Aya de Leon
Gateway Award Nominees 2024-2025
A Year to the Day By: Robin Benway
After Dark with Roxie Clark By: Brooke Lauren Davis
All My Rage By: Sabaa Tahir
All That’s Left in the World By: Erik J. Brown
Hotel Magnifique By: Emily J. Taylor
I Must Betray You By: Ruta Sepetys
My Mechanical Romance By: Alexene Farol Follmuth
Nothing More to Tell by: Karen M. McManus
The Do-Over By: Lynn Painter
The Getaway By: Lamar Giles
The Q By: Amy Tintera
The Sunbearer Trials By: Aiden Thomas
The Weight of Blood By: Tiffany D. Jackson
The Words We Keep By: Erin Stewart
Those Summer Nights By: Laura Silverman