Teens: Go back to school with some fiction picks from the Abington Community Library.
“Instinct” by Sherrilyn Kenyon (Chronicles of Nick series)
No one wants Nick Gautier more than the dark gods who created his race. Now that they know where he is, they will stop at nothing to reclaim him. And without knowing it, Nick has just embraced the one person he should never have trusted, the one person who will hand him over to his enemies to get back the life they lost.
“Larry and the Meaning of Life” by Janet Tashjian
Josh Swensen (otherwise known as Larry) can’t seem to get off the couch. His usual overactive imagination and save-the-world mindset have all but vanished, and his best friend, Beth, is seriously worried. When Beth coaxes Josh into taking a walk at Walden Pond, Josh meets Gus Muldarian, a spiritual guru who convinces him to join his study group as a way to find deeper meaning in life. Josh thinks Gus is a joke. Still, feeling desperate and seeing no way out of his rut, he agrees to try it. What begins as a harmless Thoreau-esque search for meaning soon turns into Josh’s most chaotic and profound adventure yet.
“The Looney Experiment” by Luke Reynolds
Atticus Hobart couldn’t feel lower. He’s in love with a girl who doesn’t know he exists, he is the class bully’s personal punching bag, and to top it all off, his dad has just left the family. Into this drama steps Mr. Looney, a 77-year-old substitute English teacher with uncanny insight and a most unconventional approach to teaching. But Atticus soon discovers there’s more to Mr. Looney’s methods than he’d first thought. And as Atticus begins to unlock the truths within his own name, he finds his hyper-imagination can help him forge his own voice, and maybe, just maybe, discover the power to face his problems was inside him all along.
“Read Between the Lines” by Johanna Knowles
Thanks to a bully in gym class, unpopular Nate suffers a broken finger — the middle one, splinted to flip off the world. It won’t be the last time a middle finger is raised on this day. Dreamer Claire envisions herself sitting in an artsy café, filling a journal, but fate has other plans. One cheerleader dates a closeted basketball star; another questions just how, as a “big girl,” she fits in. A group of boys scam drivers for beer money without remorse — or so it seems. Over the course of a single day, these voices and others speak loud and clear about the complex dance that is life in a small town. They resonate in a gritty and unflinching portrayal of a day like any other, with ordinary traumas, heartbreak, and revenge. But on any given day, the line where presentation and perception meet is a tenuous one, so hard to discern. Unless, of course, one looks a little closer — and reads between the lines.
“Threatened” by Eliot Schrefer
Luc is an orphan, living in debt slavery in Gabon, until he meets a professor who claims to be studying chimpanzees, and they head off into the jungle — but when the professor disappears, Luc has to fend for himself and join forces with the chimps to save their forest.
