- Celebration High
- 2024-25 Florida Teens Read Titles
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Book Cover
Info and Additional Links
Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed Dashka Slater
When a high school student started a private Instagram account that used racist and sexist memes to make his friends laugh, he thought of it as “edgy” humor. Over time, the edge got sharper. Then a few other kids found out about the account, and pretty soon, everyone knew. Ultimately no one in the small town of Albany, California, was safe from the repercussions of the account’s discovery: not the girls targeted by the posts. Not the boy who created the account. Not the group of kids who followed it. Not the adults―educators and parents―whose attempts to fix things too often made them worse. In the end, no one was laughing, and everyone was left wondering: What does it mean to be held accountable for harm that takes place behind a screen?
Book and author info: Accountable | Nonfiction Young Adult Book by Best-Selling Author, Dashka Slater (accountablebook.com)
Non-Fiction
Social media
Breathe and Count Back from Ten Natalia Sylvester
An audition to become a mermaid in Mermaid Cove could be the answer to Peruvian-American Verónica's quest for the perfect summer employment and the fulfillment of her life-long dream. With her hip dysplasia, the only place she feels comfortable is in the water, but will the job be the breaking point in her relationship with her parents? Concerned about the family's resident status, seventeen-year-old Verónica's parents control her every move. As Veronica balances her desires against those of her parents, she learns more about her disability, her relationship with her sister and her new friend, Alex.
Author info: Natalia Sylvester Author | Natalia Sylvester
Book Review: Breathe and Count Back From Ten by Natalia Sylvester | Book Review (youtube.com)
Realistic Fiction
Physical Disability
Romance
Chaos Theory Nic Stone
Scars exist to remind us of what we've survived.
Shelbi is brilliant, kind, and battling bipolar disorder. She's lucky to have a great support system between her parents and doctors, but she has no friends after the incident at her last school.
Andy is spiraling. He is coping with his grief by drinking, which is only worsened by issues at home.
Andy and Shelbi had never officially met, but one chance encounter at a party changed that. They bond over their shared lows and struggles, and it's not long until they realize they could be something more. But will the universe pull them apart?
Author info: Nic Stone (Author of Dear Martin) | Goodreads
Book Talk CHAOS THEORY | Official Book Trailer (youtube.com)
Realistic Fiction
Romance
Mental Health
Dear Medusa Olivia A. Cole
Sixteen-year-old Alicia Rivers has a reputation that precedes her. But there's more to her story than the whispers that follow her throughout the hallways at school. What her classmates don't know is that trauma has rewritten every cell in Alicia’s body into someone she doesn't recognize. To the world around her, she's been cast, like the mythical Medusa, as not the victim but the monster of her own story.
“[This] fierce and brightly burning feminist roar...paints a devastating and haunting portrait of a vulnerable young woman discovering the power of her voice, her courage, and her rage.” --Samira Ahmed, New York Times bestselling author of Internment and Hollow FiresAuthor: Olivia A. Cole (oliviaacole.com)
Novel in verse (poetry)
Realistic fiction
Four for the Road K.J. Reilly
Asher Hunting wants revenge.
Specifically, he wants revenge on the drunk driver who killed his mom and got off on a technicality. No one seems to think this is healthy, though, which is how he ends up in a bereavement group (well, bereavement groups. He goes to several.) It’s there he makes some unexpected friends: Sloane, Will and eighty-year-old Henry. These three are who Asher invites on a road trip from New Jersey to Graceland. Asher doesn’t tell them that he’s planning to steal his dad’s car, or the real reason that he wants to go to Tennessee (spoiler alert: it’s revenge)—but then again, the others don’t share their reasons for going, either.
Complete with unexpected revelations, lots of chicken Caesar salads at roadside restaurants, a stolen motorcycle, and an epic kiss at a rest stop minimart, what begins as the road trip to revenge might just turn into a path towards forgiveness.Author info: Books (kjreillyauthor.com)
Book Trailer: Four for the Road by K. J. Reilly (youtube.com)
Realistic fiction
Grief
Mental health
The Do-Over Lynn Painter
Emilie Hornby has the perfect Valentine’s Day planned out with her boyfriend, Josh, but absolutely everything goes wrong. She rear-ends a guy from school, catches her boyfriend cheating on her, finds out there is a problem with the scholarship she had been counting on and her dad wants to move. She can’t take it anymore and calls her grandma to pick her up, but when she wakes up the next day, she realizes she’s not at grandma’s house and it’s Valentine’s Day all over again. How can she break this cycle of reliving the same bad day over and over again, and can she pick up the pieces and move on when February 15th finally comes?
Author info: HELLO, LOVELY (lynnpainter.com)
Book Talk: LYNN PAINTER IS A GENIUS! (part 1 of 2) #thedoover #lynnpainter #booktube (youtube.com)
RomanceRealistic Fiction
Promise Boys Nick Brooks
The prestigious Urban Promise Prep school might look pristine on the outside, but deadly secrets lurk within. When the principal ends up murdered on school premises and the cops come sniffing around, a trio of students―J.B., Ramón, and Trey―emerge as the prime suspects. They had the means, they had the motive . . . and they may have had the murder weapon. But with all three maintaining their innocence, they must band together to track down the real killer before they are arrested. Or is the true culprit hiding among them? This page-turning thriller is perfect for fans of Karen McManus, Jason Reynolds, Angie Thomas, and Holly Jackson.Author info: HOME | NickBrooks (thenickbrooks.com)
Book Trailer: Promise Boys Book Trailer 1 - YouTube
Mystery
Thriller
Realistic fiction
Remember Me Gone Stacy Stokes
People from around the country visit the Memory House in tiny Tumble Tree, Texas so Lucy’s father can erase their most painful memories, but when Lucy finally gets her chance to help, she sees more than just a tragic recollection. As the townspeople grow alarmingly ill, and Lucy finds herself drawn to Marco Warman in spite of warnings to avoid him, Lucy begins questioning her own memories. Can she and Marco uncover what’s really happening in Tumble Tree, or will they be doomed to forget everything?
Author website: books | Stacy Stokes | Author
Thriller/MysteryScience Fiction
The Name She Gave Me Betty Culley
This novel in verse is a moving tale of an adopted girl named Rynn, 16, who knows little about her past other than her birth mother named her Scheherazade, wanted her raised on a farm, and she was born with a hole in her heart. She cannot access further details about her birth until she turns eighteen. With the help of friends, she discovers clues about her past, including a sister who lives with a foster family two towns away. If she connects with her, will it drive her adoptive family apart? While the literal hole in her heart may have been fixed, an emptiness still exists. This powerful tale explores the wide range of heartbreak and love that exists in families of all forms.
Author info: Betty Culley - Author of Young Adult & Middle Grade NovelsBetty Culley | Author
Novel in verse (poetry)
Realistic Fiction
Adoption
Midnight at the Houdini Delilah S. Dawson
Anna has a plan, and planning is how she makes sure everything in her life stays just the way she wants it, until she finds out her sister is moving away and her world is turned upside down. The night of her sister’s wedding she finds herself trying to escape a mysterious storm that strikes Las Vegas. Her father manages to get her to the Houdini Hotel where she seeks refuge, not knowing that the hotel is under a spell, and if she stays past midnight she will be trapped there forever. She meets Max, who has lived his whole life at the Houdini, and together they try to find a way out before it’s too late for her. There’s magic, mystery and romance combined to keep you reading until the very last page.
Book info and written reviews: Midnight at the Houdini by Delilah S. Dawson | Goodreads
Book cover design: Capturing the magic of Midnight at the Houdini by Delilah S. Dawson 🗝️✨ (youtube.com)
Magical Realism
Mystery
Fantasy
In Nightfall Suzanne Young
When Theo and Marco Maggione find themselves banished to Nightfall, Oregon, they bristle under their grandmother's strict house rules, but they quickly realize that being home before dark is an excellent idea and that perhaps their charismatic new friends aren't quite what they seem. As the siblings struggle to reconcile Nonna's rules with their desire to fit in and have fun, they learn about Nightfall's horrific history and their own connections to it.
Book Review: Review of "In Nightfall" by Suzanne Young (youtube.com)
Horror
Fantasy
Supernatural
Seven Percent of Ro Devereux Ellen O'Clover
MASH - Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House. Ro and her friends played the old pencil and paper game at sleepovers in middle school, but what if the game could actually predict your future? When Ro learns that human behavior can be predicted with 93% accuracy, she creates an app that will do just that, and it goes viral. Overnight, Ro finds herself working with an app developer, with seemingly endless funding, and Miller, her ex-best friend who now despises her. When MASH predicts a future for Ro and Miller, the app developer swoops in and launches the pair as the perfect MASH success story, but are they? As MASH gains momentum and the app developer demands more, Ro wonders if this is really the success she wants.
Author Website: Ellen O'Clover Books (ellenoclover.com)
Book Trailer: Seven Percent of Ro Devereux (youtube.com)
Romance
Realistic Fiction
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight Kalynn Bayron
At Camp Mirror Lake, terror is the name of the game . . . but can you survive the night?
Charity Curtis has the summer job of her dreams, playing the “final girl” at Camp Mirror Lake. Guests pay to be scared in this full-contact terror game, as Charity and her summer crew recreate scenes from a classic slasher film, Curse of Camp Mirror Lake. But the last weekend of the season, Charity's co-workers begin disappearing. And when one ends up dead, Charity's role as the final girl suddenly becomes all too real. Is there is more to the story of Mirror Lake and its dangerous past than Charity ever suspected?Author: BOOKS | kalynnbayron
Quick Review: Easily read this in one day! You’re Not Supposed To Die Tonight review #shorts #booktube #booktok (youtube.com)
Horror
Mystery Thriller
The Drowned Woods Emily Lloyd-Jones
What if you had an amazing superpower, but you were forced to use it for evil instead of good? Mererid (Mer) was taken from her family and forced to use her water diving power to find wells that were then poisoned, killing thousands. When she finds out the truth about how her power is being used, she runs away, trying to escape the horrifying past. When a familiar face turns up and promises her a way to get vengeance and stop the prince from harming others, Mer decides to rise to the challenge. Armed with a knife, a crew of questionable comrades and a possibly magical corgi, she returns to the city to set things right. Full of adventure, magic and mystery, this book will keep you guessing at every turn.
The Drowned Woods— part heist novel, part dark fairy tale.Author Info: Emily Lloyd-Jones (emilylloydjones.com)
Book review/Book Talk: The Drowned Woods by Emily Lloyd-Jones | ARC REVIEW [CC] - YouTube
Fantasy
Mythology/Retelling
Queen Bee Amalie Howard
Queen Bee is the historical romance of the season, filled with vengeance and wit. Ela, freshly graduated from a harsh girls’ school, has concocted a plan to infiltrate and destroy London’s elite circle after being ruined by salacious lies and jealousy. Ela has disguised herself as a wealthy heiress with dyed hair, a new name, and a prestigious benefactor, and she is taking the season by storm, all with the goal to take down Poppy, her former best friend turned tormentor. What starts out as a mission for revenge, quickly gets complicated as friendships blossom and an unlikely romance starts sizzling with Lord Keston. This novel shows what colonial life would have been like had conquered countries been granted opportunities for equality. It has all the appeal and draw of Downton Abbey with Asian and African influences.
Author Website: Upcoming Release | amaliehoward.com
Romance
Historical Fiction