Back to School - High School Edition

Back to school, part 2: high school edition!

Everyone Dies in the End by Brian Katcher - At seventeen, Sherman Andrews has been accepted in the Missouri Scholars' Academy. Sherman has had a ten-year plan since he was eight, and he is determined to become an award-winning investigative journalist. He is going places, unlike his low-brow plumber father or his absent mother. While researching his first project, a chance discovery of a mysterious photograph of four men, dated 1935, leads to Sherman uncovering records of deaths, disappearances, and cover-ups on an almost unbelievable scale. The organization responsible is still around, and they're prepared to take drastic measures to keep him quiet.

The Fall of Grace by Amy Fellner Dominy - After a shocking secret about her mother is exposed and everyday life is turned upside down, Grace embarks on an adventure, searching for answers about her family's current situation. But, she gets more than she bargained for when it turns out that she isn't the only one looking for clues. 

I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver - After coming out as nonbinary, Ben must leave home and goes to live with a sister and her husband to finish the last year of high school.
When Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they're thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister, Hannah, and her husband, Thomas, whom Ben has never even met. Struggling with an anxiety disorder compounded by their parents' rejection, they come out only to Hannah, Thomas, and their therapist and try to keep a low profile for the last half of senior year in a new school. Then fellow student Nathan Allan decides to take Ben under his wing. As Ben and Nathan's friendship grows, their feelings for each other begin to change. It might just be a chance to start a happier new life.

The Impossible Vastness of Us by Samantha Young - Hiding the secrets of her past after moving into the Boston home of her wealthy blended family, India discovers that her new stepsister is struggling with private realities that contrast with the veneer of her high-profile romance.
India has been hiding the secrets of her past after moving into the Boston home of her wealthy blended family. She discovers that her new stepsister Eloise is struggling with private realities that contrast with the veneer of her high-profile romance with Finn.

Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli - When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat--but real life isn't always so rhythmic.
She's an anomaly in her friend group: the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she's bisexual, she hasn't mustered the courage to tell her friends--not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.
So Leah really doesn't know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high.
It's hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting--especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended. Book 2 of 2 in the Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda series

The Secret of a Heart Note by Stacey Lee - As one of only two aromateurs left on the planet, Mimosa knows her future holds a lifetime of using her sense of smell to mix base notes, top notes, and heart notes into elixirs that help others fall in love-- while she remains alone. Mimosa dreams of a normal high school existence and having a boyfriend, but falling in love would take away her talent. When she accidentally gives an elixir to the wrong woman, she must rely on the high school soccer star for help... and discovers that sometimes falling in love isn't a choice....

Sleeping in My Jeans by Connie King Leonard - Homeless and alone on the streets, sixteen-year-old Mattie Rollins and her six-year-old sister, Meg, race to discover the fate of their missing mother.
Mattie Rollins plans to ace her advanced high school courses, earn a college scholarship, and create a new life for herself and her family. There's no time for distractions-- no friends, no fun, and especially no boys. But her brilliant plan crumbles when the family becomes homeless and her mother disappears. Mattie and her kid sister Meg are living in a station wagon, trying to live, and looking for the truth behind their mother's disappearance. 

The Way The Light Bends by Cordelia Jensen - Virtual twins Linc and Holly were once extremely close. But while artistic, creative Linc is her parents' biological daughter, it's smart, popular Holly, adopted from Ghana as a baby, who checks all the boxes of their family's high standards for success. Linc is desperate to pursue photography and longs to be accepted for who she is, despite her surgeon mother's constant disapproval and her growing distance from Holly. So when Linc comes up with a plan using photography to boost her performance in school, she is excited and determined to prove that her differences are assets and that she has what it takes to make her mother proud. But when a long-buried family secret comes to light, Linc must reconsider where it is she truly belongs. A powerful novel in verse about fitting in, standing out, and defining your own self-worth, The Way the Light Bends challenges the ways in which we think about success, and reminds us of all it means to be a family.

When Summer Ends by Jessica Pennington - Aiden, former star pitcher and golden boy of Riverton, and Olivia, whose life is falling apart, connect during the last summer of high school as both seek a new direction.
All-star pitcher Aiden Emerson is the all-around golden boy of Riverton... or at least he was, before he quit the team the last day of junior year without any explanation. How could he tell people he's losing his vision at seventeen? Straight-laced Olivia had life all figured out... until her dream internship falls apart, her estranged mother comes back into her life, and her long-time boyfriend ghosts her right before summer break. Each struggling to find a new direction, they decide to live summer by chance, with fleeting adventures and stolen kisses.

Wild Blue Wonder by Carlie Sorosiak - Last June, the summer camp Quinn's family owns in Winship, Maine, was still a magical place, and Quinn fell in love with her best friend, Dylan. Then the accident happened. Now it's winter; the magic has drained from Quinn's life. The new boy in town, Alexander, doesn't see her as the monster she believes herself to be. And as Quinn lets herself open up again, she begins to understand the truth about love, loss, and monsters-- real and imagined.