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. 

Camp Fiction

My sources tell me that this week is American Camp Week, but I can't find any information on it!  I'm still going to put out a list of YA camp fiction and even if ACW isn't an actual thing, at least we'll be dreaming about swimming in lakes and summer campfires. 

Camped Out by Daphne Greer - Max knows his mom can't afford to send him to summer camp. But he really, really wants to go. He needs a break from looking after his autistic brother, Duncan. And from his mom's new boyfriend. He is surprised when his mom says that he can go after all. But there's a catch. There are spots available at the camp for families with special needs. A grant would cover Duncan's fees, and Max could attend at no charge. If he goes as Duncan's escort.

Everything Beautiful Is Not Ruined by Danielle Younge-Ullman - Then
Ingrid traveled all over Europe with her opera star mother, Margot-Sophia. Life was beautiful and bright, and every day soared with music.
 Now
Ingrid is on a summertime wilderness survival trek for at-risk teens: addicts, runaways, and her. She's fighting to survive crushing humiliations, physical challenges that push her to her limits, and mind games that threaten to break her.
 Then
When the curtain fell on Margot-Sophia's singing career, they buried the past and settled into a small, painfully normal life. But Ingrid longed to let the music soar again. She wanted it so much that, for a while, nothing else mattered.
 Now
Ingrid is never going to make it through this summer if she can't figure out why she's here . . . and why the music really stopped.

Jacked Up by Erica Sage - In a bizarre attempt to force Nick to confront his grief, his nonreligious parents ship him off to Jesus camp after his sister's suicide. The campers ride donkeys into the desert, snap selfies with counselors dressed as disciples, and replace song lyrics with Bible verses. And somehow, only Nick seems to find this strange. Nick is also being followed around by Jack Kerouac, who's incredibly annoying for a genius-- and a ghost. Nick drops a secret about his sister's death into the PC Box, into which campers place prayers and confessions. When the box is stolen-- and the confessions start appearing around camp-- Nick is disparate to get his confession back.

The Names They Gave Us by Emery Lord - Lucy Hansson was ready for a perfect summer with her boyfriend, working at her childhood Bible camp on the lake and spending quality time with her parents. But when her mom's cancer reappears, Lucy falters-in her faith and in her ability to cope. When her boyfriend "pauses" their relationship and her summer job switches to a different camp-one for troubled kids-Lucy isn't sure how much more she can handle. Attempting to accept a new normal, Lucy slowly regains footing among her vibrant, diverse coworkers, Sundays with her mom, and a crush on a fellow counselor. But when long-hidden family secrets emerge, can Lucy set aside her problems and discover what grace really means?

The Odds of Loving Grover Cleveland by Rebekah Crane - According to sixteen-year-old Zander Osborne, nowhere is an actual placeand she's just fine there. But her parents insist that she get out of her headand her home stateand attend Camp Padua, a summer camp for at-risk teens.Zander does not fit inor so she thinks. She has only one word for her fellow campers: crazy. In fact, the whole camp population exists somewhere between disaster and diagnosis. There's her cabin mate Cassie, a self-described manic-depressive-bipolar-anorexic. Grover Cleveland (yes, like the president), a cute but confrontational boy who expects to be schizophrenic someday, odds being what they are. And Bek, a charmingly confounding pathological liar.But amid group "share-apy" sessions and forbidden late-night outings, unlikely friendships form, and as the Michigan summer heats up, the four teens begin to reveal their tragic secrets. Zander finds herself inextricably drawn to Grover's earnest charms, and she begins to wonder if she could be happy. But first she must come completely unraveled to have any hope of putting herself back together again.

Positively by Courtney Sheinmel - Since the day Emerson Pressman and her mother were diagnosed as HIV positive, nothing has been the same. When her mother dies of AIDS, Emmy has to go live with the father and stepmother she barely knows, and she feels more alone than ever. Now she has to take pills by herself, and there is no one left who understands what it's like to be afraid every time she has a cold. But when her father decides to send her to Camp Positive, a camp for HIV-positive children, Emmy begins to realize that she's not alone after all, and that sometimes, opening up to other people can make all the difference in the world.

Sleepaway Girls by Jen Calonita - When Sam's best friend gets her first boyfriend, she's not ready to spend the summer listening to the two of them call each other "pookie." Sick of being a third wheel, Sam applies to be a counselor-in-training at Whispering Pines camp in the New York Catskills. But what she doesn't realize is that it's not going to be all Kumbaya sing-alongs and gooey s'mores. If Ashley, the alpha queen of Whispering Pines, doesn't ruin Sam's summer, then her raging crush on the surfer-blond and flirtatious Hunter just might. At least she has playful Cole, who's always teasing her, but is oh-so-comfortable to hang out with, and the singular gang of girls that become fast friends with Sam-they call themselves the Sleepaway Girls.

The Summer I Wasn't Me by Jessica Verdi - Ever since her mom found out she was in love with a girl, seventeen-year-old Lexi's afraid that what's left of her family is going to fall apart for good. New Horizons summer camp promises a new life for Lexi--she swears she can change. She can learn to like boys. But denying her feelings is harder than she thinks.

Thief of Happy Endings by Kristen Chandler - The first rule of riding horses is, when you fall off, you get back on. Cassidy Carrigan has literally and figuratively fallen off the horse in her life, and she's using everything in her power to not get back on. After her parents separate and her best friend deserts her, Cassidy reluctantly agrees to attend summer camp at a remote ranch in Wyoming, She figures that the change of scenery may help her face her escalating fears. But she didn't figure on how huge that change would be--the forever-wide Wyoming skies, the wild mustangs that capture her heart, and the cowboy who ends up stealing it. She also didn't realize that being brave could feel so good and cause so much trouble.

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.