Teen Blog
Forbidding outside temperatures aside, there are so many reasons to curl up with a great book. Readers meet a variety of fascinating characters and there’s an empathy that comes from reading about different lives and experiences that carries over to the real world. They learn new perspectives and have vicarious experiences. Personally, I have no ambition to ever sail around the world, but I love to read books about those who do. Books can also create an atmosphere that oozes from the pages and there’s just something wonderful about the lushness of great writing and the aha moment of discovering new words. Here are a few books that encompass all of these characteristics.
Did you know that technology helped archaeologists uncover the mysteries of Ferry Farm: George Washington’s Boyhood Home? Learn how in this interactive class co-sponsored by The George Washington Foundation. Sign-up.
As K.M. Grant’s Blood Red Horse opens, young Will has just been dunked in a horse trough by his blustering brother Gavin—though he gave him a bloody nose in return. But Gavin’s teasing doesn’t keep Will from wanting a Great Horse—one that he can ride into battle when he’s a knight like his brother.
In Rebecca Tingle’s The Edge on the Sword, Flæd tries to ignore the man who pursued her. In truth, he had been behind her for all of the day, and at night he would sit outside her door. Golden-haired Flæd was accustomed to running free in the great woods with her little brother Edward, only returning to her father's stronghold to take her meals with her family and her lessons from Bishop Asser.
Tepary Jones hiked to the ruins of the ancient city on the night of a total lunar eclipse. He had always felt the magic of the forgotten spaces, but tonight the place seemed especially alive, its pictures of animal and mystic figures telling pieces of stories long forgotten.
Tom Henderson is back for a new semester at a new school in King Dork Approximately. In the previous book, his father's encoded copy of Catcher in the Rye inadvertently led to a takedown of Hillmont High's creepy principal and earned Tom a severe head injury in the process.
Delilah Dirk and the Turkish Lieutenant chronicles the adventures of a swashbuckling heroine and her new recruit. Our leading lady has traveled the world, mastered multiple fighting styles, and is deadlier than a dozen trained swordsmen combined. How she ended up chained in a Sultan's dungeon is anyone's guess, but you can be sure that she does not stay there very long.
Sisters Maria and Giovanna are the daughters of one of Venice’s leading makers of artisan glass. They have trained to do certain tasks to help keep the business prosperous after their beloved father’s death. But a provision in his will demands that Maria—who wants nothing more than to help create beautiful things—must be married off to a nobleman while her gorgeous, sweet sister will have no such opportunity.
The man in the dark suit arrives late at night, offering you a chance to attend the mysterious Camp Fielding, where teens are turned into the best that they can be...at any cost. Welcome to Brain Camp.
How does a dying bull in Tsarist Russia lead to six-foot-tall praying mantises terrorizing present-day Iowa? Austin Szerba is your personal historian to the end of the world in Grasshopper Jungle, by Andrew Smith.