Tales and Tails – Juvenile and YA Summer Books

Juvenile Fiction

Stephanie Coleman – Real, Not Perfect

Tessa has lived a trouble-free life as the only child of two loving parents–she is well-liked, gets straight A’s, is on the competitive swim team, and is active in her church youth group. It’s a pretty perfect life! That is, until she comes home from swim practice one day to find that her parents are divorcing. Along with that, her BFF has moved to Florida, and Tessa gets stuck in Intro to Drama–possibly the worst class ever! Meanwhile, her BFF posts fabulous pictures of her new life on Instagram. Tessa thinks that everyone’s posts show lives that are way better than the one she has. Why does it seem like everyone else’s life is more perfect than hers? Find out how Tessa’s new friends from Intro to Drama and Alex, her true-blue friend, help her discover that real is better than perfect.

C.J. Darlington – Searching for Normal

Six months ago Shay Mitchell’s life changed forever. Now she’s just trying to survive school bullies, drama class, and living with her Aunt Laura above the bookstore. No one, not even her new friends, knows her real story or the reason she’s living with her aunt in the first place. When Shay learns the truth about her biological father, she jumps at the chance to meet him. This could be her chance! Maybe she’ll finally find the normal life she’s longed for–a life where she feels loved and wanted–you know, part of a real family.

Eunice Moyle – Super Pooper and Whizz Kid : Potty Power!

What do you do when you’ve got to go? From the first rumble in the bumble to that moment of triumph when the potty is full of number one or number two. Super Pooper and Whizz Kid: Potty Power! touches on those essential potty training moments, ending with the all – important big – kid underpants dance!

Young Adult

Victoria Schab – Bridge of souls

Cassidy Blake and her ghostly friend, Jacob, have survived the ghosts of Edinburgh and Paris, but New Orleans is a haunted city in a class by itself, and that is the current stop for her parents’ TV show; but there is something a lot scarier than ghosts here: the Emissary of Death is after Cassidy, and to defeat it she will need the help of the Society of the Black Cat and she will also be faced with a terrible choice–lose one of her two friends, either ghost Jacob or her human friend and fellow veil-walker Lara.

Non fiction

Evan Griffith – Secrets of the Sea: The Story of Jeanne

The sea holds many secrets, but one revolutionary scientist sought to solve them all. This biographical picture book on Jeanne Power (1794-1871), a marine biologist, chronicles the beginnings of her fascination with nature and the discoveries she made through experimentation and studying sea creatures. Later on in her career, Power lost her life’s work in a shipwreck, which forced her to recreate her experiments and stand up to critics to reclaim her place in history.

Carole Boston Weatherford – Unspeakable: the Tulsa Race Massacre

Rachel Ignotofsky – What’s Inside a Flower? And Other Questions.