The Check-in!
MHHS Library Newsletter Vol. 2 Issue 14
NEW BOOKS!
White Smoke
The Haunting of Hill House meets Get Out in this chilling YA psychological thriller and modern take on the classic haunted house story from New York Times bestselling author Tiffany D. Jackson!
Marigold is running from ghosts. The phantoms of her old life keep haunting her, but a move with her newly blended family from their small California beach town to the embattled Midwestern city of Cedarville might be the fresh start she needs. Her mom has accepted a new job with the Sterling Foundation that comes with a free house, one that Mari now has to share with her bratty ten-year-old stepsister, Piper.
Call number: FIC JAC
Genre: YA Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Reading level: 9-12
Length: 384 pages
Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)
Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)
Sora achievement: Fiction
Blancaflor, The Hero with Secret Powers
GRAPHIC NOVEL
A Folktale from Latin America
A damsel to the rescue! Raised by a mean ogre of a father who eats his opponents for dinner, Blancaflor is often told not to show off her own considerable powers for fear of scaring off suitors. When a prince falls from the sky and wakes up in her lap, she is spellbound and moves heaven and earth to help the endearing, yet not so clever, young man, all while trying not to let him know. With their trademark magnificent brio, Nadja Spiegelman and Sergio García Sánchez update a classic tale extolling the strength and resourcefulness of women.
GRAPHIC NOVEL
Call number: 741.5 SPI
Genre: YA Graphic Novel
Reading level: 7-9
Length: 56 pages
Availability: MHHS
Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World
The highly anticipated sequel to the critically acclaimed, multiple award-winning novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an achingly romantic, tender tale sure to captivate fans of Adam Silvera and Mary H.K. Choi.
Ari has spent all of high school burying who he really is, staying silent and invisible. He expected his senior year to be the same. But something in him cracked open when he fell in love with Dante, and he can’t go back. Suddenly he finds himself reaching out to new friends, standing up to bullies of all kinds, and making his voice heard. And, always, there is Dante, dreamy, witty Dante, who can get on Ari’s nerves and fill him with desire all at once.
Call number: FIC SAE
Genre: YA Fiction, LGBTQIA+ Fiction
Reading level: 9-12
Length: 528 pages
Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)
Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)
Sora achievement: Fiction
Jade Fire Gold
Girls of Paper and Fire meets A Song of Wraiths and Ruin in June CL Tan’s stunning debut, where ferocious action, shadowy intrigue, rich magic, and a captivating slow-burn romance collide.
In an empire on the brink of war . . .
Ahn is no one, with no past and no family.
Altan is a lost heir, his future stolen away as a child.
When they meet, Altan sees in Ahn a path to reclaiming the throne. Ahn sees a way to finally unlock her past and understand her lethal magical abilities.
But they may have to pay a far deadlier price than either could have imagined.
Call number: FIC TAN
Genre: YA Fantasy
Reading level: 8-9
Length: 464 pages
Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)
Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)
Sora achievement: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction
Huda F Are You?
GRAPHIC NOVEL
From the creator of Yes, I'm Hot In This, this cheeky, hilarious, and honest graphic novel asks the question everyone has to figure out for themselves: Who are you?
Huda and her family just moved to Dearborn, Michigan, a small town with a big Muslim population. In her old town, Huda knew exactly who she was: She was the hijabi girl. But in Dearborn, everyone is the hijabi girl.
Huda is lost in a sea of hijabis, and she can't rely on her hijab to define her anymore. She has to define herself. So she tries on a bunch of cliques, but she isn't a hijabi fashionista or a hijabi athlete or a hijabi gamer. She's not the one who knows everything about her religion or the one all the guys like. She's miscellaneous, which makes her feel like no one at all. Until she realizes that it'll take finding out who she isn't to figure out who she is.
GRAPHIC NOVEL
Call number: 741.5 FAH
Genre: YA Graphic Novel
Reading level: 7-9
Length: 192 pages
Availability: MHHS
Blue-Skinned Gods
From the award-winning author of Marriage of a Thousand Lies comes a brilliantly written, globe-spanning novel about identity, faith, family, and sexuality.
In Tamil Nadu, India, a boy is born with blue skin. His father sets up an ashram, and the family makes a living off of the pilgrims who seek the child’s blessings and miracles, believing young Kalki to be the tenth human incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. In Kalki’s tenth year, he is confronted with three trials that will test his power and prove his divine status and, his father tells him, spread his fame worldwide. While he seems to pass them, Kalki begins to question his divinity.
Call number: FIC SIN
Genre: Fiction, LGBTQIA+ Fiction
Reading level: 11-12
Length: 336 pages
Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)
Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)
Sora achievement: Fiction
Our Violent Ends
These Violent Delights Series, Book #2
Shanghai is under siege in this captivating and searingly romantic sequel to These Violent Delights, which New York Times bestselling author Natasha Ngan calls “deliciously dark.”
The year is 1927, and Shanghai teeters on the edge of revolution. After sacrificing her relationship with Roma to protect him from the blood feud, Juliette has been a girl on a mission. One wrong move, and her cousin will step in to usurp her place as the Scarlet Gang’s heir. The only way to save the boy she loves from the wrath of the Scarlets is to have him want her dead for murdering his best friend in cold blood. If Juliette were actually guilty of the crime Roma believes she committed, his rejection might sting less.
Call number: FIC GON
Genre: YA Fantasy, Romance, Historical Fiction
Reading level: 9-12
Length: 512 pages
Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)
Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)
Sora achievements: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Fiction
Freedom Swimmer
A powerful story of friendship, bravery, and a desperate bid for freedom, inspired by true events.
Ming survived the famine that killed his parents during China's "Great Leap Forward", and lives a hard but adequate life, working in the fields.
When a group of city boys comes to the village as part of a Communist Party re-education program, Ming and his friends aren't sure what to make of the new arrivals. They're not used to hard labor and village life. But despite his reservations, Ming befriends a charming city boy called Li. The two couldn't be more different, but slowly they form a bond over evening swims and shared dreams.
But as the bitterness of life under the Party begins to take its toll on both boys, they begin to imagine the impossible: freedom.
Call number: FIC CHI
Genre: YA Fiction
Reading level: 7-12
Length: 256 pages
Availability: MHHS
Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed
15 Voices from the Latinx Diaspora
Edited by The Bronx Is Reading founder Saraciea J. Fennell and featuring an all-star cast of Latinx contributors, Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed is a ground-breaking anthology that will spark dialogue and inspire hope
In Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed, bestselling and award-winning authors as well as up-and-coming voices interrogate the different myths and stereotypes about the Latinx diaspora. These fifteen original pieces delve into everything from ghost stories and superheroes, to memories in the kitchen and travels around the world, to addiction and grief, to identity and anti-Blackness, to finding love and speaking your truth. Full of both sorrow and joy, Wild Tongues Can't Be Tamed is an essential celebration of this rich and diverse community.
Call number: 810.8 FEN
Genre: YA Nonfiction, Multi-cultural, Sociology, Geography
Reading level: 7-9
Length: 272 pages
Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)
Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)
Sora achievement: Nonfiction
On Top of Glass: My Stories as a Queer Girl in Figure Skating
An insightful memoir from a figure skating champion about her life as a bisexual professional athlete, perfect for readers of Fierce by Aly Raisman and Forward by Abby Wambach.
Karina Manta has had a busy few years: Not only did she capture the hearts of many with her fan-favorite performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, she also became the first female figure skater on Team USA to come out as queer. Her Modern Love essay "I Can't Hate My Body if I Love Hers" was published in the New York Times, and then she joined the circus--Cirque du Soleil's on-ice show, AXEL.
Call number: 796.91 MAN
Genre: YA LGBTQIA+ Nonfiction, Autobiography, Sports
Reading level: 7-9
Length: 336 pages
Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)
Sora achievement: Biography & Autobiography, Nonfiction
Seven Dirty Secrets
From the New York Times bestselling author of Five Total Strangers and "master of suspense" (BCCB), Natalie D. Richards, comes a pulse-pounding YA thriller about a girl who goes on a mysterious scavenger hunt, only to discover that someone knows her worst secret...and is out for blood.
On her eighteenth birthday, Cleo receives a mysterious invitation to a scavenger hunt. She's sure her best friend Hope or her brother Connor is behind it, but no one confesses. And as Cleo and Hope embark on the hunt, the seemingly random locations and clues begin to feel familiar.
In fact, all of the clues seem to be about Cleo's dead boyfriend, Declan, who drowned on a group rafting trip exactly a year ago. A bracelet she bought him. A song he loved. A photo of the rafting group, taken just before Declan drowned. And then the phone calls start, Declan's voice taunting Cleo with a cryptic question: You ready?
Call number: FIC RIC
Genre: YA Horror, Suspense, Thriller
Reading level: 8-12
Length: 336 pages
Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)
Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)
Sora achievement: Fiction
The Year I Stopped Trying
Booksmart meets The Perks of Being a Wallflower in this novel of overachieving, existential crises, growing up, and coming out, from the author of Girl Crushed and Never Have I Ever.
Mary is having an existential crisis. She's a good student, she never gets in trouble, and she is searching for the meaning of life. She always thought she'd find it in a perfect score on the SATs. But by junior year, Mary isn't so sure anymore.
The first time, it's an accident. She forgets to do a history assignment. She even crosses "history essay" off in her pristine planner. And then: Nothing happens. She doesn't burst into flames, the world doesn't end, the teacher doesn't even pull her aside after class.
So she asks herself: Why am I trying so hard? What if I stop?
Call number: FIC HEA
Genre: YA Fiction
Reading level: 7-9
Length: 256 pages
Availability: MHHS
Roxy
From the team that brought you the New York Times bestselling Dry comes a riveting new thriller that proves when gods play games, even love is a lie.
The freeway is coming.
It will cut the neighborhood in two. Construction has already started, pushing toward this corridor of condemned houses and cracked concrete with the momentum of the inevitable. Yet there you are, in the fifth house on the left, fighting for your life.
Call number: FIC SHU
Genre: YA Science Fiction
Reading level: 9-12
Length: 384 pages
Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)
Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)
Sora achievement: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fiction
Essential Library Vocabulary
"availability" - where can I find this book? is it print or digital?
"MHHS" - Mission Hills High School, location means the book is available in print on campus
"Sora" - online eBook platform, go to soraapp.com to access
"Sora achievements" - reading books in Sora will earn you achievements; we will include what achievements you could earn by reading this title in Sora
"SMUSD" - San Marcos Unified School District (original library in Sora)
"SDCL" - San Diego County Library system (add this library to your Sora account for access)
"Serra" - Serra Library Cooperative (add this library to your Sora account for access)
"reading level" - reading levels are broken down by grade levels
"Lexile measure" - listed when available, from the Lexile Framework for Reading, lexiles measure of a text's readability - best used in conjunction with a student's Lexile reader measurement, visit www.lexile.com for more information
"genre" - what kind of book is it? fiction or nonfiction? YA or children's? fantasy or science fiction? biography or memoir?
"graphic novel" - a novel in comic-strip format
"sci-fi" - short for "science fiction"
Contact the MHHS Library
Email: mhhs.library@smusd.org
Website: missionhillshigh.smusd.org/resources/library
Location: 1 Mission Hills Court, San Marcos, CA, USA
Phone: 760-290-2730