The Check-in!

Musings on Beginnings and Endings

Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab?

Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang.

Call number: 523.1 LIG

Genre: Nonfiction, Physics, Philosophy

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 197 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: History, Science, Nonfiction

In a novel-in-verse that brims with grief and love, National Book Award-winning and New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Acevedo writes about the devastation of loss, the difficulty of forgiveness, and the bittersweet bonds that shape our lives.

Camino Rios lives for the summers when her father visits her in the Dominican Republic. But this time, on the day when his plane is supposed to land, Camino arrives at the airport to see crowds of crying people…

In New York City, Yahaira Rios is called to the principal’s office, where her mother is waiting to tell her that her father, her hero, has died in a plane crash.

Separated by distance—and Papi’s secrets—the two girls are forced to face a new reality in which their father is dead and their lives are forever altered.

And then, when it seems like they’ve lost everything of their father, they learn of each other.

Call number: FIC ACE

Genre: YA Fiction

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 432 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievement: Fiction

GRAPHIC NOVEL

No one is safe when humorist and cartoonist Tom Gauld directs his hilarious gaze to your profession. Just as he did with writers, poets, and literary classics for the Guardian books page, Gauld now does with hapless scientists, nanobots, and puzzling theorems for his weekly New Scientist strip, the international magazine that covers all aspects of science and technology.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Call number: 741.5 GAR

Genre: Graphic Novel, Nonfiction, Science, Humor

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 160 pages

Availability: MHHS

We can change the world with gene editing—but should we?

Author Yolanda Ridge tackles this topic in a friendly and accessible tone, with two introductory chapters covering the basics of DNA and gene editing before taking readers through the ways that this ground-breaking science could affect them by potentially:

• eliminating diseases like malaria and cancer,

• improving the stability of our food supply, and

• helping to manage conservation efforts for threatened animals and environments.

But all of these possible advancements come with risks, the biggest being that the consequences are unknown.

Call number: 576.5 RID

Genre: Science, Biology, Genetics

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 126 pages

Availability: MHHS

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Jordan’s friend Drew takes center stage in another laugh-out-loud funny, powerful, and important story about being one of the few kids of color in a prestigious private school.

Eighth-grader Drew Ellis is no stranger to the saying “You have to work twice as hard to be just as good.” His grandmother has reminded him his entire life. But what if he works ten times as hard and still isn’t afforded the same opportunities that his privileged classmates at the Riverdale Academy Day School take for granted?

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Call number: 741.5 CRA

Genre: Graphic Novel, Fiction

Reading level: 3-7

Length: 256 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievement: Fiction

Melissa Bashardoust's Girl, Serpent, Thorn is “an alluring feminist fairy tale” (Kirkus) about a girl cursed to be poisonous to the touch and who discovers what power might lie in such a curse.

There was and there was not, as all stories begin, a princess cursed to be poisonous to the touch. But for Soraya, who has lived her life hidden away, apart from her family, safe only in her gardens, it’s not just a story. Soraya thought she knew her place in the world, but when her choices lead to consequences she never imagined, she begins to question who she is and who she is becoming...human or demon. Princess or monster.

Call number: FIC BAS

Genre: YA Fiction, Fantasy

Reading level: 7-9

Length: 336 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievement: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fiction

How the Citizens of Flint, Michigan, Fought for Their Lives and Warned the Nation

In 2014, Flint, Michigan, was a cash-strapped city that had been built up, then abandoned by General Motors. As part of a plan to save money, government officials decided that Flint would temporarily switch its water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. Within months, many residents broke out in rashes. Then it got worse: children stopped growing. Some people were hospitalized with mysterious illnesses; others died. Citizens of Flint protested that the water was dangerous. Despite what seemed so apparent from the murky, foul-smelling liquid pouring from the city’s faucets, officials refused to listen. They treated the people of Flint as the problem, not the water, which was actually poisoning thousands.

Call number: 615.9 COO

Genre: Nonfiction, U.S. History, Science

Reading level: 5-9

Length: 256 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: History, Science, Nonfiction

37 Voices Explore Our Radical Anatomy

A School Library Journal Best Book of 2020

We all experience the world in a body, but we don’t usually take the time to explore what it really means to have and live within one. Just as every person has a unique personality, every person has a unique body, and every body tells its own story.

In Body Talk, thirty-seven writers, models, actors, musicians, and artists share essays, lists, comics, and illustrations—about everything from size and shape to scoliosis, from eating disorders to cancer, from sexuality and gender identity to the use of makeup as armor. Together, they contribute a broad variety of perspectives on what it’s like to live in their particular bodies—and how their bodies have helped to inform who they are and how they move through the world.

Call number: 306.4 JEN

Genre: Nonfiction, Health, Sociology

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 241 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Health & Fitness, Nonfiction

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Jason Reynolds’s Newbery Honor, Printz Honor, and Coretta Scott King Honor–winning, #1 New York Times bestselling novel Long Way Down is now a gripping, galvanizing graphic novel, with haunting artwork by Danica Novgorodoff.

Will’s older brother, Shawn, has been shot. Dead.
Will feels a sadness so great, he can’t explain it. But in his neighborhood, there are THE RULES:

No. 1: Crying. Don’t. No matter what.

No. 2: Snitching. Don’t. No matter what.

No. 3: Revenge. Do. No matter what.

But bullets miss. You can get the wrong guy. And there’s always someone else who knows to follow the rules…

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Call number: 741.5 REY

Genre: Graphic novel, Fiction

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 208 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievement: Fiction

A Fearless Team of Brothers and the Sport that Changed Their Lives Forever

An inspiring memoir of defying the odds from Kareem Rosser, captain of the first all-black squad to win the National Interscholastic Polo championship.

Born and raised in West Philadelphia, Kareem thought he and his siblings would always be stuck in “The Bottom”, a community and neighborhood devastated by poverty and violence. Riding their bicycles through Philly’s Fairmount Park, Kareem’s brothers discover a barn full of horses. Noticing the brothers’ fascination with her misfit animals, Lezlie Hiner, founder of The Work to Ride stables, offers them their escape: an after-school job in exchange for riding lessons.

Call number: 796.35 ROS

Genre: Nonfiction, Sports, Biography

Reading level: 10-12

Length: 287 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Biography & Autobiography, Nonfiction

15 Authors Challenge Assumptions about Small-Town America

Think you know what rural America is like? Discover a plurality of perspectives in this enlightening anthology of stories that turns preconceptions on their head.

For most of America’s history, rural people and culture have been casually mocked, stereotyped, and, in general, deeply misunderstood. Now an array of short stories, poetry, graphic short stories, and personal essays, along with anecdotes from the authors’ real lives, dives deep into the complexity and diversity of rural America and the people who call it home. Fifteen extraordinary authors—diverse in ethnic background, sexual orientation, geographic location, and socioeconomic status—explore the challenges, beauty, and nuances of growing up in rural America. From a mountain town in New Mexico to the gorges of New York to the arctic tundra of Alaska, you’ll find yourself visiting parts of this country you might not know existed—and meet characters whose lives might be surprisingly similar to your own.

Call number: FIC CAR

Genre: Fiction, Short Stories

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 336 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Fiction

Discover the dark side of Charles Lindbergh--one of America's most celebrated heroes and complicated men--in this riveting biography from the acclaimed author of The Family Romanov.

First human to cross the Atlantic via airplane; one of the first American media sensations; Nazi sympathizer and anti-Semite; loner whose baby was kidnapped and murdered; champion of Eugenics, the science of improving a human population by controlled breeding; tireless environmentalist. Charles Lindbergh was all of the above and more. Here is a rich, multi-faceted, utterly spellbinding biography about an American hero who was also a deeply flawed man. In this time where values Lindbergh held, like white Nationalism and America First, are once again on the rise, The Rise and Fall of Charles Lindbergh is essential reading for teens and history fanatics alike.

Call number: 629.13 FLE

Genre: Nonfiction, Biography

Reading level: 7-9

Length: 384 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Biography & Autobiography, Science, Nonfiction

A fast-paced, mind-bending YA thriller packed with ‘90s pop culture references and perfect for fans of Black Mirror, This Is Not the Jess Show will keep readers guessing until the very end.

The year is 1998: Titanic just won 6 Oscars, boy bands are dominating MTV’s airwaves, and like any other teenager Jess Flynn is just trying to survive high school. Between a crush on her childhood best friend, overprotective parents, and her sister’s worsening health, the only constant is her hometown of Swickley, which feels smaller by the day. Jess is resigned to her small-town life, until the day she discovers a mysterious device with an apple logo, causing her to question everything and everyone she’s ever known. As more cracks appear in Jess’s world, she faces a choice: can she live the rest of her life knowing it’s a lie or should she risk everything for the truth?

Call number: FIC CAR

Genre: YA Fiction, Fantasy

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 304 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievement: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fiction

Returning to the dark and glamorous 19th-century world of her New York Times instant bestseller, The Gilded Wolves, Roshani Chokshi dazzles us with another riveting tale as full of mystery and danger as ever in The Silvered Serpents.

They are each other’s fiercest love, greatest danger, and only hope. Séverin and his team members might have successfully thwarted the Fallen House, but victory came at a terrible cost ― one that still haunts all of them. Desperate to make amends, Séverin pursues a dangerous lead to find a long-lost artifact rumored to grant its possessor the power of God. As hidden secrets come to the light and the ghosts of the past catch up to them, the crew will discover new dimensions of themselves. But what they find out may lead them down paths they never imagined.

Call number: FIC CHO

Genre: YA Fiction, Fantasy, Romance

Reading level: 10-12

Length: 416 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Audiobook: Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievement: Science Fiction & Fantasy, Fiction

This Is Us for teens, this luminous and heartbreaking contemporary novel follows a girl caught between two brothers as the three of them navigate family, loss, and love over the course of two summers. For fans of Far From the Tree, Emergency Contact, and Nina LaCour.

Before she kissed one of the Cohen boys, seventeen-year-old Jessi Rumfield knew what it was like to have a family—even if, technically, that family didn’t belong to her. She’d spent her childhood in the house next door, challenging Rowan Cohen to tennis matches while his older brother, Luke, studied in the background and Mel watched over the three like the mother Jessi always wished she had.

Call number: FIC EVE

Genre: YA Fiction

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 368 pages

Availability: MHHS