The Check-in!

The remarkable true story of the birth of Olympic basketball at the 1936 Summer Games in Hitler's Germany. Perfect for fans of The Boys in the Boat and Unbroken.

This is the incredible true story of basketball, from its invention by James Naismith in Springfield, Mass, in 1891, to the sport's Olympic debut in Berlin and the eclectic mix of people, events and propaganda on both sides of the Atlantic that made it all possible. Includes photos throughout, a Who's-Who of the 1936 Olympics, bibliography, and index.

Genre: Nonfiction/History/Sports

Reading level: 9-12

Lexile text measure: 1230L

Length: 217 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: History, Nonfiction

Eleven fresh vampire stories from young adult fiction's leading voices in this bestselling anthology!

In this delicious new collection, you'll find stories about lurking vampires on social media, rebellious vampires hungry for more than blood, eager vampires coming out - and going out for their first kill-and other bold, breath-taking, dangerous, dreamy, eerie, iconic, powerful creatures of the night. Welcome to the evolution of the vampire - and a revolution on the page.

Genre: Fantasy

Reading level: 7-9

Length: 272 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Fiction

The Tech sisters don’t date in high school. Not because they’re not asked. Not because they’re not interested. Not even because no one can pronounce their long, Thai last name―hence the shortened, awkward moniker. But simply because they’re not allowed.

In a move that other Asian American girls know all too well, six months after the older Tech twins got to college, their parents asked, “Why aren’t you engaged yet?” The sisters retaliated by vowing that they won’t marry for ten (maybe even twenty!) years, not until they’ve had lots of the dating practice that they didn’t get in high school.

Genre: YA Fiction

Reading level: 10-12

Length: 400 pages

Availability: MHHS

In January 2009, a mysterious software developer, Satoshi Nakamoto, exchanged a specially designed code with another developer. The code was a digital currency known in Nakamoto's recent paper titled "Bitcoin: A Peer-to-peer Electronic Cash System". This was the first Bitcoin transaction.

Since then, Bitcoin has become the face of a tech revolution in digital "cryptocurrencies" based on blockchain technology. Its success has sparked a tech revolution that could fundamentally change global economics.

Genre: Nonfiction/Computer Science

Reading level: 10-12

Length: 96 pages

Availability: MHHS

Filled with mystery and an intriguingly rich magic system, Tracy Deonn’s YA contemporary fantasy Legendborn offers the dark allure of City of Bones with a modern-day twist on a classic legend and a lot of Southern Black Girl Magic.

After her mother dies in an accident, sixteen-year-old Bree Matthews wants nothing to do with her family memories or childhood home. A residential program for bright high schoolers at UNC–Chapel Hill seems like the perfect escape—until Bree witnesses a magical attack her very first night on campus.

Genre: YA Fantasy

Reading level: 9-12

Lexile text measure: HL730L

Length: 501 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Sci-fi/Fantasy, Fiction

This fantastic graphic novel teaches readers how this founding document continues to shape modern American society.

With colorful art, compelling discourse, and true stories from America's past and present, Fault Lines in the Constitution: The Graphic Novel sheds light on how today's political struggles have their origins in the decisions of our Founding Fathers.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Genre: Nonfiction

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 279 pages

Availability: MHHS

From the New York Times bestselling author, comes an unforgettable new romance about how social media influences relationships every day.

When Leanna and Pablo meet at 5:00 a.m. at the bodega in the dead of winter it’s absurd to think they’d be A Thing. But as they discover who they are, who they want to be, and how to defy the deafening expectations of everyone else, Lee and Pab turn to each other. Which, of course, is when things get properly complicated.

Genre: YA fiction

Reading level: 10-12

Lexile text measure: HL720L

Length: 432 pages

Availability: MHHS

America is the greatest democracy in the world . . . isn't it? Author Elizabeth Rusch examines some of the more problematic aspects of our government but, more importantly, offers ways for young people to fix them.

The political landscape has never been so tumultuous: issues with the electoral college, gerrymandering, voter suppression, and a lack of representation in the polls and in our leadership have led to Americans of all ages asking, How did we get here?

Genre: Nonfiction/Politics

Reading level: 9-12

Lexile text measure: 1140L

Length: 253 pages

Availability: MHHS

Jonathan Hill's trichromatic illustrations and story, set in the rich, forested Western landscape, is as compelling as it is beautiful.

Eight years ago an earthquake—the Big One—hit along the Cascadia fault line, toppling cities and changing landscapes all up and down the west coast of the United States. Life as we know it changed forever. But for Vietnamese American Virginia Crane, life changed shortly after the earthquake, when her mother left and never came back.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Genre: Fiction/Graphic novel

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 311 pages

Availability: MHHS

In graphic novel format looks at the lives of twenty-nine charismatic women in history, including Josephine Baker, Betty Davis, Cheryl Bridges, and many others.

Throughout history and across the globe, one characteristic connects the daring women of Brazen: their indomitable spirit. With her characteristic wit and dazzling drawings, celebrated graphic novelist Pénélope Bagieu profiles the lives of these feisty female role models, some world famous, some little known.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Genre: Nonfiction/Graphic novel

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 304 pages

Availability: MHHS

The history of the internet is more than just alpha nerds, brogrammers, and male garage-to-riches billionaires. Female visionaries have always been at the vanguard of technology and innovation.

In fact, women turn up at the very beginning of every important wave in technology. They may have been hidden in plain sight, their inventions and contributions touching our lives in ways we don't even realize, but they have always been part of the story.

Genre: Nonfiction/History

Reading level: 10-12

Length: 288 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL & Serra)

Sora achievements: Biography & Autobiography, History, Nonfiction

Do you have a cause you’re passionate about? Take a few tips from the suffragists, who led one of the largest and longest movements in American history.

The women’s suffrage movement was decades in the making and came with many harsh setbacks. But it resulted in a permanent victory: women’s right to vote. How did the suffragists do it? One hundred years later, an eye-opening look at their playbook shows that some of their strategies seem oddly familiar.

Genre: Nonfiction

Reading level: 7-9

Length: 142 pages

Availability: MHHS

Have you ever wanted to be a superheroine? Join a fandom? Create the perfect empowering playlist? Want to understand exactly what it means to be a feminist in the twenty-first century? You’ve come to the right place.

Forty-four writers, dancers, actors, and artists contribute essays, lists, poems, comics, and illustrations about everything from body positivity to romance to gender identity to intersectionality to the greatest girl friendships in fiction.

Genre: Nonfiction

Reading level: 10-12

Lexile text measure: 1070L

Length: 240 pages

Availability: MHHS

Addresses a variety of issues Asian American teenage girls and young women face in the early twenty-first century; and includes comments by women from across the United States.

In this groundbreaking collection of personal writings, young Asian American girls come together for the first time and engage in a dynamic conversations about the unique challenges they face in their lives.

Genre: Nonfiction/Self-esteem

Reading level: 10-12

Lexile text measure: 1080L

Length: 336 pages

Availability: MHHS

Examines the life and times of the first woman pharaoh of ancient Egypt.

She was the Egyptian girl who became a master politician and a supreme stateswoman. Inheriting her father's throne along with her young stepson, Hatshepsut was soon crowned pharaoh in her own right. This is the startling tale of a woman's rise to power within the patriarchal society of ancient Egypt: Hatshepsut was shrewdly conveyed as a masculine ruler in all public statues and artwork, and donned male dress and a false beard in person. She ruled Egypt for decades, claiming her rightful place in the history of this great civilization.

LARGE PRINT

Genre: Nonfiction/Biography

Reading level: 3-5

Lexile text measure: 700L

Length: 112 pages

Availability: MHHS

Irish teenager Sarah Flannery describes her lifelong study of cryptography, which led to her success as an internationally recognized mathematician.

In January 1999, Sarah Flannery, a sports-loving teenager from Blarney in County Cork, Ireland was awarded Ireland's Young Scientist of the Year for her extraordinary research and discoveries in Internet cryptography. The following day, her story began appearing in Irish papers and soon after was splashed across the front page of the London Times, complete with a photo of Sarah and a caption calling her "brilliant." Just 16, she was a mathematician with an international reputation.

Genre: Nonfiction/Biography

Reading level: 11-12

Length: 341 pages

Availability: MHHS

A collection of tales about the supernatural and animals, fairy tales, folk tales and legends, by and about African American women.

Dedicated to our mothers and grandmothers, aunts and great-aunts, Her Stories is a spirited celebration of our strength, our dreams, and the precious gift of life and love generation to generation. Gracefully told by Newbery Medalist Virginia Hamilton, the nineteen stories in this book focus on the magical lore and wonderous imaginings of African American women. Vibrant paintings glow with the drama and mystery of each tale while reflecting the warmth and beauty of the people who first told them.

PICTURE BOOK

Genre: Nonfiction/Folklore

Reading level: 3-5

Lexile text measure: 960L

Length: 112 pages

Availability: MHHS

She was a fierce dissenter with a serious collar game. A legendary, self-described “flaming feminist litigator” who made the world more equal. And an inter-generational icon affectionately known as the Notorious RBG. As the nation mourns the loss of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, discover the story of a remarkable woman and learn how to carry on her legacy.

This runaway bestseller, brought to you by the attorney founder of the Notorious RBG Tumblr and an award-winning feminist journalist, is more than just a love letter. It draws on intimate access to Ginsburg's family members, close friends, colleagues, and clerks, as well as an interview with the Justice herself.

Genre: Nonfiction/Biography

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 240 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL & Serra)

Sora achievements: Biography & Autobiography, Nonfiction

In graphic novel format, this title looks at the life and discoveries of Polish-French physicist and chemist Marie Curie.

In her intensely researched, inventively drawn exploration of Marie Curie's life, artist Alice Milani follows the celebrated Polish scientist from Curie's time as a struggling governess to her years in France making breakthrough discoveries. Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences. With skill and care, Milani traces Curie's flight from Russia-controlled Poland, her romance with fellow scientist Pierre Curie, and Marie and Pierre's stunning discoveries of the elements radium and polonium. Throughout this distinctive graphic work, Curie defies doubt and double standards to make an enduring impact on the scientific world.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Genre: YA Graphic novel/Biography

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 208 pages

Availability: MHHS

On March 1, 1893, Princess Ka’iulani, the 17-year-old crown princess of Hawaii, stepped onto the pier at New York City. She was greeted by a crowd of reporters and onlookers who knew that, in many ways, she stood at a crossroads in history.

This biography tells the fascinating and little-known story of Princess Ka’iulani’s life and courageous fight for Hawaiian independence. Using many newly translated journals and letters, Sharon Linnéa introduces young listeners to the most beloved figure in Hawaiian history and one of America’s most overlooked heroines.

Genre: Nonfiction/Biography

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 234 pages

Availability: MHHS

Not many people know that the Wright brothers had a sister, Katharine Wright. She supported her high-flying, inventor brothers through their aviation triumphs and struggles. This is her story.

Richard Maurer’s account of this little-known but pivotal member of the Wright family is based on an in-depth study of her personal papers and of the Wright family archives. Katharine’s portrayal of family life in the Wright household, her descriptions of the wondrous early days of flight, and her intimate recollection of her reclusive, publicity-shy brothers cast a unique and fascinating light on one of the twentieth century’s great technical achievements.

Genre: Nonfiction/Biography

Reading level: 5-9

Lexile text measure: 1010L

Length: 127 pages

Availability: MHHS

This book is book 5 of the Akira graphic novel series. The library has books 1-6 available in the print collection.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

AKIRA SERIES - BOOK 5

Call number: 741.5 OTO

Genre: YA Graphic novel

Reading level: 9-12

Length: 413 pages

Availability: MHHS

Sixteen-year-old Thomas wakes up with no memory in the middle of a maze and realizes he must work with the community in which he finds himself if he is to escape.

It's the only way out - and no one's ever made it through alive. Then a girl arrives. The first girl ever. And the message she delivers is terrifying. Remember. Survive. Run.

Call number: FIC DAS

Genre: YA Fantasy

Reading level: 9-12

Lexile text measure: 770L

Length: 375 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL & Serra)

Sora achievements: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Fiction

When Rona Blackburn landed on Anathema Island more than a century ago, her other-worldly skills might have benefited friendlier neighbors. Guilt and fear instead led the island’s original eight settlers to burn “the witch” out of her home. So Rona cursed them.

Fast-forward one hundred–some years: All Nor Blackburn wants is to live an unremarkable teenage life. But then a mysterious book comes out, promising to cast any spell for the right price.

Call number: FIC WAL

Genre: YA Mystery/Fantasy

Reading level: 9-12

Lexile text measure: 860L

Length: 272 pages

Availability: MHHS

Tiến loves his family and his friends…but Tiến has a secret he's been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing YA graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together.

Real life isn't a fairytale. But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It's hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn't even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he's going through?

Call number: 741.5 NGU

Genre: YA Graphic novel

Reading level: 7-9

Lexile text measure: HL400L

Length: 256 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievement: Fiction

The second thrilling book in Sally Green's Half Bad trilogy "An enthralling fantasy in the Harry Potter tradition."--Time magazine

In a modern-day England where two warring factions of witches live amongst humans, seventeen-year-old Nathan is an abomination, the illegitimate son of the world's most powerful and violent witch. Nathan is hunted from all sides: nowhere is safe and no one can be trusted.

This title is book 2 of the Half Bad Trilogy. The library has books 1-2 of this series in the print collection. Books 1-2 are also available on Sora (SDCL).

BOOK 2 OF 3: THE HALF BAD TRILOGY

Call number: FIC GRE

Genre: YA Fantasy

Reading level: 7-9

Lexile text measure: HL650L

Length: 464 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Fiction

A companion to the New York Times bestselling Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.

Before Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales. Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. These are but a few of the truly brilliant stories in Tales of the Peculiar - the collection of fairy tales known to hide information about the peculiar world, including clues to the locations of time loops....

Call number: FIC RIG

Genre: YA Fantasy

Reading level: 6-8

Lexile text measure: 940L

Length: 166 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL-audiobook only)

Sora achievements: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Fiction

Let’s face it: Greg Heffley will never change his wimpy ways. Somebody just needs to explain that to Greg’s father.

You see, Frank Heffley actually thinks he can get his son to toughen up, and he enlists Greg in organized sports and other “manly” endeavors. Of course, Greg is able to easily sidestep his father’s efforts to change him. But when Greg’s dad threatens to send him to military academy, Greg realizes he has to shape up . . . or get shipped out.

GRAPHIC NOVEL

BOOK 3 - DIARY OF A WIMPY KID SERIES

Call number: FIC KIN

Genre: Children's Graphic novel

Reading level: 3-7

Lexile text measure: 970L

Length: 224 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL & Serra)

Sora achievement: Fiction

A grand introduction for teens to the more grown-up stories of Roald Dahl.

How would you get rid of a murder weapon without causing suspicion? Where would you hide a diamond where no one else would think of looking? What if you found out that the tattoo on your back was worth over a million dollars? You will discover that just about anything is possible in a Roald Dahl story, and here are eleven of his very best.

Call number: FIC DAH

Genre: YA Fiction

Reading level: 7-9

Lexile text measure: 830L

Length: 224 pages

Availability: MHHS

An alphabetical guide to the popular names of 100 flowers, from abelia and aster to wisteria and zinnia, explaining the history and folklore behind each name.

Gardening writer Diana Wells knows them all. Here she presents one hundred well-known garden favorites and the not-so-well-known stories behind their names. Not for gardeners only, this is a book for anyone interested not just in the blossoms, but in the roots, too.

Call number: 582.13 WEL

Genre: Nonfiction/Biology

Reading level: 6-9

Length: 398 pages

Availability: MHHS

Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson descendants, Charlotte and Jamie, while on winter break from their Connecticut boarding school, team up again to try to find Charlotte's uncle, Leander, who goes missing while on his latest assignment in a German art forgery ring.

So begins a dangerous race through the gritty underground scene in Berlin and glittering art houses in Prague, where Holmes and Watson discover that this complicated case might change everything they know about their families, themselves, and each other.

The MHHS library has book 1 of series. Sora (SDCL) has books 1-4 of series.

CHARLOTTE HOLMES SERIES

BOOK 2 OF 4

Call number: FIC CAV

Genre: YA Mystery

Reading level: 8-9

Lexile text measure: HL710L

Length: 326 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Mystery, Fiction

Describes how carnivorous (meat-eating) plants such as Venus's flytraps and pitcher plants catch prey from the size of mites to the size of frogs using triggers, pitfalls, and sticky surfaces.

Most plants process sunlight to create energy for themselves and some, well, eat the living to survive. You don't want to be a fly on the wall near these plants!

WEIRD & WACKY SCIENCE SERIES

Call number: 583 AAS

Genre: Nonfiction/Biology

Reading level: 7-9

Length: 48 pages

Availability: MHHS

Cassia has always had complete trust in the Society to make decisions for her, but when she is being paired with her ideal mate, a second face flashes on the screen, and Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility as she tries to decide which man she truly loves.

The Society tells her it's a glitch, a rare malfunction, and that she should focus on the happy life she's destined to lead with Xander. But Cassia can't stop thinking about Ky, and as they slowly fall in love, Cassia begins to doubt the Society's infallibility and is faced with an impossible choice.

The MHHS library and Sora (SDCL & Serra) have books 1-3 of the Matched trilogy available.

MATCHED TRILOGY - BOOK 1

Call number: FIC CON

Genre: YA Fantasy

Reading level: 7-12

Lexile text measure: HL680L

Length: 369 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL & Serra)

Sora achievements: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Fiction

Galápagos takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey.

Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galápagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave, new, and totally different human race. In this inimitable novel, America’ s master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry–and all that is worth saving.

Call number: FIC VON

Genre: Fiction/Satire

Reading level: 11-12+

Lexile text measure: 1150L

Length: 336 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL & Serra)

Sora achievements: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Fiction

Unearth the true story of green-thumbed pioneer and activist Kate Sessions, who helped San Diego grow from a dry desert town into a lush, leafy city known for its gorgeous parks and gardens.

Kate never thought she'd live in a place without trees. After all, Kate grew up among the towering pines and redwoods of Northern California. But after becoming the first woman to graduate from the University of California with a degree in science, she took a job as a teacher in San Diego, a dry desert town with almost no trees. This trailblazing young woman singlehandedly started a massive movement that transformed the town into the green garden oasis that it is today.

Call number: P 921 SES

Genre: Children's picture book

Reading level: 4-5

Lexile text measure: 760L

Length: 32 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Auto/Biography, History, Nonfiction

The first in a gripping fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess and a desperate refugee find themselves on a collision course to murder each other despite their growing attraction—from debut author Roseanne A. Brown.

For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts his younger sister, Nadia, as payment to enter the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom. But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own.

Call number: FIC BRO

Genre: YA Fantasy

Reading level: 9-12

Lexile text measure: 960L

Length: 466 pages

Availability: MHHS, Sora (SDCL)

Sora achievements: Sci-Fi/Fantasy, Fiction