January 2021 Reading Challenge: Short & Skinny

 Short & Skinny by Mark Tatulli 

There are a lot of what I call “growing pains” books for middle grade (grades 3-8) girls out there – books about those awkward years between childhood and becoming a teenager. Raina Telgemeier’s popular graphic novels, as well as many other popular series, come to mind. I wish more books like this had existed when I was a child, but I am glad they exist now. But as I looked at the many excellent and popular series for preteen girls, I was disappointed that I could not find similar books for boys. That was until I recently came across Mark Tatulli’s book Short and Skinny in the Juvenile Graphic Novel section at FCPL. I was very pleased to find a “growing pains” book from a boy’s point of view. 

Kids' Book Spotlight - Teen Books for the New Year!

A New Year means new beginnings and new challenges! Check out these books from our Teen collection that are all about embracing and inspiring change.

Teen Middle (Grades 6-8)

The Other Half of Happy by Rebecca Balacarcel

Twelve-year-old Quijana is a biracial girl, desperately trying to understand the changes that are going on in her life; her mother rarely gets home before bedtime, her father suddenly seems to be trying to get in touch with his Guatemalan roots (even though he never bothered to teach Quijana Spanish), she is about to start seventh grade in the Texas town where they live and she is worried about fitting in--and Quijana suspects that her parents are keeping secrets, because she is sure there is something wrong with her little brother, Memito, who is becoming increasingly hard to reach.

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