The Florida Teens Read Challenge

Florida Teen’s Read is "a list of fifteen titles that have been chosen by a committee of fourteen school librarians specifically to engage high school students in reading and reflect their interests as well as represent a variety of genres, formats, reading levels, viewpoints, and ethnic and cultural perspectives." Teens spend the year exploring the titles and voting on their favorites. Before it is announced who wins for the 2024-25 school year, here's our take on some of the books from the list. What was YOUR favorite?

Accountable: the True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives it Changed by Dashka Slater

Accountable is a true story about how someone's actions can affect the rest of their life. She focuses on the emotions of the individuals affected from the offensive posts on a private Instagram account. I enjoyed reading this book since it reminded me that everything posted on the online can be shared. The theme of justice and regret are prominent in the book. I would recommend to someone looking to read a true story that showcases important lessons about technology.  -read by Brooke

Breathe and Count Back From Ten by Natalia Sylvester

Breathe and Count Back From Ten had potential written on its tombstone. I truly wanted to enjoy this novel, as I believe it brought multiple relevant topics to the table; however, the topics it engages with are never fully fleshed out and unfortunately did reach a true resolution. In this story, we encounter Verónica, a Peruvian-American girl who has both a disability (hip dysplasia) and big dreams. The summer before her senior year, she obtains a job at the Mermaid Cove, an attraction in her Florida hometown. The novel touched on cultural differences, familial strife, and life with a disability. All of these subjects have so much value, especially in our current society. With that being said, I honestly found Verónica to be very unlikable and ungrateful to her parents. Obviously, there is a cultural difference and age factor at play in that relationship, but still, I would’ve enjoyed it more if there had been more empathy for her parents. Overall, even though it touched on interesting topics, I definitely think it could’ve been better executed.  -read by Anna

The Do-Over by Lynne Painter

The Do-Over focuses on main character, Emilie, when Valentine’s Day starts to repeat over and over again. Through her experiences, she starts to see the world from a new perspective. I absolutely loved reading this book. It was an adorable story that was very entertaining. - read by Brooke

Midnight at the Houdini by Delilah S. Dawson

Midnight at the Houdini is about Anna, the daughter of a rich Las Vegas hotel owner. She goes to one of her father’s hotels after a tornado makes driving home unsafe. She becomes stuck in the hotel and must figure out how to escape before it is too late. I liked the unique plot of this book and would definitely recommend it to readers who like magic. -read by Brooke

Queen Bee by Amalie Howard

Queen Bee is a book with a very interesting concept. The story follows Ela Dalvi on her quest for revenge. Ela wants to get revenge on her childhood best friend Poppy, who killed their relationship over a boy. Ela wants to infiltrate the elite society of London and get even with Poppy. But when a familiar face from her past appears, she questions whether revenge is the answer. I really liked this book. The characters were interesting, and I liked reading about Ela’s plans. It really felt like I was part of the story. The only problem that I had with this book was that the constant back-and-forth time switching made it difficult to keep track of the characters and the current timeline. -ready by Holly

Remember Me Gone by Stacy Stokes

Remember Me Gone is centered on the life of Lucy who lives in a small Texan town. Her family has a business that allows people to erase their bad memories and once she starts to learn more about it, she decides to figure out what memories she is missing. I enjoyed reading this book but at some points, it was hard to understand. -read by Brooke

Seven Percent of Ro Devereaux by Ellen O'Clover

I was massively excited to read Ellen O’Clover’s Seven Percent of Ro Devereux. It sat perfectly on the gray shelf, playing the part of my next good read excellently. I genuinely loved the premise of this YA novel. It was original and believable. Ro Devereux is a fun, intelligent STEM girlie whose life explodes with the creation of her app MASH (Mansion, Apartment, Shack, House), which can predict its users’ futures to a 93% accuracy. Ultimately, I badly wanted to like this book and was greatly disappointed. Ro (and other characters in the novel) took the app’s predictions way too seriously, and Ro’s best friend ended up being the only main character who truly had common sense. Ultimately, I badly wanted to like this book and was greatly disappointed. -read by Anna

You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight is an all right book. This book is set at a summer camp where guests pay to experience living in a slasher film. Charity, the main character, plays the role of “Final Girl”. Her life is going great at the camp: business is rolling in and she’s found a group of friends. But it all changes when the danger suddenly becomes more real than she could imagine. I liked the concept and writing of the story (and the queer rep!), but there was one part I couldn’t get over. I didn’t like how there was a cult featured in the book. I felt that the story should’ve had a warning that there was a prominent focus on a cult. -read by Holly

Real Stories. Real Excellence.

Each year the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) awards a best young adult nonfiction book published that year. In December, five titles were named as nominees. 

Winter Park Library currently has four of these titles in our collection, and members of the Teen Book Guild read them and share our thoughts below. On Monday, January 22, the winner of the YALSA Award for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults will be announced as part of the Youth Media Awards given at the LibLearnX Conference in Baltimore. 

Accountable: The True Story of a Racist Social Media Account and the Teenagers Whose Lives It Changed by Dashka Slater

Dashka Slater’s book follows the lives of students in a small California town after an offensive private account on Instagram gets leaked. The account is filled with quotes from the real people who were affected and how their lives changed. It deserves to win since it shows the amount of damage just one decision can make. Cyberbullying is a huge problem since people don’t have to confront their target in person. Accountable shines a light on the issue and provides a real story to show the importance of thinking before you act. (BK)
 
America Redux: Visual Stories from Our Dynamic History by Ariel Aberg-Riger

This nonfiction work smoothly incorporates both text and images/illustrations to impart a large chunk of American history. But don’t be fooled into thinking it reads like a textbook. It is the most creative depiction of historical information I’ve ever seen, and it often looks like a scrapbook just teeming with tidbits of history. Everything on the page catches your eye at once and invites you to read more. It covers topics from the Civil War and abolitionist movement to women’s and LGBTQ+ rights.

This book is incredible in the way that it takes a subject that can so often be dreadfully boring and transforms it into a creative format that entices the reader while still getting the information across. Another highlight of this book was that it combines well-known knowledge with more obscure facts that would be new to most readers. Everyone who reads this stunning work will certainly learn something new. (GH)
 
Family Style: Memories of an American from Vietnam by Thien Pham

Family Style tells the story of the Pham family and their experiences through food. The family is originally from Vietnam and immigrated to California. The book is separated into chapters based on a certain food like Salisbury steak and croissants. Family Style does a great job showing the ups and downs of moving to another country in an interesting way. It is very important to learn about the struggles of immigrants to gain empathy and learn that everyone deserves to be treated well. This book deserves the award because it uses food to convey messages about the characters’ lives which is unique but the plot is still clear and to the point. (BK)  
 
Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge

 This historical work uses the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano as its primary source. Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge have compiled his accounts and added insight of their own to this book, which is written in verse. This poetic way of writing follows Equiano’s personal account of the transatlantic slave trade. Very few primary source materials from this journey have been found, which makes Equiano’s story even more important. You follow him as a young child in Africa to his life of slavery (and then freedom) in America. 

The prose and poetry of this work is beautiful, and I love the way that the verse form of Equiano’s account of his life is supplemented with additional information from Edinger and Younge. The secondary annotations are seamlessly woven into the bookl when needed and aid in the understanding of historical events. The verse form makes for a quick read, but every sentence is packed with meaning. Equiano’s story is must-read. (GH) 

*Librarian note: Our Library does not yet have From Here in our collection, but it's on its way!