Library News

Audiobook of the Week:

Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam

This novel in verse is perfect for fans of the Noughts & Crosses series and The Hate U Give! Author Yusef Salaam is a member of the Exonerated Five (formerly known as the Central Park Five) and is now a prison reform activist.

“One fateful night, an altercation in a gentrifying neighbourhood escalates into tragedy. ‘Boys just being boys’ turns out to be true only when those boys are white. Suddenly, at just sixteen years old, Amal Shahid’s bright future is upended: he is convicted of a crime he didn’t commit and sent to prison. Despair and rage almost sink him until he turns to the refuge of his words, his art. This never should have been his story. But can he change it? With spellbinding lyricism, award-winning author Ibi Zoboi and prison reform activist Yusef Salaam tell a moving and deeply profound story about how one boy is able to maintain his humanity and fight for the truth, in a system designed to strip him of both.”

eBook of the Week:

Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Netflix fans may have seen the Dash and Lily series when it came out last year, but (of course) I think the book is even better! This is a great winter read as it takes place in New York City during the holidays. You can also check out the sequels: Mind the Gap, Dash and Lily and Twelve Days of Dash and Lily.

“It's Christmas-time and Lily, an unlucky-in-love 16-year-old, listens to the advice of her lucky-in-love brother and leaves her red notebook on her favourite bookshop shelf. The book, and the dares inside it, have Lily waiting for the right guy to come along and rise to the challenge. When Dash finds her notebook on the shelves of The Strand bookstore, he accepts her challenge. As they begin to send each other on a scavenger hunt all across Manhattan, Dash and Lily are falling in love with each other on the page. Discovering if they have the same chemistry in person could be their biggest dare yet.”

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Print Series of the Week:

The Grisha trilogy and the Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo

These two series are set in the same world and are the basis for the Shadow and Bone series on Netflix. I highly recommend the books even if you have already watched the series as you learn so much more about the fascinating world of the Grisha. We have them all in the library so come check them out!

Start with Shadow and Bone for the Grisha trilogy and Six of Crows if you want to dive into the companion duology.

More about Shadow and Bone:

“Soldier. Summoner. Saint. Orphaned and expendable, Alina Starkov is a soldier who knows she may not survive her first trek across the Shadow Fold-a swath of unnatural darkness crawling with monsters. But when her regiment is attacked, Alina unleashes dormant magic not even she knew she possessed. Now Alina will enter a lavish world of royalty and intrigue as she trains with the Grisha, her country's magical military elite-and falls under the spell of their notorious leader, the Darkling. He believes Alina can summon a force capable of destroying the Shadow Fold and reuniting their war-ravaged country, but only if she can master her untamed gift.”

More about Six of Crows:

“A convict with a thirst for revenge.

A sharpshooter who can't walk away from a wager.

A runaway with a privileged past.

A spy known as the Wraith.

A Heartrender using her magic to survive the slums.

A thief with a gift for unlikely escapes.

Six dangerous outcasts. One impossible heist.”

Happy reading, Ms Bouffard