Category Archives: 11-12

Butler Bookshelf

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Graphic novels are enjoyable reads for any age. The characters showcase emotion, fostering a reader’s empathy, and the format is a fantastic pathway for complex storytelling. This week we’re featuring some graphic novels from our Teen Fiction collection! This week’s feature pick is Someday Perfect written and illustrated by Kat Schneider. This graphic novel centers on teen girl Meg facing a crisis of faith. At a Christian sleepaway camp, Meg is at a crossroads between her pastor father’s expectations and her friends testing the limits of the camps’ rules. Meg doesn’t seem to want to follow her friends’ lead until she meets Danny, a gentle and charming teen boy who only seeks out her attention (and affection). Can Meg reconcile her role in her church and family with her budding romantic feelings for Danny?

Check out this and other YA graphic novel titles here:

Someday Perfect
Kat Schneider
Random House Children’s Books/RH Graphic
Available now!

Lovely Recipe
Myra Rose Nino
Random House Children’s Books/RH Graphic
Available now!

School Bus Graveyard Book 1
Red
Random House Children’s Books/Ink Pop
Available now!

Our Aimless Nights Vol 1
Koumori
Random House Children’s Books/Ink Pop
Available Now!

To Dance the Moon and Stars
Barbara Perez Marquez
Tasia S.M.
Random House Children’s Books/Joy Revolution
Available now!

A Just-Reformed Overachiever: A Review of Jubilee Foster is Totally Fine

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Jubilee Foster is Totally Fine
Elise Bryant 
Quill Tree Books, an imprint of HarperCollins 
Ages 13+ 
Available: January 26, 2027

Sixteen-year-old go-getter Jubilee Foster has her life under control. But her perfect life comes crashing down when from out of nowhere, she gets hives all over her body and can’t completely get rid of them. As her illness gets worse, Jubilee refuses to put her routine and relationships in jeopardy and act as selfish as her mother did when her mental illness took over. However, Jubilee will eventually need to attain the hardest goal a human powerhouse like her can accomplish: ask for and accept help. Bryant’s grounded dialogue makes every character soulful and three-dimensional. Jubilee’s feelings, especially those about Nate, her rival-turned-sweetheart, her mother, and her medical misfortune, take center stage in the story. When she realizes how her actions and words affect the people around her, the issues don’t quickly resolve themselves, which makes the story true-to-life. James Junior, Jubilee’s youngest sibling, is embarrassed that he needs extra help with his reading skills but didn’t tell his sister because he didn’t want to bother her busy schedule. It parallels Jubilee not wanting either of her siblings to tell her father about her hives because it would take time away from his work. Both James Jr.’s and Jubilee’s issues aren’t completely resolved, but it doesn’t deter from the story’s hopeful ending. The story features mostly Black and mixed-race characters. Jubilee Foster is Totally Fine, an enemies-to-lovers and medical drama, will make readers cry tears of frustration and happiness with every page turn.  

Butler Bookshelf

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There’s nothing quite like the horror genre. Horrific action in mystery stories can send chills down a reader’s spine, and some readers crave that thrilling sensation that leaves them at the edge of their seats, dreading and anticipating what will come next. This week’s Butler Bookshelf is focused on thrillers in our Teen Fiction collection! Our feature pick is What Lies Beneath the Flowers by Natasha Díaz. Pippa and Bidi are on a mission to find the popular, wealthy, and missing Estella Aubergine, whose reward money could help the two friends achieve their dreams. They infiltrate Estella’s school, the prestigious Beaumont Academy, where the students and teachers have dark secrets of their own. As their investigation leads to more questions than answers, Pippa and Bidi’s friendship starts to crack, and to make matters worse, someone seems to be tracking their every move. Will the two friends solve the mystery behind Estella’s disappearance before it’s too late?

Check out this and other thrilling titles!

What Lies Beneath the Flowers
Natasha Díaz
Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books
Available now!

Our Wicked Gifts
Kathryn Foxfield
Random House Books for Young Readers/Random House Children’s Books
Available now!

Monarchs in the Wild
Israel Moya
Tu Books/Lee & Low Books
Available now!

Mystery Guest
Maren Stoffels
Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books
Available now!

Paint Me Like Your Dead Girls
Cynthia Murphy
Delacorte Press/Random House Children’s Books
Available now!

Living in Agony and Remorse: A Review of Find My Way Down to You

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Find My Way Down to You
Julian Winters
Viking, an Imprint of Penguin Random House
Ages: 13+
Available Now

For the first time since the untimely death of his boyfriend, London, 18-year-old August’s life turns upside down when he meets a mysterious “ferrier of souls” named Cary, whom August follows into a forbidden place: Aides, the Underworld, where mortal souls spend eternity after they die. Seeing an opportunity to find London, August frequently visits the extravagant Aides looking for his lost love, with Cary as his reluctant guide. After five visits to Aides, August is presented with a choice, as per the rules: choose a lonely life without his old boyfriend or pursue his budding feelings for the moody Cary.  

Julian Winters’s contemporary prose emphasizes how grief impacts August’s life. Its omnipresence is evident when August oversleeps, is late to his work shift, mentions blaming himself for his boyfriend’s death in several chapters, and seeing an old photo of him and London leaves him in emotional turmoil. It’s heartbreak at its bleakest. However, this plot doesn’t just have doom and gloom. August’s interactions with Cary and other Aides characters breathe fresh air and excitement into an otherwise depressing story. Same-sex relationships and attractions are included without value-judgement, giving both the characters and readers room to explore their own feelings. Readers don’t need to be extremely fluent in afterlife mythos, especially Greek mythology, to follow the narrative. Even Henri, one of the other soul ferriers, mentions that everything found in Wikipedia about the underworld gets things “wrong.” Emotionally raw and rife with dramatic intrigue, Find My Way Down to You is a weighty rainy-day YA romantasy that is guaranteed to make readers cry.  

Butler Bookshelf

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For fans of fast-paced, nail-biting, whodunit thrillers, this week’s Butler Bookshelf is definitely for you. From a mysterious party drug plaguing schools with Stepford Wives-esque effects to a football team massacre that’s left one religious town reeling, these five books are cocktails of crime, thriller, mystery, and horror in all the right ways. Our feature pick this week is Lost Girls of Hollow Lake by Rebekah Faubion, set to be released on January 27th. In a sapphic, Yellowjackets meets Lord of the Flies way, Lost Girls of Hollow Lake tells the story of eight girls abandoned on a mysterious island after a school field trip goes south. When the group is miraculously—supernaturally, even—able to make it back to shore, there’s only one problem: just five girls remain. The town wants answers about the missing three, and someone out there is determined to pick off the rest. Can these girls ever truly make it off the island?

Read Lost Girls of Hollow Lake to find out & check out some more thriller YA books below!

Better the Devil
Erik J. Brown
HarperCollins / Storytide
Available January 20th, 2026!

Gaslit
Megan Davidhizar
Random House Children’s Books / Delacorte Press
Available January 13th, 2026 (today!)

I Don’t Wish You Well
Jumata Emill
Random House Children’s Books / Delacorte Press
Available January 20th, 2026!

Lost Girls of Hollow Lake
Rebekah Faubion
Random House Children’s Books / Delacorte Press
Available January 27th, 2026!

Shiny Happy People
Clay McLeod Chapman
Random House Children’s Books / Delacorte Press
Available now!

The Complications of Intimacy: A Review of How Girls Are Made

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How Girls Are Made
Mindy McGinnis
HarperCollins 
Ages 16-18
Available November 18, 2025

High school seniors Fallon, Shelby, and Jobie couldn’t be more different. Fallon is determined to graduate with straight A’s and escape Presnick, their small, conservative Ohio town. Shelby is focused on her budding career as a semiprofessional MMA fighter. And Jobie is chasing online stardom… and a rhinoplasty. When Fallon finds out her thirteen-year-old sister Farrah’s sex education class is teaching girls virtually nothing, she decides someone must enlighten these young girls about safe sex. After coercing Shelby and Jobie to join in, the trio begins hosting secret meetings to talk about sex at the local rec center, under the guise of a “self-help” class called “SHAFT.” After an Instagram post about “SHAFT” goes viral, Presnick’s parents are up in arms. DMs begin flooding in; fingers start pointing, and their antidote to an incompetent health class quickly spirals into a dangerous web of lies. Weaved in between their own simultaneous struggles, a fatal ending for one of the three solidifies the long-lasting effects of trauma. 

Although the first three hundred pages, even with a point of view shift each chapter, maintain a consistent tone that accurately captures the acerbic humor and raw tumult of teenage girlhood, the final fifty pages quickly veer into tragedy reminiscent of a Lifetime movie—fitting for a story steeped in teenage drama. Despite its soapy ending, How Girls Are Made serves as an important cautionary tale about the complications (and potential dangers) of sex and relationships. The characters are complex; the dialogue rings true, and as devastating as the story becomes, McGinnis confronts a myriad of incredibly relevant issues to teenagers nowadays. Given its heavy subject matter, which McGinnis tackles with heart-wrenching accuracy, including references to rape, suicide, and domestic abuse, the book is best suited for more mature young adult readers. 

Long Live the Queen: A Review of Red as Royal Blood

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Red as Royal Blood
Elizabeth Hart
HarperCollins Publishers/Harper
Ages 15+
Available November 18th, 2025

Ruby has spent her entire life keeping her head down. As a castle maid, she does her best to be invisible to the royal family of Lumaria (except for Prince Rowan, her friend and chess partner). So when the king dies and names her as his heir, no one is more surprised than Ruby herself. The situation is further complicated when Ruby discovers a note from the king warning that he believes he was murdered — and that Ruby may be next. Thrust into a whirlwind of lies and deceit, Ruby must figure out for herself who she can trust. Who killed the king? What secrets are the remaining members of the royal family hiding? And most importantly, can Ruby survive to see herself crowned queen of Lumaria?

Red as Royal Blood is part romance, part thriller, part fairy tale. As Ruby rapidly adjusts to being thrown headfirst into royal life, she finds herself facing potential danger around every corner while also trying to unravel her own complicated feelings toward her friend Rowan and his brother, Asher, who was set to take his father’s throne. Hart weaves together the dual mysteries of Ruby’s past and the late king’s warning to create an atmosphere that is tense and action-packed — with just enough breathing room to allow for the romantic tension to build on top of it.

For lovers of all things royal, Red as Royal Blood provides a thrilling twist on the princess genre. Readers looking for a love story, a mystery, or a story with a strong and smart leading lady will find something in its pages to scratch that itch.

Please, Love Me: A review of America’s Not-So Sweetheart

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America’s Not-So Sweetheart
Blair Hanson
Page Street Publishing
Age 14+
June 17, 2025

Who says a villain can’t change? But who’s to say he wants to? Teenage Alec Braud won his season of the reality show Campfire Wars by playing a dirty game of lies and manipulation, securing the $250,000 prize to help his family’s struggling wildlife rehabilitation center. Nicknamed Aleconda for his slippery behavior and an on/off showmance with the season’s golden boy, Joaquín Delgado, he left the show to vitriol from the fandom. When Joaquín invites him on a Midwestern road trip to complete a photography project for his art school application, Alec jumps at the chance to repair their relationship and rehab his reputation. An invitation to a Campfire Wars convention in New York sidetracks their plans and helps Alec see he’s not the only bad guy in town—other seasons’ villains, the shows production staff and even Joaquín prove just as devious.

Blair Hanson brings the drama in this LGBTQ+ YA romance, his debut. The emotions are messy and overly complicated, even for seventeen-year-old boys, and the relationship between the protagonists is weighted with angst. Alec’s self-doubt and neediness temper his sketchy behavior enough to have you rooting for his redemption arc, while Joaquín’s cool-kid bravado will make readers wonder if he really is too good to be true. Told from Alec’s perspective, he is the more fully drawn character, while other are a bit flat. Themes of diversity and representation (questionable in the Campfire Wars universe), integrity, healthy relationships, and the toxicity of reality TV are all woven into the plot but are often overshadowed by Alec’s desperation to prove himself worthy of love from his boyfriend, his parents, and the public. His final decision to stand up for himself as-is and his right to a healthy relationship, help to redeem both him and the plot. Just like reality TV, America’s Not-So Sweetheart is an attention-grabbing, if melodramatic, entry to the summer romance genre.

Butler Bookshelf

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Even though it’s only April, we here at the Butler Center have received countless fantastic books for teens! From fantasy to romance, we want to share some great new teen fiction, like Love on Paper by Danielle Parker. When Macy Descanso is accepted to attend Penovation, a high-profile writing workshop program, she knows she has some big shoes to fill from her writer parents. However, when the workshop’s theme is romance and Macy’s critique partner is the (irresistably cute) son of her parents’ writing rivals, Caleb, she feels the pressure rachet up. Soon, when a classmate reveals a mystery left behind by a romantic literary giant, she knows it will be the perfect thing to distract her from her imposter syndrome. Plus, would it really be so bad to bond with Caleb, who is growing more charming by the second, over solving this mystery? Parker presents a fun summer romance, building Macy and Caleb’s relationship incrementally until they finally admit their feelings for each other. The mystery element adds an entertaining touch, propelling the story forward as the characters explore Berkeley and the surrounding area to find the prolific writer Betty Quinn’s last unfinished manuscript. Parker doesn’t shy away from heavier topics, discussing grief, complicated parental relationships, and imposter syndrome. Using thoughtful and humorous prose, Parker explores what it means to make a name for yourself, even when escaping your parents’ shadow feels impossible. Joyful, funny, and intriguing, Love on Paper is a wonderful young adult rom-com to add to any personal or public library collection!

Check out more teen fiction below!

A Bird in the Air Means We Can Still Breathe
Written by Mahogany L. Browne
Published by Crowne Books for Young Readers
Available now!

Camila Nunez’s Year of Disasters
Written by Miriam Zoila Perez
Published by Page Street Publishing
Available now!

Love on Paper
Written by Danielle Parker
Published by Joy Revolution
Available now!

On the Wings of la Noche
Written by Vanessa L. Torres
Published by Alfred A. Knopf
Available now!

True Life in Uncanny Valley
Written by Deb Caletti
Published by Labyrinth Road
Available now!

Butler Bookshelf

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This week’s Butler Bookshelf is all about new fiction titles in our collection! These titles feature animal adventures, a school for time travelers, and dragons in London for readers of all ages. The featured title this week is Time Out! (Addy McBean) by Margery Cuyler and illustrated by Stacy Curtis. In this chapter book for beginning readers, math-loving Addy McBean learns how to tell time on analog clocks and how to set an alarm. Along the way, she and her best friend, Star, become convinced that their teacher, Mr. Vertex, is getting married. Working tirelessly to look for clues, they accidentally spread the rumor to their class. In addition to learning the fun of telling time, Addy learns the importance of using facts to make a decision instead of assumptions. Curtis uses quirky digital illustrations to accompany Addy’s adventures, and Cuyler includes a character glossary and a word list to help young readers remember characters and learn new terms.

Check out more fiction below!

The Doomsday Vault (Everwhen School of Time Travel (and Other Odd Sciences) 1)
Written by Thomas Wheeler
Published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
Available now

A Language of Dragons
Written by S.F. Williamson
Published by Harper
Available now

Little Head, Little Nose
Written by Yuli Yav
Illustrated by Antonia Woodward
Published by LITTLE SIMON
Available now

Time Out! (Addy McBean)
Written by Margery Cuyler
Illustrated by Stacy Curtis
Published by Aladdin Quix
Available now

A Wolf Called Fire
Written by Rosanne Parry
Published by Greenwillow Books
Available now