Special Collections

An Absolutely Remarkable Thing

In his much-anticipated debut novel, Hank Green - co-creator of Crash Course, Vlogbrothers and SciShow - spins a sweeping, cinematic tale about a young woman who becomes an overnight celebrity before realising she's part of something bigger, and stranger, than anyone could have possibly imagined. The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at three a.m., twenty-three-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship - like a ten-foot-tall Transformer wearing a suit of samurai armour - April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world - everywhere from Beijing to Buenos Aires - and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the centre of an intense international media spotlight. Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us. Compulsively entertaining and powerfully relevant, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing grapples with big themes, including how the social internet is changing fame, rhetoric and radicalisation; how our culture deals with fear and uncertainty; and how vilification and adoration spring from the same dehumanization that follows a life in the public eye. *****************Here's what people have been saying about Hank's book:'A fun, contemporary adventure that cares about who we are as humans, especially when faced with remarkable events' Kirkus (starred review)'An Absolutely Remarkable Thing is pure book joy' Lev Grossman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Magicians Trilogy'Fun and full of truth. To be honest, I'm a little irritated at how good the book is. I don't need this kind of competition' Patrick Rothfuss, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Kingkiller Chronicles

Date Added: 07/21/2022

Let Down Your Hair

Introducing the YA fiction debut from bestselling author and journalist Bryony Gordon in a modern twist on Rapunzel and one girl's quest to find a different sort of happy ever after.

Barb may have zero friends IRL, but online, she is popular. Like, several-hundred-thousand-followers popular. Or at least, her hair is popular. Because Barb's hair is glossy and beautiful. Which is why hairbrush manufacturers pay her stupid money for a 30-second clip. But most of the time Barb just wants to be a normal teenager, who has friends and a life. One who isn't confined to her bedroom on the 12th floor of the tower-block flat she shares with her aunt making content. One who can go about her business without everyone obsessing over the way she looks. Barb just needs to save up some money to make a new life for herself.

But it's soon clear something isn't right. Because when Barb runs her fingers over her scalp, she feels something smooth and different. She gets out her mirrors and combs for a video and sees it ... a bald patch the size of a ten pence coin, slap bang in the middle of her head.

Barb has alopecia.

In this stunning retelling of Rapunzel, Barb must learn that she is so much more than her hair and that there is no such thing as a happy ending ... just lots of complicated new beginnings.

(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Date Added: 05/11/2023

Throwback

"No one can blend family, humor, satire, and love into a single perfect story like Maurene Goo can . . ." - Marie Lu, No.1 New York Times bestselling authorSamantha Kang has always butted heads with her mom, Priscilla, who is a first-generation Korean American, a former high school cheerleader and expects Sam to want the same all-American nightmare. Meanwhile, Sam is a girl of the times who has no energy for clichéd high school aspirations. After a huge fight, Sam is desperate to get away from Priscilla, but instead, finds herself thrown back. Way back. To her shock, Sam lands in the '90s . . . alongside a 17-year-old Priscilla. Now, Sam has to deal with outdated tech, regressive '90s attitudes, and a time-crossed romance with the right guy in the wrong era.With the clock ticking, Sam must figure out how to fix things with Priscilla or risk being trapped in an analog world forever. Sam's blast to the past has her questioning everything she thought she knew about her mom . . . and herself.Back to the Future meets To All the Boys in this thrilling new YA time-travel romance by award-winning author Maurene Goo. (P)2023 Zando

Date Added: 05/06/2024

Somewhere Only We Know

Be prepared to swoon in this irresistible rom-com about taking a chance on love and finding yourself along the way. Perfect for fans of To All the Boys I've Loved Before and The Kissing Booth. Soon to be a Netflix feature-film.

10:00 p.m.: Lucky is the biggest K-pop star on the scene, and she's just performed her hit song "Heartbeat" in Hong Kong to thousands of adoring fans. She's about to debut on The Tonight Show in America, hopefully a breakout performance for her career. But right now? She's in her fancy hotel, trying to fall asleep but dying for a hamburger.

11:00 p.m.: Jack is sneaking into a fancy hotel, on assignment for his tabloid job that he keeps secret from his parents. On his way out of the hotel, he runs into a girl wearing slippers, a girl who is single-mindedly determined to find a hamburger. She looks kind of familiar. She's very cute. He's maybe curious.

12:00 a.m.: Nothing will ever be the same.

With her trademark humour and voice, Maurene Goo delivers a sparkling story of taking a chance on love—and finding yourself along the way. (P) 2019 Tantor

Date Added: 05/11/2023

Perfect On Paper

A bisexual girl who gives anonymous love advice to her school friends is hired by the hot new kid to help him get his ex back. Leah on the Offbeat meets To All the Boys I've Loved Before - the new queer YA rom-com from Sophie Gonzales.'Perfectly wonderful' - Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda Her advice, spot on. Her love life, way off. Darcy Phillips: Can give you the solution to any of your relationship woes - for a fee. Uses her power for good. Most of the time. Really cannot stand the new Australian jock at school, Alexander Brougham. Has maybe not the best judgement when it comes to her best friend, Brooke...who is in love with someone else. Does not appreciate being blackmailed. But when Brougham catches Darcy in the act of collecting letters from locker 89 - out of which she's been running her questionably legal, anonymous relationship advice service - that's exactly what happens. In exchange for keeping her secret, Darcy begrudgingly agrees to become his personal dating coach. The goal? To help him win his ex-girlfriend back. Darcy has good reason to keep her identity secret. If word gets out that she's behind the locker, some things she's not proud of will come to light, and there's a good chance Brooke will never speak to her again. Okay, so all she has to do is help an entitled, bratty, (annoyingly hot) guy win over a girl who's already fallen for him once? What could possibly go wrong?(P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Date Added: 03/30/2022

The Perfect Guy Doesn't Exist

What happens when the fictional 'perfect guy' comes to life and is convinced you're his soulmate? While her parents are away for the week, sixteen-year-old Ivy McIntosh plans on binge-watching her favourite TV show and hanging out with her best friend, Henry. But things quickly go downhill on the very first morning, when Ivy wakes up to find Weston, the gorgeous lead character of her favourite show, in her bedroom. And, oh yeah, he thinks that she's his soulmate.Ivy realizes that her writing has somehow brought Weston as she's imagined him to life, and now he's living out her fanfiction dreams. But those fairytale dreams soon turn into disasters. Mack, Ivy's best-friend-turned-enemy who lives next door, and Henry get involved and the three of them need to figure out why Weston is here and how to get rid of him. As Ivy and Mack grow closer again, old feelings resurface and they finally face the fallout of their broken friendship, and question if they've both secretly always wanted something more . . . The new sapphic YA friends-to-enemies-to-lovers novel from bestselling author Sophie Gonzales, with her trademark humour and heart.

Date Added: 05/06/2024

Only Mostly Devastated

Ollie and Will were a summer fling; now they're classmates. But only one of them is out...SIMON VS THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA meets a modern-day, queer re-imagining of GREASE.It was the very last Wednesday of August when I realized Disney had been lying to me about Happily Ever Afters. Because, you see, I was four days into mine, and my prince was nowhere to be found. "Please don't lose contact. I need to see you again," he'd said. So why was I here, banging my head against a metaphorical wall, weighing up the pros and cons of sending another message? This wasn't a big deal. It was just a guy texting another guy. A guy who knew all my biggest secrets, and had Seen. Me. Naked™. A guy who'd convinced me he really, really liked me. A guy who'd better have been abducted by goddamn aliens...When Ollie meets Will over the summer break, he thinks he's found his Happily Ever After. But once summer's ended, Will stops texting him back, and Ollie finds himself short of his fairy-tale ending.A family emergency sees Ollie uprooted and enrolled at a new school across the country - Will's school - and Ollie finds that the sweet, affectionate and comfortably queer guy he knew from summer isn't the same one attending Collinswood High. This Will is a class clown, a basketball jock and, well, a bit of a jerk.Ollie isn't going to pine after a guy who isn't ready for a relationship. But as school life repeatedly throws them together, from music class to the lunch table, Ollie finds his resolve weakening.With the noisy drama of their friends as the backdrop - from ambitious Juliette and frosty Lara, to big-hearted Darnell and king-jock Matt - Ollie has a decision to make.The last time he gave Will his heart, Will handed it back to him trampled and battered. Ollie would have to be an idiot to trust him with it again. Right?(P)2020 Macmillan Audio

Date Added: 03/30/2022

Never Ever Getting Back Together

Romance, revenge, and reality TV. The new queer YA rom-com from Sophie Gonzales, bestselling author of Only Mostly Devastated.

Eighteen-year-old Maya dumped her cheating ex-boyfriend Jordy two years ago. So, when she receives a call to participate in Second Chance Romance—a reality show in which the now-famous Jordy re-dates his ex-girlfriends—she isn't interested . . . until she realizes she can use this opportunity to exact her revenge. If she can make it to the final spot on the show, she can reject Jordy in front of the nation, and publicly break his heart.

Maya's fellow contestants include Skye, the beautiful, charismatic girl Jordy cheated on Maya with. Skye charms the socks off everyone she meets, except for Maya, who knows that underneath all the sparkle, she's the girl who dated her boyfriend while he was still her boyfriend.The reality show is a challenging environment. Amidst backstabbing, bickering, and having to see Jordy again, Maya finds herself becoming friends with Skye. Together, they come up with a plan for the ultimate revenge on Jordy.

But as she spends more time with Jordy and Skye, Maya is torn. Is Jordy a good guy who made a mistake? Is there more than friendship between her and Skye? As the season finale approaches, can Maya execute her plan, or will she go off-script?

(P) 2022 Macmillan Audio

Date Added: 05/12/2023

The Edge of Nowhere

Becca King and her mother are on the run from her stepfather who has used Becca's talent for hearing 'whispers' to make a large and illegal sum of money. Now their options for safety are running out. In the town of Langley on Whidbey Island, Becca finds refuge in the home of her mother's childhood friend while her mother continues on to Canada in search of safety.But on her first day in town Becca meets sixteen years old Derric Mathieson, a Ugandan orphan who was adopted as a ten-year-old by the town's Deputy Sheriff. Derric has a secret that no one on Whidbey Island knows. Derric and Becca form an un-severable bond. Becca is convinced that she's the only person who can truly help him, and just maybe Derric can convince Becca that life is too short to live on the run.(P)2013 Hodder & Stoughton

Date Added: 03/30/2022

Cruel Illusions

Caraval meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer in this deliciously dark young adult fantasy about a girl who makes a deal with a magical secret society to enter a potentially deadly competition for the chance to avenge her mother's death.

Ever since a vampire murdered her mother, Ava has been determined to get revenge. This all-encompassing drive has given her the fuel she needed to survive foster home after foster home. But it's been ten years since anyone's seen a vampire, and Ava has lost hope that she'll ever find one . . . until she stumbles across a hidden magic show where she witnesses impossible illusions. The magicians may not be the bloodsuckers she's hunting, but Ava is convinced something supernatural is at play, so she sneaks backstage and catches them in acts they can't explain. But they've been waiting for her.

The magicians reveal they're part of an ancient secret society with true magic, and Ava has the same power in her blood that they do. If she joins them, they promise to teach her the skills she needs to hunt vampires and avenge her mother. But there's a catch: if she wants to keep the power they offer, she needs to prove she's worthy of it. And to do so, she must put on the performance of her life in a sinister and dangerous competition where illusion and reality blur, and the stakes are deadly.

(P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Date Added: 05/11/2023

Friends Don't Tell

Two best friends. A weekend to remember. But what happened to Jade? An exhilarating thriller for fans of A Good Girl's Guide to Murder and Good Girls Die First.

One year ago, Jade died at a music festival. Her body was found floating in a lake but everyone wrote it off as a tragic accident—with no evidence of murder.

Ever since, her best friend Lexi has been trying to piece her life back together, but she just can't get over that weekend. She's certain that somebody purposefully hurt Jade, she just has to work out who it was. Maybe it was one of the friends they made at the tent pitched next to theirs...Jade and Lexi went to a festival ... only one of them made it home alive.

Best friends-turned-authors, Nadz and Grace have been to loads of festivals together. When they're not dancing at the front of the crowd and singing along to their favourite bands, they are busy working on The Self Esteem Team—their company which delivers emotional and lifestyle education to students, parents and teachers throughout the UK and beyond. In 2020, Grace also launched I am Ally which provides anti-racist support for schools. (P) 2022 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Date Added: 05/11/2023

It's All In Your Head

It's All in Your Head is a comprehensive, positive and wise guide to mental health - a subject that directly affects 1 in 4 of us each year, and indirectly affects millions more. Non-reverential and darkly funny, the book aims to take mental health discussions out of the margin and make them mainstream and accessible. Rae Earl, author of My Mad Fat Diary, writes about her own experiences and speaks to teens and young people about theirs. Dr Radha, a GP, mental health expert and co-host of BBC Radio 1's The Surgery acts a consultant, ensuring all advice given is targeted, pitched correctly and medically sound. The result is a warm, readable book that will help teens cope and live with a mental health condition, rather than suffer from one.(P) Wren & Rook 2017

Date Added: 04/25/2022

Clean

Fall into the lives of the city's filthy rich with Juno Dawson's deliciously dark and intoxicating London Collection. When socialite Lexi Volkov almost overdoses, she thinks she's hit rock bottom. She's wrong.Because rock bottom is when she's forced into an exclusive rehab facility.From there, the only way is up for Lexi and her fellow inmates, including the mysterious Brady.As she faces her demons, Lexi realises love is the most powerful drug of all ... It's a dirty business getting clean.Addiction, redemption, love and despair. Clean is Gossip Girl meets Girl, Interrupted, and it will have you hooked from the very first page.

Date Added: 05/23/2022

Midnight Sun

Discover a summer love story like no other: now a major motion picture starring Bella Thorne and Patrick Schwarzenegger, and perfect for fans of The Fault in our Stars and Everything, Everything.

Katie can't leave her house during the day: she has a rare disease that makes even the smallest amount of sunlight deadly.

But everything changes when one evening, singing her heart out on a deserted station platform, she meets Charlie.

Before the night is out, Katie is smitten. But she hasn't told Charlie her secret. She just wants to have her normal love story, before reality kicks in. Lost in her night-time summer romance, Katie knows that love will light the way.

A heartbreaking tale of love, loss and one nearly perfect summer.

Date Added: 04/25/2022

Torn

Real, compulsive and intense: Cat Clarke is the queen of emotional suspense. For fans of E Lockhart, Paula Hawkins and Gillian Flynn. They didn't mean to kill her...now the guilt will tear them apartAlice King isn't expecting the holiday of her dreams when she sets off on a trip to the wilderness with her mates. But when her best friend Cass decides to teach mean girl Tara a lesson, Alice finds herself in a nightmare she can't escape.Now Alice is the guardian of a secret too horrific to tell; and a secret too terrible to keep. A secret that will change all of their lives for ever...(P) 2017 Hachette Children's Group

Date Added: 04/25/2022

The Lost and the Found

LOST. When six-year-old Laurel Logan was abducted, the only witness was her younger sister. Faith's childhood was dominated by Laurel's disappearance - from her parents' broken marriage and the constant media attention to dealing with so-called friends who only ever wanted to talk about her sister. FOUND. Thirteen years later, a young woman is found in the garden of the Logans' old house, disorientated and clutching the teddy bear Laurel was last seen with. Laurel is home at last, safe and sound. Faith always dreamed of getting her sister back, without ever truly believing it would happen. But a disturbing series of events leaves Faith increasingly isolated and paranoid, and before long she begins to wonder if everything that's lost can be found again...(P)2015 WF Howes Ltd

Date Added: 03/30/2022

Girlhood

Real, compulsive and intense: Cat Clarke is the queen of emotional suspense. For fans of E Lockhart, Lisa Williamson, Paula Hawkins and Gillian FlynnHarper has tried to forget the past and fit in at expensive boarding school Brodick Academy. But she can't escape guilt of her twin sister's Izzy's death, and her own part in it. But new girl Kirsty seems to understand Harper. She has lost a sister too. Harper finally feels secure. She finally feels...loved. As if she can grow beyond the person she was when Izzy died.Then Kirsty's behaviour becomes more erratic. Why is her life a perfect mirror of Harper's? And why is she so obsessed with Harper's dead sister?A darkly compulsive story about love, death, and growing up under the shadow of grief.(P) 2017 Hachette Children's Group

Date Added: 04/25/2022

Entangled

Real, compulsive and intense: Cat Clarke is the queen of emotional suspense. For fans of E Lockhart, Gillian Flynn and Paula Hawkins. Seventeen-year-old Grace wakes up in a white room, with table, pens and paper - and no clue how she got there. As Grace starts writing, pouring her tangled life onto the page, she is forced to remember everything she's tried to forget: falling hopelessly in love with Nat, and the unravelling of her friendship with her best mate Sal. But there's something missing. As hard as she's trying to remember, is there something she just can't see? Grace must face the most important question of all. Why is she here? A compulsive thriller of dangerous secrets, intense friendships and electrifying attraction.(P) 2017 Hachette Children's Group

Date Added: 03/30/2022

Graceling

In a world where people born with an exceptional skill, known as a Grace, are feared and exploited, Katsa carries the burden of a skill even she despises: the Grace of killing. She lives under the command of her Uncle Randa, King of the Middluns, and is expected to carry out his dirty work, punnishing and torturing anyone who displeases him. Breaking arms and cutting off fingers are her stock-in-trade. Finding life under his rule increasingly unbearable Katsa forms an underground Council, whose purpose is to combat the destructive behaviour of the seven kings - after all, the Middluns is only one of the Seven Kingdoms, each of them ruled by their own king and his personal agenda for power.When the Council hears that the King of Liend's father has been kidnapped Katsa investigates . . . and stumbles across a mystery. Who would want to kidnap him, and why? And who was the extraordinary Graced fighter who challenged her fighting skills, for the first time, as she and the Council rushed the old man to saftey?Something dark and deadly is rising in the north and creeping across the continent, and behind it all lurks the shadowy figure of a one-eyed king . . .(p) 2012 Orion Publishing Group

Date Added: 03/30/2022

In the Shallows

A beautifully written slow-burn sapphic second-chance love story drenched with longing, loss and mystery from acclaimed author of Afterlove.Mara's ex, Nico, is the girl of her dreams: beautiful, wild and unpredictable. She's Mara's everything, even though Mara's never sure that she's Nico's anything. Then Nico goes missing ...New Year's Day: A girl is rescued from the sea. She knows she is called Nico, but other than that, she has no memory of why she was in the sea or what came before.When destiny reunites them, is this Mara and Nico's second chance? Can their relationship make it out of the shallows? And what will happen when they discover the truth behind Nico's accident? Because one day, Nico will remember everything.'I want everyone to read Ash and Poppy's love story.' Holly Bourne on Afterlove'A book to make you feel and think' Terri Terry on Afterlove

Date Added: 05/06/2024

Afterlove

THE LESBIAN LOVE STORY YOU'VE BEEN DYING TO READ. Ash Persaud is about to become a reaper in the afterlife, but she is determined to see her first love Poppy Morgan again, the only thing that separates them is death. Car headlights.The last thing Ash hears is the snap of breaking glass as the windscreen hits her and breaks into a million pieces like stars. But she made it, she's still here. Or is she?This New Year's Eve, Ash is gets an RSVP from the afterlife she can't decline: to join a clan of fierce girl reapers who take the souls of the city's dead to await their fate. But Ash can't forget her first love, Poppy, and she will do anything to see her again ... even if it means they only get a few more days together. Dead or alive ...NOT EVEN DEATH CAN TEAR THEM APART. 'Byrne is a talented writer with attitude, and a fresh, original voice' Daily Mail(P)2021 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Date Added: 03/30/2022

Sing Me to Sleep

The Cruel Prince meets To Kill a Kingdom in the first in this dark YA fantasy duology, in which a siren assassin must join forces with the prince she hates to hunt a deadly killer - herself.Saoirse is the last siren in her kingdom. With a deadly melody, she can sing any man to an early grave. By day, she's disguised as a fae in her kingdom's army. By night, she's an assassin for dangerous mercenaries. When she's forced to accept a job guarding Crown Prince Hayes, she expects to despise him. Instead, she finds herself increasingly drawn to him - especially when they must work together to find a deadly killer plaguing the city. The only problem: Saoirse is that deadly killer.When Saoirse unwittingly kills a friend of the prince, she finally starts to ask the questions she never dared ask before of her employer. As she digs deeper, she uncovers her employer's sinister motives: ridding her kingdom of the Royal family, starting with the frustratingly charming Prince Hayes. Keeping her secret and protecting her identity means risking the safety of her kingdom - and the life of the first man who doesn't need a Siren Song to fall for her.(P) 2023 Hodder & Stoughton Limited

Date Added: 05/06/2024

All That's Left in the World

Jamie and Andrew are strangers, and two of the last people left alive. They don't know what they'll find on their perilous journey ... but they may just find each other. A queer romance about courage, hope and humanity—this is How I Live Now with the heart of Simon Vs The Homo Sapiens Agenda.

When the Superflu wipes out most of the population, Jamie finds himself completely alone in a cabin in the woods—until an injured stranger crosses his path.

Life is dangerous now and, armed with a gun, Jamie goes to pull the trigger. But there's something about Andrew ... something that stops Jamie in his tracks. Jamie takes him in, and as Andrew heals and they eventually step out into the strange new world, their relationship starts to feel like more than just friendship ...

But trouble isn't far behind. As the boys make a perilous journey south, they'll come face to face with a world torn apart and society in ruins. And who, or what, will they find waiting for them at the end of it all?

Date Added: 05/11/2023

The Darkest Part of the Forest

Faeries. Knights. Princes. True love. Think you know how the story goes? Think again ... From the New York Times bestselling author of The Spiderwick Chronicles comes a dark, dangerous and utterly beautiful faerie tale, guaranteed to steal your heart.

Hazel lives with her brother, Ben, in the strange town of Fairfold where humans and fae exist side by side. The faeries' seemingly harmless magic attracts tourists, but Hazel knows how dangerous they can be, and she knows how to stop them. Or she did, once.

In the forest of Fairfold, lies a glass casket. Inside the casket lies a sleeping faerie prince that none can rouse. He's the most fascinating thing Hazel and Ben have ever seen and they dream of waking him. But what happens when dreams come true?

In the darkest part of the forest, you must be careful what you wish for….

(P)2015 Hachette Audio

Date Added: 05/12/2023

Trans Mission

I guess we should start at the beginning. I was born on 2 November 1995. The doctors in the hospital took one look at my genitals and slapped an F on my birth certificate. 'F' for female, not fail - though that would actually have been kind of appropriate given present circumstances.When I was 15, I realised I was a transgender man. That makes it sound like I suddenly had some kind of lightbulb moment. In reality, coming to grips with my identity has taken a long time. Over the last six years, I've come out to my family and friends, changed my name, battled the healthcare system, started taking male hormones and have had surgery on my chest. My quest to a beard is almost complete. This audiobook is my story.(P) 2017 Hachette Children's Group

Date Added: 04/21/2022