Syosset Public Library TeenSpace Blog

Love and other uses for duct tape by Carrie Jones
Belle is a high school senior with questions about growing up. She doesn’t understand why her friends need to label everyone, herself included. Belle is dealing with her new boyfriend, Tom, and her friend Emily’s crisis situation in the best way she knows how: by making tons of lists and playing folk music on her guitar. The likeable characters have a lot of big issues throughout (teen pregnancy and drug abuse to name a few), but the depictions of small-town high school life are very spot-on and filled with humor.
Artichoke’s Heart by Suzanne Supplee
Rosemary Goode is an overweight girl from Spring Hill, Tennessee, who has lots of great qualities. She’s smart, funny and an all-around great girl. The only problem is that nobody can see past her weight to get to know the real Rosemary. Her mother runs the most successful beauty parlor in town, where everyone likes to stop by and gossip, making it hard for her to fade away into the background. When her scale reaches a new high, she finally resolves to lose the weight. Along the way, she deals with her mother’s sudden illness, loses the extra pounds and gains self acceptance and a new appreciation for her zany life.
Write Naked by Peter Gould
Victor and Rose Anna are two aspiring writers abiding by the rule “You have to be naked to write”. But what does that truly mean? Taking the literal interpretation, Victor: a quirky sixteen-year-old with an antique typewriter and a penchant for anonymity and Rose Anna: a home-schooled free spirit who prefers to use a vintage fountain pen, come together to do just that. They uncover more than their stories as they meet in the log cabin in the Vermont woods to write and nurture a true friendship.
The Viper Within by Sam Mills
“In two hours’ time I will kidnap a terrorist.” The opening line sets up the action as the codenamed terrorist, Snake, is kidnapped by the youth cult the Brotherhood of the Religion of Hebetheus to prevent a bomb from going off at St. Sebastian’s Secondary School. The cult’s leader, Jeremiah, manages to convince new recruit Jon and the other cult members that their Muslim classmate, Padma, (Snake) is a terrorist who needs to hang for her sins. As part of the narrator Jon’s initiation into the cult, he finds himself at the forefront of the action and torn between what’s right and wrong.