http://mppl.org/services/teen-services/good-reads/?category=teens&list=2025+Teen+Book+Bingo%3A+Lighthearted+or+Happy
List: 2025 Teen Book Bingo: Lighthearted or Happy
Lucy Clark will Not Apologize
Lucy Clark has had it. After being bullied one too many times, Lucy retaliates. But when the fallout is far worse than she meant it to be, she gets sent to Manhattan to serve as a full-time companion to the eccentric Edith Fox. Edith is glamorous and mysterious--nothing like Lucy expected. Though Edith's world of hidden gardens and afternoon teas is beguiling, there's one other thing about her that makes her unlike anyone Lucy has ever met...she thinks someone is trying to kill her. And it's up to Lucy to find out who it is.
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Bunt!: Striking Out on Financial Aid
Molly Bauer's first year of college is not the picture-perfect piece of art she'd always envisioned. On day one at Peachtree Institute of Collegiate Arts, Molly discovers that--through some horrible twist of fate--her full-ride scholarship has vanished! But the ancient texts (PICA's dusty financial aid documents) reveal a loophole. If Molly and nine other art students win a single game of softball, they'll receive massive athletic scholarships. Can Molly's crew of ragtag artists succeed without dropping the ball?
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Lumberjanes. Volume One, Beware the Kitten Holy
Best friends Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley spend a fun summer at Lumberjane scout camp where they encounter yetis, three-eyed wolves, and giant falcons while solving a mystery that holds the fate of the world in the balance.
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The Field Guide to the North American Teenager
When Norris, a Black French Canadian, starts his junior year at an Austin, Texas, high school, he views his fellow students as clichés from "a bad 90s teen movie.
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Skink No Surrender
Classic Malley, to avoid being shipped off to boarding school, she takes off with some guy she met online. Poor Richard ... he knows his cousin's in trouble before she does. Wild Skink, he's a ragged, one-eyed ex-governor of Florida, and enough of a renegade to think he can track Malley down. With Richard riding shotgun, the unlikely pair scour the state, undaunted by blinding storms, crazed pigs, flying bullets, and giant gators.
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The Renaissance of Gwen Hathaway
Since her mother's death, Madeline "Gwen" Hathaway has been determined that nothing in her life will change ever again. She keeps extensive lists in journals, has had only one friend since childhood, and looks forward to the monotony of working the ren faire circuit with her father. They arrive at the end-of-tour stop to find the faire is under new management and completely changed. Arthur, the son of the new owners and an actual lute-playing bard, messes up Maddie's plans even more. When he ropes her into becoming Princess of the Faire, Maddie is overseeing a faire dramatically changed from what her mother loved--and worse of all, she's kind of having fun.
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Riley Weaver Needs a Date to the Gaybutante Ball
Femme, gay podcaster Riley Weaver, a member of the Gaybutante Society, makes a bet with his femmephobic classmate that he can find a masc date for the annual Gaybutante Ball and documents his search in a brand-new podcast.
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Rayne & Delilah's Midnite Matinee
Told in two voices, Josie and Delia struggle with growing up and growing apart as they face tough decisions about their post-high school futures and the fate of their weekly cable television show.
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Live, Laugh, Kidnap
Three teen girls get caught up in a real estate battle between a commune and an exploitative megachurch in their small Montana town, and they devise a plot to exact revenge and make a profit by kidnapping the pastor's son and demanding ransom money.
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The Sticky Note Manifesto of Aisha Agarwal
Share a time you left your comfort zone.' That's the Stanford University essay prompt keeping senior Aisha Agarwal up at night. As a daughter of immigrant parents, a scholarship student at a competitive private school, and a shoo-in for valedictorian, Aisha's straight-and-narrow path has always guaranteed safety and success. But after her longtime crush, fellow brain Brian, stands her up at winter formal, Aisha decides that playing it safe just isn't worth it anymore. As if on cue, a banged-up Volkswagen arrives at the dance; the driver--a boy--profusely apologizing for being late to pick her up. Does Aisha know him or what he's talking about? No. Does the Stanford essay convince her to take him up on the ride? Maybe.
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The Outlaws Scarlett and Browne
On the run from her latest bank robbery, Scarlett McCain comes to the rescue of Albert Browne, the sole survivor of a horrific accident, and soon learns he may be the most dangerous threat of all.
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Rolling Warrior: The Incredible, Sometimes Awkward, True Story of a Rebel Girl on Wheels Who Helped Spark a Revolution
One of the most influential disability rights activists in US history tells her story of fighting to belong in school and society--a powerful role model for young adults with a passion for activism.
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Scout's Honor
Prudence Perry is a third-generation Ladybird Scout who must battle literal (and figurative) monsters and the weight of her legacy in Scout's Honor by Lily Anderson, a YA paranormal perfect for fans of Stranger Things and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Sixteen-year-old Prudence Perry is a legacy Ladybird Scout, born to a family of hunters sworn to protect humans from mulligrubs--interdimensional parasites who feast on human emotions like sadness and anger. Masquerading as a prim and proper ladies' social organization, the Ladybirds brew poisons masked as teas and use knitting needles as daggers, at least until they graduate to axes and swords. Three years ago, Prue's best friend was killed during a hunt, so she kissed the Scouts goodbye, preferring the company of her punkish friends lovingly dubbed the Criminal Element much to her mother and Tia Lo's disappointment. However, unable to move on from her guilt and trauma, Prue devises a risky plan to infiltrate the Ladybirds in order to swipe the Tea of Forgetting, a restricted tincture laced with a powerful amnesia spell. But old monster-slaying habits die hard and Prue finds herself falling back into the fold, growing close with the junior scouts that she trains to fight the creatures she can't face. When her town is hit with a mysterious wave of demons, Prue knows it's time to confront the most powerful monster of all: her past.
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Maybe an Artist
When Liz Montague was a senior in college, she wrote to the New Yorker, asking them why they didn't publish more inclusive comics. The New Yorker wrote back asking if she could recommend any. She responded: yes, me. Those initial cartoons in the New Yorker led to this memoir of Liz's youth, from the age of five through college--how she navigated life in her predominantly white New Jersey town, overcame severe dyslexia through art, and found the confidence to pursue her passion.
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Fat Chance, Charlie Vega
Overweight sixteen-year-old Charlie yearned for her first kiss while her perfect best friend, Amelia, fell in love, so when she finally starts dating and learns the boy asked Amelia out first, she is devastated.
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Zen and the Art of Faking It
When thirteen-year-old San Lee moves to a new town and school for the umpteenth time, he is looking for a way to stand out when his knowledge of Zen Buddhism, gained in his previous school, provides the answer--and the need to quickly become a convincing Zen master.
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The Voting Booth
Marva Sheridan has always been driven to make a difference in the world, and what better way than to vote in her first election? Duke Crenshaw is so done with this election; he just wants to get voting over with so he can prepare for his band's first paying gig tonight. Only problem? Duke can't vote. When Marva sees Duke turned away from their polling place, she takes it upon herself to make sure his vote is counted. And that's how their whirlwind day begins, rushing from precinct to precinct, cutting school, waiting in endless lines, turned away time and again, trying to do one simple thing: vote. Soon it's clear that there is more to their connection than a shared mission for democracy.
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I Was Born For This
The Ark, a boy band, is the center of life for super-fan Fereshteh (A.K.A. Angel) Rahimi, transgender front man Jimmy Kaga-Ricci, and friend and bandmate Rowan, but their relationships become complicated when Jimmy and Angel are unexpectedly thrust together.
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Miss Meteor
A teen who secretly arrived with the meteor that gave her small hometown its name discovers that she is turning back into stardust and teams up with her best friend in an effort to secure her human existence by entering a local beauty pageant that has always been won by thin, blonde, white girls.
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It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
The comedian traces his coming of age during the twilight of apartheid in South Africa and the tumultuous days of freedom that followed, offering insight into the farcical aspects of the political and social systems of today's world.
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Boy Meets Hamster
Fourteen-year-old Dylan Kershaw's idea of a dream holiday includes at least three things: beaches to bask on, cosmopolitan culture, and a chance for romance (or at least his first kiss) with another boy. Unluckily for Dylan, his mum's treating the family to the least dreamy holiday ever: a £9.50 break at Starcross Sands, Cornwall's Crummiest Caravan Park. But Starcross Sands might not be so bad after all, especially if Dylan can win the heart of Jayden-Lee, the gorgeous boy in the caravan next-door. There's only one thing standing in true love's way: the park's massive hamster mascot, Nibbles, who seems to have it in for both Dylan and his romantic chances. Dylan's best friend, Kayla, claims that appearances can be deceptive: so is Jayden-Lee just as lovely beneath the surface, and what could be lurking under Nibbles' furry face? Boy Meets Hamster is the laugh-out-loud funny debut novel from Birdie Milano.
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Highly Illogical Behavior
Agoraphobic sixteen-year-old Solomon has not left his house in three years, but Lisa is determined to change that--and to write a scholarship-winning essay based on the results.
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Miles Morales: Spider-Man
As a student at Brooklyn Visions Academy, Miles Morales knows he's lucky. Not all kids get this opportunity, especially not kids from his neighborhood. With his quirky best friend Ganke, this school year is gonna be a blast. Right? Wrong. Miles has a secret. He's actually Spider-Man. Well not THE Spider-Man but A Spider-Man. Pretty much the only Spider-Man in town now that Peter Parker is gone. Miles is doing his best to save every little old lady but it's getting to be too much. He's got more important stuff to worry about like homework, girls, family, the perfect Halloween costume, and girls. Did we mention girls? Ok well maybe just one girl. But when Miles accidentally discovers a villainous teacher's plan to turn good kids bad, he will need to come to terms with his own destiny as the new Spider-Man.
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Kings of B'more
Propelled by his best friend's impending move out of state and inspired by Ferris Bueller's Day Off, sixteen-year-old Harrison plans a farewell through Baltimore that includes a road trip, their first Pride, and a rooftop dance party.
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Rickety Stitch and the Gelatinous Goo. 1, The Road to Epoli
Meet Rickety Stitch ... a walking, talking, singing skeleton minstrel. He's the one skeleton in the dungeon who seems to have retained his soul, and he has no idea why. His only clue to his former identity is a song he hears snippets of in his dreams, an epic bard's tale about the Road to Epoli and the land of Eem.
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When Dimple Met Rishi
When Dimple Shah and Rishi Patel meet at a Stanford University summer program, Dimple is avoiding her parents' obsession with "marriage prospects" but Rishi hopes to woo her into accepting an arranged marriage with him.
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I Will Always Write Back
It started as an assignment. Everyone in Caitlin's class wrote to an unknown student somewhere in a distant place. All the other kids picked countries like France or Germany, but when Caitlin saw Zimbabwe written on the board, it sounded like the most exotic place she had ever heard of--so she chose it. Martin was lucky to even receive a pen pal letter. There were only ten letters, and forty kids in his class. But he was the top student, so he got the first one. That letter was the beginning of a correspondence that spanned six years and changed two lives.
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Awkward
After shunning Jaime, the school nerd, on her first day at a new middle school, Penelope Torres tries to blend in with her new friends in the art club, until the art club goes to war with the science club, of which Jaime is a member.
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The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl. Vol. 1, Squirrel Power
Wolverine, Deadpool, Doctor Doom, Thanos: There's one hero that's beaten them all-and now she's got her own ongoing series! (Not that she's bragging.) That's right, you asked for it, you got it, it's Squirrel Girl! (She's also starting college this semester.) It's the start of a brand-new set of adventures starring the nuttiest and most upbeat super hero in the world!
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Be More Chill
Badly in need of self-confidence and a change of image, high school nerd Jeremy Heere swallows a pill-sized super computer that is supposed to help him get whatever he wants.
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Radha & Jai's Recipe for Romance
Radha is on the verge of becoming one of the greatest Kathak dancers in the world until a family betrayal costs her the biggest competition of her life. She leaves her Chicago home behind to follow her stage mom to New Jersey. At the Princeton Academy of the Arts, Radha is determined to reinvent herself from scratch. Jai is captain of the Bollywood Beats dance team, ranked first in his class. He's an overachiever, but tight family funds means medical school is a pipe dream. When Radha enters his life, he realizes she's the exact ingredient he needs for a show-stopping senior year.
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A Snake Falls to Earth
"Nina is a Lipan girl in our world. She's always felt there was something more out there. She still believes in the old stories. Oli is a cottonmouth kid, from the land of spirits and monsters. Like all cottonmouths, he's been cast from home. He's found a new one on the banks of the bottomless lake. Nina and Oli have no idea the other exists. But a catastrophic event on Earth, and a strange sickness that befalls Oli's best friend, will drive their worlds together in ways they haven't been in centuries. And there are some who will kill to keep them apart"-- Provided by publisher.
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