(These are books that Maria Levetzow recommends for younger teens, which generally have no swearing, sex, drug use, or graphic violence. If these don’t fit your definition of a “gentle read”, please contact us and we’ll help you find other titles.)

Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah
YA FIC ABDE
For a Christian, wearing a cross all the time isn’t a big deal. For a Muslim in the post 9/11 world, making a point of your religion is, at best, problematic. But Amal has decided that it’s time to wear a veil, a hijab, full-time, regardless of what the snooty people at her exclusive private school think about it.

Shark Girl by Kelly Bingham
YA FIC BING
Jane thought it was just another day at the beach with her mom and brother. Until she went swimming, and her whole life changed in an instant. Now she has the rest of the summer to mourn her lost career as an artist and to dread the first day of school where everyone will be pointing at her and whispering, “There’s the shark girl.”

Dragon’s Keep by Janet Lee Carey
YA SF/FAN CARE
The prophecy foretells the birth of a princess that will bring peace to her land and restore the throne to her banished royal family. Rosalind is the princess that Merlin foretold, but her flaw, being born with a dragon claw, will stop anyone from accepting her as anything other than a witch.

Revolution Is Not A Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine
YA FIC COMP
Ling lives with her physician father and mother, right outside the hospital where they both work. She doesn’t really understand Mao’s Cultural Revolution, but goes along with much of it, until her father is taken and other loved ones disappear.

The Land of the Silver Apples by Nancy Farmer
YA SF/FAN FARM
Jack has to save Lucy, once again, after she’s this time taken by the Lady of the Lake. But does Lucy want to be rescued?

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