WPL Youth Services
The Youth Services Department at WPL develops a variety of classes and events for young people ages 0-18. We offer a diverse collection of materials and services for youth, families, and educators to inspire curiosity, explore creativity, and extend their knowledge of the world around them.
Tween Services serves kids in grades 5-7 and offers a dedicated space for tween fiction, nonfiction, and graphic novels, as well as classes designed specifically to meet tween interests.
Tween Advisory Board
Grades 5-7. Members of this advisory group learn and practice teamwork and communication, event planning, and community service. Your input will impact all aspects of library services for tweens.
Participants qualify for community service hours.
Featured Research Tool
Explore the most-studied topics including cultures, government, people, history, literature, and more with Gale in Context: Middle School Edition.
Homework Help
Educational resources to assist with school projects and assignments.
Book Boxes
Sign up each month for a new Book Box. Inside you'll find a book selected and checked out just for you, snacks, and other surprises!
Protecting Our Youth
Websites for caretakers and educators regarding topics such as health, internet safety, and education.
Local School Links
Find a local public or private school.
Upcoming Events
Art Happens: Teen Art Show
November 4 - December 1
All ages. Exhibit of entries in the 18th annual Art Happens Teen Art Show at The Center for Health and Wellbeing.
Ages 2+. Celebrate National Gingerbread Cookie Day with this sweet treat as we kick-off the holiday season. Drop-in to decorate a gingerbread cookie. While supplies last.
Disclaimer(s)
We cannot guarantee that food served at this program has not come into contact with tree nuts, soy, or other allergens.
Grades 3-7. Calling all trainers! Bring your Pokémon cards to battle and trade with fellow players.
Girls in grades 5-12 are invited to this free and fun weekly course introducing topics like artificial intelligence, graphics, game design, cryptography and app development.
Art Happens: Teen Art Show
November 4 - December 1
All ages. Exhibit of entries in the 17th annual Art Happens Teen Art Show at The Center for Health and Wellbeing.
Art Happens: Teen Art Show
November 4 - December 1
All ages. Exhibit of entries in the 18th annual Art Happens Teen Art Show at The Center for Health and Wellbeing.
Ages 3-18. Unwind with therapy dogs, Bachata and Cobbler, while you give them some love and they give you doggy kisses.
All ages. Support local teen artisans by purchasing handmade items at our first-ever Teen Craft Fair.
Art Happens: Teen Art Show
November 4 - December 1
All ages. Exhibit of entries in the 18th annual Art Happens Teen Art Show at The Center for Health and Wellbeing.
What’s a penny whistle? Ever used an autoharp? Here’s your chance to see and touch all kinds of musical instruments up close, and to learn something about each.
Partnership with Central Florida Folk
Art Happens: Teen Art Show
November 4 - December 1
All ages. Exhibit of entries in the 18th annual Art Happens Teen Art Show at The Center for Health and Wellbeing.
Art Happens: Teen Art Show
November 4 - December 1
All ages. Exhibit of entries in the 18th annual Art Happens Teen Art Show at The Center for Health and Wellbeing.
Grades 5-7. Members of this advisory group learn and practice teamwork and communication, event planning, and community service. Your input will impact all aspects of library services for tweens.
Library closes early, Thanksgiving Eve.
Thanksgiving Day
Titles for Tweens
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Lintang and the Pirate Queen
Gutsy girls and strong women make up the diverse and appealing crew of a pirate ship that battles intrigue and deadly monsters in an action-filled fantasy adventure.
"Combine a pirate adventure of mythic proportions, a uniquely charming cast of characters, and a vivid new fantasy world and you get Lintang and the Pirate Queen. Magical, inventive, and positively unforgettable."--Marissa Meyer, bestselling author of The Lunar Chronicles
Lintang is an island girl who longs for daring and danger. When she meets the feared pirate, Captain Shafira, and her all-female crew, Lintang is determined to join them. Secrets within secrets, life-or-death battles with spectacular monsters, and hair's breadth escapes keep readers turning the pages of a story populated by women of color who are fighters, adventurers, and leaders. -
Roll for Initiative
Perfect for fans of Dungeons & Dragons, Raina Telgemeier, and Jessica Kim, a heartfelt coming-of-age middle grade novel about finding your voice and believing in your best geeky self.
Riley Henderson has never taken a bus to school in her entire life. Or made an afterschool snack, or finished her homework on her own, or--ewww--done her own laundry. That's what her older brother Devin was for.
But now Devin's gone. He's off in California attending a fancy college gaming program while Riley is stuck alone in Florida with her mom. That is, until a cool nerd named Lucy gives Riley no choice but to get over her shyness and fear of rejection and become friends. The best part is . . . both girls are into Dungeons & Dragons. In fact, playing D&D was something Riley and Devin used to do together, with Devin as the dungeon master, guiding Riley through his intricately planned campaigns. So, of course, Riley is more than a little nervous when Lucy suggests that she run a campaign for them. For the chance at a friend, though, she's willing to give it a shot. Soon, their party grows and with the help of her new D&D friends, Riley discovers that not only can she function without Devin, she kind of likes it. She figures out that bus thing, totes the clothes down to the laundry room and sets up her D&D campaigns right there on the slightly suspect folding table, makes her own snacks and dinner-- the whole deal. But when Devin runs into trouble with his program and returns home, it's pretty clear, even to Riley, that since he can't navigate his own life, he's going to live Riley's for her. Now she has to help Devin go back to college and prove to her mom that she can take care of herself . . . all before the upcoming Winter-Con.
It's time to Roll for Initiative. -
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking
Winner of the 2021 Lodestar Award for Best Young Adult Book
Winner of the Andre Norton Nebula Award for Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction
Winner of the Locus Award for Young Adult Fiction
Winner of the Dragon Award Best Young Adult / Middle Grade Novel
Winner of the Mythopoeic Award for Children's Literature
Winner of the Cóyotl Award for Best Novel
Fourteen-year-old Mona isn't like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can't control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt's bakery making gingerbread men dance.
But Mona's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona's city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona's worries...
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When Stars Are Scattered
A National Book Award Finalist, this remarkable graphic novel is about growing up in a refugee camp, as told by a former Somali refugee to the Newbery Honor-winning creator of Roller Girl.
Omar and his younger brother, Hassan, have spent most of their lives in Dadaab, a refugee camp in Kenya. Life is hard there: never enough food, achingly dull, and without access to the medical care Omar knows his nonverbal brother needs. So when Omar has the opportunity to go to school, he knows it might be a chance to change their future . . . but it would also mean leaving his brother, the only family member he has left, every day.
Heartbreak, hope, and gentle humor exist together in this graphic novel about a childhood spent waiting, and a young man who is able to create a sense of family and home in the most difficult of settings. It's an intimate, important, unforgettable look at the day-to-day life of a refugee, as told to New York Times Bestselling author/artist Victoria Jamieson by Omar Mohamed, the Somali man who lived the story. -
New Kid
Perfect for fans of Raina Telgemeier and Gene Luen Yang, New Kid is a timely, honest graphic novel about starting over at a new school where diversity is low and the struggle to fit in is real, from award-winning author-illustrator Jerry Craft.
Seventh grader Jordan Banks loves nothing more than drawing cartoons about his life. But instead of sending him to the art school of his dreams, his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school known for its academics, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade.
As he makes the daily trip from his Washington Heights apartment to the upscale Riverdale Academy Day School, Jordan soon finds himself torn between two worlds—and not really fitting into either one. Can Jordan learn to navigate his new school culture while keeping his neighborhood friends and staying true to himself?
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The Last Cuentista
Winner of the John Newbery Medal
Winner of the Pura Belpré Award
TIME's Best Books of the Year
Wall Street Journal's Best of the Year
Minneapolis Star Tribune's Best of the Year
Boston Globe's Best of the Year
BookPage's Best of the Year
Publishers Weekly's Best of the Year
School Library Journal's Best of the Year
Kirkus Reviews' Best of the Year
Bank Street's Best of the Year
Chicago Public Library's Best of the Best
New York Public Library Best of the Year
A Junior Library Guild Selection
Cybils Award Finalist
From Pura Belpré Award winner and Newbery Medalist, Donna Barba Higuera--a brilliant journey through the stars, to the very heart of what makes us human.
"Gripping in its twists and turns, and moving in its themes - truly a beautiful cuento."--New York Times
"Clever and compelling ... wonderfully subversive."--The Wall Street Journal
★ "This tale packs a wallop. Exquisite."--Kirkus Reviews (starred)
★ "Gripping, euphonious, and full of storytelling magic."--Publishers Weekly (starred)
★ "A strong, heroic character, fighting incredible odds to survive and protect others."--School Library Journal (starred)
Había una vez . . .
There lived a girl named Petra Peña, who wanted nothing more than to be a storyteller, like her abuelita.
But Petra's world is ending. Earth has been destroyed by a comet, and only a few hundred scientists and their children - among them Petra and her family - have been chosen to journey to a new planet. They are the ones who must carry on the human race.
Hundreds of years later, Petra wakes to this new planet - and the discovery that she is the only person who remembers Earth. A sinister Collective has taken over the ship during its journey, bent on erasing the sins of humanity's past. They have systematically purged the memories of all aboard - or purged them altogether.
Petra alone now carries the stories of our past, and with them, any hope for our future. Can she make them live again? -
Amari and the Night Brothers
New York Times bestseller!
Artemis Fowl meets Men in Black in this exhilarating debut middle grade fantasy, the first in a trilogy filled with #blackgirlmagic. Perfect for fans of Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, the Percy Jackson series, and Nevermoor.
Amari Peters has never stopped believing her missing brother, Quinton, is alive. Not even when the police told her otherwise, or when she got in trouble for standing up to bullies who said he was gone for good.
So when she finds a ticking briefcase in his closet, containing a nomination for a summer tryout at the Bureau of Supernatural Affairs, she's certain the secretive organization holds the key to locating Quinton--if only she can wrap her head around the idea of magicians, fairies, aliens, and other supernatural creatures all being real.
Now she must compete for a spot against kids who've known about magic their whole lives. No matter how hard she tries, Amari can't seem to escape their intense doubt and scrutiny--especially once her supernaturally enhanced talent is deemed "illegal." With an evil magician threatening the supernatural world, and her own classmates thinking she's an enemy, Amari has never felt more alone. But if she doesn't stick it out and pass the tryouts, she may never find out what happened to Quinton.
Plus don't miss the thrilling sequel, Amari and the Great Game!
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Starfish
A Printz Honor winner!
Ellie is tired of being fat-shamed and does something about it in this poignant debut novel-in-verse.
Cover may vary.
Ever since Ellie wore a whale swimsuit and made a big splash at her fifth birthday party, she's been bullied about her weight. To cope, she tries to live by the Fat Girl Rules—like "no making waves," "avoid eating in public," and "don't move so fast that your body jiggles." And she's found her safe space—her swimming pool—where she feels weightless in a fat-obsessed world. In the water, she can stretch herself out like a starfish and take up all the room she wants. It's also where she can get away from her pushy mom, who thinks criticizing Ellie's weight will motivate her to diet. Fortunately, Ellie has allies in her dad, her therapist, and her new neighbor, Catalina, who loves Ellie for who she is. With this support buoying her, Ellie might finally be able to cast aside the Fat Girl Rules and starfish in real life--by unapologetically being her own fabulous self. -
Crenshaw
In her first novel since The One and Only Ivan, winner of the Newbery Medal, Katherine Applegate delivers an unforgettable and magical story about family, friendship, and resilience.
Jackson and his family have fallen on hard times. There's no more money for rent. And not much for food, either. His parents, his little sister, and their dog may have to live in their minivan. Again.
Crenshaw is a cat. He's large, he's outspoken, and he's imaginary. He has come back into Jackson's life to help him. But is an imaginary friend enough to save this family from losing everything?
Beloved author Katherine Applegate proves in unexpected ways that friends matter, whether real or imaginary. This title has Common Core connections. -
Ground Zero
The instant #1 New York Times bestseller.
In time for the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, master storyteller Alan Gratz (Refugee) delivers a pulse-pounding and unforgettable take on history and hope, revenge and fear -- and the stunning links between the past and present.
September 11, 2001, New York City: Brandon is visiting his dad at work, on the 107th floor of the World Trade Center. Out of nowhere, an airplane slams into the tower, creating a fiery nightmare of terror and confusion. And Brandon is in the middle of it all. Can he survive -- and escape?
September 11, 2019, Afghanistan: Reshmina has grown up in the shadow of war, but she dreams of peace and progress. When a battle erupts in her village, Reshmina stumbles upon a wounded American soldier named Taz. Should she help Taz -- and put herself and her family in mortal danger?
Two kids. One devastating day. Nothing will ever be the same.