Reading List: I’ve Got a Secret

Secrets are everywhere…but by their very nature, they are seldom seen. In some cases, secrets bring people together by sharing something unique; in other cases, secrets push people away through their inherent alienation. Regardless of their intent, secrets are coveted, sometimes shielding their carriers from unwanted attention. This book list is intended for readers aged 12-18 and includes titles based in both everyday and magical versions of the world. No matter where humans find themselves, secrets seem to never be far behind.
Contributed by: Mary Lanni

	All About Mia By: Lisa Williamson One family, three sisters. Grace, the oldest, is a straight-A student. Audrey, the youngest, is a future Olympic swimming champion. Mia is in the middle. Mia is wild and daring, great with hair and selfies, and the undisputed leader of her friends, not attributes appreciated by her parents or teachers. When Grace makes a shock announcement, Mia hopes that her now-not-so-perfect sister will get into the trouble she deserves. But instead, it is Mia whose life spirals out of control — boozing, boys and bad behaviour — and she starts to realise that her attempts to make it ‘All About Mia’ might put at risk the very things she loves the most.
	American Panda By: Gloria Chao A freshman at MIT, seventeen-year-old Mei Lu tries to live up to her Taiwanese parents’ expectations, but no amount of tradition, obligation, or guilt prevent her from hiding several truths–that she is a germaphobe who cannot become a doctor, she prefers dancing to biology, she decides to reconnect with her estranged older brother, and she is dating a Japanese boy. Can she find a way to be herself, before her web of lies unravels?
	Eliza and Her Monsters By: Francesca Zappia In the real world, Eliza Mirk is shy, weird, and friendless. Online, she’s LadyConstellation, the anonymous creator of the wildly popular webcomic Monstrous Sea. Eliza can’t imagine enjoying the real world as much as she loves the online one, and she has no desire to try. Then Wallace Warland, Monstrous Sea’s biggest fanfiction writer, transfers to her school. Wallace thinks Eliza is just another fan, and as he draws her out of her shell, she begins to wonder if a life offline might be worthwhile. But when Eliza’s secret is accidentally shared with the world, everything she’s built, her story, her relationship with Wallace, and even her sanity begins to fall apart.
	Every Heart a Doorway By: Seanan McGuire Children have always disappeared from Eleanor West’s Home for Wayward Children under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere … else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. Nancy tumbled once, but now she’s back. The things she’s experienced … they change a person. The children under Miss West’s care understand all too well. And each of them is seeking a way back to their own fantasy world. But Nancy’s arrival marks a change at the Home. There’s a darkness just around each corner, and when tragedy strikes, it’s up to Nancy and her new-found schoolmates to get to the heart of the matter. No matter the cost.
	Four Secrets By: Margaret Willey Through journal entries required by their social worker at a juvenile detention center, middle-schoolers Katie, Nate, and Renata relate how they came to kidnap their tormentor, Chase, a star athlete from the town’s most prominent family, who surprisingly became their willing victim.
	Keeping You a Secret By: Julie Anne Peters As she begins a very tough last semester of high school, Holland finds herself puzzled about her future and intrigued by a transfer student who wants to start a Lesbigay club at school.
	Openly Straight By: Bill Konigsberg Tired of being known as “the gay kid”, Rafe Goldberg decides to assume a new persona when he comes east and enters an elite Massachusetts prep school–but trying to deny his identity has both complications and unexpected consequences.
	Peanut By: Ayun Halliday and Paul Hoppe Nervous about starting her sophomore year at a new high school, Sadie decides to make herself more interesting by claiming to be allergic to peanuts, but her lie quickly spirals out of control.
	Secret Keeper By: Mitali Perkins In 1974 when her father leaves New Delhi, India, to seek a job in New York, Ashi, a tomboy at the advanced age of sixteen, feels thwarted in the home of her extended family in Calcutta where she, her mother, and sister must stay, and when her father dies before he can send for them, they must remain with their relatives and observe the old-fashioned traditions that Ashi hates.
	The Secret Sky: A Novel of Forbidden Love in Afghanistan By: Atia Abawi Two teens from different ethnic groups in present-day Afghanistan must fight their culture, tradition, families, and the Taliban to stay together as they and another village boy relate the story of their forbidden love.
	Speak By: Laurie Halse Anderson A traumatic event near the end of the summer has a devastating effect on Melinda’s freshman year in high school.
	The Undoing of Thistle Tate By: Katelyn Detweiler Seventeen-year-old Thistle Tate, a bestselling author with glowing reviews, diehard fans across the globe, and more, struggles with secrets that threaten to unravel her seemingly perfect world.