Teen Book Club: Tails & Tales

Tails and Tales Book Club will meet April-September 2021. Join Young Adult Librarian, Kim Claire and others to chat about each month's book. We will meet via Zoom, but we may be able to meet outside in person during the summer (with snacks! 😸). The six books either have an animal that is telling the story or a significant animal character(s) in the story. Tails and Tales Book Club is intended for ages 12 to 17.

Be one of the first 10 to register each month and you will have the option to receive a copy of that month's book, to keep, if you wish. If all 10 "keeper" copies are taken, a hold will be placed on a library copy for you to borrow. Register via our Library Calendar here: https://hwlibrary.org/library-calendar/  

A Cat Story, by Ursula Murray Husted, 2020. Cilla and Betto are cat friends who need a place to call home. The docks in Valletta are wet, and the scraps of food are scarce. The city is busy, and the humans unreliable. But what about the quiet garden from old kitten tales - a place where all cats are welcome, and the humans are always kind? Cilla and Betto embark on a grand adventure to find out. Graphic novel.

Across the Green Grass Fields, by Seanan McGuire, 2020. Regan passes through a mysterious doorway and finds herself in a world filled with centaurs, kelpies, and other magical equines--who expect humans to step up as heroes. But after embracing her time with the herd, Regan discovers that not all forms of heroism are equal, and not all quests are as they seem. Fantasy fiction.

Edge of Nowhere, by John Smelcer, 2014. 16 year old Seth is a deckhand on his father's boat when he and his dog are washed overboard and swept to one of Alaska's small islands where they struggle for months to survive off land and sea. Adventure, Survival fiction.

Threatened, by Eliot Schrefer, 2014. 
Escaping his debt jailer by fleeing into the forest with a scientist who is not entirely what he seems, an African street youth helps the scientist with his studies of chimpanzees and must join the chimps to save their habitat from unwelcome intruders. Adventure, Survival fiction.

Grand Theft Horse, by Greg Neri, 2018. Greg Neri tells the story of his cousin Gail Ruffu, who stole a racehorse in order to save it, and ended up taking on the whole racing industry to fight for the humane treatment of animals. True crime and legal drama mixed with horse racing and animal activism. Graphic format biography; Nonfiction.

Rotten, by Michael Northrop, 2013. When troubled sixteen-year-old Jimmer "JD" Dobbs returns from a mysterious summer "upstate" he finds that his mother has adopted an abused Rottweiler that JD names Johnny Rotten, but soon his tenuous relationship with the dog is threatened. Realistic fiction.

This book club series is made possible through CARES Act funding to the Federal Institute of Museum and Library Services as administered by the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners.