Teen Librarian Toolbox

Teen Librarian Toolbox (TLT) is a dedicated platform for the professional growth of teen librarians, founded by Karen Jensen. It brings together the knowledge of four MLS librarians with a combined experience of over 50 years in the library field. Our goal is to support libraries that cater to teens and anyone interested in their well-being, while also nurturing a community focused on professional development and resource sharing. We offer valuable information, engaging discussions, book reviews, and much more. We also invite guest contributions, and you can find our book review guidelines here.

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Articles

Take Five: Trans and Nonbinary Characters in 2025 Middle Grade Novels

6 days ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Amanda MacGregor

Representation, of all kinds, has always been important and necessary. In the past many years, we’ve been fortunate enough to get really good LGBTQIA+ rep in books for children and young adults. I am grateful that all those books exist so that children can see themselves and their experiences reflected back to them.
There Are No Drugstore Sympathy Cards for You: Processing the Loss of a Friend through Comics, a guest post by Jason Walz

1 week ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Amanda MacGregor

Just before the entire world fell apart in 2020, I lost my best friend Kris to pancreatic cancer. I guess if you squinted and looked at it in just the right light and turned your head upside down, you might say that he was “lucky”. He missed out on all the terrifying politics, COVID-19, and the murder of George Floyd that happened in our neighborhood. Years before Kris passed, he had written a short story about a world turned upside down.
Book Review: Rabbit Rabbit by Dori Hillestad Butler and Sunshine Bacon

1 week ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Amanda MacGregor

Publisher’s descriptionTo rebuild their broken family, a pair of audacious tween cousins must confront the long-buried secrets that destroyed it in this upper middle grade novel told from dual perspectives. Twelve-year-olds Alice and Bee are practically strangers when their grandparents’ anniversary party reunites their estranged families and ignites their own fast friendship.
Imagining the Past, a guest post by Emily Jones

1 week ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Amanda MacGregor

It’s late in the day in Santander, Spain, a rainy November afternoon, and I have a crick in my neck. I’ve been sitting on this stool for too many hours, slowly making my way through thousands of tiny fragments of bone, most 2 centimeters or less.
Ignoring a Problem Doesn’t Make it Magically Disappear: Dori Hillestad Butler and Sunshine Bacon in Conversation

1 week ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Amanda MacGregor

DHB: Well, we did it, Sunshine. We wrote a book together. Happy Launch Day!While working on this book, we discussed the possibility that it would be banned. We even laughed as we tossed around certain ideas, knowing the book surely would be challenged if we included them. How do you feel about the likelihood of our book being challenged today, Sunshine? SB: Oh, it absolutely will be challenged! But this book is necessary.
Book Review: Please Pay Attention by Jamie Sumner

1 week ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Amanda MacGregor

Publisher’s descriptionA girl with cerebral palsy navigates loss, grief, and the aftermath of trauma following a school shooting in a world that wasn’t built for her in this deeply affecting novel in verse from Jamie Sumner, the acclaimed author of Roll with It.There is a Before and an After for eighth grader Bea Coughlin. Before the shooting at her school that took the lives of her classmates and teacher and After, when she must figure out how to grieve, live, and keep rolling forward.
Autism Isn’t A Superpower, and Other Stories, a guest post by DeAndra Davis

1 week ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Amanda MacGregor

Okay, so the title doesn’t seem fully connected to my book, but I promise—I’ll get there. I wasn’t diagnosed as autistic until I was an adult, and I didn’t make the connections that I was autistic until after my son Deon was diagnosed at the age of three.
Calm and Connected, Then Speak on Climate by Rune Kier Nielsen

1 week ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Karen Jensen

Are you OK? Are people around you? We live in an uncertain time. A lot of us suffer from the mental load of living in a world where people in power are silent and passive on issues that define our future. Some of those in power even put our future further at risk. One of those issues is climate. We may feel alone, powerless, and disillusioned. Like standing on a beach waiting for a giant wave to hit the shore. We see it coming—but what can we do? I was not always a climate activist.
Take Five: 2025 Middle Grade Debuts, Part Two

2 weeks ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Amanda MacGregor

As I said in part one: One thing I’m going to try to do more on the blog this year is include lists of debut middle grade books. We all know it’s been increasingly hard for middle grade books to get shelf space and attention, especially if they’re not written by known or popular authors. Hopefully by drawing attention to these debuts, they will end up on more TBR lists and collection development orders, helping them find readers just looking to discover a new favorite author.
Fast Five Interview: Sarah Moon

2 weeks ago | teenlibrariantoolbox.com | Amanda MacGregor

Fast Five is an author interview series. The author is sent 10 questions and is asked to answer five of them. If you are an author interested in participating in the Fast Five Author Interview series, please get in touch. Sarah Moon is a teacher and writer. She lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. She is the coeditor of THE LETTER Q, a young adult anthology. She is the author of two YA novels, SPARROW and MIDDLETOWN. TLT: What inspired your book?