Middle grade and YA on display! Libraries in July

• 26/07/2021
• Siobhan O'Brien Holmes
• no comments

A great way of discovering what books are big at the moment is to look at your local library’s displays. They might put out the newest releases, books on a particular theme or current trend or even just books they recommend, and you don’t even have to go hunting through the shelves to get them. Remember that a sign saying ‘new books’ doesn’t necessarily mean they’ve recently been published – they may have been out for a while but be newly acquired by the library. This tells you something useful, too, because there’s a reason they decided to acquire and promote the book now. Has it recently become popular? Is it being turned into a film? Is there a sequel coming?

Now, my son and I really, really, REALLY love libraries and we’re lucky enough to have three lovely ones within walking distance (Morden, Raynes Park and West Barnes) so we visit a lot and usually get at least 20 books at a time. The pandemic has obviously made it tough to get to the library as much as we’d like but now that restrictions are easing it’s getting a little better.

Morden Library – one of our locals

I’m going to try and grab a photo of the changing displays each month and share them here so you can see which middle grade and YA books libraries are recommending right now.  Here’s the current ‘New Books’ display in the children’s section at Raynes Park Library which we visited last week:

I was excited to see The Key to Fear by Kristen Cast on the shelf as I reviewed it for the British Fantasy Society last year and this is my first time spotting it in the wild! It’s also good to see My Name is River and Twitch here as I’ve read a lot about them both recently and am dying to read them. And here’s this month’s display at Morden Library. Notice both libraries are displaying R.J. Palacao’s graphic novel White Bird.

What’s on display at your local library? Share a photo on social media and tag me so I can see!