Celebrate the city with this year's Summer @ CPL theme: Chapters of Chicago! Chicago is a diverse city with all sorts of things to explore. This summer, look at art, see theater, eat some good food, and learn about our city. These books will take you through the eight chapters of this summer's theme, through books set here or written by authors from Chicago. If you're a teen participating in Summer @ CPL, reading will also get you entries into the pick four raffle to win a prize!
Art of the City:
Aspiring filmmaker and Chicago area Muslim teen Maya wants to go to film school in New York, but her parents want her to go to a college close to home. When a terrorist attack happens in Springfield, Islamophobia tears her community apart.
Chicago Takes the Stage:
The Life and (medieval) Times of Kit Sweetly
The medieval themed restaurant Kit works at is also a show: it has jousting knights that get paid more than the “wenches” (waitresses) and Kit needs the money. Kit’s a girl, though, and only boys can be knights. After going viral for taking a knight’s role anyway, she and other girls fight the sexist company policy.
Sound of the City:
Mari is just in Chicago for a weekend, to go to a music festival. After it’s over, she’ll have to return to her abusive mother. As she falls for a boy she met on the way here, she has to decide if she wants to fight to stay in Chicago with her father’s family.
Designed by Chicago:
This may be a dystopia, but Chicago is still recognizable in Divergent, where Tris and her new friends fight a conspiracy while jumping on and off constantly moving El cars, climbing the Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier, and encountering other Chicago landmarks.
Taste of the City:
Eli's Cheesecake is a Chicago classic. This book will not only provide you with lots of cheesecake recipes, but it also tells you the history of this Chicago institution and how it has been involved in major Chicago events such as mayoral inaugurations, Chicago's 150th anniversary, the White Sox World Series, and more. Bonus: making an Eli's cheesecake counts towards trying a new food and learning a new skill to get you 2 pick four entries!
Green Chicago:
Queer Ducks (and Other Animals)
Chicago author Eliot Schrefer explains how not all animals are straight, either! Sexuality in the animal world is complicated. Schrefer explains current research in the field and interviews leading scientists studying animal sexuality.
Play Chicago:
Co-written by Chicago author Eve L. Ewing, Change the Game is a graphic memoir telling the story of Colin Kaepernick's high school years, when he chose to move from baseball, "a white man's game", to football, where he felt truly himself.
Stories of Chicago:
Chicago has always been a city where immigrants of all ages come to make a new home. This book is stories of immigrant high schoolers at two Chicago high schools, in their own voices.
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