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Foodie Fiction (Teen)

Sink your teeth into these YA reads that feature food.

What happened to goodbye by Sarah Dessen

Following her parents' bitter divorce as she and her father move from town to town, seventeen-year-old Mclean reinvents herself at each school she attends until she is no longer sure she knows who she is or where she belongs

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

Sixteen-year-old Kat lives with her mother and younger sister in the poorest district of what used to be the United States. When the districts waged war on the Capital, they were not only defeated, but forced to adhere to a set of rules. As part of these surrender terms, each district must send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised killing-spree event called the Hunger Games. When Kat's sister is chosen through the games' lottery, Kat steps up to go in her place

Tantalize by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Fans of the Twilight saga and Buffy the vampire slayer will enjoy Cynthia Leitich Smith's debut into dark fantasy. Quincie Morris has never felt more alone. Her hybrid-werewolf first love threatens to embark on a rite of passage that will separate them forever. And just as she and her uncle are about to unveil Austin's red-hot vampire-themed restaurant, a brutal murder leaves them scrambling for a chef. Can Quincie transform the new hire, Henry Johnson, into a culinary Dark Lord before opening night? Will he be able to wow the crowd in fake fangs, a cheap cape, and red contact lenses? Or is there more to this earnest fresh face than meets the eye? As human and preternatural forces clash, a deadly love triangle forms and the line between predator and prey begins to blur. Who's playing whom? And how long can Quincie play along before she loses everything?

Scones and sensibility by Lindsay Eland

In a small New Jersey beach town, twelve-year-old Polly Madassa, who speaks like a character in her two favorite novels, "Pride and Prejudice" and "Anne of Green Gables," spends the summer making deliveries for her parents' bakery and playing matchmaker, with disastrous results

With the fire on high by Elizabeth Acevedo

Teen mother Emoni Santiago struggles with the challenges of finishing high school and her dream of working as a chef.

It's kind of a cheesy love story by Lauren Morrill

Sixteen-year-old Beck rediscovers herself while working with a group of misfits at the local pizza parlor where she was born.

A ph̉ơ love story by Loan Le

High school seniors B̉ao and Linh, whose feuding families own competing Vietnamese restaurants, conceal their budding romance, as well as Linh's desire to become an artist.

Tweet cute by Emma Lord

"Meet Pepper, swim team captain, chronic overachiever, and all-around perfectionist. Her family may be falling apart, but their massive fast-food chain is booming - mainly thanks to Pepper, who is barely managing to juggle real life while secretly runningBig League Burger's massive Twitter account. Enter Jack, class clown and constant thorn in Pepper's side. When he isn't trying to duck out of his obscenely popular twin's shadow, he's busy working in his family's deli. His relationship with the businessthat holds his future might be love/hate, but when Big League Burger steals his grandma's iconic grilled cheese recipe, he'll do whatever it takes to take them down, one tweet at a time. All's fair in love and cheese - that is, until Pepper and Jack's spat turns into a viral Twitter war. Little do they know, while they're publicly duking it out with snarky memes and retweet battles, they're also falling for each other in real life - on an anonymous chat app Jack built. As their relationship deepens and their online shenanigans escalate - people on the internet are shipping them?? - their battle gets more and more personal, until even these two rivals can't ignore they were destined for the most unexpected, awkward, all-the-feels romance that neither of them expected"--

Hope was here by Joan Bauer

Food is in sixteen-year-old Hope's blood. With her aunt Addie, diner cook extraordinaire, she's traveled the States and honed her waitressing skills, impressing hungry people everywhere. But following the tides of comfort-food dining means Hope never gets to stay in one place very long, and that's tough. This latest move threatens to be the hardest yet, leaving the excitement of New York City to run a diner in rural Wisconsin. Hope doesn't expect to feel at home there, just as she doesn't expect to get caught up in town politics. But her occupation has taught her to read people, and instinct tells her to trust G.T. Stoop, the straight-shooting owner of the Welcome Stairways diner, whose leukemia makes his entry into a heated mayoral race a surprise to everyone. What follows--as Hope meets politics, corruption, and her past head-on--is at the heart of this memorable, laugh-out-loud story about honor, trust, and serving up your very best

Icing on the lake by Catherine Clark

When Kirsten's sister breaks her leg and needs help with the baby, Kirsten heads for Minnesota for a couple of weeks to lend a hand. She also plans to take in the Mall of America, learn to ice skate and make some new friends, like that handsome rink guard at the St. Paul Skating rink

A Cuban girl's guide to tea and tomorrow by Laura Taylor Namey

Seventeen-year-old Lila Reyes, furious when her parents send her to the English countryside to recover from grief and heartbreak, unexpectedly falls in love with a teashop clerk--and England, itself.

The art of Lainey by Paula Stokes

"When Lainey gets dumped, she employs an ancient Chinese warlord's tactics to get her ex-boyfriend back"--

Radha & Jai's recipe for romance by Nisha Sharma

Told in two voices, teens Radha and Jai, seniors at a New Jersey performing arts high school, reignite their passion for dance and find strength in one another to pursue their dreams.

The surprising power of a good dumpling by Wai Chim

Working almost constantly to help out at her father's restaurant and care for her siblings, a teen from a migrant Asian family starts dating a delivery boy before her mother's progressing mental illness upends everything she understood about her family.

by Stephanie Kate Strohm

High school juniors Rosie Radeke and Henry Yi, both enrolled in an elite cooking program in Paris, must balance rivalry and romance

Stay sweet by Siobhan Vivian

From the author of The Last Boy and Girl in the World and The List comes a bold and sweet summer read about first love, feminism, and ice cream.Summer in Sand Lake isn't complete without a trip to Meade Creamery-the local ice cream stand founded in 1944 by Molly Meade, who started making ice cream to cheer up her lovesick girlfriends while all the boys were away at war. Since then, the stand has been owned and managed exclusively by local girls, who inevitably become the best of friends.Seventeen-year-old Amelia and her best friend Cate have worked at the stand every summer for the past three years, and Amelia is "Head Girl" at the stand this summer. When Molly passes away before Amelia even has her first day in charge, Amelia isn't sure that the stand can go on. That is, until Molly's grandnephew Grady arrives and asks Amelia to stay on to help continue the business ... but Grady's got some changes in mind

Donuts and other proclamations of love by Jared Reck

While his friends prepare for college, Oscar decides his future is working with his grandfather on their food truck Hej Hej!, but when Oscar unexpectedly gets his first taste of adulthood he realizes his plans may be half-baked.

Somewhere between bitter and sweet by Laekan Zea Kemp

Told in two voices, Pen, whose dream of taking over her family's restaurant has been destroyed, and Xander, a new, undocumented, employee seeking his father, form a bond.

A taste for love by Jennifer Yen

Both high school senior Liza Yang and her mother share a love and talent for baking but disagree on the subject of dating, especially when Mrs. Yang turns her annual baking contest into a matchmaking scheme.

Kisses and croissants by Anne-Sophie Jouhanneau

Sixteen-year-old Mia travels to Paris to attend an elite ballerina program, and along the way meets a cute French boy, finds an unexpected rival, and discovers the truth behind a family legend.

Recipient of the National Medal, the nation's highest honor for libraries.